by John Dowd, Star Editor
Since early this year, the Town of Stevensville and the Stevensville Airport have been embroiled in litigation and legal concerns regarding the fuel tank at the Stevensville Airport.
Based on various legal documents, Stevensville Airport Board meeting minutes and Stevensville Town Council minutes, as well as interviews with several people involved, the Bitterroot Star has put together a timeline of events.
In the early 2000’s, Choice Aviation owned the fuel tank on the Stevensville Airport property. In the early 2020s, Hawthorne Global Aviation Services (Hawthorne) took over ownership of the tank and the fuel farm after the companies merged.
Eventually, William Rowe became the airport manager for Stevensville. According to current Stevensville Airport Manager Brian Germane, he and others with the Stevensville Airport Board believe at that time Hawthorne, a multi-million dollar company, was pulling out of Stevensville because they did not feel it was a worthwhile fuel farm venture for them. According to Germane, “They were interested in offloading that tank at the time.”
According to documents and meeting minutes, Rowe stated that he began negotiating with Hawthorne to purchase the tank. At the time of alleged negotiations, Rowe started a company, Two Ravens, LLC, to operate the tank, stating at several Airport Board meetings that he had been given the tank. He began operating the tank in around 2023.
Minutes of the Stevensville Airport Board meeting of Sept. 12 state that Rowe said, “As far as the fuel, Choice Aviation went through a fuel merger and acquisition with Hawthorne. I had meeting [sic] with them, and I will be taking over the fuel system (myself as a private owner). The City can’t take it over because they don’t have the funds. We added a lease so there was a block/lot so they pay a business license/fee, and I will get the card reader changed. I’m hoping to have the acquisition thing done by the end of October.”
According to Germane, it was unclear to anyone with the Town of Stevensville or the Airport Board whether Rowe had permission from Hawthorne to operate the tank and the fuel farm. However, he was able to transfer the point of sale to his name and his company. He continued to state in following meetings that he was negotiating for the outright purchase of the tank.
It appeared, according to Germane, that negotiations seemed to break down after that. Eventually, the breakdown in negotiations became apparent when Hawthorne came out to the airport and removed the fuel from the tank in the summer of 2024.
After that, the tank sat for over a year, unserviced and empty. Rowe resigned in late 2024 from his position as airport manager.
CityServiceValcon then took over management and ownership of the tank in April of 2025. This sale was done through an agreement between Hawthorne and CityServiceValcon. The Town of Stevensville was not involved in the sale.
After this occurred, Rowe began attending Stevensville Town Council meetings, and made allegations of misconduct by the Town and participating aviation companies.
During a Stevensville Town Council meeting on June 2, Rowe challenged the Town’s actions, stating that he owned the lease for the land the tank was sitting on. Rowe stated, “Everything I was doing when I was at the airport was trying to fix, trying to do right by the town, trying to protect the taxpayer’s investment for what they spend up there and then I get backdoored by individuals representing the town.” He added, “Not once have I been notified about anything.”
During his time as airport manager, Rowe did in fact create a lease for the land the tank sat on. This was done sometime around September of 2023. In addition, the lease agreement was signed by the mayor at that time, Steve Gibson. However, according to Germane, previous to Rowe’s lease, this plot of land was not identified as a leasible property on the airfield. Additionally, the lease was never approved by the Stevensville Airport Board or the Stevensville Town Council. This was in violation of Ordinance 141, which was then amended in March of 2024, nearly six months after Rowe created the lease. The amendment would make it so that it was not required for the board to review and approve leases.
The Town of Stevensville, in the early part of 2025, began working with CityServiceValcon, as the company agreed to lease the tank to the Town, bringing fuel back to the airport. According to Germane, this allowed fuel to continue to flow, while the Stevensville Airport pursued getting its own fuel tank. This is currently in the works, thanks to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) funding.
When Rowe began disputing the sale of the tank from Hawthorne to CityServiceValcon, the Town of Stevensville decided to tie up loose ends so as to not jeopardize FAA funding for a new tank. In May of this year, Stevensville Town Attorney Greg Overstreet sent a letter and documentation requesting Rowe and his attorneys cease their claims that the sale was disputed, and invalidated the lease Rowe had.
Overstreet mentioned several reasons, including how the lease was never reviewed by the board or the council. In his letter to invalidate the lease, Overstreet wrote, “Under the 2013-2024 version of Ordinance 141, the Town’s Airport Board must “Review and recommend to the town council approval or denial of all … leases at the airport[.]”
He also stated the following, taken directly from the documents as it appears, “The Airport Board never approved the Lease. This is demonstrated by the minutes of the Airport Board’s September 12, 2023 meeting (Exhibit 3) and its October 10, 2023 meeting (Exhibit 4), neither of which show an approval. In fact, the Airport Board did not know of the Lease until recently.”
Overstreet continued, stating [written exactly as shown], ”the Town Council did not approve it (or know about it). The minutes of the August 24, 2023 Town Council meeting (Exhibit 6) and the September 14, 2023 meeting (Exhibit 7) similarly do not show an approval or even discussion of the Lease. (Interestingly, your client spoke at the September 14, 2023 Town Council meeting as the airport manager and did not disclose the lease.)
Rowe’s response was to forward Overstreet’s letter to his own attorneys. Following this, in June the Town of Stevensville filed for a declaratory judgment on the validity of the lease. In response, Rowe filed counter claims against the Town in that same case.
According to an article in the Ravalli Republic, Rowe’s counterclaims against Stevensville on Aug. 22, 2025 denied the legitimacy of various stated facts in Stevensville’s lawsuit and also argued that the Town of Stevensville ratified Rowe’s lease, which they claimed was never legitimate, by benefitting from Two Ravens’ management of the fuel tank.
“By knowingly accepting benefits of 2 Ravens’ performance — including insurance coverage, maintenance, fueling operations, and revenue — the Town ratified the Lease,” reads the counterclaim. “The Town was aware in 2023 that 2 Ravens was both (a) negotiating to purchase the fuel tank from Hawthorn Aviation, and (b) operating the fuel tank pursuant to its agreement with Hawthorn Aviation, the Lease, and the transfers of the Masterfuel account and Titan Fuels contract. The Town did not object at that time.”
As of yet, no judicial decisions have been handed down in this case. According to Rowe, “we do not want to publicly comment because this is currently still in litigation, but right now everything is in a holding pattern until the court decides.”