Valley Drug & Variety has long been considered the anchor of Stevensville’s historic downtown. Located on the corner of Third and Main, the store has continued to raise the bar for customer service and has set the standard for other local businesses as to what will work in the valley’s always-challenging economy. Under the ownership of Dan Severson, Valley Drug has flourished and recently it was named Business of the Year by the Bitterroot Valley Chamber of Commerce.

When Dan Severson is asked how he’s doing, he invariably answers, “Awesome!” His use of this ubiquitous adjective is his attempt to put a positive spin on the day. In the world according to Dan, if you have a good attitude, if your outlook is positive, then good things will come your way. And Severson is proving that his philosophy works.

Severson bought his historic corner drugstore in 1991. A graduate of the UM School of Pharmacy, he has owned two other pharmacies in Stevensville, as well as a medical supply business. After building a new building to house Family Pharmacy and Valley Medical Supply, he sold those businesses to former employee Chad Smith in 2006. According to Severson, the sale was good for both himself and Smith. “We have a great relationship.”

A fourth generation Bitterrooter who lives in the house he was born in, Severson comes from a ranching family and still raises cattle and hay. But at some point he was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug and his enjoyment of being in business, and being successful at it, spills out in any conversation.

“It’s always been a challenge for me to do something people say you can’t do,” says Severson.

Severson obviously has a knack for picking up good ideas, trying them out, and keeping the ones that work while discarding the rest. In the age of big box discount stores, Severson has bucked the trend and turned Valley Drug & Variety into “Stevensville’s own general store.” With an aggressive and consistent marketing plan and a handpicked staff of twenty-nine including himself and wife Debbie who does the payroll, Severson has expanded and improved the products and services available at Valley Drug. In addition to prescriptions, all under one roof you can find health care products, gifts, the largest greeting card selection in the valley, household items, crafts, photo reproduction services, a copy shop, a liquor store, and an old-fashioned soda fountain. There’s even an outpatient medical clinic.

According to Severson, the key to the store’s success is customer service. “You take care of the customer and they’ll take care of you.” To offer that kind of exemplary customer service, “you hire the right people.”

And he has a knack for picking out those good people to work for him.

“You can teach a person just about anything but you can’t teach them to be nice,” says Severson. “I surround myself with people who care.”

On a quick tour of the store, Dan points out various staffers and their unique abilities. Shawna Fesler started working for Dan as a sophomore in high school and worked in every department. Now she’s a pharmacy technician. Dan tells of a recent note left by a customer for Tammy Harris, the pharmacy manager, which just said in big letters, “Tammy Harris is the best.”

At regular “team” meetings, Severson and his staff talk about how to keep improving customer service. “We recognize that everybody has special talents. We know we’re good and we keep telling ourselves.” For example, Dan mentions Debby Roberts who runs the craft department. “She can take a $3 scrap and turn it into a something special.”

Or Ryan Morgan, who works in the liquor store. “Ryan’s the one customers turn to when they need a question answered. He’s just always ready to help.”

In fact, Severson says, all the employees are able and willing to step in wherever needed. For example, as we walk through the store, he points out that Monie, who handles the greeting card department, has stepped over to the soda fountain to help a customer.

Severson’s employees seem to like what they do and who they work for. The average length of time worked at Valley Drug is ten years. Carola Mielke has worked for Severson in various capacities since 1984. “Dan’s an awesome boss,” says Mielke.

Severson is no stranger to awards. He has been honored as Stevensville Citizen of the Year by the Stevensville Civic Club. Under his ownership, Valley Drug has been named Stevensville Business of the Year twice by the Stevensville Civic Club. He has twice been named the Bitterroot Valley Chamber’s Business Person of the Year. He is perhaps most proud of being a recipient of the “Bowl of Hygeia,” a prestigious award given to only one pharmacist in the state for outstanding community service.

He was the UM School of Pharmacy’s Preceptor of the Year in 1998, an award associated with the program Valley Drug participates in, in which pharmacy students work at Valley Drug to gain experience towards their degree. Valley Drug is also participating in the UM-COT program for pharmacy tech students which is just getting started.

Severson has always been active in the community, in business and civic affairs. He worked for years to get trees planted on Stevensville’s Main Street. He is a founding member of the Stevensville Main Street Association and a long-time member of the Chamber of Commerce. And it is known around town that Severson often privately helps out people in need. By example, he fosters volunteerism among his employees. Whether it be church activities or 4-H, Severson believes it’s important to give something back.

“We all need to spend a little bit of time giving back,” says Severson. And his employees apparently take his message to heart. Currently Earline Harkins is volunteering with the Relay for Life and Terry Perkins is serving as chairman of the Main Street Promotion Committee.

“Valley Drug and Variety is a true example of local business supporting a local community,” says Deby Lackas, President of the Stevensville Main Street Association. “Owners Dan and Deb Severson, along with their staff, fill a real need in Stevensville. The support the downtown has received over the years, due to Valley Drug being here, offers a unique perspective of how community members supporting each other is a win-win situation. Downtown Stevensville is lucky to have such commitment.”

Generally, politics is not something Severson is very vocal about. But in the recent fight to keep Wal-Mart from locating in the valley, he took an active role.

“I have no quarrel with chain stores,” says Severson. “If you take care of your customers you’ll have no problem. But Wal-Mart is different. Wal-Mart operates on the fringe of legality and ethics. Their philosophy of business doesn’t fit within the fabric of how we operate in this valley.” He adds, “If it was any other box store that came to town, I probably wouldn’t get involved.”

When asked how his store is doing this year, Severson says sales are actually up over last year at this time. But that doesn’t mean he hasn’t thought about the national economy and what it might mean for the future of his business. He believes in being proactive. He says he’s trimming his expenses where he can, but he’s not making any staff cuts and he’s continuing to advertise.

“We’re going to go through some really tough times,” says Severson. “Even tougher times are yet to come. But there’s no place I’d rather be then here, surrounded by my employees who I know really care about each other and about our customers.

“People are here by choice, not because they can make the most money. We’re going to do everything possible to make it okay. We’re not a boom and bust economy here, most of us here are used to living with less. Our economy has never been known to be the most robust. If we fall, we won’t fall very far.

“We’re going to be just fine.”

Road Department gets some funding

By Michael Howell

Ravalli County Road and Bridge Department Supervisor David Ohnstad met with the County Commissioners last week to discuss how the county might spend $1.68 million in federal money coming to the county through the Secure Rural Schools Act.

County Commission Chair Carlotta Grandstaff said, “We’re here to decide how to spend our largesse.”

Ohnstad quickly responded, saying that he preferred to call it “unexpected revenue.”

SRS was designed to return a portion of the money generated off sales of timber on federal lands to the counties from which the sales were generated. Ravalli County, being 75 percent federal forest land, has been a major recipient of the funding over the years. The money must go to schools and roads in the county. Funding of the program has been hotly debated in Congress however, and this year it appeared that the funding for the program would not be reauthorized. Last fiscal year the county received $218,000 in SRS funds. However, since reauthorization of the act was meeting stiff resistance in Congress, the County Road Department decided not to include any SRS money in the 2008-2009 budget.

But Congress did decide, belatedly, to fund the program for another four years. So Ravalli County is slated to receive about $1.68 million for roads in 2009. That sum will be reduced over the following three years to $941,418 in 2010, $847,277 in 2011, and $762,549 in 2012. At that point the funding would end, unless reauthorized again.

As far as spending this year’s funding of $1.68 million, Ohnstad told the commissioners that his department could probably not “realistically” put that amount of money to use on one year’s worth of road projects. This drew a number of questions from the commissioners. One was whether he could not simply contract out the extra work and get all the jobs done.

“In short, no,” said Ohnstad, He said it was “because in terms of efficiency and the wage provisions that we have to follow.” He said efforts at letting out contracts for resurfacing three years ago weren’t that effective. He said it makes much more economic sense to purchase materials and have the county road crew place it.

“It’s the most effective,” he said. “We have good equipment, a skilled workforce and are much more responsive to changes in design than are contractors.”

Asked if he could hire temporary workers, Ohnstad said that would probably be limited to traffic control. He said the best benefit for the cost would be to rent certain equipment for the projects where the operator is provided. Even so, he reiterated, the amount of work the county could practically complete in a year would not include all the currently deferred projects. He estimated that the department could spend about $600,000 to $700,000 in a year on a doable number of projects. He recommended that the remaining money be placed in a reserve fund.

Commissioner Greg Chilcott said that given the uncertain economic future of the county and the nation it made sense to put some money away for future unexpected needs.

“I’d like to preserve as much as humanly possible,” said Chilcott. “I think it is imperative to preserve a good portion of this money. It’s prudent to set aside $400,000 for reserves.”

The other commissioners agreed.

Ohnstad gave the commissioners an unprioritized list of the road projects that were currently languishing in deferred status. They included projects on Old Corvallis Road, Honey House Lane, Bass Lane, Kurtz Lane, Ponderosa Drive, Golf Course Road, Stevi Airport Road, Ambrose Creek Road, El Capitan Loop, Bowman Road, and Red Crow Road. Ohnstad estimates the cost of materials and equipment rental to accomplish these projects at a total of about $1.2 million.

Aside from all this, Ohnstad also lined out for commissioners at least four projects that he is looking to fund 100 percent through special appropriations at the federal level, commonly known as Congressional earmarks.

One special application the county is making would be to fund a joint project with the Town of Stevensville to upgrade Middle Burnt Fork Road. The application seeks funding for the Town’s three-phase water project which includes decommissioning an old water line and installing a new one running from the water reservoir. The water lines run under the road from South Burnt Fork Road to town. The project would include upgrading Middle Burnt Fork Road to urban standards with curbs and gutters and a pathway from the intersection at the Eastside Highway to the intersection with Logan Road. From Logan Road to South Burnt Fork Road it would be upgraded to rural collector standards. The total cost is estimated to be over $3 million.

Another application is being made on a joint project with the Victor Sewer District. This would involve sewer line repairs and road repair. No cost estimates are yet available.

Two other applications will be made for replacement of some culverts with a new bridge over Fred Burr Creek on Meridian Road, and one for replacement of culverts on Middle Bear Creek Road with two bridges.

Ohnstad is seeking 100 percent funding for all four of these projects with 100 percent of the work being contracted out.

He told the commissioners that the Montana Department of Transportation (MDOT) is also receiving about $281 million in stimulus funds to be funneled through its regular road budget. He said that right now the state agency has a list of differed projects with an estimated cost of about $280 million, but that all of those projects are not contract-ready. He said that opens the opportunity for new contract-ready projects to get funded since the stimulus money must be spent this year.

Since MDOT’s internal priority is to fund secondary highway improvements. Ohnstad said that the county has a few state secondary highways that need work. They are the Westside Road from Roaring Lion to Main Street (Hamilton) and Willow Creek Road from Eastside Highway to Summerdale Road (Corvallis).

Ohnstad said that the county is looking at MDOT’s Safety Enhancement Program for separate funding to reconstruct the intersections of the Eastside Highway with Pine Hollow Road, Pine Hollow Road with Logan Road and Logan Road with the Eastside Highway.

The commissioners also agreed to allow the Road Department to use $54,370 of state reimbursement funds from the Kootenai Bridge Project to pay for a $54,350 dust abatement tanker that was purchased last year. The truck was to be paid for with an Intercap loan. This would save on the cost of the interest on that loan.

The county was required to pass a two-year mill levy that will raise $108,004 and to fork over its emergency DES funds that amounted to $38,000 in order to qualify for a state grant for the project. The state determined that $400,615 of the project could be reimbursed. After the mill levy and the emergency fund are subtracted from the reimbursement funds it left $254,403, according to Ohnstad. He said that the cost of materials and equipment rental for the project totaled $200,000 and that the Road Department incurred $54,370 in labor costs. He asked that the reimbursement funds minus the $200,000 cost of materials, etc. be placed in the Road Department to be used to pay off the dust abatement tanker and the commissioners agreed.

Pat Tucker, member of a citizens group that is calling for more oversight of the Road Department, told the commissioners that some performance review of the Road Department would be wise.

“I would like to see evaluations before expenditures are made,” she said.

Her group, composed of people with a variety of professional backgrounds, including road and bridge construction in the private and public sector, has submitted a report critical of the Road Department’s cost estimates for the Kootenai Bridge compared to the final costs. The report claims that not all the costs were considered by the Road Department in its estimate of the project. They claim that if the true costs were used, that purchasing riprap material for the bridge project from a private source would have been less costly.

The report also raises many other questions related to the project.

The group claims that, based on its analysis of the true costs, two previous proposed projects at the Lost Horse Quarry were scrapped. Now, they claim, their analysis of the third project, which was adopted, shows that again costs were understated and the work accomplished was overstated.

“Our concern does not extend to Road Department employees who are dedicated and hard working,” the report states/ “Neither is our concern mining in the Lost Horse Quarry (that is a separate issue). Our concern is that there is solid evidence that RBD is not operating efficiently. As a consequence tax dollars are being wasted.”

They call for a professional review of the Road Department’s activities.

Commissioner Kathleen Driscoll asked Ohnstad what he thought about the establishment of a Road Department control board or advisory board to provide citizen oversight and input to the department.

“I’ve got that right now,” said Ohnstad. “It’s the Board of County Commissioners.”

Commissioner Chilcott said that there are many advisory boards set up to advise the County Commissioners, but not really to advise Departments. The issue was dropped.

Stevi considers new building project

By Michael Howell

A preliminary plan for a new building to house the 4th through 8th grades on the Stevensville school campus is slowly percolating through the system. Paul Bishop presented the plan to the Board of Trustees at the last regular meeting and now it will undergo review and critique by the administration and teaching staff before officially being presented to the public for further consideration and input in the future.

Bishop emphasized that the plan was only preliminary. He said that it was designed to address some immediate needs and was not a full blown effort to address all the district’s needs into the foreseeable future but simply an initial effort to address some of the district’s more pressing needs.

“It is simply one proposal for one building,” said Bishop. “We were asked to focus on this and so that is what we did.” He called it “one idea, one starting point.”

The idea is to construct a two-story building behind the current junior high building to house 350 students in classes from 4th to 8th grades. It also involves changing the use of the current vo-ag building to house band and music classes. He said that the vo-ag building had been identified as being under used for the current purposes.

The planned building would cost an estimated $4 to $5 million to construct. Other costs, possibly consisting of the demolition of the current 4-6 grade building and the junior high, moving the special education building, furniture and other soft costs would likely push the total price to $6.5-$8 million. One trustee noted that adding kitchen facilities could push the total price closer to $10 million.

Bishop told the trustees that the site had been surveyed to see if the proposed space could accommodate a building that would house the required number of students. They had met with key individuals and devised a preliminary work plan and, based on that, come up with preliminary cost estimates.

“We thought this would be good place to stop and take our plans to a wider audience,” said Bishop. He said before going any further it was a good point to seek input and advice from the trustees, the administration, teachers and the public.

Trustee Kirk Thompson said, “The purpose of the exercise was to see if we could fit the required number of classrooms in that space and address the problems with the 4-6 grade building and the junior high building.”

Superintendent Kent Kultgen said that everyone is talking about numbers of students and future numbers, but the real problem to be addressed is the age and condition of the 4-6 and junior high buildings. He said that they are not up to earthquake standards and that was a safety problem. He said that the fate of the junior high building was also something that needed to be considered since it is such an historic building.

“We need to get input from the community on that,” said Kultgen.

It was decided to take the proposal to the staff for input, then reconfigure it before taking it to the public.

Chairman of the Board Bill Goslin said in conclusion, “We’ve got a thumbs up to go to the staff with it.”

Trustee Ed Cummings added, “You don’t have a thumbs up from everyone. I’m against tearing down the junior high building.”

New technology being used to update floodplain maps

By Michael Howell

Ravalli County Floodplain Administrator Laura Hendrix is excited about the new digital floodplain maps that have been produced for the north valley. The new maps, produced using the most up-to-date technology called Light Detection and Ranging, or LiDAR, shows the ground level down to two-foot contours. This is a far more accurate picture than the old ones based on U.S. Geological Survey topographic maps that show only 20- to 40-foot contours.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has started a program in conjunction with the National Flood Insurance Program to implement the new mapping system across the country. The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation is, through the Renewable Resource Grant program, assisting counties that want to participate. Ravalli County applied for a grant to participate in the process in 2007. That grant, for $100,000, was received in 2007. It was used to conduct the first phase of a three-phase mapping plan. The first phase, already completed, involved collecting elevation data from Victor north to the county line. Hendrix said that it was decided to start in the north valley because that is where the most pressure from new development is occurring.

Hendrix said that accurate LiDAR data will not only provide valuable topographic detail to support a variety of land use planning, policy and regulatory decisions, but will greatly enhance everyone’s well-being through local management activities that will protect and conserve valuable water resources, open land, fish and wildlife habitats, preserve water quality and quantity and reduce erosion. This data will be an essential planning tool used during this time of rapid change and growth as well as into the future, she said.

Hendrix stated in her grant application that the LiDAR data would assist in the following areas:

• Identifying and managing floodplains to protect human life and property from flood hazards

• Leveraging of committed FEMA funds (will provide a base map for FEMA’s conversion of paper floodplain maps to digital ones and extend coverage of A-zone mapping)

•Assisting with the accurate determination and fair administration of riparian setback/buffer distances

• Improving customer service - providing landowners, developers, and general public with maps based on more accurate elevation data

• Expediting subdivision review and approval

• Improving accuracy of floodplain boundary delineations and determinations of violations

• Determination of groundwater monitoring needs by County Environmental Health Dept.

• Designating sensitive areas – agricultural lands, groundwater recharge areas, wetlands, riparian areas, wildlife habitat/corridors

• Designing road maintenance and drainage plans

• Updating locations and improving maintenance of irrigation ditches

• Improving accuracy for wetland delineations

• Improving accuracy of plats

• Upgrading accuracy of existing maps

The list of beneficiaries was also impressive, and included:

• Ravalli County - Planning Department, Planning Board, Floodplain Administration, GIS, Environmental Health Department, Health Board, Roads & Bridges Department, Disaster and Emergency Services, Attorney’s Office, Right to Farm & Ranch Board, Bitterroot Conservation District, Weed District and Weed Board, Extension Service, NRCS, FSA

• Landowners, realtors/brokers, surveyors, builders, architects, landscape designers

• Hunters, visitors, recreationists, outfitters

• Local businesses, realtors/brokers, developers, surveyors, engineers, architects, builders, landscape designers, restoration/wetland specialists, well drillers, hydrologists including well drillers, restoration consultants,

• Irrigation Districts and surface water right holders

• Emergency Service Providers, Disaster Preparedness, Volunteer Fire Departments

• Utilities: power, telephone, DSL, cable

• Communities of Darby, Pinesdale, Corvallis, Victor, Stevensville, Florence, Hamilton

• Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge & Teller Wildlife Refuge

• Groups - Ravalli County Fish & Wildlife Association, Backcountry Horseman, Bitter Root Land Trust, Bitterroot Trout Unlimited, Bitterroot Audubon, Montana Wetlands Legacy, Montana Water Trust

• State of Montana – DNRC, FWP, DOT, DEQ, State Patrol

Hendrix said that funding for the second phase of the mapping project seems likely. She has received a letter from DNRC that ranks Ravalli County 32nd in priority for the next grant cycle. It states that the first 52 will be funded with the $5 million available for the projects. The second phase would cover 156 square miles from Victor south to Skalkaho Road. The third and last phase would cover 135 square miles from Skalkaho Road to the East and West Forks of the Bitterroot River.

FEMA’s aim is to take all the data produced and update the nation’s Flood Insurance Rate Maps converting old style paper maps into modern digital Geographic Information Systems (GIS) maps and files.

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