When John Stroud agreed to transplant some of his bitterroot flowers onto the grounds of St. Mary’s Mission as part of the historic mission’s development of a “native encampment,” it was part of a bigger mission. Stroud plans on transplanting a bed of bitterroot flowers onto the grounds of every museum in the valley.

“I’m doing it for a reason,” said Stroud. He is doing it to preserve the flowers that gave the valley its name and served as an important food source for its native inhabitants.

“People are destroying bitterroots just by developing,” said Stroud. He said people like to build on the south side of dry hills, but that’s also where the bitterroot flowers like to grow.

“The whole Bitterroot Valley is facing this problem,” he said. “If we don’t do anything about it, if we don’t preserve some in special places like at the museums, one day there won’t be any left.”

Stroud doesn’t believe that bitterroots should be bought and sold. He would never sell any of his bitterroots. But he will give them away if he thinks they will live and prosper in their new home. The supply is limited at his place, though. He said it will be three years before he can do another major harvest on his land in order not to threaten the survival of the plant there for generations to come.

Stroud is as passionate about preserving the valley’s history as he is in preserving its bitterroots. Along with transplanting flowers at the various museums he will also be plugging “First Roots.” It is the story of Stevensville as written by Jean Clary, Patricia B. Hastings, Jeanne O’Neill and Riga Winthrop. Stroud said that it was the best book ever written about Montana’s oldest settlement. The book was published by Stoneydale Press in Stevensville.

Stroud, himself, is also the author of a book about his Grandmother Rush called “Twice a Mail Order Bride,” also published by Stoneydale Press.

Colleen Meyer, Director of the St. Mary’s Mission Historical Museum, said that she was extremely grateful for Stroud’s offering to plant living bitterroots on the grounds of the museum’s new “Native Encampment.”

“What he is doing is establishing a legacy,” said Meyer. “It will ensure the preservation of our state flower.”

She said it fit in perfectly with the aims of the new “native encampment” planned on the site since bitterroots were one of the primary food sources of the valley’s “first people.” The plantings will be part of an educational site that will include two 16-foot-wide tepees, and two smaller ‘hunting’ teepees as well as other native plants. The aim of the encampment is to honor and display the day-to-day living situation of the Salish Indians as they lived with the Jesuit priests that founded Stevensville.

The creation of the encampment is being funded by a $7,500 grant from the state as part of the Indian Education for All program. It involves a partnership with the Stevensville School District. The museum, by creating the encampment, is providing the school with the tools to educate their students about Indian culture.

Meyer said that the museum has also used the grant money to acquire additional historical photographs of the Salish who once lived in the area. Grant money also allowed for the acquisition of functioning replicas of Salish artifacts to help in recreating activities for educational purposes. A Living History exhibition is planned for Western Heritage Days.

“All of this will make us better able to represent the day to day living of the Salish people,” said Meyer. “It is very exciting for our educational program and we are especially grateful to Mr. Stroud for his contribution of the bitterroots and the sandy soil that they grow so well in.”

County supports Darby plan for Forest headquarters

By Michael Howell

The Ravalli County Commissioners agreed last week to write a letter of support for the Town of Darby’s proposal to relocate the Bitterroot National Forest Supervisor’s Office (SO) to Darby. The SO is currently housed in Hamilton in a building leased from Harold Mildenberger, but that lease expires on September 11, 2011.

Darby Mayor Rick Scheele said that he and others had been working on this idea for four years. He said that they heard the USDA was considering eliminating Forest Service Supervisor Offices when they were within 50 miles of each other. He said that put Hamilton’s SO in jeopardy because it’s only about 44 miles from Missoula’s SO.

“The last thing we want to see is losing our Forest Service personnel to Missoula,” said Scheele.

He said the plan involves the town putting up a building on the land currently owned by the Forest Service and housing the District office. The Forest Service would lease the building from the Town for 20 years, at which time it would be given to the agency.

“The Town’s not in this for a profit,” said Scheele. He said it was a good deal for the Forest Service, the Darby community, and the Bitterroot Valley. It provides the potential for the Forest Service to save millions of dollars in heating costs and it keeps the federal employees involved working in the valley.

“This is something everybody in the Bitterroot can support,” said Scheele.

Scheele said that the proposal was estimated to cost about $3 million to build. It involves building a 20,000 square foot facility on land already owned by the Forest Service across from the Darby High School property. With no upfront property purchase costs the project could save taxpayers $4 million over 20 years, $14 million over 40 years or $24 million over 60 years. The savings would come in the form of lower lease payments and savings in heating costs.

“We are going towards ‘green’ on this building project,” said Scheele. He said that to begin with the proposal calls for removing, but recycling, the three old bunkhouses on the property. The current District office, the Hazmat building, the satellite Road Crew Facility and the museum and barn will all remain in use as they are.

The new facility will have a half shaded parking area and bicycle storage areas and changing rooms. Half the site will be restored with native vegetation. The storm water management plan is designed to reduce the volume of runoff by 25 percent and treat 90 percent of the average annual rainfall. The roof will have a solar reflectance index of 78 or greater. Outside lighting will be minimized. Highly efficient toilets will cut water use and reduce wastewater and a building envelope and HVAC system will maximize energy performance. Heat will be piped to the building from the school district’s biomass heating system located across the highway.

Scheele said that he was happy the commissioners gave their support at the meeting. He said that when he met with Governor Schweitzer on the May 31st, the governor said that if the county commissioners gave their support, he would write a letter as well.

“We should be getting a letter of support from the Governor soon,” he said.

A team of leasing specialists with the U.S. Forest Service told the Bitterroot Star that when Forest Service leases for facilities expire the agency generally tries to look at their options two or three years in advance. They said that the options consist of looking for another facility to lease for 20 years, appropriating funds and building on Forest Service property, or using the Forest Service’s conveyance authority to sell some property and use the proceeds to build. They said that they would be working with Supervisor Dave Bull and his leadership team to examine those options. The decision is up to the leadership team.

Here on the Bitterroot National Forest that team consists of Supervisor Bull plus the deputy supervisor, the four District Rangers, and three other staff members, according to public affairs officer Nan Christianson. She said that the Bitterroot Leadership Team had not made any decisive moves yet in considering those options.

“But we realize that time is getting short,” said Christianson, “and we will need to be addressing those options soon.”

Is Hamilton a legal entity?

By Michael Howell

Is Hamilton a legal entity? It’s a question that keeps surfacing at Hamilton City Hall. The Local Government Review Study Commission raised the issue back in 2005. It’s been a constant refrain from one Hamilton resident, Michael Spreadbury, who recently declared his candidacy for Mayor. It popped up recently once again during public comment on a recent resolution concerning zoning policy.

The idea is that since there are no incorporation papers on file with the State of Montana establishing the City of Hamilton as an incorporated city, then it is not one. And, therefore, it is not a legitimate legal entity and has no authority to make or enforce any laws.

In September of 2005 the Local Government Review Study Commission wrote the County Clerk and Recorder about their concerns. After a futile search for Articles of Incorporation for the city in state records, the group found, after consulting with the Attorney General’s office, that municipalities do not form corporations the way other businesses do by filing with the state.

“Instead, the incorporation would be done by the actual citizens themselves, first with a petition, and then through the election process,” the letter states.

In a letter to the Hot Springs City Attorney in August, 2005, Assistant Attorney General Candace West made this point clear in her advice in relation to the legal status of Hot Springs. The city attorney had asked about its status, since it had acted as an incorporated city for 80 years but had never filed incorporation papers with the Secretary of State’s Office.

West wrote that “your question arises from a local government study that led to an erroneous inquiry regarding the current status of the municipality with the Secretary of State’s Office… Quite simply put, the city did not fail to register its incorporated status with the Secretary of State’s Office because there is no requirement to do so.”

West then outlines the procedure by which people may petition a county to hold an election to form a municipality. It requires a house-to-house census and must involve over 300 inhabitants, and other restrictions.

The Hamilton Study Commission accepted this interpretation but then expressed concern about the local county records. The only evidence of that process having taken place, that they could find, was a couple of pages of handwritten notes in the Commissioners Journal of July 16, 1894. In those notes A.M. Mittower approved the boundary description of the town and referred to the successful election in favor of incorporation.

The Study Commission called the evidence of the commissioners’ journal “compelling” but questioned why other evidence, such as the actual petition or a canvass of records of the vote, is not to be found.

In response to the issue City Clerk Rose Allen is attempting to compile copies of all records that can be found related to the city’s founding days. Some were on file at the County. Some were found in newspaper articles of the day preserved in the Ravalli County Museum. Some are in the city vault.

Aside from the Commissioners’ Journal there is also, in the city vault, the original Book of Minutes with records of every city council meeting. The first meeting was held on September 24, 1894. There is also an Ordinance Book showing the Town’s boundaries at the time. It is followed by ordinances creating wards and creating the positions of town officers and the form of government.

“If there was no petition and no election then why would one of the County Commissioners note on July 16, 1894 that there was a successful election to incorporate Hamilton?” asked Allen. As to why there is no official petition on file or canvass report for the vote, Allen shrugs. Things get lost sometimes.

“But just because you may not have an official birth certificate, does that mean that you weren’t born?” she asks.

Convinced that the elections must have happened, Allen went to the Ravalli County Museum to search through old newspapers and found a little more evidence, although admittedly not the kind of documentation being sought by critics.

In the July 18, 1894 edition of the Western News it states:

“At the incorporation election held at the school house last Saturday, 107 votes were cast, 102 being for incorporation, three against and two ballots thrown out on account of improper marking.

This is conclusive evidence that the people of Hamilton want incorporation. The commissioners for canvass, who will order the election of town officers to be held thirty days after canvassing the vote.”

Allen thinks the circumstantial evidence is compelling that Hamilton was incorporated in 1894, whether or not the actual petition or canvassing records are ever found.

Allen also remarked that the county itself faced allegations recently that it was not a legal entity because there was no documentation of it having changed its form of government to the one that it now holds. In that case the court found that the county, primarily due to the fact that it operated as a certain form of government for over a hundred years, was a legal entity.

“We’ve been operating as an incorporated city for over a 100 years and we are going to continue to do so,” said Allen.

Hamilton won’t zone outside city limits

By Michael Howell

At a special meeting last Tuesday, June 9, the Hamilton City Council passed a resolution proclaiming in no uncertain terms that it has no intention of doing any extra-territorial zoning outside the city limits. The resolution was meant to address the fears, expressed by several county residents at the last meeting when the Council adopted a growth policy, that the city planned on extending its zoning powers outside the city limits. The Growth Policy adopted showed a planning area extending two miles outside the city limits.

Mayor Jerry Steele said that the city has never had the intention of zoning outside the city limits. He said that if they did it could have been done so at any time after adopting a growth policy in 2003. But instead, the City passed an ordinance explicitly limiting its jurisdiction for zoning matters to within the city limits. That ordinance is currently on the books. But he was willing to entertain a resolution stating that it was also the City’s policy not to zone outside the city limits if it would help allay the fears expressed by some county residents when it adopted an amended growth policy the previous week.

The proposed resolution originally read “it is the policy of the Hamilton City Council to zone only property within the city limits and not to extend zoning beyond the present City limits except in those cases where property owners voluntarily request to annex property to the City, where property is entirely surrounded by the City or in order to preserve the health, safety and welfare of the residents of the City of Hamilton.”

However, Councilor Nancy Hendrickson quickly raised an objection about the wording and suggested putting the last phrase, about health, safety and welfare, at the beginning of the sentence instead of the end. Councilor Joe Petrusaitis agreed and then suggested that it might even be left out completely.

Special Projects Director Dennis Stranger said that the language was put in there by the City Attorney in case of an emergency.

Hendrickson said that she understood Stranger’s explanation but agreed with Petrusaitis that the words should be stricken from the resolution. Petrusaitis seconded the amendment and it passed unanimously.

There was some discussion about the Growth Policy being only a planning document with no regulatory powers, but being necessary to guide planning of the City’s infrastructure.

Several county residents expressed concern about the extension of a planning area to the county. Some claimed to have been unaware that the Growth Policy was being considered and that it might include them. Some expressed appreciation to the council for clarifying their intent not to zone outside the city limits with the new resolution.

Stevi committee wants input on streetscape

By Michael Howell

The Design Committee of the Stevensville Main Street Association wants the community to help it imagine a new streetscape for the downtown.

“Our philosophy,” said Design Committee spokesperson Cinda Holt, “is anything you can do to create an inviting ambiance benefits the town, the residents, the businesses and the visitors.”

The committee has been discussing the town’s streetscape for about two years now. They have come up with several ideas for improvements along Main Street. They have even had some of the ideas incorporated into a six foot long map to use as a discussion tool as they reach out for a public examination of their ideas and to look for new ideas from the community at large as well. The map was generated by Missoula landscape designer Jennie Meinershagen.

Design Committee chair Marina Weatherly wanted to emphasize that just because the committee has generated a map illustrating some proposed changes doesn’t mean that any part of it has been decided.

“We are looking for ideas,” she said. “Nothing is written in stone.” She said that the committee was trying to build on previous work such as the Walkable Community effort of several years ago, but also looking for more input from the wider community at this point.

The aim of the committee is to make improvements that preserve the historical character of the place while at the same time enhancing the atmosphere. Ideas so far considered include widening the sidewalk, more bump outs and traffic calming devices, a bicycle path, benches and bike racks, etc.

Committee member Cindy Tharinger said, “There are a lot of cookie-cutter ideas out there, but we want to focus on the place and its own highlights.”

Holt said that a public discussion of the Stevensville Streetscape was planned for June 30, 7 to 9 p.m.

Jeremy Keene, of WGM Group, who also serves on the volunteer design committee, said that things really got rolling after some members attended the Main Street Conference in Butte last year and learned more about downtown streets and “place making” and why streetscapes are so important.

Keene said that it was time for the committee to get feedback from the community on its priorities. He said if the people express an interest the committee could move forward and look for funding to make some of the proposed improvements. He said that one potential source right now would be transportation enhancement stimulus funds. He said if attained that funding would be at 86 percent with a 14 percent required match.

Holt said that when she looks at what communities in the valley like Victor and Hamilton have accomplished with their main street renovations it excites her about the possibilities in Stevensville.

Anyone interested in participating in or getting more information about the Design Committee’s activities can call the Stevensville Main Street Association, 777-3773, or drop in at 102 Main Street.

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