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Page One News at a GlanceMeeting SantaWildfire burning east of CorvallisGlitch in automated emergency call system correctedOpen burning restrictions in effectHamilton waives some fees for Mental Health Crisis Stabilization CenterMeeting SantaHamilton couple make difference in life of Texas girl By Ralph Fourmont Six and a half, Addie Poole, eyes sparkling, is quick to correct you. She sits with Lucille and Terry Coppinger in Hamilton, ninety-one and ninety-four years old respectively. This was the first time Lucille and Terry met Addie since corresponding with her parents after her birth. The Coppingers are best known to children in the Bitterroot as Mr. And Mrs. Claus, as Terry alone answers 70 to 100 Dear Santa letters every December from the Santa drop box at Kmart in Hamilton. Young Addie was born in College Station, Texas, with Goldenhar Syndrome, a rare congenital defect characterized by incomplete development of the ear, nose, soft palate, lip, and mandible. She was life-flighted to Texas Children's Hospital in Houston and remained there for 9 weeks and 2 days. She's had 16 surgeries to date, with maybe a dozen more to go. She had heart surgery at 10 days old and had a tracheostomy tube until she was 21 months old. She had a cleft lip and palate and was missing some jawbone, which caused her jaw and tongue to fall back and block her airway and throat, making it nearly impossible to breathe or eat until it was repaired (which is why the trach and a feeding tube were needed). She has some ear anomalies and wears a hearing aid that anchors into a titanium stud set behind her right ear, and she has some eyelid difficulties in one eye. We dont know what caused her syndrome, says Addies mother, Kris, a photographer in Texas. There has been no genetic marker found yet. It doesnt seem to run in families, and people with it don't seem any more likely than anyone else to pass it on. Addie is a bright student at the top of her kindergarten class, and ready to head to the first grade at a private school with her younger sister Ashlyn. She has a best friend and even a boyfriend, whom she says she's going to marry when they're twenty-five. They're going to have a boy, a girl, a cat, a fish, a dog, and a cow, says Kris Poole proudly. They actually drew up house plans right before school ended. He suggested that she be a vet so she could take care of their pets, so now that's her plan. Previously Addie had wanted to be a nurse because "nurses are nice and doctors are mean." Santa brought her a computer for Christmas this last year, and one of the first email addresses she asked for was "Mr. Terry's." Terry Coppinger was born in 1916 in Anadarko, Oklahoma. Hes friendly, funny, and passionate about life; sitting in his comfortable home in Hamilton, he recollects roping calves when he was young. A rancher lent him a quarter horse. He was a great goat roper from Indiantown, Terry gazes off with a familiar sparkle in his eye. Those calves would fight you. He worked in a grocery, and then left for California. Terry met Lucille working with Lockheed in L.A., and later sold insurance and cars until he was 75. Thats how I can afford all this, he chuckles, opening his palms to his modest home for the last ten years in Hamilton. He and Lucille have been married 66 years. I think itll last, he winks. Terry has kept a journal for 29 years, and has survived seven major surgeries himself, including heart, lungs, and brain. Hes golfed for 55 years, and still hits the driving range at Whitetail in Stevensville. Lucille and Terry are strong in their church, and encourage worship. His advice to the younger crowd: Leave the cigs and liquor, and leave everyones business alone. His Santa letters offer helpful advice to needy children: Times are hard, so people have to share: if youre willing to share, youll get satisfaction out of that. They often ask for things I never heard of (Ipods, etc), Terry admits, and tells them, Im an old man: Ill have to study on that. The Coppingers first heard about Addie through a mutual church friend, and have been offering encouragement and gifts since her birth. One night when (Addie) was about a month old I got a card with a return address of Hamilton, Montana, Kris recalled. The card was written to her, and said something along the lines of I look forward to watching you grow up, but you had better hurry because I'm 88 years old. Nothing in life had been funny since her birth, but something about that struck me as humorous. Six years later Kris had a chance to attend a photographic clinic in Hamilton. I knew then that it was time to make the journey north. Addies father is a V.P. in charge of fund raising at a local hospital system. His position has allowed him to attain equipment at the hospitals to help children in situations that might otherwise result in inadequate treatment. And though Addie had required special treatment at critical moments, the most qualified specialists had a curious way of showing up at the right moment. One doctor, ready to perform heart surgery on a ten-day-old Addie, said he might complete the operation up to two years later. He was called to an emergency that night. As a result, Kris explained, another doc walked in and said that he would like to take over her procedure. He was the head of the cardiology department at Texas Children's Hospital one of the best in the country. He performed successfully in one operation. I suppose its stuff like that that has allowed her birth not to damage my belief system, Kris confided. I've thought all along that there was a reason for this. Whether her struggles will result in her going off to become a great neo-natologist and change the world, or whether her birth will just cause anyone reading this story to just pause and remember to not take their kids for granted, I dont know. But one way or the other, I keep seeing purpose in all of this. Too many things have worked out to get her to where she is to not have had some divine guidance. The Pooles advice for other parents? I think it has been very important for us to do a couple of things -- to treat her as a regular ol' kid, and to question everything that every single doctor tells us, Kris insisted. You have to be on top of your game well enough to ask questions lots of them and to be sure that all of the docs are on the same page. And you can do it you HAVE to do it your child deserves that. We look forward to next year when Terry and Addie are one hundred and two years of sparkle. |
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Wildfire burning east of CorvallisBy Michael Howell A wildfire near Corvallis, dubbed the Dominic Point fire, first reported Sunday afternoon at approximately 3 p.m., was initially estimated at 35 acres in size but quickly grabbed the valleys attention as it blew up to an estimated 75-100 acres sending up huge plumes of smoke into an otherwise cloudless sky. By Day Two, the fire covered an estimated 500 to 1,000 acres. The fire is located 12 miles northeast of Hamilton and two miles west of Willow Mountain Lookout. The fire, located in the Stevensville Ranger District, is burning in steep timber. There are no homes in the area and the only accessible road in and out, Willow Mountain Road, has been closed at the junction of Willow Mountain and Butterfly due to active fire conditions and expected future fire behavior. Fire watchers can still go up Butterfly Road to watch the spectacular event which has included flames shooting up to 200 feet into the air. The Gold Creek Campground remains open at this time but the Gold Creek Trail #321 is closed. On Sunday, 20 firefighters and four engines battled the blaze along with four helicopters which performed water drops. Four retardant planes also assisted in the efforts. All available crews from the Bitterroot National Forest were put to work on the fire and were joined on Monday by 80 additional firefighters, including two Type I hotshot crews from Idaho and Montana, with another 20-person hot shot crew from Utah scheduled to arrive Monday afternoon. Another two engines, bringing the total to six, also arrived on Monday. Besides digging fire lines along Willow Mountain Road and providing structure protection at the Willow Mountain Lookout, crews will also be working to keep the fire moving northeast and away from the town of Corvallis. The blaze is currently burning in steep, rugged terrain located inside the Stony Mountain Roadless Area, which is making access to the blaze extremely difficult due to the limited roads in and out of the area. For a time, the fire threatened Willow Mountain Lookout. In the process of evacuating the lookout, the fire crossed the one-way road out to safety. The lookout and rescue crew drove on to Burnt Fork Lake and along with four private citizens who were recreating in the area were safely evacuated by helicopter to the Hamilton Airport. It was reported on Monday that the Lookout was saved and further protection measures are being taken. The four private citizens who were recreating in the area were escorted back into the area on Monday to remove their vehicles from Burnt Fork Lake. Dean Mendenhall has watched wildfires from a lookout tower before. He was in a lookout in 2000 from which he could watch the Saddle Mountain Fire. But this is the first time, in four years at the Willow Mountain Lookout, that he has been forced to evacuate. Several onlookers from the valley floor stated that the fire erupted so suddenly, on such a large scale, that it seemed a bomb had gone off or a plane crashed. Although the cause of the fire is unknown at this time, forest officials believe it could be a hold over lightning fire from last Thursday when nine other blazes were started by a thunderstorm. But Mendenhall did confirm that very soon after the first smoke was started the fire just blew up. Mendenhall said that he watched as the first visible plumes of white smoke suddenly turned black and in the next moment turned into a running fire racing up the slope. At first I didnt want to leave the lookout, said Mendenhall, but knowing how erratic fire behavior can be, it didnt take long to convince me. As it happened Mendenhall and the personnel that came to help him pack up and get out were unable to take the road out as the fire had already crossed it. As a result they headed for Burnt Fork Lake where they and some campers were evacuated by helicopter. Mendenhall said that, from what he could see as he was leaving the area, the fire had pretty well nuked the ridge and was already pretty wide spread across the area. Mendenhall took the turn of events in stride and hes ready to go back up as soon as he is authorized. Officials were still concerned on Monday, based on weather forecasts which called for high temperatures above 90 with a threat of thunderstorms and potentially more lightning. For more information visit www.inciweb.org for continual updates throughout the day. Current information is also available at the Stevensville Ranger Station, 777-5461. |
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Glitch in automated emergency call system correctedBy Michael Howell Many people across the north valley, in the Stevensville area, received an automated emergency phone call Saturday, July 17 in the late afternoon warning them of an emergency and advising them to evacuate their homes immediately. While the message was relevant to some homeowners along Balsam Drive, southeast of Stevensville, near where a grass fire burning up Treece Gulch posed a real threat, the call went out, in error, to every home in the Stevensville fire district. The automated emergency call system is a newly installed system at the Ravalli County 911 Emergency Response center, which makes automated emergency calls to residences to warn of impending danger. According to 911 coordinator Joanna Hamilton, the system worked as it should have with only one glitch. She said the system can be used to alert all homes within a district or it can be operated to notify only the homes on a designated road. In each case a separate password is needed to initiate the call system. In this case, the password needed to restrict the alert to a single road, for instance, was not available. Hamilton said that dispatchers were handling five separate fires at the time and some of the homes in the Stevensville area were being threatened. Without a code to initiate the more restricted alert call, she said, it was decided to put the call out to the larger area. The program worked, but it included a lot of people. Hamilton said that the glitch in the process has been addressed and will not happen again. No homes were affected by the fire in the threatened area. |
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Open burning restrictions in effectOpen burning restrictions are in effect for Ravalli County. Campfires are allowed as long as they are within the confines of a managed facility, a managed recreational site, or private property for the purpose of cooking, as long as the land owner manages the campfire in a reasonable and prudent manner. Smoking is also prohibited except within an enclosed vehicle or building, a developed recreation site or while stopped in an area at least three feet in diameter that is barren or cleared of all flammable materials. Pyrotechnics (fireworks) are also prohibited. Any person who ignites or sets a forest fire, slash burn fire, land clearing fire, debris burning fire, or open fire within the county is subject to a fine of $500 and/or up to six months in the county jail except on lands under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Forest Service or the State of Montana where their rules and regulations shall govern. The restrictions will remain in effect until conditions warrant lifting them. |
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Hamilton waives some fees for Mental Health Crisis Stabilization CenterBy Michael Howell The Hamilton City Council, at its July 20 meeting, declined a request from Ravalli County to waive the citys impact fees related to the construction of the new Mental Health Crisis Stabilization Center on 10th Street. But the Council then turned around and did approve the waiver of only the police and fire impact fees, and allowed for a three-year payment period of the remaining water and sewer impact fees. County Commissioner Kathleen Driscoll, who brought the request for the fee waiver to the Council, told the councilors why the county was looking to chip away at the overall costs of the project and how it would benefit both city and county residents. Driscoll said that the county has taken out a $420,000 loan to pay for the facility over and above the $250,000 in funding granted by the state. The county is also committed to paying $220,000 per year for operating the facility. She said that people living in the city would benefit from the facility. She said that the cost per patient for treatment at the facility amounts to about $539 per day. She said that the savings on roughly $12,000 in impact fees would almost cover the cost of 24 patient days at the facility. This will save tax dollars for all of us, said Driscoll. I am asking you to partner with us on this. Councilor Joe Petrusaitis made a motion to waive the $12,146.95 in impact fees including impacts to police, fire, sewer and water systems. He said that mentally ill people living in the city would benefit from the service. Mayor Jerry Steel, saying he would play the devils advocate, emphasized that the City was facing a tight budget. He said that $3352.50 in building permit fees had already been waived for the clinic. He said that city residents are county taxpayers as well and that the impact fee expenses for the clinic are most appropriately distributed over 45,000 county residents rather than being absorbed by 5,000 city residents. The motion to waive the impact fees was defeated by a vote of 4 to 2 with Petrusaitis and Helgeland voting in favor. A compromise motion was made to waive only the fire and police impact fees of about $4,000 and to allow a payment period of three years for the remaining $8,190.12 in impact fees for water and sewer. This is sort of a compromise, said councilor Henderson. It means one third of the fees are out, and the remaining two thirds can be paid over three years. That motion passed unanimously. In other business the Council: Approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Bitterroot Chapter #938 of Vietnam Veterans of America and the City of Hamilton for a Veterans Monument in Hieronymus Park. Confirmed the appointment of Vivian Yang to the Downtown Hamilton Business Improvement District (DHBID) Board of Trustees. Approved on second reading the adoption of an ordinance setting a new fee structure for special events at the citys parks and park facilities. The changes would place handling of the permits under the auspices of the City Clerk. They were formerly handled by the Mayor. Changes also include setting the insurance requirements for use of the parks at $1 million. The insurance requirement may be waived by the Mayor, however, if the event is not open to the general public, does not involve alcohol, and the total number of people attending is not over 40. The ordinance also abolishes the difference in fees that were charged to city residents, county residents and non-residents, charging all applicants the same fee. |
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