Volume XX, Number 7

Thursday, September 9, 2004

Brittany Hancock relaxes on her bovine "sofa" between 4-H events at the Ravalli County Fair last week. Hancock is a member of the Lucky Horseshoe 4H Club of Stevensville. Marcia Prather photo.

Water fight on the Burnt Fork

At the beginning of the 20th century it was a fight to the death over an irrigation diversion near Stevensville that culminated in the first court ordered adjudication of water rights on the Burnt Fork of the Bitterroot in 1905. Now, a hundred years later, people in the valley are still fighting over the water and the courts are still trying to settle the disputes. One of the latest battles is taking place over a longstanding trouble spot where the Burnt Fork of the Bitterroot emerges from the Sapphire mountains and splits into two channels, one running along Illinois Bench to the north, the other running along Sunset Bench to the south. More...

Hamilton council considers budget matters

By Michael Howell

Due to timing requirements in state law, the Hamilton City Council held a few public hearings for the second time on Tuesday evening. One was to take public comment on any part of the special assessment of 20 mills to defray the cost of maintenance in the Street Maintenance District for fiscal year 2005. The levy was split into 10 mills for street maintenance and 10 mills for sidewalk maintenance.The second public hearing was to take public comment concerning the proposed exemption of a property tax mill levy of approximately 2 mills for premium contributions for employee group benefits from the property tax limitation laws. Both hearings drew little public comment and the assessment and exemption were approved at the regular Council meeting held afterwards. More...

Combined Idaho-Montana "Lost Trail State Park" proposed

A call was issued Friday, September 4 for the establishment of a combined Idaho-Montana State Park at the location where the Lewis and Clark Expedition crossed the rugged Bitterroot Mountains between Idaho and Montana and encamped in a swirling blizzards near the top of the dividing ridge between the two states on the night of September 3, 1805, about a mile to the west of the place known as Lost Trail Pass. More...