Although he had withdrawn his application during the public comment at a June 3 special meeting of the Stevensville Town Council, Jim Crews was unanimously appointed at the June 13 regular meeting to fill the Ward 2 vacancy. The meeting on June 3 was to consider a single agenda item: “Discussion/Decision/Update regarding the Finance Officer […]
Local legislators report on 66th Session
Local legislators gave their assessment of the 66th Legislature at a luncheon at The Catered Table in Stevensville last week, sponsored by the Stevensville Main Street Association. Senator Fred Thomas (R-Stevensville) gave the 66th legislative session a thumbs up in general. “Not all our bills survived, some were vetoed, but we did our job,” said […]
Local business benefits from recently passed MEDIA Act
Legislators, economic development specialists, investors, and members of the general public recently attended an open house at Montana Studios located south of Hamilton at the turn-off to Skalkaho Highway. Montana Studios is the operating and production company responsible for operations of the largest state of the art media production facility, not only in Montana, but […]
Laundry Love Hamilton – ‘do-it-yourself’ laundry service at no cost
Laundry Love Hamilton (LLH) is a non-profit organization working out of Fast & Fluffy laundry service in Hamilton that offers homeless and low-income people an opportunity to do their own laundry and bedding once a month for free. “Ask yourself,” LLH Director Stefani Jackson states on the organization’s Facebook page “what was your lowest point […]
Explore Lewis & Clark ‘Descent Trail’
The Darby Adult Education (DAE) program is offering Bitterroot Valley residents and visitors a unique opportunity to not just learn about the history and the flora and fauna of the area, but to actually walk through it. Program director Dawn Ringer worked through an agreement with the forest service to permit DAE to offer weekly […]
Anaconda Job Corps to remain open, Trapper Creek fate uncertain
Montana Senator Steve Daines is taking credit for convincing President Trump to keep the Anaconda Job Corps Center open. Daines stated in a media conference call last week that he phoned Trump to discuss the site’s significance to the Montana economy and its top ranking within the Civilian Conservation Corps. “The president… overruled the decision […]
Lewis’s Woodpecker under study
Lewis’s Woodpecker populations are declining throughout their range, but the Bitterroot and Missoula Valleys have some of the highest densities anywhere in the world. Researchers Kate Stone and William Blake from MPG Ranch, located at the north end of the valley, are in their fifth year of color banding these colorful woodpeckers, in an attempt […]
New center at Stevi school will have technology focus
Successful Coding for Kids program helps lead the way By Michael Howell After partnering with the local non-profit organization Coding for Kids for a few years now as a summer program, Stevensville School District Superintendent Dr. Bob Moore is excited about the prospect of integrating the program into the new Trades & Technology Center planned […]
Shooting victim returns home
Shooting victim Casey Blanchard has returned to his home in Stevensville from the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City where he received treatment for severe gunshot wounds. He was shot on the evening of March 14, 2019, in Missoula when he exited his vehicle to check on a motorist who he thought […]
Trapper Creek Job Corps Center slated for privatization
Montana’s U.S. Congressmen are moving quickly to try and reverse the planned closure of the Anaconda Job Corps Center. Having been under the control of the USDA since its inception in 1966, authority over the Job Corps was recently transferred to the Department of Labor. According to a report in the Montana Standard (May 25), […]
‘Outbreak’ exhibit on display at Ravalli County Museum
The Smithsonian National Museum of History exhibit “Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World” has come to the Bitterroot and is on display at the Ravalli County Museum in Hamilton thanks to Jerimiah Matson, a graduate student working at Rocky Mountain Laboratory as a predoctoral fellow at RML working on his Ph.D. The exhibit opened in […]
Community welcomes Trooper Palmer home
Highway Patrol Trooper Wade Palmer got an incredible welcome from the community last week as he returned to his home in Stevensville from the Salt Lake City hospital where he has been receiving care after being shot in the line of duty. On March 15, Palmer was shot in the neck, face and head after […]