We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
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Jessica (Hansen) Aberg was named Branch President for the First Bank of Montana in Chinook effective June 7. Dean Comes, President of the branches that make up First Bank of Montana, made the announcement after reviewing applications from within the Glacier Bank system. A native of Harlem, Aberg began with First Bank in Chinook in 2007 as a loan processor and most recently served as a consumer lender. Aberg replaces Craig Lowham who took a banking job in Mountain View, Wyoming, to be closer to...
Juli (Sather) Snedigar is the new Ag & 4-H Extension Agent in Blaine County. Juli served as the county's 4-H & FCS (Food and Consumer Science) Agent about ten years ago. A Blaine County native, she grew up on a farm in the Milk River Valley near Harlem. Juli began her new duties on June 1. She attended grade school in Zurich and graduated from Chinook High in 2000. She went on to earn an Associate's Degree in Agriculture Business from Northwest College in Powell, Wyoming and a Bachelor's Degree...
Marlane Wenzel began serving as the Director for the Chinook Senior Center on May 11. Wenzel, who grew up in Chinook, is a 1975 graduate of Chinook High ("The year we won the Class C Championship!"). She replaces Kristi Norby who served in the position for more than two years before opting to take on the role of "new grandma" for her and husband Scott's first grandchild. Marlane and her husband, Kent, moved to Minnesota in 1985 where he got his first job after graduating from North Dakota State...
Organizers of the recent mental health fair in Chinook were pleased with the number of locals who came to the event held on May 30. A number of local groups shared information about the mental health services they offer. The first ever mental health fair for Chinook was coordinated by the Local Advisory Council (LAC) on Mental Health in Blaine County. Plans are to make it an annual event each May during Mental Health Awareness Month. The focus was on "integrated health care" The focus of the...
Reporter's note: Several months ago Blaine County Museum Executive Director Jude Sheppard showed me a copy of a small book created by the members of the Mountain Community Club as part of the club's 50th anniversary celebrated in 1983. The vest-sized book has a picture of each club member in 1983 with a brief commentary written by another club member. Many of the commentaries are written in poetic verse, which I later found was a popular way of writing and used by many of the club members. I...
The Future Farmers of America (FFA) chapter at Chinook High recently hosted a number of ag related activities for elementary students from Meadowlark elementary school. The Meadowlark students came to the CHS vocational-ag shop where FFA members presented activities that were both fun and educational. CHS Vo-ag teacher Robin Allen said, "We've been doing this multi-grade activity for national FFA Week since at least 2007. The event might predate the time I came to CHS." This marks the 70th anniv...
An upcoming event will recognize and honor all past and present EMS (Emergency Medical Services) volunteers who served or currently serve with the Chinook ambulance crew. According to Colleen Overcast, one of the event organizers, "It will be an opportunity for us to publicly recognize the many volunteers who served with the ambulance crew. Over the years we never properly thanked the crew members who put in so many hours of their own time to help our community." Two plaques will be displayed...
Malcolm Obresley, a twenty-eight-year-old resident of Havre and a conductor for Burlington Northern, shared his experience as a cancer survivor at the May gathering of Chinook's Cancer Support Group. What started as a simple "lost my glasses when I fell off a paddle board at a family gathering" turned into a series of diagnoses and treatments that lasted for half a year. Happily, Obresley's prognosis is great, he's back to work and doing things he always did before his bout with cancer. He's the...
Meadowlark Elementary Principal Jon Martin gave the signal for the assembled students to quiet down, but there was still a thrum of excitement on the last day of school. It was Awards Day and students would be recognized for superior school attendance, completing an online course to learn about managing money, being good citizens and reading achievements. Sixth graders, who would be moving on to junior high next fall, got a sendoff from their fellow students with a song, cheers and high-fives....
Last year the Chinook High Future Farmers (FFA) chapter completed their community garden project just in time for the summer gardening season. CHS Vo-ag teacher Robin Allen said the garden spot, across Illinois Street to the east of the high school, has 10 raised beds. There are still six 12 feet by 12 feet raised beds and one 12 feet by six feet bed available for the 2018 garden season. Half beds are also available for renting. This year the garden plots can be rented for the season running...
Twenty-eight fourth graders at Meadowlark Elementary had their final state projects on display for inspection by fellow classmates and visitors to the school. The tabletop presentations are the culmination of five weeks of work in social studies. Fourth graders learn about each geographical region in the U.S. then draw a state for their final 'state project' which they complete the last quarter of the school year. During each of the five weeks they are assigned specific topics-state economy, fam...
A celebration of Mental Health Month is set for the afternoon and evening of Wednesday, May 30. Organizers say the event will be staged “much like a health fair with information tables available all in one location. The fair will be followed by a movie and then a barbeque dinner.” Jana McPherson-Hauer, Blaine County Public Health Nurse, said, “We often hear about how ‘resource poor’ our area is for mental health services. Part of the purpose of this celebration is to emphasize and showcase what we’re doing well for mental health awareness a...
The eighth summer edition of Loaves and Fishes, the ecumenical summer feeding program in Chinook, will meet at noon time, Monday through Thursday, beginning June 4 and ending on August 9. The ecumenical program, sponsored by five local congregations, was created to assure local children get a nutritious meal during the summer months. When it was discovered that the local school system would not qualify for a feeding program grant, the five churches stepped up to operate the program. Five...
Sorry I wasn't able to alert readers beforehand about this big news item. I only was aware of it when my wife shared a recent post from Microsoft sharing the good news. For those of you who may have spent the last thirty years on another planet or do not regularly use a computer or smart phone, this new national day honors solitaire played on a variety of electronic device. It was 28 years ago that Microsoft first added solitaire to 3.0 Windows. When I read the announcement about yet another...
The Chinook Area Chamber of Commerce hosted an ice cream social last week to celebrate Public Service Recognition Week (PSRW). The annual week to salute employees in the public sector began in 1985 to "honor the men and women who serve our nation as federal, state, county and local government employees." The kickoff to Public Service Recognition Week this year included a Presidential Proclamation and bipartisan resolutions from both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives recognizing th...
Blaine County Undersheriff Frank Billmayer was a recent presenter at the Chinook Senior Center. His topic was “Identity Theft, SCAMS and Identity Protection and Recovery.” Center Director Kristi Norby said, “We only planned for a short presentation before we served lunch. Our seniors were so interested in the topic they insisted the undersheriff keep talking while lunch was served. It was amazing how many of our seniors shared instances of being targeted with a scam or attempted identity theft.” Countermeasures to avoid scams and identit...
The Blaine County Fair Board was notified recently of a $10,000 grant award to buy and wire 50 LED lights for the new indoor event center to be erected at the county fairgrounds. Laura Kleinjan, who has already written several successful grants for the project, said, "I heard about this Montana-based foundation from a friend. The foundation funds "brick and mortar" projects, perfect for what we are trying to do." The indoor center can host a number of events ranging from car and gun shows to...
The Blaine County 4-H Teen Leaders hosted a carnival and spaghetti supper in the Chinook High gymnasium recently. The carnival and feed was both a fun time for kids and a fundraiser for the 13-18 year old 4-H members who make up the leadership group. Any 4-H student in the age group can chose to do the "leadership" project to qualify for the leadership team. To become a 4-H Ambassador, 4-H Teen Leaders submit an application and are selected by interview. Kendra Seilstad, MSU/Blaine County...
Reporter's note: In the April 4 issue of the "Journal" I wrote about the conjoined Hilton Sisters and their one performance in Chinook in 1940 in the old Orpheum Theatre. In the story I commented that I never could verify if there really was a stage in the old theatre that sat in the northwest corner of what is now the parking lot for Finley's Food Farm. I received a letter from reader Calvin Blatter who wrote he now lived in Great Falls but grew up in Chinook. He hand wrote a four page letter...
Nurse Practitioner Lindsay Rucinsky spoke to the April gathering of the Cancer Support Group in Chinook. Rucinsky's topic was about diabetes and how certain cancers may be connected to conditions related to diabetes. She added, "I'm passionate about diabetes because it's affected multiple members of my family." A native of Havre, Rucinsky still lives there with her family. She joined Sweet Medical Center (SMC) fulltime in 2017. First earning a degree in criminal justice "back east" she realized...
Several members of the Future Farmers of America (FFA) chapter at Chinook High were awarded state degrees at the Montana FFA Convention held in Billings April 4-7. One CHS student also won a state proficiency award in beef production entrepreneurship. And a sophomore FFA member is already making plans to earn a state proficiency award for her work with swine production. FFA State Degrees earned The FFA State Degree is the highest FFA award at the state level. FFA chapter members who perform at...
The Harlem Library and Harlem Senior Center recently hosted the third of their Montana Humanities Conversation series. A break in the weather brought a sizeable crowd to the Senior Center dining hall for a presentation by Hal Stearns of Missoula. Stearns was born in Havre and grew up in Harlowton. He describes himself as an "historian, storyteller and guide." During introductory remarks Stearns said, "We are loosing our small towns. Not just in Montana, but across the country." In his...
The Montana Actors' Theatre (MAT) is a Havre-based community theatre group. Over the group's history many actors from Blaine County have taken parts in both plays and musicals. The upcoming production of "Charlotte's Web" is a stage play based on E.B. White's famous children's book of the same name. Director Oriah Williams described the play as "a very family friendly show." Williams wrote, "We have in all 17 kids in our show ranging from the ages of 7-15." Six of those seventeen parts for...
The area around the corner of Pennsylvania and 3rd Streets in Chinook should be hopping mid-day on Thursday. Five businesses and organizations located on and near the corner will be hosting a block party complete with lunch and door prizes. It will be a great time, hopefully, to enjoy some spring weather, have lunch and learn about the services and products of the groups hosting the mid-day event. The party will run from 11am to 2pm. The block party is hosted by the Blaine County Library, the Chinook Post Office, The Grande Villa, Bear Paw...
Lacy Schimmel and Lauren LaMonica, the Young Adult Volunteers (YAVs) who served in Chinook during the past year were given a farewell party recently. The two won't be moving on until late July, but with all the spring and summer activities coming up, the committee that supervises the YAV program decided this was the time to say a public good-bye. The event was held at the Chinook Senior Center. Both Lacy and Lauren shared some of their reactions to a year in Chinook and what the future holds...
