We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
Sorted by date Results 676 - 700 of 972
Lita Buck began her new duties as the Postmaster in Chinook on August 22. Buck relocated to the area from Geraldine where she worked from 2011 until mid-2016 for the Postal Service. She was the Postmaster in Geraldine when the Post Plan reduced hours at the Geraldine facility. She opted to transfer to Chinook for a full-time position as Postmaster. After graduation from Broadwater High School, in Townsend, Buck attended Western Montana College for two years. She and her husband, Rodger, were mar...
Reporter’s note: In late August wheat prices in Blaine County had decreased to a point where loan deficiency payments under the 2014 Farm Bill would be available to producers selling their wheat. That was a sign that farm commodity prices were in trouble for this harvest season. Beef prices were also in a decline after several years of healthy markets. Living in town, I wondered if this decline in prices for wheat and beef had any effect on those of us with no direct connection to agriculture. What I found, talking to several locals connected t...
Local Veteran of Foreign Wars Commander Ray Reid has a passion for recognizing and honoring veterans. He's been one of the driving forces behind the Blaine County Veterans' Memorial Park (a permanent display listing veterans from and connected to Blaine County), located in Inman Park in downtown Chinook. After 10+ years since the park was opened, Reid felt the area needed 'sprucing up' and began looking for a local group to do the tree-trimming. After some study of the size of the trees in the...
The North Central Montana Shrine Club is selling tickets for their annual beef raffle. The beef raffle and Vidalia Onion sales are the only two fundraisers conducted by the regional Shriners’ group. According to Blaine County Shrine members, the proceeds from the beef raffle and onion sales all go to support ‘sponsored patients’ from this area. Raffle winners will be drawn on September 17. During the last year nine children have been sponsored patients by the local Montana Shriners Club. The children receive treatment at the Spokane Shrin...
For three weeks the Blaine County Commissioners have been asking county departments “What is essential?” Declining non-tax revenues, sources of funding over which the county has no control, resulted in a $1.4 million shortfall that made putting together the 2016-2017 county budget a challenge for the commissioners and county departments. After budget meetings with every county department and providing an opportunity for citizens to view and comment on the proposed budget, the commissioners officially approved the final budget on Wednesday of...
Fran Hodgson is the Compliance and Health Assistance Program Manager at Sweet Medical Center. Her main task is to help people understand and use the Health Assistance Program to reduce their health care costs. In an interview describing how the Sweet Medical Center can help patients she said, "I want people know there should be no financial barriers to receiving health care locally. Once eligible patients begin a conversation with us they will find we can help with their medical costs." Because...
In a special meeting the Chinook City Council put the finishing touches on the city’s 2016-2017 budget. Council members pored through the proposed budget based on initial requests from each city department. The council will vote to finalize the budget at a public hearing on the evening of Wednesday, September 7, 6pm, at City Hall. A special meeting, held on August 15, was called to order by Mayor Keith Hanson. All council members were present: Mitch Haider; Robert Smith; Meredy Phares and Clint Greytak. Several city department heads also a...
Colorful posters announcing the schedule of events for the upcoming Sugarbeet Festival are popping up around the area. The 12th edition of the annual community event is set for Friday, September 23 and Saturday, September 24th. This year's theme highlights the railroad industry and its historical and continued impact on Chinook and the surrounding area. There will be a number of new events around the railroad theme and returning activities and contests that have become favorites over the years....
The six congregations that make up the Chinook Ministerial Association hosted a "welcome back to school" luncheon for the Chinook teachers and staff at Meadowlark and the Junior/High School. About 60 people enjoyed the lunch of barbequed dogs and burgers, chips, salads and homemade desserts. Representatives from the six churches used the 'pot luck model,' popular at church dinners, for the food. Each participating church was responsible for a part of the meal. Volunteers grilled the burgers and...
Ten members from the Chinook Senior Center took part in the maiden voyage of what Director Kristi Norby hopes will be a series of "short trips to destinations along the Hi-Line." The group visited Havre Beneath the Streets. Several seniors noted they had visited the tourist attraction in the past but for most it had been "many years ago." The former visitors were impressed with the improvements in access to the exhibits and the amount of memorabilia added over the past years to the underground...
Reporter's note: There are only three operating ferries in Montana, all on the Missouri river. I thought it would be interesting to learn about the ferry at the south end of Blaine County and the people who operate the ferry. I connected with Tom Philp, one of two operators on the McClelland-Stafford Ferry. This is Philp's sixth season operating the ferry. I set out to write about the operator's job, but the story can't be told without some historical context. For some history I visited with...
The Chinook High School Class of 1966 held its 50th reunion the last weekend of August. Organizers said there were 52 graduates in the class and 15 are deceased. About 23 attended the golden anniversary of their high school graduation. The class has held several reunions over the years, often on the 4th of July. In recent years they've held celebrations during the all class reunions for CHS. Rita Jamieson Langford and Cynthia Rusch Illingsworth, first cousins and 1966 classmates, said, "No...
Governor Steve Bullock was at Fort Belknap last week at a celebration of successes through Montana's Indian Country Economic Development Grant Program. The governor was officially welcomed by George Horse Capture, Jr., Vice President of the tribal council. Heather Sobrepena-George, Program Manager for the state program, said, "We wanted to recognize a sampling of the types of grants that have been awarded." Bullock has pushed for a number of state programs to enhance economic development and...
The Chinook Volunteer Fire Department now has access to a "highly detailed advance weather portal complete with SMS (text message) warning alerts." UBIMET, an Austrian-based global weather information provider, requested permission to place some new lightning detection equipment on a Chinook city building. In lieu of rent the city would receive access to the various weather systems provided by the company. The new equipment is part of a detection system that will cover the entire United States....
Michelle Sather, of Harlem, shared her cancer survivor story last week with the Cancer Support Group. The support group meets monthly at the Chinook Senior Center to hear information from the latest breakthroughs in cancer research to the personal stories of survivors and families who have faced cancer. Sather described the discovery of her cancer in 2012 as "having a routine removal of a lump for cosmetic reasons and waking up to learn I had two types of cancer." Michelle Sather grew up in...
The Chinook Alliance Church held its annual church campout and baptism last weekend at Beaver Creek Park south of Havre. It's the eighth similar outing since Reverend Dennis Findorff came to the church as pastor eight years ago. Families gathered to camp at Railroad Pagers Campground on Friday and the baptism capped the weekend on Sunday afternoon. Findorff said, "The weekend is a time for fellowship, worship and baptize outdoors as we celebrate God's creation. The Chinook church is a part of...
This is the first time I've written about a recipe, and it could very well be the last. I'm not a big fan of cooking and when I have to fend for myself it's the basic stuff and, often, not very well put together. Fortunately, my wife is a great cook and she made the following recipe. Not only did it taste good but the dish used a main ingredient that I don't ever recall seeing as part of a baked item--cantaloupe. Cantaloupes have been a commercial crop in North America since around 1890....
In 1991 the Montana legislature moved the power to issue concealed weapon permits from district court judges to each county sheriff. Blaine County Sheriff Glenn Huestis has recently updated the process in Blaine County to better address the statutory requirements of the Montana Code Annotated (45-8-321) that governs the issuing of concealed carry permits. The updated process went in to effect on July 1 of this year. There are “close to 400” concealed carry permit holders in Blaine County according to a sheriff’s spokesperson. Montana is a “shal...
Information for this article from unapproved minutes of the council. In addition to handling routine city business during its August regular meeting, the Harlem City Council learned that additional funding for the wastewater treatment project was secured from USDA’s Rural Development. There were public discussions regarding where to house a fire engine and some logistical issues with enforcing the current decay ordinance. Those latter items were added to the regular September meeting’s agenda. The August regular monthly meeting of the Har...
Both the Harlem Public Schools and Turner Public School have new superintendents for the upcoming school year. The new head for Harlem schools, Shawn Smith, served as the superintendent for school systems in Oregon and Montana. Russ McKenna, at Turner, is a returning superintendent to the system there. Shawn Smith, Harlem Schools Shawn Smith has a varied background in law, business and education. She is a native Alaskan, born there where her father was a bush pilot. Early on the family moved to the west coast of Africa, to Monrovia, Liberia....
Information for article from unapproved board minutes. The Chinook Schools Board held its regular monthly meeting on August 9. Chairwoman Miller called the meeting to order. Board members present were Ernest Johnson, Scott DePriest, Pauly Miller, Mark Harshman, Joel Pruttis and Viki Tilleman. Scott Gunderson was absent and excused. Chinook School District Superintendent Darin Hannum presented a letter of resignation from Dean Buffington, Business Manager/District Clerk. There were no...
Reporter's note: About this time last year I wrote a story about Strunk Harvesting, a custom cutting group out of Kansas. It was their first year in the Chinook area although they had worked several years around Chester. I got some basic information, last year, but the crew was so busy they didn't really have time to talk about what it is they do and how they do it. With the wet weather temporarily shutting down harvesting, I thought it this might be a good time to visit with the current Strunk...
Despite a serious cloudburst just about the time the Business After Hours began, hosts of the museum said about 50 guests attended the Thursday evening event. Several members of the museum's board of directors and museum staff welcomed guests and shared basic information about the museum and plans about future exhibits and programs. There were some "special" bargains in the museum's gift shop and a nice array of edible goodies for guests to enjoy. Three Montana themed baskets of items were award...
Reporter's note: In June, 2016, Sweet Medical Center hosted the monthly Business After Hours event in Chinook. While writing a short history of the medical center before the After Hours, I was surprised when managers at the center said, "We don't know a lot of the specifics of the center's history." I decided to piece together a short history of the medical center and deal with why the facility is locally called both the Sweet Medical Center and the Chinook Medical Center. Fortunately, there...
Chinook Police Officer Jon Klobofski admits he has a soft spot for lost animals. In his job he sees lost or abandoned animals that are not claimed, even when it appears they've had good care and are likely missed by some owner. When a dispatcher at the Blaine County Sheriff's Office posted a photo of a dog someone had found on the local yard sale website, Klobofski got an idea that might help more efficiently reunite lost pets and their human owners. He created "Blaine County Lost and Found...
