We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
Sorted by date Results 876 - 900 of 972
Reporter's note: While working at a pumpkin patch last October in Washington State, my boss brought me an ag newspaper. On the front page was a story titled "In West, women farmers carry economic clout." It was a statistical summary of women operators in the northwest and included some general statistics for a number of states, including Montana. I didn't know about the large proportions of women operating farms and ranches, so decided to take a closer look. Of real interest to me was "how many...
The candidate filing process for the upcoming primary and general elections opened January 14 and will close March 14. There are two county level offices to be filled this year, the District 2 County Commissioner’s position and the Clerk of the District Court. The primary will be held, along with contests for state and federal offices, on Tuesday, June 7. The general election will be held Tuesday, November 8. In the commissioner’s race, incumbent Frank DePriest has filed his intention to seek reelection for another six year term. Incumbent Cle...
The “Blaine County Journal” has a new reporter who will be gathering news for the east side of the county. Levi Gonzalez recently joined the newspaper staff as a news reporter and will be doing stories from the Harlem, Fort Belknap and Zurich area. Gonzalez is a native of the Coravallis, Oregon area. He and his wife, Carsey, moved to Blaine County in the spring of 2012. They recently moved to a farm in the area and are developing their farming operation. Carsey is the daughter of Ernie and Lea...
American Garage in Chinook will host the next monthly Business After Hours on Thursday, February 11th 2015. Scott and Heather DePriest own and manage the automotive repair and service facility just east of Chinook at 40440 US Highway 2. The monthly Chamber of Commerce sponsored event gives business members an opportunity to showcase their businesses in a relaxed atmosphere, outside of normal operating hours. This is the third year the event has been sponsored by the Chinook Chamber. A short...
Part of the 'package' that the Missoula Children's Theatre (MCT) brings to communities where it stages a production starring local children, is a series of hands-on workshops in the local schools. The workshops happen during school hours and outside the time of normal practices for the big production at the end of the week. One of those workshops was held at the Zurich Elementary School last week. Four of the students from Zurich also had roles in the major production of "Aladdin" that was prese...
The Eagles Club and Chinook High's Business Professionals of America (BPA) chapter are teaming up to host a Valentine's Day dinner on Friday evening, February 5, at the Eagles Club on Indiana Street. Mike Inman, with the Eagles, said, "This student club is helping prepare local students for the business and professional world. The Eagles Club wants to help them in that pursuit." The Eagles staff will prepare the meal and BPA students will serve guests. The proceeds from the dinner will go to...
Blaine County Undersheriff Frank Billmayer presented "internet safety for parents," a program to help parents be aware of dangers to kids using the internet, to about 40 people last week in Chinook. The audience included parents of school age children, grandparents, and young parents with babes in arms. Billmayer is a member of the Montana Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force. Much of the presentation was based on information from investigations and prosecutions carried out by the...
The 2016 cast of “Aladdin” poses for a photo call after their second and final performance on Saturday in Chinook. There were 64 actors, three technical assistants, a pianist, two Missoula Children’s Theatre directors and a large number of volunteers who made the two performances a memorable experience for the young actors and the appreciative audiences....
Reporter's note: Nita Jergeson called asking if I'd like to do a story about an old nativity set on display at St. Gabriel's Church in Chinook. I was interested and went the Sunday after New Years to see the nativity set. I was expecting a table top small statues around a stable, like most nativity sets I'd seen in other churches. This set was made up of figures that were displayed on the floor because of their size. It was a large, spectacular scene with all the figures associated with a...
Six members of the Chinook High School Speech and Drama team placed at the Class C Divisional Tournament held last weekend in Cut Bank. Three will move on to the Class C State Tournament in Ennis this coming weekend. Tyler Ortner was the Divisional Lincoln-Douglas Debate Champion. Elizabeth Hodgson and Cortney Gunderson placed fifth in the Classical Duo competition. Their place allows them to compete at in the State Tournament. Three others ‘Beeters placed: Chase Lenz, eighth place Humorous Solo; Steven Mulonet, ninth place, Humorous Oral I...
After casting the 60+ roles for actors, filling positions for behind the scenes technical assistants, recruiting a pianist and a full week of after school practices, the Missoula Children's Theatre's (MCT) production of "Aladdin" was staged, in two performances, last Saturday. Rhea Miller, the local coordinator for the annual event, said, "Things went very well, we had good audience turnout and the kids did a great performance." This was the 37th appearance in Chinook of the traveling theatre...
The Chinook Area Chamber’s annual banquet will be held on Saturday, January 23rd at the Eagles Club. Gayle Fisher, Executive Director of the Central Montana Tourism Region, will be the speaker. Fisher is no stranger to the area having grown up in Chinook and graduated from CHS. The annual Chamber event is a time to review the past year, look at the coming year and install newly elected officers. Fisher will be the featured speaker. She’s been working various positions in tourism for about 25 years. She was selected as the “2001 Tourism Perso...
Prior to the regular January meeting Harlem's city department heads met with Fred Phillips and Carrie Gardner, engineers with Great West Engineering, to discuss final plans for the wastewater system upgrade. Mayor Bill Taylor then swore in returning council members Kim Hansen and Marc Arensmeyer, both were reelected unopposed to new terms. Mayor Taylor called the regular monthly meeting to order with the roll call. All council members were present: Kim Hanson, Ralph Schneider, Eva English and Ma...
According to Debbie Gomke, Blaine County SVOR Administrator, if and when new sexual and violent offenders move to Blaine County or move to a new residence that information will be released to the newspaper on a monthly basis. Changes in the law will also be released to the public. The notification is to ensure the safety of Blaine County residents. This information is released pursuant to MCA 46-23-508. That Code section authorizes law enforcement agencies to release any offender registration...
The Chinook Alliance Church had a large turnout when members hosted the January Business After Hours event in The Annex. Earlier, Pastor Dennis Fendorff said, "Part of the reason we wanted to host a Business After Hours event was to let people see our new offices and educational facility." The remodeled building was the site of L & L Pizza, just up the hill from the church's sanctuary at the corner of Indiana Street and Highway 2. The church began using The Annex last September. Members had prep...
Information for this article is from unapproved board minutes. Chairwoman Pauly Miller called the meeting to order on January 12. After the pledge of allegiance to the flag, roll call was conducted. Board members present were Scott Gunderson, James Hodgson, Ernest Johnson, Pauly Miller and Joel Pruttis. Absent were Michael Copenhaver, Keith Raty and Viki Tilleman (all excused) and Travis Buck. Student Council President Elizabeth Hodgson reported on the recent blood drive held at the high...
Speech and drama teams from 19 schools descended on Chinook High School last Saturday for an invitational tournament hosted by the local speech and drama club. Bonnie Ortner, CHS's speech and drama coach, said of the event, "By all accounts, the event was a tremendous success. It took a lot of volunteer hours to make the event happen, I'm very proud of our community. Everyone seemed to have a good day, and I'm already looking forward to next year's event." There were 136 student who...
Mayor Keith Hanson called the monthly council meeting to order on the evening of January 7. All council members were present: Mitch Haider, Robert Smith, Chris Thurman and Clint Greytak. Several city department heads were present as well as visitors Jeff Ashley with Morrison-Maierle, engineers for the water plant upgrade. Approval of the December meeting was motioned and approved. Payment of claims and acceptance of reports was also motioned and approved. There was no public comment. Department...
Blaine County Undersheriff Frank Billmayer will be doing a presentation in Chinook on internet safety for parents. Much of the material will come from Billmayer’s experiences while serving on the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force in Montana. ICAC is a nationwide initiative started in 1998 under the U.S. Department of Justice. ICAC is charged with identifying, arresting and prosecuting predators on the internet who put children in harm’s way. The Blaine County Sheriff’s Office is one of 12 local law enforcement agencies as we...
Efforts for a fatality free New Year’s Eve paid off this past holiday weekend on highways at Fort Belknap and the rest of Blaine County. A number of activities were launched by local law enforcement agencies and volunteer groups seeking to reduce the number of impaired drivers on local streets and roadways during the holiday. Combined efforts of local police, the Blaine County Sheriff’s office, Fort Belknap Tribal Police and the county’s recently reinstated DUI Task Force helped result in a safe holiday. Designated driver mugs and rides offer...
With a major portion of the outdoor work completed on Chinook’s water treatment plant upgrade workers have moved inside the plant to begin major replacement and reconfiguration of the 38 year old facility. The first set of two treatment tanks has been removed and work is expected to begin this week to install the new replacements. A new raw water storage facility has been completed and river water is being stored there before entering the plant for treatment. This initial stage, of a few h...
Several locals brought electronic gadgets to the last of a three night class taught by Triangle Communications. Triangle teaches introductory classes around its service area on using computers, email and social media. On the last night of the series of classes students are encouraged to bring their own gadget for one-on-one instruction on how to use it. Triangle instructor Richelle Peck, who was at each of the classes hosted at the Blaine County Library meeting room, said of the class, "It was...
The Chinook High School's Speech and Drama Club expects about 20 regional high schools to participate in an upcoming tournament scheduled in Chinook for Saturday, January 16. There will be more than 150 students participating in a wide range of competitive events throughout the day. Locals are being asked to serve as volunteer judges for the events throughout the day. Bonnie Ortner, who directs the CHS Speech and Drama Club, said judges are needed for all of the varied events, ranging from debat...
Blaine County Undersheriff Frank Billmayer recently was a part of an expert panel advising the Justice Innovation Center on a project aimed at improving the criminal justice system in small, rural, tribal and border (SRTB) area agencies. The Justice Innovation Center is a collaborative partnership between the National Institute of Justice, the RAND Corporation and Arizona State University. The partnership has conducted a number of studies to improve the criminal justice system in the United...
On December 16 Governor Steve Bullock announced that Lake and Hill Counties were designated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) as primary natural disaster areas due to extreme weather and drought conditions. Because contiguous counties to a declared natural disaster county also are affected, Blaine County ranchers and farmers may be eligible for help for lost production. Earlier in the month there was another declaration of a physical disaster that affected Blaine County. This declaration applies only to physical damage to buildings...
