Hill/Blaine County Fire Foundation to distribute funds to those affected by the East Fork Fire
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The East Fork Fire last fall burned more than 21,000 acres across Blaine and Hill Counties as well as the Rocky Boy Indian Reservation. The Hill/Blaine County Fire Foundation has began collecting donations for victims of the fire and will be accepting applications for distribution.
The Hill/Blaine County Fire Foundation was created to help provide a way to distribute funds collected that were donated to the East Fork Fire in Hill County. The Hill County Commissioners opened an account at the Independence Bank to collect funds that were wanting to be donated immediately to fire relief.
They have worked with us planning to transfer the funds to a foundation account where every dollar collected will be dispersed to people who were harmed or had expenses related to the East Fork Fire. Applications for funds are available at the Milk River Cooperative in Chinook, the Blaine County Courthouse, and the Blaine County Journal. In Havre applications are available at John Deere, the Hill County Courthouse, and Havre Daily News. Anyone can fill out an application, and they can also nominate someone for fire relief funds.
The Foundation is comprised of Arleen Rice, Jerry Waltari, and Don Harmon. From this structure we have chosen five individuals, two from Blaine County, and three from Hill County to serve on the board that will make the decisions on the applications that come in for disbursement of funds.
These community minded individuals, who will remain anonymous, have agreed to meet and take on this task. We chose to have them remain unnamed to the public so that they are not under and pressure to make decisions one way or another. None of them are people who were affected by the fire, or county or state employees.
We were very pleased that these people including the members of the foundation only goal is to get all the money to the entities, and individuals that had losses. There has been no funds removed from the account and all of the funds will be dispersed to applicants.
The needs of the ranchers, fire departments, Beaver Creek Park, and those who had losses is ongoing. Fire lines that stopped or helped with fire suppression will have to have grass reseeded and weed pressure in areas that burned will have weed pressure, fences will need to be rebuilt, and hay and grazing losses and equipment needs are just some of the needs at this time. The account is at Independence Bank in Havre under the East Fork Fire, donations can be dropped off there and or mailed to 1891 38th Ave. NE Havre, Montana.
Our communities are generous and caring as we all saw during and after the fire and the love of our neighbors and friends is so evident when crisis happens. Our goal is to continue that help by getting these funds distributed in the fairest and most equitable manner possible. Please email me at arleen@mtintouch.net for an application or call 265-0918 and I will mail an application out to you, All applications and disbursements will remain private and only our board will know who receives funds. Our commitment to our communities is well in intent, and we want to assure people who generously donated to the East Fork Fire that we will be good stewards of their monies.
