Week of January 23, 2025
Week of January 23, 2025
Community safety and bridge repairs were topmost in the minds of over 50 people who gathered for the January Seeley Lake Community Council meeting. Participants expressed confusion about continued safety concerns and a bridge repair timeline. At the November community council meeting, Seeley Lake community member Michelle Dunn introduced discussion on community safety concerns, including animal control, community decay, drug activity and the presence of registered sexual offenders, especially...
HELENA - From tax relief to programs that foster "prosperity" and "self-sufficiency," Montana Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte laid out his plan to grow Montana's economy and address what he called "the affordability crisis" during his State of the State address Monday Jan. 13, one week into the 69th legislative session. One of the plans he touted is the 1% decrease in the income tax rate he has built into the budget he has proposed to the legislature, a change he said would provide over $850...
HELENA — Proponents lined the walls of the House Taxation Committee room Friday, Jan. 10, in support of establishing a $1.5 million Montana workforce housing tax credit program. House Bill 21 is a state-specific version of an existing federal program. The bill would give tax credits for affordable housing projects, which proponents said would help increase much-needed supply. Don Sterhan is the president of CR Builders in Billings and a member of Gov. Greg Gianforte’s Housing Task Force. He supports HB 21, giving examples of where the...
The Seeley Swan Hospital District met Tuesday, Jan. 14 to discuss challenges and changes within the health care system broadly — the future of Medicaid expansion this legislative session — and more locally at the medical center in Seeley. After a survey went out to Seeley Lake area residents in late November and responses indicated a need for better communication regarding what Seeley’s medical center offers, the board has been discussing how to better share information with the public and how to be in better communication with... Full story
Thursday Jan. 18, 1990 YAMAFEST The mountains around Seeley Lake will be buzzing with caravans of snowmobiles as the fifth annual YAMAFEST celebration gets underway this weekend. Though we'd like more snow, we still have more than most, and trails above the valley floor are in very good condition and being groomed constantly. This picture was taken on Rice Ridge above Seeley Lake last Sunday when around 30 snowmobilers took part in a poker run and cookout. The trail was well groomed. Read this...
The Swan Valley is a special, unique landscape with an abundance of public lands, clean water, wildlife and other natural resources intermixed with a vibrant human community. This abundance of natural resources is what we treasure most, and we lead rich lives because of it. Starting in 1997, both Swan Ecosystem Center and Northwest Connections formed as nonprofit conservation and education organizations. Their goals were to promote better stewardship of the land, inspire conservation for future...
The story I’m about to tell goes back to Bob and Judy Kline, who built Nez Perce Ranch on the Nez Perce Fork of the Bitterroot. They both worked at the Berkeley Manufacturing Company in Spirit Lake, Iowa in the mid-1970s, best known for their monofilament fishing lines. Judy worked in advertising at Berkeley when she met Doug Swisher. The Klines and Doug became fast friends. Doug’s groundbreaking books, co-authored with Carl Richards, were changing the face of fly fishing. The first book, “Selective Trout,” coined the phrase of its...
Watching my weight seriously started in college. I wrestled - that meant making weight and maintaining muscle mass. The main thing I did was to drop calories while maintaining my protein intake - that was in addition to a balanced diet. After college, it was several things that made me focus. These included mountaineering and appearance. Our species is built to survive famines. With this, keeping weight down has always been hard for most of us. That has been true for me, too. Along the way I've...
My daughter Sally lives and works in Cincinnati, which is about as warm as this area in the winter, but without the charm of snow capped mountains. Thus, she likes to escape the gloom and cold in January, traveling with friends to places warm and ideally tropical. She and a couple of pals had booked an Airbnb in Nassau — in the Bahamas — but unfortunately the two companions were unable to go, so she decided to travel alone. I asked to see the Airbnb, which looked to me like a place where persons are temporarily placed following long...
I know we are a bit past the Christmas season and now well into the New Year, but it was all a bit surreal this year as Ruth and I took a trip to Scotland, leaving on Christmas day. So forgive me for being a bit behind in getting season’s greetings and a Happy New Year out. I’m still fighting a bit of jet lag as I write this. An activity that we used to do for the Christmas season was to set up a puzzle and try to make sure it was done by Hogmanay (Scottish word for New Years). We have abandoned that practice as it got a bit too...
The 69th Legislative Session is now in its second week of deliberations. The House got off to a quick start with Committees commencing business on the second day of the assembly and has held hearings on over 100 bills. The hot issue on the House floor this week was House Bill 121, a bill drafted to keep biological males from entering women’s restrooms, changing rooms and sleeping areas, in public facilities. To the vast majority of Montanans, that’s just common sense. The Democratic Party has a contrary view and sought to defeat the... Full story
Comebacks and close calls are frequent during the basketball season, especially for the Blackhawks. At home, the Blackhawks played the Victor Pirates on Jan. 17. The next day the team traveled to Philipsburg and played one of their rivals, the Granite Prospectors. The Blackhawks' game against the Pirates was a blow out. The boys' team ended the half being up 58-6. The Blackhawks happily took home the win, the final score 90-18. Derrick Brovold and Noah Stone, both juniors, were top scorers of...
