Sorted by date Results 51 - 75 of 134
SWAN VALLEY - The Swan Valley Regional Planning Committee worked through the final sections of the Housing Element and completed the Transportation Element of the Growth Plan at their meeting Sept. 13. The SVRPC addressed the goals, policies and actions of the fourth element entitled Housing. The committee voted to change the word “ensure” to “support” having adequate housing now and in the future in the first goal. They voted to accept the edit to the second goal which referred to adding affordable housing in the new development review...
SWAN VALLEY - The Housing Element, the fourth of seven elements of the Swan Valley Growth Plan, was addressed and edited at the Swan Valley Regional Planning Committee meeting Aug. 16. The committee completed six sections of the element. The committee discussed the addition to the opening paragraph of the fourth element. The original wording said that the market price of housing has surpassed the ability of many residents to own or rent. Many communities have established programs to help close the gap which can be important to the economic deve...
SWAN VALLEY - The Land Use Element was completed at the Swan Valley Regional Planning Committee meeting Aug. 2. The committee deleted and reworded text in the Goals, Policies and Actions sections of the third of the seven elements to the draft Swan Valley Regional Growth Plan. The committee began with four through seven statements of the Goals section. They accepted them as originally written. In the Policies section, the SVRPC voted to accept the seven policies with a change in verbiage to number three. The committee wanted the third policy...
SWAN VALLEY - Jim Nave, Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation deputy regional manager, provided information about how to file a claim for exempt water rights filed before July 1, 1973 at the July 18 Swan Valley Community Council. Swan Lake District Ranger Rich Kehr also gave an update on the Flathead National Forest Plan and other district activities. According to the DNRC website, House Bill 110, passed in the 2017 session of the 65th Legislature, requires the DNRC to notify all property owners in Montana about their...
SWAN VALLEY - The Swan Valley Regional Planning Committee continued to work through the Land Use element of the draft growth plan. They also agreed to have the document ready to submit to the Missoula County Commissioners by Nov. 1 at their meeting July 12. The SVRPC agreed to review the numbers and charts included in the first two paragraphs of the Land Use Element’s section entitled Vacant, Unencumbered Parcels by Acreage at a later date. The chart refers to the number of vacant lots that vary from less than one acre to more than 80 acres. T...
SWAN VALLEY - The Swan Valley Elementary School board accepted principal Chris Stout and his committee’s recommendation for new hires to fill the open third-fifth grade and junior high teaching positions for the 2017-2018 school year. They also voted to hire a secretary to replace Karen Anderson who retires in August and contract with Seeley Lake Elementary for the district clerk and business manager positions for one year at their meeting June 29. Stout read three letters he received in reference to the hiring committee’s recommendation to...
SWAN VALLEY - The Swan Valley Regional Planning Committee voted to add appendices to the draft growth plan at their meeting June 14. The committee also discussed and edited three sections of the Land Use Element. Despite Chair Ken Donovan’s objection to including appendices in the draft plan, he and the rest of the committee voted to include appendices. Donovan was concerned it would make the document redundant. Committee member Diann Ericson compiled the additions to the appendices from text the committee eliminated from the draft plan. E...
SWAN VALLEY - The Swan Valley Regional Planning Committee (SVRPC) addressed the remaining paragraphs of the Asset Based Approach to Future Development section of the Land Use Element in the draft growth plan May 24. They tabled the final paragraph of the section until the next meeting which deals with natural resources and residential densities. Residents also shared their thoughts about the process of editing the draft plan. The committee unanimously accepted Colleen Dowdall’s edits to the third paragraph of the section. They agreed to r...
SWAN VALLEY - The Swan Valley Regional Planning Committee (SVRPC) made a little progress editing two paragraphs in the Land Use element of the draft document at the May 10 meeting. Committee members also discussed adding an appendix to the document to supply further information and decided on officers for the coming year. The committee finished the section entitled Regulatory Framework with all committee members but one accepting two sentences in the last paragraph of the original draft. It reads “As set forth in the judgment handed down by t...
SWAN VALLEY - Nearly 80 people attended the showing of the movie "Bud's Place" May 5 at the Swan Valley Community Hall. The 60-minute film, sponsored by Alpine Artisans, Swan Valley Connections and the Upper Swan Valley Historical Society, told the story of the late Swan Valley resident William "Bud" Moore, a renowned forester, conservationist, teacher and the author of "The Lochsa Story: Land Ethics in the Bitterroot Mountains." Moore's son Bill introduced the film and spoke about his father...
SWAN VALLEY - All 31 Swan Valley Elementary (SVE) School kindergarten through eighth grade students participated in a Science Fair held April 26. It was the culminating activity resulting from the Swan Valley Community Foundation (SVCF) grant SVE received this school year. The funds enabled the students to visit the Insectarium in Missoula, Mont., the Planetarium at the University of Montana and hosted the Mr. G science show. The students were also able to work with the We Are Montana in the...
SWAN VALLEY - The Swan Valley Regional Planning Committee (SVRPC) members addressed the Wildland-Urban Interface and Regulatory Framework sections of the Land Use Element contained in the draft growth plan at their April 17 meeting. The committee agreed with the wording of the original Wildland-Urban Interface section and voted to accept it. The Regulatory Framework section generated a lengthy discussion about the community’s aversion to regulations and zoning in the growth plan as expressed in the visioning comments and neighborhood m...
SWAN VALLEY - Newly-elected Missoula County Commissioner Dave Strohmaier introduced himself and visited with those in attendance at the Swan Valley Community Council (SVCC) April 18 meeting. SVCC candidates Nathan Richardson and Diann Ericson introduced themselves and shared why they want to serve on the council. Council member Marcia Tapp told Strohmaier that the Swan Valley is a unique community of highly motivated, hardworking individuals. “We would like you [and the other commissioners] to know us and interact with us. We want to be able t...
SWAN VALLEY - Members of the Swan Valley Regional Planning Committee (SVRPC) discussed at length the community’s concern that the regional draft plan editing was taking too much time at their meeting March 23. They also addressed and voted on edits to the Land Use Element of the draft plan referring to community comments and edits by attorney Colleen Dowdall and journalist Suzanne Vernon. Community member Dan Maloughney said community members he talks to are wondering if this is becoming a “committee plan and not a community plan” becau...
SWAN VALLEY - Local real estate agent John Keller spoke to the Swan Valley Regional Planning Committee (SVRPC) Thursday about his research and thoughts on Land Use in the Swan Valley. Keller told them that the Swan Valley doesn’t need land use designation. He said the valley is set up now for future growth without further zoning and regulations imposed by Missoula County. The SVRPC asked Keller to speak to their task of editing the Land Use Element of the draft growth plan. The committee is concerned with how to word the draft plan so that t...
SWAN VALLEY - Jack Gladstone, dubbed "Montana's Troubadour", performed with Swan Valley Elementary (SVE) students Sunday, March 12. The concert was a part of the 2 Valleys Stage 2016-2017 concert series. Gladstone, an enrolled member of the Blackfeet Nation, illustrates Native American culture with music, lyric poetry and narratives. He is well-named a troubadour as he has traveled with his music to 46 states, Canada, Europe and Japan. Gladstone met with SVE students the week before the March...
SWAN VALLEY - Nearly 50 people packed into the Swan Valley Museum Friday night to hear local author of "Swan Valley Place Names" Steve Lamar tell how some landmarks around the valley received their names. Lamar explained that many of the landmarks were named by the 1922 survey crew members who explored and later mapped which in now the Mission Mountains Wilderness. Events in residents' lives also became the names of the places where they happened. Trapper and prospector Jim Condon's name is very...
SWAN VALLEY - The Swan Valley Regional Planning Committee (SVRPC) agreed on edits to the remaining six of the original seven actions of the draft plan’s Economic Development Element at their Feb. 15 meeting. The first action, which required community consensus to designate acceptable sites for appropriate business and industry, was deleted at their January meeting. Committee member Pat Sinz said that she wanted the second action to make clear that the residents of the Swan Valley have a voice and open discussions with Missoula County about guid...
SWAN VALLEY - Swan Valley Elementary (SVE) sixth-grader Trista Alexander won the school's spelling bee held Feb. 7 at SVE. Alexander is pictured with runner-up seventh-grader Seth Richardson and SVE supervising teacher Susan Bracha. Alexander competed against ten Swan Valley students in grades five through eight. After Alexander and Richardson out spelled the other students, Alexander went head-to-head with Richardson, spelling several words including bedlam, quandary and pearlescent, to break...
SWAN VALLEY - The Swan Valley Regional Planning Committee (SVRPC) discussed and used edits and comments from the public to clarify section 2.4 New Industrial Development in the second element of the plan draft entitled Economic Development at their meeting on Jan. 24. They also addressed the goals, policies and actions pertaining to the Economic Development Element. The SVRPC accepted public comments about the wording to the draft’s New Industrial Development section, eliminated unnecessary sentences and clarified other wording. The New I...
SWAN VALLEY - Swan Lake District of the Flathead National Forest (FNF) Ranger Rich Kehr presented updates to projects in the works for the Swan Valley, the FNF forest plan revision draft and answered questions from attendees at the Swan Valley Community Council (SVCC) meeting Jan. 17. Kehr briefly explained that community residents had concerns pertaining to wilderness expansion onto the Swan front addressed in the draft forest plan. Kehr said FNF Supervisor Chip Weber will make recommendations about the plan draft to the United States Forest...
SWAN VALLEY - The Swan Valley Regional Planning Committee (SVRPC) discussed and edited seven paragraphs in the Regional Draft Plan at their monthly meeting Jan. 11. The paragraphs were part of the Economic Development Element under the section entitled Future Potential of Past and Current Economic Activity. The SVRPC addressed five of the paragraphs: Residential Construction, Guiding/outfitting, Resource-based recreation, Eco-tourism and Accommodations. This portion of the draft plan deals with promoting the recreation possibilities the valley...
SALMON PRAIRIE - A power outage did not stop Salmon Prairie School's student-written play based on "A Charlie Brown Christmas" held Dec. 20. With the light from a lantern and a few electric lights powered by a generator, the play went on with the student body of five students ranging in ages from first grade to sixth grade, Teacher Holl Hubbard said the students spent the month of November working on their Christmas production. He said the students got experience in all subjects including...
SWAN VALLEY - The Swan Valley Elementary School's gym and junior high classroom were transformed Saturday, Dec. 3 into a bustling holiday Frostbite Festival put on by the Upper Swan Valley Historical Society (USVHS). Included in the festival was something for all ages. The school gym was filled to near capacity with hand made crafts, photography, stain glass creations, gift books, and direct sales vendors. Also featured was food catered by Mike and Pat Smith of the Swan Valley Center and...
