Sorted by date Results 101 - 125 of 392
SEELEY LAKE – At their Jan. 12 meeting, the Seeley-Swan Hospital District Board voted unanimously to designate Chair Twyla Johnson as the special district agent to vote in favor of the sewer bond that is being voted on Feb. 23. They also learned more about the possibility of the Seeley-Swan Medical Center being included in the residency program through Partnership Health Center. Board member Walt Hill provided background information on the letter the Hospital District received from the Sewer District. Hill also serves as a director on the Sewer...
To quote board publications, “The Seeley Lake Missoula Country Sewer District Board of Directors adopted Resolution #11192020, calling for a bond election on Feb. 23, 2021, by mail ballot asking the qualified electors in the District to approve a General Obligation Bond to finance a portion of the costs of the treatment plant and associated infrastructure and a Revenue Bond to finance a portion of the cost of the Phase 1 collection system. These bonds will replace the Assessment Bond methodology authorized through the Notice and Protest p...
SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley Lake Sewer Board has been granted an extension to respond to a lawsuit filed by a group of landowners. The lawsuit seeks to force the District to follow through with previously adopted resolutions to construct the proposed sewer, mandate connections and also to reimburse the plaintiffs’ legal fees. The lawsuit filed Dec. 15 and served a few days later gave the District three weeks to respond before the plaintiffs could request an entry of default judgment against the District for the relief demanded in the complaint. T...
SEELEY LAKE – According to the Missoula County Elections Office, there are a couple of changes to the voter registration process for property owners in the Seeley Lake Sewer District for the upcoming Bond election. The Feb. 23 election will be conducted by mail with ballots being mailed Feb. 3. Unlike most elections, Sewer District elections allow certain landowners the ability to register and vote in addition to the registered voters who reside in the District. There are several ways in which landowners may be eligible to vote depending on h...
LOCAL SEELEY LAKE BUSINESSMEN ARE SUING THE SEELEY LAKE SEWER DISTRICT!! As you may already know from the Pathfinder this past week, several of your local businessmen are suing the Seeley Lake Sewer District. Their names and John Does are in last week’s Pathfinder. They are seeking TO FORCE THE DISTRICT TO CONSTRUCT THE PROPOSED SEWER SYSTEM. It is my opinion that they are doing this to benefit themselves, as I know they all own several lots in the sewer district that they probably want to develop. It is also my strong opinion that they d...
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Sewer District Board of Directors learned at the end of their Dec. 17 meeting that a lawsuit had been filed against the District seeking to force the District to construct the proposed system. In the Board’s regular business they approved a letter to be sent out to District landowners and voters with information on the project and the Feb. 23 Bond Election. District Manager Jean Curtiss informed the Board at the end of her Manager’s report that she had seen a draft of a lawsuit against the District. However, at th...
SEELEY LAKE – At the Seeley-Swan Hospital District board meeting Dec. 8, Partnership Health Center (PHC) Executive Director Laurie Francis updated the board on PHC’s COVID response and operations. The board also voted to authorize an additional $1,250 in legal fees in response to the proposed RV Park on land adjacent to the Seeley-Swan Medical Center. Francis said as of Tuesday, six out of the 16 staff at the Medical Center were currently home due to COVID-19 quarantine requirements. This is a similar percentage at the other PHC clinics. PHC...
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Sewer District Board of Directors voted at their Nov. 19 meeting to call for a bond election to be held Feb. 22, 2021 to finance the proposed wastewater treatment plant and Phase 1 of the collection system. In doing this the Board abandons the previously approved financing method. The idea of a bond election was floated several months ago as a compromise to keep the project moving forward after voters elected two new directors. In their campaigns, Tom Morris and Jason Gilpin were very vocal that they wanted the c...
SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley Lake Sewer District Board and one of its former insurance providers have signed an Assignment of Rights and Claims that will keep the District from having to pay legal fees for defending the District against a 2018 lawsuit. There has been a longstanding question over whether or not the District’s insurance would cover the cost of the defense because the District changed insurance companies just days after the lawsuit was filed. The District did not know of the lawsuit when it made the change. The District’s policy wit...
SEELEY LAKE – At the Oct. 22 meeting, the Seeley Lake Sewer District Board continued on its path toward holding a bond election. The Board was presented with a draft resolution to hold a bond election. The District’s Bond Council Dan Semmens said that if the Board wants to move forward with an election date in February of 2021, it should adopt the resolution at its November meeting. There would be two types of bonds. A general obligation bond would pay for the treatment plant, force main and lift stations and a revenue bond would pay for Pha...
If you got a mailer attacking my opponent, for the record that is not from me, and I disavow it. I do not do attack mailers, never have and never will. The interest earned off the current principle of the Coal Tax Trust Fund currently funds over 15 different programs in Montana. Those dollars back up Montana’s retirement systems, Montana’s schools, Montana’s Agriculture and infrastructure across the state just to name a few. Every session legislators try to spend that principle on all kinds of things, but Democrats in the legislature have done...
Since ballots will soon be in the mail, I have some concerns about our local elected representative, Mike Hopkins. If you’re not familiar, Mike moved here from California where his mommy was busy suing Danville, California for two years over his traffic tickets. She later also sued the moving company who brought her here to the house she bought for little Mikey in the South Hills. She even sued the local Republican Women’s group when they weren’t running the way she thought they should. Is Mike really a Republican? He talks a big game, but w...
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Sewer District Board continued discussing holding a bond election and rejected an ordinance reinforcing a resolution mandating connections at its Sept. 17 meeting. The Board also received a proposal that would keep the District from having to pay $350,000 in legal bills to defend the District from Don Larson’s lawsuit. In other business the Board approved paying its past due legal bills after negotiations, the Board gave a landowner a letter stating it wouldn’t initiate annexing their property and Director Pat G...
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Sewer District Board had a marathon meeting stretching over four hours on Aug. 20. The board covered many topics ranging from a cash shortfall, potential bond election, mandating hookups, legal bills, water testing results and other regular business. District Manager Jean Curtiss informed the Board that the District has around $34,000 to operate in the coming months after paying this month’s invoices. The first half of this year’s property tax bills are not due until the end of November so the District won’t...
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Sewer District Board voted to stick with a market value excluding improvements method for spreading the cost of the annual District operating budget at a Special Board meeting Aug. 3. Then they set the assessments at a hearing Aug. 6. The Board held another special meeting following the hearing, where they voted to continue seeking information regarding a bond election that could change how the District pays for the proposed sewer system. At the Aug. 3 special meeting Manager Jean Curtiss presented the Board w...
Missoula County Health Department Specialist Jim Erven doesn’t seem to get it. The residents in the Seeley Lake Sewer District fully understand the Health Department is a bully, it does its work poorly and the $40-million sewer project it is pushing will further impoverish us. Let me explain further. The Board has never fully tested the area aquifer to accurately determine the “need” for a sewer. Lake water quality remains virtually unchanged over the past 40 years I have resided in this community, despite considerable growth. The Board has nev...
SEELEY LAKE – At the July 16 Seeley Lake Sewer District Board meeting, Missoula City/County Health Department Environmental Health Specialist II Jim Erven told the Board that if the proposed sewer system were scrapped by the voters in the District, there would be a government response of some kind. “One thing that will not be acceptable is a do nothing option,” said Erven Erven felt the need to make a statement at the Board meeting after the Health Department saw the agenda item considering putting the proposed sewer to a vote of the elect...
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Sewer District Board covered a wide range of topics at their July 16 meeting. They signed a resolution recommitting to move the project forward while considered a different method of financing, discussed appealing the denial for attorney’s fees in the lawsuit against the District and reconsidered the annual fee assessment methodology. The District also received an invoice from Beal Law Firm for nearly $15,000 for the lawsuit filed and then withdrawn on behalf of the District against newly elected President Tom Mor...
SEELEY LAKE - The preceding sewer boards have put together an amazing financial package to fund this project. It includes over $10 million of grant money, with approximately $6 million of loans in a package that will fund the building of the treatment plant and the collection system. To construct the treatment plant and collection system plus hookups in Phase 1 (subdistrict 1) will cost each residential unit no more than $54.25 per month (Resolution #201725235). This is the least expensive, most feasible plan we have investigated or that has...
MISSOULA – District Court Judge Leslie Halligan denied the Seeley Lake Sewer District’s motion for award of attorney’s fees against Don Larson but granted the District its Verified Bill of Costs totaling $510.24. Halligan declined to rule on a motion by the Plaintiffs to disqualify the District’s attorney Jon Beal. Halligan dismissed the lawsuit that was filed by Larson in June of 2018 on May 21, 2020. Approximately a week after the case was dismissed, Beal filed a motion to award attorney’s fees. In the order denying attorney’s fees, Halli...
SEELEY LAKE - Coming soon will be increased sewer tax assessments for ‘water-linked’ properties ranging from $1,200 to $2,000 to pay ADMINISTRATIVE sewer costs. Other properties in the district are assessed only $90 to $700 for exactly the same purpose. Your new tax can be found in a 10 page, small print document called: “FY21 Assessment Methodology Assessment Options.” Even if you still support the sewer project, I assume you’ll INSIST on being treated FAIRLY in the process. This change in assessments was conceived out of fairness....
SEELEY LAKE - If this sewer was a good idea, users in the district would be ALL for it and it would have been built already. As proposed, it’s dissolved into a decades-long lawyer and lawsuit can-of-worms and getting worse. After the recent board election, members of the board had a CLOSED meeting to discuss how to manage the influence of two newly elected members who weren’t seated yet. Their solution was a LAWSUIT aimed to stop two new members” from taking any steps that may interrupt the ongoing sewer project.” Seriously? Is this the kin...
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Sewer District held a special meeting June 22 to take action on issues stemming from their attorney resigning from his position as the Board’s business counsel. They also discussed and voted to withdraw a lawsuit initiated by the District and filed on June 12 against newly elected Directors Tom Morris and Jason Gilpin. The meeting started out with a discussion on what was on the agenda and what was not. On the District’s website, information for the meeting listed several actions the Board may take, however, the a...
As businesses and schools closed because of the coronavirus, Blackfoot Communications had to keep up with the new booming demand of people working from home, while Seeley-Swan High School also addressed a lack of computers for their students. Not only did Blackfoot increase broadband for people in the Seeley-Swan Valleys but they also connected students who did not have online access or a laptop at home. “We are still trying to dig out of loads of work. We only have so many technicians and we are doing our best,” said director of ope...
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Sewer District Board held a meeting June 15 where it seated its newly elected Board members, elected new officers, selected the market value approach to spreading assessments to pay for the administrative budget and set a new time for regular meetings. The Board also discussed hiring a new attorney for its regular business. Directors Tom Morris and Jason Gilpin who were elected in May were seated at the meeting. They were not sworn in during the meeting because Morris and Gilpin had already completed their Oath o...
