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The Seeley Lake community is grappling with the effectiveness and longevity of its medical center, the only spot with primary and dental care in about a 50-mile radius. Partnership Health Center, the nonprofit organization that provides services to the Seeley-Swan Medical Center, experienced financial hardship during the covid-19 pandemic and Montana’s Medicaid redetermination process, both across its six locations in Missoula County and specifically at the Seeley clinic, according to hospital representatives. These financial stressors — and...
Candidate filing for special district elections, including school board and community councils, opened on Dec. 12. Particularly in unincorporated towns like Seeley Lake and Condon, being a part of various boards is a way community members can get involved in local issues and in some cases — in community councils particularly — can be the mouthpiece for the community to the Missoula County Board of Commissioners. In the Seeley-Swan area, there are two open positions on community boards: one with the Swan Valley Fire service area and one on the...
Community appreciation and the giving spirit continued past the busy holiday weekend last weekend. The Rich Ranch, a guest ranch in Seeley Lake, hosted its community appreciation celebration and Loving Hearts, a thrift store in Seeley, hosted its annual toy sale at the Mission Bible Fellowship. Volunteers helped shoppers find what they needed and most toys were on sale for $5 or less....
Students gathered around a small table, drawing and eating snacks, as librarian Carrie Benton read aloud. It was the first meeting of the new Student Book Club that took place on Dec. 11. The meeting began at 3:45 p.m., just a few minutes after school got out. It started with everyone sharing a book they've read and enjoyed in the last year. Then, the reading began. There were a variety of books laid out for students to choose from. Coraline by Neil Gaiman was chosen unanimously by the attendees...
Thursday Dec. 16, 2004 Local Eagle Scout Receives Boy Scouting Medal of Merit A group of boys were sitting down for the evening meal at a summer camp. One boy stood up, his food had gone down the wrong pipe. He was choking and struggling to breathe. One staff member responded to the struggling individual. He recognized that a piece of food was blocking the boy's windpipe and that if the blockage wasn't removed quickly the boy could die. He performed the Heimlich maneuver to dislodge the food...
On Dec. 7 downtown Seeley Lake was bustling with community members gathered for the Second Annual Seeley Lake Tree Lighting presented by the Lions Club. This year's Christmas tree included 1,000 lights that were paid for by the Lions Club and strung by Missoula Electric Cooperative. The theme of this year's lighting was Logger Santa. Logger Santa and Mrs. Claus were in attendance and posed for pictures after the tree was lit. The tree wasn't the only decoration on display. The fence in front of...
Standing under western larches, pine trees and Douglas-firs, the first group of University of Montana seniors began their pitch. To finish off the semester, these students - including six groups of about six - ran through their project description: how many trees were in their assigned area, their ideas for removal and retention of different tree species and their plan of action under a December blue sky just north of Placid Lake. "Our objectives for the stand are to build resilience to fire thr...
Through different forms of Christmas greenery making, Seeley Lake community members rang in the holiday season with evergreen boughs. On Dec. 1, Lu Perez, a Seeley Lake community member, gathered 14 women for what she's deciding is the first annual Christmas wreath making party. She got the idea after making a wreath herself, which she donated to an auction for Sparrow's Vine, a parenting resource center in Seeley Lake. People loved it, she said, and it gave her the idea of hosting a gathering w...
The Blackfoot Watershed Recreation Planning Workshop held at the Ovando gym Dec. 3 drew 15 participants. This meeting presented a summary from the six community meetings held in Bonner, Potomac, Ovando, Lincoln, Helmville and Seeley Lake in November. Marley Held-Wilson, Blackfoot Challenge recreation coordinator, welcomed everyone and reminded participants of the ridgetop-to-ridgetop concept of management that the Blackfoot Challenge introduced at the community meetings in November. December's m...
Thursday Dec. 9, 2004 Christmas trees and caroling The Seeley Lake Area Chamber of Commerce hosted the first annual Christmas tree lighting and caroling to kick off the Home For The Holidays season. Rod Kvamme, accompanied by Tom Monaghan, Terryl Barlett and her sister Vicky Wiebe, led community members in some festive singing around the lighted tree. The Chamber looks forward to making this an annual event, with growing participation in years to come. Read this and more at: https://www.seeleylake.com/home/customer_files/art...
It was a cloudy but still day when Cowboy Claus rode into town for the 27th Annual Christmas Fest in Ovando on Nov. 29. Visitors were treated to a craft show in the gym, wagon rides by the Henrekin family from the gym to the town square and the Stray Bullet, Blackfoot Angler, Ovando Museum, Red Shed and Blackfoot Commercial Company welcomed visitors with gift items as well as standard fare. Chili and fry bread were served from the Hoosegow (original jailhouse) and Gingerbread houses and fire...
It was a Saturday morning in late October and Seeley Lake Senior Center volunteers were gathered for the hunters' breakfast. Many of the volunteers had been there since the breakfast started at 5 a.m., including senior center board member Michelle Wretling. Wretling was talking about the more familiar services the center offers, like weekday lunches and the Meals on Wheels Program, but she brought up something else, a program called Peggy's Pals. The program was created by Michael Richards,...
The "Harry Morgan Story" was recently published by the Ovando Historical Society and written by Sheri Ritchlin, Ovando resident. Harry Morgan was one of the first game wardens in Montana. He served in northern Powell County and parts of Missoula and Lewis & Clark Counties from 1913-1946. Ovando was his home base while game warden. An interview with Harry Morgan in the 1960s by Deer Lodge High School history teacher Thelma Wells served as the foundational research for the book. Since then...
The Seeley Swan Medical Center will undergo schedule changes in the new year beginning Jan. 1. Two medical doctors, Dr. Jesse Charles and Dr. Jackie Ordemann, who were available for in-person appointments in Seeley Lake prior to the change, will now be available for telehealth or in-person appointments at Missoula’s Partnership Health Center location. Partnership Health contracts with the Seeley-Swan Hospital District to offer services at the Seeley location. Dr. Ordemann will remain available onsite in Seeley for OB care once a month. Other i...
Thirty five years ago... Thursday Nov. 30, 1989 Vandals shoot insulators; MEC schedule shut down Friday Continuing acts of vandalism will result in another shutdown of electrical power by Missoula Electric Coop this Friday while crews repair damage. Kirt Flynn, MEC spokesman, said insulators on power lines were shot at and damaged near the Placid Lake turnoff sometime in recent weeks. “The entire transmission line from Helmville to Ovando and up Highway 83 from the Clearwater Junction to Goat Creek, including Placid Lake, Seeley Lake and C...
At the beginning of October, a situation took place on Seeley Lake Fire District property where a volunteer was carrying a gun and it made someone feel uneasy. According to Fire Chief Dave Lane, the person felt intimidated that fire district volunteers could carry on district property. The fire district doesn’t have a policy in place that restricts firearms on district property. Some districts develop policies that do in their particular locations. Doing so and posting signage of the policy is not a violation of any federal laws, like the S...
The Seeley Lake Sewer District Board spent a good portion of its November meeting etching out priorities for a potential wastewater treatment system’s location and technology. While a preliminary engineering report is still in the works, the district’s engineering consultant, Water & Environmental Technologies, or WET, walked the board through engineering matrices meant to help weigh different elements of project considerations. Typical engineering matrices use locations, scores, rankings and weights, and the combination of all results in a f...
The Seeley Lake Elementary School Board voted on Nov. 18 to eliminate the Friday STEAM, or Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, program effective Dec. 1. The program, which is designed to add extra optional science and math instruction part of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant program, had seen low attendance since the elementary school switched to a four-day school week this year. One concern of families as the school transitioned to four days was a reduction in childcare, lunch and educational advancement...
Freda Rathburn sprayed out the small fire she started while demonstrating one of the fire starters available through Seeley Lake Antler Crafts. She started two fires during the demonstration, showing the ways the fire starter she and Wade Rathburn were selling could be used. Seeley Lake Antler Crafts was just one of the businesses represented at the Fall Frostbite Craft Show that took place at Seeley Lake Elementary School gymnasium on Sunday, Nov. 24. The craft show was planned by the Seeley...
Whether through volunteering, organizing charitable events, or lending a hand to those in need, Seeley Lake's Leos embody the spirit of giving. Thanksgiving is a special time of gratitude and appreciation, and the Leos express their thanks by giving back to their community. On Saturday, Nov. 23, the Leos came together for their annual turkey drive, an event that embodies the season's spirit. The members collected donations and turkey vouchers, all of which will be contributed to the local food...
A snowy night, a log building and a handful of hearty citizens are the recipe for democracy in the woods. There were pickup trucks in the parking lot rather than horses, but it seemed like a meeting that could have occurred a hundred years ago. Swan Valley Community Council Chairperson Grace Siloti called the meeting to order, which wasn’t tough given this was an orderly group. John Simon, member of the Swan Valley planning subcommittee, asked the group to encourage participation in a survey by the Swan Valley Elementary School regarding p...
Remember those winds that soared across the Seeley-Swan and Potomac Valleys last January, just after temperatures dipped into the negative 20s? That winter storm created a demand for electricity that far exceeded the area utility’s supply, snowing in thousands for hours sans power, some for more than a day. Such power outages will likely only become more common, thanks to intensifying weather extremes. But before checking off the line items below, consider how the best support system for a crisis — perhaps the most renewable form of power — l...
Thirty five years ago... Thursday Nov. 23, 1989 Snowmobile routes under study The Seeley Lake Community Council Monday evening looked at ways to offer snowmobilers safe access routes from town to the mountains while at the same time considering ways to hold down potential accidents and nuisance problems. Representatives from the Driftrider Snowmobile Club and local law enforcement agencies were on hand for a discussion of problems. Law enforcement personnel urged citizens to "communicate" with...
One thing was clear from the results of a survey sent out to Seeley Lake residents from the Seeley-Swan Hospital District — not everyone is totally clear on what’s offered at the local medical center. Even from a fairly basic level, the perception that it is a hospital and provides urgent care services was fairly widespread, which is not the case. “The Seeley-Swan Hospital District is not a hospital. We are a mission-driven board that oversees the facility and partners with Partnership Health Center, who provides primary care and other healt...
Trying to make use of remaining federal money, the Missoula County Public Works Department is submitting for three more grants to address various deteriorating bridges in the county. After an unsuccessful submission for a Bridge Investment Program grant, or BIP grant, in March, which would have funded the replacement of Boy Scout Road (Seeley Lake), Glacier Creek (Condon) and Sunset Hill Road (Greenough) Bridges, Shane Stack, public works department director, said the department is planning on resubmitting for the grant next year and using...
