St. Regis golf team on par for spring season

Alberton School District elections approaching

Mullan road conference scheduled

Community Calendar

County jumps on enrollment

SANDERS COUNTY – On Saturday, March 22, officials from Clark Fork Valley Hospital, Sanders County Health Department, Mineral Regional Health Center and Missoula gathered in building two of the hospital. These people were certified application counselors and they came together in a final effort to encourage the people of Sanders County to get health care coverage.

Plains track and field start off season

PLAINS – The Horsemen and Trotters paid homage to the Greeks by running, throwing and jumping across the track and field in preparation for the first meet of the season. The athletes, particularly the girls, have much to live up to this year.

Red Devils overcome conditions

NOXON – Even as the track field sat in an unusable state, with mud piled inches high, the conditions of the track were not enough to stop the Red Devil Track and Field team from starting off their season.

Thompson Falls to host countywide fair

THOMPSON FALLS – Sanders County students will be encouraged to plan their future in a smart way as Thompson Falls High School hosts a county-wide career education day.

New Big Sky Singers play Superior for spring concert

Community Calendar

Alberton residence falls victim to flooding

Museum

Alberton high schoolers Troy Munsch and Taylor Erdman work on their artwork at the Teen Open Studio during a trip to the Missoula Art Museum. 

Alberton fifth graders explore Missoula museum

Students put their math skills to the test

BPA teams head to state

Big Sky Singers to perform at Spring Gala

Hot Springs Chamber talks summer events

Forest Service employees snowed in to desk jobs

SUPERIOR – As hard winter weather and blizzard-like conditions hit the area last week, the Forest Service was forced to delay some of their plans. Tawnya Brummett, district ranger for the Superior Ranger District, said a number of small projects are underway. There have already been a few survey crews out investigating places for future projects. While most of these were in lower elevations, the higher than average snowfalls have caused a few delays in the schedule this year. Most of the delays have not been too serious. There are a number of areas in higher elevations where the Forest Service expected delays to occur. In recent years, they have been able to work on some projects in lower elevations all through the winter. This year has been different for the crews as snow has built up in lower elevations. “[The winter weather] impacted us slightly, I would say, just in some of our low elevation projects,” Brummett said. While a number of areas are buried under feet of snow, the Forest Service has had plenty more fieldwork to do in the winter months. With how many winter recreation opportunities there are in the area, lots of work goes into making sure everything is safe. To this end, one thing the Forest Service does is keep an eye on avalanche risks in the area. Each week, rangers go out to look at the avalanche dangers to assess the risks in an area. The Superior Ranger District coordinates their efforts with the Missoula area and ranger districts in the Idaho panhandle to keep an accurate idea of the area’s condition. According to Brummett, the area around the Idaho state line has had especially high avalanche danger the last few weeks. While there have not been any avalanche fatalities in Mineral County, she said there have been a few around other parts of western Montana. Brummett said the Forest Service crews are looking forward to the warmer weather. Once the weather clears and the ground thaws they will be able to start work on more field projects. Until the weather improves the Forest Service employees are busy with office work, such as requesting grants to fund many of their activities. Brummett described this as possibly the least favorite part of the job for many of the employees at the Superior Ranger Station. She said most of them would rather be out in the field working on projects than stuck behind a desk. “There’s always a lot to do,” Brummett said. “But my folks would definitely rather be out in the woods doing it.” The Forest Service has also begun planning their controlled burns for the spring and summer. Brummett said it was also too early to say how the fire season this year would be effected by the snowpack. She said the precipitation in the area was looking good and the moisture levels were healthy. However, a particularly warm period could dry things out quickly and increase the fire risks. The Forest Service has begun hiring for their temporary summer jobs. The most common jobs available are for firefighters and fire support crews. There are also positions available on trail and timber maintenance crews as well as on the Mineral County Resource Advisory Committee. Brummett said she wanted to get the positions filled early so everyone can be ready to go once the season starts.

County health center bites down on oral health

SUPERIOR – The Mineral Regional Health Center will provide an opportunity for uninsured children to get free dental screening at a special clinic being held on Thursday, March 6. The clinic is being put on by MRHC and Partnership Health Center, out of Missoula. The operation will be set up in the MRHC basement, where the Mineral County Health Department is located. A mobile clinic will come from Missoula to perform the exams. PHC is expected to bring a dentist and two assistants to treat patients. According to Kristi Scott, outreach and enrollment coordinator at MRHC, the dentists will do exams, screenings and minor fillings on site. Patients will be referred to other dentists for more serious work if needed. If the health center cannot fill all the appointments with uninsured kids, Scott plans to open the clinic to kids who have insurance. If they still do not have enough, adults will be welcome to the clinic. “We’re focusing on uninsured children who have no coverage,” Scott said. “I’m really excited about [the event]. I think we’re trying to target patients, children who may not have access to dental treatment otherwise.” Because the clinic is being offered for free, MRHC was unable to work with local dentists to provide the exams. Scott explained a dentist’s office would not be able to do the work for free. The clinic will refer patients to local dentists for more in-depth care. “It’s really a great partnership that we’re trying to build,” Scott said. “We’re not taking business away from [Dr. Ordelheide]. What we’re really trying to do is help him build his business, his patient count.” With the changes being made at MRHC, it was decided these sorts of services would be good for the health center. Interim Chief Executive Officer Cindy Stergar decided they should try it out and began talking with PHC to arrange the clinic. Scott recently went to a similar clinic in Seeley Lake to get a better idea of how everything worked. She felt the trip was helpful as it gave her a better idea of what the MRHC event would need to do. “I feel really good, I think it’s going over really well,” Scott said. “It was great because I was able to ask questions about [everything].” Some of the information she gathered included how much time the dentists would need with each patient. Slots for the clinic are limited. Because of how new the program is, Scott wanted to keep it small. In this first clinic the dentists will only see seven or eight patients. The health center hopes to hold more of these clinics as time goes on. Scott said they would consider how well the event worked and how it was received. More clinics may be offered in the future. If this happens they might have more room for appointments. Scott’s initial talks with Stergar about future clinics have been promising. There has been some talk about making it a quarterly event but no decisions have been made. “This is really a test run for us,” Scott said. “It’s exciting for us to get this off the ground. Our ultimate goal is making sure everyone in the community has access to quality health care. This is one more service we want to provide.” More information about the clinics can be found by contacting Scott at 822-7134.

Blizzard affects Mineral County schools

MINERAL COUNTY – As blizzard-like conditions plagued the area last week, Mineral County schools were forced to concede to the weather and change their normal operations. On Monday, Feb. 24, the Superior and St. Regis schools declared a snow day. With icy roads, which were hazardous even after being plowed and sanded, the safety of the students took priority. Scott Kinney, superintendant of the Superior schools, said the call was always to close or delay the school day if there was ever any concern for safety. “With busses, they’re difficult enough to drive,” Kinney said. “We have ice on the road deck and then significant amounts of wind, a bus is essentially like a big sail. It makes it very difficult for the drivers.” On Friday, Feb. 28, the Superior schools closed again as heavy snows kept many people snowed into their homes. Icy conditions on the roads also caused safety to become a concern again. For Superior the decision to close the school was made Sunday and Thursday evening. Kinney receives updates from the weather service and road crews about the conditions. When it was determined the roads would be too questionable the superintendents were notified. With faculty coming to the area from as far away as Missoula it was important to get the word out quickly so people would not try to brave the roads. As Missoula was pounded by high winds and blizzard conditions, the city had largely shut down. When the decisions were made, word began to spread as the schools tried to get word out quickly. Monday morning in Superior an automated system sent out calls to parents and faculty telling them of the snow day. The school secretaries made calls to those families who were not registered to receive the message. The missed days will likely be made up at the end of the year. The schools will need to coordinate with the state on what needs to be done. It is possible the state will give a special waiver and declare the storm a natural disaster. If this happens, the schools will not be required to make up the missed days. While the Alberton Public School also dealt with bad weather on Monday, they were still open for the day. The Alberton schools and busses were delayed two hours, and school did not start until 10:00 a.m. Because of their four-day school week the Alberton students were not in school for Friday’s storm. The week was a special situation and the schools try to avoid closing the schools. If the roads are clear without much ice the schools will be open for the normal schedule. “As long as the roads are safe, we don’t have a problem,” Kinney said.