Community Notes

Youth Conservation Corps finishes season on Superior Ranger District

SUPERIOR — After eight weeks of exposure to nearly every aspect of the Forest Service, the five members of the 2019 Superior Ranger District Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) crew submitted their final timesheet, saying goodbye to a summer of adventure, unique experiences, and what some soundly describe as “FUN” while working.

Rights in jeopardy

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Water Compact is essential to the future of Montana’s water resources.

GOP governor candidates talk jobs, state economy

The three Republican candidates seeking to be Montana’s next governor laid out how they would use the power of the executive branch to boost the state economy at two events last week.

Devils finish 1-2 on week

Things are finally looking up for the District 14-C Red Devils as they welcomed back injured starter Banks Stocking and claimed their first victory in a month after defeating St. Regis, 65-25 on Friday.

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.

Basketball season tips off at Frenchtown tourney

The 2017 basketball season has officially begun for schools in Sanders County as they all headed out to the Frenchtown tournament over the weekend.

Local firefighters secure hazmat training

The second training installment for hazmat awareness operations took place last week at the Plains-Paradise Rural fire house.

Plains boys bumped by Eagles

The Horsemen started the season strong with six consecutive victories, but ended the year with two straight losses at the Western B Divisional Tournament after being defeated by Seeley-Swan Thursday and Valley Christian Friday.

Three county school districts report COVID-19 cases

The COVID-19 pandemic has reached three Sanders County schools.

Grant helps 4-H club with cooler purchase

Thanks to the generosity of an organization that helps farmers and ranchers with financial matters, the Sanders County 4-H club will gain a new cooler for their fairgrounds pavilion.

Plains-Hot Springs grapplers 3rd at divisional meet

The leaders at the top of the sports team competition are familiar to local high school sports fans: Florence-Carlton and Eureka.

Rep. Loge: Legislature talks infrastructure

This past week saw the House having a full agenda of bills every day. Most days we had over twenty bills to take action on during the House floor session. Those bills were either Senate bills or House bills with Senate amendments. Friday was day seventy-three, so time is running out for new bills to be able to come out of committee and cross both floors. My committees have only one session scheduled for each, scheduled for Tuesday. Unless a bill goes back to a committee for discussion or amendments, committee meetings will wind down this coming week. Other activites this past week are the heavy negotiations on infrastructure, bonding, appropriations, gas tax, and the overlooked aquatic and invasive species funding. These negotiations may make the final tweek of bills in committees before they make it out on the respective floor sessions. Day ninety is scheduled for the last day but many are in hopes the work will be done sooner. That prediction is wishful thinkers and time will tell the story.

Lady Hawks wrap up season in Eureka

The Thompson Lady Hawks wrapped up their 2021 season with a 1-2 record at last week’s District 7-B...

Renaissance woman shares love for the arts

HOT SPRINGS – Stacks of paper envelope the house. With them, there is the occasional piece of newspaper or napkin complete with scribbles. Amidst the notes a woman writes, her mind consumed with the voices of characters. Hot Springs local Susan Faye Roberts has been dabbling in the arts since she was a little girl. When she was around six years old, Roberts wrote, directed and starred in an original play with her classmates.

Thompson Falls hosts Ted Kato Memorial tourney

Local teams and individuals had good showings against a big field of wrestlers who came to Thompson Falls Saturday to compete in the Ted Kato Memorial tournament.

St. Regis boys stay unbeaten

For the St. Regis boys’ basketball team, it was another week on the job, as they took care of business with a pair of victories that kept the unbeaten season record intact at 8-0.

Mineral County Resource Coalition discusses memorial in honor of Roger Hearst

With 13 members of the Mineral County Resource Coalition present, the first face-to-face meeting since January was held in the pavilion of the St. Regis Park on a crisp Tuesday morning.

Mineral County jail closed due to staffing issues

By KATHLEEN WOODFORD

Jail closed due to staffing issues

The Mineral County jail has been closed due to insufficient staffing, with inmates being transferred to other facilities or released.