Suspect apprehended after stand-off near St. Regis

Montana Highway Patrol apprehended a suspect about three miles east of St. Regis following a vehicle pursuit Sunday, June 16 at around 8 p.m., according to Montana Highway Sgt. Shawn Smalley.

E-cigarettes banned in public places in the county

Electronic cigarette users will no longer be able to “vape” in public facilities after Mineral County commissioners passed a motion to add them to the county-wide Clean Indoor Air Act at a public meeting on Friday, June 7.

Local afterschool programs in jeopardy

When Superior parent Roxanne Wyatt drops her kindergartner and fifth-grader off at Superior Elementary School for summer camp, she feels relieved to know her kids are being supervised and will be unplugged from their electronics while she’s at work.

Fifth-generation Mineral County brothers host festival in Haugan

Music enthusiasts from all over the nation attended the fifth annual Silvercloud Campout, a family and dog friendly music festival next to the 50,000 Silver Dollar Bar, in Haugan on Friday and Saturday, June 7 and 8.

Frieda Huberty

Frieda Ann Huberty, 60, passed away unexpectedly on Sunday May 26, 2019.

Joan Veeder

Joan Marie Veeder, 78, born Feb. 18, 1941, in Butte, Mont, passed away May 6, 2019, in Spokane, Wash.

Memorial Day honors

Mineral County loses dispatcher Newart

After working for the Mineral County Sheriff’s Office for almost 10 years, 911 dispatcher Robert Newart has decided to hang up the dispatch phone on Tuesday, May 28. He’s one of three dispatchers who have recently left the job, right behind Roni Philips and Brandon Church. “He was very friendly and outgoing and knew how to make people calmer in a bad situation,” St. Regis Assistant Fire Chief Kat Kitteridge said. “He knew just what to do and say.” Dispatchers have a tough job. Their duties include listening to the radio while many different systems go off, including Mineral County’s deputies, fire departments and Emergency Medical Systems. “They’re the hinge pin to the county,” Kitteridge says. “They’ve got to be very attentive to what’s going on.” Newart, 34, began his career with the Sheriff’s Office as a detention officer 10 years ago and was transferred to dispatch after six months. “I liked the fact that I was helping the community, whether it was simple questions about road conditions or when open burn was to helping people that were in life or death situations,” Newart said.

Commissioners to decide jail's fate Friday

Mineral County commissioners will decide on Friday, June 7 whether or not to contract with a nonprofit private prison CEO to reopen the detention center which closed in January due to staff shortages. Commissioners met with Mike Thatcher, the CEO of Community, Counseling and Correctional Services Incorporated (CCCS), on Tuesday, May 28 to discuss leasing the facility from the county. Thatcher toured the jail with county officials to see if he would be interested and there was a public meeting afterward to discuss ideas. One idea was that Thatcher would reserve 16 beds while the remaining ten beds would be reserved for Mineral County inmates. For example, Thatcher’s reserved beds could be used for overflow probationary inmates from Lake County while the county’s reserved beds would be used for criminals arrested in Mineral County. Thatcher also discussed having a treatment center in the county down the road as an additional facility to help the program, and to add and maintain jobs. “It’s a longer-term treatment concept,” Thatcher said. “That’s something you should parallel to the discussion.” Thatcher says treatment facilities are a niche operation, and the county has potential to have separate programing. ANOTHER OPTION in addition to a contract with Thatcher for commissioners to consider is creating a Temporary Contractual Agreement for Coordinating Position. County residents Denyse Traeder, Diane Magone and Judy Stang proposed the idea to commissioners at the May 31 meeting for the position to jumpstart the process for reopening the jail. The proposal entails hiring a temporary person on a 3- to 6-month contract who will be responsible for “exploring the options available to reopen the county detention center in a timely manner and performing all duties that would accomplish this goal,” according to the proposal. The coordinator would create foundational procedures to recruit and retain employees. Traeder says the coordinator position could potentially work in tandem with CCCS and work together to reopen the jail. However, some residents don’t believe a coordinator would be necessary. Former detention officer Brandy Taylor says a Jail Administrator should be responsible for these duties. “What I’m hearing is, we want to hire someone to hire people to hire people,” Taylor said. She says the coordinator position is the definition of what a jail administrator is supposed to be.

Clark Fork, St. Regis athletes excel at state track

The Seeley-Swan girls captured the Class C title at the Montana State Track and Field Championships with 90.33 points at the Laurel Sports Complex held Friday and Saturday, May 24 and 25. Laurel won the boys’ crown with 81 points. The Clark Fork girls placed 19th with 8 points, and the St. Regis girls placed 32nd with 1 point. The Clark Fork boys placed 27th with 6 points, and the St. Regis boys were 25th with 7 points. Sorren Reese of Clark Fork placed fifth in the 800-meter run with a time 2:27.56. Madison Kelly of St Regis earned sixth in the 1,600-meter run in 5:43.35. The Clark Fork girls placed fourth in the 1,600-meter relay with a clocking of 4:19.45. Ian Farris of St Regis earned third in the 100-meter dash with 11.30, and placed sixth in the long jump with an effort of 20 feet, 4 inches. Jesse Shaske of Clark Fork placed third in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:01.64.

Superior Lions Club seeking Rodeo Princess applicants

The Superior Lions Club is seeking applicants for its 2019 Rodeo Princess and Junior Rodeo Princess. The Princess and Junior Princess will serve along this year’s 2019 Rodeo Queen Emma Hill at the Go for the Gold Rodeo on Friday, Aug. 2 and Saturday, Aug. 3 at the Mineral County Fair. The competition is open to all Mineral County young women between the ages 13 and 20. They must have been a Mineral County resident for at least six months and show involvement in community service. They will also be tested on horsemanship and knowledge. The winning candidate for the Rodeo Princess will receive $50 cash and a $50 gift certificate to Mountain West Co-Op (Cenex) to help pay for her outfit. The Junior Rodeo Princess and Rodeo Princess will receive a custom handmade sash from world renowned sash maker Wendy Russ. The winner in the Junior Rodeo Princess competition will advance to Princess next year and Queen the following year. Hill, this year’s Rodeo Queen, will receive $200 cash and a $50 gift certificate from Cenex. The Rodeo Princess will receive $150 cash and a $50 gift certificate from Cenex. Both the Queen and the princess will receive genuine silver crowns, made by Montana Silversmiths, donated by Lincoln’s Silver Dollar Bar. The application deadline for the Superior Lions Rodeo Princess 2019 contest is Wednesday, June 19. Applications are available at Alberton Feed and Supply, Castles Market in Superior, Idaho Forest Group in St. Regis, and all three Mineral County high schools. Contact Shawn Heyer for more information. Home: 406-822-4553. Cell: (496) 241-3678. E-mail: heyerus@yahoo.com.

The EMT shortage in Superior is nothing new

When Anita Parkin was substitute teaching at Superior High School on a Wednesday morning, she got a call on her pager from the 911 dispatcher for a medical emergency. She either had to abandon her class and hurry to the Superior Area Ambulance Service or deny the call. She opted to deny the call, but only because her co-worker, Life Science teacher Beau Servo, decided he would abandon his class of three to take it. Parkin worked to consolidate the classes while Servo fled the school to respond to the medical emergency. “The other teachers help out, but we can’t get away sometimes,” Parkin said. Scenarios like this happen often in Superior, where there are around nine active Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) who regularly respond to emergencies. “There’s a core group of us, we all have pagers and it’s basically whoever answers,” Parkin said. Parkin has been an EMT for 43 years and is the vice chair of the Superior Area Ambulance Service. She said the ambulance always struggles with EMT shortages because they are all volunteers and most already have other jobs. She says volunteers are generally not as committed as paid EMTs. “Sometimes people get off work to go (on calls),” Parkin says. “It makes life interesting.” She says there are about six EMTs who always wear their pager. Ideally three EMT’s should respond to a call, but sometimes only two are able to go. The state realizes Superior is rural, so they allow fewer responders than they would in a more populated area. Parkin says the ambulance will sometimes pick up EMTs in St. Regis or the West End if they don’t have enough responders in Superior. “It’s kind of an interesting thing, I don’t know too many other places that do it this way,” Parkin said. Superior’s ambulance was affiliated with Superior Volunteer Fire Department, but they separated in the last 20 years. The Ambulance Service is a nonprofit and the county gives them two mills every year which equals to $10,000 each. This also qualifies the service for grants. “We always need a new ambulance or something, we just built a new ambulance station and we do all the maintenance and shoveling,” Parkin said. Parkin teaches an EMT class in Superior every few years, and she recently finished one where six students finished. 12 students were initially enrolled and half of them dropped out after realizing how much work it entailed. Parkin says Superior will only gain one EMT out of this class if she passes the exam. For now, the Superior Area Ambulance Service makes do with their EMT shortage. “If we don’t have EMTs and respond to calls, they’ll have to wait for somebody from Missoula or Plains,” Parkin said. “We’ve made sure that doesn’t happen.”

Graduation Day in Superior

Commissioners commit to re-opening detention center

After two hours of heated discussion at a public meeting on May 20, Mineral County Commissioners decided the detention center must reopen following its closure in February due to staff shortages. The questions remain how officials will attain this goal and where they will find the funding, but they are nearing a solution. Commissioners were to meet with the CEO of a private, non-profit jail corporation. Community, Counseling and Correctional Services, Incorporated CEO Mike Thatcher was scheduled to meet with commissioners on Tuesday, May 28, to discuss a jail lease deal. If officials cannot reach a deal with Thatcher, they will advertise for a jail administrator/commander position and the county will remain responsible for the detention center. “Thatcher is a big player in corrections,” County Attorney Ellen Donohue said. If they can make a deal with Thatcher, she hopes he will run the facility and be responsible for training and retaining employees. Ideally, Mineral County will maintain ten out of the 28 beds and Thatcher will hold the rest. Donohue hopes that with his resources, he could provide staff transportation from Missoula. Thatcher currently has transport operations for employees in Anaconda to commute to work in Butte. The county agrees they must find an experienced, competent jail administrator who will prevent the detention center from closing down again in the future. But hiring an experienced jail administrator would be expensive and the county doesn’t have the funding to pay an appropriate salary. A mill levy could fund the position but raising property taxes would be a challenge in a county with high poverty and residents with fixed incomes. “You’ve got to have something to vote on that people are going to trust,” former County Commissioner Judy Stang says. “I’ve tried to run levies before, and people won’t vote for stuff they don’t know enough about. They won’t vote for something that’s not working.” If the county finds the funding to pay a jail administrator a higher salary, this would cause a pay scale issue for the rest of the law enforcement officers. This means a jail administrator might have a higher salary than the sheriff. “How will that pill be swallowed by the sheriff and deputies which are decided by statute?” County Commissioner Roman Zylawy asked. Sheriff Mike Boone currently sends inmates to the Sanders County Jail in Thompson Falls the Missoula County Jail and other jails in nearby counties. Deputies must transport inmates to the other jails, leaving fewer officers to patrol Mineral County. “I fear every day for our deputies,” Mineral County resident Mary Jo Lommen said. Transporting inmates comes with liability. Lance Jasper, an attorney and Superior resident, said he dealt with a prison transport case five years ago in Plains where the patrol car wrecked and killed a mother of two in Sanders County, causing a $3 million settlement. “If we’re going to keep transporting, you better up the insurance,” he said. Mineral County pays $69.50 to Sanders County and $108 per day to Missoula County facilities to house an inmate. Mineral County paid a total of $20,000 to Sanders and Missoula counties in March. As of May 20, Mineral County had around ten inmates dispersed throughout Northwest Montana. If the county brings on CCCS, Mike Thatcher will run the facility and it will be the fourteenth facility the private system will operate. CCCS currently runs 13 facilities in Montana, Washington and North Dakota. Facilities in Butte include pre-release and treatment programs and correctional facilities. After four months with an empty detention center, the county agrees it must reopen soon. “It can’t go as it is, the commissioners have to make a decision,” Jasper says. “Are we going to have a jail or are we not going to have a jail? But they make that decision and they have to implement it.”

Ruth 'Ruthie' Warnken

Ruth “Ruthie” Warnken, 83, of Superior passed away peacefully Monday, May 13, 2019, at home, surrounded by her loving family.

May 11 fire at Hilltop Motel claimed the second oldest building in Superior burns down

When Gary and Nancy Hill bought the second oldest building in Superior in October of 1992, the couple purchased not only a business but their home of the last quarter century.

Mineral County brainstorms ideas for community center

After a survey conducted by the Mineral County Health Department showed that the number one desire for the county was a community center, officials began discussing the idea of building one. Mineral County officials met in the packed Senior Center in Superior on Thursday, May 9 to brainstorm ideas to build a community center. Superior Schools Superintendent Scott Kinney originally came up with the idea because he wants to relocate the wrestlers to different area to practice, but he has nowhere to send them. They currently train in the multi-purpose room where there is stage and sound equipment. “It truly is a multipurpose room,” Kinney said. He says the room gets beat up from the wrestlers and would like to see a new facility for the wrestlers and to also be used for the community. This triggered conversations with County Commissioner Roman Zylawy, who also believes the county should create a new, multiuse facility or a community center. The current 4H building, or Quonset hut, has seen a crumbling roof, plumbing and structural issues since its erection more than 60 years ago. “You just about have to turn sideways to get in the bathroom,” District Ranger Carole Johnson said. 4H activities could relocate to a new building, which could also be used for shooting sports, a performing arts center and a senior center. “The current building gets used almost every day,” Johnson said. It is already used for family reunions, receptions and 4H activities, however the Quonset hut has seen better days. Jim Goss, who represents several Mineral County nonprofits would like to see a new facility to host Mineral County Performing Arts Council (MCPAC) concerts. The LDS Church currently hosts concerts for MCPAC, but Goss would like to see a separate venue. Goss would also like to see the current Senior Center relocated to the potential community center. “The facility is showing its age and the kitchen is way too small,” Goss said. A commercial kitchen and larger space would better accommodate the county’s aging population. Goss says senior centers are compelling to grants and could help with applications. But none of this can happen without funding. That’s why Zylawy has researched the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), a program that provides communities with affordable housing and community development.

Clark Fork tennis loses 5-1 to Granite

The Clark Fork Mountain Cats lost against the Granite Prospectors 5-1 in high school tennis at Superior High School on May 7. Lyssah Kromrey won both of her games by 6-0 scores against Granite. “After two rain delays, we gave it our best,” Coach Angie Hopwood said. SINGLES – Sierra Metesh, Granite, def. Emma Hopwood, CF, 6-1, 6-0. Makayla Pederson, Granite, def. Madison Courser, CF, 6-2, 6-1. Lyssah Kromrey, CF, def. Molly Ballweber, Granite, 6-0, 6-0. Lavinia Tenesch, Granite, def. Tori Tinker, CF, 6-1, 6-1. Alaina Marletto, Granite, def. Summer Bonsell, CF, 6-4, 6-0. DOUBLES – Sara Goff/Reece Pitcher, Granite, def. Alexea Kelsey/Barbara Garcia, CF, 6-1, 6-4.

Korean War vets to be honored on Armed Forces Day

Three of Superior’s Korean War veterans will be honored for their military services at the Armed Forces Day ceremony on Saturday, May 18 at Superior High School. Cabin Fever Quilters will present Wayne Bricker, Lee Magone and Doug Cummings with quilts in honor of their services in the Korean War. The event begins at noon and is open to the public.

Crews respond to fire at Hilltop Motel

The Hilltop Motel in Superior was destroyed in a fire that started on Saturday night.