Bitterroot Star - November 21, 2018

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Covering the Bitterroot Valley – “Where Montana Begins!”

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Volume XXXIV, Number 18

The new normal

Established 1985 - Locally owned & independent

Wednesday, November 21, 2018

City of Hamilton establishes Urban Renewal District By Michael Howell

North Hamilton Urban Renewal District

The City of Hamilton has . adopted an ordinance creating the North Hamilton Renewal District. A District Plan was also adopted £ ¤ which includes a tax increment provision as a financial mechanism for funding improvements to the infrastructure in the area. State law allows municipalities to form such tax increment financing districts in order to help facilitate the rehabilitation and renewal of areas that have been identified as “blighted,” including areas which constitute an economic and social liability, substantially impair the sound growth of a municipality, and substantially impair the elimination of traffic hazards and the improvement of traffic facilities. The City Council made such a finding last December and passed a resolution designating a blighted area at the north end of the city. The “Statement of Blight” documented four conditions of blight, including defective and inadequate street layout and connectivity, unsanitary or unsafe conditions, mixed uses of land and buildings and diversity of ownership. It specifically included lack of a stoplight on Highway 93 in the area that was resulting in accidents and poor traffic circulation; lack of sidewalks and storm drainage, lighting, and other non-motorized transportation infrastructure along Old Corvallis Road and Highway 93; as well as undeveloped right-of-ways and private driveways being used to facilitate connectivity. The District boundary includes portions along the Highway 93 Business District, from Foxfield Street north and portions The newly established North Hamilton Urban Renewal Disalong Old Corvallis Road from trict. Fairgrounds Road north and east, extending to the portion of the city to just leave it and include it in raise funds for improvements to containing the GSK laboratory the District. The Corvallis School the infrastructure in the area to campus. District agreed and approved the address the blight issues identified. According to Mayor Domiplan and will have the right to At past meetings, City Attorney nic Farrenkopf, it was discovered participate on the advisory board Karen Mahar emphasized that after the boundary lines had been that will recommend project plans forming an Urban Renewal Disset that a small portion of the for City Council review. trict does not increase landowner district is located in the Corvallis Establishing an Urban See RENEWAL, page 3 School District. It was decided Renewal District is a way to The information on this map is for general reference only.

NHURD Boundary NHURD Parcels NHURD Area

Map Scale

1 : 3,168

(20" = 1 Mile)

August, 2018 - Ravalli County GIS Department

H:\Projects\Hamilton\NHURD\NHURD_003168.mxd

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Ravalli County Road and Bridge Department

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Teachers Denise Miller and Cejay Paulsen practice using ipads for student assessments.

Judge Langton to retire Ravalli County District Court Judge Jeffrey Langton has announced his retirement, effective April 30, 2019. Langton, who was first elected as judge of Department One of the 21st Judicial District Court for Ravalli County in November 1992, is currently the longest serving state district judge in Montana. By the time his retirement becomes effective, he will have served over 26 years on the bench. He is currently 65 years of age. Born and raised on the family ranch along Big Creek north of Victor, Langton earned a

AVE

See TECHNOLOGY, page 2

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Tools for Education as well as other programs. Students can access their work at any time on or off campus and can engage in group work with their peers for projects and assignments. Scott Seibert, elementary computer science teacher and dean of students, sees the change in the learning environment as an

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ment, students have ready access to Chromebooks and computing devices throughout the day. They no longer will need to wait for the availability of computer labs and devices as these are now available in the classroom. Teachers have been training for this implementation for the past two years and have a variety of instructional opportunities to engage students through Google

Daly Mansion

HIERONYMOUS PARK DR

ESSEX

The Stevensville School District has been quietly developing technology infrastructure throughout the District for the past three years. In that time, the District has moved from radio relay internet access to fiber optic connectivity and has increased the bandwidth available for instruction from 100 MB to 1 GB. A significant amount of this work was made possible by the technology levy passage in 2017. Since that time, the internal network has been upgraded with new hubs and switches and access points have been added throughout the buildings. Technology Director, Roger Cassidy, has worked with Pine Cove computer consultants to fix a number of network problems to ensure that the technology backbone is ready for higher levels of access and usage throughout the schools. With the network access now available, the Stevensville School District is moving rapidly toward a one to one computer environment. In this environ-

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Stevensville School District ramps up technology access

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Stevensville Elementary student Sloane Shourd does a Social Studies lesson on the computer.

WILKINSON WAY

bachelor’s degree in history with high honors from the University of Montana in 1975 and then went on to get a law degree from the UM School of Law in 1978. He practiced law in Hamilton from 1978 to 1993 when he took office. During his time on the bench, he has served as Co-Chair of the Montana Supreme Court Commission on Self-Represented Litigants, Chair of the Montana Sentence Review Division, and currently serves on the Criminal Jury Instruction Commission. In his letter to Chief Justice Mike McGrath of the Montana

Supreme Court, dated November 14, Langton states, “It has been my high privilege and honor to have been elected and re-elected five times to serve the community and citizens of Ravalli County for the past 25 years as District Court Judge. “I look forward to retirement and new experiences, but I shall always look back with gratitude for the opportunity to serve the public in this way. I also wish to acknowledge the untiring support and dedication of my court staff, without whose efforts my work would not have been possible.”

Capitalizing on history History can play role in economic development, says preservation officer

By Michael Howell History is the foundation for strong vibrant communities,” Kate Hampton, Community Preservation Coordinator for the State Historical Preservation Office, told the Hamilton city council members at its latest Committee of the Whole meeting last week. “A place becomes

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a community when wrapped in human memory as told through family stories, tribal tradition, and civic communication, as well as discussion about our roles and responsibilities to each other in the places that we call home,” she said. Hampton encouraged the council members to consider participating in the state’s Local Historic Preservation Program. She noted that local history is also a catalyst for economic growth. In fact, the national and state Main Street program, a highly successful downtown economic development program, was founded by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. According to Hampton,

nearly 2,000 diverse communities across the country have adopted an historical preservation ordinance, one of the steps involved in qualifying for participation in the Local Historical Preservation program. Certified local governments meeting all the requirements may apply for small grants to help provide tools and materials for local panning and preservation efforts. These grants can be used as matching funds to help leverage more funds for the local program. Currently there are sixteen Certified Local Governments that have local ordinances and a local Historic Preservation See HISTORY, page 3

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