We sell
licenses
PRST STD US POSTAGE PAID STEVENSVILLE MT PERMIT 89
• • 777-2822 • • 4039 HWY 93 N STEVENSVILLE
OUTLET STORE
For all your ammunition & Hunting needs
www.ammoandmorestore.com
Covering the Bitterroot Valley – “Where Montana Begins!” – Established 1985 – Locally Owned & Independent
’ ! l a c o L t a t s e B ‘The
Wednesday, March 10, 2021
www.bitterrootstar.com
Volume XXXVI, Number 34
Quarreling mayors accuse each other of bullying by Victoria Howell Stevensville Mayor Brandon Dewey says he’s at the end of his rope regarding former mayor Jim Crews’ complaints about council procedure. That’s what prompted him to craft a response to the most recent complaint and send it out to Crews as well as members of the media. The latest complaint from Crews was about a five-minuteper-person time limit for public comment that was set for the hearing on the Burnt Fork Estates subdivision that was held on March 4, and also the presence of a police officer at the meeting. According to Crews’ emailed letter to the Town, if the council wanted to set a time limit for public comment, that item needed to be on the agenda for the meeting, and it was not. (You can read Crews’ letter on the Opinion page.) Dewey’s response begins, “As a general rule, I have refrained from directly responding to the rhetoric that you frequently chunder. The Town’s staff, myself, and many others in the community have tolerated your bullying and mistreatment longer than anyone should have to. Nonetheless, it is important that the procedure followed at Thursday’s public hearing be highlighted as you have conveniently misinterpreted factual basis (again). And, while you have demonstrated your ability to cite the many relevant codes and laws, simply citing so does not make you right.” The Star contacted attorney Mike Meloy, an expert on Montana laws regarding the public’s right to know and participate. He agrees with Crews that the time-limit item should have been on the agenda. However, Council Rules as well as the published guidelines for citizen participation that appear on every agenda give the council and/or the presiding officer the right to set time limits for public comment. “It was not our intent to silence the citizens,” said Dewey. “At the end of the day, everyone had a chance to speak in a timely manner.” Crews told the Star that he did not attend the meeting, but had heard from a number of people that the mayor was yelling at people. “People who attended the hearing were saying that Dewey was yelling at the people,” said Crews. “He needs to respect the citizens of the town. What they did was wrong. They made a decision. They called in a policeman. They’re trying to stop the people from making their wishes known.” The mayor said he knew he had the right to implement a time limit, but he preferred that the decision be put forth by the town council since it was their hearing. The council could have requested that the mayor make a time limit but they decided to do it themselves. “I’m comfortable with that call,” said Dewey. See Mayor, page 12
The public hearing for the proposed Burnt Fork Estates subdivision was held at the LDS Church in order to accommodate the large crowd. Only one person spoke in favor of the development. Victoria Howell photo.
Development raises concerns Residents pack LDS church to discuss Burnt Fork Estates by Victoria Howell At a two-and-a-half-hour in-person public hearing on March 4 at the LDS church on the proposed Burnt Fork Estates subdivision, the Stevensville Town Council heard from more than two dozen people, with only one – a real estate agent involved in the sale of the property – speaking in favor of the development. The 220-unit subdivision, including single- and multi-family units as well as a 16-lot commercial area, is proposed to be built on 57 acres at the corner of Logan and Middle Burnt Fork Roads on agricultural land that was annexed into
the town when the adjacent Creekside Meadows subdivision was approved nearly two decades ago. John Kellogg with PCI, the consulting firm representing developers Dwight and Ralph Hooley, gave a brief overview of the project. The project has been reviewed by town staff and the Planning and Zoning Board, both of which have recommended conditional approval of the preliminary plat. According to Kellogg, the project is still in the earliest stages of review, and additional conditions could be incorporated during the next stages of the process. Kellogg also mentioned a letter he had received from the school district, stating they were not interested in participating in a proposed pedestrian access trail between the subdivision and the school at this time, so Kellogg said the developers would reserve an easement for future pedestrian access. In response to previous concerns from the public about the commercial zone,
Kellogg emphasized that commercial lots would improve the town’s tax base more than the residential lots. Most of a letter – it was cut off due to a five-minute time limit – from Susan Brown was read into the record. Brown stated that “the developer has failed to provide proof of a proven water supply to meet its water demand.” She said that based on the proposed 78 single-family residences with 2.5 baths, 142 multi-family residences with 1.5 baths, irrigation of 28.2 acres, and commercial office spaces, the total gallons per minute during peak demand would be 600, rather than 239 listed. She also pointed out that there are no limitations on what is built, whether duplex, four-plex, 2.5 bathrooms or four bathrooms, which could make the water demand even higher. She also said that the plat map “must specify the exact type of ‘multi-family unit’ that is allowed on each lot.” See BFE, page 13
RML scientists say viruses could be used to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria by Michael Howell
A human neutrophil interacting with Klebsiella pneumoniae (pink), a multidrug–resistant bacterium that causes severe hospital infections. Credit: NIAID
Serious bacterial infections like pneumonia can be life threatening. For decades, however, most serious cases could be successfully treated with antibiotics. That is until some bacteria mutated and developed resistance to antibiotic treatment. Some of these, like bacterium Klebsiella pneumoniae ST258, have gotten so good at it that they have rendered antibiotic treatment virtually useless. The high rates of morbidity and mortality associated
with untreated K. pneumoniae infections led the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to include it on its list of the biggest antibiotic resistance threats in the United States. Now, bacterial resistance has emerged against even the newest drug combinations, leaving some patients with few or no effective treatment options. As a result, a team of scientists working at Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, in collaboration with labs at the National Cancer Institute in
Bethesda, Maryland (all part of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases), decided to take another look at a different kind of therapy that has been pursued for over a century, but research on which got eclipsed by the roaring success of antibiotics once they arrived on the scene. That old way of treating bacterial infections involved using viruses to attack the bacteria, instead of antibiotics. This type of treatment was known as bacteriophage therapy, or “phage therapy” for short. What
NEW HAMILTON OFFICE Call or stop in to meet the agents...
scientists found at RML, based on their experiments with mice, was that using viruses instead of antibiotics to tame troublesome drug-resistant bacteria is a promising strategy. Dr. Shayla Hesse, lead author of the study results recently published by the American Society for Microbiology in the journal mBio [mBio DOI: 10.1128/mBio.0253019 (2020)] initiated the project in Bethesda, Maryland under a Fellowship grant. See RML, page 12
Opening Soon!
Carey Kanavel & Scott Ergas
“ We live here, we play here - let us help you
333 MAIN ST. HAMILTON | 406.375.5552 | CMPMontana.com
®
®
“