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Covering the Bitterroot Valley – “Where Montana Begins!” – Established 1985 – Locally Owned & Independent
Find the latest updates and information on the COVID-19 pandemic at www.bitterrootstar.com Volume XXXV, Number 41
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Wednesday, April 29, 2020
Re-opening has begun
Full of stories
By Michael Howell
Chapter One Book Store owners Shawn Wathen and Mara Luther receiving newly published books into the inventory system. “We share all the work, but we have different focuses,” Wathen said. “Mara does the sideline buying and we both do bookkeeping, cleaning, computer and phones. We have three part-time employees so we can have weekends off.” Wathen is the cornerstone of Chapter One. “Mara and I were talking recently about all of the people that have come into our lives and left,” he said. “On my first day here I started a conversation with David Perry, and the conversation continued every day for eight years until he died.” Luther uses social media to keep the store alive during the pandemic. She posts the ‘Daily Browse,’ highlighting books she thinks are worth a peek, and records herself reading kids’ books for storytime every Friday.
Chapter One Book Store weathers a pandemic
By Marnie Craig
In 1994, a team of book lovers with handcarts and strong backs wheeled bookshelves and boxes of books across Hamilton’s Main Street into the corner storefront on Main and Third, where Chapter One Book Store has stood for 26 years. This independent bookstore has survived the rise of Amazon. com, Barnes & Noble, the Great Recession and a pandemic. Some dust has settled on the shelves since Governor Bullock closed all non-essential businesses to slow the spread of COVID-19, so over the week-
end, employees and bookstore owners Shawn Wathen and Mara Lyn Luther cleaned the store for reopening on Monday. Signs on the doors say only ten people can be inside at one time. “We will have tape on the floor to show what six feet looks like and we will have a regular wipe-down schedule,” Luther said. “We will also offer curbside pickup.” The last day the store was open before the shutdown went into effect was the busiest day of the year. The community poured in to support the bookstore before they closed the doors. “It was like a wake,” Luther
said. “We couldn’t hug each other, and people walked out with tears in their eyes. Life was pretty scary. We didn’t know what temporary meant or what things would look like on the other side. Would we survive?” “We locked our door for what was supposed to be two weeks, but none of us believed it would just be two weeks,” Wathen said. “When we locked the doors, we were uncertain if they would ever open again.” Black and white handmade signs in a typewriter font hang from the ceiling to designate See BOOK STORE, page 6
The shelter-in-place directive that was instituted across the state to blunt the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Montana expired on Sunday, April 26 for individuals and Monday, April 27 for businesses. Under that directive, Montana aggressively managed the virus with a series of actions including suspending nursing home visitation, closing schools, closing higher risk businesses such as bars, restaurants, gyms and movie theaters, and enacting a stay at home order. Last week Governor Bullock announced the implementation of a new planned reopening to be implemented in phases as certain benchmarks criteria are achieved and maintained. The plan calls for a gradual lifting of emergency measures and re-opening of businesses as certain benchmarks in countering the epidemic are reached. But officials emphasize that it will not mean going back to normal. It will be more like going
The new normal? Local restaurants, like Morning Star Caffeine and Cuisine in Stevensville, were allowed to open on Monday as long as they could accommodate for social distancing. Liz Cook photo. forward to a “new normal.” “It was only because we as Montanans decided to enter into this thing and act responsibly that we are now ready to enter this first phase,” Governor Bullock stated at a press conference last week announcing the new Re-Opening Plan.
“There are very few states in the country that can say they have seen the number of positive cases decline over these past weeks. Montana can say that because, together, we have made that decline in cases possible,” GovSee RE-OPENING, page 3
County Attorney clarifies county’s position on recall petition By Michael Howell
In a letter to the Stevensville resident who is circulating a petition to have the Mayor of Stevensville recalled for violating his oath of office, County Clerk and Recorder Regina Plettenberg noted that the petition had been found to meet the “grounds and form” required for a recall petition under state law and thus was approved for circulation. Several readers took this to mean that this meant that the county attorney in his review of the document found that the allegations had merit and that indeed the law had been violated. But that is not the case, according to Deputy County Attorney Royce McCarty, who reviewed the document for the clerk. McCarty said, according to statute, if you want to circulate a
petition to recall a public official, you have to submit it to the Clerk and Recorder before you circulate it so that she can determine whether it meets the proper form. “One thing we did not do is make any determination that he had violated anything. We simply examined the form itself,” said McCarty. One formal requirement, he said, is that it has to contain “specificity” of what they are claiming. McCarty said that if the petition had simply stated that it was for violating his oath of office, for instance, that would not be specific enough. The petition must be specific as to the facts that support the claim so that the official can offer a defense against the allegations. “They are simply allegations,” said McCarty. “The County doesn’t make a determination in
that regard. We are not a judge. A court would ultimately have to determine whether that allegation was true or not.” He said the county doesn’t look into the facts, it simply asks, “if true” would it be a violation of the statutes in question. Asked how this jives with the Clerk’s statement in her letter to the petitioner that the petition was found to meet the “grounds and form” of the legal requirements, McCarty said, “I guess what I’m saying is that according to statute it has to have grounds to it. You have to allege facts that, ‘if they are correct’ would be a violation of the oath of office. But we didn’t make any determination as to whether they were correct or not. We just made the determination that the alleged facts met the proper form.”
Marcus Daly Hospital Respiratory Services up and running
By Michael Howell
For Bitterroot valley residents experiencing acute respiratory distress, help is only a phone call away and, if appropriate, a same-day appointment can be made to be examined by a nurse or a doctor at the Respiratory Services center located at Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital in Hamilton. The medical facility’s entrance is through a tent where the care team privately and safely sees two patients at a time, eliminating any type of waiting area and exposure to staff or patient’s loved one. The parking area is set up by patient needs and services; it includes handicap, respiratory, and swabbing; patients receive care in their vehicle when appropriate. Patients that are experiencing respiratory symptoms, especially those at high-risk, are encouraged to receive care at the Respiratory Services location. Patients needing care should call the clinic first at 406-375-4762, giving the medical team the opportunity to determine if this is the appropriate location. Respiratory symptoms include chest congestion, chills, cough, difficulty breathing, fever, nasal congestion,
runny nose, shortness of breath and sore throat. The respiratory location is separated from the primary care and specialty clinics, making medical providers and specialists available for their patients needing care through an in-office visit and Daly Connect, the new telehealth service. The yellow tent is the first location where you meet medical personnel. According to April Weinberger, MD, Medical Staff Director at Marcus Daly Hospital, usually a person visiting a clinic or hospital is greeted by a person at a desk who asks them to wait. “We eliminated the waiting area,” said Dr. Weinberger, “so the process of determining what you need as a patient is being determined right at entry.” She said they ask screening questions and determine what level of service is really needed and if they need to be here. They could recommend anything from going home and getting some rest and drinking plenty of fluids to going directly into the Emergency Room or a number of options in between. They have access to x-ray machines, they can take swab samples, and they can do blood See HOSPITAL, page 2
Chief of Medical Staff April Weinberger, MD, and Robin Yeargan, FNP, are pictured in front of the Respiratory Services tent at Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital, where people suffering from acute respiratory distress, no matter what the cause, can receive immediate care from a licensed nurse and/or doctor. Michael Howell photo.