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Covering the Bitterroot Valley – “Where Montana Begins!”
’ ! l a c o L t at
June 29th, 2019
s e B e h T ‘ June 28th & 29th!
Volume XXXIV, Number 48
Established 1985 - Locally owned & independent
Wednesday, June 19, 2019
Mustang adoption event comes to Hamilton By Jean Schurman
When you think of mustangs, wide open spaces and lush meadows with a herd of pretty horses in the middle come to mind. But the sad fact is that there are more than 88,000 wild horses and burros on land that can adequately feed and water about 26,000. With the horses, burros and the range they live on spread out over 10 western states, you would think there would be enough ground and feed for all, but there isn’t. It’s not only the land that is damaged by overgrazing but the animals also are affected. With little feed on the ranges, the animals have to travel farther and farther for that and water. The eventual outcome is starvation for many of these animals. In 1971, the Wild, FreeRoaming Horse and Burro Act was established by the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service. This act directs the BLM to remove excess animals from over-populated herds and offer them to the public for adoption or purchase. The horses and burros are rounded up by horses with some helicopter assistance. Animals are also trapped at watering holes. According to the
“Mustang Matt” Bischof with three of the mustangs he trained last year. Photo courtesy of Matt Bischof. BLM website, more than 245,000 wild horses and burros have been adopted or purchased since 1971. This Thursday, June 20, the BLM will be having an adoption event at the Ravalli County
Fairgrounds. It will run through Sunday, June 23. According to Jerrie Bertola, range management specialist for the BLM, there will be over 100 horses and burros at the event. Although there is only
one recognized wild horse herd in Montana, the Prior Mountains Wild Horse Herd, most of the horses at this event will be from Oregon and California, and the burros are from Arizona and
Nevada. There will be about 12 yearlings and the oldest horse is around seven years old. These animals are what Bertola called “fresh” or newly captured. The adoptions will occur
onsite at the fairgrounds. The applications need to be approved there, or a pre-approval via the internet must be shown to the officials there. For horses, the adoptee must have a six-foot-tall wooden or metal fence or round pen. They do not want the horse to go directly into a wire enclosure. There is a nominal cost for the adoption but there is also an incentive to adopting one of these animals. Upon approval and adoption, the adoptee will be given $500 to take the horse. Then, 60 days later, another $500 is given. During this one year period, the horse or burro cannot be sold, moved, or rebranded. Clear titles to the horses and burros are given after a year’s possession. The first year is called fostering. ‘Mustang Matt’ Bischof resides north of Hamilton and has been working with these wild horses for several years and is a certified TIP (Trainer Incentive Program) trainer through the Mustang Heritage Foundation. These trainers bridge the gap between the public and excess wild horses that are held at centers around the West. These trainers like Mustang Matt are paid by the BLM. These horses must be halter-trained, load See MUSTANGS, page 15
Former mayor Jim Crews Lowells injured in car wreck appointed to Stevi council By Jean Schurman
By Michael Howell
Although he had withdrawn his application during the public comment at a June 3 special meeting of the Stevensville Town Council, Jim Crews was unanimously appointed at the June 13 regular meeting to fill the Ward 2 vacancy. The meeting on June 3 was to consider a single agenda item: “Discussion/Decision/Update regarding the Finance Officer and Town Clerk vacancies and completion of associated functions during the recruitment and on-boarding process.” In his comments attached to the agenda, Mayor Brandon Dewey notes that since April 12, 2019, the Town has received resignations from two critical positions within the administration. “Town Clerk Audree Tribbensee and Finance Officer April VanTassel both resigned, siting [sic] that bullying and harassment conditions created by the Town Council prevented them from continuing employment with the Town of Stevensville,” wrote Dewey. He said the positions are currently vacant, and that he had been administering the key tasks related to the position. At the May 23 town council meeting, Mayor Dewey sought approval from the council to increase his compensation to accommodate the increase in workload and duties. The council approved in a 2-1 vote, to increase the Mayor’s compensation by $25.00 per hour for up to 30 hours per week. Dewey told the council members at the special meeting that since that time, the town
council has expressed concerns about the legality of that decision. Concerns have also been raised about the concentration of power between the offices of the clerk, finance officer and mayor. In addition to the vacancies, he said the administration is preparing for the retirement of current Deputy Clerk Denise Philley. Philley’s current workload consists of utility billing functions, cemetery records management, airport records management, and training the newly hired Deputy Clerk replacement. Administrative Assistant Britnee Rhodes commits 20 hours a week to assisting with clerical functions in the office. Rhodes is responsible for collecting the mail, processing payments and fields public inquiries by phone and at the counter. Dewey stated he has prioritized the key tasks that are most critical between the clerk and finance officer positions. These tasks include daily authorization of positive pay transactions, processing of claims, processing of payroll, processing of payroll liabilities, building council agendas and packets, public notices and vacancy postings. He said he is now the only person within the organization trained to complete the finance operations necessary to keep the Town’s operations running smoothly. He said the Town is currently behind in record filing, ledger entries and meeting minutes. Dewey said that as of May 30, no applications or inquiries had been received for either the position of Town Clerk or Finance Officer. The Finance Officer position closed 5/31/2019 and the Town Clerk position closed
JUNE 21 & 23, 6PM Slack - Thur, Fri, Sat, 10AM
6/7/2019. “With the lack of interest so far in the positions, and the Council’s reluctance to compensate the Mayor in administering the key functions of the Clerk and Finance Officer, the administration is seeking direction from the Town Council on how to address the vacancies and ensure that breakdowns don’t occur and lead to further challenges for the Town,” wrote Dewey. He outlined all the other duties and responsibilities that he was charged with as Mayor including producing a budget, the swimming pool opening, the visitor’s kiosk project, personnel on-boarding, personnel training, spring street repairs, water project planning and zoning/building reviews. “The administration is interested in hearing solution-oriented direction from the Council that will address concerns relating to staffing, task completion, and most importantly assuring that service to citizens remains positive and that any impacts felt are minor,” Stated Dewey. At the special meeting, Dewey said it had been brought to his attention that there is some anxiety or reluctance on the part of the council with its decision to increase his pay to compensate for the additional work. “Maybe some accusation that the Council was bullied into that position which was not the intention,” he said. He asked for direction from the council on where his time would be best spent and how to handle the vacancies. “It’s a lot of work, a lot of hours just to get essential things
See STEVI, page 15
There probably isn’t a person in the Stevensville area that doesn’t know Nancy Lowell, or at least been touched by her generosity to the area. For years, Nancy was the Stevensville Town Clerk. She began working for the city in 1986 and by the time she retired in 2009, she was the Town Clerk/Treasurer. In an interview in 2017, she said helping to write the grant for the Bike Path was one of her best memories. Her grant writing skills came in handy for another project that has benefited the community, the Clothes Closet. She began volunteering when the Clothes Closet was located on Main Street in an old building that has since been torn down to make way for the PayneWest Insurance building. She helped to move the free clothing store to another old building located on Stevensville School’s property and then wrote more grants to facilitate the move to their current location on Middle Burnt Fork Road in the same building as Pantry Partners Food Bank. Another project she began was due to a conversation with her grandson, Axel Sorenson. When he was in kindergarten, he told her there were kids in his school that didn’t have pencils and paper on the first day of school. She and a group of friends gathered the school supplies and began distributing. Now the group supplies students in Stevensville, Corvallis, Victor and Lone Rock. Nancy’s family has always meant everything to her. Last Wednesday, Nancy, her daughter Jamie Lowell, and their two dogs were on their way to Boise, Idaho to celebrate Axel’s gradu-
ation from lineman school. On a deserted stretch of road north of Challis, Idaho, the car’s tires caught the edge of the road. Nancy was driving and was unable to pull the car back on the road. The car plunged 400 feet down a steep embankment, trapping Nancy behind the steering wheel. Jamie climbed out and made her way up the steep embankment even though she had two black eyes and a possible concussion. This stretch of road is extremely isolated and there is no cell service for many miles in either direction. Jamie flagged down a passerby, Kevin, who helped her call for help. The EMTs had to use the Jaws of Life to extricate Nancy and then she was flown by emergency helicopter to Boise for treatment. While her mother’s condi-
tion was being assessed in Boise, Jamie was still in Challis. She was covered in blood and had to find her dogs. One EMT, Stephanie (Jamie doesn’t know her last name), took Jamie to her home where Jamie showered and cleaned up. It turned out that Kevin, the person who she had flagged down, was Stephanie’s son. The dogs were found but one had a broken leg. Another EMT took the dog to the vet where the leg was set and a cast put on it. Then, the first EMT took Jamie and her dogs to Boise to her mom. Nancy has several severe injuries. Her back was broken in two places along with her sternum, collar bone, most of her ribs, and bones in her face. See LOWELLS, page 3
Jamie Lowell (left) and her mother Nancy were in a car wreck near Challis, Idaho, on June 12. Nancy is recovering in St. Alphonsus Hospital in Boise and Jamie is by her side. Photo courtesy of Jamie Lowell.
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