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Covering the Bitterroot Valley – “Where Montana Begins!”
’ ! l a c o est at L
June 29th, 2019
‘The B Volume XXXIV, Number 36
Established 1985 - Locally owned & independent
Daines visits valley veterans
Looking at the ‘ripple effects’ in Darby By Michael Howell
Senator Steve Daines was in Hamilton on Saturday at the Valley Veterans Service Center meeting with veterans from Hamilton and the surrounding areas. During the discussion, Daines heard from veterans on their experiences receiving healthcare from the VA. With Ravalli County being home to nearly 25,000 veterans and their family members, Daines heard directly from these veterans on some of the best practices they’ve seen and how those best practices can be applied to other veterans’ services providers across the state and country. Daines said he will continue to hear directly from veterans in Montana to ensure they are receiving the care they deserve.
Back in 2004, a Resource Assessment Team came to Darby as part of a statewide effort led by Montana Economic Developers Association and several state and federal agencies and organizations, and hosted seven listening sessions, which were designed to help the residents determine the challenges, strengths and future visions for the community. Topics like growth, housing, jobs, recreation, schools and other community issues were discussed, resources were identified and cataloged, values were identified, visions for the future were outlined. That was some time ago. Now comes the “Ripple Effect.” The Montana Economic Developers Association is returning to Montana with its latest Ripple Effects Mapping (REM) program. They call it “a fun and engaging evaluation activity based on storytelling” to see
Youth Conservation & Education Expo camp counselors honored By Michael Howell
Volunteer organizations from all over the valley are gearing up once again for the annual Youth Conservation and Education Expo at the Teller Refuge near Corvallis. It’s a free event held in May for the valley’s youth ages 6 to 17 years old that is designed to educate them about the great outdoors and the many ways it can be enjoyed, explored, appreciated and preserved. A testimony to the success of the program was the honor recently bestowed upon four of the program’s newest camp counselors. All four of the new counselors have been beneficiaries of the program over the last several years. Hyme Anderson, Dawson Cameron, Hunter Eden and Taylor Wohlers have attended various Expo events and camps over the last six years and are now stepping up to help other young people get the same kind of foothold in the outdoors that they were able to
achieve. Over the course of several years, the event has experienced tremendous growth. In addition to the event day, at which young people visit fun and educational stations designed to interest and engage them in various outdoor activities ranging from shooting guns and arrows to bird watching, back country horse packing and hiking, rock climbing, fishing and more, by participating in the Expo and visiting the various stations the young people also get a chance to draw a lucky ticket for a scholarship to the growing number of summer camps that are affiliated with the Expo event. At first scholarships were given out to attend already established summer camps at such places as the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Ranch at Dupuyer, the Jack Creek Preserve Youth Camp in Ennis, Glacier National Park’s Glacier Institute. It wasn’t long, however, before the group of organizers began putting together
their own camps. The first was a wilderness camp at the Magruder Ranger Station up the Nez Perce where kids got the chance to learn about the creation and adoption of the Wilderness Act by a couple of old timers who were very much involved at the time, local publisher and conservationist Dale Burk and renowned horse packer and outfitter Smoke Elser. Two new camps were recently added on ranchland owned by Ed Scripps up the West Fork. The main driver of this constellation of organizations devoted to outdoor education for youth is Tom Powers. Powers had a vision of what could be achieved if every organization in the valley that had anything to do with the outdoors got involved and the community stepped up to help bring that vision to fruition. And the vision just keeps flourishing. Two years ago, a shooting competition at Whittaker Shooting Range in Hamilton was added to the venue. One shooter, twelve-
Wednesday, March 27, 2019
year-old Marcus Klemp, got an exceptionally high score that got everybody’s attention. As a result, he ended up trying out for Junior Olympics and came in 8th place, which qualifies him to enter the Junior Olympics competition in Colorado Springs this year. According to Powers, the Youth Expo is set to offer a total of 200 scholarships to summer camps this year. Two people involved in the Expo, Taylor Wohlers and Teller Refuge Manager Karen Zumwalt, have also been selected to participate in the state’s Master Hunter Program. The program was started a couple of years ago. According to one of the first graduates from the program, Matt Ulberg, the program was started as a bridge between rural and urban dwellers in an effort to improve hunter and landowner relations. It is a sixweek program with a two-day field course with one day in the classSee HONORED, page A2
Honored for giving back. Having gotten a lot out of the Youth Conservation and Education Expo and associated summer camps over the years, Taylor Wohlers, Hunter Eden, Dawson Cameron and Hyme Anderson have reached the point that they are ready to give back. They were honored last week for taking on positions as camp counselors in the program this year. Standing behind them are Expo event organizer Tom Powers, Ravalli County Fish and Wildlife Association representative Fred Upchurch and Camp Coordinator for the Magruder and Scripps camps Tracey Manning of the Mule Deer Foundation. Michael Howell photo.
what might have come about or not come about after that initial assessment back in 2004. Did the Town of Darby realize any of its aims and goals? Is there still any interest in those that were not accomplished? Etc. “When a rock is thrown into a pond it makes a splash,” said Julie Foster at the Ravalli County Economic Development Authority, “but it also sends out ripples that have a recurring effect all over the pond.” She said the REM program is an attempt to assess the results or effects of that first community assessment. The REM team says, “The impact of community focused work is notoriously difficult to measure. Community focused programs may have immediate and direct benefits but also may have related indirect benefits beyond initial steps taken. Work done by communities like yours may have ripples of impacts that change culture, policy and people’s lives in sometimes unanticipated ways.
Ripple Effects Mapping is a way to capture all the intended and unintended benefits of programs while harvesting rich, detailed stories that illustrate those benefits.” The team’s first activity is interviews where participants pair off and describe things that happened as a result of the Resource Team Assessment. After the interviews, things that happened are “mapped” on butcher paper on the wall. Mapping continues until the group is satisfied that the map captures everything known to have happened as a result of actions taken as a result of the assessment. The messy hand-drawn map will be transferred to a software program and results will be organized in various ways for MEDA and community use. The resulting products can be distributed electronically and in print format and/or participants can schedule a follow-up meeting with the facilitator to discuss the results and how See DARBY, page A2
Stevi council questions snow removal actions By Michael Howell At its March 14 regular meeting, the Stevensville Town Council declined to pay approximately $26,000 in claims to various local contractors who were hired for snow removal during the recent record-breaking snow storm. Mayor Brandon Dewey issued a proclamation during the storm, which was forecast to continue, for residents not to travel or park on the streets to allow for plowing and hired some private contractors to help the Public Works department to plow the streets. The Council rejected the payment claims primarily on the grounds that the Mayor did not go through proper process in hiring the contractors, leaving the Council out. But at a special meeting of the Council held six days later, on March 20th, the claims were accepted. At the meeting on the 14th, after a motion to approve the claims died due to lack of a second, Council President Bob Michelson moved to pay all the claims except the ones, which he listed, that were related to the “snow plowing project.” He said the reason he couldn’t support the claims is because the snow removal project did not come before the council for approval. Michelson referred to a couple of laws that he said required a meeting of the council to declare an emergency and authorize spending but no meeting was held. He also noted that state law allows for the recovery of unauthorized expenditures by local government officials by holding them personally responsible. “I don’t think the taxpayer should pay for it. It was done without authority,” he said. Councilor Robin Holcomb expressed concern that the checks had already been written. Michelson noted that the meeting scheduled at which the council could have made the decision was cancelled by the Mayor. He claimed that too was a violation of the rules and that the
Mayor had no authority to cancel a council meeting either. Mayor Dewey asked, “Is your problem that we did not have an emergency?” Michelson said that the Mayor needed to call a special council meeting to have an emergency declared. “I most certainly have the authority to declare an emergency,” said Dewey. He said state law gives the “executive officer” of the town the authority to make a proclamation, to declare a local emergency and to issue orders. “So, I asked everybody to stay home so we could get the streets cleared and you wanted me to put your own safety at risk to call a special meeting and give 48-hour notice when we had snow falling and no place to put it? This absolutely sounds ridiculous,” said Dewey. Councilor Stacie Barker said, “You may say it’s ridiculous, but I’ll tell you in 1996 when we had snowfall this town never went under an emergency situation, we dealt with it. We dealt with the snow.” She said they never saw a contract, just a bill. Mayor Dewey said, “I sent you all an email telling you what I was doing and didn’t hear back from any of you.” Holcomb said, “Protocol is involved. When is this going to stop? You pretty much can’t do anything without Council approval. So, when do we start approving some of the things that happen in this town?” Dewey said that a snow removal budget was approved by the Council annually which restricts them, “except when it snows more than three feet.” In this case the expenditure was in the budget, he said. Barker said the bids for the contracts should have been brought to the Council. She accused him of “sliding it in under the carpet” and said the taxpayers should not be the ones to pay. “They are driving down See STEVI, page A11