T IMES
December 27, 2019
BAKER, MONTANA
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From the staff at the Fallon County Times
2019 Chronicles
January 4 -- Headline: 2018-19 Status report for Baker Lake upgrades. As part of Fallon County’s ongoing responsibilities for restoration and civic commitments to improve Baker Lake, the following represents what has been completed thus far and what is to be completed during early 2019. All restoration work except for wetland plug planting was completed by mid-October 2018. This wetland plug planting will be completed between May and July 2019. . .Madison Paige Reddick of Baker was recently sworn in as a Midshipman in the US Naval Reserve at the United States Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) at Kings Point, N.Y. Reddick was nominated by Senator Jon Tester. . . The
Commencement Ceremony for Class 39, of the Montana Youth Challenge Academy, was held on Dec. 15, 2018. Plevna student, Adam Beyers was among the graduates. . .Rob Stanton, Billings West (Class AA), and Jim Stanton, Billings Central (Class A), were both selected as “Coach of the Year” in football. Rob and Jim are Baker High School graduates. . . High temperature Dec. 30 was 40. Low temperature Jan. 1 was -19. . .Thirty-five Fallon County 4-H and FFA youth members weighed in forty-eight market steers on Dec. 28 at the Wang Family Ranch. All of the market steers that were weighed in are ranch raised here in Fallon County and ranged in weight from 498-875 pounds and the average being 664.5 pounds.
January 11 -- Two Baker High School teachers recently received grants to implement new educational programs at their school. Linda Rost and Diane Van Gorden earned Funding the Future grants from Continental Resources. Rost intends to use her grant to purchase supplies for an advance placement biology class, while developing an anatomy and physiology class for students interested in medical careers. Van Gorden will use grant funds to buy books and periodical databases for the school library. . .The Montana High School Rodeo season is starting off strong for several students from Baker this year, with Baker athletes trotting their way into the ranks. Brennan Graham is sitting at 17th place for all around boys and 4th in steer wrestling. In cowhorse Colton Turbiville is in 4th. Along with that, he also is in 11th in all around boys, 8th for team roping, 8th for calf roping and 2nd in cutting. Kyler Afrank is in 11th place in steer wrestling. Mattie Mastel is in 8th for all around girls, 8th for team roping, 11th in barrel racing, 5th in cowhorse and 4th in cutting. . .On Dec. 29, a mink was sighted in Rich Menger’s backyard. Minks are small mammals with long, thin bodies, short legs, pointed snouts and non-retractable claws. . . High temperature Jan. 6 was 49. Low temperature Jan. 8 was 10.
January 18 -- On Jan. 29 in New Orleans, La., Baker resident Wanda Braun Pinnow, the Secretary/Treasurer and the Legislative contact person for the Baker CowBelles, will be installed as the President of the American National Cattle Women (ANCW). . . Darby Bettenhausen, a Baker native and 2014 BHS graduate, has been chosen along with nine of her classmates from the University of Montana as an ambassador for the Global Grizzlies to Uganda in the summer of 2019. Global Grizzlies is a non-profit organization that has sent kids to work in hospitals in underprivileged countries for the past decade. . .Mid-Rivers Communications has agreed to sell its cellular network assets to Verizon. Included in the deal are the Mid-Rivers mobile wireless sites in areas where Verizon does not currently have coverage. Mid-Rivers’ retail cellular operations will end when the cellular network is turned over to Verizon sometime later this year. . .High temperature Jan. 10 was 49. Low temperature Jan. 9 was 7. . .The fifth annual Southeastern Montana Coyote Calling Contest held Jan. 4 - 5 had a great turnout. Forty-six teams competed for the top five places. A total of 48 coyotes were brought in during the 24 hour hunt. First place team was John, Jacob and Mark Rieger of Plevna with six coyotes. . . Congratulations to Pete Enos
See REVIEW Page 5
Retirement ends an era at Bank of Baker By Brad Mosher, Country Media
When the year 2020 starts, it will be the end of an era for the Bank of Baker. The bank will literally be losing one of its most public faces for more than 40 years. Patsy Schopp has been a part of the bank since the 1970s and has seen both the bank and the surrounding community change over the years. On Dec. 31, she will be retiring from the bank. She won’t be alone. The bank also has two directors retiring - Robert Neumann retired the end of 2018 and Leonard Leland in 2019. The two men have been with the bank for 27 years and Leland joined Schopp for a retirement open house at the bank Dec. 19 in Baker. Schopp started with the bank when Gerald Ford was the president of the United
States and has been there ever since. “I started as a secretary/ receptionist (in March 1975), in the loan department,” she recalled. “I did that for the first eight years. I was then promoted to assistant operations officer. In 1985, the cashier left and I assumed the duties that I have today.” She moved with the bank in 2012 to its current location. “I started in the building that was on the corner - it was the same street address, 116 South Main,” she added with a chuckle. “We are an independent bank. We don’t have any branches....This is it,” she explained. Over the years, the longtime Fallon County resident has seen changes, both inside the bank and in the local community. “Things are done very differently today. We used
have a lot of hands-on. You actually touched the checks in the processing procedure. Our world has really changed with the electronics and the digital world that is coming. “I remember the old style proof machine that had a full keyboard on the bottom and had bins above. The bookkeepers would physically take each check and put the account number and the dollar amount on it, and then they hand-sorted it to which bin it needed to go to. Years ago we returned checks to our customers. “It was quite a process. The bookkeepers got very fast at what they did and committed a lot of things to memory,” she added. “In today’s world, we (the bank) has a lot more paperwork. Things are more detailed but less hands-on because we have computers now that do things for us,”
she explained. Even though the bank has grown over the years in assets, it still hasn’t changed too much in the number of
people working there. “Now you need people because there are more and more regulations to comply with. We have probably about the same
number on the teller line that we had years earlier. Their duties may have changed some. When I first came to
See RETIREMENT Page 3
Knights of Columbus to recognize local women veterans at Americanism Program By Brad Mosher, Country Media
There is a military-style muster going on in Fallon County and eastern Montana, with a hope that all the women who have served their country from the area will be able to be recognized in a program planned for Jan. 28 at 7 p.m. at Longfellow School. It’s a search for women who are veterans or have served on active or reserve duty in the military who are from the region, according to one of the organizers for the event. Wayne Mangold, one of the officers of the Knights of Columbus in Baker, is hoping to find women veterans and family members interested in participating in an Americanism program planned for January. In addition, he is looking for the names of local women who had served in uniform in the past as well as the names of people who are now on active duty. “They can be from World War II, the Korean War all the way to those who are now in uniform. “I was intending for people to volunteer the information to me,” he said, noting that he has con-
TODAY’S FORECAST High: 34 Low: 20
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tacted the American Legion locally. “If someone in the county knew of a veteran who is deceased, I hope they would voluntarily give the name to me. I am seeking voluntary information,” he noted, adding he is not trying to get private information. “They can send me any information they can, about the living or deceased members from Fallon County, Wibaux County and Carter County. I just would like to list their names and when they served,” he said. Mangold said he wants to recognize their service in a talk he plans to give during the event. He noted that during World War II hundreds of women from the United States were sent to England to help handle all the mail which was being sent to the GIs in Europe. “They actually distributed the mail to wherever those soldiers served,” he said. “That was their job, but they were commissioned into the service as mailmen, basically,” Mangold noted, saying that it is just one of the ways that women have served in the past which
Files of the Times..............2 Villa Happenings..............3 Spartan Scroll...................6
See VETERANS Page 3 Cougar Tracks....................7 Upcoming Events..............9 Classifieds.......................13
MacKay winner of Baker Chamber promotion
The third winner of the Be A Winner! Shop In Baker! promotion, sponsored by the Baker Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture, was Laurie MacKay of Baker. She received $100 in Baker Bucks.
Fallon County Times Coloring Contest Winners Page 14
For up-to-the-minute news visit falloncountyextra.com We want to hear from you: See how to contact us on Page 2 Vol. 103 No. 52
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6th Annual SE Montana Coyote Calling Contest For more information call: Dustin @ 406-851-1932 January 3 & 4 Trevor @ 406-853-8587 Sign up Friday at The Corner C ome in and 5 - 7 p.m. • Landowners Welcome P lay -o ffs
watCh the with us !