By Jason Stuart

Ranger-Review Staff Writer

The Montana Department of Transportation has no concerns about the cracks which have appeared in the newly rebuilt intersection of West Towne Street and Highway 16.

Since the intersection was completed, several cracks have appeared in the new concrete at the intersection. Local drivers have taken notice of the cracks, commenting about them on local social media pages.

However, MDT District 4 Administrator Shane Mintz said he has no worries about the cracks or the overall quality and integrity of the new concrete at the intersection.

“There’s nothing there that we’re concerned with,” Mintz said. “You know, concrete cracks, that’s a fact. That was a pretty big pour, and there’s nothing here really out of the ordinary.”

Mintz said the project contractors actually took steps to control cracking during the project. He said standard practice is to make saw-cuts along the joints in the concrete “to try to control where it cracks,” but that on a slab of concrete that large, some cracking is common.

“Even with that, sometimes you get cracks that form on the joint,” Mintz said. “And that’s part of the contract, that when that happens, they saw-cut the cracks and seal them. It’s pretty common practice.”

Mintz said the appearance of the cracks to motorists is deceiving. He said the actual cracks themselves are really no more than one-sixteenth of an inch wide. The cracks appear much larger at the surface — up to three-quarters of an inch wide — because they are saw-cut into and then filled with sealant, Mintz said.

Mintz added that the intersection project is “pretty well finished” and noted that with the new traffic signal and the removal of the traffic island which was once there, the intersection should flow much more smoothly than it did before.

“At the end of the day, the intersection just functions a lot more efficiently than it did before and people won’t have to wait as long to turn,” Mintz said.

Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.

By Anthony Varriano

Ranger-Review Staff Writer

Tenants of the Manor Apartments in Glendive are being moved into adjacent town homes to save the Denver owners money on utilities.

Kayla St. John, the on-site manager of the Manor Apartments, said “vacancies are really high right now,” likely due to the decrease in oil drilling in the area. St. John added that there are just seven tenants in the Manor Apartments, and that she wished the local economy would pick up so they could fill vacancies. One of the apartment buildings was already empty, and another had just one tenant. All 40 apartments will be empty by the end of July. 

“We have one or two people costing thousands on water and power. It just made more sense to transfer people to one building and turn off the utilities,” St. John explained.

Tenants were given 30 days to make a decision regarding living arrangements. Melissa Dellamater was packing up her things when she agreed to speak to the Ranger-Review on Thursday, and although she had not renewed her one-year lease, she was pleased to hear her rent would not increase.

“I give them credit for that,” she said. “That’s a good deal.”

Rent at the Manor Apartments is $500 per month, and it’s $700 per month at the town homes, so the tenants will move into larger homes at the apartment rate. Tenants will, however, have to pay for water, which raises their expenses considerably.

Delamater expects to pay about $630 per month. She pays $50 extra in rent for having a cat and expects the new water bill to be around $80, but was most concerned about the water access fee, which she said was a one-time fee of over $100. Spread across one year, her expenses increase by an estimated $88 per month.

Clay Mercer decided against moving into the town homes, finding housing elsewhere. St. John suspects the competitive housing market will continue to affect tenancy.

“Everybody assumes these town homes are rundown because of the outside, but they’re actually in good shape,” St. John said while showing a unit. 

The owner, Jon Benallo of Denver, said there’s currently “no plan” for renovations of the apartments, and although St. John said Benallo’s “been trying to sell them for a while,” Benallo did not give an asking price. 

Reach Anthony Varriano at rrsports@rangerreview.com.

By Cindy MulletRanger-Review Staff Writer Establishing a sober living home in Glendive is a dream four local women hope to make reality in cooperation with Community GATE and its Prairie Development Center.Marie-Christine Lamphier, Dennise Schaffner, Debi Delamater and Gina Whittle said they saw the need for a place where addicts who are actively working on recovery could live and find support as they transition toward becoming responsible members of the community.The four began meeting at the end of last year to explore possibilities, Whittle said.While working as a counselor at WATCh East, Lamphier saw how hard it was for graduates who finished the six month rehab program to return home and implement what they had learned. They leave the facility and they have no support, she said.Seeing people she knows are struggling with addiction issues prompted Delamater to want to find another resource they could use to overcome their addiction. When they just go home again, it’s so hard for them to be successful, she said.There are other sober living homes in the state but most are in western Montana. The nearest to Glendive are The Lighthouse Recovery Home in Miles City and Irma House in Billings, Lamphier added.As they began looking at sites for a home and at what they would need to do to establish the program, they decided to contact Community GATE to see if they could come under its non-profit status and perhaps find a place for participants in the program to live on the second floor of the PDC, Lamphier said.Community GATE (Giving Assistance Towards Employment) was established in 1996 to address welfare reform. The goal of Community GATE has always been to help people get on their feet again, board member Bruce Smith explained so, when board members were approached about assisting with the sober living home project, responding with an affirmative answer was easy.“It seemed like a no-brainer for us,” he said.When the PDC was purchased plans were made to remodel the offices on the second floor of the building and use them as a dorm facility for students in a culinary program offered through Dawson Community College. Those plans were never realized and board members decided to go ahead with the remodeling but to use the space as transitional housing for people in need, he said.Along with the PDC, Community GATE also sponsors the Farm to Table store, the commercial kitchen, the Saturday farmers’ market and the Western Trails value-added food business. Plans to restart recycling services are also in the works. These programs would provide volunteer opportunities for sober living home residents, Smith noted.Community GATE people have been wonderful to work with, Lamphier said, noting that when people do damage to the community by such activities as selling drugs or driving drunk, giving back to the community through volunteering is part of the recovery progress.When the home opens, strict rules will be enforced, Delamater said. Residents will have to be drug and alcohol free. They will need to find employment, pay rent, attend meetings and volunteer in the community. Random drug tests will be given.“Safety will always be the number one concern,” she said.In looking for participants, the organizers will be working with WATCh East, local probation officers, District II Drug and Alcohol, Alcohol Anonymous meetings and church groups sponsoring recovery programs, she said, adding that everyone they have contacted has been very supportive.Plans call for an AmeriCorp Volunteers in Service to America participant to join the effort at the end of August to help with planning and organizing. The volunteer would also live in the facility, she noted.In establishing the sober living home program, they hope to change some of the stereotypes of addiction. It is important to realize that everyone is touched by addiction at some point, either personally or through the experience of a friend or family member, Lamphier said.Addiction is not just the addict’s problem, it is a community problem and the community needs to be part of the remedy, she added.“People see addiction as so negative,” Delamater said, noting, “I see it as brokenness.”Establishing the home will take a huge commitment from everyone involved and help from anyone willing to be a mentor or willing to help with fund-raising and planning will be welcomed, she added.Reach Cindy Mullet at crmullet@midrivers.com.

By Ranger-Review Staff

Baseball season may have wrapped up for most local teams, but there is one more event that will get baseball players and fans back to the ballpark in August and will raise money for a good cause as well.

The Second Annual Gary’s Game is scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 7 at at 4 p.m. at Whipkey Field. A home run derby will begin at 3 p.m.

Gary’s Game was started to honor one of Glendive baseball’s biggest fans, Gary Quinn, last year when he was battling cancer. Gary’s wish to see one more game was realized last August when players came together for a fun day of baseball. 

Sadly, Quinn lost his battle in November 2015.

Because last year’s event was such a positive experience for all involved, organizers, including Gary’s daughter Chrissy Holley, wanted to see the event continue. When many people expressed their desire to be involved, the second annual event was planned.

This year’s game will help many people in Glendive who are battling cancer. The funds raised will go to the Glendive Community Cancer Fund, a 501c(3) non-profit organization that helps people in the area that have been diagnosed with cancer. 

Gary’s Game will include a nine-inning baseball game with lots of fun twists. 

The fundraiser is already proving to be a huge success.

Almost $4,000 has been raised in just inning sponsorships, with most businesses and individuals donating $100 per inning in memory of loved ones who they have lost to cancer. Nine innings have four sponorships each.

If you have sponsored an inning for Gary’s Game please send your check or cash to: GCCF, PO Box 1144, Glendive, MT 59330 or drop off to Verna Baisch at Stockman Insurance in Glendive.

The year’s event will include a silent auction which will begin at 3 p.m. and end during the seventh inning. Several items have already been donated, but more are welcome. Friday is the deadline for donating.

Each of the 48 players will purchase their uniform shirt with proceeds from the sale going to the fundraisers.

Shirts for those attending the game are also available for purchase before the game. Contact Chrissy Holley at 939-2066 to preordered a shirt. The cost is $20 with the majority of that going to the fund raiser. 

Concessions will be served beginning at 2:30 p.m. Taco in a bag, cookies and water will be available for a free will donation.

The day will also feature a home run derby sponsored by the coaches of the Glendive Blue Devil Baseball team are sponsoring a home run derby. 

They have offered up prizes for 1st ($100 Jock Stop Gift Card) and 2nd place ($50 Jock Stop Gift Card.) There will be a $5 entry fee per player. Only those participating in the Gary’s Game are eligible to compete.

The derby will start at 3 p.m. Those planning to participate should be at Whipkey Field by 2:30 to get signed up if you would like to participate.

Forty-eight Glendive current and past Babe Ruth Baseball players have signed up to play. 

The teams are as follows:

Cancer Slayers – Coach Tate Stortz, Coach Cody Cullinan, Coach Jim Mires, Basil Crisafulli, Tyler Clapp, Dalton Nicholson, Karsen Kelly, Dillon Cullinan, Dalton Larsen, Jayden Holley, Clayton Mattern, Dalton Emerson, Pat Roe, Cade Dockter, Lane Walker, Ben Stortz, Cash Lakin, Isaiah Jones, Kobe Begger, Jameson Crisafulli, Kade Hellman, Wyatt Buxbaum, Logan Handran, Kirby Basta, Tyson Mattern  Josh Hoffer and Anthony Lopez

Cancer Crushers – Coach Brent Diegel, Coach Jim LeProwse, Coach Alex Rivas, Nelson Crisafulli, Avery Holley, Jake Rieger, Jacoby Mattern, Gunnar Garpestad, Trenton Lambert, Andy Powell  David Skerritt, Dalton Kwasney, Keegan Mires, Connor James, Kadyn Deckert, Taylor Conrad, Adrian Valenciano, Logan LeProwse, Caden Nerison, Cody Weinberger, Jacob Marley, Pat Schwartz, Sean-Daniel Reese Taylor, Jory Opp, Jacob Burman, Cade Knoll, Jack Toomey-Stone and Cody Rossi

Stop down at Whipkey Park Aug. 7 and enjoy one last game of baseball this summer while helping raise some funds for a good cause.

By Jason Stuart

Ranger-Review Staff Writer

A dearth of rainfall over the last several weeks in the Yellowstone River’s headwaters and upstream tributary basins has brought the river to near historic low levels, impacting businesses from agricultural producers to public utility companies.

As of Friday morning, the National Weather Service’s river gauge recorded a river level of 42.24 feet in Glendive. That level ranks as the seventh lowest on record in Glendive. 

At Miles City, the river is even lower. The river gauge there recorded a level of 2.46 feet Friday morning. That ranks as the second lowest reading ever recorded in Miles City. The all-time record low was 2.2 feet, set in December 1949.

More noteably in Glendive, the river’s flow rate was recorded at 2,950 cubic feet per second on Friday, the lowest measurement for that date in 30 years, according to the United States Geological Survey. The 30-year average flow rate for the Yellowstone River on Aug. 5 at Glendive is 10,200 cfs.

All along the river, flows are at or near historic lows, from Yellowstone National Park to the confluence with the Missouri River. Upstream of Billings, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks has placed “hoot owl” fishing restrictions on the Yellowstone, as well as several of its major tributaries. Some upstream tributaries have been closed to fishing altogether.

On the lower Yellowstone, anglers have little to worry about, as unlike trout, the warmwater fish species inhabiting this stretch of the river don’t suffer when water temperatures rise as the level drops. 

But for irrigators and a major public utility, the impacts are palpable.

James Brower, manager of the Lower Yellowstone Irrigation Project, was out at the Intake diversion dam Friday morning with a rocking crew placing more rock atop the dam. It was the second time this week the LYIP was out placing rock on the dam.

“We rocked Monday, but the water dropped low enough since then that we had to come back out here and add more rock so we could have enough water to get our water right,” Brower said.

Todd Tibbetts, president of the Buffalo Rapids Irrigation District No. 1, said the district’s irrigation pumps are humming along, but the low water levels do place added stress on them.

“The lower that the water level gets to the pumps, they have to suck much harder and they lose performance,” Tibbetts said. “It just makes things a little harder.”

Tibbetts noted that Buffalo Rapids has some equipment they can put out in the river to divert more water to their pumps when the river reaches critically low levels. He said they haven’t had to do so yet, but are standing by and ready for the possibility.

“It’s definitely been an issue for any farmer pumping out of the river now,” Tibbetts said. “We haven’t seen water levels this low in quite some time. It definitely poses some real challenges. The farmers are getting water, but it’s creating some issues.”

Further downstream in Sidney, the low water levels forced Montana-Dakota Utilities to completely shut down their Lewis and Clark Power Plant on Thursday afternoon. The water level is so low that the plant’s intakes in the river were starting to suck air, which MDU spokesman Mark Hanson said could damage the plant’s equipment. 

Hanson noted that neither he nor anyone else at MDU can recall any previous time that the plant had to be shut down due to low water levels in the Yellowstone. 

Sidney area MDU customers aren’t currently being affected, as Hanson noted the company has other sources of power they’ve been able to reroute to the community for the time being. However, MDU has made an emergency authorization request to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to bring in additional pumps on shore with intake hoses run out deeper into the river channel in hopes of getting the plant back online as soon as possible.

“Long term, it could create issues, but in the short term, we have ways we can work around it,” Hanson said of the plant being down.

One important river water user not being impacted is the City of Glendive. Assistant Public Works Director Pete Leath said that fortunately, the intake to the city’s water treatment plant is situated in a deep channel some 14 feet below the surface.

“Thank goodness that’s true,” Leath said. “We’re real fortunate that way that we have an intake structure that’s quite a ways down.”

The reason why the river is so low is simple, according to Tanya Fransen, meteorologist in charge of the weather service’s Glasgow reporting station. Rainfall along the river’s upper reaches and upper tributary basins has been scant, especially over the last couple of months. Billings, she noted as an example, had its driest June on record this year, falling over 3 inches short of normal rainfall for the month.

“So that’s a problem,” Fransen said. “Pretty much anything south of the Yellowstone River has been below 90 percent (of normal precipitation) and there are even a few places that are in the 25 to 50 percent of normal range over the last two months.”

That situation has worsened over the last two weeks, Fransen noted, especially at the river’s headwaters.

“There are places in Yellowstone National Park over the last two weeks that haven’t even seen 10 percent of normal rainfall,” she said. “The last two weeks are the telling picture, because we haven’t had a lot of precipitation in the basin.”

The river is a little better off at Glendive than other gauge locations simply because from Dawson County to the east, rainfall has been much more plentiful, adding water to the river via local creeks and other smaller tributaries. Glendive just had its 11th wettest July on record, and Fransen noted that Glasgow, as another example, is some 200 percent above their normal precipitation level for the year to date.

“We are feeding the basin from Miles City into North Dakota,” she said.

And as a further silver lining, Fransen said the weather service doesn’t expect the Yellowstone to get much lower than it already is.

“The good news is the six to 10 day and eight to 14 day climate outlooks do show above normal precipitation across Eastern Montana,” Fransen said. “I don’t see things worsening a whole lot. Overall, for the river, it should be returning eventually to more of a normal flow.”

Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.

By Anthony Varriano

Ranger-Review Staff Writer

Sandy and Charles Blitzer have cycled Europe together five times, but this summer they’re seeing the nation from a tandem bicycle on a coast-to-coast tour via the Lewis and Clark Trail.

Charles, an orthopedic surgeon for 32 years, got interested in taking the trip after learning a patient of his, Tod Roger, had written a book about cycling the Yellowstone Trail. The book is titled “Bicycle Guide to the Lewis & Clark Trail.”

“We decided we better do it before we’re too old,” Charles said, and Sandy added that she was excited to get her national park pass, which “we’ll get to cash in” at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in Medora.

Charles said Adventure Cycling in Missoula has Glendive on a major route for many cyclists, but unlike the many cyclists coming through Glendive on the trail, the Blitzers don’t have an agenda or cause. They’re just in it for the people and the scenery, Sandy said.

“We happened at Pompey’s Pillar on the day they were holding Clark Day, which was complete serendipity … and they had a little reenactment going, so that was fun,” Sandy said. “It’s a great way to see some of the Badlands, which we haven’t seen before.”

Sandy and Charles visited Makoshika State Park on Wednesday morning, saying it was “beautiful” and “unique topography,” but their favorite part of the trip is their conversations with strangers. In Fallon, a woman at Huber’s found out the Blitzers hadn’t eaten and started feeding them her lunch.

“We’ve met a lot of local people, and that’s really the appeal of a lot of this, is just people that are friendly and interested in what we’re doing and want to sit and chat,” Charles said.

“It’s really been affirming that we are all human, all Americans, and that’s really what I think people need to come back to,” Sandy added. “Most of us are in the middle … and that part’s been good to see, that people can have divergent opinions and be civil.”

The Blitzers are traveling about 65 to 70 miles per day, but North Dakota presents some difficulties due to the lack of places to stay along their route, so the days on the bike will get longer. The 3,500-mile trip started in Seaside, Ore., and ends 10 miles east of the Blitzer home in Durham, N.H. 

Reach Anthony Varriano at rrsports@rangerreview.com.

By Daniel Nolker

Ranger-Review Staff Writer

This August, like every year since he left home, Bloomfield native Kirk Boese came back from the Twin Cities to help his father harvest wheat. However, during this trip home he will not only be behind the wheel of a combine. This year Dawson County residents will see him where he is most comfortable: behind his turntables. 

DJ Kirk, as Boese is known on stage, will perform his electronic dance music at the Dawson County Fair on Thursday, Aug. 11 and during the Badlands Boardfest on Friday, Aug. 26. 

“It really worked out good. I love harvest and being back, so it’s great that I can share my music too while I am here,” Boese said.

Although he has been fully dedicated to making a career out of his music since 2013, this year has been particularly pivotal. After he was noticed by Nashville producer David Thulin, Boese made his first EP titled Awakening in May and signed a distribution deal with Dream Records from Los Angeles. 

He is slated to complete three more projects in the next two years including a second EP expected to be released in early February. 

Success may be relatively new for DJ Kirk, but his passion for being a DJ is not. Inspired by a DJ performance he saw in 2004, he researched what the music was and how to get started. 

“I looked it up on the dial-up internet we had and I knew it was something I had to try. Nowadays any kid can be a DJ, but back then you had to have the real thing: turntables, records and the whole setup. I went to my parents: first to mom, the soft sell, and then to dad, the hard sell. They agreed to let me get started and I loved it,” Boese said. 

However, Boese did not instantly fall into a career as a DJ of electronic dance music. After attending Dickinson State University for communications, he had a job selling RVs in Dickinson when he realized it was time to pursue his passion for music. After several years with only moderate success, he finally broke into the industry and now things are moving in a good direction quickly, he said.

“I’ve had some lean times. Those first few years I drove as far as my vehicle would take me and worked as much as I could. This year I’ve started seeing more things and I’m really catching my stride. That is a big part of what this first album is about. It talks about the growth of both me as a person and an artist. All the stories in my life shape who I am today, the good, the bad and the ugly,” Boese said. 

 Another important part of his music is his relationship with God, he added. Feeling called to the ministry when he was 16, music is the way he reaches out to youth and how he shares his testimony. By putting on a party and celebrating what God is doing in their lives, people both young and old can get closer to God, he said. 

“My experiences, especially the lean years, taught me how much God was doing in my life. I like to share with youth that when God has a plan in your life, all you have to do is focus on your character and build good work habits,” Boese said.  

For him, those work habits were learned on the family farm and he gets a refresher course at home every harvest season. 

Even though late summer is a time he could be out touring and building his fan base, it is still important to him to come back and help bring in the crops. 

“I pass up wedding gigs in the month of August but it is the least I can do for my parents who were such a big blessing and encouragement when no one else believed in me,” Boese said. “I have a great appreciation for the hard work on the farm and an even greater appreciation for how my dad handled it all these years.”

Reach Daniel Nolker at daniel.nolker@gmail.com.

By Jason Stuart

Ranger-Review Staff Writer

The Montana Department of Revenue has released the market and taxable values for the current fiscal year, and Dawson County and the City of Glendive have seen little change in either over the previous fiscal year.

The DOR supplied the city and county with the taxable values last week, which local governments use to set their budgets.

The total property market value in Dawson County nearly has increased by about $16 million over last year. Last year, the total property value was estimated at $1,018,109,773. For this fiscal year, the total value of property in the county is estimated at $1,034,885,891.

The total taxable value for county property this fiscal year is $24,556,826 an increase of less than $1 million from last year’s total of $23,637,642. That figure places the value of a single county mill for this year at $24,556, less than a $1,000 increase over last year’s mill value of $23,637.

With those values, Dawson County is authorized to collect up to 125.5 non-exempt countywide mills, along with 32.51 mills for county roads. Those totals do not include voted mill levies, permissive mill levies (levies collected for public employee health insurance, pensions, etc.) or mill levies which only apply to certain districts, like the rural fire district. 

In the past, the county has typically levied its maximum authorized mills, but County Clerk Shirley Kreiman noted that the county did not do so last year. She said at present, it is unclear whether the county will levy the maximum number of mills this fiscal year, saying “we are crunching numbers.”

Within the City of Glendive, the new DOR appraisals place the total market value of property in the city at $370,037,323. That’s an increase of just over $4 million from last year’s appraisal of $366,627,802.

The total taxable value for the city is $7,577,370, an increase of just over $135,000 from last year’s taxable value. The value of a city mill for this fiscal year will be $7,577, only $336 more than last year’s figure of $7,441.

The city is authorized to collect 222.01 non-exempt mills this fiscal year, according to Director of Operations Kevin Dorwart. In most years, the city does not collect all the non-exempt mills it is authorized to, typically leaving about 30 or so mills on the table. 

Dorwart noted that the city council “did cut into that a bit last year” to help fund the purchase of a new fire truck. He said it’s unclear at this point whether the city will again leave quite a few mills uncollected or take closer to the maximum amount.

“I don’t know, that’ll be up to the council,” he said.

The city and county typically finalize their budgets for the current fiscal year by the end of August.

Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.

By Mary Elizabeth Grue

For the Ranger-Review

The 17th Annual Ranch Rodeo held on Aug. 7 at the Prairie County Fairgrounds, was the first rodeo that a young engaged couple from Spain has ever been to.  Guadalupe Guerra and Jose Moreno pedaled into Terry from New York City in time for the last one or two events of the rodeo. 

This was not exactly the plan, but they were pleased for the unexpected adventure.

Guadalupe and Jose are from the northwest part of Spain, the city of Vigo, the county of Pontevedra.

They had been neighbors since childhood and became friends when they were 16 years old. Their friendship has been blossoming over 14 years.  

“I loved bikes since I was a child,” described Moreno, about his passion for cycling.

Guerra’s mother had bought her a bicycle that she thought was too big, so she didn’t think she liked bicycling.  

“One day I asked her to go bicycling and I looked at her bike and it was normal, it was the correct size for her.   When she would ride she had pain in her arms and legs and this is normal when you first begin biking,” explained Moreno. “We’ve been riding together ever since.”

The couple flew into New York City with their bicycles on May 1. The couple traveled from New York City to Albany, along the Hudson River, then onto Canada, Lake Erie, crossed into Detroit, Michigan, and then crossed Lake Michigan by ferry to Wisconsin.  From Wisconsin they traveled to Minnesota, then on to South Dakota, North Dakota and now they are in Montana, headed for Yellowstone Park.

Guerra has a Merida brand, a Cross Way model bicycle, which she bought new.   

“I replaced the fork for a better one, cranks, handle bars, brakes and derailleurs, I changed it all to better quality,” commented Moreno, of his work on Guerra’s bicycle.

Moreno has a Soma brand, American brand, Saga model bicycle.  He bought the frame second hand and built essentially a new bike. 

The sheriff in Glendive told them that Terry had a campground. Once in Terry, they pedaled around the town and saw the people at the fairgrounds and wondered what was going on and that is how they ended up at the 17th Annual Ranch Rodeo.

They were impressed with the trailer loading event.  

“The rodeo was nice, beautiful but also hard work, it’s useful, the ability to do this work on the ranch,” Guerra said.

“A girl on the team was nice,” added Moreno.  

Both noticed the steers and heifers did not kick the cowboys or try to gore them as the bulls in Spain do. 

“The bulls try to charge you or gore you with their horns,” Moreno said.  

“The cows stay together and looks like they are protecting themselves and the cowboys and cowgirls release the rope right away and don’t try to hurt the cow,” Guerra noted.

Moreno is a forklift operator for a family business and this makes it possible for him to travel for months at a time and Guerra sells insurance and has partners, so that helps her to free up her schedule to travel.  

Guerra also commutes to work five days a week on a bicycle. On the weekends they both ride bikes.

While in Las Vegas the couple plan to marry. On Oct. 24 they will fly out of Los Angeles back to Spain.  

The two have a blog for their families to read and to let them know the pair of cyclists are doing OK during their Canadian and American adventure.  

The blog address is www.lupeyjota.com.

By Jason Stuart

Ranger-Review Staff Writer

Pending city approval, Merrill Avenue will be reconfigured from a four-lane to a three-lane street sometime in the coming years.

The Montana Department of Transportation has delivered the findings from its traffic study of Merrill to city officials with the recommendation that Merrill be changed from four lanes to three over its entire length. The city Streets Committee got their first look at the study findings Tuesday evening.

City officials appeared pleased with the results. Though Merrill is a state-owned road, it was the city which approached MDT two years ago and asked them to perform the study.

“I think the study is very thorough,” said Mayor Jerry Jimison. “I think their recommendation ... would be very beneficial to the downtown area.”

While the crux of the MDT proposal is changing Merrill to a three-lane road — two through lanes with a center turning lane — reconfiguring the street will also entail several other features.

For one, MDT is proposing to completely change the intersection of Merrill and Douglas Streets. MDT’s recommended proposal for the intersection would drastically alter the traffic patterns at that intersection, as it would eliminate through traffic on Douglas crossing Merrill. Under the recommended alternative, drivers headed either direction on Douglas would only be able to make right turns at the intersection.

However, MDT did note in the study that by 2020, a traffic signal would be warranted at the Merrill-Douglas intersection. Given that the redesign of the street is likely about five years or so out, that may impact which of the proposals for the intersection the city chooses.

Another major feature in the plan is the addition of  5.5-foot wide bicycle lanes running down each side of Merrill for its length. The potential to add additional pedestrian safety features, including new connecting walking paths in some places, is also noted in the study. 

Jen Fladager with Building Active Glendive (BAG) told the Streets Committee the group was pleased with the study and will likely be pursuing grants to help tie in more walking/biking paths with the street reconfiguration project. BAG had applied for a grant to improve the pedestrian access down the north end of Merrill two years ago, but was denied, primarily due to right-of-way issues.

“BAG is quite excited about it,” Fladager said. “It solves several issues for us. This would simultaneously solve the encroachment issue and make it safer to walk.”

The plan was met with some concerns by members of the public, however.

Karrol Heuther, co-owner of Guns ‘N Things, asked how snow removal would be handled on a three-lane Merrill, noting that at present, the snow plows generally pile the snow in the middle of the street. She noted that would not be practical with a center turning lane.

Public Works Director Jack Rice said that the subject had come up in discussions with MDT, but could not recollect their precise solution.

“I think (the snow) was still going to the center but then removing it immediately,” Rice said.

Peggy Iba questioned how safe reconfiguring the road would be, noting in particular the increasing size of trucks on the road. She said her car had recently been struck along Merrill when she opened her door to get in by a large dually truck that had sideview mirrors which stuck way out from the chassis.

“For safety, I think going to three lanes rather than four might be a big safety issue,” Iba said.

Christine Whitlatch, director of the Glendive Chamber of Commerce, asked the committee members if downtown business owners could have a chance to sit down with city and MDT officials to discuss how they might be impacted — or even potentially benefit — with the street reconfiguration. Specifically, with the traffic lanes being narrowed, Whitlatch questioned if there would be any opportunity for businesses on the west side of Merrill to add outdoor space to their storefronts with things like patios, parklets or other features.

The committee indicated that they would be happy to hear suggestions from the downtown business owners. However, after the meeting was over, Rice, when questioned about the feasibility of granting businesses additional outdoor space, sounded a note of skepticism. He noted that the storefronts of the buildings downtown are built right on the property line, so for a business to try to create an exterior extension to their storefront — even after the street reconfiguration — would encroach on a state-owned right-of-way

“I don’t think they can do that, they’d be encroaching on MDT right-of-way,” Rice said.

Tuesday marked the very first look city officials got at the study, so discussion by committee members was minimal. Their next step is to take the study, look it over thoroughly, then bring it to the full city council to accept or reject the overall recommendation as well as the various different alternatives in it. 

Jimison asked the committee members to act quickly.

“The quicker we get it approved, the quicker it gets in the MDT food chain,” Jimison said, adding he’s been told the project is likely five to seven years from getting started. “I’m trying to get it done in my lifetime. That was my request to the highway department.”

Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.

By Jason Stuart

Ranger-Review Staff Writer

The City of Glendive is prepared to accept a bid for street paving work this fall, and the winning bid is low enough that the city may be able to add additional city blocks to the list of those already scheduled for paving.

On Tuesday, the city Streets Committee recommended that the full city council award the paving contract to High Country Paving of Belgrade. High Country’s bid for the project — which will overlay 22 city blocks with fresh pavement — is just over $408,000.

That’s quite a bit less than the other two bids the city received for the project. The cost of the asphalt and overlay work itself is also considerably less than what the city has had to pay for similar work in recent years. 

Public Works Director Jack Rice said the milling cost in the bid package, at $2.75 per square yard, is about two-thirds less than what the city has become accustomed to over the last few years. He also noted that the $84 per ton cost for hot mix asphalt in the bid proposal is “pretty good” compared to the $100 per ton the city typically expects to pay.

Since the winning bid wouldn’t eat up Rice’s entire overlay budget, it leaves room to squeeze a few more blocks into this fall’s paving program. If the city council approves High Country’s bid Tuesday, he can begin negotiating a change order with them to add blocks to the contract, a subject he has already broached with the company.

“I haven’t negotiated anything formally with him yet, but in general conversation, he said he could honor those prices if we stayed in the same area of town,” Rice said.

All of the blocks currently in the bid package are in the Prospect Heights neighborhood and the historic central residential area, so any additions would be in those same areas. As for what other streets might be added to those already on the list, Rice said he is not certain yet, but did say he is “looking pretty hard at five to six blocks of Kendrick.”

Already included as part of the bid package are portions of Cooke, Clay, Sigmund, Gresham and Borden streets, along with portions of River, Prospect and Meade avenues. The entire lengths of Brennan and Relf streets from Merrill Avenue to River Avenue are also part of the package.

Rice also noted the city is in the middle of finalizing its budget for this fiscal year, which could give him “a little more money in my overlay budget” than he already has to work with. That would enable him to add a few more blocks to this fall’s paving schedule, he said, adding that he hoped to add something in the “five to 10 block range” to the paving contract.

With that, Rice noted the city would make significant headway in its street paving needs.

“That would be a nice chunk of town that we hopefully don’t have to worry about for the next 10 to 20 years,” he said.

Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.

By Jason Stuart

Ranger-Review Staff Writer

A West Glendive man is in custody following what authorities say was a plan on his part to stage a firefight with police as a means of committing “suicide by cop.”

Vicus T. Whittle, 37, has been charged with assault on a peace officer, with the possibility of more charges pending, according to Dawson County Sheriff Ross Canen. Whittle is a native of South Africa who holds dual U.S. and South African citizenship.

After Whittle’s arrest on Friday, Aug. 5, deputies found a virtual arsenal in Whittle’s home and signs of painstaking preparations on his part to engage in a gun battle with law enforcement.

Canen said Whittle first came to his department’s attention about three weeks ago with comments he made to a deputy who had come to serve him with civil papers. Canen said Whittle told the deputy that he would “be ready for us in the future,” which gave the deputy cause for concern.

Canen said his department started following Whittle’s posts on social media out of concern. He said they were aided by notifications from some of Whittle’s friends and acquaintances, who notified deputies about some of the disturbing messages they were seeing from Whittle. 

Canen said over the course of the past three weeks, Whittle’s social media posts became more “dark and disturbing.”

“Some of his mantra was suicide and some of it was I want to die in a gunfight,” Canen said. “It came to a head last Friday, and we decided to act before it went any further.”

Deputies were dispatched to Whittle’s house at 115 3rd Street in Highland Park. When Whittle came out to speak to the deputies, he had a handgun visible in his waistband. Canen said he did not brandish the firearm, but also refused to surrender it. Whittle attempted to retreat back into the house, but Canen credited his deputy for getting between Whittle and the door so he couldn’t, which Canen said possibly saved lives.

“I think if he had got back in the house it would have been game on for him,” he said.

A scuffle then ensued, with the deputy suffering minor injuries. Whittle had to be tased to be subdued.

It wasn’t until later, however, when deputies returned to the house to search it, that they realized just how big of a bullet they had dodged.

Canen said the home had been prepared as a veritable fortress. Deputies recovered 12 firearms — including handguns, long rifles and assault rifles — all locked and loaded and “strategically placed at every possible entrance.” They also found possible bomb-making equipment, which Canen said he is consulting with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms about. 

Whittle had also stockpiled water, MREs, military-grade trauma kits and ballistic vests, Canen said. Deputies also discovered a “suicide/farewell video.”

Canen also noted that since the arrest, deputies have removed “two pickup loads” of ammunition from the house.

“He knew what he was doing,” Canen said of the preparations Whittle had made, adding that he has never seen anything quite like it. “We’ve had some dangerous situations over my 24 years in the sheriff’s office, but I’ve never seen it to this level of planning.”

Just what Whittle’s motives beyond possible suicide are remain unclear. Canen said that there “is a drug component to this” and added that they’re “still investigating every possible motive.”

What is clear, Canen said, is that by taking note of Whittle’s social media posts and with the help and cooperation of his friends and acquaintances, a potentially extremely violent and bloody incident was avoided.

“He was on our radar, but we had no idea of the extent of what he had planned,” Canen said. “And I think because we did a little preemptive intervention, we short-circuited his plans. I think it was a good thing we went out there Friday night.”

Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.

By Cindy Mullet

Ranger-Review Staff Writer

Reading a recent Glendive Ranger-Review feature about the Send a Boy to Montana program gave Kathy Benson new insight into a relationship her family has nurtured over the years.

Benson didn’t remember a lot about the program, but the family of one of the boys hosted by her parents, Floyd and Carolyn Boje, has remained an important part of the family’s life, she said.

Ed Helfrey was 11 years old when he came to stay with the Boje family for two weeks. During that time, a strong bond was formed between him and the Bojes. He returned home to Minneapolis but saved money from a paper route and with some help from her dad was able to come back to visit several other summers, Benson said.

During his high school years when he was old enough to work during the summer, Ed wasn’t able to travel to Montana, but he stayed in contact and the Bojes visited him in Minneapolis at least once. After he married, he brought his wife Barbara and their daughter to visit, she added.

When he was only 29, Ed died in a car crash on his way to visit the Bojes, but Barbara and their daughter maintained contact. The daughter is now married and still brings her family to visit, Benson said, noting that an aim of the program was to promote tourism and it certainly succeeded with Ed and Barbara’s family.

Shortly after Benson read the Send a Boy stories, she visited Barbara, showed them to her and suggested she write something about the impact the Montana experience had on her family, Benson said.

Barbara agreed and “respectfully and lovingly” submitted her thoughts and memories “to the Boje family and the towns of Glendive and Bloomfield and all who are lucky enough to call these two places home.”

Barbara and Ed had known each other all through high school, Barbara wrote, but she didn’t start noticing him until their senior year when he was class president, played on the football team, captained the tennis team and was co-captain of the wrestling team. He was also in numerous service organizations and was nominated to attend the Air Force Academy.

“I often teased him about waiting until the last minute to ask me out because we went on our first date the night we graduated from high school,” she wrote.

Soon after that first date, she started hearing Ed talk about the summers he spent in a town in Montana called Glendive and a farm just 30 miles north near Bloomfield. He told her how he had been chosen to be part of a program that gave young boys a chance to experience farm and ranch life out west. Ed was never quite sure why he was selected as he had two other brothers.

“Call it fate or whatever you want, had either of his brothers been chosen, I would not be writing this, and my life would look very different,” Barbara noted.

Ed always talked fondly about his host family and, even after graduating from high school, still sent them Christmas and Easter gifts every year. Two years after they started dating and the spring before Ed and Barbara married, the Bojes came to the Twin Cities for a farm conference and Ed wanted her to meet them.

“Of course I was nervous. I was about to meet two people who were like parents to him and whom he obviously held in high esteem,” she noted, adding, “I quickly discovered that I had nothing to fear. I found myself meeting two of the most loving, caring, down-to-earth, genuine people God put on this planet!”

The next spring Ed brought Barbara to Glendive to meet the rest of the family and see the farm that played such an important part in his life. It was on that trip that she fell in love with Montana and, more importantly, gained a new family, she said.

After that initial meeting they never lost contact with each other, sending hand-written letters, exchanging photos developed from film and buying and sending actual Christmas gifts since gift cards hadn’t been invented yet. Her brothers and sisters met her Montana family and the two families blended together.

“We have stayed close for more than 50 years,” she wrote. “We have cried together, laughed together, vacationed together and celebrated together.”

They held each other close when Ed passed away and when Benson’s mother was killed in a car accident. They celebrated marriages and the birth of babies and the birth of grandbabies.

“We have held each other close in good times and bad times, just like families do,” she wrote, adding, “All of this happened because of a program started in Glendive to help open the eyes of little boys to a world of opportunities, and because two caring people in the small town of Bloomfield, when asked to host one of these boys, said, ‘Yes.’”

Reach Cindy Mullet at
crmullet@midrivers.com

By Anthony Varriano

Ranger-Review Staff Writer

It’s no secret that home and real estate values in Glendive have been dropping and vacancies are high. According to Montana East Realty’s data, there are 75 to 80 homes for sale through real estate companies in the Glendive area, eight of which have been on the market for over a year, and many of which have seen prices drop recently.

According to Zillow.com, an online real estate marketplace, there were 91 homes for sale in the 59330 area as of Wednesday.

An 1,800-square-foot home on Chestnut Avenue in Glendive dropped to $49,000 on Aug. 12. It was originally listed at $165,000 in October 2014, according to information on Zillow.

A 500-square-foot home can be found for less than $43,000 now, but $52,500 can get you twice as many square feet, prices that were unheard of three years ago. 

Values of manufactured homes have fallen sharply as well. One on River Road Loop was last listed for $189,400 just a year ago. The price is now $130,000, a change of over 30 percent in just a year.

As far as values go, the last year has been hard on homeowners, especially with the amount property taxes increased as actual property values have dropped. 

An 806-square-foot home on East Barry Street saw its property taxes increase 202 percent in 2015, and the price has dropped 10.3 percent since April 5. A 3,136-square-foot home on East Thrush Lane in Glendive saw an increase in property taxes of 27 percent in 2015, yet the price dropped 7.7 percent just a month ago.

“They took a big drop the last six months of last year and the first six months of this year, but the market’s not bottoming out,” Montana East’s Tami Freas said. “It’s just stabilizing for supply and demand.”

Freas couldn’t definitively say how many houses were on the market this time last year because they “don’t track that,” but did say that it was probably a little more since “we were in full bust mode.”

“Our inventory has been low since 2010, and is now about back to normal. I’ve been a realtor for 20 years, and there were 65 to 70 houses up until 2010. Then we had between 20 and 30 for a few years there,” she explained.

According to Montana East’s data, 25 homes in Glendive have sold thus far in 2016, and nine are currently in escrow. 

Doris Zinger of Realty One said the housing market is “picking up a little bit,” adding that she also feels the values are leveling off.

“We’ve rebounded some. We have a lot more on our pending board than we did three months ago,” she said. “The ones that are still high-priced were bought two years ago when prices were high, so they can’t afford to sell for less.”

Lisa Kjelstrup of United Country Real Estate sees a similar pattern, and is even more optimistic about the housing market rebound.

“We’ve definitely taken a dip since last year. You’re seeing a minimum of a 20-percent drop, and on larger homes it could be even more than that,” she explained. “But in the last month we’ve had more people looking for homes and more sales than we’ve had all year, and this isn’t usually our busy season.”

Kjelstrup added the housing market hasn’t gotten as bad as expected and that it’s not as bad as it could be, adding that real estate values were expected to drop 40 to 50 percent last year.

“I’m from a town that’s a third of this size that has 300 houses for sale,” she said. “You usually have three agencies showing a total of 30 houses to people, and now you’re showing people 20 or 30 houses because there are 75 to 80 homes for sale.”

Kjelstrup infers from her clientele that the local economy is picking up steam and people are going back to work.

“We’re seeing BNSF looking for engineers and conductors … so that’s a positive,” she said. “It’s still a buyers market and there’s still a lot of houses out there. I’ve just been encountering better attitudes and more positivity.” 

Kjelstrup expects even more homes to be bought and sold after the presidential election in November.

Reach Anthony Varriano at rrsports@rangerreview.com.

By Jason Stuart

Ranger-Review Staff Writer

The Forest Park subdivision won’t be having its alleys graded anytime soon.

The Dawson County Commissioners announced at their meeting Tuesday night that they have decided to forego attempting to grade the subdivision’s alleys due to what they say are the complications and costs involved.

Instead, the commissioners said the county Road Department will bring in gravel to fill in potholes in the alleys.

Commissioner Doug Buxbaum said that after speaking with Road Department supervisor Joe Sharbono, they have determined that trying to grade the alleys would be problematic due to the high growth of weeds and other vegetation along them. They are concerned that sending a grader down them would till up that vegetation and much of it would end up in the alley, ultimately promoting weed growth in the alleys themselves.

“Joe looked at that situation out there, and I think he’s right, we’d do more damage than good out there if we tried to go in there and blade that,” Buxbaum said. “Joe advised us not to disturb that vegetation.”

“There’s too much vegetation,” added Commissioner Gary Kartevold.

The other major issue for the commissioners is the cost.

Back in July, the commissioners said they were going to pursue contracting out the alley grading in Forest Park because the Road Department’s grader is too wide to fit down the narrow subdivision alleys. But on Tuesday, they said after checking into that, the costs are more than they are willing to take on.

“The cost would be phenomenal,” Buxbaum said of contracting out the alley grading. “Joe checked into it, and the cost would be quite high. And we’d have to rent something, our blades don’t fit — there’s no way.”

The county actually would not accrue any costs directly. Whatever is done — even work done by the Road Department — the cost will come out of the Forest Park maintenance fund. 

Legally, the roads and alleys in the subdivision are not owned by the county, but rather by the subdivision residents, and each property owner is assessed an annual fee to contribute to their maintenance. Since the county does not own those alleys, the Road Department will be reimbursed for its time, materials and labor for the work out of the Forest Park maintenance fund.

Asked if the Forest Park maintenance fund had enough in it to cover the cost of hiring a contractor to grade the alleys, Buxbaum responded there probably would be, but it would not be in the best interest of the subdivision to drain that fund down too far.

“I’m sure there would be, but we don’t want to deplete that down when we could save money by having the Road Department do it,” he said.

So instead of grading the alleys, the commissioners instead intend to send the Road Department out with gravel to fill in potholes in the alleys. They said they believed that would appease most of the subdivision residents who have lodged complaints about the condition of the alleys.

“Most of the complaints have been about potholes, and we can fill those up,” Buxbaum said.

Kartevold added that it would be “quicker and cheaper” than hiring a contractor to grade the alleys.

The commissioners intend to send notices to Forest Park residents in the coming weeks giving them approximately 10-14 days to clean out any personal belongings from along the alleys prior to the Road Department arriving to do the gravel work. They did not have a start date for when that would happen, noting they would have to consult with Sharbono first.

Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.

By Jason Stuart

Ranger-Review Staff Writer

A lot full of seemingly abandoned frac sand bags which has been an eyesore along Highway 16 outside Glendive for the past couple of years is getting cleaned up.

District Sanitarian Kevin Pena said on Monday that he has seen a decent amount of progress in cleaning up the site over the last couple of months. 

“The lower two-thirds of the property is pretty well cleaned up,” Pena said. “The vast majority of it has been removed. It’s quite a bit different than what it used to be.”

Large piles of frac sand bags have cluttered the property for some time. Many of the bags had split open from being exposed to the elements, spilling frac sand all over the property and leaving shredded plastic littering the lot.

According to county records, Northern Improvement Company, a highway and heavy construction firm based in Fargo, N.D., has owned the lot, which sits along a rail spur along the highway near Hollecker Lake, since 1998. The lot is subsequently leased by John Walsh, of Bismarck, the president of LOTI II, LLC, to Houston-based Fila-Mar Energy Services, which handles ceramic and natural sand proppants in the Bakken. Walsh said in an interview in June that if the company he leases the lot to did not take action to remove the bags of frac sand, he would.

Pena first began receiving complaints about the property in August 2013. Complaints rose after the property was seemingly abandoned in late 2015 when an office and trailer were removed. Peña ultimately brought the issue to the attention of the Montana Department of Environmental Quality earlier this year.

As far as the DEQ is concerned, Peña  said the only environmental regulations being violated on the property are the bags of frac sand that have split open and spilled on the ground.

“Basically, where the solid waste violations are concerned are with the split open bags,” he said. “That’s what needs to be properly disposed.”

That’s what Peña  has seen cleaned up so far, at least at the one end of the property. However, he noted that there is still work to do.

“If you go to the north end of the property, it’s still a big pile of nastiness,” he said.

However, Peña  said that following his last conversation with DEQ enforcement officials, they are content to wait and see at the moment before taking any further regulatory action, given that progress has been made in cleaning up the spilled frac sand.

“We’re not going to give them the blessing it’s OK, but we’re not going to press them as long as they’re still progressing,” he said. “It’s a lot better, and I’m grateful for DEQ’s involvement there.”

Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.

By Jason Stuart

Ranger-Review Staff Writer

The Glendive City Council unanimously approved the preliminary city budget for Fiscal Year 2016-17 on Tuesday night.

The preliminary budget for this fiscal year is set at $19,363,372. That represents an increase of about $300,000 over last year’s budget of $19,095,057. Of the total, $9,086,257 is budgeted for non-salary expenses. The total includes $3,468,137 of salary expenses.

The amount of money the city will actually be collecting in property taxes is up slightly from last year.

The preliminary budget calls for a total mill levy of 190.46 non-exempt mills (which does not include permissive mill levies for health insurance). Last year that number was 182.94 mills. The city is authorized to levy up to 222.01 non-exempt mills this year, but per its custom is currently leaving some of its mills on the table. The total number of mills the budget proposes to levy, including the permissive medical levies, is 195.42.

At the current taxable values, the mills presently in the city budget will raise $1,492,628 in tax revenue for the city. Last year’s city mill levies collected $1,390,929 in property taxes.

As noted, the city typically leaves some 30 or so mills it is authorized to collect out of the budget, and there is usually little change between the preliminary budget and the final budget. 

Last year, however, the council voted in an additional 7 mills the night they approved the final budget — adding about $50,000 to it — in order to help fund the purchase of a new fire truck for the Glendive Fire Department.

While there was little discussion at Tuesday night’s council meeting prior to passage of the preliminary budget, Mayor Jerry Jimison did note that city Director of Operations Kevin Dorwart has requested that any suggested changes to the budget be delivered to him well before the council votes on its final passage.

“Prior to, you know, earlier than 10 minutes before we meet,” quipped Councilman Rhett Coon, who made the motion to add the last-minute budget amendment to last year’s budget.

The council will hold a public hearing on the proposed budget at 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 6 prior to the regular council meeting. The council will then vote on final passage of the budget following that hearing.

In other city business Tuesday night, the council unanimously voted to approve a new two-year contract with the Glendive Fire Department’s union. The contract calls for a 3 percent salary increase for the city’s four full-time firefighters this year and another 3.5 percent salary increase next year. The contract also stipulates that the city will increase its contribution to the firefighters’ health insurance premiums by $25 per month this year and by another $30 per month next year. The other major change in the contract is an increase in the probationary period for a newly hired firefighter, which has been increased from six months to one year.

Building Active Glendive member Peggy Iba also approached the council to clarify remarks she had made at the Aug. 9 meeting of the city Streets Committee. 

Iba noted that she had meant to convey to the committee that she was in favor of the Montana Department of Transportation’s proposal to reconfigure Merrill Avenue into a three-lane road. She said she had intended to say that she felt the three-lane configuration would increase safety by providing more space between parked cars and traffic and creating wider lanes for traffic to travel down.

Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.

By Jamie Ausk Crisafulli

Ranger-Review Staff Writer

Football fans should not  expect to purchase their popcorn at the new concession stand at the Red Devil football opener Sept. 2, which was the original completion date for the building.

But with the current timeline, hard work by the contractors and a little luck in the weather department, the concession stand and bathrooms should be ready by Dawson County High School’s Homecoming football game on Sept. 16, according Coon Construction’s Rhett Coon.

Waiting for new engineering plans gave the project a late start this summer. Coon said they had the final approved engineering plans in hand on July 1.

Since then, work on the concession stand building at the Oakland Athletic Complex has been as steady as concrete curing and material availability has allowed since early July, according to Coon.

“We’ve actually been moving pretty good. ... Basically we had eight to 10 weeks to build the thing, order the structural stuff so with the concrete cures times, we’ve got eight weeks of the process, and you have to let it cure, and process ...” he said.

On Thursday, workers focused on the outer foundation wall located near Kendrick Avenue and the meter pit where the water main connects and branches off for drain and irrigation lines. 

The floor trusses put in place over the weekend are part of a re-engineering process that was necessary when it was discovered the trusses originally planned would have taken 12 weeks to arrive. 

The masonry work on the structure is scheduled to  begin late next week or the following week, according to Coon, adding that he wants to have the outside of the building done by game time Sept. 2.

The concrete shell of the bottom level of the building, which will be used for storage, has been visible for some time. 

The area that will hold the concession stand and bathrooms will be added soon now that the floor trusses are in place.

In the late stage of the project, Coon noted that there will be fewer variables to contend with as far as things like material wait times. Work will get done based on the time put in by contractors.

Coon has looked to several local contractors for subcontract work on the project. Gordon Almond Construction, Yellowstone Plumbing and Dave Api are among the local contractors he expected to be part of the project. The masonry company with local ties was too booked up to help with the project, so Hill Masonry from Billings will be working on the project. Hill has donated around $35,000 in materials for the concession stand project.

The work completed on the project has so far been successful.

Coon said he just got the results back on some of the testing of the current work and noted they are “like 250 percent on all of our test results” that have been done at the construction site so far. 

“Some engineers in town have stopped by and looked at it and said if there is a tornado in town, this is the place they want to be,” Coon said. 

Reach Jamie Ausk Crisafulli at rreditor@rangerreview.com.

By Cindy Mullet

Ranger-Review Staff Writer

After hearing all the warnings about the Zika virus in Brazil, a missionary team from the Evangelical Church of Circle arrived in Cubatao, Brazil, asked about Zika and discovered no one there knew what they were talking about.

They were all prepared to ward off hordes of pesky mosquitoes, Rev. Bruce Inion, who led the team of 14 youth and adults, said, but during the 10 days they were in Brazil they only saw a couple mosquitoes. He was the only one who got bitten and he only had one bite.

The youth group from the Circle church started planning the mission trip at the beginning of last school year, Inion said. Aaron Brakefield, one of the missionaries the church supports, was working with church planting in Cubatao, a city with a population of around 130,000 located 35 miles south of Sao Paulo. He had invited them to come help with several work projects and do some ministry in the area.

Team members ranged in age from 12 to 44 and included four adults, two students starting college this fall and eight high school and middle school students. They worked hard throughout the year to raise money for the trip, he said.

There are no direct flights from Billings to Sao Paulo, Brazil, but after 17 hours in the air they arrived and set up camp in a local church, Vida em Cristo, or Life in Christ, he said.

The area around the church was a very high crime area. A month before they left Montana, team members learned the church had been broken into and its sound system had been stolen. They were able to bring replacement equipment for the church and help install it while they were there, he said.

Because of the high humidity in Cubatao, mold and mildew are big problems. The team did a lot of scrubbing and some painting at the church but the primary emphasis of their time in Brazil was establishing relationships, he explained.

They visited children living in the favelas around Cubatao and interacted with students in a couple English schools. Although they didn’t speak Portuguese, many of the people they met knew or were learning English and were eager to communicate with them, he noted.

Even when they couldn’t talk to each other, the youth on the team and the local youth still managed to build relationships. It was exciting to see them playing card games together and watching the Brazilians teach them new clapping games and dances.

“They were able to communicate love and acceptance even without knowing the language,” he said, adding that the trip was not about work or projects but about relationships.

“We can do a whole ton of work … but at the end of the day, it’s all about people,” he emphasized.

The team arrived in Brazil on the night of the opening ceremonies for the Olympics. They weren’t able to attend any Olympic events but they got caught up in Olympic fever, and one of the soccer tournaments was hosted in the town where they were staying, he said.

Everyone came back with Brazilian t shirts and team members have been cheering on the Brazilian soccer team, he added.

On their first Sunday back in Circle, team members shared their photos and experiences with the church. It was easy to see how much the experience had impacted their lives, he said, adding that at the end “there was not a dry eye in the place.”

Reading about missionaries and their work, receiving their prayer letters or hearing them talk about their experiences is much different than actually walking with them for a few days and seeing what they contend with, he said.

Perceptions dramatically change when people step out of their comfort zone and experience a new culture, he added, encouraging others to take steps to build relationships with people from other cultures.

Reach Cindy Mullet at
crmullet@midrivers.com

By Jason Stuart

Ranger-Review Staff Writer

It’s a long way from the steel and concrete canyons of New York City to the back canyons of Montana, but for the Museum of the Rockies’ Dr. John Scannella, there’s no other place he’d rather be than the fossil-laden wilds of Big Sky country.

Scannella, 37, was born and raised in the New York borough of Queens. His childhood love of dinosaurs ultimately brought him to Montana State University, however, where he did his graduate school work under the tutelage of former MOR Curator of Paleontology Dr. Jack Horner. Now, with Horner’s recent retirement, Scannella finds himself holding the reins once held by his mentor and the world’s most famed paleontologist.

After Horner’s retirement earlier this summer, the MOR named Scannella to his position as the Interim Curator of Paleontology starting July 1. At present, Scannella is in Glendive on his first major dig since being named to the position, excavating a triceratops from Makoshika State Park.

Scannella, who was the MOR’s Paleontology Collections Manager from 2013 up until the time of Horner’s retirement, said he wasn’t expecting to be named interim curator and “had no idea” the museum board would choose him. 

At the dig site on Aug. 17, Scannella said he found the opportunity “exciting” and noted that it was somewhat fitting that his first major excavation after being named to the position was a triceratops.

“It’s kind of cool, because my research with Jack (Horner) was a lot about transitions (of how triceratops developed and evolved over time), and interim curator is like a transitional stage at MOR, so that’s kind of neat,” he said.

Like his mentor and predecessor, Scannella is — to borrow a term from the blockbuster film “Jurassic Park,” which helped catapult Horner to international fame — a “digger,” and he makes no bones about why a kid from Queens would want to spend his adult life in the dust and heat of the Montana badlands.

“I came out to dig dinosaurs,” Scannella said.

He first met Horner while he was finishing up his undergraduate degree in earth sciences at Rutgers University in New Jersey, which led to him going to MSU to work on his master’s degree and doctorate under Horner’s tutelage. He began school at MSU in 2006 and completed his PhD in 2015, working at the MOR and doing extensive research work with Horner along the way.

Scannella’s love for everything to do with dinosaurs goes back much further, however. He said he’s known he wanted to work with dinosaurs “since I was like 3.”

“I used to dig for dinosaur bones in my backyard in Queens, but all I ever found were earthworms,” Scannella quipped.

Standing over the dig site, Scannella also noted how as a kid he grew up “watching things like this on TV” and could never get enough of it.

Now he finds himself running the paleontology department at one of the world’s foremost museums for paleontology.

“It’s pretty cool to be at the museum and see how everything works, then to be interim curator, that’s pretty cool,” Scannella said.

MOR Executive Director Shelly McKamey said while no one can really fill Horner’s shoes, Scannella is well-situated to make his own name in the field of paleontology, saying he was a logical choice to take over as the paleontology curator while the MOR conducts a national search for a permanent replacement, which she expects to take at least a year to complete.

“He’s been with our program for years and he was a good student,” McKamey said of Scannella. “And he knows the collection, so it seemed like he would be a good fit for the year it’s going to take us to search.”

McKamey added that while Scannella may seem relatively youthful compared to the seasoned Horner, he is actually older than Horner was when he took over the curator position at the MOR and is comparatively no less accomplished.

“John is a self-effacing guy, he doesn’t blow his own horn, but when you look at it, he’s a pretty accomplished guy,” she said.

And while it may be a tall order for anyone to achieve the kind of international fame Horner did, McKamey said the sterling facilities, infrastructure and reputation the MOR has built over the last few decades should work to give the next paleontology curator a leg up towards making a name for themselves in the field.

“The infrastructure that surrounds the curator, all that’s in place, so we’ll find a very talented man or woman and we’ll encircle them with that infrastructure, and you give them some time with that and you’ve got the next Jack Horner,” she said.

Whether or not Scannella will be that person beyond a year from now remains to be seen. McKamey expects the competition for the position to be fierce, given the MOR’s reputation. 

Scannella, for his part, said he will “certainly apply” to be named permanently as curator. 

Though there are no guarantees, that would please McKamey.

“I certainly hope John applies,” she said.

Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.