There will be a Strategic Planning Meeting on WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2016 @ 5:30 PM in the DAWSON COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL FACS ROOM B-109 (easiest access use Solcum Street Entrance).
Agenda: Strategic Planning for Glendive Public Schools
Public Comment
By Anthony Varriano
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
With 76 more online students this year than last, the changes Dawson Community College has made to expand its online curriculum have paid off. The DCC Board of Trustees met Monday night and made another move to further increase enrollment.
DCC joined the Colorado Community College online system 15 years ago. Last fall, 50 students were registered to take CCC courses through DCC. This year, that number jumped to 126.
DCC President Scott Mickelson said one of the reasons for the school’s online success has been hiring an online recruiter to “keep in contact with those students and make things easier for them.”
DCC also offers the least expensive online tuition compared to other CCC online providers, which factors into why students from all over the country choose to take CCC Online courses through Dawson Community College.
Fall enrollment down
While DCC’s summer enrollment was the highest it’s been the past five years, and the second-highest over the last 10 years, fall enrollment is on par with last year, still down considerably from 2014 and 2013.
There were 377 students enrolled in the fall of 2013 and the headcount this year came in at 294, with 164 full-time students and 130 part-time students. There were 309 students last fall, with 142 enrolling part-time and 162 full-time.
“We’ve got a few more kids in the dorms, and a few more kids buying meal plans, but fewer kids paying tuition. So we’re getting more students here, but they’re taking less credits,” Mickelsen said.
While residence hall occupancy is up 14 percent from last fall. One dorm room can’t be used because it needs to be renovated, so while there are beds available, there are no units available.
DCC Vice President of Student Affairs John Bole said athletic recruiting plays a big role in enrollment and dormitory numbers.
Head men’s basketball coach Joe Peterson recruited 12 new student-athletes and retained eight. Women’s head coach Romeo Lagmay, Jr. has eight freshmen, two transfers and five returning players, and softball coach Jim LeProwse recruited 12 new players and has 12 returning. The rodeo roster has 11 students listed.
New baseball head coach Chris Lewis added 17 new players in a very short period of time. The roster of 27 is the largest in at least the last five years, and Lewis could have winter transfers as well, lifting spring enrollment numbers.
New courses may boost numbers
There could be an opportunity to further grow enrollment by offering childcare development courses that the state requires of childcare providers.
Mickelsen said Brenda Stockert came to him two months ago with an opportunity to increase enrollment and tuition numbers. Stockert said Gail Harden, an instructor of the two courses the state requires of registered childcare providers, recently moved to Glendive and can take on a maximum of 10 students for each course to be counted towards DCC’s full-time enrollment. She doesn’t even need to use DCC facilities.
The state requires childcare providers to complete two courses: an infant-toddler caregiver course and a preschool development course. Each course is four credits and requires 60 hours of classroom training. Right now, the University of Montana–Western offers the classes for $135 each.
“If we’re going to charge full-tuition we would be right around $135, and they said if we charge more than that they’ll go to Western,” Stockert said.
Mickelsen recommended the college undercut Western’s price and charge $125 per course to be included in the tuition policy for the spring. Board member Bob Stanhope made a motion to recommend the $125 charge per course, it was seconded and passed unanimously.
Reach Anthony Varriano at rrsports@rangerreview.com.
By Jason Stuart
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
A labor of love by a group of dedicated local residents has provided Dawson County with a new portable stage they can rent out to groups for events.
The new portable stage began taking shape in the spring of 2015 after the old portable stage which had been available for locals to rent was sold off because it “ended up being too much work” for its owner, according to Gerald Huschka. At the time, the Badlands Drifters Car Club was readying for their annual Cars in the Park event and were left with the spectre of not having a portable stage available for the event.
That’s when local resident Harry Reddig approached Huschka and suggested that they take an old flatbed trailer he owned and turn it into a portable stage. Huschka, who is a member of the Badlands Drifters and owner of Guelff Lumber, looked the trailer over and decided it was a good idea. So the trailer was brought to Guelff where a Huschka and a cadre of other Badlands Drifters members began work to transform it into a stage.
“There was a lot of people involved in here. There were some key people who stepped up and did things,” Huschka said, listing Dick Crisafulli, Scott Mills, Shawn Walker, Eric Smeltzer and Paul Shearer among those who contributed the most in labor and materials, as well as his son, Padyn, who jumped in on the project while back home for the summer from college.
Huschka said one thing you can count on with the Badlands Drifters members is their willingness to work hard on community-minded projects.
“One thing about the car club is they’re not afraid to work and get their hands dirty and donate their time,” Huschka said. “There was always three or four people here working on it. Sometimes there were too many people here. That’s one thing about the car club, is they’re a good group to get things done.”
Last summer, the group was able to get the stage complete enough in time to use for the car show. It was also put into service at last year’s Bell Street Bridge Day before being put into storage for the winter. Huschka and his compatriots brought the stage back to Guelff at the beginning of this summer to put the finishing touches on it, adding electrical outlets, lighting and lining the inside walls with white laminate “to brighten it up inside.”
The stage was paid for by grant money from Mid-Rivers Communications and American Bank Center. Huschka also offered most of the materials used in building the stage at cost to lower the price. The stage has been donated to the county for rental to any local group which could use it for an event, and Huschka is hopeful locals will take advantage of the end result of all their hard work.
“It’s one of those things we thought should be done, and it worked out pretty well. Hopefully, it’ll get used plenty,” he said. “It was a lot of work and it was a lot of fun too.”
Dawson County Commissioner Gary Kartevold expressed gratitude for the group’s work to build the new stage.
“It’s an asset for the community,” Kartevold said. “It shows what happens when people work together.”
The county is working on a rental policy for the stage. For more information, contact Michael Bacon at the Dawson County Road Department at 377-2564.
Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.
By Jason Stuart
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
After two full years of waiting, paving of the “switchbacks” section of the Makoshika State Park road is set to get underway.
State Parks Region 5 manager Doug Habermann said on Monday that the “change order has been signed” with the paving contractor for the project with a project start date of Monday, Oct. 3.
Paving of the switchbacks has been pushed back three times already since the road was rebuilt in the fall of 2014. It was originally scheduled to be paved then, but delays in construction due to incredible engineering challenges encountered during the project led officials to decide to put off paving until spring 2015. Project engineers also decided they wanted more time to monitor the newly built road bed to make sure they had solved the shifting and settling which has degraded the road in the past.
However, when spring 2015 rolled around, it was decided to push the paving back for another year to spring 2016. Again, the explanation given was that engineers wanted to monitor the road further to ensure it did not shift or settle. But when spring arrived this year, it was announced paving the road would be put off once again.
Habermann said the delays in paving the road were primarily the result of project engineers taking a “very conservative, measured approach to it,” adding that there were “legitimate reasons about making sure the road did not move at all.”
Now that the switchbacks are finally set for paving, Habermann expressed a great deal of excitement about what that will mean for Makoshika going forward. Once the project is complete, he said a “big celebration and ribbon cutting” are planned, but that’s just the start. Once paved, the days of the road being closed at the bottom of the switchbacks during the winter will be over.
“Our intention will be to have the switchbacks open (during the winter),” Habermann said. “We want people to see that there’s going to be something changed and different and improved access.”
A new gate will be installed on the road just past the parking area for the Cap Rock Trail, giving park visitors vehicle access up to that point during the winter months.
Another improvement Habermann is excited about for that area of the park is further development of the “Squatter’s Ridge” area.
The rough, unimproved road to this area leaves the main park road just prior to reaching the Cap Rock Trail. There are already official, backcountry campsites on this road, but State Parks is planning to add a few more campsites there, as well as improve part of the existing gravel road and then loop it back to the main road. Habermann noted that the last leg of the existing Squatter’s Ridge road will be abandoned and turned into a trail, since improving and maintaining it would be impossible.
“My vision by this time next year is we’ll have a loop road and two to three more campsites in there,” Habermann said.
Those improvements will add even more opportunities for year-round use of the park. Opening up more and more of Makoshika to year-round use is something Habermann is keen to do, and he said it begins with the park’s road system.
“We’re going to have a year-round, weather-proof road system in that park – that’s what we’re working towards,” he said.
Getting to that point will also mean at some point addressing the rest of the park road from the entrance up to the switchbacks.
The road is in awful condition, littered with huge potholes and other places where the asphalt has cracked, heaved or sunk. The road, which was already in less than ideal condition, suffered extensive damage during construction of the switchbacks from all the heavy equipment rumbling over it, much more so than State Parks had anticipated.
As for when State Parks might get to dealing with the rest of the road, Habermann said they hope to have some major patch work done next spring. However, he acknowledged a complete rebuild of the road is required to truly fix it, but said there is currently no funding set aside by State Parks for doing that.
Getting the rest of the road rebuilt – and getting a water line to the park’s campground, which is now State Parks’ top priority for Makoshika – will take the cooperation of the Montana Legislature, according to Habermann, which in the past has been loathe to fund improvements to Montana State Parks.
“In terms of a bigger (road) project, we hope the Legislature will consider including funding for that along with the water line project,” Habermann said. “Hopefully our legislators will help so we can continue to expand and offer more to our visitors.”
Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.
Ranger-Review Staff Report
Candidates, elected officials and other local institutional leaders will be on stage this Wednesday, Oct. 5 to talk about the issues facing the community and answer questions from the public in a forum sponsored by the Ranger-Review. The event will be held in the Toepke Center auditorium at Dawson Community College from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
The candidates for office invited to participate in the forum include Rep. Alan Doane and his Democratic challenger for his House District 36 seat in the Montana House of Representatives, Mike Ruddy. They are the only two local candidates involved in a contested race. State senator-elect Steve Hinebauch was also invited. Hinebauch is uncontested in the November election. County commissioner-elect Dennis Zander, who is also uncontested in the general election, will not be at the forum, as he is out of town that day.
All three county commissioners — Adam Gartner, Doug Buxbaum and Gary Kartevold — have been asked to participate as well. City council president Mike Dryden will represent the City of Glendive, but Mayor Jerry Jimison is out of town and unable to attend.
Glendive Public Schools will be represented by Superintendent Ross Farber. Glendive Unified School Board chair Jeanne Seifert has also been invited to participate. Vice President of Administration Kathleen Zander will represent Dawson Community College, as President Scott Mickelsen is also travelling on business.
The forum will be moderated and begin with questions previously submitted for the event by local residents. Audience members will also have the opportunity to ask questions of the participants directly.
Ranger-Review publisher Chad Knudson said the initial idea for the event was just as a candidate forum, since such things have been a rarity in Glendive in recent election years, but the decision was made to broaden the event to include more than just candidates.
“No one locally has supported or was supporting any kind of candidate forum to hear from our candidates for public office,” Knudson said. “So we started with that, but then in discussion we decided there were a lot of community issues that people are interested in that extend beyond the people who are running for election this year.”
Ultimately the purpose of the event is to give locals the very rare opportunity to have most of the community’s leaders in the same place at the same time and question them about issues which affect the community as a whole.
“There’s not a lot of opportunities for those officials to discuss things that might affect everyone in a single setting,” Knudson said. “We thought it would be a unique opportunity to get everyone together and talking about the same topics.”
DCC is co-sponsoring the event and providing logistical support. The Bucs Brew coffee shop will be open during the forum to provide refreshments.
By Anthony Varriano
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
An open meeting to hear public recommendations for Dawson Community College was held at Yellowstone River Inn on Thursday, with current and former Dawson Community College administrators, board members and staff and concerned citizens present.
DCC president Scott Mickelsen began the “listening session” by introducing a questionnaire to determine what the college is doing well, what it can improve upon, what new trends DCC should be aware, and in what direction DCC should be taking its transfer and technical programs.
DCC library director Jerusha Shipstead immediately recommended the listening session questionnaire be made available online in order to receive more feedback, and Mickelsen said that would be a great idea.
Shipstead later said she “would like to see non-student-athletes get more love, like a bus to take them shopping once a week to get them off campus.”
There was plenty more constructive criticism. Glendive Chamber of Commerce director Christine Whitlach said she had to “beg you to take my money” so her 16-year-old son could start welding courses at the college, and Jerry Geiger would like to see more details regarding DCC’s spending, adding that the voucher lists available at board meetings are not detailed enough.
President Mickelsen also responded to falling enrollment figures, saying some programs have been much more successful than others in recruiting students.
“In biology, 50 to 60 percent of students interested were enrolled, but in other academic options we had 600 interested students but one enrolled,” Mickelsen said. “The people that really sell the program to the students are the instructors.”
The 2016 census of full-time equivalent (FTE) numbers came in well under last year’s — 216.27 to 224.07. The biggest loss came from Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE) students. The full-time equivalent for WUE students was 40.93 last year and 31.73 in 2016.
Mickelsen later added that in an effort to increase enrollment, DCC reduced out-of-state tuition for the first time in a long time, and Board of Trustees chairman Chad Knudson added that students from North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming all pay in-state tuition now. The tuition decreases seemed to have lifted non-resident enrollment.
Resident FTE was down from 152.8 to 143.27, but non-resident FTE was up from 30.33 to 41.27. So DCC is attracting students from farther away and losing students that are closer to home.
There was also a call for an update on dual-enrollment with Dawson County High School, with Mickelsen responding that DCC now has a list of what classes DCHS instructors can teach for the school right now. He’s hoping to have that figured out by the spring.
A concerned citizen also thought more internship programs could help persuade potential students to stay if there’s a job waiting for them.
“From the technical side of the college, we don’t have a lot of internships…but that’s something we need to increase,” Mickelsen said.
“I think every student that graduates from DCC should have some professional experience,” DCC board chairman Chad Knudson added.
Job Service manager Amy Dienes thought that it would be beneficial for some apprentices to come to the college to use high-speed Internet and complete training and homework because not all of them live in an area with access to an Internet connection.
As far as things the college is doing well, Whitlach said the sports teams are really involved in the community, and “the fact that we get to see them in those settings makes you want to come watch a game.”
Dawson County Economic Development Council director Kathy Kirkpatrick said “having the DCEDC office at the college has been beneficial to both the college and DCEDC,” offering students a direct link to the local economy.
Dienes also added the adult education programs have been a big help to the Job Service, saying later that they have 11 clients going to the college for training.
Mickelsen said he’d be attending a conference investigating what the future of the community college in rural America looks like in order to help determine the best curriculum going forward.
By Jason Stuart
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
The Dawson County Sheriff’s Office may be on the precipice of a serious manpower shortage.
Sheriff Ross Canen confirmed on Thursday that one of his five deputies has already resigned, having accepted a position with the Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Office. Meanwhile, another two deputies have applications in at other law enforcement agencies and are just waiting to hear back.
Canen, meanwhile, is left in a sort of limbo, not certain if he’s going to need to hire one new deputy or three, and unable to take any action towards replacing the two who might leave until they’ve actually tendered their resignations.
“I can’t advertise (for the positions) until it’s official,” Canen said.
If the other two are hired on at those other agencies, Canen made no bones about the impact it would have on his department to lose three deputies at the same time.
“All three at once, that would be the equivalent of Billings PD losing 75 officers in one day,” he said. “It affects everybody when it’s this small of a department.”
Canen’s workforce problems were compounded further Friday morning. Besides his five regular deputies, he has one “civil deputy” on staff, but they tendered their resignation Friday morning.
Up until now, the DCSO has mostly avoided the high turnover rate and consistent officer shortages that the Glendive Police Department has dealt with for years.
“It’s unprecedented for the sheriff’s office, while the GPD’s been living with this for 30 years,” Canen said.
He lamented that it seems to be getting harder and harder for either local law enforcement agency to keep their officers on staff for very long.
He noted that there are those who do leave for perfectly legitimate reasons. For instance, one of the deputies who has applied elsewhere did so with the Alaska State Troopers, but their family lives in Alaska.
However, he added that the range of complaints and excuses he’s starting to hear from officers who want to leave just seems to get longer and longer.
“It’s tough, and it’s always the same thing ... they want to be closer to family, they want to see trees, they like to see the mountains, they hate our winters, they complain no one likes them because they’re a cop, they say there’s no one to date ... no shopping is another,” Canen said.
He added that the civil deputy who resigned on Friday told him one of the reasons they decided to leave the department was because “it’s getting too dangerous serving papers.”
The most concerning part about it, according to Canen, is just as it’s getting harder and harder to keep deputies around for very long, it’s also getting harder and harder to replace the ones who do leave. In part, he said the blame for that lays with the current national mood towards police.
“Some of this is the national culture. Just look at the news — everybody hates cops,” Canen said.
He said that has curtailed the number of applicants who apply for open positions in his department. Consequently, he said that also translates into fewer and fewer quality applicants who would make good officers.
“The good ones aren’t applying,” Canen said.
He added he does understand why being a law enforcement officer might not appeal to many people, noting that it is a difficult, dangerous job and acting as society’s disciplinarians isn’t exactly a barrel of laughs.
“We hold people accountable, and who likes that? We’re the only agency that holds people accountable, and it’s not fun,” Canen said. “But it can be rewarding, if you let it be.”
In the meantime, he will just have to wait and see whether he only has to replace one deputy, or three at once. Canen, however, said he’s not exactly just waiting around for that to happen, adding he’s currently working out a contingency plan in case it does.
“We’re working on it. We’ve got some Plan Bs, we’re not just waiting for the other shoe to drop,” he said.
Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.
By Cindy Mullet
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
With their mission statements, “Low Carbon Crossings” and “Cycling Toward Climate Solutions” emblazoned on their shirts, cyclists Mindy Ahler and Ryan Hall leave no doubt what they want to communicate as they bicycle from Seaside, Ore., to Washington, D.C.
“We want to inspire people to take action on climate change,” Ahler explained during a stop in Glendive on Monday.
Their goal, according to the Low Carbon Crossings web page, “is to motivate people to take action in a way that inspires them, gather their experiences and concerns about climate change, raise funds for Cool Planet and Citizens’ Climate Lobby, demonstrate bicycling as a fun, low-carbon way to travel and end with lobbying in D.C. to share the experience with legislators.
Ahler’s interest in climate change grew out of her work in fair trade. Seeing that many positive things happening in the areas of poverty and relief were negated by changes in the climate prompted her to begin work on that issue, she said.
For Hall active work on climate change started three years ago when he got rid of his car and changed his diet to vegetarian in an effort to reduce his carbon impact on the world. He joined AmeriCorps to do work around climate issues, he said.
Ahler and Hall met in June, and when he heard her plans for the bike ride, he decided he wanted to join.
In Montana, the two held special events in Missoula, Great Falls, Helena, Bozeman, Billings, Hardin and Miles City. They have also visited with many individuals along the way. They have been amazed at how their volunteer network managed to connect them with so many people, Ahler said.
They have also been surprised at the great reception they have received. They keep expecting more push back, but even people who disagree on the causes of climate change see the impact and are willing to talk about it, she said, adding, “Those who disagree are too polite to say anything. People tend to be kind to strangers.”
Often they find themselves talking with people who are already engaged in the discussion and looking for how to move forward. In Montana, they have been encouraging people to reach out to hunters and fishermen, she said.
They talked with a couple fly fishing shop owners who are very aware of how lower stream levels and the resulting warmer water is affecting their business. One owner displayed a chart showing historic water levels along with the current conditions. If the current trend continues, it will be the end of his business, he told them.
In Forsyth they had a long conversation with a man who worked at a coal-fired power plant, Hall said, adding that was one of their best encounters.
While they had differing ideas on how clean coal is, they agreed that coal is going away, Ahler said, noting that if coal goes, good paying jobs are lost. Something has to be found to replace them without people being forced to move and without leaving ghost towns.
Everyone needs to come to the table, Hall said. Coal miners, farmers and activists need to put down their banners and prejudices. Politicians need to start talking about change rather than about bringing a dying industry back to life.
“Don’t let politicians lie to us and give us false hope,” he said.
“We need to face what to do next, not hide from what’s coming,” Ahler added.
Working on the local level is a great way to start Hall said. In local communities purchases are votes and he would like to see people cast more votes for their neighbors than for international corporations.
Seeking solutions to climate change has to be community driven and the local community is what gives him hope, he said, relating an encounter with an Iraq War veteran in Cedar Rapids, Iowa who leads a local food movement.
When he asked her how she holds on to hope, she replied, “I drag it with me wherever I go.”
That message of hope is one they want to drag with them as they follow the Lewis and Clark cycling trail to Iowa, pick up the Northern Tier trail to Pennsylvania and then cycle a bike trail from Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C.
As they get closer to Washington, D.C. they expect other cyclists to join them for the final leg of the ride. They plan to arrive in Washington, D.C. Nov. 13, in time to join the Citizens’ Climate Lobby sponsored education days Nov. 14 and 15.”
Reach Cindy Mullet at
crmullet@midrivers.com.
By Jason Stuart
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
The Dawson County Commissioners are putting out a call to all residents of Forest Park and Highland Park to come together in a public meeting to discuss how to better manage the subdivisions’ street maintenance needs.
At their meeting Tuesday morning, the commissioners determined they would be sending out a letter in the coming days to all residents of both subdivisions calling for the public forum, with the hopes of setting a meeting date for approximately two weeks after the letters are delivered.
The reason for the meeting is the commissioners are keen to develop a method for prioritizing street repairs within the two subdivisions.
First and foremost, the commissioners want to hammer home to subdivision residents that the county is not responsible for any of the streets in either subdivision. Legally, those streets are not owned by the county, but by the subdivision residents themselves.
The county’s only role where the subdivision streets are concerned is to collect and manage each subdivision’s street maintenance fund. In Forest Park, each lot owner is assessed an annual fee of $175 for street maintenance. In Highland Park, only property owners living along 1st and 2nd streets – the only two paved streets in that subdivision – are assessed the $175 fee.
Those annual fees don’t add up to a lot, either. At present, the Forest Park maintenance fund has a total of $189,089. The Highland Park maintenance fund has $80,350. In terms of paving or especially rebuilding streets, neither amount will go very far. For comparison, in the summer of 2015, it cost the City of Glendive $183,700 to have a single block of Slocum Street rebuilt.
What the county is seeking is guidance in how to best spend the limited funding available to repair streets in each subdivision. The commissioners complained on Tuesday that is something that has been lacking, leaving them up to this point to try to decide where best to spend the money based primarily on which subdivision streets residents complain the loudest.
Noting that making decisions on where to spend the maintenance fund money based off of complaints is not the most effective method, the commissioners plan to offer the residents of each subdivision two options for how to prioritize street maintenance work moving forward.
First, the commissioners will give the residents of each subdivision the option of forming an “advisory committee” whose role would be to develop a “priority list” for which order their streets should be repaired in. The other option is that if either subdivision is unable or unwilling to form a committee, the county will appoint an existing county employee to develop a capital improvement plan for the subdivision streets, paying them for their work out of the street maintenance fund.
Commissioner Gary Kartevold said he would prefer a county employee handle it, rather than leave it to a committee.
“Personally, I think we’d be better off having one person decide things than having a group of people,” Kartevold said.
Commissioner Adam Gartner took the opposite view, however, arguing that it would be better if subdivision residents had a say in where and how the street maintenance funds are spent by having their own committee to make those decisions.
“Then they would have an avenue to address all their concerns. This way they have participation and everything, so we know what it means,” Gartner said.
Gartner continued to strongly argue his belief that the residents of both subdivisions need to take greater ownership of their neighborhoods and that forming these advisory committees would be a good first start.
For example, he noted that only a portion of Highland Park residents contribute to their maintenance fund, and that nothing is provided for maintenance of the rest of the streets in the subdivision, which are all gravel except 1st and 2nd streets. Gartner said that is a discussion an advisory committee of residents could begin having if they would form one.
“They need to also do something with their gravel roads, because those are not the county’s responsibility,” Gartner said.
During the public comments session, city resident Jerry Geiger sounded a note of an agreement with Gartner, arguing that residents of both subdivisions need to take more responsibility for their maintenance, upkeep and future.
“They need to decide what they want to do with themselves. We can’t, as a county, keep making all their decisions for them,” Geiger said. “I mean, Forest Park, how long has that son-of-a-bitch been there? Fifty or 60 years? And they’re still in limbo.”
Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.
By Jason Stuart
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
After languishing for over a year, the new Glendive/Dawson County Growth Policy is finally completely official.
The Dawson County Commissioners gave their approval to the new growth policy at their meeting Sept. 27, the last approval the policy required before going into effect. The Glendive City Council had already approved the growth policy at their first meeting in August.
The road to final approval of the new growth policy was a long and arduous one. Commissioner Gary Kartevold asked County Planner Dianna Broadie when the process of developing the new policy had started, and she replied that it had actually begun before she was even hired by the county in late 2013.
The breakdown of the previous city/county planning board was the primary reason for the delay in the growth policy. Without a functioning planning board, the process of vetting the new growth policy ground to a halt. It took the city and county nearly two years to work out their differences and come to an agreement on the formation of a new joint planning board. That new planning board gave its approval to the growth policy in July.
Before the commissioners voted to adopt the policy, County Clerk Shirley Kreiman asked Broadie if there had been any major changes to the final version over the previous drafts the county had received prior to the new planning board’s formation.
Broadie responded that it had “definitely” changed, specifically pointing out the inclusion of a future land use map in the policy as a major addition. She said that could come in handy if the county ever implemented zoning in the unincorporated areas surrounding Glendive.
“This would definitely help guide things if zoning were ever put into place,” Broadie said.
“It’s definitely a step in the right direction,” Kartevold added.
Another change over previous versions of the policy Broadie pointed to is the inclusion of a map listing potential “rails to trails” routes to increase the community’s offering of biking and walking trails.
“Basically it’s a direction to go ... if we ever got one of those (rails to trails) grants,” she said.
Kreiman posited that having the “rails to trails” map in the growth policy might actually help the community when applying for those grants.
Broadie agreed, noting that having the growth policy officially in place will help the community when applying for those and other grants.
Commissioner Adam Gartner thanked Broadie for the work she put in on the growth policy, especially considering the long road it took to finally get it done.
“Dianna was put in a pretty poor position with all the issues we had ... she struggled through it and we finally got it done,” Gartner said.
“It was a long struggle,” Kartevold added.
Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.
By Jason Stuart
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
Residents driving down North Anderson Avenue recently may have noticed a construction crew with drilling rigs working on a lot near where the road turns into East Allard Street. The work is part of an environmental clean-up project on property owned by Dow Chemical.
According to information provided by Matt Moore, the project manager with environmental remediation firm CH2M out of Denver, the purpose of the project is to clean up contaminated groundwater at the site.
The groundwater contaminants at the location consist of “solvents and diesel and gasoline type hydrocarbons.” Not much currently occupies the property, but in the past Schlumberger Limited operated an oilfield services facility on the property for approximately 29 years. That business was the source of the contaminants.
Dow and Schlumberger once had a joint oilfield services venture called Dowell Schlumberger. Moore noted that when the Glendive facility was in operation, Schlumberger ran the operation while Dow supplied the chemicals and services. Moore was uncertain when, exactly, Dow took over sole ownership of the property, but Schlumberger is managing the clean-up.
While the company is taking action to clean up the contaminated groundwater, an email statement from Schlumberger corporate officials described the contamination as “light” and said it poses no immediate or long-term threat to local residents or wildlife.
Moore agrees with that assessment.
“We have done our research, and we know it’s not immediately affecting any water supply,” he said.
Most of the contamination is confined to the property itself, though some chemicals have leached out towards the BNSF tracks, which is why workers had a drilling rig in operation across the street from the property earlier this week. Besides the hydrocarbons and solvents, Moore noted that there is also some shallow arsenic contamination in the soil directly beneath the old facility. That soil will be excavated to remediate that, he said.
The remediation process for the hydrocarbons and solvents are different for each. With the hydrocarbons, Moore said they will first perform a “shallow excavation” and then do “what we call soil mixing.” That process involves injecting the soil with hot steam, which helps break down hydrocarbon compounds. To get rid of the solvents in the groundwater, engineers will inject the groundwater with emulsified vegetable oil.
Once completed, Moore said the processes should take care of all the contamination.
“This is going to destroy the contamination in the groundwater,” he said, noting that the company is required by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality to continue monitoring the groundwater after the work is complete to ensure it meets the state and federal standards.
The work itself will be going on for quite a while. Moore estimated that the process to clean up the hydrocarbon contaminants will take six to eight months, while the process to clean up the solvents will take about a year.
As for the future of the property, Schlumberger officials stated in their email that the intention is to sell the property once the clean-up process is complete.
Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.
By Jason Stuart
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
Dawson County is still working to perfect and enforce the new zoning regulations enacted for the Forest Park subdivision earlier this year.
A new wrinkle recently developed which is causing County Planner Dianna Broadie to go back and look for ways to further tweak the new zoning regulations the county commissioners approved in April.
Specifically, the corner lots in the subdivision pose a unique zoning challenge. Most of those corner lots — about 45 of them throughout the subdivision — have homes which face out towards the arterial street, rather than facing towards the neighborhood street with the rest of the houses on the block. That creates an issue with those corner lot properties vis a vis the setback distances from the street, alleys and other homes that subdivision zoning regulations require.
The issue had gone unnoticed until one of those corner lot owners recently came to Broadie looking to add on to their house.
“It just happened to come up because someone came in to do an addition,” she said. “It really wasn’t on my radar up to that point.”
A few of the corner lot property owners have purchased part of the lots behind them over the years, negating the setback issues in those cases, but Broadie said the bulk of the rest of them are “probably all legally non-conforming” to the setback provisions in the zoning regulations.
Those non-compliant properties have also actually been that way since before the new zoning regulations were passed. In fact, the new zoning regulations made no significant changes to setback provisions, Broadie noted, meaning most of those homes on corner lots were out of compliance with the original zoning regulations passed back in the 1970s.
However, she also noted that some of those homes were built even before the original zoning regulations were put in place. That makes them immune to them — unless the owner tries to make changes to the property.
“A lot of those house were built prior to the zoning regulations, so that’s when you have grandfathering,” Broadie said. “But grandfathering restricts the way you can modify a house.”
That’s why Broadie is currently looking into ways to adjust the zoning regulations a bit more where those corner lot properties are concerned.
The one property owner who came in wanting to add to their home had to go through the entire variance request process, which requires filing paperwork, fees and going through a public hearing before the county commissioners. Broadie wants to amend the regulations to make it so corner lot owners don’t have to go through that whole process any time they want to make an addition or modification to their property.
“As long as they’re not creating a problem for the neighborhood, it seems logical to come up with some solution with greater flexibility,” she said. “That’s the thing about zoning, it is a regulatory process, but zoning is somewhat flexible according to the situation.”
What Broadie isn’t flexible about are those property owners in Forest Park who have continued to ignore the new zoning regulations.
“We still have compliance issues,” Broadie said.
The major impetus for passing the new zoning regulations was a desire on the county’s part to more tightly control overnight vehicle parking, the long-term storage of fleet vehicles, trailers and other large equipment and other aesthetic issues within the subdivision’s commercial district.
“We’ve been trying to clean up some of the commercial (properties),” Broadie said.
However, while some of those commercial property owners have complied and Broadie said “we’ve gotten some things done,” others haven’t, nor shown any inclination to do so, to the point that she has now turned at least one of the cases over to the County Attorney’s office for resolution.
“I just haven’t been able to get them all to comply,” Broadie said.
Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.
By Daniel Nolker
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
Low cattle prices are casting a gloom over the upcoming shipping season, but ranchers might see a glimmer of hope flickering from China.
Running from the middle of October to the end of November, shipping season is when the majority of weaned calves weighing between 450 and 650 pounds will be sold through video auction, contract or the local sale barn and shipped to feedlots in corn country.
It is at this time that ranchers are able to capitalize on the investment of tirelessly caring for mother cows and calves for the past year.
However, producers are facing the lowest prices since 2011 and prices are still going down. Last fall, a 500-pound steer calf brought $1,300. Now ranchers are currently getting between $700 and $775.
Vaughn Hoffer, owner of Glendive Livestock Exchange, said the current low prices do not follow conventional market wisdom. Typically, when grain markets are down, cattle prices are up. However, corn has dropped $4 a bushel in the last four months but cattle prices still continue to fall.
Also, the overall number of U.S. cattle has still not reached the historical average after being decimated several years ago by drought.
“The national herd has increased over the past several years to recover from historically low numbers, but numbers still aren’t up to where they were,” Hoffer said.
Although fewer numbers should mean higher demand and higher prices, foreign meat from nations like Brazil is saturating the supply chain and cheap chicken and pork continues to drive the price of beef down.
To make matters worse, as shipping season ramps up, the increased volume of cattle going to market will likely continue to drive the market down.
One glimmer of hope to pierce the gloom of this shipping season came on Sept. 22 when China announced it would lift its 13-year ban on importing U.S. beef.
China first imposed the ban in December 2003 when a dairy cow in Washington tested positive to bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as mad cow disease.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said China would soon allow imports of U.S. beef.
“We also recognize that the United States has very good beef, so why should we deny Chinese customers this choice?” Li said.
Demand for beef in China has never been higher with $2.5 billion imported last year. The surging middle class has an increased love of beef and the means to buy it.
Although the news is potentially good in the long run for U.S. cattle producers, the dropped Chinese ban will not likely affect the market this year.
“(China and the U.S.) are still working on the stipulations like that the animals have to be under 30 months of age. Eventually it’s going to help the market but we aren’t going to see much change for a while. For the market to dramatically improve consumers have got to buy more beef and we’ve got to import less. Hopefully next year I’m going to be able to tell you it helped,” Hoffer said.
Reach Daniel Nolker at dan.nolker@gmail.com.
By Anthony Varriano
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
A small group of concerned parents don’t feel Glendive students are getting a fair shake when it comes to applying for college scholarships and asked the Glendive Unified School Board to alter the grading scale.
Angie Hagen stated her case to the board that the grading scale in Glendive is a lot higher than other schools in the area. She found that Baker, Belgrade, Billings West, Bozeman, Browning, Great Falls, Hardin, Havre, Helena, Livingston, Miles City and Sidney have a grading scale that runs from 90 percent to 100 percent for an ‘A’ grade. Glendive’s grading scale for an ‘A’ grade is 93-100 percent. Letter grades B-F also vary with Glendive’s scale being stricter than most other schools noted.
The current Glendive Schools grading scale was approved by the GUSB in 2004.
Hagen brought in scholarship applications that require minimum grade-point averages and said Glendive students are at a disadvantage when applying for those scholarships.
“If one of our students gets all 92 percents, they would only qualify for one of these because they would have a 3.0 (GPA) … while other students (from districts with the 90-100 scale) would have a 4.0,” she said.
School officials pointed out that because school system class periods and grading systems have so many variables, it is difficult to compare them equally.
DCHS guidance counselor Desiree Hoffer said a lot more goes into grade-point averages than the grading scale, using Billings Central’s six-period day for an example. Glendive students have seven classes per day, so Glendive students have more opportunity for grade points.
DCHS Principal Wade Murphy added that Laurel has a weighted GPA, with some kids graduating with a 4.25. He also cited schools that recognize minus and plus grades, where 3.67 points are given for an A- for example.
Glendive Schools are on a straight 4-point scale, meaning that any ‘A,’ whether it is accompanied by a minus or plus, equals a 4.0.
“This really opens up a good discussion. Grading is a hot button issue, really across the nation,” Murphy said.
A school staff survey conducted last year with 21 respondents resulted in more than 50 percent saying they’d prefer a grading scale where an ‘A’ grade is 90 percent to 100 percent. More than 60 percent said the same scale most accurately reflects student learning and more than 60 percent thinks the grading scale needs to change.
Murphy said he believes the grading scale to be a topic requiring further discussion.
“We really want to look at what does it mean, in Glendive at the high school level, to graduate and have that 92 percent or that 88 percent, what does that mean? ... What is that reflective of?” Murphy said.
Board chairwoman Jeanne Seifert said based on school policy it was unlikely that changes could be made until a new freshmen class starts the academic year.
Murphy said he would take the lead on forming a committee to discuss the matter with community members, faculty and administration.
Reach Anthony Varriano at rrsports@rangerreview.com.
By Daniel Nolker
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
As the autumn moon rose over the rugged and majestic badlands of Makoshika State Park Oct. 1, the Glendive Lions Club hosted over 100 community members for a night of fine dining at Moonlight Over Makoshika.
Since 1992, the Lions have invited the public for one evening a year to enjoy a gourmet meal in the unique setting of the A-frame lodge in the heart of Montana’s largest state park.
Current Glendive Lions Club president Craig Anderson said the club works hard to provide a unique experience for guests and raise funds for important club projects.
“Moonlight Over Makoshika is a special event because it is a unique experience in a very different sort of venue. The drive up through the park offers some magnificent views and we work hard to offer a quality dining experience. Where else are you going to get lamb shank ossobuco or chicken cordon bleu within a 250-mile radius?” Anderson said.
Wisconsin natives Marge Rein and Catherine Wagner have been regular guests at Moonlight Over Makoshika for the past 19 years. They make an annual pilgrimage to Glendive specifically for the event and to visit family in the area.
“We love to visit with friends and see the beautiful park this time of year. When the sun sets on the hills during the drive up to the camp, it is absolutely breathtaking,” Rein said.
Wagner said the people and scenery make the event a unique experience.
“The food is always excellent and the Lions is a good organization so I like to support them,” Wagner said.
Established in 1944, the Glendive Lions Club has supported numerous community projects and events. One of the largest projects undertaken by the Glendive Lions was the Lions Youth Camp.
According to Glendive Lions Club historical records, a 1966 proposal to develop a youth camp progressed into a search for a suitable site. After examining several locations including the McCarthy Cabin and Schepen’s Grove, the club voted in 1969 to purchase the Sundling property, which is five miles from Glendive and adjacent to Makoshika State Park.
Originally, the property consisted of 160 acres, a large log lodge and two out-cabins. Seven new cabins completed camping facilities around the original lodge and became known as Sleepy Hollow. As its name implies, Sleepy Hollow is nestled in a “hollow” between two hills in a secluded spot. The dedication of the camp was held on July 16, 1969.
However, it soon became evident that an upper camp with a new building was needed during certain periods of the camping season.
“The A-Frame concept seemed to be the most feasible and offer the most usable space and also blend into the surroundings without becoming an environmental eye sore,” the records stated.
The A-frame style lodge is 72’ by 30’ with a height of 30’ at the apex of the triangle. It also has a 38’ by 30’ deck designed as an outside patio to provide a panoramic view of the Makoshika badlands. From the deck, a boardwalk leads to an observation platform built on the edge of the canyon. In 1977, the Makotahena Bicentennial Lodge was completed and the upper camp was established. The name comes from a Sioux word meaning “far from all other dwellings.”
Moonlight Over Makoshika continues to be a critical fundraising event for the club. It helps to fund repairs for the A frame. Since its inception, Moonlight Over Makoshika has raised between $47,000 and $56,000 to support the Lions Camp Complex. Also, the silent auction held on the same evening raises funds for the regular club account to go towards their eyeglasses program, the Dawson County Food Bank, and the Montana Sight and Hearing Foundation.
In order to provide a quality evening, Anderson said planning for the event begins weeks in advance, with a tremendous amount of work going into the preparation of the gourmet meal.
Long-time Lion Hilary Hopfauf said each cook works around 40 hours to prepare the multi-course meal, which includes an array of made-from-scratch soups, salads, entrees and desserts.
“Although it takes some serious effort, it’s really a pleasure to see people enjoy what we cook. We’ve expanded some pallets in this community,” Hopfauf said.
Along with making and serving the food, Anderson said the process of selecting the dishes is also part of the challenge. Two weeks before Moonlight Over Makoshika, the chefs prepared some of the new dishes like the shrimp diane, English sticky toffee pudding and other prospective dessert options.
“We don’t serve anything we haven’t tried, so we make sure to take the time to critique the dishes and make sure they are good. We have been doing this for over two decades and we want to continue providing what we hope is an excellent experience,” Anderson said.
The dishes may change but the tradition of serving the community and sharing fine food will remain the same.
“We love to cook and we love to cook fine food. Moonlight Over Makoshika is a way for the Lions Club to share our passion for service and gourmet food amidst the backdrop of the finest scenery anywhere,” Anderson said.
Reach dan.nolker@gmail.com
By Mason Hutchinson
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
When Kristi Powell saw a lack of community opportunities for local photographers, she took to the Dawson Discussion Facebook page to gauge what kind of support a photography club could have. The results surprised her.
“We were only expecting to have 6-10 people show any interest, but we were surprised when 68 people had shown interest,” Powell said.
The members vary in skills from beginners to individuals who have been enjoying photography for decades.
Powell decided to start the group off with a series of photo challenges on the Facebook page called “Sh00ters.” Fall colors, food and drink, and pets have been among the successful challenges. A new challenge is released every week, and everyone in the group is encouraged to participate by posting and asking questions, however, participation in every challenge is not required.
The challenge entries so far have given participants a chance to share their work and receive positive feedback from others who enjoy the art as much as they do.
While most of gathering will be done through the Facebook, the eventual plan is to meet occassionally at the DCC Buc’s Brew Coffeeshop. This is where the group members will have educational opportunities with guest speakers and room for locals to grow their talents through competitions and prizes.
“We would like to even go out and shoot together,” Powell said.
There is currently no membership cost, but it will be in consideration as the group will need a way to fund their projects.
Powell grew up in a home where pictures were a staple to their success. “My father was a professional photographer and carried a camera everywhere,” Powell said. Her experience ranges from hosting a DCC gallery artshow displaying her work to having her photos hung around town in local business. Having those experiences, she wants to use her experiences to help others in a fun environment of like-minded people.
Questions about how to get involved, or for more information on current challenges, contact Kristi Powell at kpowell@dawson.eduor go right to the group’s Facebook page “ShOOters” and request to join.
Reach Mason Hutchinson at news@rangerreview.com.
By Jason Stuart
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
The Glendive City Council will likely vote on placing a new 180-foot communications tower next to city hall at its meeting this Tuesday.
Glendive Fire Department Chief George Lane approached the city Finance, Utilities, Property and Recreation Committee on Wednesday to ask permission to build the tower behind city hall in the area of the “Firemen’s Park.” After a long discussion during which committee members raised multiple concerns about placing a 180-foot tower next to the historic city hall in downtown Glendive, they ultimately agreed to recommend that the full council vote to grant Lane permission to have it built there.
The community has received a grant to build the new communications tower. Dawson County Disaster and Emergency Services coordinator Mary Jo Gehnert said in a phone interview Friday morning that she applied for the grant at Lane’s request. The grant award is for $200,000.
Gehnert noted that the proposed new tower would not just be for the city’s communications, but would also house the county’s emergency responder transmitters. Currently, the city and county’s law enforcement and emergency responder transmissions are carried on a smaller tower in the parking lot of the Dawson County Courthouse.
“The tower that we have now has no room for expansion,” she said.
She said she has a new repeater for the Dawson County Sheriff’s Office transmitter, but there is no room on the existing tower to install it.
Gehnert also said the existing tower poses a safety hazard, as there is a gas tank at its base that “sits right next to the street” to fuel emergency power to the tower. She said if a car ever had an accident and hit the tank, the results could be deadly.
“It’s kind of a safety issue to get rid of that tower, but the main reason is it’s obsolete,” she said.
Lane said at Wednesday’s FUPR meeting that the new tower needs to be placed somewhere in the downtown area so that police and emergency responders have adequate radio coverage in the downtown area, especially when they are inside downtown buildings. Lane said that precludes placing the new tower out at the law enforcement center, for instance.
The new tower would be a much larger and much more intrusive structure than the existing tower, Gehnert noted.
“We don’t know what size it will be yet until the engineer looks at it, but it’s going to be pretty large,” she said, referring the the base of the tower.
The size of the proposed tower led FUPR committee members to question the wisdom of rushing into a decision to build it right next to city hall.
“Why do you have to have it right here – a 180-foot tower – I don’t get it,” Councilman Mike Dryden said.
Besides arguing that the tower needed to be somewhere downtown for purposes of adequate radio coverage, Lane responded that having the tower next to city hall would “be more convenient here.”
Public Works Director Jack Rice raised concerns about taking away from the already limited parking at city hall when Lane proposed that the new tower would go up next to the “small parking area” next to the Firemen’s Park.
“That’s just what we need is fewer parking spots around here,” Rice said.
Lane countered that the tower “is not going to affect” those parking spots, but would instead primarily take up space in the small park area. Lane said he was keen to locate the tower there to “take some of this grass area away” so city firefighters have less grass to maintain.
Councilwoman Avis Anderson raised concerns about placing the tower next to city hall because, she argued, the city needs to begin looking at renovating the building, adding onto it or potentially building a new city hall altogether. She said the tower could prove an impediment against any future plans for the building itself if placed right next to it.
Councilman Rhett Coon suggested it might behoove the city to wait and consider options for putting the new tower at the city water treatment plant, pointing out it is slated to undergo a multimillion dollar renovation within the next couple of years.
Waiting on that may not be feasible, however, as Gehnert noted in her interview Friday that the grant money must be spent by Oct. 1, 2017 or it will be taken back.
During the FUPR meeting, Lane said he was simply asking for permission to build the tower and not for input on how the tower should be engineered or where it should be located.
Initially, the committee members resisted making the recommendation to the full council to go ahead. Dryden summed up the conversation to that point, noting that once the city gave permission to build the tower next to city hall, there was no turning back if they did not like the end result.
“It seems like we’re going whole hog and we don’t know the whole hog here,” Dryden said. “Once you grant that permission, no matter what happens to it, you’ve given that permission. And if this proves to be more problematic than what it sounds like right now, are we stuck with it?”
“I don’t think any of us are opposed to it, we understand the need,” Anderson added. “But I don’t know ... all the sudden you’ve got something sticking up in the middle of town. I’m looking at aesthetics ... I’d like to know what kind of structure we’re looking at.”
Lane responded that he would “keep (the council) in the loop” during the engineering and construction process and that he was “not going to build something half-ass.”
Mayor Jerry Jimison backed Lane’s request and suggested that the council give the request their approval, arguing that since they have given their approval for other entities to construct improvements on city property, they should not quibble with doing the same for a city department.
“You gave Revive Glendive permission to build the splash park on city property, you gave the Fitch Foundation permission to build the skate park on city property, you gave the Glendive Tennis Association permission to construct tennis courts on city property,” Jimison said. “It’s not like we don’t give permission to construct (on city property).”
With Jimison’s comment, the committee’s objections appeared to dissipate, and without discussing the matter further, they agreed to bring the matter to Tuesday’s council meeting with a recommendation to go ahead and give permission for construction of the tower.
Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.
By Anthony Varriano
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
The Glendive Unified School Board of Trustees approved a $73,209 bid from local contractor Richard Schwartz to repair the leaky roof over the science wing at Washington Middle School during a meeting held early Friday morning.
“We can go ahead with the low bid because it does not exceed the $80,000 threshold required by state law,” superintendent of schools Ross Farber said at the morning meeting, which was specifically scheduled to have a vote and get work started on the roof as soon as possible.
The roof has been in place since the early 1980s and has more than fulfilled its life expectancy, according to discussion. It’s been leaking for some time now, and WMS Principal Mark Goyette said at the GUSB regular monthly meeting held Monday that he’s afraid the water will begin damaging the floors of the science wing. Goyette hoped to get the work done before winter. That might be possible as temperatures are expected to remain in the 50s and 60s until Oct. 25.
Schwartz offered to do repairs on the entry way roof for free if his bid was accepted, which was roughly $16,000 less than a competing bid from Thiel Brothers Roofing out of Sidney.
“I just think, down the road, we could use that $16,000 on something,” Goyette said Friday.
Another expense WMS is facing involves technology, as Goyette said the computer labs aren’t reliable enough for testing and that tablets help. The school has raised almost $28,000 selling pies to specifically spend on tablets.
On Monday, the board also approved the spending of $5,602.50 that Jefferson Elementary School raised to purchase Chrome books. Jefferson Elementary School Principal Stephen Schreibeis said he’s in the process of purchasing 25 Chromebooks and a cart out of the activities fund, adding that he wants to buy one more cart so the school has a set of Chromebooks for each grade level. He’ll also be using box top monies to give the teachers who collected the most box tops four Chromebooks in their classrooms.
“We have these netbooks that we can’t even update anymore … Eventually, I want four Chromebooks in every single classroom,” he said.
Work in the JES basement is nearly complete. The new boiler is up and running and temperature regulators are still being installed. Schreibeis said they do have control over the temperature in some classrooms, but the problem now is the school is too warm.
Schreibeis is also implementing a policy for everyone to have a badge when entering the school.
“All staff are now wearing the badges, and we are working on getting badges for our substitutes and volunteers,” Schreibeis reported. “We really want to make sure everyone is checking into the office and there is a way that others can check if that is happening or not.”
Also on Monday, the GUSB approved Sunday travel and some transportation funding for the WMS Student Council to make an annual trip to the State Student Council Conference in Glasgow over the Halloween weekend.
Since the WMS student council representatives will be staying with host families, they requested $800 for transportation costs, half of which would be covered by the Circle Student Council if they join WMS on the trip.
DCHS Principal Wade Murphy requested to use activities funds to purchase five, $10,000 CDs (certificate of deposit) to “generate a little more income before we start spending all of it.” The fund is healthy right now and Murphy said the interest made by the CDs will be a good way to save up for future fuel, hotel and transportation costs. As distrcit classification change there may be longer road trips or more overnight road trips. That request was voted upon and passed unanimously.
New high school hires approved by the board include substitutes Tanya Holzer and Ricki Franks, accompanist Dorian Hrubes, custodian Alan Fife, concessionaire Bob Pierce, tech assistant Janna McCormick, and assistant boys basketball coach Trevor Houck. Elementary hires include WMS custodian Kenneth Reierson, substitute Maria Adiletto, mentor Nancy Pedersen, Jefferson custodian Dustin Wilburn, and at Lincoln custodian Linda Peel.
The next strategic planning board meeting is scheduled for Oct. 24 at 6:30 p.m. at DCHS.
Reach Anthony Varriano at rrsports@rangerreview.com.
By Bekah Welch
Community News Service
UM School of Journalism
A call to the phone number for Footloose Montana, the organization behind the initiative to ban trapping on Montana’s public lands, yields only an automated voice requesting you state your name for the party’s approval. Only if Footloose accepts your call will you be directed to organizer Chris Justice. The system was implemented after a series of anonymous death threats.
The phone security is one of the first hints of the intensity of the debate over the initiative, I-177. It’s also a fight that has been going on since a couple founded Footloose in 2007. The group has mounted two failed attempts to get I-177 on the ballot. This year, after nearly a decade, Justice and the group gathered enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.
Although a central argument against trapping is the negative effect on protected and endangered species, Footloose’s campaign has focused less on wild animals, and more on domesticated ones.
Just how big of a threat traps pose to pets is a point of contention between the two sides, but many proponents of the issue are people who have had their own pets injured in traps. Betsy Brandborg, who investigates complaints against lawyers for the Montana State Bar Association, is one of those advocates. Brandborg’s Airdale, Polly, had her trapped by leg-hold snares on three separate occasions near Helena. The first time was what sparked her interest in the issue.
The second was what solidified it.
That time she reported the incident hoping the state inspection would lead to some “common sense reform.” Instead, what she got was a call from Fish, Wildlife and Parks, requesting she pay a $300 ticket for springing two traps near the one that caught Polly.
For her, the push to ban trapping grew out of an unwillingness by the state to address the issue. After the ticket incident, she contacted FWP and offered to assemble a group of lawyers to reform trapping laws. She suggested trap-free zones, for example.
It was only after they dismissed her offer that she focused her efforts on I-177. Brandborg understands that trapping is a Montana tradition, pointing out her grandfather, father and brother trapped. However Brandborg makes a distinction between a Montana tradition and the type of trapping she sees in Helena.
“Make no mistake - this isn’t your grandfathers trapping. Your grandfather didn’t drive a four wheeler or $30,000 truck up the drainage and set dozens of traps in every direction,” Brandborg said.
Jason Maxwell, the vice president of the Montana Trappers Association, hates hearing stories like Polly’s. He has two dogs, a boxer and a wolfhound, and said trappers are not monsters. They’re not hoping to catch your pet, he contends and is quick to point that many times the traps that catch pets were illegally set in the first place.
For Maxwell, the solution is not a ban, but requiring trapper education classes. Idaho has adopted this rule, and it has led to significantly fewer accidental deaths and injuries, and as Maxwell hopes, fewer “misconceptions that give trappers such a bad reputation.”
But Maxwell and Toby Walrath, the president of the MTA, see I-177 as more than just a limit on trapping. Walrath sees it as an attack on Montanan’s access to their public lands. He argues the measure is the latest in a series of attacks by animal rights activists, adding that many other states that have faced similar measures, and that restricting bear and mountain lion hunts followed.
It is not only the 5,500 Montanans who purchased a recreational trapping license in 2015 who oppose the initiative. The Montana Stockgrowers Association, a non-profit organization that aims to protect ranchers’ rights, opposes I-177, saying it is too broad to allow ranchers to effectively protect their livestock form predators. Jay Bodner, the organization’s director of Natural Resources, says that although ranchers usually deploy traps on their own land, there are certain times of the year, like during calving season, when it is critical to be able to trap on nearby public lands.
But for some who support the ban, many of the ranchers’ arguments miss the point. Dave Pauli, of the Humane Society of the United States, says he understands why ranchers trap predators who may threaten their livelihood but, as he sees it, lethal trapping is removing the symptom, not the illness.
He says that trapping and killing coyotes or other predators may actually lead to sudden increases in coyote births, causing the cycle of livestock loss and killing coyotes to continue. He points to a three-year study performed by the environmentalist group Defenders of Wildlife in Idaho that found the use of flags, guard dogs, increased human presence and scare devices, such as spot lights and alarms, was highly successful in preventing livestock loss.
Bodner, who grew up in a ranching family near Great Falls, is not convinced. He says ranchers need to be able to use a variety of tools against predators, and many members of MSGA already employ non-lethal methods. But sometimes that’s not enough.
The proposal includes exemptions for ranchers, but Bodner notes that the rancher must prove they have already exhausted all other options. By that point, Bodner says, a rancher will have likely already lost a great deal of stock.
The complex questions raised by the initiative are now in the hands of voters and for Justice, that in itself is an accomplishment.
“No matter what happens, I’m just glad Montanans finally get a chance to vote on it.”
By Jason Stuart
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
Following a three-month search, Montana State Parks has announced the hiring of a new manager for Makoshika State Park.
Chris Dantic, currently manager of Chief Plenty Coups State Park in Pryor, will take over the helm at Makoshika on Nov. 6. In addition to managing Makoshika, Dantic will also oversee management of Pirogue Island State Park in Miles City, Medicine Rocks State Park in Ekalaka and Brush Lake State Park near Dagmar.
Dantic is a native of Laurel, Mont., where his family owned the local grocery store. His wife Lisa is a native of Miles City and the couple has two young sons. He holds a bachelor’s of science degree in history from Eastern Oregon University.
Dantic is a long-time employee of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. He has worked with Montana State Parks since 2003 and has been manager at Chief Plenty Coups for the past three years. He also previously worked in both the Fish and Wildlife divisions of FWP before joining Parks, according to Region 5 Park Manager Doug Habermann. Before going to work for FWP, he had also worked for the Bureau of Land Management at Pompey’s Pillar National Monument outside of Billings.
Habermann said Dantic’s time as manager at Chief Plenty Coups should make him well-prepared to take over management at Makoshika.
“It’s very similar in a lot of ways to Makoshika. He was very involved with the community there and they have a very strong friends group (like the Friends of Makoshika),” Habermann said. “He’s a good hand and well-versed in the system and knows how to get things done.”
Habermann said the final decision on the position came down to two “very good finalists,” but it was Dantic’s familiarity with the inner workings of State Parks and the challenges the agency faces which pushed him to the top because he had the “benefits of knowing the system.”
“Chris understands the administrative side of things and he’s already got a strong network in the state system,” Habermann said. “But he’ll show a lot of other abilities and talents over time.”
Makoshika has been left well-positioned for Dantic to come in and succeed, Habermann added, crediting Dantic’s predecessors for all the hard work they have done to push forward new projects in the park. He said previous park manager Nathan Powell “left the park in really good shape” and credited park ranger Tom Shoush for doing “a great job as interim manager” over the last three months.
With a new manager now in place, the switchbacks finally getting paved this week and a hard push to get a water line to the park campground in the works, amongst other things, Habermann said it is a very exciting time for Makoshika and its future.
“I see only good things happening,” he said.
Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.
