Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
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The Glasgow Police Department is investigating the origin of highly concentrated THC oils—commonly called DABS—that sent four Glasgow teens to the hospital on April 2 after they smoked the oils. According to a press release from Chief of Police Brien Gault, officers arrived at a southside Glasgow home Friday afternoon after a 911 call indicated the teens were unresponsive from possible drug use. “The Officer was advised that there were four unresponsive juveniles at the location that had ingested drugs possibly laced with an unknown subst...
The Valley County Care Coalition has taken their mission over the past year to heart. As the world faced a pandemic, the health issues that face Valley County have not faded away and the coalition has pushed programs, events and support for issues like substance abuse, mental health, fitness and nutrition and, looking forward, youth needs and even a youth coalition. In 2019, Frances Mahon Deaconess Hospital conducted a community needs assessment survey and identified a number of public health concerns from the county’s residents. At that t...
The County Commissioners gave the Hinsdale Ambulance Service the final boost needed to purchase a new ambulance for western Valley County. Using monies raised from payments on low-interest rural development loans from decades past in Hinsdale, the commissioners were able to present the ambulance service with a check for $50,230.77 and bringing the campaign to the total amount needed to buy a new ambulance for just under $150,000. County Commissioner John Fahlgren told the public while presenting...
It was a different kind of year for the Fort Peck Summer Theatre and the Fort Peck Fine Arts Council thanks to COVID. Had everything been normal in 2020 and 2021, they would have been hosting their 20th annual auction fundraiser, but last year they were forced to cancel their 19th and this year they were forced to change the format, broaden the timeline and compensate for an upcoming season that will take place amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. In a normal year, the fundraiser includes a...
Hinsdale has been without natural gas services since March 19 after multiple leaks were reported and detected in the community raising concerns that the problem was widespread and required the company to halt services. According to Montana-Dakota Utilities spokesman Mark Hanson, the decision to halt services was made on Friday and the community was notified of the interruption and a plan to fix the pipes was initiated. Hanson told the Courier that the company received a call early last week...
The US Department of Veteran Affairs vaccinated 94 area veterans on March 11 adding to the hundreds of county residents who have received the vaccine through various programs. The effort is being funded and led by the VA to assist with the vaccination effort across the country. As of the March 11 clinic in Glasgow, more than 6,800 doses of the three types of vaccines to vets across the Big Sky accounting for over 14 percent of the Montana VA’s 47,000 enrolled veterans. The clinic in Glasgow was also the first time the Montana Veterans Health S...
Valley View Home will reopen their doors to the public on March 22 after more than a year of excluding open visitation to non-residents. According to Valley View Home administrator, Wes Thompson, the home is calling it a soft open and it comes with some caveats. Mainly, unscheduled visitation can only occur during business hours on weekdays, and even then, the visitors must check in with the office secretary before they can visit their resident. Visitors will be screened for symptoms, must wear a mask, must wash hands and can opt to be rapid te...
District Judge Yvonne Laird either affirmed or modified four key findings from the Human Rights Commission’s decision in the sexual harassment case of Shalaine Lawson Vs. NorVal Electric Cooperative in late February. In the Feb. 24 decision, Laird affirmed or reinforced every challenged aspect of the HRC’s findings that NorVal Electric and General Manager Craig Herbert sexually harassed Lawson, created a hostile work environment and retaliated against her once she filed a complaint with the HRC. Laird also affirmed the findings of emo...
The Glasgow Scottie Wrestlers claimed their 14th State Championship Title in Shelby on March 5 and 6. The Class B/C State Wrestling Tournament followed a different format this year due to COVID-19 and, as a result, the Class B/C portion was moved from the Metra in Billings and held in Shelby, Mont. The tournament was also split into sessions on March 5 with the morning running through the lighter weight divisions and the afternoon-into evening-session running through the heavier weight...
The word of the day was "disappointed" as community and business leaders from Northeast Montana sat down with Montana's newly minted governor, Greg Gianforte, to discuss the effects and emotions surrounding President Biden's decision to rescind a key permit needed to go forward with TC Energy's construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. "Our first response to the president's action was disappointment and really a sadness over the work that has gone into trying to make this pipeline a reality...
The evenings of Feb. 14 and 15 were filled with a message of love, of hardship and of despair that came in the form of Love Letters-an epistolary play that takes place within the letters between a man and a woman over 50 years and chronicles a tumultuous relationship punctuated by ups and downs and accented by comedy. But the real message of the night was one of charity and love directed at Chayten Pippin and his family from the event's main cast, FPST veterans and the shows immediate sponsors,...
The Montana Senate voted on party lines to reject the appointment of Andrew McKean of Valley County to the Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission on Feb. 19. The vote to reject McKean passed 31 to 18 with the entire Republican caucus voting against and the entire Democratic Caucus voting in favor of McKean. In November of 2020, then-Governor Steve Bullock appointed McKean to serve out the remainder of former commissioner Logan Brower's term, who moved from Scobey to Helena that same year. McKean's...
A Valley County Sheriff’s Deputy was promptly fired in late January after an investigation by the Sheriff’s Office determined he misused a sensitive government database known as the Criminal Justice Information Network (CJIN). According to Valley County Sheriff Tom Boyer, the deputy was placed on administrative leave as soon as the incident was reported and then fired immediately after the investigation determined wrongdoing had occurred. The Courier requested a statement from Sheriff Boyer regarding the investigation details and the ide...
An Arctic Air Mass moved in from the north and settled over much of the United States during the last week and a half bringing with it dangerously low temperatures and wind chills across all of Montana. The bitter cold arriving in early February seemed especially harsh in northeast Montana and snapped Valley County out of a relatively warm and mild January and into more than a week's worth of continuous sub-zero temperatures giving the region its first prolonged taste of Winter so far in 2021....
Montana Governor Greg Gianforte issued an executive order on Feb. 12 allowing the statewide mask mandate to expire following his signing of a law protecting businesses from COVID-related liabilities. The news was not a surprise. Gianforte had said he intended to lift the mandate once businesses were shielded from liability by the Montana state legislature and a significant number of vulnerable residents had been vaccinated. “Since January 5th, I have provided a clear, consistent path to rescinding the mask mandate,” Governor Gianforte sai...
"Valley County, we are headed in the wrong direction." Those were the opening words to a letter from Valley County Health Department Director, Lynn Miller, on Feb. 4 to the entire county. In the letter Miller highlighted a number of issues with the county's rising COVID-19 numbers, a disregard for social distancing, the still-in-effect mask mandate and the slow pace of vaccinations. "On one hand we have our older residents who are very concerned for their health, concerned about contracting...
US Representative for Montana, Matt Rosendale, and Montana US Senator Steve Daines have introduced legislation to attempt to reverse President Joe Biden’s revocation of a key permit issued to TC Energy for the Keystone XL pipeline to cross into the United States from Canada at the border in Phillips County. The decision made on President Biden’s first day in office had been long forecast. Biden had campaigned on the promise that he would make revoking Keystone XL a first-day event—a promise he ultimately kept. Nonetheless, the decision has gene...
Valley County is revamping the way they will administer the COVID-19 vaccine to the Phase 1B qualified persons in February. According to the Valley County Health Department, the new method of selecting persons to be vaccinated will transition to a first-come-first-serve basis. The rollout in January had been by a lottery selection of those who had signed up for the initial wave of vaccines to those most at risk of the virus. In essence, the system will transition from a random selection of...
Over two dozen people attended a Jan. 28 forum hosted by the US Dept. of Justice to discuss racial bias, hate crimes and law enforcement with members of the community. The were two panels—one made up of representatives from the Fort Peck Tribes, the Montana Racial Equity Project and the Montana American Civil Liberties Union and the other made up of Sheriff Tom Boyer, Assistant Police Chief Tyler Edwards, Glasgow City Attorney Anna Rose Sullivan, FBI Agent Steven Hymas and Assistant United States Attorney Brendan McCarthy. Meshayla Cox, A...
The Valley County Health Department announced the county entered phase 1B of the state's COVID-19 vaccination plan on Jan. 21. The transition marks a shift in vaccine priority from healthcare workers to citizens in high-risk categories such as the elderly and those with medical conditions. In order to receive the vaccine, residents must contact the health department to be added to the list. The health department has already started planning for mass vaccination events to include one scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 27 as of press time. The...
The Valley County Conservation District and county sheriff Tom Boyer are asking for help from the public in seeking answers to a curious case of unauthorized use and vandalism of the district's tractor and rototiller and the straight-up theft of the district's disc. The Sheriff is encouraging the public to come forward with information on the events which occurred throughout 2020 and cost the district more than $13,000 in damage and loss. "This is still an active investigation," he explained,...
The US Department of Justice will host a digital “hate crime forum” for residents of Valley County and surrounding areas on Jan. 28. The platform will present perspectives from Montana residents on their own experiences with hate crimes as well as a panel of federal, state and local law enforcement on how federal law defines hate crimes and how such crimes are treated and investigated. Glasgow Mayor Becky Erickson told the Courier that the forum was the idea of the US DOJ and that they make the offer to any Montana town. She pointed out that su...
Law Enforcement in Frazer has been a perennial enigma for the Valley County Sheriff. Due to its Tribal citizenry, Frazer has been a sort of no-go zone for county sheriff's deputies in the past, and a lack of cross-deputization between tribal law enforcement and VCSO makes enforcing the law in Frazer difficult and cumbersome. Recent efforts to give Frazer's residents a sense of security and support from the county have yielded fruit though. According to Sheriff Tom Boyer, a Jan. 8 call from a...
Glasgow High School Senior Emma Wall was one of only four students recognized by the statewide Jobs for Montana Graduates organization this year for an essay she wrote about her JMG experience and what that experience has meant for her life. The essay competition gives 11th and 12th-grade students an opportunity to showcase how JMG benefits their personal and career goals. “It’s really about how JMG has helped me come into myself,” explained Wall, discussing her essay. She went on to describe difficulties overcoming a deeply personal child...
Valley County added 23 positive cases to their COVID-19 totals between Jan. 6 and 11, and a tenth Valley County resident died as a result of contracting the disease. In a statement released on Jan. 7, the Valley County Health Department said, “Valley County confirms a second death last week [Dec. 27 to Jan. 2] of a man in his 80s from COVID-19 illness and complications. We express deep sympathy to his family and loved ones. We have now lost 10 persons to COVID-19 and its complications.” The additional cases bring the total number of Valley Cou...
