Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
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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...
The Glasgow City Council has advanced an ordinance to expand the city’s current snow removal ordinance to include measures for the city’s removal of snow from residential and business sidewalks and bill the property owners. Ordinance No. 973 passed unanimously at the council’s Dec. 21 meeting and will head to second reading in January. The ordinance, according to council president Rod Karst, is modeled after the city’s weedy lot ordinance which was passed earlier this year. That ordinance aimed to encourage the grooming and maintenance of city...
Valley County Health Department director Lynn Miller announced at a special meeting of the board of health on Dec. 21 that the county will receive 200 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to administer to frontline health care workers. Miller said the doses will be divvied up between Frances Mahon Deaconess Hospital, STAT Air and local ambulance services. She also explained that the county received the Moderna version of the vaccine which requires less in the way of transportation and storage. The Pfizer vaccine, which was available first, requires a...
The Valley County Board of Health has appointed Daniels County Health Officer Mary Nyhus to serve as the interim county health officer for up to six months. The move comes after Dr. Anne Millard resigned from the position effective Jan. 1, 2021 after three years on the job. Nyhus is a registered nurse who has served as the Daniels County health officer for a number of years. The board of health decided after a closed meeting on Dec. 21 to discuss Nyhus' credentials to hire her as health officer and Malta-based Family Nurse Practitioner Christy...
When Pam Weinmeister's career at the Glasgow office of the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation began over 37 years ago, it had a familiar start for some in northeast Montana. "I needed a job," she explained. "My husband was a farmer and we just weren't making it." So, she applied to work as a compliance technician in the water rights division of the local DNRC office, and she never left. After 34 years in the role, she took a promotion as Water Rights Specialist and she even...
Dr. Anne Millard has formally announced her resignation from the position as Valley County Health Officer effective Jan. 1, 2021. She will remain a primary care provider at Frances Mahon Deaconess. Millard gave notice to the board of health before Thanksgiving and officially informed them at their regular meeting on Dec. 8. She has been in the position for three years. Millard spoke to the Courier the evening of Dec. 9 about her resignation, the COVID pandemic and her time in the position before...
Ex-Valley County undersheriff Luke Strommen was sentenced to 40 years in the Montana State Prison on Dec. 8 for the crime of repeatedly raping a 14-year-old girl. Missoula District Judge John Larson handed down the sentence while allowing for the possibility of parole after ten years served. Strommen was found guilty after a jury trial found that he had initiated a non-consensual sexual relationship with the victim when she was 14 and that he continued raping her for years while as a Valley...
The number of deaths in Valley County caused by COVID-19 rose to eight last week as cases climbed to nearly 600 confirmed infected with the coronavirus. According to the Valley County Health Departmen.t there were 41 active cases in the area as of Dec. 7. Of the 599 total cases reported, 550 had recovered and eight had passed away as of Dec. 1. Accompanying the Dec. 1 weekly report on countywide COVID cases, the Health Department added, “A man in his 50s and a man in his 70s have died from COVID-19 and its complications. These two men are l...
Less than 24 hours after the Valley County Board of Health issued an updated health order tightening COVID-mitigating measures in the county, Governor Bullock further tightened his own health measures limiting business capacities and decreasing crowd sizes at almost all events and venues. The governor’s order issued on Nov. 17, will limit capacity in bars, restaurants, breweries, distilleries, and casinos, limits public gatherings to 25 individuals where social distancing is not possible, and requires face coverings in all counties r...
The Valley County Health Board passed an updated health order on Nov. 16 expanding on orders issued by the governor of Montana and tightening COVID-19-prevention restrictions on crowd sizes regardless of setting, ability to social distance and whether the venue is outdoors. The order came after four public meetings spanning more than a month. In each meeting public comments, updates from local health care institutions, government and businesses dragged out a debate about what the county could do to curb what, in October, appeared to be a...
There have been over 700 opioid overdose fatalities in Montana since 2000. Many of those deaths were not the result of illicit drugs, but rather due to the use of prescription drugs for pain. In response, the state has sought to field overdose-reversing drugs and put them in the hands of EMTs, law enforcement and care providers to prevent those deaths. One way Valley County is doing this is through a grant administered by the Valley County Care Coalition that funds training and prescriptions...
The Valley County Sheriff is reporting part-time Valley County resident Carl Mann drowned the morning of Nov. 20 after falling through the ice covering the Trout Pond near Fort Peck, Mont. He was 71 years old. Sheriff Tom Boyer told the Courier, Mann was out hunting when his dog traveled out onto the ice and fell through. After the dog was unable to self-rescue, Mann attempted to retrieve the dog and fell through the ice as well. After several failed attempts to rescue the dog and himself, Mann eventually succumbed to the cold and slipped...
A pair of lawsuits filed in Federal Court in Great Falls in early November allege Valley County failed to act in protecting the then-underage victims of ex-Undersheriff and convicted sex offender Luke Strommen when he sexually abused and raped them while on duty as a Valley County Sheriff’s Deputy. The two women, now adults, filed separate lawsuits through the same attorneys last week seeking to hold Valley County responsible for what they see as a failure to protect them. The complaints stated that the county should have been aware that Stromm...
Sherri Turner's decades-long career at the Valley County Sheriff's Office is coming to a close this November after Turner announced her retirement earlier in the year. When she leaves her job as the VCSO administrative assistant this month she will have worked a total of 37 years for the county and served a total of seven different sheriffs-starting with Dan Taylor and ending with current Sheriff Tom Boyer. Turner had never intended to end up in Valley County. She was originally from Omaha,...
It became the comically contentious subject of 2020, but a two-year effort to change the law in Glasgow to allow for the raising of chickens has failed after being placed before the voters of Valley County. With a 329-vote margin, the people of Glasgow rejected Glasgow City Ordinance No. 971 for hens to be raised in the city limits. The total votes were 1,049 voting against and only 720 voting in favor. The ordinance was spearheaded by Madelyn House, who moved to Glasgow and had hopes of...
A lot will have changed between press time and the arrival of this newspaper, but Valley County's votes have been tallied and counted and the results are in. In total, 4,327 people cast their ballots across all three of the county's precincts out of 5,136 registered voters. That puts the county's turnout rate at just over 84 percent. As of election night the race for President between incumbent Donald Trump and Joe Biden had not been called in favor of either candidate. In Montana's race for...
The Valley County Health Department reported the 400th case of COVID-19 in the county on Nov. 2. The total case count is a sharp increase from the beginning of October when the county was reporting just over 140 cases on Oct. 7. Of the total number of cases, 338 have recovered, 57 are active and five have passed away. Out of the total 400 cases, the county has hospitalized 36 patients, making the rate of hospitalization nine percent. As of Oct. 2, 9 people were hospitalized in Valley County. Seven were positive for COVID and two awaiting test...
It wasn't as simple as packing a bag and getting on the plane like years before. In fact, getting to Australia as a National Weather Service Incident Meteorologist-IMET for short-required a good deal of preparation, not least of which was applying for an official passport to work as a US government employee overseas. But after answering the call from the Australian Government, filing the paperwork, getting said passport, packing a bag and saying goodbye, NWS IMET Patrick Gilchrist was on his...
During a public meeting of the Valley County Board of Health, alongside representatives from Frances Mahon Deaconess Hospital, STAT Air Ambulance, Prairie Ridge, Valley View Home, the Chamber of Commerce and county health officer Anne Millard, one issue became clear—health infrastructure in Valley County was starting to feel the pressure brought on by an increase in COVID-19 cases. Board of Health chair Clay Berger presided over the meeting on Oct. 21 and opened by stating the meeting’s purpose to “one, establish an open line of commu...
