Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
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Dear Editor, "What does American Prairie do for the community?" As the organization's Senior Outreach Manager, and a Lewistown resident, I'm grateful to reflect on that question at the start of a new year. First, American Prairie is part of this community. The same number of employees live in Fergus and Phillips Counties as in Bozeman – and this number will grow. Seven of us reside in Fergus County along with our partners and spouses, kids, parents, and even grandparents. We own and rent h...
Memories for you cattle and maybe pork producers that market at Glasgow Livestock Sales. Do you as producers, or more likely the outside staff of workers at the sales yard, remember when cattle were loaded directly into railroad stock cars for shipment? This may have been a year-round procedure but was definitely used in the fall of the year. I do not remember, nor was I ever involved in that process, but did cattle spend the night on board before departure time? Yes, I do remember the placing of hay bales in the cars, so I am sure they...
Dear Editor, Recently there has been a media blast by John Deere claiming a Memorandum of Understanding signed with American Farm Bureau Federation provides right to repair for farmers, ranchers, and independent repair shops. A closer look at the non-legally binding document shows the devil is in the details. John Deere signed a similar MOU in 2018, with the California Farm Bureau, when the California legislature was on the verge of passing a right to repair bill. Their strategy worked as the bi...
Dear Editor, I have just come back from giving testimony on the Medicaid rates for nursing homes in Montana. It was a well-run hearing. The Governor presented his budget proposal. There were over 40 opponents stating that their nursing home or assisted living facility would be closed or stop providing for Medicaid residents if they didn't get more help than the Governor is proposing. The Governor said the people want to have home care, so he proposed significantly cutting the home care budget?...
I listened to Brian Austin on “Under the Big Sky” and noted that he did forget to mention the rendering plant at the old Milk River Bridge site. This was in operation during the early days of my marriage. This building was used to render the lard from the fat from processed pork. These renderings were used for pet food as well as human consumption. We often purchased some renderings for dog food and stored them in our basement way. One evening while we were playing cards with relatives, my girls and their cousins entertained themselves by thr...
Dear Editor, What do hunting, huckleberries, honoring our veterans, and accountability for taxpayer money have in common? Two things. The first is that they're all strongly supported by Montanans. The second is that we're already well on our way to putting big wins on the board this legislative session that involve all of them. Let's start with hunting. We recently had the first hearing on a bill that will double the annual cap on money that private landowners can receive for allowing public...
Dear Editor, The 68th Montana Legislature is officially in session, and the House has already gaveled in. This year the state faces a unique challenge of deciding how to spend a $2 billion surplus. As Leadership of the Montana House, our response to that challenge is supporting House Bill 192, introduced by Representative Bill Mercer of Billings. The bill entails three initiates: refund taxpayers on overpaid income taxes, alleviate the property tax crunch and reduce the state's debt. This...
Dear Editor, The 68th Montana Legislature is officially in session. As Senate leadership, we're excited to see Senate Republicans getting to work on enacting conservative policy for our state. The last time the Legislature met, we successfully passed a conservative balanced budget, cut taxes for individuals and businesses, secured our Second Amendment rights, invested in public access to public lands and high speed broadband, and passed legislation to protect the unborn and further secure our el...
Do you remember when Monday was wash day and Tuesdays were for ironing? Before ironing you needed to sprinkle the clothing. Does anyone remember this handy sprinkling device and are they available anymore?...
Dear Editor, As Montanans, we care for each other. Across the rural-urban divide, generational divide, and Brawl of the Wild divide. Of all our constituents across Montana, the most deserving are our elderly neighbors who are on Medicaid benefits. They have served Montana well, and at this final stage in their lives seek the promise of compassionate, medically appropriate care. Most of them are out of money, have used up their care options with family members and loved ones, and cannot afford...
How many of you mothers received a bottle of Evening in Paris Cologne, in that lovely blue bottle, for a Christmas gift or a fancy lace handkerchief for Christmas? Many men receive hankies for gifts also. If hubby or Daddy was an outside person his hankie was usually blue or red but if you were an inside professional, the choice would have been a white hankie. I have seen the colored men’s hankies in stores today, but I don’t see the fancy boxed hankies. These must all be a thing of the past. I am sure that there is a list of present-day fav...
Dear Valley County Voters, Elections are still in the news. After our last election, Stan Ozark reported over 700 mail ballots were not returned. That is sad and shameful. Voting is our responsibility. Stan also made mention, maybe impressed, that the majority of votes in Valley County are absentee (mail) ballots. Well, no wonder! Several years back, the commissioners approved the Election Administrators request to combine all polling places into Glasgow, in order to save the cost of voting...
Dear Lynn, I was remiss today when I received my booster vaccination and did not personally thank you for all that you have done during this pandemic. As we have discussed, this has been the most difficult of times. Yet, for so many of us you and your staff were supportive, you provided helpful information, you obtained the vaccines and timely provided the distribution and you did it all in the most professional manner. Again, thank you and wishing you the best always. Sincerely, David L....
Dear Editor, I'm not a pro-marijuana guy. I voted against Montana's adult-use cannabis initiative (I-190) in the 2020 election. However, since Montanans approved the initiative and recreational marijuana has taken effect in our state, I've been committed to following the will of the voters and making sure our new system works safely and effectively. One of the biggest barriers to that objective is outdated federal law that causes problems for states that have legalized cannabis. In America, our...
Remembering rail services from the past. Remember some of the elementary classes in the Glasgow school used to get to take a train trip to Malta, which for many students would be their first train trip in their lives. I do not remember how they returned home, just maybe there was a passenger train that headed to Glasgow a little later in the day. Or how about those of you that got to make trips to Great Falls by train. My mom and sisters traveled the train to Kansas City several times so I do have many memories of dining cars, Conductors, and...
Sweet potatoes have always been on the menu for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and what a shock to look for canned Sweet Potatoes, find a can on the shelf, only to find a can of CUT YAMS, read the ingredients, which are listed as SWEET POTATOES in light syrup. Is this false information or what? Technically they are not the same. Not really an issue as they are so similar, but I do find it interesting as to how things change over the years. I might mention if you might think you will buy a box of lemon pudding mix for your lemon pie check the...
Dear Editor, It is no secret that the cost of living is significantly higher than it was a year ago. Things are tough out there for a lot of people. If you or someone you know is struggling to pay their home energy bill, please contact Action for Eastern Montana (AEM) in Glendive at 1-800-227-0703. Help is available in various forms such as emergency bill assistance through Energy Share of Montana or LIHEAP (formerly called LIEAP). AEM handles applications for both programs. Energy Share is for...
Remembering dress codes of the past. Remember when you as a female, could not wear pants to school. You may remember the indignity of having to wear long pants under your dress as you walked to school on days like some of our recent ones. And you never wore pants to church, weddings, funerals, or other social things. Many outings required hats and dress gloves. It has been easy for me to forget the head coverings and gloves, but somewhere along the line I must have been chastised many times about “proper attire” as I still have dif...
I saw in item on Facebook the other day that featured a roll of “caps,” wondering if anyone remembered what they were. Of course, most of us would remember, as most of my generation had a cap gun at one time or another. Now to get a little personal, we have one today. It is a small little pistol looking gun. Of course, I had to order ammo for it. The rolls of caps are not what they use to be! The roll is a little narrower, and the percussion dots much closer together. This tells me that I may still be able to purchase these fun toys if I wer...
When you are traveling some of our highways like from Glasgow to Opheim, Nashua, or Malta, do you ever think of the old road that took you to those places? If you are observant you can often distinguish the old road bed. You can still travel a good part of the old highway between Malta and Glasgow, but I am pretty sure that the old roads going to Glasgow from Nashua and Opheim are pretty much gone. I know I have mentioned it before, but you used to even get to stop for an occasional train crossing the track on the Opheim highway. Of course...
PAID POLITICAL CONTENT Dear Editor, This is not an abortion issue. This is a humanity issue. I am a family medicine doctor from a rural community in eastern Montana. From the time I started my undergraduate degree in pre-medicine, I have been committed to returning to practice full-scope family medicine in a rural and underserved community. Delivering babies has been a primary goal of mine. I love watching families grow and helping mothers bring new life into this world. The majority of the...
Dear Editor, Last spring our commissioners decided to terminate the Refuse Board, thinking they could do a better job. Yet in the months since, they still have not acted on a $3,000 engineering study or a new rate structure. The topic turned out to be "more complicated." Also, this spring at a public meeting, our commissioners saw fit to give $500,000 of the $1.3 million in federal funds, meant for Valley County, to Valley View Home as a band aid to the Home's Budget. The comment in the meeting...
Dear Editor, We write this letter with the hope of reaching as many Montana Veterans and their family members as possible regarding the recent passage of the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act sponsored by Senator Jon Tester. The PACT Act is a historic new law that expands VA health care and benefits for Veterans – and their survivors. It recognizes toxic exposure as a “cost of war” by addressing the full range of issues impacting toxic-exposed Veterans. Native American Veterans serve their country at a higher rate per capit...
Do you remember when you took a bath once a week, and maybe in a tin wash tub? What about how often did you wash your hair? Or do you remember wearing curlers or pin curls to school? I must admit that I do not remember ever going to school with curlers or bobby pins in my hair, but I do remember starting eighth grade and having a new teacher that laid out her rules to us on the first day. One was NO curlers or pin curls worn to school! There were several rules we thought were tough, so you can imagine our surprise when we got to listen to the...
PAID POLITICAL CONTENT Dear Editor, If government ran more like the private sector, government would be better. Having spent most of my 30-year career in the private sector, I agree. I earned a role as the Senior Director of Operations for a company that employed 8,000 trade workers whose skill and experience determined whether we succeeded. We worked on Military assets, so failure was not an option. The private sector posts job openings including the required skills/experience and applicants...
