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  • Considering APR Control of Local Land

    Sara Pankratz Warren, Local Voices|Sep 16, 2015

    Being the eternal optimist that I am, I initially hoped that the Glasgow Courier’s Probing the Project column would finally help to open up communication between the American Prairie Reserve (APR) and the local community along the Hi Line. Based off of the APR’s responses to various questions, it seems like the APR lacks the capability to answer difficult questions with any hard data or substance and even evaded questions all together. What I did learn is that the APR is unwilling to devote funds directed towards public relations in our loc...

  • Yes, OK, but...Why?

    Virgil Vaupel, Thanks For Listening|Sep 16, 2015

    That’s the question I have asked the folks at the American Prairie Reserve but have as yet failed to receive an answer I could swallow. Yeah, I know. “Why” is a question a three-year-old would ask. Again and again. And the tot will usually get an answer to his “Why” very similar to what I get when I ask “Why.” When I ask “Why Montana?” the APR’s stock answer is something like this: The northeastern portion of Montana was chosen because for its lack of human population, making it easier to acquire properties. One rancher or one hundred, these...

  • "Just the facts, ma'am."

    Sandy Laumeyer, Just A Thought|Sep 16, 2015

    Some years ago there was a program on television called Dragnet. One of the detectives in the show would say “Just the facts, ma’am.” So, here are the facts. In October of 2014 I was told my cancer had metastasized to my bones. A malignant tumor had been found in my right hip. Since then I’ve had six radiation treatments and they have helped considerably with my pain. About two months ago, I began having pain in my right hip, along the top of my right thigh, and in the lower part of my pelvis . . . the sit bones. I made a call to the radiati...

  • Letters to the Editor

    Sep 9, 2015

    More Criticism for the Critic I’m deeply saddened by the critic’s article about “Steel Magnolias” printed in the Courier. I drove from Havre with my family to support the Fort Peck Theatre on Saturday, Sept. 29, and I’m so happy we didn’t read the article before we came. All of us we very entertained and thought that the play was wonderful. All of the actresses did a fabulous job and brought laughter and tears to the whole audience, the few that attended, that night. I believe the critic’s review probably harmed the attendance, what a shame....

  • Harvest Memories

    Gwen Cornwell, Remember When|Sep 9, 2015

    Harvest is in full swing, some being about finished, and others just beginning. Being a farm girl, my mind was flooded with “remembers” the other day while doing a little driving off of the beaten path. Now, I grew up in a home where girls were to stay in the house and help their mothers, however we were also expected to go beyond taking meals to the field whenever a truck driver was needed. How many of you remember the frustration of not knowing how to use a clutch correctly and missing a gear of two, or trying to get the truck lined up wit...

  • The Thanks for Listening Bailout Plan

    Virgil Vaupel, Thanks For Listening|Sep 9, 2015

    I was sitting here listening to the PBS World News while foundering myself on hot chocolate, with real milk and eating a pound and a half of stale, moldy Christmas cookies when a plan started whirling around in my previously empty head. My computer tells me the United States has military presence in at least 60 countries around the world causing a huge depletion to the “federal coffers,” of “taxpayers donations.” Money to put a “World Police Force” out there comes from fees paid to the United Nations by every member country in the world. The...

  • Picnics Past and Present

    Sandy Laumeyer, Just A Thought|Sep 9, 2015

    This coming Sunday, the congregations of Queen of Angels in Nashua, St. Albert’s in Hinsdale, Holy Family in Glentana, and St. Raphael’s in Glasgow will gather for an outdoor Mass followed by a potluck picnic at Kiwanis Park in Fort Peck. As I was perusing my recipe book—recipes I’ve gathered over the past almost 20 years—I was remembering other parish picnics and remembering what dishes I’d taken to share. I’d have 10 times the recipes to look through had it not been for losing my recipes twice to house fires. Not only did memories of a...

  • Reading into Rhetoric

    Sierra Stoneberg-Holt, Local Voices|Sep 2, 2015

    I was disappointed in the Aug. 14, 2015 Great Falls Tribune article, “Restoring buffalo is an act of healing” by the National Wildlife Federation. The article claims that “[Original Americans’] lives centered on a close relationship with buffalo for thousands of years.” And yet, it proposes “restoring buffalo in and around the million-acre Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge.” I firmly believe that buffalo and Original Americans were part of a vital dual-species keystone species complex. Neither species could operate in its old, keyston...

  • Letters to the Editor

    Sep 2, 2015

    “Hi-Line Heart and Soul” The recent articles by James Walling and Mark Herbert raise important questions about how our way of life and our heritage will be impacted by the American Prairie Reserve’s (APR) desire to turn Montana’s Hi Line into North America’s largest Serengeti. Prior to these articles, discussions with APR have been largely one-sided and questions and concerns from the local community have been brushed aside. Will the APR’s work to save “free roaming bison” from extinction eradicate a sizable portion of Montana’s agric...

  • Less is More, More or Less

    Virgil Vaupel, Thanks For Listening|Sep 2, 2015

    Thanks for listening is being brought to you this evening via wireless radio. I remember my grandmother actually using fire to cook meals. She used a wood stove and made some of the tastiest meals known to man (except when she served mutton of course). Now it’s fireless cooking with microwave ovens and crock pots. Remember using a key to open your house or car or motel room? Today we’re living in a keyless society. Back in the day when you got a flat tire on your one-speed balloon-tired bicycle, it usually could be fixed with a patch on the...

  • Looking with Hearts

    Sandy Laumeyer, Just A Thought|Sep 2, 2015

    Every once in a while we are surprised at what happens in this journey called Life. Our day-to-day existence often becomes rather routine, but occasionally our lives receive a bit of a jolt to remind us how good life really can be. Several weeks ago a string of surprises in my life began with a visit from my 17-year-old grandson whom I’d not saw for quite a few months. Although his stay was a very short one, just several hours, it was indeed a pleasure to talk with him, give him a hug, and even a couple of little treats for him to eat on his w...

  • Attendance and Graduation Matter

    Denise Juneau, MT Superintendent of Public Instruction|Aug 26, 2015

    Montana’s students have one of the most important jobs in the state: showing up to school each day. Students who attend class every day are more likely to succeed academically and later on in life. These students will perform better in reading and math, they have a greater chance of graduating from high school, and they’ll be better prepared for college and a meaningful career. Still, for some students, the simple act of showing up to school each day may not be that easy. Students who miss just 18 days each year, that’s two days per month...

  • Open Letter on PRMP/FEIS

    David Pippin, Valley County Voices|Aug 26, 2015

    Dear Governor Bullock: I, David Pippin, a lifelong resident of Valley County (political subdivision of the State of Montanan), do here by protest the “HiLine Proposed Resource Management Plan and Final Environmental Impact Statement (PRMP/FEIS)" on foundation herein. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), contrary to the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) and the Data Quality Act (DQA) have ignored many pertinent facts, previously published in a BLM sponsored study publications, and not preformed the requirements for a document of this magnitude...

  • Fire Truck Levy

    Becky Erickson, Letter To The Editor|Aug 26, 2015

    “Fire Truck Levy” To Glasgow Residents, The proposed city resolution to create a special improvement district to fund a portion of a used fire truck has raised the question of how long the levy will be in place. The intent of this levy is for the yearly payment of $25,601.28, be paid for 15 years, until the amount of $350,000.00 is paid in full. At that time the levy will cease. If this resolution is passed, property owners will be assessed .0020 per 100 square feet on their property. An example: our family home at 640 6th Ave. North has 9,1...

  • What's In a Name?

    Ron Stoneberg, Letter To The Editor|Aug 26, 2015

    “What's in a Name” How did that line go? What’s in a name? A rose would smell as sweet . . . It seems MT Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) is following Shakespeare’s musings. We no longer hear about ‘wild, free-ranging’ bison. Now they are being labeled as a ‘native species’ and FWP is looking for, “somewhere in Montana where animals (bison) could be managed as a native species”. Apparently, FWP does not know the meaning of either ‘species’ or ‘native’. All plains bison in North America (federal, private and Indian Reservation herds) belong t...

  • It's Time to Free Barry Beach

    Bob Brown and Jim Elliott, For The Courier|Aug 26, 2015

    “It [is] more a duty [of an Attorney General] to save an innocent than to convict a guilty man.” We know we do not live in a perfect world where only the guilty are convicted and the wrongly accused go free, but prosecutors can sometimes seem more interested in winning convictions than in remembering these words of Thomas Jefferson. Kimberly Nees was 17 years old in 1979 when she was brutally beaten to death near the town of Poplar. Barry Beach, also 17, was one of several classmates who were interviewed in her murder. No charges were bro...

  • Appreciating Ancestors

    Sandy Laumeyer, Just A Thought|Aug 19, 2015

    While watching my granddaughter vacuum the carpeting in my house not long ago, the thought struck me that she has never known any other way to clean carpets. As child of 11 years of age, I remember the carpet in my folks’ living room. It wasn’t a wall-to-wall one because it would have been too big to handle. Every spring, Dad would take the carpet outside, drape it a across the three clotheslines then turn it over to me and my brother. We would then wield our carpet beaters, which were built something on the order of a tennis racket. The dif...

  • Read What I Write, Not What You Think I Write

    Virgil Vaupel, Thanks For Listening|Aug 19, 2015

    I caught crabs while in Washington. (Oh stop that!) We went out to the Straits of Juan De Fuca in a small boat that I heartily wished was a much larger boat. I didn't have a license to catch crabs. My shipmates actually caught the crabs. About a dozen or so nearly eight pounds each. And one guy reeled in a 30-pound King salmon. For those of you who have never tried salmon, the best way to fix them is to slather the inside with mayonnaise (having cleaned the fish first) and place slices of two lemons inside as well. Some sea salt and pepper...

  • Letters to the Editor

    Aug 19, 2015

    Editor's Note: Our correspondence is growing! Beginning next week, extended commentary and columns directed at individual readers, columnists and/or staff will be included in a separate "Commentary" section reserved for discussion. "Fire Truck Clarification" I just wanted to make sure that people understood the ballot in regards to the new proposed fire truck. A “YES” vote means that you are not in favor of the assessment (you are protesting it). A “NO” vote means you are in favor of the assessment and the city can move forward in purchas...

  • The Case for the Truck

    Brandon Brunelle, Glasgow Fire Chief|Aug 12, 2015

    The City of Glasgow has sent out a letter of intent to raise funds for a fire appliance asking property owners inside city limits to make an important decision in the coming weeks. The Glasgow City Council and the Glasgow Fire Department have jointly conducted a comprehensive, detailed fire protection needs assessment of our community. The results of the needs assessment indicate that the city has two unreliable and unsafe fire trucks that need to be replaced. The two trucks are a 1976 pumper...

  • FWP Invites Public to Hearings on Bison Release

    Jeff Hagener, Director--MT Fish, Wildlife & Parks|Aug 12, 2015

    On Aug. 19, state wildlife officials will host a public hearing in Malta to discuss and take comment on a draft environmental impact statement for bison conservation and management in Montana. This will be the fourth meeting designed exclusively for the public to express its views and opinions on the draft statewide bison EIS, prepared by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. The draft considers the possibility of bison restoration somewhere in Montana where animals could be managed as a native species. Bison are currently designated as both a...

  • The Importance of Preventative Maintenance

    Jim Elliott, Bucket of Bolts|Aug 12, 2015

    This morning, as I was doing emergency field repairs on a piece of equipment, I was cussing myself for not having taken care of the problem when I had time instead of doing it in the middle of a field in the July heat. In short, I was guilty of not doing what wise people call “preventive maintenance,” better known to my mother as, “a stitch in time saves nine.” I soon began to look at things in the broader picture, partly because I was tired of cussing myself and partly to feel smug about other people in the same boat. Then, I began to move th...

  • Letter To The Editor

    Aug 12, 2015

    Have You Seen ‘Tarzan?’ My children and I just spent a week in Glasgow to attend a family wedding and visit old friends. We enjoyed wonderful times on the lake and many memorable evening barbecues, some of the things that make Northeast Montana the best. Among the highlights of our stay was the Sunday performance of “Tarzan” at the Fort Peck Theatre. That is a magnificent show! I remember the Fort Peck Theatre of old, and as a long time sponsor, I have watched with interest the quality of the performances grow. The voices, the clear depth o...

  • Letter To The Editor

    Aug 12, 2015

    On "Horace Sense" I again notice the lack of integrity by your paper in continuing to allow people who would use false names to sign their comments. Distressing! And all because some dumas can't face up to the things HE'S written. All I can say is you may be able to grow lots of wheat but you've had a complete crop failure in the humor field. -Brian Peterson McGrath, Mn....

  • I Shot the Sheriff

    James Walling, Notes from the Editor|Aug 12, 2015

    My mother was in town for a visit this past weekend. Dozens of kindly area residents did what they could to help me entertain the materfamilias, for which I owe many thanks. Notable among these were Sheriff Glen Meier and Tanja Fransen of NWS Glasgow. Picture if you will: Your fledgling managing editor and his mama trotting down to the Fort Peck Marina with invites from both of the aforementioned Glasgow celebs, only to face a conundrum about which boat to climb aboard in search of good times on the lake. More troubling still was the fact that...

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