Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
Sorted by date Results 1979 - 2003 of 2351
Dear Editor: I've been raised here in Valley County for the most part of my life and I have always been drawn back to this part of the country. I have made a family here. I would like to think of myself as an honorable man, as has been taught to me early on, and not one to destroy, vandalize or just have total disregard for others. I have family up north resting and would be uneasy if they were disrespected alive or deceased. I had ventured up north to do a thoughtful and selfless act for another and somehow made myself out to look like a...
Dear Valley County Voters: There has been a great deal of articles with ambiguous information and questions regarding a variety of issues that relate to budgets and the administration of Valley County. These statements could be misconstrued and lead someone to believe that the Valley County Commissioners are not doing their job, and that is not the fact. The Valley County Commissioners' office is open to anyone to come in and visit. All financial activity is recorded and available to the public. It is the responsibility of people who look at...
Dear Editor, We as concerned citizens need to vote for ordinance 32014-1 to help stop the introduction of free roaming bison in Valley County. We feel that bison not fenced in could cause safety concerns to our residents, resources and our private lands. We need to remember that free roaming bison are not fenced in and they can go anywhere without restriction. If passed, people or organizations that want to bring bison into Valley County will have to file an acceptable conservation plan to the Valley County Conservation District. No one is...
For the third year, Eastern Montana Glasgow Head Start will trick or treat for a cause. A group of Head Start kids will go out into the community to collect items for the troops on Halloween in hopes to make a soldier's day a little bit brighter. What started a few years ago as a way to support local units overseas has continued. Head Start site coordinator Pam Ost explained that it was ta teacher, Kerry Henches, who thought it would be a good opportunity to dress up and pay it forward by giving treats to others in the community. As time has...
Dear Editor: I'm addressing this letter to big game hunters, both resident and those from out of the area. I'm writing this to ask you to please don't shoot the antlerless whitetail deer in the area between Hinsdale and Nashua, for 5 miles on each side of the Milk River. These deer were hit very hard during the winter of 2010-2011, and then suffered an EHD epidemic that same summer, all of which resulted in a 95 percent die-off. That is the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks' statistic. Since then, the numbers have not appreciably...
I am writing this column from Billings, where I am undergoing five radiation treatments. The drug I was taking to keep my breast cancer at bay failed. I was told by two oncologists that some active cancer cells developed a resistance to the drug, allowing them to travel to my right hip. After tests and discussion, it was decided to give me two new medicines and do five days of radiation. This development was totally unexpected. I had been having quite a bit of pain in my right leg. On Oct. 4, I went to the ER because I couldn't handle the pain...
As flood waters receded in late August, Valley County Disaster and Emergency Services Coordinator Rick Seiler started working on figuring how much damage existed. Those numbers began to rise in Valley County, along with those in nearby Musselshell, Petroleum, Blaine and Carter counties and the Fort Belknap Reservation. The preliminary assessment of damages in Valley County added up to almost $958,000. Combined all areas are at about $1.6 million in damages, with Fort Belknap reporting around $53,000, Carter County $37,000, Musselshell $55,000...
Have you traveled in your home area lately and thought about the original location of the highway or road you were traveling on? The highway between Nashua and Glasgow, for instance. I remember that highway as being one of my first highway driving experiences. Seeing some of the old highway grade brings to mind how narrow the road was and how big the cars were that we drove. How about the highway between Glasgow and Malta, or even Opheim and Glasgow? Of course all roads of the early times followed the lay of the land and were built with...
Much of rural and small town Montana depends on the economic impact of recreation and tourism. Camping, hunting, fishing, birding, hiking, guiding and other activities in 11 Western states, including Montana, brought in $623 million in direct spending and $1.06 billion in indirect spending, according to a recent Western Values Project study (http://www.cfra.org/western-values-project-study). And nearby communities also benefit economically from the nearly 68 million visitors that spent time time on land administered by the Bureau of Land...
Last week I ran away from home. I left 1,500 bales of hay in the fields waiting for Donna to pick them up. I cleaned out my fridge of all stuff that would perish in my absence. I packed eight shirts, eight pair of socks, eight pair of shorts, four pair of Wranglers, boots, shaving kit, cell phone plug-in thingie, two guitars and assorted other stuff and hit the open road. My first stop was in Sapphire Village to visit my Aunt Carol and Uncle Jim before they head south for the winter. Jim promised I wouldn't have to do any work. Sometimes the...
Do you remember the original date of Columbus Day? I did ask several of my acquaintances on Monday if they remembered the date, but ended up checking it out on the Internet. I was right, it used to be celebrated on Oct. 12 for many, many years. Now it is another three-day holiday and not recognized by some due to racial prejudice. Some of us do remember from our history lessons that Columbus was actually Italian. And thinking of school history, I remember learning a poem about Columbus, but the only lines I can come up went something like...
There seems to be so much focus on bullying these days. You see viral video posts of kids being beat up by kids, movies about kids being cyber bullied and constantly hear about bully prevention. It's seems to be some kind of new fad to stand up against bullies. So here's the question, do you stand up against bullies, or do you sit silently. It's always been my philosophy that communication is the world's biggest problem. I sometimes sit on the edge of my chair biting my tongue at meetings or in a room full of people because I so badly want to...
Dear Editor I'm not sure about the rest of the world, but in the area from Billings to Malta, there are lots of kind and thoughtful people. I am temporarily wheelchair bound. Family, friends and perfect strangers have been so helpful. People rush to open doors for me. One little boy in Billings said, “Look Mom, that lady has wheels.” I'm so pleased with all the kindness. But, myself, I have reverted to the 2-year-old whose favorite phrase is, “I can do it myself,” as she puts her shoe on the wrong foot. Haven't done that yet, but it's still e...
Before you make any decisions about renaming the Irle School, you need to learn more about Mr. R. L. Irle. Mr R.L. Irle came to Glasgow in 1929, I believe. Just in time for the beginning of three crisis to strike Valley County, Montana, and the entire world. In 1929 the "Roaring 20's" were coming to an end. We were headed into the greatest Depression to ever hit this country. Money was literally not worth the paper it was printed on. Farmers, ranchers, businesses were all going down. This Great...
A name is identity, a heritage, a tradition and a trust. It is something that is cultivated and earned over years, even generations. In education, a name is a memory or an association with a force that sparks many of us to strive to reach our potential in life. R. L. Irle’s story may be forgotten to many, but we all know he was an educator. By giving that recognition to a neighborhood school affirms our recognition in all educators in our community. It is a unique and personal place for our most treasured young students. For almost 60 years, t...
Dear Editor: By now your children are back at school and have already dealt with their first midterm. But did you know that they are using a new way to teach your children? It's called Common Core. Common Core is touted as a national system of teaching kids. That way if students move from one state to another, they'll be “on the same page.” Common Core isn't just about teaching national standards, it's about data mining. They, and they being the U.S. government and big corporations, want information on your kids, and you. The government has...
Montanans must protect our right to vote on Election Day. Election Day registration has allowed over 28,000 Montanans the freedom to register and vote on the same day since its creation in 2005. This is especially important to returning military, senior citizens, students and the average busy American. This ensures less obstacles for those wanting their voice to be heard. Montana’s voting system is one of the top in our country, so why change something that isn’t broken? For the past decade Montanans have used this method without any iss...
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to recall a very poker-faced Barry Obama telling us and the world a few weeks ago that – and I para-phrase here – there will not be any more American sons and daughters fighting on foreign soil, meaning, I suppose, no American boots on the ground in Syria or Iraq. He was very emphatic about this and repeated it twice. So now all we can do is orchestrate air strikes against the malcontents who defile women, blatantly line up non-Muslim men along a ditch and gun them down and who espouse the slogan “De...
What is in a name? We are in a situation where we are looking to order letters for the new elementary school. I asked the board, “Are we going to change the name of the elementary?" This first came about when R.L. Irle's family, currently living in Alaska, called to ask for items from the building if we were going to change the name. I was told that in Alaska they name the building and were aware that we were building a new K-5 building, so a possible name change could take place. At our board work session last recently, I again asked the b...
Many of you have probably heard about Robert Back, a high school student at Belt, who sustained a head injury while playing in a high school football game. Word spread quickly about his injury and condition. A fund was set up to help with his medical expenses. The outpouring of support for the Back family has been tremendous. And no more so than at the Nashua School. During the past several weeks, the students organized a drive to collect change – pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters -- to be sent to the Back family. And Saturday night, a...
Do you remember when we did not have Daylight Saving Time? Everyone got up an hour earlier to begin their day and probably went to bed before dark because they had already put in a long day. I remember a lot of the comments when DLS officially came into effect. Comments regarding energy savings to how good the extra hour of daylight would be for the roses. Since DLS has been with us for so many years, I started asking some of the older generation (there are some still older than me) what they remembered. DLS goes clear back to Benjamin Franklin...
Imagine a scene that you've probably witnessed and never really noticed. A car drives around a parking lot several times. The driver seems to be hovering towards the front of the lot almost waiting for someone to pull out. You vaguely notice a passenger in the seat next to the driver, but you tell yourself, “Gosh that guy's just lazy, why doesn't he just park in the back?” You sit in your car and tell yourself you're going to sit there and not move your vehicle until he moves from the area, not willing to give that parking space to someone so...
Just a quick note to end a very quick tenure here at the Glasgow City-County Library. Thank you for the opportunity to serve you at the Glasgow City-County Library. It has been almost 18 months since I became your library director and it has been an adventure. Last year, we made serving you our top priority. I hope that you have found the library to be a friendly and more welcoming place. Secondly, I focused on improving your library environment. With the combined support of Friends of the Library, BNSF, Valley County Foundation and Valley Coun...
This week seems to be one for writing about this and that. So here goes. Last week, I was trimming my fingernails. When I got to the forefinger – or is it called the pointer finger – on my left hand, I stopped for a few minutes, recalling how excited I was a few years ago when I noticed the fingernail was growing. What's so exciting about that? I had gone to the doctor to see about a really bad cough. It turned out I had severe bronchitis. I mentioned one of my fingers would get really cold, turn blue, and after rubbing it a few minutes, was ag...
I recall a time in America when folks would save up money for a car or college tuition or on a smaller scale a pair of ice skates for a child. Most of us had credit at the grocery story and the gas station, but that's where it ended. If we couldn't pay for “it,” we didn't buy “it.” Charging a candy bar or a soda pop was unheard of. We paid cash for the luxury items. Oh, sometimes if your current mode of transportation blew a gasket and put you afoot you would have to make the decision to use your saved-up money for a down payment on a second-...
