Yesterday's Memories

10 Years Ago:

Wednesday,

Aug. 14, 2013

"The bottom line is, do you want $200,000 in taxes a year or not?" said Valley County Commissioner Dave Reinhardt on Tuesday. At their regular meeting the commissioners were discussing the tax abatement requested by Compass Wind. The proposed wind farm south of Opheim is still in the negotiation stage with several pieces hanging in the air. The commissioners asked themselves if the project needed the abatement.

St. Marie residents have been requesting and Valley County Transit is happy to announce that daily transportation between St. Marie and Glasgow will begin on Monday, Aug. 19, Transit Manager Colleen Pankratz said. Valley County Transit will be making two daily runs to St. Marie, Monday through Friday. To make this a timely service for everyone, passengers must be on time and ready with the exact fee of $3 per person.

The police, the animal pound and the vets in Glasgow are all on the same page now, recommending microchipping pets so they can be identified and returned if they get lost. Police Chief Bruce Barstad recently displayed the microchip reader the department just acquired for the pound. Any stray pet will now be scanned immediately, and if it has been chipped, the owner can be identified and called to take their pet home.

Shawn Wersal of Glasgow drove his competition into the ground to win the 2013 Northeast Montana Fair Demolition Derby at the Glasgow Fairgrounds on Tuesday, Aug. 6.

Jason Mitchell of the outdoor program Jason Mitchell Outdoors recently filmed a fishing segment on Fort Peck Lake. The show will highlight the trophy walleye fishing that makes the lake famous. It is expected to be broadcast in April and June. "For trophy walleyes, Fort Peck remains one of the best places that are over 30 inches," Mitchell said. Mitchell fished during the production with Glasgow angler Ken Schmidt.

Professional shooter and author Julie Golob of Glasgow has joined the elite ranks of National Rifle Association (NRA) Action Pistol Distinguished Badge holders, her site said Saturday. Having won three NRA Bianchi Cup Women's Championships, Golob is one of just four women who have earned distinguished status in the sport of action pistol.

25 Years Ago:

Thursday, Aug. 13, 1998

Theres more money in garbage than there was a year ago – three percent more, anyway. That's the approximate increase in garbage rates recently approved by the Glasgow City Council, which also approved increases in street and light maintenance fees. Under provisions of the increase, residential garbage rates will go up from $59 to $60.75; duplex units are up from $38.75 to $40.10; apartment units are up the same rate as duplexes and multiple residence units will rise from $59 to $60.75.

It may be based on a technicality but Valley County's mill levy rate is going to be lower this year, dropping from 47.45 mills to 45.77 mills, which means taxes will drop for many Valley County residents. And Valley County's budget should reflect the decrease with a drop of $54,856.80 in tax collections from last year.

Glasgow is receiving a Community Development Block Grant of $400,000 from the Montana Department of Commerce for water and sewer system improvements. "The grant is one of three we applied for and the first we know was approved," said Glasgow Public Works Director John Bengochea. "We also have a $500,000 grant application in at the Treasure State Endowment program we should hear about in January and a $100,000 grant application in at the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation." Bengochea said that the money will be used for the second phase of a sewer separation project underway in Glasgow.

An unusual film crew was in Glasgow recently. The Maverick 4-H Club of White Sulpher Springs has the only 4-H Television project in the state. They are making a 10-15 minute tape about HIV/AIDS for distribution to schools and youth groups, targeted at students junior high age and older.

After a decision by Chuck Syverson to drop out of the running, Jack Schye was named head track coach for Glasgow High School. Syverson withdrew his application the morning of the board meeting citing his desire to continue coaching football and basketball, which could have caused some conflict in his schedule. He said it was in the best interests of the program not to take the track coach position.

Richard Vincent can tick off river after river where whirling disease has been found in the state. Whirling disease has now been found at 60 sites in Montana, says Vincent, official coordinator for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Whirling disease is caused when the microscopic parasite, Myxobolus cerebralis, infects fish. The disease has been documented in 22 states. In the Madison River alone, it has reduced the number of rainbow trout per mile from approximately 3,500 to 600.

High water temperatures apparently caused a recent fish kill in Cut Bank Creek, a state fisheries biologist said. Bill Hill, Fish, Wildlife and Parks fisheries biologist, received word of the fish kill. Then investigated it July 27. He found several hundred white fish dead, along with a few trout. The fish ranged from a couple of inches long to about 15 inches, representing all age groups.

50 Years Ago:

Thursday, Aug. 9, 1973

Mayor Jim Christianson and city councilmen, refusing to quit on a proposed 1973 budget of $1,252,907.19 – representing a mill levy increase of 10.21 over last year – hacked an additional $6,391.29 off the preliminary city budget on the eve of Wednesday night's public protest hearing at the Civic Center. Last week, Valley County Commissioners and officials of School District 1 and 1A announced tentative budgets representing six-mill decreases in the cost of operation for tax payers. Only the cost of City Government went up over 1972.

The newest addition to Glasgow's Skyline is a 120-foot micro-wave tower erected adjacent to the Burlington Northern Railroad depot last week. The tower, part of $10.5 million micro-wave system project by B-N, is just one of 21 similar towers being erected in the area, including Culbertson, Poplar, Wolf Point, Wiota, Malta, Hinsdale, Dodson, Harlem, Chinook, Squaw Butte (Editor's Note: now called Sehewoki'l Newenee'an Katete) and Havre.

Disaster area designation has been requested of the federal government for 19 countries in northern and western Montana, but whether or not it is granted, the drought is a disaster for the state's farming and ranching industry and those dependent on it. For 1973 is not only the driest year in recent history of Montana, but in some areas, such as Missoula, Lewis and Clark and Meagher Counties it is the driest year since records have been kept.

Praising action by Gov. Tom Judge to lift the beef price ceiling, State Sen. Gordon Bollinger of Glasgow announced Saturday that state officials Leo Kolstad and Ott Tschache had moved swiftly to help ease problems connected with the beef shortage.

75 Years Ago: Thursday, Aug. 12, 1948

Last month was the wettest Montana has had since the weatherman began keeping records in 1895. The United States weather bureau's monthly preliminary report said precipitation ranged from .46 of an inch at Wyola to 8.09 inches at Richey. The average was 2.61 inches – 1.25 inches above normal.

Hail caused extensive damage Friday in two county communities, Lustre and Wild Rose, according to Courier correspondents. Losses range from 20 to 100 percent, with apparently most extensive damage in the Lustre and Todd Lake areas.

Chest x-rays were taken of 4,330 Valley County people during the visit of the mobile unit to the county last week, those in charge have reported. Mrs. R.E. Stroman, county organizer, and Mrs. Kenneth Harlan, president of the Glasgow Woman's club, which sponsored the visit of the unit, expressed their appreciation for the help given by other organizations and the assistance of the many volunteer workers throughout the county.

Although they lost to the Billings team, 16 to 2, in the opening round of the state Junior Legion baseball tournament in Billings Friday, Fort Peck Junior Legionnaires made a good showing. Great Falls was the final winner. Participants were Fort Peck and Havre, Class B eastern and western Montana Winners, and Great Falls and Billings, Class A winners for their section.

Scenic values of "the pines" and Hell Creek badlands along the Fort Peck Reservoir rank high in Montana, according to Rad S. Maxey, of Helena, state advertising director of the Montana highway department, and Russel R. Benson of Indianapolis, Ind., motion picture producer, who spent Thursday on the lake. The men directed and took technicolor movies of the areas and others. The pictures will be used in the east and midwest with others to advertise Montana.