We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
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Sweet Medical Center (SMC) kicked off 2018 National Health Center Week with the Sweet Swim! at the Chinook Pool on the Saturday before the special week long celebration. SMC organizers finished the week with a first ever Sweet Market on the parking lot of the clinic in Chinook on Thursday night. National Health Center Week recognizes the five decades that community health centers have been serving special populations across the country. Nationwide health centers like Sweet Medical Center serve...
Sixteen seniors from Blaine County recently spent a day in Fort Benton, the town known as the "Birthplace of Montana™." The day-long bus trip was organized through the Chinook Senior Center and was open to any adult in the county. Based on the positive response to the trip, organizers are hopeful future outings to places of interest in the region can be arranged. The charge for the trip included the cost of the bus trip, lunch at Fort Benton's Golden (Senior) Center and admission to two m...
The first Lutheran service ever held in Chinook occurred in June, 1904 and was held in the Methodist church building. Ten years later the current Zion Lutheran Church building, at the corner of Illinois and 8th Street, was dedicated. Last Saturday Zion congregants and guests celebrated a Service of Thanksgiving for the Finished Revitalization of the church building. The service capped a year-long major renovation involving a new roof, an expanded narthex, a reconfigured access to the basement...
The 2018 general election is set for Tuesday, November 6. According to the Blaine County Clerk and Recorder, ballots for military personnel and citizen's living overseas will be mailed September 21. Regular mailed ballots will be sent to voters on October 12. Readers have already seen yard signs, billboards, TV ads and likely received information via email or social media. With the Election Day fast approaching, candidates all over the country are beginning to move their campaigns into high...
Dillon Davies and his colleague Shawn Newton were each awarded an Emmy in June at a Seattle awards ceremony recognizing outstanding television productions in the northwest region of the country. Davies grew up in Chinook and graduated from Chinook High in 2004. The two natives of the Hi-Line (Newton grew up in Glasgow) won the Emmys for their work with a Montana-based documentary TV series called "Under the Big Sky." The award was part of the National Academy's regional awards for the...
Twenty-plus locals gathered last week at the Blaine County Library to hear native Vic Palm talk about "Aunt Eleanor's Men," a book he wrote and published in 2017. Palm, who grew up in Chinook and graduated from CHS in 1959, was greeted by a number of former classmates, friends and family members who came to hear about the escapades of the half-sister of his maternal grandfather Gilman McKinnie. Gilman's daughter, Laura Palm, is the mother of Vic and Chuck Palm and Ardis (Palm) Conrad. Ardis...
Reporter's note: This fall will mark five years my wife and I have lived in Chinook. She's since retired as a pastor and I've scaled back from a part time reporter to "even more" part time reporting. As part of this life change, we are trying to do some traveling and have been focusing on learning about our adopted state: "Montana, the Last Best Place." So, I'll be sharing some things we learn about Montana. Some of what we learn might be common knowledge to long-time residents and natives....
Summer is at its peak, the weather is nice and the harvest season is upon us. With all that also comes the new school year for local K-12 students, two a day practices for volleyball and football athletes and school shopping for that perfect first day of school outfit. There are some things that need to checked off to ensure you, or your student is prepared for the new year. First of all if you are enrolling in a new school make sure to contact the school secretary to ensure they have received all your records from your previous school. Make...
Reporter's note: Several weeks ago Don Swenson, Maintenance Engineer for Chinook Schools, asked me to come visit with and write about the summer cleaning crew at the schools. Since there are likely crews doing similar work all over the county, state and nation, I thought it sounded like an interesting story topic. Explaining why he thought it was important for people to know what happens in the summer, Swenson said, "Some people have the idea that when the schools close for summer nothing...
A crew was in Chinook last week to drill additional monitoring wells on West Fifth Street just west of the Blaine County Museum and another on Pennsylvania, south of the intersection of Fifth Street and Pennsylvania. The two new wells are in addition to the 14 monitoring sites drilled in 2014. The monitoring is for a site at the northeast corner of Indiana and Fifth Street where a buried gasoline tank leaked. The tank was removed some time ago. Ross Remsen, Environmental Engineer with CTA...
Guests at First Bank of Montana's 2018 Community Appreciation event were treated to a nice picnic lunch on the beautiful first day of August. Chinook Branch President Jessica Aberg said, "The branches of the First Bank of Montana chose this week to hold their annual community appreciation event. Each branch decides on the type of event they will host and picks the day during the week to hold it." The First Bank of Montana is one of 14 divisions that make up Glacier Bank based in Kalispell. In...
J.J. Colby was awarded the rank of Eagle Scout at a June court of honor in Chinook. Only about four percent of all Boy Scouts achieve this highest rank in Scouting. To complete the Eagle Scout rank a Boy Scout must complete a number of lower ranks, beginning at about 12 years of age, and finish the top echelon's requirements before reaching the age of 18. Since the Eagle Scout program was created in 1917 just over two million young men have earned the rank with many going on to notable careers...
About seventy congregants, church officials, friends and family gathered recently to celebrate the ordination of Maggie Lewis as a new Presbyterian Minister of Word and Sacrament and install her as the pastor for the Chinook and Havre Presbyterian Churches. Ordination officially recognizes that a person has completed the educational and spiritual requirements to be a minister and installation approves an individual for a specific role at a particular church. Maggie's ordination and installation...
The Blaine County Library hosted two StoryWalk® events for youngsters last week in Chinook. StoryWalk® is a 20-year old idea originally developed to get kids and parents to "enjoy reading and the outdoors at the same time." The concept of reading a children's book one page at a time while walking along a path or trail has spread to all 50 states and 12 foreign countries since first being introduced at the Kellogg-Hubbard Library in Montpelier, Vermont. For Chinook's StoryWalk®...
Greg Skoyen had a booth at the Blaine County Fair where he was displaying and promoting a recently designed gas-powered irrigation booster pump. The device basically increases the volume of water moving from an irrigation ditch through a gated system to a field. Skoyen put me in touch with the Billings-based designer and builder of the pump, Travis Kelsey, who sells specialized ag equipment. Kelsey and his pump co-deigner Brad Kembel, a farmer, came up with the idea for the new pump after...
The superintendent for the contractor replacing the North Fork bridge and the project manager overseeing the work for the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) said they believe the new bridge will be completed and open for traffic by the end of August. Planning for the $2.8 million dollar replacement project began about six years ago. Actual work began in March of this year under a contract awarded to COP Construction, a multi-state business doing work throughout Montana and surrounding...
Harlem High social studies teacher Jack G. Young, now a recently published novelist, said he's always loved to write, even as a kid when he would write "little stories with the characters from my dad's comic book collection: Spider-man, Daredevil, The Hulk, Wolverine, etc." A major motivation to do a novel was so he could honor the memory of his former students who died young. He explained, "This venture into writing is as much honoring them as well as fulfilling a dream of mine." Young grew up...
The final draft of Blaine County's 2018 Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan (MHMP) was presented at the courthouse to about 30 local government officeholders, representative from state and federal agencies and interested citizens. The 150-page draft is the result of nearly a year's work to assess potential hazards in the county, list the possible economic and human losses should certain calamities occur and provide ways to reduce the severity of these calamities. Having a plan helps ensure...
Two Blaine Countians received "Senior Citizen of the Year" awards at the regional meeting of the North Central Agency on Aging's gathering on July 20 at the senior center in Geraldine. "The annual award program," per Karin Roehm, Director of Area III's regional senior centers, "honors volunteers who have made significant contributions at the various centers in our region." The Area III Aging Council includes senior centers in Blaine, Chouteau, Liberty, Pondera, Teton, Glacier and Toole...
Matthew Gurnsey, aka The Kilted Man, presented two programs last week at the Blaine County Library. In an afternoon performance he entertained a large number of children from the summer reading program and adults, then did a second show in the evening for a predominantly adult audience. About 90 locals attended the two programs funded by memorial funds given to the library to support public programs or provide for special needs of the library. The Kilted Man now lives in Colorado and was on a to...
The Chinook Fire Department recently hosted locals to learn how to join the fire department. Chief Kraig Hansen said, "We currently have 17 firefighters (three women and 14 men) on our roster, we need 28." He added, "During the East Fork fire a lot of people helping fight the fire, told me they might like to be volunteer firefighters. We could use 10 new firefighters right now." Six prospects showed up, several with volunteer firefighter experience. Shortages of volunteer firefighters are not ju...
Library Director Colleen Brommer said there was a good turnout for the Community Appreciation staged by the Harlem Friends of the Library. Brommer said the Friends always try to host some sort of a summer event, this year it was an open house, cupcakes and summer drinks and a visit by Jack Young, local author, Harlem High teacher and library board member Young was signing his recently released book entitled "Down Range." The Friends of the Library were instrumental in raising funds for new...
Nora Conner, Outreach Coordinator with the Sweet Medical Center (SMC), earlier said she was hoping for good weather and a large crowd for the Patient Appreciation/Business After Hours event held last week. It's the third year SMC and Chinook Dental have teamed up to welcome guests and show their appreciation for community support. Last year an end of the event rain shower put a damper on things. Conner was all smiles this year with the warm and pleasant evening. Caterer Val Frank said she...
Reporter’s note: My story about the old Orpheum Theatre’s stage and John Deere Day appeared in the May 9, 2018 issue of the “Blaine County Journal.” My motivation to research and write that story was based on a letter I received from Calvin Blatter, a former resident of Blaine County who now lives in Great Falls. I wanted readers to see the letter from Calvin. Calvin (now 94 years old per his niece Leanna Blatter Johnson) handwrote the following four-page letter telling the story of why he knows there was a stage in the old Orpheum because of a...
Officials with the Ohio-based Certified Angus Beef ® brand recently invited guests to "#BrandtheBarn with Us" at the Shipwheel Cattle Company south of Chinook. The barn branding and accompanying celebration was part of a year long commemoration of the first beef brand's 40th anniversary. To honor the history of the brand, organizers planned a nationwide campaign to paint the Certified Angus Beef ® logo on 40 barns in 24 states. In Montana only the Swanson family's barn at Shipwheel...
