We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
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The 38th annual local production by Missoula Children's Theatre (MCT) did not disappoint this past Saturday afternoon. The stars were 50+ students who auditioned on Monday, after school, began practices that evening and presented two performances just five days later at CHS auditorium. MCT actor/directors have been providing the opportunity for kids to perform before hometown audiences for 40+ years. This year's actor/directors were both graduates of performance programs at Central Washington...
The Chinook Area Chamber of Commerce held its annual banquet this past weekend at the Eagles Club. Members enjoyed a prime rib dinner, by chef Doug Mitchell and Shirley Fisher, met the officers who will serve the chamber in 2017 and heard about some new projects planned for the coming year. The speaker for the banquet was Russell Nemetiz who grew up in the Chinook area and went on to a broadcasting career reporting on topics of interest to farmers, ranchers and residents of rural America. Most...
Most every reader has some curiosity about words-what a new word means or what the origin of a common word or saying might be. Despite the ascendency of technology in how we communicate, there are still a large number of people who enjoy words and playing around with how they can be used-doing word games. A logophile (lover of words) sent me, in one of those "internet joke postings" that flood our emails, an old list of the winning entries in a contest, hosted by the "Washington Post," to...
Reporter's note: I saw a notice about a Boy Scout Merit Badge College to be held in Havre on a Saturday in January. Having written some stories about boys completing their Eagle Scout rank, I knew about merit badges but had no idea how merit badges connected to college. I went to the LDS Church in Havre to see if I could 'shadow' some Scouts from Blaine County and learn what the merit badge college was all about. In the foyer of the church, at the registration table, I ran into Bill Lanier. Blai...
Local children will take to the stage this Saturday for the annual Missoula Children's Theatre's (MCT) production. This year's play is "Rapunzel." It will be the 38th appearance of the traveling production for audiences in Chinook. MCT's "Rapunzel" is based on a classic fairytale of a damsel's escape from a towering imprisonment, aided and foiled by a cast of gardening ogres, corn and potato spies, wood elves, a troll and the Three Billy Goats Gruff. About 50 local children will be performing...
Talya Johnson, a 2014 graduate of Chinook High, will leave in February for Australia to attend the University of Southern Queensland for six months. Johnson, who is a junior majoring in community health at Montana State University-Bozeman (MSU), hopes to eventually work in a global setting promoting health and disease prevention. Part of her international study program is supported by a Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship. The Gilman scholarship was created in 2000 and is administered...
Ellie Solem, CPA, has retired effective the end of December. She's been a practicing accountant since graduating from the University of Montana in 1968. She passed the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) exam in 1974. Ellie recalled, "When I received notification that I'd passed the CPA exam the accompanying letter noted I was one of about 4,000 female CPAs in the U.S." She added, "When I was studying at U of M the gender ratio was typically two women to 50 men in accounting classes." The...
The 'snowy season' seems to have set in and that means winter is official by the calendar and real outside. I grew up in the Midwest and experienced winter, but it wasn't until my own family lived in the western part of the country that I began to really understand winter-bitter cold, lots of snow, and howling winds. We first lived in Wyoming, bounced back east and south for a few years, then to North Dakota, western Washington and parts of both western and eastern Montana. I'd say we've had a...
Shipwheel Cattle Company, located on Clear Creek Road south of Chinook, held its eighth annual bull sale in mid-December. Three members of Chinook High's Future Farmers of America (FFA) chapter were at the sale barn, decked out in their blue jackets and helping serve lunch prior to the start of the bull sale. Asked if a larger number of FFA members would be coming to the sale after lunch, Wade Schneider, the president of the CHS chapter, said, "No, the three of us are here as part of the Bulls f...
Reporter's note: Each year the Presbyterian Church in Chinook decorates a Christmas tree with white and gold handmade ornaments. The ornaments are known as Chrismons. I'd seen these ornaments on trees in other parts of the country, mostly in churches, but didn't know the history and origins of the unique three-dimensional decorations. Readers familiar with Chrismons will recall they are always white and gold (with a couple of rare exceptions). Chrismon is a combination of 'Christ' and...
A large crowd of well-wishers gathered last weekend at the Chinook Eagles Club to celebrate the fiftieth wedding anniversary of Doug and JoAnne Mitchell. Doug and JoAnne have ranched for many years in the Bear Paws, south of Cleveland. The couple have three sons, three daughters-in-law, 10 grandchildren and three great grandchildren. Son Dennis welcomed family and friends to the celebration. He noted, "Mom and dad were married on December 10, 1966. It was -20 that day! The weather was much like...
Organizers of the annual holiday bazaar at the Sweet Nursing Home said there was a record number of vendors this year. Activity Manager Jeanne Buffington explained, "We've reached the point that vendors begin contacting us as soon as the bazaar dates are publicized. Even a few days before we were getting calls asking about space availability." This year there were 21 vendors offering gift items including clothing, handmade rugs, books, soaps and birdhouses. Buffington, who was at home...
The six church congregations that make up the Chinook Ministerial Association hosted their annual community Christmas program last Sunday evening at St. Gabriel's Catholic Church. It was the fourth year for the congregations and community to come together for the pre-Christmas gathering. The idea for the joint community service was first suggested by Father Felix Nayak, who was pastor at St. Gabriel's at the time the event was started. Pastor Dennis Findorf of the Chinook Alliance Church,...
The four Princess beds auctioned by the local My Neighbor in Need group is completed. On the night of last week's general election, the four winning bidders were named. My Neighbor, a county wide group that helps neighbors in need, got the beds through the generosity of Jim Warburton. Warburton bought a used semi-trailer and discovered it had several pieces of upscale furniture still in it, including four complete Princess beds. The beds typically retail for about $1,000. Warburton approached...
Ted and Gerry Lenhardt celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary the weekend after Thanksgiving. The couple, originally from the Billings area, spent most of their adult life farming along the Hi-Line, first around Havre, then in the Zurich area. They retired to the Havre area in the late 1980's and moved to the Grande Villa, in Chinook, about five years ago. Ted and Gerry, both in their early 90's, were married at the German Congregational Church in Billings, December 6, 1941-one day before...
Dr. Jessica Robb, DVM, has joined Drs. Baxter and Aiton at the Blaine County Veterinary Clinic. Robb started with the local practice in early June then took maternity leave for birth of her first child, Braxton. She resumed duties at the clinic in mid-October. She and her husband, Will, live in the Cleveland area. Robb grew up in McCook, Nebraska, a town of about 8,000 residents, in the southcentral part of the state. She noted an interest in becoming a veterinarian since she was a young girl....
The Chinook Assembly of God congregation hosted the November Business After Hours event. The After Hours program, started two and a half years ago, provides an opportunity for Chinook Area Chamber members to showcase their products and services in a relaxed, after business hours setting. About fifty guests enjoyed a light dinner and dessert. Pastor Josh Seymour, and his wife Kristi, are new to the church, having served prior at the Assembly church in Havre. Pastor Josh welcomed guests and said...
Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4620 hosted a Veterans Day celebration in the Chinook High School auditorium. The event was at 11 o'clock on the 11th day of the 11th month. Chinook's American Legion Post 48 and the VFW Ladies Auxiliary were honored guests as well as other veterans who attended. The Chinook Junior High and High School students also attended along with many community members. A lunch followed at the Eagles Club in Chinook. After introductions, the presentation of colors, the...
Reporter's note: On my very first visit to Chinook, about 15 years ago, the Grande Villa drew my interest. Locals told me at the time that the building provided 'housing for senior citizens.' I was impressed that the town had such a nice looking housing facility for seniors and located in such a convenient location. In June of this year my wife and I moved into the Grande Villa, coinciding with her decision to retire as a minister and our joint decision to remain in Chinook. As tenants we began...
Reporter's note: Last winter Max Hofeldt, a longtime sheep producer in the Chinook area, told me a producer from eastern Washington state would be bringing a flock of ewes and lambs to pasture south of Chinook for the summer. Max was reducing his lamb-ewe operation and would be leasing pasture to Tom Clyde, with the Standing O Ranch in Connell, Washington. Max met Tom Clyde at a sheep sale and the two struck an arrangement for Clyde to bring 1250 ewes and 1645 lambs to Blaine County in early...
Bike and Build is a national group that raises money and awareness in support of affordable housing. Organized in 2002, the group promotes cross country bicycle rides where participants each raise $4500 to make the ride, with most of the money going to various affordable housing projects. Nationwide about 250 cyclists ride one of several routes across the country, stopping along the way to work on a 'house build' or help with some other housing related project. The group of 30 riders that...
Lt. Mike Cooney was traveling the Hi-Line as part of his duties as chair of the Montana Governor's Drought and Water Supply Advisory Committee. In that capacity Cooney oversees statewide efforts to share data about water supply and moisture conditions with local officials charged with managing water resources. Lieutenant Governor Cooney had just attended a meeting in Havre of the St. Mary Rehabilitation Working Group. The Working Group, with a variety of stakeholders that use water from the...
The My Neighbor in Need (MNIN) program in Blaine County has launched a 'Beds for Beds' program that will generate needed funds to buy beds and mattresses requested by needy neighbors. MNIN is a volunteer, non-profit group that works to help neighbors with a need to connect with other neighbors who will help fill the need. In My Neighbor's two years of operation requests for beds, mattresses and bedding have been the most requested items. A recent unusual chain of events allowed the local MNIN...
In late August a story appeared in Montana's daily newspapers about a study that ranked 821 community colleges around the nation. Using a series of metrics, mathematical calculations that demonstrated each college's performance against certain standards, the study concluded community colleges in Montana ranked fifth best in the nation. Aaniiih Nakoda College (ANC), the tribal college at Fort Belknap, was ranked number one in Montana and number 27 compared to all colleges in the nation. It was...
