Missoulian week in review: Local news recap for June 8-14 (2024)

Here are some of the headlines from this past week in the Missoulian. To read the full stories, click the link on each headline:

Additional urban camping policies around living in vehicles, guidelines for moving and cleaning campsites, and enforcement rules are headed to a final vote after back-and forth debate within the Missoula City Council on Wednesday.

Wednesday's discussion followed a 10-hour meeting that started Monday evening and ended with a 3:45 a.m. vote on Tuesday, wherethe council approved a resolution that bans camping in several buffer zonesaround homes, businesses, parks, waterways and other public spaces, and requires campers to dismantle their tents between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. every day.

The buffer zones ban people from camping 10 feet from a trail or path, 50 feet from a body of water, 100 feet from a home or business and 300 feet from schools, shelters and any potential designed camping areas. That resolution went into effect immediately.

"With the direction to the mayor for what we are asking her to do, the buffers, and allowing overnight camping between8 p.m. to 8 a.m. in other city owned property is the best solution we can offer immediately," City Council President Amber Sherrill said at the meeting Wednesday.

There's a new place to get coffee and snacks in downtown Missoula. Also, a huge new mural is going up thanks to the Downtown Missoula Partnership.

Local officials on Thursday identified a man shot and killed by Missoula police during a DUI stop in May.

Christopher B. Couts, 32, died after he wasshot on May 14, according to Ravalli County Sheriff and Coroner Steve Holton. Couts was a resident of Shasta Lake, California.

Initial information from the Missoula Police Department said officers initiated a traffic stop for suspected impaired driving on South Orange Street around 2 a.m. Couts was allegedly uncooperative and fled in his car and then on foot.

According to a copy of Couts’ death certificate obtained by the Missoulian, Couts died of a gunshot wound to the head. The manner of death is listed as homicide.

There’s a vacant trustee position on the Missoula County Public Schools board after a member resigned on Tuesday.

Jennifer Vogel resigned from the board after four years of serving. Applicants are required to live within the Seeley-Swan, Seeley Lake, Sunset, Potomac, and Clinton school district boundaries. They also have to be a registered voter, according to the MCPS website.

The term runs through the next available school election date, which is in May 2025. At that point, the elected individual will serve for a year to fill out the three-year term. The seat would open up for election again in May of 2026.

Vogel submitted her resignation letter to MCPS administration on June 3.

Cinnamon Kills First will never forget the first time she visitedthe Sand Creek Massacre site in Colorado.

“It changed the way I walked in the world,” she said.

She is adirect descendant of Sand Creek Massacre survivors.

On a November morning in 1864, U.S. soldiers attacked the lodges of 750 Arapaho and Cheyenne tribal members who were camped near Big Sandy Creek (in present-day Colorado). It’s estimated that 230 Cheyenne and Arapaho citizens were killed.

Kills First learned about the massacre from her uncle, from textbooks and teachers in school, but for her, nothing compared to actually standing at the site.

“You can feel the spirit of a place,” she said. “That’s what changes you. There’s energy still there. That’s what you never forget.”

It was this experience that inspired Kills First, a citizen of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, to create an immersive theater experience, encouraging both Natives and non-Natives to connect with the historic event.

With support from a National Endowment for the Arts grant, in May, Kills First began holding immersive theater events centered around the Sand Creek Massacre.

A group of volunteers spent a sunny, hot Friday morning and afternoon recently re-planting scores of native plants rescued from a Missoula-area development site.

The new home for the flowers and grasses, all adapted to Montana's climate, is the Rocky Mountain Gardens at the Missoula County Fairgrounds.

"So this is our native prairie, modeled somewhat after what, you know, used to be here at the Fairgrounds before development," explained Molly Anton, the Rocky Mountain Gardens coordinator with the Missoula County Department of Ecology and Extension. "So there used to be a bunchgrass prairie here. It was a really important bitterroot collecting grounds. And so these grasses, yesterday we went up and saved them from a site that's to be developed in the future."

A group went out with picks and shovels, dug up the flowers and grasses, and moved them to the site behind the new Missoula Butterfly House and Insectarium. When it's ready this fall, it will be open to the public and people can enjoy seeing a small slice of the original Missoula Valley ecosystem.

The Missoula Redevelopment Agency's board approved two contracts on Monday, one to send $100,000 per year for three years to the Missoula Economic Partnership and the other to give $88,680 in Tax Increment Financing to a group of local housing developers for alley paving.

The housing project is a 15-condominium development at the corner of Idaho and Inez streets in Urban Renewal District II. The two-bedroom units will probably sell for $464,900 and the three-bedroom units will go for $494,000. The development group, called Idaho Street Holdings and led by local businessman Dan Cederberg, were applying for Tax Increment Financing to pave an alleyway that borders the project. They were unanimously awarded $88,860 by the board. The total project cost is estimated to be about $7.2 million.

“The project will transform currently vacant property in the center of the city into 15 new residential units which will provide home ownership opportunities to working families,” explained MRA director Ellen Buchanan. “The listing price is well below the median home price in Missoula and will serve a market that is currently underserved. Additionally, the construction of this missing alley will complete the transportation and service network between the Old Sawmill District and Russell Street. The alley exists both east and west of this block bounded by Inez and California Streets.”

The land is currently a vacant lot, she noted.

Missoula Pride is bringing events all around downtown, including a two-night block party. Plus, there comedy at Westside Theater, and an art celebration for a cause at Free Cycles.

A new art space on the Westside of Missoula is opening, courtesy of a familiar name.

Jennifer Leutzinger, the owner of thelate Brink Gallery,which closed in 2016, has a new spot with a dual purpose for pop-up art openings and to use as a personal studio.

“I’d like to offer art that you probably wouldn’t see most places that are commercial,” she said.

Qualities she listed off that she looked for at the Brink and her new spot, Bob’s Your Uncle include art that might be confusing or thought-provoking. Conceptual work that stirs a reaction. Experiences that could be bizarre, fun or different.

“Sometimes it's almost better when an artist has this vision of something that you can't even sell, they want to make it in the space just to make it,” she said.

"In A Violent Nature" puts a new sheen on slasher films. Also, the Missoula documentary, "Bodies Beneath Us," about the forgotten cemeteries for marginalized peoples, returns for a weeklong run.

—Charlotte Macorn, for the Missoulian

Missoula County Public Schools leadership addressed community concerns on Tuesday night over Lowell Elementary School’s music teacher position getting suspended.

Music classes at Lowell Elementary School won’t be offered for the upcoming school year as district leadership continues to grapple with teacher shortages. Instead, the district is hiring an art specialist to bridge the gap for the 2024-2025 school year. A handful of local educators shared concerns during public comment over what the consequences of not having a music teacher will mean for students.

The district plans to resume a search for a music teacher for the 2025-2026 school year, MCPS Human Resources Director Trevor Laboski said at Tuesday’s school board meeting.

An email sent by Lowell principal Rae Cooper last week to the school community said arts are a priority at Lowell, but the school has been trying to fill the music teacher position since April “without success,” and that to date no qualified candidates applied for the position.

New dispensaries in Missoula could be restricted for up to two years after the city council set three different laws for a final vote that would pause business licenses and add fines for people distributing marijuana to children.

The council advanced a resolutionWednesday to halt all new dispensary licenses within the city limits after July 8. That policy, if approved by council on June 24, would place a 180-day temporary ban on new cannabis shops.

The other two polices would create a more permanent, two-year moratorium on new dispensary licenses and establish local fines for selling or giving marijuana to a minor.

Both of those laws are set for a final debate by council on July 8. Ward 3 Councilor Gwen Jones sponsored the potential policies and said the restrictions are meant to limit youth cannabis use.

A small wildfire ignited in far northwest Montana on Tuesday after strong winds toppled a tree onto power lines.

Crews were dispatched to the Pine Creek fire around 6:44 p.m. The fire is 9 miles northwest of Troy, burning in a forested area about 1,900 feet east of U.S. Highway 2 and about a half-mile east of the adjacent Kootenai River. Satellite imagery shows a power line running through the forest in the area of the fire.

According to interagency dispatch logs and the Kootenai National Forest, the fire was about 10 acres by Wednesday morning.In a social media update, the forest stated that 20 personnel and a variety of fire engines and heavy equipment responded to the blaze and established containment lines around it. Crews would continue mop-up operations on Wednesday, the post stated.

Within the next year, the City of Missoula plans to improve two traffic intersections that officials identified as places with recent serious accidents.

A new traffic light is set to be placed at the intersection of Orange Street and Cregg Lane. The city is also planning a roundabout at Scott and Phillips streets near Westside Park.

Both projects are in the design phase, city Transportation Planner Aaron Wilson said during the Public Works and Mobility Department's budget update on Wednesday.

"We are seeing a lot of congestion, unsafe movements, really we can't get this done soon enough," Wilson said.

Final design approvals could reach council's desk in the next few weeks, with construction as early as summer 2025.

It takes years of training and education to become a ranger on public lands — if you're an adult, that is. If you're a kid ages 6–12 in the Missoula area, all you need to do is attend some free Junior Ranger programs offered by Montana's Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks this summer.

FWP's Junior Ranger program kicks off June 17 and runs through Aug. 22. Events are scheduled for Council Grove, Frenchtown Pond, Milltown Confluence and Milltown Overlook state parks. All 12 events are set for 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Mondays and Thursdays. Kids who attend at least three events earn an FWP Junior Ranger Badge.

Junior Ranger programs on a range of topics are mostly offered twice each, on different days at different parks. But two — a bull trout program and a pond ecology program — are offered only once. A total of seven different topics are covered across the 12 events.

Now in its third year, Missoula Pride is returning June 14-16 with more than 40 events, including an extended block party, new educational opportunities and a rally full of local and national speakers.

For the first time, the block party will take place over two nights, both Friday and Saturday. Extending the party has allowed them to feature more local talent, including a drag and variety show for each night with performers from Montana, said Devin Carpenter, Missoula Pride co-director.

The lineup for this year’s block parties also includes local and national musicians, like mountain soul singer WARPONY, rapper Chali 2na and bisexual hyperpop artist Slayyyter.

Afterparties for both nights feature an additional host of entertainment. Along with drag and burlesque shows, Missoula Pride will be bringing in musicians and DJs from the Detroit techno music scene, as well as partnering with the Montana Area Music Association for a showcase of local indie music.

“I think we always try to be a little nimble and ever-expanding as far as the different pockets of the community that we’re offering programming for,” Carpenter said.

A group of people were caught on surveillance camera vandalizing a Pride flag hung from a downtown Missoula business recently.

The owner of the Import Market, located on the corner of Broadway and Ryman, posted a security camera video to social media on Wednesday that shows the incident.

"As a long-time lgbqt supporter, I'm disheartened by the latest vandalism towards our shop," the owner posted. "Not only did they deliberately remove all the pride related flags, but they tore them up into pieces, stuffed them down their pants, and peed on them."

"It makes me sick to my stomach to have to watch this video," the post continued. "As a mother, it breaks my heart that humans can treat each other this way.We've hung flags in honor of Pride Month for years and have never had someone do this.I have no words."

The video shows a group of people jumping to tear down the flag. They then appear to rip it up and stuff it in a nearby garbage can. One member of the group stands over the garbage can for a few moments with his back to the camera.

Missoula's city council approved a new 18-unit subdivision along River Road Monday night despite some concerns that it will overextend the neighborhood's infrastructure.

The council approved the rezone and subdivision request 11-1, with Ward 6 Councilor Kristen Jordan representing the lone no vote.

The Strong Riverstone development, at 2348 River Road, will place 18 two-unit townhouses along a narrow strip of land between two developed parcels.

The project will connect with an interior road from another development and create a loop from River Road. To the north sits the Clark Fork River, where developers plan to keep open green space.

Smith River outfitters on Tuesday stood against a proposed rule change regarding how commercial launch days are reallocated after an outfitter leaves the business.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks' proposal would reallocate those launch days to other outfitters by lottery. The proposal identifies a handful of reasons an outfitter may lose their permitted launch days, including revocation by the department and death of the permit holder.

Another scenario identified by the department could be the permit holder's sale or transfer of the permitted business to a buyer who is ineligible to receive their own commercial use permit.

On Tuesday, FWP's State Parks and Recreation Board initiated what will be a multi-phase process to potentially create a lottery for the department to transfer those permitted launch days after any of those scenarios.

While FWP maintained on Tuesday the timing was unrelated, the department is currentlyin litigationover precisely that eligibility scenario.

A 25-year-old woman was killed in a single-car crash in Arlee Tuesday morning, according to local officials.

Naomi Plant, an Arlee resident, was the victim of the deadly crash, according to Lake County Sheriff Don Bell.

She was driving in a Nissan passenger car at McLeod Road and Dumontier Road, a Montana Highway Patrol crash report stated. At about 4:23 a.m., Plant failed to maneuver a left curve and drove off the north side of the road. The car rolled onto its roof.

She wasn’t wearing a seat belt, according to the report. Speed was a suspected factor of the crash. She died on scene.

The sheriff’s office extended its condolences to Plant’s loved ones. Plant was sent to the state medical examiner for an autopsy.

A Troy man was sentenced on Tuesday to two months in federal prison for killing a grizzly bear on his property in 2020.

Othel L. Pearson, 80, pleaded guilty in February to tampering with evidence, a felony, and for failure to report the taking of a grizzly bear, a misdemeanor, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office.

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy also imposed a $10,000 fine on Pearson.

Pearson shot and killed a sow grizzly at his home on Nov. 19, 2020. He used a .270 rifle. Pearson subsequently cut the bear's GPS collar and tossed it in the Yaak River, according to court documents.

He also cut the bear's paws, ear tags and a lip tattoo with identifying information off the carcass.

Maclay Bridge reopened on Tuesday after months of work to repair the road surface and other structural concerns, the county's road department announced.

Missoula County Public works completed the needed repairs to the bridge over the last two months. Crews began resurfacing the roadway with asphalt Tuesday morning, and the crossing was open by the afternoon.

The weight limit will remain at 11 tons. The Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) will complete an inspection later this month to evaluate the limit, the county said.

County Roads Engineer Erik Dickson said the total cost for the project has not been finalized, but it should be roughly $75,000 after the additional plans were made. The money came from MDT.

The countyclosed the bridge in Januaryafter a state inspection showed structural concerns with its road supports. Most of the concern revolved around corrosion of the steel support stringers under the bridge's surface. The bridge was built in 1953 and only has one lane.

GREAT LAKES, ILL. — Seaman Apprentice Charles Powers graduated as the top sailor from Recruit Training Command (RTC) Great Lakes, earning the Military Excellence Award (MEA) on June 6, 2024.

Powers, from Missoula, enlisted for a variety of reasons, including the opportunity to serve his country.

“I’ve always had a lot of pride in our country and what we stand for, so I was eager to serve,” Powers said. “Being a part of something bigger than myself has always been important to me. I also want to be able to look back later in life and be proud of my career. The Navy will allow me to challenge myself in ways I don’t think would be possible in a different career. Enlisting allows me to see what I’m capable of personally and professionally."

Powers, 23, graduated from Hellgate High School and was a member of the two-time state championship baseball team. Following high school, Powers worked as a carpenter and was recently promoted to assistant superintendent.

—Marc A. Lindsay, Recruit Training Command Public Affairs

The Missoula City Council approved new restrictions on urban camping on public property in the early hours of Tuesday morning after a nearly 10-hour meeting that started Monday evening.

The council voted 10-2 to approve the resolution. Councilors Daniel Carlino and Kristen Jordan voted against the new policy.

The resolution immediately went into effect overnight, according to Ryan Sudbury, city attorney for civil services.

The meeting ended at around 3:45 a.m. Tuesday.

"As much as it doesn't feel like progress, I actually do think this is a little bit of progress," said Sierra Farmer, Ward 2 councilor. "I know it's not perfect, but what I heard in the working group is what we are doing right now is not working, and that everyone wants to know what the rules are."

The resolution establishes several "buffer zones" that ban people from camping near certain areas— 100 feet from houses and businessesand 300 feet from shelters or schools. It bans camping altogether in Caras Park, McCormick Park, Westside Park, Rail Link Park and Jacob's Island Dog Park.

People sleeping outside must be 100 feet away from playgrounds, sports courts, splash pads, athletic fields, bandshells and pavilions in city limits.

People also cannot camp within 50 feet of the waters edge for the Clark Fork River, Rattlesnake Creek or Grant Creek within city limits. Conservation lands are banned altogether.

Missoula County has received an application from a development group for a major 225-lot subdivision, with well over 445 housing units, west of town near the Wye.

The Grass Valley Gardens request states that the developers are looking to subdivide 187 acres of currently vacant grazing land at 9029 Highway 10 W., just west of Deschamps Lane. As housing prices have surged over the last decade due to demand from buyers, much of Missoula’s growth has occurred in the area just west of town. About 218 of the lots would be residential, with the rest being commercial. The first stage of the development would occur in four phases, and those four phases would consist of 41 single-family homes, 33 residential cottages, 52 townhomes, 35 four-plex buildings, 12 two-plex apartment buildings, 85 duplexes, 20 “residential garden units,” large multifamily buildings with 126 apartments and small multifamily buildings with 42 units.

“In total this stage consists of 445 residential units,” the application states. “This stage also consists of one 2,000-square-foot sales office building and 25,000 square feet of retail commercial space. A mix of housing types are proposed with this subdivision including single family homes and multi-family units. The lots proposed will support market-rate housing. The estimated market cost of the dwellings is anticipated to be $475,000 and rents are likely to average $1,800 per month.”

The developers, called Grass Valley Holdings LLC, are proposing to have the subdivision built out by the year 2032. A call to one of the developers, Matt Mellott of Missoula, was unreturned on Tuesday morning.

The developers have hired WGM Group of Missoula to prepare their application.

A 4-year-old sustained serious injuries when he was struck by a car in Missoula’s northside neighborhood last week.

According to aGoFundMe page, the boy, Tavi, is in the ICU at a Spokane hospital after he was hit on Thursday, June 6.

Calls came in at about 4:30 p.m. for a child that was hit at the intersection of Scott Street and Phillips Street, according to information shared by Missoula Police Spokesperson Whitney Bennett.

He was hit while running across the street by a passenger car driving the posted speed limit in the neighborhood, Bennett said. She added the driver is being fully cooperative with the investigation and impairment or distractions aren’t a suspected factor. The boy was given medical care on scene and eventually transported to a Spokane medical facility.

The fundraiser is asking for community help to cover Tavi's medical bills.

There's something curious about Henri Naughton.

Maybe it's that he excels both in playing classical cello and surfing the wild waves of the Lochsa River, or the way his thoughtful study of history belies his prowess in school sports. Or maybe it's simply that Naughton, 18, is himself deeply curious about seemingly everything he approaches.

Hellgate High School teachers described Naughton, who graduated June 1, variously as humble, a team player and a creative thinker. But the teachers, who responded separately to the Missoulian about their now-former student, all came back to the same word: curious.

"There was always a courteousness in Henri, an innatepoliteness," history teacher Courtney Christopher wrote in an email. "It cloaked burning questions about history. Those questions spanned time and space, from the Mongols to Estonia, disclosing the intelligence and curiosityhe has for life."

As Missoula County's floodplain map gets updated with new data for the first time in decades, some residents are concerned that the government has overstepped its bounds.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been working with the state and local counties to update floodplain maps, including for Missoula County, which should get a new draft map in the next year.

Most of the current maps are based on hand-measured, decades-old data.

While the new mapswill be more accurate for predictingfuture floods, the changes will inevitably move some residents into the floodplain. That affects their insurance and home values.

A group of landowners in western Montana recently urged Missoula County to cut ties with FEMA because of a new floodplain map. County commissioners countered that doing so would deny people insurance and cost the county millions of dollars.

The residents also criticized a separate, Missoula County-specific project that created zoning restrictions within parts of the Missoula Valley floodplain in 2022.

A new proposal by a Missoula city councilor would temporarily halt business licenses for new marijuana dispensaries within city limits and add more fines around selling to underage residents, citing a high number of storefronts that some argue add to youth cannabis abuse.

Ward 3 Councilor Gwen Jones will propose three different resolutions to the Public Safety Health and Operations Committee on Wednesday.

One policy would enact a 180-day ban on new dispensary licenses. The second would set a public hearing next month to consider to halting licenses for new dispensaries for two years. The third policy would add additional fines for giving or selling marijuana to a minor.

Jones told the Missoulian that the new polices are in response to the large amount of dispensaries currently operating within the city, which in turn increases access to marijuana.

A local nonprofit that empowers people with disabilities has won approval to use nearly $2.5 million in Tax Increment Financing to replace an aging warehouse on Third Street with 24 units of income-restricted housing.

Opportunity Resources, Inc. has operated a wood products business, which employs individuals with disabilities, at 901 S. Third Street W. for about 30 years. They are proposing to sell and relocate the wood products business to a more appropriate location on the Northside, then they would build two different buildings at the Third Street site.

One would be a two-story, 3,350-square foot commercial space that would house the“Artists of Opportunity”initiative and host programming with local schools and community artists. The other building would be a three-story, 24-unit apartment building that would be ADA-accessible and would be income restricted for households earning between 40% and 80% of Area Median Income. It would be income-restricted for 50 years.

Wildfire coverage for Montana homes is getting harder to buy as insurance companies nationwide lower their exposure to natural disaster payouts.

Homeowners in Missoula and other parts of Montana have had their insurance policies non-renewed, seen premiums increase and levels of potential reimbursem*nt fall, according to officials in the industry and local government emergency services. Montana may actually lag behind the wave of insurance broker pull-outs in other states that have suffered big losses from tornadoes, hurricanes and floods.

“The impacts to Montana are probably just starting,” said Adrian Beck, Missoula County’s Emergency Management Office director. “But it’s coming. A handful of individuals have reached out to us, having lost coverage in Missoula area.”

That will put renewed emphasis on residents protecting their own properties through fire-wise defensive efforts. Bozeman-based Headwaters Economics released a comprehensiveguide for confronting urban wildfire riskin May.

Eight school districts across Montana were awarded $5.49 million in federal dollars to buy clean school buses, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced recently.

The money comes from the EPA’s Clean School Bus Program rebate competition, and is getting parceled out to schools to purchase clean buses in an effort to transition more school transportation services to zero-emission.

Bozeman Elementary is getting $2,000,000 for 10 new buses, the largest award in Montana, and second is East Helena K-12 which will be getting $1,035,000 for three buses.

HELENA — Montana’s U.S. Senate contest has been billed as the Big Sandy dirt farmer against the former Navy SEAL, and that’s what viewers saw Sunday morning as Jon Tester and Tim Sheehy squared off in their first debate.

From the vantage point of the land his grandparents homesteaded, incumbent Democrat Tester said he’s seen out-of-staters try to reshape Montana into a playground for the wealthy and that he’s the candidate with the skills and experience to fight back.

Republican challenger Tim Sheehy, who founded an aerial firefighting company in Belgrade, told viewers he’s a military warrior who has fought for America and that a new generation of leaders like him are what will keep the country from falling apart.

The two men in one of the nation’s most consequential Senate races debated in an hour-long exchange hosted by the Montana Broadcasters Association before a closed studio audience at Fairmont Hot Springs. Tester is one of two Democrats seeking re-election, in this case to his fourth term, in a state won by former President Donald Trump in 2020. He’s being targeted by Republicans nationally who see the seat as critical to taking back control of the chamber.

On some, but definitely not all, of the issues they were asked about, the candidates found agreement on their assessment of the problems facing Montana. But the two men pressed hard to show voters the Grand Canyon-sized difference in their biographies.

Classic guitar pedals often come with classic-sounding names. Think Big Muff. Fuzz Face. Cry Baby. Memory Man.

How about Frybread Fuzz?

The name jumps out, as it was intended. It even has a recipe on the back.

It’s a new pedal that’s sold out of two batches, produced by Mike Trombley, a Blackfeet electrical engineer, and his guitar effects company, NativeAudio.

The Frybread pedal, adorned with a fun vintage-style cartoon drawing, is designed to be a flexible fuzz pedal, with enough thickness for heavy music and versatile definition of sound, while also spreading his heritage far and wide.

“We share culture through sound,” Trombley said in a Zoom call from his home base in Ohio.

Trombley’s gear names and designs all point to his heritage. His delay pedal, Two Medicine, has a graphic of Sinopah Mountain jutting skyward over the lake. His tremolo pedal (think of the quavering surf guitar sound) is called Rising Sun, with a trio of Blackfeet teepees watching the dawn. His overdrive-distortion pedal, the kind you’d want if playing some hard rock or classic metal, is called War Party.

Trombley said that like many ventures, the company’s recent recognition didn’t come overnight, but after decades of learning with some failures and hurdles en route.

Josie Allred wouldn’t say she loves school, but she likes it a lot. The learning part, specifically.

“I feel like sometimes even when I was in like junior, sophom*ore, freshman year, I would dread going,” Allred said. “It's just, I didn't learn how important school is until I actually was unable to go to school.”

Allred graduated from Sentinel High School on June 1 with the honor of Summa Cum Laude. While she also started her high school career amid pandemic restrictions, the newly-graduated 18-year-old faced her own set of challenges during her senior year.

“I feel accomplished because I feel like I've gone through so much,” Allred added. “Graduation for me is not exactly for school, but it's for me. Like I got through my senior year.”

Diagnosed with epilepsy at age 12, Allred and her family have navigated many doctor appointments and medications to manage the neurological disease. This year, they switched medications in hopes of better control, but their neurologist resigned, adding another layer of complexity to Allred's senior year.

Southern Montana could soon be a part of a 50-hour, 44-stop rail line between Seattle and Chicago, federal officials said Friday, but more money is needed to finalize a service plan and get the project pushed through Congress.

The North Coast Hiawatha line is the only long-distance rail line in the country that received federal approval to study feasibility for the project last year. On Thursday, the northwest regional authority met privately in Missoula to discuss next steps.

The buzz around the new route brought several top railroad officials to the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority (BSPRA) for its annual conference in Missoula, including from Amtrak and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).

"I am encouraged that we are really at the front of the pack when it comes to project development," said Dave Strohmaier,BSPRA chair and Missoula County commissioner. "There has been project prioritization for 15 (new) preferred routes, and we've been taken out of the prioritization because we are already in the project development pipeline."

With an impressive handful of extracurriculars under her belt, Seeley-Swan High School graduate Hattie Batchelder is headed to UM this fall to pursue environmental studies and documentary film.

Batchelder, raised in Seeley Lake, capped off her time at the high school as she graduated alongside 20 of her peers last weekend.

Batchelder filled her time at Seeley-Swan with classes and clubs, including the Business Professionals of America (BPA). She joined BPA her freshman year and kept with it through graduation.

It’s a nationwide club for middle and high school students. Members participate in business-related competitions. Those events gave Batchelder the chance to travel in high school, sending her to Los Angeles and Chicago for BPA contests, which also served as a networking opportunity.

"Hattie is such a great all-around student. Her good naturedness, humor, and leadership will be missed in our BPA (Business Professionals of America) student organization and the halls of Seeley-Swan High School,” said Michele Holmes, librarian, business teacher and instructional coach at Seeley-Swan. “I cannot wait to see where her future takes her!”

TARKIO — For the first time in almost 50 years, people will soon be able to roll along the Milwaukee Road railroad grade along the Clark Fork River from Cyr to Superior. But this time they'll be on bikes, rather than in storied passenger trains like the Olympian or North Coast Hiawatha.

A century ago, what's now a forest of tall pines and riverfront homes routinely roared alive as locomotives from the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad — commonly known as the Milwaukee Road — ferried passengers and freight across the state and between Chicago and Puget Sound. That's also about when part of the route from Harlowton to Avery, Idaho, was electrified, making it the world's longest continuously electrified mainline for decades to come.

Electrification allowed the railroad to add open-air passenger cars in summer months: The clean, soot-free electric locomotives meant passengers could feel the wind in their faces as they took in 360-degree panoramas of Montana. The lines above the tracks stopped buzzing 50 years ago this month, on June 15, 1974. Amtrak, which provided service on the route starting in 1971 as the Milwaukee Road died, ended service entirely in 1979.

But now a yearslong effort from Mineral County Rails to Trails organization — plus public, nonprofit and private foundation grants — has allowed people to once again feel the wind in their faces as they glide along the path, still soot free.

Traffic on Interstate 90 was a whisper in the distance as arrowleaf balsamroot and lupine swayed gently in the wind on a plot of state land almost a quarter-mile south of the highway last Sunday, June 2. A banner emblazoned with "United we trail," courtesy of the Rails to Trails Conservancy, flapped next to a table crowded with a vase of lilacs, cold drinks and a custom cake. About 40 people gathered as Mineral County Rails to Trails and its partners announced the opening of a roughly 2-mile non-motorized path between Crystal Springs (exit 65) and Tarkio (exit 61).