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Wednesday, May 16, 2007 Page One News at a GlanceMeyer Ranch hosts 12th Annual Farm FairELECTION RESULTSMitchell files for Hamilton City Council seatStevi principal not rehiredMeyer Ranch hosts 12th Annual Farm FairBy Gretchen L. Langton Come hail or high winds, the Farm Fair will prevail. It was closer to snow than hail; the weather was blustery for the 12th Annual Farm Fair held at the Meyer Ranch recently. The weather didn’t stop Bitterroot fourth graders from visiting sixteen different stations on the Bitterroot side of Meyer Lane (or sixteen of the same stations on the Sapphire side of the road); there are thirty-two stations in order to accommodate the 480 students who come to experience a variety of agricultural epiphanies. These excited students forgot their shivers long enough to eat ice cream they made with their own hands by rolling cans across tilted platforms on the backs of hay wagons. They used the following recipe: put one can inside another, fill it with liquid fixings, seal, surround the inside can with ice and rock salt, seal, and roll to the person across the wagon. Agriculture ala mode. Behind this station was one far less frivolous, but equally educational. ABC stands for "always be careful" on the farm, the sign announces beside a volunteer engaging students with a poignant demonstration of what can happen to an adolescent girl who hides in the back of a grain truck. I wonder how this woman can speak so seriously with squealing ice cream rollers in her periphery vision until I watch the grain dump out of the plexi-sided miniature truck, suffocating the toy child wedged in the spillway. I can nearly hear my father wincing beside me and I know that even though he was able to raise three girls on a ranch without significant injury, his empathy for those not so lucky is working overtime. Safety around machinery and animals cannot be stressed enough, especially as kids become more urbanized and have less experience with farm impliments. We move on to the next station before there can be any imaginary sprinkler pipes tipped up into power lines. With a live Holstein milling around a pen nearby, several young volunteers ask students to pin the parts on a picture of a dairy cow. "What’s a pastern," asks a perplexed fourth grade pinner. Her group leader seems confounded too. "The pastern is between the fetlock and hoof," explains the young 4-Her in charge. Somewhere beside me a quiet whisperer wonders, "What’s a fetlock?" Of course, this is why they are here, to find out things they never knew about animals some of these children are seeing for the first time in the flesh. One teacher confides, "You should see some of their reactions when a cow lifts her tail..." I find this both shocking and hilarious to think that there are kids who have not even considered the possibility of animal defecation. (Perhaps next year’s fair should include a "Dung in Detail" station where students pitch horse pucky for points or perhaps learn about the power of compost.) Bob Leonardi’s been teaching kids how to make sturdy three-strand ropes at the Farm Fair for ten years. "I never graduated," he jokes about sticking with the rope demonstration for so long. He uses a four-cogged contraption he fashioned himself. With a flat piece of iron, three half-moon bites removed, and a handle, one student guides the strands toward the cogs while another one turns the handle responsible for twisting the strands. In between Bob’s twisting station and Jim’s horseshoeing station, students learn about sheep, chickens, and rabbits. Not far away, kids hear about pigs and beef, they practice roping, they find out from Bosco that "100 years ago, there were two hundred different varieties of apples." "When it’s your birthday, tell your family you want a tree," suggests Bosco in an attempt to communicate the importance of being a part of our own food production. He adds at the end, "And remember, food doesn’t come from the store." After visiting stations, my father and I became volunteers ourselves. As "tour guides," riding on horse- and mule-drawn wagons bouncing through the pastures, we talked to kids about irrigation and horse power. Kent and Mary Lou Connor, owners of Grace and Tom (two beautiful Belgian drafts that pulled Kent’s hay wagon for the occasion), have been participating in the Farm Fair since its inception twelve years ago. Even though a good deal of work is involved with hauling horses and wagons and hay to and fro, as well as organizing drivers, speakers, and loaders, the Connors find that educating children about agriculture is a worthy cause. The Connors aren’t the only people who feel this way. "There are two hundred volunteers that make this happen," says Colleen Meyer proudly. She knows what it means to be devoted to this project. Colleen begins preparing for this event nine months in advance when she applies for her first grant for Farm Fair on August 1st; the next grant deadline is December 1st. Paperwork is only a portion of the work involved. There’s also the daunting task of preparing a working ranch for seven hundred visitors. With the help of the Montana Beef Council, the Montana Wheat and Barley Committee, Rocky Mountain Grange, Stevensville Feed and Farm, Darigold, Super One, Bitterroot Community Market, and 4-H clubs and FFA chapters, Farm Fair sponsors not only educate fourth graders, they feed everyone! This event is truly a testimony to the commitment of this valley’s agricultural community; it is just such dedication to hands-on education that will inspire students to respect the value of agriculture and to revere the hardworking folks who are responsible for feeding the nation. |
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ELECTION RESULTSThe only countywide issue on the May 8 election ballot, the proposal to create a Community College District in the Bitterroot Valley, passed by a narrow margin with voters approving the measure by a vote of 3,037 to 2,837. The proposed college district includes every school district in Ravalli County, except the Florence-Carlton School District, which is split between Missoula and Ravalli Counties. Despite voter approval, however, the final authority for establishing a college district, according to the attorney general's office, rests with the Montana legislature. Unofficial totals obtained from the Ravalli County Elections Office on Monday show: Bitterroot Valley Community College
Trustees (top 7)
Florence School District- Building Levy
Florence Park District
Florence Rural Fire District trustees (top two)
Three Mile Fire District
Trustees (top 2)
North Valley Library District
Stevensville School District
Victor School District
Trustees (top 2)
Corvallis School District
Hamilton School District
Darby School District
Trustees (top 2)
Sula Rural Fire District |
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Mitchell files for Hamilton City Council seatBy Michael Howell Longtime Hamilton business owner Al Mitchell has thrown his hat in the ring for a seat on the Hamilton city Council representing Ward 2. That seat is currently occupied by Bob Scott. Mitchell, now approaching 53 years of age, was raised and schooled in Hamilton. He served four years in the Coast Guard before getting a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in accounting from the University of Montana. After working for a few years at a radio station in Shelby, Montana, and a short stint at KLYQ in Hamilton, he started into the business that he now operates and has owned and operated for the last 20 years, The Paper Clip, in downtown Hamilton. He has served as Treasurer and President of the Bitterroot Chamber of Commerce in his 6-year tenure with the organization. He is also a member of the Hamilton School District Board of Trustees. He has also served as President of the Hamilton United Businesses a few times over the last several years. Mitchell and his wife, Carol, have three boys, two of whom still live in Hamilton and one works at the family store. "I have a real interest in the Hamilton community and the valley as a whole," said Mitchell. "I have an interest in the future generations of our valley." He said that the City of Hamilton's proceedings have been contentious and he would like to bring an element of civility and compromise to the council. Mitchell said that he is against micro-management of the city's affairs. "Growth is inevitable," said Mitchell. "It is how we manage it that counts. There are good and bad aspects to growth. Each project needs to be looked at individually as we try to get a handle on it." |
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Stevi principal not rehiredBy Michael Howell Stevensville High School Principal Jim Notaro was not rehired for the coming school year following the recommendation of School Superintendent Dennis Kimzey last week. At its May 8 meeting, the Stevensville School Board of Trustees rehired a slate of tenured ad non tenured teachers. But when it came to rehiring administrators Kimzey recommended that Notaro be reassigned to classroom work. The other administrators were all rehired. That decision was preceded by a closed door session in which the performance of the administrators was evaluated. Notaro participated in that closed door session. Following the closed door evaluation, a few members of the public who were cautioned not to discuss private personnel matters expressed disagreement with the superintendent's recommendation. Teacher Mike Mickelson said that he considered the loss of a superintendent (Kimzey has resigned and will be leaving his job at the end of the school year), and the loss of the high school principal at the same time would be disruptive to the staff and the students. He called it "too large of a transition." At least one School Board member, Ed Cummings, agreed. He cast the lone but loud vote against the reassignment, citing the same reasons as Mickelson. Stacey Hall, representative of the Teachers Union, after being asked by Cummings, said that the faculty was divided on the issue. Kimzey, when asked, said that his recommendation had not changed as a result of the closed door performance review. He said that his recommendation was "the only alternative that is left." Every Board member but Cummings supported the Superintendent's recommendation. Afterwards, Kimzey said that he could not comment any further on the issue because of matters of privacy. Notaro did not respond to inquiries from the Bitterroot Star on Monday. In other business the Board approved placing two maintenance and operational levies on the ballot in an election scheduled for June 26. It was incorrectly reported in last week's Bitterroot Star that the levies would be placed on the May 8 election ballot, when in fact they were only being placed on the May 8 school board agenda. The levy request for the Elementary School is set at $110,000. The High School levy request has been set at $124,400. But Superintendent Dennis Kimzey cautioned that the request could still be modified or even dropped depending on the level of state funding, a matter that has not yet been decided by the legislature. Trustee Ed Cummings retained his seat on the board without opposition. Patricia Wilson, also without opposition, was selected to fill the seat of retiring board member Marcia Babowicz. Board Chairman Jim Cloud was selected as chairman once again for the coming year. Bill Goslin was elected to vice-chair. The Board also heard and accepted correspondence from Fred Thomas, representing the Stevensville Community Center Complex (SCCC), that effectively terminates the 99-year lease of a 4.5 acre parcel of land owned by the school. The SCCC also returned $5,478.40 to the school that it had collected for rent on the property while it maintained the lease. |
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