Mayor of the City of Hamilton, Jessica Randazzo, surprised a lot of people last Wednesday, August 20 when she submitted a letter of resignation to her staff stating that she would be quitting with an effective date of September 2, 2008. She cited only “personal reasons” for her resignation.

In a telephone interview with the Bitterroot Star, Randazzo declined to elaborate any further on the personal reasons for her decision, but she did take the opportunity to emphasize that the decision was for personal reasons only and had nothing to do with any city business.

“It was for personal reasons and nothing else,” said Randazzo.

She also said, “I’m confident that someone else will fill this role and the city will be fine without me.”

Randazzo also said that she was willing to be flexible about the exact timing of her departure from office if it presented any problems for the City Council.

A city council meeting has been scheduled for September 2.

The day following the submission of her letter, City Attorney Ken Bell quickly weighed in with a memorandum to the City Council stating that the Mayor had resigned with an “effective date of September 2, 2008.”

“The proper interpretation of that declaration by the Mayor is that she is Mayor through September 1, 2008, but that at 12:01 am on September 2, her resignation is effective, and she is no longer Mayor,” wrote Bell.

He noted that the President of the City Council becomes the presiding officer and would begin performing his duties on September 2. The Council then has thirty days from that date to fill the vacancy.

“The person elected/appointed by the Council will complete the current Mayor’s term (ends 12/31/09), and anyone seeking to become mayor for the 2010-2013 term, including the appointee, must run for that position in the next general municipal election in the Fall of 2009,” wrote Bell.

Jerry Steele, President of the City Council, who will be serving as presiding Mayor in the mayor’s absence, said that he was interested in possibly being appointed to serve out the remainder of Randazzo’s term. He also said that there was no rush to make a decision, since they had 30 days, and that the full council would be considering the process, probably at its next meeting.

County Fairgrounds gets a new sign

By Michael Howell

The Ravalli County Fairgrounds is sporting a flashy new message board attached to the main entranceway at the corner of Old Corvallis and Fairgrounds roads, thanks to the generosity of Ravalli County Bank. County Commissioners Carlotta Grandstaff and Jim Rokosch joined fairground staff and bank officials last Thursday to dedicate the new message board.

Ravalli County Fair Commissioner Win Smith said that he and Fair Manager Gary Wiley originally got the idea for the message board when pondering the results of a traffic survey done in 2001. At that time about 3,700 vehicles per day passed the entrance to the Fairgrounds. By 2021 the figure was projected to jump to 11,800.

“Today,” said Smith, “there are probably 5,000 to 6,000 cars going by daily.” He said that he and Wiley saw the traffic numbers as an asset that should be used and the idea of putting up a community message board was born.

The idea was to have a message display board that would not only display the time and temperature, but also identify the Fairgrounds and display scheduled programs, as well as advertising other non-profit events around the county. Smith said that the Bitterroot Valley Chamber of Commerce has volunteered to help keep the community event schedule up to date.

With the Chamber’s help, Smith said, the message board could become the focal point for information on what’s happening all around the valley. Plans call for trying to integrate the Sheriff’s Office and fire departments across the valley to post emergency announcements.

And then there’s paying for it.

“It seemed natural to go to Ravalli County Bank,” said Smith.

Ravalli County Bank President Chuck Shonkwiler said that in his mind there is a natural connection between his bank and the Fairgrounds, and that is Marcus Daly. The Daly family was instrumental in establishing the Fairgrounds when it sold the present fairgrounds land to the county. Marcus Daly was also the founder of Ravalli County Bank in 1895. Except for a few years, in the early 1900’s, the bank has been locally owned. L.N. and Evagene Shonkwiler purchased it in 1966. Their son, Chuck, has been bank president since 1983.

“The community has been great to us and to my family,” said Shonkwiler, “and now it’s time to give back.”

The bank agreed to pay the full purchase price of the sign, $17,000.

Shonkwiler added, “But it couldn’t have been done without Win. He’s a doer, and he got it done.”

Smith was quick to assert that it wasn’t him that got it done. “It was the whole community and the cooperation between the city and county governments that got this done before Fair time,” he said. He thanked the city and the county for expediting the matter.

Commissioner Grandstaff thanked the bank for its generosity and predicted that the sign will become a local landmark very quickly.

FlatIron headed to public hearing

By Michael Howell

The FlatIron annexation application sailed through the Hamilton City Council’s Zoning, Annexation, and Planning (ZAP) Committee last week and is headed for a public hearing and consideration by the full city council at a meeting scheduled for September 18, 2008, according to City Clerk Rose Allen. Developer Ken Madden of Shiloh Development, a company out of Scottsdale, Arizona, intends to build a 622-unit development on the site after it is annexed into the city. The land sits about two miles east of the Hamilton city limits along Golf Course Road.

After gaining a recommendation for approval from the Planning Board and a recommendation of approval of proposed zoning changes for the area by the Zoning Commission at a joint meeting last week, the application landed in the City Council’s ZAP committee for review. Three city councilors sit on the ZAP committee, Council President Jerry Steele and Councilors Al Mitchell and Mike LaSalle. Rather than recommend approval or disapproval of the application, the councilors approved a motion to send it on to the full Council for examination without any recommendation. The motion simply stated that the application would be forwarded to the full City Council for review by all council members, that the fiscal analysis of the development be reviewed, and that the process be slowed down, according to Allen.

Steele said in a telephone interview that the main reason for passing on the application to the full council was so that every councilor would have a chance to study the issues and be involved in the formation of any decision without three councilors taking the lead through committee recommendation.

“All six councilors need to be involved in this and hear all the pros and cons,” said Steele.

Councilor Mitchell, who voted against Steele and LaSalle on the motion, said that he felt the application deserved more review by the committee.

“From my angle we need to take a little more time and try to find some answers to some questions before moving forward,” said Mitchell. “It’s important that we get this one right.” He said that the application seemed to moving on some sort of fast track and more time was needed for review and consideration of such a big and complex proposal.

Steele said that he has requested that an employee of the Denver firm that did the fiscal analysis of the proposal’s effects on the city be on hand for the September 18 public hearing.

“We have to take a long hard look at that annexation agreement,” said Steele. He said that he would not vote to approve annexation until a firm agreement had been ironed out and agreed to by the developer.

Because Mildenberger Properties LLC, and Harold and Brad Mildenberger officially hold title to the property they will have to sign off on any annexation agreement, according to City Planner Dennis Stranger. But Brad Mildenberger told the Bitterroot Star that he and his family are not involved at all in the development proposal for the property. He said that the property was sold a few years ago on a contract for deed to Ken Madden of Shiloh Development, the company that plans to develop the FlatIron subdivision on the property.

“I think it’s a good proposal,” said Mildenberger. “It looks like a very positive development for the City of Hamilton. We wish Madden the best in his proposal, but we [the Mildenbergers] are not involved in the development of the property.”

Steele said that coming up with a solid annexation agreement was going to be the key for this proposal to move forward.

“Everything hinges on that agreement,” said Steele. “We’re trying to hold the city harmless as much as possible. The taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for that subdivision.”

Developer Ken Madden did not return repeated phone calls from the Bitterroot Star for comment on this story.

Work proceeds at Lost Horse Quarry

By Michael Howell

Trucks full of rock are rumbling down the narrow and winding Lost Horse Canyon Creek Road south of Hamilton after Missoula Federal District Court Judge Donald Molloy denied a request for a temporary injunction against the County’s mining project.

A group of citizens called the Lost Horse Canyon Coalition and an individual by the name of Rick Torre sued the county in federal court to try and stop the project. Although two previous mining proposals by the County Road and Bridge Department were struck down following stiff resistance from the public, a third project tied to the Kootenai Creek Bridge replacement project won the commissioners’ approval.

A coalition of residents, climbers, and other citizens formed to protest the mining proposals and advocate for other uses of the area. The mine has lain dormant for a few decades. The quarry lies on federal forest land and a permit from the Forest Service to mine the quarry was granted. The Forest Service itself has some tentative plans to mine the quarry in the future for its own purposes as well in a planned project at Lake Como and for improvement of campgrounds elsewhere on the forest.

The citizens group expressed concerns about the safety of the operation on the narrow, unimproved road, the dust and the noise, and negative effects upon other uses of the area for recreation. They also complained that no solid cost analysis was presented for any of the proposed mining operations.

The county maintains that the use of the quarry saves money compared to the cost of purchasing the needed rock from private sources. Opponents of the mining claim that with no real cost analysis in hand the county can’t possibly know how much money might be “saved.”

Coalition member Mark Behrman said that the judge’s refusal to grant a temporary injunction left the group with a moot case in court. By the time any decision would be handed down the project would be complete. He said that the group is now focusing on finding out the real costs to the county for the operation. Behrman said that when the true costs of the operation are revealed it will become clear that the decision to mine was not fiscally sound.

County Road and Bridge Department Supervisor David Ohnstad said that work at the quarry was ongoing and that extraction of rock at the site would probably be complete by the end of the week. He said that in another three weeks all the stockpiled rock at the site would be removed.

“I think that when people see the end result an objective person would see that the area is being left in a condition actually more conducive to multiple recreational uses than it was before. We said all along that we can utilize this resource and not compromise the other uses of the area and this is what people will see. Within a month we will have our answers.”

Coalition members claim that a truly unbiased analysis of the project, once it’s completed, will reveal the opposite. They are hoping to get the County Commissioners to produce the real, after the fact costs, and review the outcome of the project.

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