By Michael Howell Ravalli County officials have been notified by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar that, due to failure of Congress to reach a deal on balanced deficit reduction to avoid sequestration, the President issued a sequestration order canceling approximately $85 billion in budgetary resources across the federal government for the remainder of…
Category Archives: Page One
Montana WWII vets awarded French Medal of Honor
By Michael Howell Five Montanans received the French Medal of Honor at a ceremony held at the Ravalli County Veterans Memorial in Heironymous Park in Hamilton last Saturday. The five veterans of World War II fought on French territory in Normandy, Southern France, Northern France, and the Ardennes, participating in the Liberation of…
Hospital Foundation unveils plans for ICU expansion
By Michael Howell The Daly Hospital Foundation is going public with a Power of Health Initiative to raise funds for a new Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital. The plan involves transforming a cramped 492 square foot facility that holds three beds separated only by curtains into a five-bed facility in…
Stevi weapons ordinance hearing draws a crowd
By Michael Howell The Stevensville Town Council passed a new weapons ordinance on first reading a few weeks ago. A public hearing held last Thursday, April 25, however, drew a roomful of people, almost all of whom expressed concern that the new ordinance was too restrictive and urged the Council to reconsider it. At…
County settles with Morado Mountain Estates for $300k
By Michael Howell The Ravalli County Commissioners decided unanimously at a meeting last week to pay out $300,000 to Morado Mountain Estates LLC as part of a settlement agreement over a lawsuit claiming that the county improperly denied the subdivision request made in 2007. The lawsuit was filed in 2008 by both the Big Sky…
Habitat for Humanity breaks ground for Stevi family’s home
By Michael Howell Belia Velasco-Coombes and her children Tejal and Desan grabbed shovels and, with the help of Habitat for Humanity Director Mike Kibler and Stevensville Mayor Gene Mim Mack, broke ground on their new home site at 105 Mission Street in Stevensville. Habitat for Humanity of Ravalli County is a non-profit organization that…
Planning Board recommends approval of Legacy Ranch subdivision
By Michael Howell At a meeting held on April 17 and continued on the 18th, the Ravalli County Planning Board decided, on a 5-2 vote, to recommend to the Board of County Commissioners approval of the Legacy Ranch Subdivision, a 647-unit development proposed along the Eastside Highway north of Stevensville. Having received public input…
Daly Hospital ranked in top 100 in nation
By Michael Howell Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital was recently ranked in the top 100 critical access hospitals in the nation. Small and rural hospitals play a critical role in providing efficient and effective health care that is on par with other larger suburban and urban counterparts, according to iVantage Health Analytics, the company that…
Emergency dispatchers honored
By Michael Howell Last week was National Public Safety Telecommunications Week. It is a time set aside to celebrate the service of our nation’s Public Safety Telecommunicators, known in ordinary parlance as Emergency Dispatchers. Dispatchers are sometimes referred to as “the first first-responders” because they are usually the first to be contacted in any…
County objects to federal acquisition of tribal land
By Michael Howell The Ravalli County Commissioners decided last week to register their objection to the proposed acquisition of 58 acres of land by the federal government, called the Medicine Tree Property, located south of Darby. The land is currently owned by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) who purchased it in 1998….