Missoulian week in review: Local news recap for May 18-24 (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:

Tim Sheehy had a commanding presence at the Bridger Aerospace open house on a rainy Sunday in early May, dwarfed only by the huge firefighting aircrafts around the hangar.

He moved about the crowd in an all-denim outfit, boots and a ball cap from the cattle ranch heco-owns (which he has received carpetbaggercriticismover). Nothing about him revealed that he’s the frontrunner in the primary race to unseat three-term incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, but it was clear that many people in the room knew who he was.

Sheehy shook hands with families and made faces at babies, eliciting huge sparsely toothed smiles while their parents thanked him for his service in the military. Multiple people asked him to sign their copies of his book, “Mudslingers: A True Story of Aerial Firefighting,” spelling out their names and asking for photos with him.

At Bridger Aerospace (the aerial firefighting and surveillance company he founded) and in other circles, Sheehy is adored. But not everyone in Montana is as convinced of the first-time U.S. Senate candidate.

The race between the former Navy SEAL and businessman and the Big Sandy dirt farmer is one of the most closely watched contests in the nation, as Democrats have a razor-thin majority in the Senate and Tester is one of two incumbent Democrats running for reelection in the chamber in a state that Donald Trump carried in 2020.

Residents at an affordable housing complex for disabled people demanded better living conditions on Thursday, citing broken elevators, loss of heat and general dilapidation of the federally funded living quarters.

Six residents and other advocates of Eagle Watch Estates called a press conference on the third floor of their complex off of Burton Street, to ask for safer, more accessible options, while also calling out public officials for not taking action.

"This building is meant to be ideal, accessible housing," Missoula Tenants Union organizerJune Mlsnasaid at the press conference. "For years now, residents have instead been experiencing deteriorating conditions, leading to not only unsafe daily living conditions, but a maintenance emergency."

That maintenance emergency mentioned by Mlsna was a loss of heat for more than four days at the building on Jan. 14, when the low in Missoula reached -15 degrees according to National Weather Service data.

Residents said they could not get ahold of the property management company that day, and some were stuck inside the building with no heat or water. Others had to transport themselves through friends or Ubers to local hotels.

After that, the tenants at Eagle Watch Estates formed a tenants union through the Missoula Tenants Union. The group of residents want three things: better communication, maintenance and general safety.

There's a new restaurant set to open in Missoula. Also, Allegiant has started up two nonstop flights to California.

Missoula's oldest and largest community garden will likely continue to feed Northside residents for at least another 10 years under a new agreement between the city and Garden City Harvest.

A city committee unanimously approved an agreement toextend the Northside Community Garden contractto 2034 and allow for five-year renewal periods from that point forward on Wednesday.

The garden, at the corner of Cooley and Holmes streets in Northside Park, has existed since the 1970s, according to Garden City Harvest's website. The land it's on is owned by the Catholic Church's Resurrection Cemetery Association, but has been used as a community park for decades.

The Missoula City Council will decide in June whether to approve using $310,000 from the voter-approved 2018 Open Space Bond to help a nonprofit purchase a long-running, 8-acre vegetable farm in the Target Range neighborhood and keep it preserved as agricultural land for at least 75 years.

The nonprofit, called Trust Montana, is proposing to use the Open Space Bond funding to purchase Corner Farm, located on Tower Road. The farm used to be calledClark Fork Organicsand was owned by current county commissioner Josh Slotnick and his wife, Kim Murchison. The farm business is currently being operated as Trust Land Farm by local farmer Ellie Costello, but the property is called Corner Farm and is currently owned by Neva Hassanein.

Hassanein is proposing to sell the property to Trust Montana, which would then place the property in a Community Land Trust. Trust Montana would use the $310,000 along with community donations to buy the property for its appraised price of $720,000. Then, Costello would be given a 75-year ground lease to preserve it as local agriculture.

The farm historically produces about 40,000 pounds of food in the form of organic vegetables per year, according to city open space program manager Zac Covington.

Plans for how to use the generational investment into Montana’s behavioral health system are starting to crystallize, almost one year afterthe bill that made it possiblewas signed into law by Gov. Greg Gianforte.

The Behavioral Health System for Future Generations (BHSFG) Commission presented adraft of its final report on Monday.The documentproposes a roadmap for how to spend the roughly $300 million budget devoted to overhauling the hobbled system.

“Today is a momentous day for our commission,” said Charlie Brereton, director of the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services and a member of the commission. “It started very conceptual, and here we are today with a work product.”

Proposed by Gianforte and established by the Legislature in House Bill 872 last year, the nine-member commission is responsible for crafting the comprehensive plan. DPHHS will implement the initiatives that come out of this process.

The draft report features 21 total recommendations. Most aim to improve the behavioral health infrastructure in a state where 34% of adults report symptoms of anxiety or depressive disorder, higher than the national average. Others look to streamline the Developmental Disabilities Program. There's currently a waitlist of roughly 2,100 people, many of whom will remain there for many years.

The faint chorus of "Call Me Maybe," the catchy 2012 meme-turned-hit song by Carly Rae Jepsen, wandered through towering larch trees on the western shore of Seeley Lake Tuesday morning: Four schoolgirls lagged behind their classmates, reciting the tune in harmony, after poring over the lakeshore for bugs, signs of animals or whatever else caught their eye.

Their many-legged quarries freed, the kids headed to a table near a more than 80-year-old lodge to try to identify about 20 different examples of animal droppings, or scat, most of them fake but a few of them real, collected from the surrounding Lolo National Forest.

"These ones are probably something carnivorous," one boy said as more than a dozen others crowded around to divine the dung, "because it's got a lot of hair in it."

Another tried to match images from a field guide of animal scat with the array before him.

The exercises were only two of many hands-on outdoors experiences the students from nearby schools would try during their 48-hour stay at the Larch Outdoor Education Program held at Camp Paxson. Now in its fifth year, the program is run by the nonprofit Camp Paxson Preservation Project, which holds a long-term lease on the historic camp from the U.S. Forest Service.

Missoula County's jail has an increasing number of people waiting for a trip to the state mental health hospital, which local officials warn has become so backed up that the county often has to treat jailed residents.

Both the county attorney and sheriff said the lack of beds at the criminal unitofthe Warm Springscampus has backed up so severely that some prisoners waiting for a mental health evaluation often sit for months in Missoula.

Meanwhile, the county must cover the costs of jailed people. The county has spent $170,000 since October on inmateswho are supposed to be in state custodyat Warm Springs.

On May 21, 18 people were waiting at the Missoula jail for a space at the state hospital, according to Detention Center Commander Sheryl Ziegler. A total of 224 people were in the jail at the same time.

"It's a significant percentage of our population, and just keep in mind every last one of those individuals has been deemed with significant mental health concerns," Ziegler said. "It's a monster resource draw."

The county plans to send a letter to the state Department of Public Health and Human Services to find a solution to the backup. Missoula County Commissioners said during their Tuesday meeting that they also plan to get the larger Montana Association of Counties involved in the discussion.

Here’s a quick guide to some upcoming arts and cultural events happening around Missoula in the week ahead.

For frequent visitors or first-timers to Montana’s world-renowned Yellowstone and Glacier national parks, there is now a new kind of travel guide that can satiate anyone’s curiosity.

“Big Sky, Big Parks: An Exploration of Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks, and all that Montana in Between,” goes well beyond a description of Old Faithful and the Going-to-the-Sun Road. Rather, it covers the “everything else” that may not be common knowledge but is essential to understanding the beauty and significance of the areas.

Missoula author Ednor Therriault said that he had initially intended the book to be a classic travel guide to the parks. But with plenty of those already on the shelves, he switched gears. The final product became a detailed exploration into the events, history, biology, geology and culture that make these destinations so famous.

It’s still a travel guide, albeit without the typical travel guide layout and complete with Therriault’s own stories, narratives and, of course, his wit.

—Sierra Cistone, for the Missoulian

Missoula's community cinema is also screening a new comedy from the "Broad City" team and a made-in-Missoula J.K. Simmons thriller.

—Charlotte Macorn, for the Missoulian

A Missoula jury has ruled Cody Marble did not prove his innocence against 22-year-old rape allegations for which he was once convicted.

The jury's verdict came Tuesday evening after a seven-day trial. Marble had sought compensation for his time in prison from Missoula County and the state of Montana after his conviction was overturned in 2016.

"We were here to vindicate a 2002 unanimous jury verdict," said Steve Carey, whose firm represented Missoula County against Marble's claims. "We took that very seriously and we're glad that this jury did it."

Marble sat quiet and still as the court clerk read the verdict. His legal team declined to comment following the decision.

The outcome does not reinstate Marble's earlier conviction but rather bars him from seeking compensation from the county that secured that conviction.

Tanner Olson loved ski trips to Mount Hood, visiting the Oregon coast and Flathead Lake. He loved listening to Tech N9ne, Wiz Khalifa, Cali P. and the song "Wavin' Flag," a one-off hit by Somali-Canadian artist K'naan. Tanner especially loved riding bikes with what his mother called his "Bike Posse" all around Missoula: the streets, a gravel pit up the Rattlesnake, the off-limits skateparks, or wherever — even the big bowl at the Helena skatepark.

And Tanner really would have loved the jumps that have sprung up at a bike park in his memory in the Rattlesnake neighborhood.

Those jumps — dubbed the TJO Flyzone for Tanner Jay Olson — are set to open as soon as weather permits. That's either this Thursday, May 23, or maybe the next, May 30. The new triple jump line, featuring three parallel and progressively larger successions of jumps, is the culmination of a 13-year effort since Tanner's death that saw his family bring mountain bike pump-tracks and skills areas to both the Rattlesnake, in Lincoln Hills, and the south side of Missoula, at Bellevue Park on 39th Street.

The TJO Flyzone grand opening, also promoted as the Syringa Bike Park Jump Line in Lincoln Hills because of its location, has been scheduled for a grand opening this Thursday, but a significant chance of rain could push it back a week. Updates will be posted to the MTB Missoula page on Instagram, available atinstagram.com/mtbmissoula/.

Eileen Ryce, administrator of Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Fisheries Division, was placed on administrative leave Friday, May 17.

Jay Pravecek, hatchery section chief, is acting as fisheries division administrator in Ryce's absence, an FWP spokesman said. The reason for Ryce's absence is shielded by FWP when officials say it is a personnel issue. She could not be reached for comment.

—Billings Gazette

Advocates against mining in the Smith River watershed delivered roughly 10,000 signatures to the Forest Service office in Helena on Tuesday, calling for an administrative mineral withdrawal on public lands surrounding the central Montana river.

An administrative mineral withdrawal would temporarily remove federally owned public land around the Smith from new mining claims.

Currently, Sandfire America, previously called Tintina Resources, holds roughly 700 mining claims on public lands surrounding the river.

If you’ve got a pile of cash available, a private lakefront home inside Glacier National Park just came on the market for a cool $15 million.

Real estate agent Angie Killian of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Montana Properties has the property listed. Located at 361 Grist Road, the property is right near Apgar near the outlet of Lake McDonald.

“Here is the most stunning and rare property to become available in decades,” Killian wrote in the listing. “This first-of-its-kind lakefront legacy offering is a ‘private inholding’ within Glacier National Park, and with over 103 feet of Lake McDonald shoreline, it provides the most glorious views of the lake and the soaring mountains beyond that can be found.”

The 880-square-foot, two-bedroom, one-bathroom cabin that overlooks the lake was built in 1968, and the lot it sits on is 1.5 acres in size.

If you see a bunch of good-looking people dressed like they're getting ready to have a very unrealistic gunfight on horseback outside the Missoula County Courthouse on Friday, it's because the TV show "Yellowstone" is filming in the area.

The sixth season of the Paramount Network's hit show is filming in and around Missoula this spring. On Friday, May 24, the show has obtained permits from the city to close down traffic on Ryman Street between Broadway and Pine, and Pine Street between Woody and Ryman. Detours will be clearly marked.

Allison Franz, the county's communications manager, said that residents seeking services at the courthouse should allow for additional time to find parking. She said people can also take advantage of online options.

In particular, county clerk and treasurer Tyler Gernant is encouraging members of the public who need to pay their property taxes ahead of the May 31 deadline to do so online atitax.missoulacounty.us/itax/.

During the filming, people will not be able to park in spaces directly outside the courthouse or on nearby blocks. The closest available parking will be south of Broadway, but there will be an accessible parking spot on the west side of the courthouse annex.

The State Land Board has unanimously revoked the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation’s authority to impose on private water rights.

The decision stems from a recent dispute between DNRC and a Gallatin Valley potato farmer who had used water from his personal well to irrigate crops on land he leased from the state. According to a decades-old Land Board decision, DNRC was allowed to claim partial ownership of the farmer’s water right because the irrigation increased the value of the state land.

Earlier this May, the state Supreme Court agreed that without some say in the water use, the state risked losing future control of its land because the water owner could dictate its water access.

Missoula's City Council approved a $3.8 million roundabout Monday night, but some councilors had questions over how the new traffic feature would be designed to safely match the angled four-way intersection.

The large roundabout will be placed at the intersection of Broadway and California streets and Toole Avenue. The project is funded through state and federal tax dollars.

The council approved the project 10-1, with Ward 6 Council Member Sandra Vasecka in opposition.

Flathead Lake will meet Memorial Day 2 feet higher than usual this year, after managers of the Séliš Ksanka Ql̓ispe̓ Dam got clearance to hold more spring water.

The lake is typically held at 2,883 feet elevation in mid-April— 10 feet below its full pool of 2,893 feet. That gives it room to absorb floodwaters if spring runoff overloads upstream of Hungry Horse Dam and other tributaries.

But unusually low winter snowpack and light spring rains have led to concerns about a dry summer. Similar conditions last year resulted in Flathead Lake missing its full pool mark by 2½ feet, causing frustration for recreational boaters whose docks couldn’t reach the water.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved a request by Energy Keepers Inc. (the dam managers) to hold in an extra 2 feet of surface water above its usual Memorial Day limit of 2,890 feet. That’s the second approved deviation, after the Corps OK’d an Energy Keepers request to exceed the usual spring minimum by 2 feet as of April 15.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded two $500,000 grants to corporations serving the Blackfeet Nation, Chippewa Cree Tribe and surrounding cities.

The Bullhook Community Health Center, a medical clinic in Havre, recently purchased vacant homes in the area to expand services. Grant funds will specifically be used to assess the presence of lead and asbestos before demolition and expansion of the center, according to a news release. The expansion is expected to create about 15 jobs.

Funds will also help the Havre Senior Center assess the presence of petroleum prior to expansion.

TheSweetgrass Development Corporationin north central Montana also received $500,000 to assess potential contamination areas on the Blackfeet Reservation.

Imagine a pot so wide you could plant a dwarf tree in it. If you place it in a wood kiln and heat it to temperatures reaching 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit, everything around it in that enclosed atmosphere will transform it.

The narrow foot it stands on will singe into a bold mineral red, as though it were hundreds of years old, rather than a month. A sandy golden yellow cloud of glaze will bloom on one side,and nearby are clouds of white flecks on gray stone, dense like constellations.

You could pick these traits out on a vessel by Kayla Noble, a ceramic artist from the Clay Studio of Missoula who specializes in wood-fired pottery. One of the intriguing aspects of this type of work is that these results aren’t totally in the artist’s control. With this type of woodfiring, they'd look different if they were fired in a different kiln, if they were buried another way in the ash, burned with another type of wood, or set in some other arrangement of pieces by other artists.

Every creation is a “unique event,” Noble said, “and that can only happen because of that specific, unique group of people that you’re working with.”

Lake County Sheriff Don Bell on Monday said the county will begin “tracking expenses and billing the state” for certain law enforcement services provided on the Flathead Reservation.

Bell’s statement is the latest development in a contentious back-and-forth between Gov. Greg Gianforte and Lake County officials regardingwho has jurisdictionover tribal members on the reservation, which overlaps much of the county.

The conflict surroundsPublic Law 280, which transferred legal authority on some reservations from the federal government to state governments. In 1953, six states, not including Montana, were initially required to adopt the law without tribal consent. In those states, if a tribal member commits a felony on a reservation, state law enforcement — rather than the Bureau of Indian Affairs or FBI — has jurisdiction.

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes have operated under Public Law 280 since 1965, and they’re the only tribes in Montana to do so. Since then, Lake County law enforcement has exercised jurisdiction over felony crimes committed by tribal members on the Flathead Reservation.

Starting July 1, Browning Public Schools will have a new superintendent.

Rebecca Rappold came to the district about seven years ago and has served in various roles, including special education teacher, assistant principal and most recently the director of curriculum instruction.

Rappold earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the University of Montana Western and a master’s degree in educational leadership from the University of Montana. Prior to working at Browning Public Schools, she taught at the Kingsbury Colony Attention Center, Dupuyer Elementary School and the Choteau School District.

The Browning Public School District encompasses nine schools on the Blackfeet Reservation. It employs about 400 people and serves 2,000 students. Rappold spoke with Lee Montana about the district’s successes and challenges and her vision for the future.

A company called Mazevo Coffee, based in Billings, is expanding to Missoula and recently got a city council committee approval to replace a sidewalk.

The company is building a new 1,614-square-foot building at 2500 Brooks Street and it will have a drive-thru. They need city permission to replace a sidewalk adjacent to the new building, although they will pay for the project and maintain the new sidewalk.

"Mazevo Coffee will pay for all construction costs of the proposed sidewalk improvements," explained city engineer Kevin Slovarp. "Future maintenance costs will be paid for by the adjacent property owner."

The City of Missoula is looking seriously at using about $3.78 million in state and federal funding to install a large roundabout at the busy intersection of West Broadway, Toole Avenue and California Street.

Last week, the Missoula City Council's public works committee approved authorizing the mayor to sign agreements that will allow the city to hire a consultant to come up with a design for the intersection.

Kevin Slovarp, a city engineer for surface transportation, said the city's preferred intersection improvement right now is probably a multi-lane roundabout, but the plans aren't yet set in stone. A single-lane roundabout may be a little safer but might cause problems at nearby intersections.

He said the intersection has been slated for improvements in both the 2021 Long Range Transportation Plan and in the 2021 Envision West Broadway Master Plan.

Missoula County's Election Office has announced several times where the public can observe Missoula's voting process in person, which the office said is an educational tool for local residents.

The county said in a release Monday that it will hold sessionsbefore, during and after the upcoming June 4 primary electionto observe equipment testing, ballot processing, tabulation and canvassing.

Missoula County Election Administrator Bradley Seaman told the Missoulian the county launched the public tours in 2022 to combat mistrust in the election system.

"We said 'come in person, see it yourself,'" Seaman said.

During hours of operation, the Missoula County Election Office, located at 140 N. Russell St., is generally open to the public. Seaman said people can observe anytime, but the sessions are meant to show the most intense work the office does.

The tours stretch from May 28 through June 18.

With the market season starting up across Montana, a state agency is encouraging farmers to register for a program that helps them increase customers by selling their veggies, fruit and other produce to low-income families.

The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services is inviting local farmers and ranchers to sign up for the Montana Women, Infants and Children Farm Direct Program. It's a state-administered federal nutrition initiative that allows farmers to accept WIC Farmers Market Nutrition Program benefits at farmers markets, roadside stands or even on their own farms.

“All farmers are welcome to join the program,” said Lacy Little, director of Montana WIC. “It is a great opportunity for farmers to get additional sales on their locally grown fruits and vegetables."

About 120 farmers participate in the program every year, on average. But there are many more who are eligible that Little would like to get involved. About 3,200 low-income WIC families participate in the Farm Direct program and many of the beneficiaries are children. There are 14,000 women, infants and children enrolled across the state.

Cody Marble clasped his hands and listened on as an attorney for Missoula County read vivid details juvenile inmates claimed to have heard, seen and smelled during an alleged rape 22 years ago.

"You deny you raped Robert Thomas, right?" attorney Andrew Huppert asked.

"Correct," Marble said.

It was one of the tamer moments of Marble’s testimony.

Huppert has sought this week to dissect the plaintiff’s witnesses on cross examination in Missoula County's defense of Marble's claim for compensation after being imprisoned 10 years following a conviction that's since been overturned. Huppert's exchange with a defiant Marble, however, often gave way to back-and-forth about the line of questioning.

"You know what I want? The truth," Huppert told Marbleafter some dispute about the attorney’s question.

"You got it, you just don’t like it, so you keep trying to warp it," Marble snapped loudly back into the microphone.

Last Tuesday, Missoula Fire Engine 161 zipped through intersections toward Reserve Street, sirens flashing and horn blaring. A crew of three Missoula firefighters was responding to a box truck that rear-ended an SUV carryinga mother and her infant child near the intersection of Reserve and Mullan streets.

Missoula firefighter Andy Drobeck, behind the wheel, knifed the truck into the intersection to safely block oncoming traffic from reaching the smashed rear end of the Ford.

Drobeck's crew had driven 3 milesfrom their downtown station to reach the scene of the crash in what the fire department has designated as "Zone 4," an area where a high number of Missoula Fire's calls originate.

"Four of the five engines in the city are in Zone 4 right now,"Capt. Robert Hanneman yelled as he jumped out of the passenger seat at the crash scene, meaning only one fire engine was available to cover the rest of the city.

They couldn't stay long. A call for a stroke victim simultaneously came in across the Clark Fork River. The crew left the crash victims, who appeared okay, and quickly headed toward the next emergency.

As Missoula continues to grow, the city's fire department has been working to keep up with an increased call volume, most of them medical emergencies.

Missoula currently has five stations to cover five corresponding areas, or "zones."Fire station 1 is located in Zone 1, and so on. The city's fire stations often cover for each other when multiple calls occur in a single zone, opening up potential gaps of service.

In June, the City Council placed a $7 million levy for the fire department on the June primary ballot. If approved by voters, the levy would pay for 20 new firefighters, a sixth fire station, and would fund the department's Mobile Support Team,which responds to calls for people experiencing mental health crises.