Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana
Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana
Sorted by date Results 51 - 75 of 122
AUGUST 8, 1998 Jefferson Valley Baptist Church officials reached a settlement with Safeco Insurance Company, and made a decision to rebuild the Jefferson Valley Baptist Church - and modify the building design - at its present site on the west end of Whitehall off Highway 2. They came to the decision based on the fact that there was too much damage to simply remodel. Terry Kostelecky, foreman for the Dumar Construction crew worked on erecting the new Whitehall water tank on August 3. The new...
JULY 29, 1998 Area rodeo fans were treated to back-to-back nights of outstanding action during the 1998 Frontier Days NRA Rodeo at the Whitehall Rodeo Grounds on July 24-25. Some of the top-ranked Northern Rodeo Association competitors participated in the Whitehall rodeo, and cowboys and cowgirls from throughout Montana rode and roped their way into prize money. The 1998 Frontier Days Rodeo was a true Whitehall production: Lillian Rodeo in Whitehall organized the event and provided stock, Brady...
JULY 22, 1998 Construction was underway on a 7,600-square-foot assisted living facility in Whitehall, and it was planned for the facility to be ready for occupancy as early as January 1999. Dr. Gayle and Kathryn Sacry of Whitehall were developing Meadowlark Manor, a 13-unit assisted living facility just west of the Whitehall town limits, next to the Sacry residence. Through Meadowlark Manor, the Sacrys hoped more people who might be forced to move away due to health issues would have the opportunity to remain in Whitehall. The Montana...
JULY 15, 1998 The suspect in the Jefferson Valley Baptist Church fire was charged with two counts of felony arson in Montana District Court on July 14 and was expected to undergo a psychiatric evaluation before a trial date would be scheduled. Golden Sunlight Mine announced on July 9 that it received formal approval from the Montana Department of Environmental Quality to expand current operations, extending the mine’s expected life by seven years. Christopher Lerman, a 14-year-old Whitehall youth, pled “not true” to felony arson charges stemm...
JULY 1, 1998 Road construction crews resurfaced the I-90 interstate, and the benefits of the resurfacing extended far beyond the four lanes of I-90. After the top layer - millings - were stripped off, they were being hauled in and around Whitehall to improve five area roads. The millings were spread on Piedmont Road (about 1.1 miles), Yellowstone Trail (1 mile), Kelly Road (.3 mile), First St. extension (.5 mile), and the entirety of Pipestone Road. After the millings were stripped off the interstate, they were hauled to where they were dumped...
JUNE 24, 1998 The Department of Justice sent warning letters to three Whitehall entities - including the Whitehall Volunteer Fire Department - and is proposed to impose $250 fines on three Whitehall taverns as a result of gambling infractions stemming from the Whitehall Fire Department’s 1997 Casino Night. The Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) jointly issued an emergency order prohibiting motorized vehicles from driving off established roads and trails in the Delmoe Lake area northwest of Whitehall, between Whitetail R...
JUNE 17, 1998 The Jefferson County Economic Task Force is history. It was replaced by a newer, bolder, stronger - and riskier - entity called the Jefferson Local Development Corporation. At its June 11 meeting in Montana City, the 14-member task force voted unanimously to create the Jefferson Local Development Corporation (LDC). The LDC will have much more autonomy, more flexibility, and more responsibility than the task force. The task force, established in 1995 through the passage of a resolution by the Jefferson County Commission, was...
JUNE 10, 1998 Whitehall would get a brand-new water tank built and operational by August 1, and the Whitehall Town Council was assured of full warranties and full compliance with water tank specifications as called for in the Whitehall water improvement project. The Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) public information officer Dennis Unsworth said the department timetable called for between two or three weeks of rock removal before Highway 2 would be reopened for travel. Unsworth estimated the cost of the road clearing to be between...
MAY 27, 1998 The Whitehall Business Association (WBA) selected the Grand Marshals for the Frontier Days parade by nominating Lisa Schmidt and Michelle Tebay to serve as parade Grand Marshals. Tebay and Schmidt were the founders and leaders of the “One Good Cow” program, a nationwide effort that called for the donation of livestock to blizzard and flood-stricken ranchers in South and North Dakota. The “One Good Cow” effort received national attention and was recognized as an example of a well-organized and well-executed volunteer program...
MAY 20, 1998 The race in the Republican primary election for Senate District 20 saw current State Representative Duane Grimes running against current State Senator Dan Hurwitz, and despite the relatively high-profile stature of the two candidates, the campaign was relatively quiet. That wasn’t exactly how the candidates wanted it. Both Grimes and Hurwitz were pounding the district (all of Jefferson, Meagher, and Broadwater counties and parts of Lewis & Clark and Cascade counties) looking for support. Instead, they found indifference. The W...
MAY 13, 1998 The Whitehall Town Council approved a zoning variance for the proposed library expansion, discussed at length the plan to repair and rebuild the new water tank, and decided to explore the possibility of providing liability insurance for the Whitehall Farmer’s Market, in action at the May 11th regular council meeting. During a Thursday, May 7, 1998 sentencing hearing in federal court in Helena, the three men arrested during an August 6, 1997 drug raid south of Whitehall each received a minimum prison sentence of five years. A t...
MAY 6, 1998 Whitehall High School Academic team number two won first place in both the written competition and the oral competition at the First Annual Southwestern Academic Olympic contest held in Bozeman on May 4th. The team consisted of Meghan Hoopes, Augie Brower, Kyle Ross, Natasha Momsen, Heidi Sulzdorf, and alternates Mike Welch and Jan Malinchak. Ken Kinzer, a science teacher at Whitehall High School, was honored by Montana State University-Bozeman as a Montana “Influential Teacher.” The award came through the nomination of former WHS...
APRIL 29, 1998 The Star Theatre in Whitehall, which faded to black in the mid-1990s, planned to reopen on Friday, May 18 with a showing of the movie “As Good As It Gets,” followed later in the month by the blockbuster film “Titanic” and critically acclaimed “Good Will Hunting.” Whitehall residents Kerry and Karen Sacry were purchasing the theatre from Eunice Hansen. Kerry Sacry said restoration work on the theater began in January, and virtually everything - floor, sets, ceiling, projector equipment, sound system, popcorn machine, plumbing -...
APRIL 22, 1998 Gordon Sampson, originally charged with two counts of felony aggravated assault stemming from separate 1996 and 1997 incidents, pled guilty to two misdemeanor charges in Madison County Court as part of a plea bargain agreement. Sampson had been charged with felony assault and aggravated assault after the two incidents in which he admitted to firing a rifle in front of a Vigilante Electric Co-op meter reader on private land south of Whitehall and firing a rifle in the direction of Whitehall residents on his property. He was r...
April 15, 1998 In major developments at the April 8 Whitehall Board of Trustees meeting, the board accepted the recommendation of School Superintendent Paul Stremick and voted to not renew the contract of Principal Jim Taylor. The board also accepted the resignation of Brent Mabbott as the varsity volleyball coach. Taylor had been hired to replace Barb Thronson, who resigned in the spring of 1997. A year earlier, Jim McCrossin stepped down as principal. The Jefferson County Commission learned during the regular meeting held on April 8 in...
APRIL 8, 1998 Dean Hunt, a rancher south of Whitehall, and Joan Jones, former owner of the Whitehall A&W, won the two open spots on the Whitehall Board of Trustees during the April 7 school election. Hunt garnered the most votes with 223, followed by Jones with 208. A total of 457 votes were cast, 41 percent more than the 270 votes cast in 1997. Actual fraud and game rigging have been ruled out, but the investigation into the Whitehall Volunteer Fire Department’s 1997 Casino Night fundraiser has been referred back to the Montana Attorney G...
MARCH 1, 1998 Jeff Brown would be staying in prison, probably for at least another two years. Brown, who fired six shots into the Two-Bit Saloon in 1991 and was a passenger in the car driven by his brother that hit and killed Mona Ness and severely injured Theresa Wilkinson, was denied parole on March 26 by a 2-1 vote. Snowpack in the Jefferson River drainage, measured prior to the snow that fell on March 27 in southwestern Montana, was still below average. Data from the Natural Resource Conservation Service showed that precipitation was at 82...
MARCH 25, 1998 Jefferson County, with a July 1997 estimated population of 9,878, was the second fastest growing county in Montana, according to statistics released by the U.S. Bureau Of Census. The figures, which cover a span from 1990 to 1997, show the population in Jefferson County grew 24.4 percent, second only to Ravalli County’s 38.2 percent. Madison County, with a population of 6,899, grew 15.2 percent over the same period. Of Montana’s 56 counties, Jefferson County is the 22nd most populated county, and Madison County is the 30th most po...
MARCH 18, 1998 The new 500,000-gallon tank, built in the summer of 1997 as part of the Whitehall water improvement project, has had a series of leakage problems since it was filled. Representatives from the Town of Whitehall, water project engineers (Damschen & Associates), the water tank contractor (Sharbono Construction), and water tank manufacturing (Peabody) met in Whitehall and inspected the tank. An initial, tentative finding was that the foundation for the tank was faulty and would need to be improved. To do the improvement, the tank...
March 11, 1998 The criminal assault charges against James Piazzola stemming from a January 3, 1998 incident at the Mint Bar in Whitehall have been dismissed. State District Judge Frank Davis ruled on March 5 that felony assault charges against Piazzola originally dismissed on January 16 would remain dismissed and can never be refiled. The 1998-99 Whitehall school budget, adult education, computer technology, and the old school demolition were among the topics discussed by the Whitehall Board of Trustees during the board’s regular monthly m...
FEBRUARY 25, 1998 Sheldon Ross, an eighth grader at the Whitehall Middle School, won the regional Mathcounts competition, held in Butte on February 17th. Ross, son of Terry and Kathy Ross, is the first Whitehall student to win the regional contest. Two additional Whitehall students placed at the regional competition - Neal Bell, placing seventh, and Nathan Chadwick, placing eighth. An informal coalition of Whitehall residents called the Whitehall Healthy Community Action Team spearheaded an effort to create more activities for youth and...
FEBRUARY 18, 1997 Plagued by low gold prices and expansion permit uncertainty, Golden Sunlight Mine (GSM) instituted a series of steps designed to reduce costs throughout the mine’s operation. GSM was directed by its parent company in Vancouver, Placer Dome North America, to cut costs. All three Placer Dome mines in the U.S. received a similar directive to reduce costs. The price of gold was hovering around $300 an ounce, which was well below the price GSM needed to be profitable. After over a year of mine site preparation and months of e...
FEBRUARY 11, 1997 During the February 9th council meeting, a division between the Whitehall Town Council and Whitehall Mayor Dale Davis produced a standoff on the appointment of a town attorney. The council and mayor were unable to agree on a town attorney resulting in a chaotic legal and procedural situation. The meeting adjourned without a consensus on the town attorney position. Davis, in making his nomination to appoint Leonard Haxby, an attorney in Butte who owned property in the Whitehall area, said the mayor had the legal right to make...
FEBRUARY 4, 1997 In a letter to Jefferson County Attorney Valerie Wilson, Town Attorney Jack Morris asserted the felony assault charges against Whitehall resident James Piazzola should not have been dropped and should be refiled by the Jefferson County Attorney. Morris wrote that Wilson’s legal analysis was “flawed” and that her motion to dismiss felony charges against Piazzola was “premature and unnecessary.” It was faulty legal analysis by Wilson, not faulty law enforcement work in Whitehall, wrote Morris, that resulted in the charges a...
JANUARY 28, 1998 Whitehall school student academic test scores were higher than the Montana average and substantially higher than the national average. Test scores released from the Montana Office of Public Instruction showed Whitehall students consistently performed better than other U.S. and Montana students in reading, language arts, math, science and social studies. The test scores were mandated by the law passed by the 1997 Montana State Legislature. The law required the Office of Public Instruction to gather state-wide information on test...
