Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana
Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana
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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...
December 24, 1997 It was a remarkable year for Whitehall sculptors Bruce and Kathy Contway. Bruce, one-quarter Sioux, was recently named the Indian Arts and Crafts Association (IACA) Artist of the Year, and Kathy was awarded the chuckwagon race outriders bronze. Bruce and Kathy lived with their five horses west of Whitehall on a modest 10-acre ranch that includes a foundry. They converted an old garage into the foundry - the only one in Jefferson County. Bruce and Kathy have sold art all around the world. A federal judge ruled that the...
December 10, 1997 John Jardine, 75, one of Whitehall’s most cherished and prominent residents, died in a plane crash on Sunday, December 7th, when the airplane he was in collided in mid-air with another private airplane about 10 miles north of Bozeman. Jardine, who retired from his Whitehall law practice in 1992 and moved to Red Lodge, was a virtual institution in Whitehall. Jardine was a former Town of Whitehall attorney, a state legislator from the area, and a Whitehall State Bank (now Rocky Mountain Bank) board of directors member for 37 y...
December 3, 1997 The Golden Sunlight Mine (GSM) expansion permit environmental impact statement was under attack, and GSM intended to fight back. An attorney for the National Wildlife Federation had written a letter to the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) that read in part, “DEQ’s recent work in the EIS was intended solely to benefit Golden Sunlight and to shield operations at the mine from meaningful public review. As a result, the EIS is fatally flawed and should be withdrawn.” GSM manager Jerry Harrington said, “ Rather than be...
November 26, 1997 The Town of Whitehall was one of the fastest growing areas in Montana, according to statistics released by the Montana Department of Commerce. The incorporated Town of Whitehall grew 24.3% from April 1990 to July 1996, a change in population from 1,067 residents in 1990 to 1,326 residents in 1996. The statistics showed a population increase of 53 residents (1,273 to 1,326) from July 1995 to July 1996. The information showed Boulder grew 20.7% during the same period, and Three Forks grew 23.1%. Dillon by 9.5%, Ennis by 29.4 %,...
November 19, 1997 Two bags containing over $8,000 in alleged drug money confiscated during a drug raid near Whitehall were stolen from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s office sometime between October 23 and October 25. During a raid on a mobile home south of Whitehall on August 6, law enforcement officers confiscated up to 300 marijuana plants, weapons and ammunition, bulletproof vests, and over $8,000 in cash. The money from the raid, along with other evidence, was secured in the county sheriff’s evidence room. The state’s Criminal Inves...
November 12, 1997 The water improvement project dominated the Nov. 10 Whitehall Town Council meeting and most phases of the nearly completed project was discussed. Members of the audience and council members Dale Davis, Bill Baycroft, and Chuck Buus all voiced displeasure over the project contractor’s repair of town streets. The displeasure resulted in the form of a unanimous council vote to withhold the final payment to DeBuff (the contractor) of $55,983. Mayor Neil Gallagher said the legality of the council action should be examined and v...
November 5, 1997 Dale Davis won two of three wards and was elected mayor of Whitehall on November 4th in an election that saw a 72 percent voter turnout and a mixed message from voters. Davis clearly won the mayoral race, beating second-place finisher Bill Baycroft 217-174. In another stunning development in the Whitehall water improvement project, the Montana Attorney General issued an opinion that largely sided with the project opponents, suggesting Whitehall residents should have been awarded a public vote on the project and concluded the...
October 22, 1997 The Supreme Court oral argument briefings on the Whitehall water improvement project were delayed due to the Montana Attorney General’s request for a 10-day delay. The delay was apparently not caused by other - or higher priority - workloads. Rather, the delay was from the relative importance of the case. Neither Bullock nor Baker would say the Whitehall water project case had more importance than other cases they worked on, but both understood the case did not contain itself to the limits of Whitehall. The Whitehall water impr...
