Ledger Looking Back 25 Years: 6/17/1998

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 designed to identify and support economic development activities in the county.

LaHood Park, located about nine miles east of Whitehall off I-90 exit 256, was once again to be the home of the blues with the Rockin’ Blues Fest on June 27. LaHood owner Steve Wendell, who had organized and promoted several blues and bluegrass festivals at LaHood, said this year’s line-up would feature some of the hottest blues acts in the county. LaHood boasted an outdoor concert stage nestled along the Jefferson River. Decades later this event would be known as Rockin’ the Rivers at the Bridge between Cardwell and Three Forks.

Smith Construction of Whitehall was awarded the contract to remove the rock slide from Highway 2 west of Whitehall, and the timetable still calls for clean-up work to be completed by the July 4 weekend. Smith Construction, owned by Dave Smith of Whitehall, bid $90,050 and was awarded the contract by the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT). The contract calls for rock removal to begin by June 22.

Golden Sunlight Mine (GSM) employees received two Placer Dome president’s gold awards during a town meeting at the Whitehall High School varsity gym on June 12. Golden Sunlight won the Placer Dome Excellence in Environmental Leadership Award and Excellence in Safety Award, plus a Placer Dome president’s copper award in housekeeping. GSM, for the second time in its history, passed the one million man-hours mark without a lost time accident.

Over half the agricultural chemicals now used in Montana could be revoked by the Environmental Protection Agency within a few years, according to Montana State University Extension’s pesticide education specialist Reeves Petroff. Montana farmers are going to have to start looking for alternative strategies for controlling pests, he says. The EPA was re-evaluating all pesticides for health risks, and action required in the 1996 Food and Quality Protection Act. The act required the agency to complete its risk evaluation for organophosphates, carbamates, and certain other pesticides classed as potential carcinogens by August 1999.

Whitehall Reader of the Week was Jackie Uivary. Jackie is our first Reader of the Week which will continue through the summer. Jackie reads an average of 200 books a year and says historical fiction is her favorite. Jackie was instrumental in getting the Lewis & Clark County Bookmobile to come to Whitehall. Jackie and her husband John have been Whitehall residents since 1962.