Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana
Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana
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April 28, 1999 The problem of sludge build-up at the Whitehall sewage treatment lagoons is typical of small system lagoons, said an environmental specialist with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), who also said the town isn't required to do any further immediate sludge clean-up at the lagoons. Bill Bahr, with the DEQ planning, prevention, and assistance division, said that Whitehall officials have the option to either continue the removal of the accumulated sludge and remove...
April 21, 1999 The Whitehall High School band and choir earned numerous "superior" ratings, and the band even surpassed "superior" with a perfect score in one of the competitions at the District Music Festival in Anaconda. The Whitehall youth accused of sexually assaulting a girl during a March volleyball tournament in Whitehall was sentenced to a sexual offender program and placed in the custody of the Montana Department of Corrections until age 18. Doug Bailey began his mining career cutting...
APRIL 14, 1999 For the first time in over a decade, Whitehall voters will be voting in a school mill levy election. The Whitehall School Board voted unanimously to place a WHS mill levy on the ballot. The amount of money sought, and the exact hike in mills are yet undetermined; Superintendent Paul Stremick said that the levy would be an increase of $24,000 in the worst-case scenario. A crowd of about 70 people turned out at LaHood Park on April 12, 1999, to discuss - and at times cuss - the...
8 YEARS AGO - April, Part I: The headlines in early April 1898 were filled with trouble from across the country and worldwide. A lengthy article reviewed the finding of the naval court of inquiry into the sinking of the battleship Maine in the harbor at Havana. Happenings in Butte, as usual, provided many of the front-page articles. Several more victims of the Hale house fire were removed from the building's ashes; Mary Bradley, "a member of Butte's lower stratum of society, committed suicide." A murder trial in Butte ended with the accused...
APRIL 7, 1999: A heavy turnout of Cardwell voters showed up at the polls on April 6 and elected two first-time candidates to the school board: Dave Oliverson and Paul Shaw. Oliverson beat incumbent Larry Feight by a 52-46 margin to win a three-year term; Shaw beat Tracie Tocci by an 81-22 margin, also securing a three-year term on the board. David Gerber, 38, pled guilty on April 5, 1999, to setting fire to the Jefferson Valley Baptist Church but was legally found not guilty because of his mental illness. Gerber was committed to the Montana...
MARCH 31, 1999 Nine months after a devastating fire, the Jefferson Valley Baptist Church is restored, expanded, and reborn with a dedication ceremony held on Easter Sunday. Pastor David Rogers said there would be special music, baptisms, and a building dedication during the Easter service. The Madison County Planning Board voted 4-3 to send the proposed McCollum subdivision to county commissioners. The commissioners were sharply divided and narrowly approved the 27-lot, 280-acre major...
MARCH 17, 1999 The Whitehall youth accused of accosting a Three Forks volleyball player during the 4-B District Volleyball Tournament in Whitehall on March 5, 1999 was reportedly removed from the Whitehall school system, and on March 12 Jefferson County Attorney Valerie Wilson filed a petition against the youth for misdemeanor sexual assault. The dispatch services agreement between Gail Giono of Whitehall and the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office was formally signed by the Jefferson County...
MARCH 10, 1999 The Whitehall Town Council spent much of its March 8 meeting discussing ways to improve the appearance of Whitehall. The council discussed cleaning up abandoned cars, improving the appearance of the cemetery, working with the Jefferson County Weed District to develop a town weed management plan, repairing streets damaged during the water improvement project, and efforts on the Spring Clean Whitehall 1999 project. Over 100 students participated in the Butte-Anaconda Accredited Musi...
MARCH 3, 1999 The Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and Golden Sunlight Mine negotiated a settlement on a penalty fine for the cyanide leak from a Golden Sunlight pond during the summer of 1998. DEQ sought penalties totaling over $96,000 under two different laws. Golden Sunlight Mine, Jefferson County Weed District, and the Whitehall High School's Noxious Weed Biological program worked together for a common cause: fighting noxious weeds. Troy Smith from Golden Sunlight presented...
FEBRUARY 24, 1999 Borden's Hotel, a landmark building in downtown Whitehall since 1913, was purchased by Marion and Duane Alberts of Whitehall and reopened for business on February 16th. Sunday afternoon dancing, a 40-year tradition at Borden's, resumed on February 21st and the Alberts said the tradition would be maintained. A group of volunteers was working to provide nest boxes and know-how to encourage recovery of the mountain bluebird population, which once was in deep decline. Volunteers...
FEBRUARY 17, 1999 Meadowlark Manor, an assisted living facility located on the west end of Whitehall up the hill behind the Jefferson IGA Store, had been under construction since the spring of 1998 and set March 1 as a target date to open the facility to residents and the public. Golden Sunlight Mine (GSM) received word late morning on Tuesday, February 16 that its parent company, Placer Dome, had accepted the second half of the GSM's current life-of-mine strategic place. The approval gives GSM...
FEBRUARY 10, 1999 The Whitehall Town Council gave final approval for the installation of a new fence at the cemetery and up to $5,000 toward the installation of a new water line to the bathroom/concession stand at the Whitehall Rodeo Grounds/Ballfield Complex. Mike Morris of the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) said the goal of NCAT's Montana Rivers Project was to promote irrigation efficiency in the Jefferson Valley. The irrigation project in the Jefferson Valley involved six ranchers, about 13 fields, and nearly 1,000 acres,...
FEBRUARY 3, 1999 The Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) was seeking a $66,000 penalty from Golden Sunlight Mine for a summer 1998 cyanide spill from a mine process water basin, but mine officials said the amount of the fine was unwarranted and planned to appeal DEQ's decision. Golden Sunlight Mine had its best gold recovery year ever in 1998, and new technologies were being tested to further improve recovery. During 1998 Golden Sunlight recovered 82.4 percent of the gold in ore-bearing rock that went through the mill, up from...
JANUARY 27, 1999 On Friday, January 22, icy conditions caused a school bus carrying 30 Willow Creek basketball players and fans to hit a jack-knifed semi-truck head-on on Highway 41 south of Whitehall. Montana Highway Patrol Officer Jay Nelson of Whitehall said the southbound truck lost traction on the icy road around 10:55 PM as it climbed the hill approx. a mile and a half north of Silver Star. The truck then slid backward down the hill and jack-knifed across both lanes of the two-lane road. One to two minutes later, the school bus...
JANUARY 20, 1999 Fundraising efforts for the Whitehall Library expansion project kicked into high gear, and during a January 13 meeting the Whitehall Library Building Committee gave the go-ahead to a Sunday, March 14 Luck 'o the Library dinner fundraiser. The dinner was planned to feature a St. Patrick's Day theme and according to plans, 50 Whitehall area couples would pay $100 per couple to attend the prime rib dinner. David Gerber, after taking medication for 13 weeks at the Montana State Hospital in Warm Springs, is mentally fit to stand...
JANUARY 13, 1999 The Whitehall Town Council voted unanimously on January 11th to purchase a 1998 Ford demonstration model ambulance for $66,730, and the vehicle was expected to be in Whitehall within a couple of weeks. A new adult education class titled Basics of Financial Investing was being offered by the Whitehall school system, and class participants would learn about IRAs, stocks, financial strategies, and other topics from Randy Simkins, an investment representative with Edward Jones in Bu...
JANUARY 6, 1999 The Whitehall Town Council, worried about liability exposure and possible court-imposed fees and damages, voted during a special council meeting on Monday, January 4, 1999, to both approve funding a legal defense for council member Ron Robertson and seek a legal clarification on whether or not the Town is legally obligated to fund Robertson's legal defense. Robertson, who serves as public works director for Whitehall, was also a town council member; a recent order by Montana...
DECEMBER 23, 1998 The Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) continued to internally process possible permit violations and water quality violations against Golden Sunlight Mine, but fines would not be calculated or agreed upon until the end of January 1999. In the meantime, Golden Sunlight reported that its remediation efforts had successfully identified and contained contamination from an apparent leak at a tailings impoundment site within Golden Sunlight property. The Whitehall Volunteer Fire Department was one of more than a...
DECEMBER 16, 1998 A Monday, December 14 revote by the Whitehall Town Council on the decision to challenge a Montana Attorney General opinion produced the same results but cleared up any legal uncertainty about the matter. Five members of the council - council member Ron Robertson abstained - voted to again direct Whitehall Town Attorney Jack Morris to petition the Montana Supreme Court to review an attorney general opinion that essentially held that it was "incompatible" for municipal employees to serve on town councils. Whitehall Mayor Dale...
DECEMBER 2, 1998 The Whitehall Town Council vote on November 30 to direct the town attorney to challenge a Montana Attorney General opinion was apparently illegally conducted because the council failed to obtain a majority vote to approve the motion. The dilemma was this: the vote itself was on a matter dealing with conflict of interest, and three members of the council abstained from voting because they could have had a conflict of interest on the issue voted upon. Montana state law requires a majority of council members to vote to approve a...
DECEMBER 2, 1998 Jessica Brower of Whitehall was one of seven Montana State University-Bozeman students to present a poster explaining her research at this year's National Collegiate Honors Council conference in Chicago. Georgiana Andersen of Dillon and Doreen McDowell of Cardwell were two of the honorees at the annual Cardwell School Thanksgiving Meal for area senior citizens, held at noon on November 25 in the Cardwell School gym. Whitehall area homeschoolers presented two plays during the Whitehall Holiday Bazaar on November 28. One group...
NOVEMBER 25, 1998 The Placer Dome Executive Council voted on November 18 to approve the proposed Golden Sunlight Mine 1999 operating plan, a move which would keep the mine open and 208 mine workers employed. A special meeting of the Whitehall Town Council has been called for November 30 to discuss the purchase of a new town ambulance and to discuss the Montana Attorney General's opinion regarding town employees serving on town councils. The Whitehall ambulance had been disabled off and on for about two months with engine problems. The council...
NOVEMBER 18, 1998 The Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) was considering assessing Golden Sunlight Mine fines for four separate violations stemming from a cyanide leak reported in August. Four major road construction projects were slated for the Whitehall-Jefferson Valley area in 1999, two more were scheduled for 2000, and up to eight more projects were proposed for the next decade. Volunteer work crews from Baptist churches in Billings, Three Forks, Dillon, and Butte helped local volunteers put up the trusses and roof of the...
NOVEMBER 4, 1998: Jefferson County voters elected Jim Quinlan as their new Jefferson County Sheriff, sent Whitehall resident Rick Dale to the Montana State Legislature, and retained Valerie Wilson as Jefferson County Attorney in the November 3 general election. Gayle Sacry, M.D., a family physician from Whitehall, was honored for 30 years of membership in the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). The AAFP, founded in 1947, was instrumental in establishing the medical specialty of family practice in 1969. An earthquake measuring 4.1 on t...
OCTOBER 28, 1998 Improved communication between town employees and town elected officials, and a clearer delineation of duties and responsibilities were two of the suggestions for improved town council productivity discussed during a special Whitehall Town Council meeting on October 20. For the past few years, through two different town administrations, relationships and the working environment among the mayor, council, and employees had been strained, and at times close to volatile. The...
