This week the Choteau Acantha reports on the demolition of the Choteau House.  Built in 1886, the structure was the oldest commercial building in town.  Recently a bar and steakhouse, in its’ heyday it was THE local gathering place for business gatherings. The “bar witnessed many a deal to sell or buy cattle by a handshake or a hand-written draft”.

We all know that these old buildings were never built to modern standards and there comes a time when they just plain wear out.  The land where they sit has become so valuable in recent years, even in small Montana towns, that it all but inevitable that they will go the way of the buffalo. That’s not to say however that it is not worth noting their passing. Too bad we never got the chance to have one last beer to toast the passing of this latest landmark.

Jim Conner over at the Flathead Memo has unearthed some new information about the great Flathead Flood of February 1900. The information is posted on his website along with a great historical photo of the Old Steel Bridge. Headway on removing the old bridge is currently proceeding full bore and though we’ll be sorry to see it go, it’s probably time.

It’s always good to discover new historical information about Montana and in this case we can be pretty sure that this is the first time light has been shed on this momentous event. It is only through the work of dedicated historians like Jim that these that these stories will ever be told. Thanks Jim for all your hard work in searching the dusty archives.

Dateline Hot Springs, Montana:

You gotta love it. The Mayor of Hot Sprints (population “550 or so”) Renea Keough resigned this week from a tumultuous first term. The mayor, who is in Florida to receive training for the blind, emailed her resignation to Hot Springs City Hall.  A recall petition has been circulating since Keough suspended chief of police Tim Coleman and called for an investigation for undisclosed reasons. Keough also hired her boyfriend, Marco Angelletti (on probabtion for felony theft in Yellowstone County) as city dogcatcher even though he did not have a drivers license and had to have other city employees drive him around to round up strays.

Now without a mayor or police chief, the Hot Springs city council hopes to take up the matter at the June 3rd meeting, if they receive a signed copy of the resignation letter. They have 30 days to appoint a new mayor. You can read about the latest in the scandal in the Missoulian.

Now, if that ain’t news I don’t know what is.  The Bugle will be closely following developments in this breaking story.

Don’t forget to get your entries in for the Button Valley Annual Quilt Festival in July. Call Trudy at 555-7688

Spring is finally here. Just a friendly reminder that among all that beautiful greenery out and about in Montana Evil lurks.  All those purty flowers may not be what they seem.

The friendly folks at the Montana Weed Control Association want you to know the difference. They have put together a really nifty web site to help in the identification and control of noxious weeds. Give ‘em a holler and learn to identify those pesky weeds. They also have lots of good information on how to prevent the spread of noxious weeds and information on their Zero Spread campaign in partnership with the NRCS.

The Bugle editorial board has ferreted out another grievous misuse of our hard-earned taxpayer dollars through sneaky budgetary earmarks. The Independent-Observer over in Conrad reveals “Pondera County will receive $2,500 in federal funds to supplement and expand emergency food and shelter programs.” Yep, that’s right now Congress is giving up your tax dollars to “private nonprofit” organizations (which we all know is code for “Commie Bastards”) and all they have to do to get on the dole is prove that they can deliver emergency food and shelter. More Liberal do-gooders getting rich from the public trough.

Don’t miss the City Council, Executive Committee meeting next Tuesday at the Java Hut at 11 am.

Breakfast Special at the Mid-Town Cafe: This week, Belgian waffles with Mona’s special chokecherry jam. Ummmm, boy.

Okay, so here’s one for ya. The Char-Koosta News reports on the closing of the closing of the Camas Prairie School after seventy years. So, yeah, it was only a matter of time and they were down to three students this year but you have to admit that it brings a bit of a tear. I know most of you have been by the old dilapidated school out there between Hot Springs and Perma and wondered how they could keep it going out in the Lake Missoula outwash. Coming down off Merkle Hill and out across the flats, the old school is the only real landmark in the valley.

I hope they do come up with a good use for the building. It would really be sad to see it just crumble over the years. It will be just another of those old landmarks that are spread all over Montana. One of those places that set you to wondering as you whiz by at seventy miles per on your way to someplace important. What a joyful place to hold community gatherings. Now the three students are off to the hectic life in the big cities of Hot Springs and Ronan.

One of the current students described it like this:

“Do you know what’s going to happen? That school is going to shut down forever,” says Reefus, who is one of three of the last students to attend the school. “I went to that school my whole life and now I’m going to Ronan. It’s going to be a little bit scary because Ronan has so many kids and it’s only been us three.”

Scary Indeed. Take heart Reefus, we’ll all miss it even those of us to whom it was just a passing landmark.

Congratulations to Andy Hammond for sniffing out another leftist. He’s really got a nose for it. Although he calls this a “lefty blog” and while I must admit to strong “progressive” leanings, I never intended this blog to be another smear campaign against republitoons, there are plenty of those already, and really they are just too easy a target. I had intended to cover issues of interest to Northwest Montana without regard for political rubbish. Andy, Rush, and Operation KKKaos just pushed my buttons, as was their intention, and I got off on a tangent. This blog will never really be about twisting the nipples of the republicons and it will probably never be up to date and urbane since I also have a real life, but hopefully the issues will be real.

So, thanks Andy for the bit of puffery and I now head back into the aether to resume my inconspicuous piece of cyberspace.

The state of Montana wants to ban electronic billboards along our roadways. Evidently the current law isn’t specific enough.

http://www.flatheadbeacon.com

These are those fancy gadgets that change message every few seconds.  The kind you see behind home plate during baseball games. State law already bans “advertising signs that flash, move or use intermittent lights along state roadways.”

Advertisers say that the current rules don’t pertain to the new technology.  Let’s see, they use LED lights. The messages changes intermittently.  Hmmm… yeah, I think we need to make that more clear in the law. I already have enough crap to block my views of the mountains, I don’t need a “new technology” to block out more and at the same time burn up my precious megawatts.

By the way. I did like the picture of Rush on his website in his new Operation Chaos uniform. It does, however, bring to mind some unsettling comparisons.

You have to love those republicans. They are always good for a laugh. Rush Limbaugh and a second string blogger from Missoula have opened Operation Chaos in Montana. As I see it, the plan is to try to get the largest Democratic turnout in history by having republicans switch sides and vote for Clinton in the June primary.

I can understand Limbaugh’s motive. He wants to sell more junk on his website and usually does that by conning the gullible. However, those Montana republicans who support this effort are going to be in for somewhat of a shock when they chose the Democratic ballot to vote Hillary and then look further down the ballot and see only Democratic names for state and local offices. They will be in somewhat of a quandary. Now they will either have to not vote in the other races or try to pick a candidate they know nothing about while over on the GOP side their opponents are voting in folks they disagree with.

Oh well, let’s welcome all the new Dems aboard. Hope they put up lots of yard signs for Democrats. Maybe they will want to get out and do some door-to-door work for our candidates as well.