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  • We Can Get a Better Quality Californian

    So I’m down in Missoula and I’m listening to a bunch of Bitterrooters complain about how their demography is changing, and they’re getting all these new liberal Californians. I tossed in a comment – “You’re taking the Californians who want to come to the Bitterroot. You need to be more selective.” The conversation flat stopped. Then came the question – “How do you select better Californians?” I explained that in beautiful, scenic Trego we’ve been selecting better quality Californians for years. That it’s easy. I’m greeted with skepticism. So I come up with the next comment – “We get our…

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  • Meth in the Trego Teacherage?

    An emergency school board meeting was held at the TFS Community Hall, Saturday at noon (which coincidentally is the time the Rendezvous Parade in Eureka began). The board acknowledged that they failed to provide adequate (48 hours notice) on the meeting, and cited the requisite MCA code allowing it in the event of an unforseen…

  • Property Taxes Incentivize Blight and Decay

    When I went to get some repair work done, the person I was consulting advised fixing the structural issues and then putting the same ancient dilapidated siding back on the building. The rational? Property taxes. Last summer, we joked about how much the nice flowers my mother had on their porch raised their taxes. They…

  • Back At The School Board

    I spent most of a year away from the school after I finished my term. I attended a couple of board meetings because I was asked – on one hand, there was, at the least, the appearance of an unlawful board meeting . . . unlawful because it appeared to violate Montana’s open meeting law.…

  • Historically, independent voters, and voters for minor third parties, do not get a large percentage of votes. Often, they’re considered “spoiler” candidates, who lose the election for someone by dra4wing critical support away during a close race. Or their thought of as simply “protest candidates” with no chance of winning. In Montana, for the presidential…

  • Not many years ago, if you were faced with a cluster of unacceptable clowns on your ballot, you could write a name in and cast a protest vote.  Hell, I guess you still can – the thing is, your write-in protest vote won’t be counted or reported.  With the elimination of subsection 7 last year,…

  • I’m having trouble summarizing this one, not least because I lost my notes. In short: The meeting did discuss prayer, but did not discuss a four day week. About prayer: The discussion was specifically with regards to having prayer on the agenda as a part of each school board meeting. The result- no. Community presence…

  • The proposed library district has me looking at taxation again.  One of the great things about Lincoln County is that, with three high school districts, it’s easy to figure out which communities provide the funds that keep our county going. Market Value Taxable Value Percentage Libby $1,687,186,708 $21,911,499 36.42% Troy $831,354,553 $10,966,329 18.23% Eureka $1,974,407,031…

  • Now it takes a single click to get the data. So what does it mean?  I measured the record lows back in 1977 – this chart, from the Grave Creek site, shows how the critical snowfall that brings us up to normal or above occurs between the February measurements and April 1.  I don’t know…