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First Bank of Montana hosted its first customer appreciation luncheon Thursday afternoon as a way of thanking the community for its support of the new branch that opened in our town. "The whole point of the day is to thank our customers and thank the community for the support they give us. Hopefully, we have a partnership for decades into the future. I appreciate everybody's support... since First Bank of Montana is new to the community in the last two years, and with Covid and all the other...
"Hey community! We need to save this business! Can you give us 5 to 8 hours once a week? One person once a week. That's between $50 and $80 someone can earn. One person once a day. It's just if somebody could give eight hours, it would be amazing," explains Heather Pleninger, Executive Director of Big Sandy Activities (BSA). The organization is facing a labor shortage crisis as it heads into the late summer without enough direct care staff. "I have 5 solid openings. I have reached desperation...
When I wake up in the morning, there is a sliver of time between when I get out of bed and when my children get up and running. In that time, the house is quiet. The kids aren’t talking, arguing, running around, asking questions, singing songs, or doing any of the other things they do when they are awake. The house is peaceful. Every morning, my youngest gets up first, and I can hear him from the moment his feet hit the floor. He is loud. In fact, he is often loud enough to get the others moving. Within a short window of time, my peaceful h...
Big Sandy Schools has filled all of the open teaching positions for the upcoming school year. With businesses and other organizations struggling to fill open positions, the public school system isn’t immune from the labor shortage crunch. Kelly Haaland, the superintendent of Big Sandy Schools, replied to my question about how hiring is going with a simple, “We are done.” When I asked how the hiring process was this time around the reply wasn’t sugar-coated, “It was horrible.” Other school administrators I have spoken with around the state h...
The Big Sandy School gym received a facelift this summer, which has resulted in a longer closure of the facility to students and the public. During the lockdowns of last spring and summer, school administrators were inundated with questions about when the gym would be reopening. This week, I found out that though there is not a start date for the public using the facility again, the time closed has been used well. The floors in both the main gym and the annex have been redone entirely and some...
In his fictional book, The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis wrote a collection of letters from a senior demon to a novice tempter. The book explores the various ways people are led astray, tempted, tricked, and manipulated from their faith in God. The opening chapter describes the most powerful tool the devil uses to keep people from ever asking themselves important questions in life: the ordinary. Everyday life and the boring details that occupy our attention keep us from looking at our lives and dealing with issues that matter in the long term....
Throughout the month of August, I will be riding in the Great Cycle Challenge to help raise money to fight children’s cancer. The Great Cycle Challenge (GCC) is a national fundraising effort on behalf of the Children’s Cancer Research Fund (CCRF). It began in 2015 and rapidly grew to one of the biggest cycling events in the United States, raising over $39,000,000 in the process. The goal is to fight kids’ cancer and give each child the bright future they deserve. They believe that each individual can make a personal impact in the fight against...
Big Sandy Library's summer schedule of "Tales and Tails" events continued last week with an educational presentation from local speaker, Bob Nelson. Bob spoke on water, the freshwater habitat, safety, and outdoor recreation. He has a long history of teaching young people about fishing and Montana's lakes and waterways, having done this sort of presentation many times in the past as a representative of Walleye's Unlimited. "I've been fishing my whole life, but about 2000 is when Jim Rettig asked...
During the pandemic lockdowns, I spent part of the summer teaching through the book of Daniel on Zoom. This summer, I am preaching through the book on Sunday mornings because it seems like it speaks directly to some of the fears and anxieties we are facing in our culture today. The book follows the life of Daniel, who was a child of Jewish nobility when the Babylonian empire conquered Judea. The Babylonians took the best and brightest of the population away into captivity and had them serve the Babylonian empire, which is far from their...
Big Sandy Church of God held its annual Family Camp from July 14th through the 18th in Beaver Creek State Park. Members gathered at the Lions Campground to camp together and hang out in the outdoors together. Though many chose to stay in tents or RVs for several days, plenty of families and individuals came for an afternoon or just to participate in the outdoor worship service in the park on Sunday Morning. Rebecca Wiehe, who grew up in the Church of God, began organizing the annual camping...
Last Sunday Evening, I was writing my weekly newspaper column, when I started getting notifications about some bad weather coming our way. My wife sent me out to get the laundry off the line before it hit, but otherwise I thought about the scary looking weather map I spotted online. The wind and hail kicked in not long after that. About the time I finished writing my articles for the week, the power went out. My kids and I watched the hail fall while various odds and ends blew past our house and down the road. When the world outside finally set...
Brad Moore, Big Sandy resident and the former Superintendent of our local school system, is taking a position as Assistant Superintendent for Havre Public Schools in the coming academic year. This takes place after he was recognized as superintendent of the year for Central District of the Montana Superintendents' Association. Brad has been recognized as Superintendent of the Year for different districts in the state several times during his career. "There are 9 regions in the state of Montana...
Virgelle's Annual Flea Market took place on Sunday, with area antique shoppers visiting the outdoor event to shop for treasures old and new. My children and I braved the 90 degree heat to make our traditional after-church trek to the Virgelle Mercantile to shop and enjoy lunch on the lawn. As in years past, Chandee Bomgardner's food truck served Indian tacos and sandwiches to visitors. Waiting in line, I listened as visitors to the area received impromptu lessons on fry bread cuisine and the...
In a few weeks, my family will be moving. We have been living in the parsonage that belongs to the Church of God for over 9 years. We are trying our best to get ready to buy a house here in town. Time and again, I have explained to folks who have asked why we are buying a house: “We can’t retire, and live in a parsonage.” My goal is to work here until I retire and then live in Big Sandy. My family and I love this town. With that background information, I will explain the strange experience I have had in the last few months. On multiple occas...
Last week, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) completed their treatment of around 40,000 acres of rangeland southeast of Big Sandy. Their objective was to control grasshopper populations which are projected to reach critical levels in the coming weeks. The weather over the past few years has presented the perfect storm of conditions to produce massive rangeland grasshopper populations. This is particularly the case for the Big Sandy area, which has a high density grasshopper...
8 yeas ago, I started my job at the Children’s Home. For 8 years, I worked with abuse victims, sex offenders, drug addicts, violent clients, and almost any other issue you can think of. I learned more in that job than I have in any other work I have ever done. During my first year, I noticed a handful of people who excelled in their work. They could talk clients through any situation, solve any problem, calm down situations that seemed out of control, and were recognized by everyone around them to be superior employees. I remember watching m...
“If you have a kiddo that a teacher says ‘they can’t focus’ or that kind of thing, and you say ‘Yes he can, he plays with his favorite toys or video games for hours. It’s just things he doesn’t like to do that he can’t focus on.‘ That a lot of times is the first clue for me because kids with ADHD can focus if it’s something they are really interested in. It’s the every day things and the non-preferred activities that they have a hard time focusing on,” explains Amy Terry, the special education teacher for FE Miley Elementary when I asked...
Terry Jurenka has played host to a pair of Canadian geese for 5 consecutive years. Every year, the visiting couple nest in his yard until their flock of goslings hatches, then they head off until the following year, when they will nest again. Terry explains that their first year of nesting was not so successful: "The first year they came was the year that hail storm came through and took out the airport hangars and stuff. The eggs didn't survive. Every since then, they've come back, and they've...
It was a hot weekend for last weekend's Summer Celebration in Fort Benton, which was a total success after its cancellation last summer due to the Covid lockdowns. This year's theme was Fort Benton's 175th Birthday, commemorating the founding of the town in 1846. Turnout was strong this year, despite last year's cancellation and ongoing concerns about the spread of Covid. I spoke with Dianne Jones, who helps out with the fundraising for park repairs and maintenance at the Pool Repair Committee...
The Biblical book of Daniel opens with a pretty dire set of circumstances. Jerusalem is under siege. The armies of Nebuchadnezzar have conquered every other nation in the area, now they are about to sack the capital of Judah. God’s people are facing a threat to their existence. Then the text says: “And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand…” That’s a pretty powerful statement when you think about it. God gave his people over to the Babylonian empire. They had been in rebellion and disobeying God for many years, now they are being...
Big Sandy's own Wyatt Williams went to Boys State from June 6th-11th to learn more about how our state, county, and city governments work. The American Legion Boys State is a program dedicated to educating high school students in the legislative process, bill writing, and the election system. It presents students with a simulation of various government situations so they can learn well-rounded and realistic lessons. Boys state was first organized by the American Legion in 1935, hoping to foster...
The Big Sandy Public Library Summer Reading Program welcomed Scott Hemmer from the Fish Wildlife and Parks department as guest speaker to speak with the children about area wildlife. Mr. Hemmer is a Wildlife Biologist who does educational talks along the Hi-Line and to other communities in the area. The event was an overwhelming success, with 55 Big Sandy students and 11 adults showing up to listen to the talk. One young man who attended explained that his favorite part of the event was when Mr....
Pastor Sean Janssen and his family will be leaving Big Sandy to answer a call to pastor Grace Lutheran Church in Port Townsend, Washington. Sean was called to Big Sandy to pastor Christ Lutheran Church in May 2018, though he was not able to start his work here until the end of the summer. "Because I was in a one-year contract to serve as a chaplain resident at Banner University Medical Center-Phoenix, and that contract would not be finished until August, I did not get ordained until September...
“I meet millions who tell me that they feel demoralized by the decay around us. Where is the hope? The hope that each of us have is not in who governs us, or what laws are passed, or what great things that we do as a nation. Our hope is in the power of God working through the hearts of people, and that’s where our hope is in this country; that’s where our hope is in life.” This quote is from a sermon I heard this weekend by Chuck Colson. It has been more than a decade since I first heard him speak these words, and they still give me chills....
The community pool fundraising project is in motion, which raises the question of what sort of pool will the community be building? Plans for the pool are based on its placement in the lot near the graveyard on the southern end of the lot. The north side will remain an undeveloped field and will continue to belong to the local schools. The deep end of the pool will either be 10 or 7 feet deep. The depth will ultimately be determined by the total capital raised before the groundbreaking. The shallow end will measure 3.5 feet deep, which is...
