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Monika Winderl Big Sandy High School art teacher is impressed with the talent of the Big Sandy students. This month she chose two other students to display their art in the Mountaineer. Faith Gasvoda enjoys art. "It gives me something to do besides regular school work because I don't really like the core classes that much. I've enjoyed art for as long as I can remember. She really likes working with color pencils, but the artworks displayed in the paper are oil pastels and watercolors. They are...
According to Kyle Rodewald, "the Pioneer Wrestling season has been nothing but success. Beginning in November, I took six kids to Conrad for team duals. When we started our official Little Guy season, we returned 13 of 16 wrestlers from last year. Also, we gained another 17 wrestlers this year from age 3-12. We consistently had 30 wrestlers on the roster all season. To date, we have wrestled in 15 different meets/tournaments. After our regular season with the State Little Guy Tournament, our...
Why are you running for Commissioner? Beau Pegar answered, "I guess I would like to see some changes, mostly with our road. But there is a lot of things that need to be looked at like the budgets, not just our road budgets. We are talking about all the budgets, law enforcement, and everything. I would like to see what we can do to help our law enforcement. There has been a lot of vandalism and thievery going on in Big Sandy I'd like to see what the commissioners could do to help our law...
Erica Chauvet DMV, Big Sandy's veterinarian, has a new clinic. This building was an old house on the Chauvet's ranch. The new clinic is located at the first tan house on the left, but Erica told me, "we built an apartment on one half and a new clinic in the other half." She is asking clients to use the deck entrance because the back half is a private entrance. "It's nice to have a bright, fresh, clean space." She now has a designated exam area, surgery space, lab, kennel area, pharmacy, office,...
Angel Johnson FNP has worked for Chouteau County for 18 years. Since the beginning, she has continued to do everything in a part-time position. Her department is the Chouteau County Department of Public Health. The Chouteau County commissioners hire her. Angel said, “they are the boss.” Natalie Bahnmiller works for the state, training people to be social workers out in the field. The Office of Public Assistant and the Dept. of Family services who used to be in the same Fort Benton offices is now serviced out of the Havre office. Angel sai...
Toni Echoff has only been the treasure for one and a half years. The position is elected every four years. Her responsibility "is the collection and distribution center for all taxes in Chouteau County, including annual re-registration and titling of cars, trucks, and other motorized vehicles (boats, motor homes, snowmobiles, trailers, motorcycles, special mobile equipment, gross vehicle weight charges)." In other words, "We handle all the county funds and taxes. Anything having to do with...
Glen and Anita Cook will be married 70 years this September 23. They met in Gordon, Nebraska, of all places, in September 1949 at a small bible school. Anita told me Reverend Lund was going down there, so several Montana kids from here went. Glen said his pastor was from there, so he went there with him, but Anita interrupted him and said, "He went there because of a girl." And she chuckled. "Ya! well, she encouraged me to go." And he and Anita laughed together. They didn't fall in love right aw...
CHS Big Sky met with the local patrons on Friday, February 21, at the Big Sandy City Hall. Howard Hammond, a board member and a former Big Sandy resident started the meeting with a statement. He has spent two weeks educating himself further, reviewing, and visiting with CHS personal. He wasn't necessarily proud of how we were informed, but he was comfortable with the accuracy of the financials being presented that morning. In his opinion, CHS has one of the best audit processes, and we can...
During the discussion Kelly Haaland reported on the on-going maintance of the FE Miley flooring in the lunchroom, multi-purpose area. They would like to get that flooring done right after school is over so it can be ready to use it for homecoming. The cost is $26,000, which included removing asbestos flooring and the cost of disposing of the asbestos. The board approved the new flooring. There was a second maintenance project discussed, which would take the elementary stage out, and create a storage room for the cost of $6,000. This project...
The Big Sandy Rotary club is hoping you will be interested in contributing to our Annual Benefit Banquet. The Annual Benefit Banquet has been held in Big Sandy since 1984. The 36th banquet is scheduled for March 21, 2020. Banquet proceeds are used to support upkeep of local park and recreational facilities; Boys and Girls State and Hugh O’Brien delegates; the Big Sandy High School Bud Gullickson Scholarship; Rotary Youth Leadership Activities; a partnership with the Dolly Parton Imagination Library Foundation; support for manty community and s...
The new Storm Drain Project will require a public meeting before any grant submission. The Grant is due late March. In looking at different grants and the requirements for each requires public input. They have scheduled the general meeting for March 12. Planning tools needed include revisiting the Big Sandy Growth Policy 2008 and the Capital Improvement Plans, which makes assessments of our community and helps set priorities. The Capital Improvement was done for five years from 2007 through...
By state law each county is required to have a Disaster Emergency Service (DES). Debbie Gessaman is the DES Coordinator for Chouteau County. When I went into her office she was busy writing a grant. She graciously gave me a few moments and we talked about the EMT services in Chouteau. Debbie was hired by the Chouteau county commissioners and occasionally gives them a report. The budget is 50% from the county and 50% from a grant. Kelly Waldbillig is the Deputy DES Coordinator, and the 9-1-1...
Charlie and Stephanie Overbay met at Rexburg, Idaho, in college. Stephanie chased him, primarily because he was just a happy man, always trying to help others, and he was shyer than she was. They were married on Dec 18, 2010, and had a Christmas honeymoon at Salt Lake City. Charlie and Stephanie have three children David, Kirren, and Elliot. In April 2014, they moved to Big Sandy from Rexburg, but not before they moved a few times before. Charlie had taken an intern position at Disney World...
Bailey Gasvoda, President of Big Sandy High School student council, sat down with me during her busy schedule to inform me of an important program is being brought to the high school this month. On Monday, February 24. 7-12 at 1:00 all students at the high school, 7th through 12th, will be listening to a program, #BuckleUpBlue4Lauryn, from Pat Goldhahn. A community presentation will be given at 6:00 that evening. His daughter was one year older in school, then Bailey, and she said many of the students here remember her. When pat Goldhahn’s d...
Editor's Note: I am inspired by the art of our students, and have asked Monika Winderl, Big Sandy art teacher, to give me a few of her students so I can present their art in the paper. I'll continue to do so until the end of school year, whenever I have a color page to show case their work. Kassidy Pursley is a junior at Big Sandy High School. She doesn't have a name for her picture. "I haven't really named it yet." She saw a really cool picture that inspired her, but she changed it a lot. "I...
I did reach out to CHS Big Sky General Manager Keith Schumacher for further questions and explanations. He responded to me saying, "Lorrie thanks you for reaching out to me, however I will have to respectfully decline." There was a farmer meeting at the Big Sandy Fire Hall to discuss everyone concerns. They would like to meet with the board of CHS Big Sky. This will take place towards the end of February. I thought it interesting the following wording taken from their website: "CHS Big Sky is a Farmer-owned with global connections cooperative."...
I said, "Let's start at the beginning. When did you get married?" They both looked at each other, smiled, and Micki said, "June 9, 1973. He keeps track of that better than I do." They have been married for 47 years. Micki's father moved to Opheim, Montana, when she was a senior. Her dad was the Superintendent of Schools. She came late to school that year because she was working at a dude ranch. I asked Dale did he notice her when she got there, and he laughed, raising his eyebrows. He said,...
Sheriff /Coroner Vern L. Burdick started in 1995. He had held a variety of positions before he became the Sheriff of Chouteau County in 2006. There are two deputies, who were hired for the Big Sandy area, an under-sheriff Larry Ophus, and five other deputies for a total of nine in the Sheriff's office. Their salaries are determined in the statue. Deputies get 90% of the Sheriff's salary, under-sheriff gets 95% of the Sheriff's salary. When a raise is given, it is given to all county employees....
The County Clerk of Court, the County Superintendent of Schools, and the County Surveyor is Rick Cook. He is running again, and this will be his 4th term. He started working in the County Clerk of Court in Dec 1999 as a deputy clerk. The Chouteau County Clerk of Court provides the primary administrative function for the District Court of the 12th Judicial District Court. According to Rick Cook, "We are the keeper of court records." The types of cases they keep records on are criminal, civil, pro...
The Mountaineer usually finds out about local news from a resident. In this case, I was eating lunch at Pep's and heard they were going to close the elevator. I went over to CHS and asked. Shane Cline told me on Tuesday, to contact Keith Schumacher the general manager for any furhter information on the closing of the Big Sandy Elevator. CHS has three full-time employees, Sue Knight, who has worked at the elevator for 27 years. Shane Cline who has worked there 14 years, and Chris Dixon who has...
Steve Gannon is originally from the south of Sun River. He moved to Big Sandy and worked with Tom Sheehy on defense work. While he was in Big Sandy, he lived in the country south of Sibra's. Steve grew up in the country and loves country living. "I miss Big Sandy, but Fort Benton is a great town. He was elected to Chouteau County Attorney in 2003, which means he has served for 17 years. Each time Steve is elected, it is for four years. He is currently in this period for two years. Steve was...
On Saturday, January 25th, a diesel pickup was outside The Grocery Store. The owner left it running while he ran in. It was right outside the front door. He was inside the store for less than five minutes and when he went out his pickup was gone. It was kind of a luck of the draw, because there were three cars parked outside The Grocery Store. The Grocery Store has camera’s so when they watched the camera’s footage they saw a pickup was driving down the street, stopped briefly, let a guy out, he walked over to the pickup, and drove it awa...
It was a beautiful day in the '50s, and I noticed Louis and June Beirwagen were eating lunch at the Bear Paw Coffee Shop & Deli, their daughters Cherie's deli. I had always wanted to interview them, and I immediately thought, "It's Valentine's Day month." Now it would be a good time. I started with a quick question for Louis. "When, were you married? He laughed and said, "Dec 27, 1953. Two days after Christmas." June immediately replied, "I don't recommend that. Too cold, too hard on everybody...
County Commissioner elections are coming up, and a quick look at Chouteau County Government and how it works will be covered in the next few weeks. County Commissioner Darin Schuster said, "It is important for people to know how local and county government works. We all learn about Federal Government in school, but nothing broader than that." A County Commissioner has many roles and wears many hats. The three of them serve to do both the executive and legislative duties. According to Darin, "We...
First Bank opened the Big Sandy branch on January 21st. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the cars parked along the streets until the streets were full. They opened the door and were busy all day. I was told by one of their customers, as we grabbed something to eat at Pep's, that he went into the bank about 3:45 on Tuesday to open an account. He said they stayed open till almost five to support community members opening accounts. Dean Comes, President of the Bank, came into Pep's to pay for the lunch...
