The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980
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Hunters will be taking to the field this weekend for a Montana tradition. If you're out game, be safe and good luck! Remember, with Montana FWP's switch to regular paper tags this year, keep them in a sealable plastic bag, before and after validating them, to keep them from getting wet and unreadable. If you have a successful hunt and bring home a trophy, send the BVD a photo.. We'll be glad to publish it....
The BVD picked up 15 awards in the 2020 Montana Newspaper's Association's Better Newspaper Contest. The Dispatch, a Division 1 newspape with a circulation of fewer than 1250, picked up seven first-place awards, three second-place and five third-place awards. This year marked the most awards Lincoln's newspaper has won since first entering the annual contests in 2014. The BVD won a first place award for page design for the page featuring Lincoln High School Entrepreneur Class'...
Hundreds of thousands of ballots were mailed Oct. 9 to registered Montana voters in 45 counties doing mail-in voting. Although most ballots should safely reach voters at their homes, it's possible some may be late or missing. According to the Helena Independent Record in May, more than 85% of registered voters successfully received ballots during the June 2 primary, but some voters did not receive a ballot due to an address change or a possible error by the U.S. Postal Service...
Over the past few elections, Montanans have voted to change the rules around medical marijuana, sought to impose a crime victim's bill of rights and changed how absentee ballots can be collected. All these issues required a specific number of voter signatures to land on the ballot and now that rule is, itself, on the ballot. This year voters will decide whether to return the language in Article XIV, Section IX and Article III, section IV of the Montana Constitution back to...
The differences between the two candidates for the Superintendent of Public Instruction are as clear as the mask on a student's face. Superintendent Elsie Arntzen, a Republican running for re-election, has stressed her belief that local school districts should decide whether to require students to wear masks in school this fall. Her opponent, former Montana Teacher of the Year and Democrat Melissa Romano, has made it clear she supports statewide rules to require masks in count...
I must admit, I was very glad to see the Montana Department of Transportation conducting speed studies on Highway 200 on the east side of town where the Sculpture Park and Ranger Station are, and I'm glad they are addressing concerns surrounding those destinations specifically. One of the questions I have is whether or not is has ever been proposed, or a study conducted in order to put a stop sign in at the end of the Sculpture Park driveway as cars head onto Highway 200? I...
We serve voters by ensuring their qualifications are valid, their information is accurate, and that they have equitable, unobstructed access to voting. We protect the integrity of the election by ensuring that every valid ballot that is timely received and legally cast is counted, and that the results are accounted for and validated through the canvass process. We are on guard against fraud, undue influence, and corruption from external forces that seek to politicize the...
We support Lewis and Clark Public Health, the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services and all the health providers working so hard during this pandemic. They need our support and they need your support. As elected officials, we come from different backgrounds. We have different political beliefs and don’t always agree. But, in this difficult time, in the middle of this pandemic, we do agree we must unite. This is not political. Public Health is what we do collectively to assure the conditions in which people c...
Lewis and Clark County's new undersheriff is a familiar face to Lincoln residents. Sheriff Leo Dutton selected Helena native and former Lincoln substation deputy Brent Colbert to fill the position held by Jason Grimmis until Sept. 30. Colbert's promotion into the position became effective Oct. 14. Grimmis retired after 27 years with the LCCSO to pursue a new career as the first director of campus security and public safety at Carroll College. Colbert was one of three members...
The storm last weekend that dropped about five inches of snow in Lincoln resulted in a handful of slide-offs and accidents along Highway 200 in the Upper Blackfoot. Lincoln Fire Rescue and the Lincoln Volunteer Ambulance started Saturday morning off with a 5 a.m. call concerning an accident about 16 miles west of Lincoln, between the Highway 141 intersection and Browns Lake, but both were called off before leaving Lincoln because other responders were already on scene. A...
Lincoln School reopened Monday morning after being closed last week due to concerns about a possible close-contact coronavirus exposure. The closure resulted from a message about a possible close contact with someone who had COVID-19 and was largely a precautionary measure, said Shane Brown, Lincoln Elementary School principal and the COVID-19 response team leader. Brown saw the message, sent late Monday night, at about 4 a.m. Tuesday morning. "That's when we started doing...
John "Johnny" Thompson, age 90, passed away peacefully of natural causes on Oct. 15, 2020. Johnny was born on Sept. 19, 1930 to John and Vivian Thompson in Basin, Montana, the oldest of three children. In 1941, Johnny's parents moved him and his siblings, Anita and Norman, to live at the Mike Horse Mine outside of Lincoln, where he and his father had a trucking contract for the mine. After moving to Lincoln in 1954, he met the love of his life, Katie. Johnny and Katie were mar...
Rather than writing yet another piece about how divided we all are, I thought maybe it was time to start writing more about coming back together. Coming back together for the good of our town, for the good of our country, for the good of our families, and for the good of us all as individuals. It seems strange to talk about the good of individuals when talking about coming back together as a group, but truly, on an individual level is where it all begins. It starts with each...
If an apple a day can keep the doctor away, what will a flu vaccine get you? The answer may be better health today and improved odds of maintaining your brain power in the future. The risks posed by the flu are pretty self-evident for older adults. Last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Pre-vention (CDC) reported that 35.5 million people in the U.S. contracted the flu, resulting in 34,200 deaths. Of those fatalities, about 75 percent were among people over age 65. While we’re waiting on the COVID-19 vaccine… And the...
The drive from Big Sandy to Great Falls is awfully familiar to our family. Jon drives those 70-some miles twice a week as he travels between our farm and the Senate. Often we drive together—for farm parts, haircuts, you name it. The drive is second nature. But lately, it has taken on a new meaning. Because in early spring of this year, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I found the cancer as many women do, with a lump. But I had a bit of a head start: breast cancer runs in my family – both my grandmothers had breast can...