The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980
The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980
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It's been more than two years since the Montana Highway Patrol Trooper had someone stationed in Lincoln, but last weekend Jesse Short checked on for his first official shift as the resident trooper here. Short, who has been with the MHP since last March, has spent quite a bit of time in Lincoln before taking the position here, both during and after his Field Training. "My field trainer tried to get up to Lincoln as much as possible because he enjoyed it. We would come up here...
Sheriff’s Report With Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo Dutton away for the Western Sheriff's association conference, Lincoln resident deputy Corporal Robert Rivera delivered the Sheriff’s office update. Locally, he said he just finished the DARE program for the middle school kids. Rivera, who will be leaving Lincoln in May to take over as a DARE officer for the county, said he hopes to continue both the 5th grade and middle school programs here. “It’s good for (the middle schoolers) to touch base with the stuff they learned...
Vallers Market closed their retail store and coffee and soup bar last weekend in response to a slump in the business that hasn't shown signs of rebounding. The Vallers will instead concentrate on growing their Valler Coffee business. Jason Valler said their retail business, which included soups and breads, the coffee bar, dairy items, Mannix beef and locally-made crafts, only brought in about half of what it was costing them to operate it each week. He said they have usually...
Lincoln Government Day kicked off with an alarming report from Lewis and Clark County Deputy Robert Rivera. Rivera reported on a few interesting calls that ranged from a person out for a walk mistaking the sunrise for a fire to a UFO crash involving the Navy, to a bear driving off in someone’s car up on Roger’s Pass. The bear was later revealed to be Bigfoot when he was finally stopped near Cascade. That’s what you get for holding a meeting on April Fool’s Day. In no-foolin’ news, Rivera provided an update on his planned t...
HELENA – The Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) and their contracting partner Helena Sand and Gravel will begin construction on a project improving the intersection of Lincoln Road and North Montana Avenue, and the Interstate 15 Lincoln Road Interchange (Exit 200) northbound off-ramp and southbound on-ramp the week of April 4. Crews will began placing barrier rail on the I-15 Lincoln Road Interchange northbound off-ramp in preparation for widening work on the ramp. T...
HELENA – Attorney General Austin Knudsen is encouraging Montanans to be on high-alert for scammers trying to take advantage of them during tax season. The Department of Justice's Office of Consumer Protection (OCP) has received 44 calls related to tax scams since January 2021. "Montanans pay enough in taxes without being scammed while trying to file their paperwork. It's more important than ever to be on the lookout for fraudsters trying to take advantage of you as we're r...
Helena, Mont – 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten is getting a revamp! First established at Lewis & Clark Library in 2017, the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program has encouraged hundreds of families in the county to read 1,000 books before their child begins kindergarten. After five years, a remodel and a pandemic, we realized that we needed to reorganize the program to make it more accessible to our community. Thanks to generous funding from the Lewis & Clark Library F...
With the Lincoln Master Plan Community Surveys out in the community for another week, a series of questions asked at the March 2 Town Hall meeting provides some early insights into concerns community members have about Lincoln and the planning process. After the presentation at the Town Hall, community members broke up into nine small groups of between 3 and 10 people to discuss six questions and provide answers for a large group discussion that was to follow. However, most...
The new branch librarian at the Lincoln Library is a familiar to face to those who have dropped in to peruse the stacks or use the computers. Eleanor Pierce has been the assistant branch library for about 20 years, and she stepped up to fill the librarian position left open when Kate Radford returned to Boise to take on a new challenge at the Boise Public Library in December. "There are many opportunities for me to learn and grow," Pierce said of her decision to apply for the...
How can Lincoln develop without losing its identity and changing into something the community itself won't recognize? That has been, in one way or another, the core conundrum in various efforts to make plans for Lincoln's future over the last 50-plus years. It remains at the heart of the upcoming effort to develop a comprehensive community master plan for the town. The recently formed Master Plan Steering Committee began the process of tackling that issue during a Zoom...
Editors Note: Full disclosure, I am a member of the steering committee for Community Master Planning, but I'm still out of local reporters to cover this. This isn't a press release or editorial. I've covered it like I would any other large community meeting. The first phase for developing a master plan for the community of Lincoln got underway at a Town Hall meeting at the Lincoln Community Hall Wednesday, March 2 that drew nearly 90 people. The purpose of the meeting was to e...
HELENA - The Montana Department of Revenue has an important message to income tax filers: Keep your mailing ad-dress current with the department. This is especially true for anyone filing a Montana income tax return for the first time. That's because the department sends refunds to first-time filers only as paper checks – not by direct deposit – due to our security measures to combat fraud. And, the Post Office will not forward your refund check to your new address. That mea...
Lincoln man charged with strangulation David Allen Ward, 40, of Lincoln was charged with felony strangulation of a partner or family member, felony assault with a weapon and misdemeanor violation of a no-contact order following a Dec. 27 incident on North 4th Street in Lincoln. According to reports, Ward wrapped his arm around the victims neck and squeezed until she went unconscious. Ward is also alleged to have gone after the victim with a power saw after she regained...
An early morning accident on Highway 200 just east of the intersection with Highway 279 claimed the life of a passenger in a 2021 Peterbilt after the tractor and trailer went off the road Monday, Feb. 14. According to the Montana Highway Patrol report, the tractor and trailer drifted off the right side of the road and struck a guard rail. The driver, a 30-year-old man from Riverside Calif, overcorrected and crossed the highway. The semi went off the road and down an...
'More cops, less crime' Lewis and Clark County Deputy Sheriff Cpl. Robert Rivera looked at Lincoln crime statistics for 2021 during the Feb. 4 Government Day meeting. His stats showed an increase in arrests, but an otherwise relatively average year for here. Rivera said there were a total of 1352 calls for service in the Lincoln area last year. Of those, deputies were the primary responding officers on 686 calls, which led to 87 cases or investigations. Deputies also...
Copper Creek Road made a return as a topic at the Lincoln Government Day meeting Friday, Feb. 4. The discussions revolved around both the status of the snowmobile parking area and the future of the road's paved surface. This year, faced with budget limitations as well as a desire to help get more snowmobilers into town, the Snow Warriors have backed off plowing the parking area that is often used by visiting snowmobilers to access the Copper Bowls. Eric Griffin, Lewis and...
HELENA, Mont. – Governor Greg Gianforte today announced the appointment of Christy Clark as the director of the Montana Department of Agriculture. "Montana producers work hard to feed the world, and today they have a partner and established advocate in Christy Clark as the director of the Montana Department of Ag," Gov. Gianforte said. "A fifth-generation rancher, Christy understands the challenges and opportunities our producers face, and shares my commitment to s...
Even though marijuana became legal for adults to purchase in Montana on Jan. 1, there’s one huge caveat. Under the federal Gun Control Act, it is illegal for gun owners to possess medical or recreational marijuana, and vice versa, and the penalties for violating that law are potentially severe. The rarely enforced law is in effect nationwide, but could be especially consequential in Montana, which has one of the highest gun possession rates in the country, with 66 percent of Montana adults living in a household with guns, m... 
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HELENA, Mont. (January 28, 2022) - Emily Platt has been named the new forest supervisor of the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest and is expected to start in March. Platt currently serves as special project coordinator for the Pacific Northwest Region of the Forest Service. "I am very excited to announce Emily Platt as the new Forest Supervisor for the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest," said Regional Forester Leanne Marten. "Emily has a wealth of experience and a...
Lincoln, Mont. –.Chris Holm learned to work reining horses in 2018 and went on to win the Morgan World Championship in Reining in 2021. Growing up on a ranch in Montana, Holm started riding horses before she could walk. She and her sister spent their childhood summers on horseback moving cows back and forth across the ranch. Holm continued to own horses into her adulthood and, in 1985, she started breeding Lippitt Morgans. Working horses were what she knew, but for many y...
Emergency services in Lincoln now have more reliable communications thanks to two Emergency Medical Services grants from the Montana Department of Transportation awarded to the Lincoln Volunteer Ambulance and Lincoln Volunteer Fire Rescue. The Lincoln Volunteer Ambulance successfully applied for a $45,000 grant in 2020 to replace their aging and dilapidated radios. Faced with the same radio problem, Lincoln Volunteer Fire Rescue also applied for and received a grant of about...
Drivers in a rush to pass other cars as they head into or out of Lincoln will need a little more patience in the future with the Montana Department of Transportation's approval of an extension of no-passing zones on both the east and west ends of town. A recent review of data and field observations of traffic and driveway densities on Highway 200 near Lincoln provided justification for the extension. MDT conducted the observations on Highway 200 on both ends of Lincoln at...
HELENA, Mont., (December 15, 2021) – The Helena–Lewis and Clark National Forest invites interested parties to submit project proposals for funding consideration by the Missouri River Resource Advisory Committee (RAC). The RAC will consider proposals for projects that are on or provide substantial benefits to National Forest System lands within Broadwater, Lewis and Clark, and Teton counties. Funding and administration for the RACs is provided under the authority of the Sec...
A couple weeks after the end of hunting season, RJ Keaster put the finishing touches on the last of wild game processed this year by his new family business Keaster Cuts. RJ and his wife Kathryn bought the business, formerly known as T&A Meats, from Aaron Daniel earlier this year to earn extra money and pay off some debt. RJ learned to process wild game both through his experience as an avid hunter and through his time spent helping Daniel at T&A Meats. "(Daniel) has been in...
A criminal mischief investigation is underway after a vehicle ran through the fences at the Hooper Park baseball fields. At about 6 a.m., Sunday Dec. 19, a vehicle identified as a pickup truck on video from the Lincoln School apparently ran through the chain-link fence around the west baseball field at Hooper Park, did a couple circles on the field before driving out through a different section of the fence. The vehicle also ran through the gate in the fence around the east ba...
