2010: Year of celebration

The year 2010 was marked by both tragedy and celebration in Columbia Falls and the Canyon.

The big news events topping headlines included a house fire and house explosion months apart — both unrelated and devastating.

A house fire Friday, Jan. 22 claimed the lives of the Barry family, who lived on the North Fork Road just outside Columbia Falls. Jim, 63, Wanda, 52, and Jamie, 15, all died from smoke inhalation. A wood-burning stove in their home appeared to have caused the blaze. The family was remembered for their love of animals. They had ducks, geese, chickens, dogs, cat, doves, pigeons, horses, goats, a milk cow and beef cows. Jamie was known in the neighborhood for riding his motorscooter.

A call to NorthWestern Energy Thursday, May 6 about a damaged gas line at the corner of 12th Street and Second Avenue West ended with one man dead and a house destroyed. Gas from a junction break likely seeped into a sewer line that serviced the home of Ted and Myrtle Langton. The house blew up at about 4 p.m. NorthWestern Energy employee and Kalispell resident Jim Hilton, 53, was struck by debris and died of blunt force trauma in the explosion. The only thing left in the Langton home was some clothes and jewelry, but little else.

THE CLOSING of Canyon Elementary remained a hot topic throughout the year. In January, the School District 6 Board announced it would likely close the school because of budgetary concerns. The board was attempting to make up an almost $300,000 shortfall in the elementary district.

A community forum held at the school was filled with parents, staff and friends of the school who asked the board to keep the school open. In March, the School District 6 School Board voted to keep Canyon Elementary open one more school year, but with a reduction of programs.

In the fall, a group of parents in Hungry Horse began circulating a petition to support the secession of Canyon Elementary from School District 6. Parents were upset about Canyon’s expected closing. In an effort to keep the school open, they wanted to transfer to the West Glacier School District 8.

MUCH OF THE year was marked with jubilation as Glacier National Park and surrounding communities celebrated the Park’s 100th birthday.

More than 700 Glacier Park officials, dignitaries, politicians, rangers and just plain folks celebrated as Glacier turned 100 on May 11, 2010. More than 130 different celebration activities and programs were held in conjunction with the centennial.

Many folks came to the six reunions among various groups such as former employees of Many Glacier Hotel, the Park’s red bus Jammer drivers and Park Service alumni.

Glacier Park marked high visitor numbers for the year. Glacier had the busiest July since 1983. An estimated 673,359 people passed through the entrance gates during July, an 11.5 percent increase over 2009 visitation. Visitation continued to soar in August. Visits were up 16.8 percent. During June, July and August visitors to the Park totaled 1.64 million.

Extra celebration came at the end of the year as visitation numbers in Glacier were tallied showing a new high that broke the record set in 1983. A total of 2,216,019 people entered Glacier in the first 11 months of the year, nearly 10 percent more than the number who visited during the same time in 2009.

DEFENDERS OF THE North Fork of the Flathead had reason to celebrate in 2010 as well. After decades of advocating for the area in Canada and the United States, several victories were marked in protecting the area.

Early in the year, scientists from the United Nations called for a moratorium on mining in the Canadian Flathead, just north of Glacier National Park. Two scientists toured Glacier and Waterton parks as well as the Canadian Flathead the previous fall. The basic conclusion of their report was that mining is incompatible with the area.

In February, Montana and British Columbia signed a memorandum of understanding that formalized the end of mining in the Flathead. The MOU called for the state and province to implement measures necessary to prohibit the exploration for and development of mining, oil, gas and coal in the British Columbia, Flathead and the Montana North Fork Flathead River Basin.

In March, Montana Sens. Jon Tester and Max Baucus introduced legislation that would withdraw federally owned North Fork lands from mining and geothermal leasing. The bill puts a moratorium on future leases on federal lands in the North Fork of the Flathead drainage.

Later that month, Gov. Brian Schweitzer asked Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar to cancel energy leases on hundreds of tracts of Forest Service land in the North Fork. Eighty percent of the land was leased in the early ‘80s during the Reagan Administration. The lease holders hadn’t shown an interest in developing them.

Energy giant ConocoPhillips announced in May that it would voluntarily relinquish oil and gas leases the company held in the North Fork of the Flathead River drainage.

In July, President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that they were directing their federal agencies to look at ways of solidifying a deal struck between Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer and British Columbia Prime Minister Cordon Campbell in February. The deal had hit a snag — funding to pay off companies that already invested in mining claims hadn’t come to fruition. Schweitzer said he expected the cash to come from the federal government, but that hadn’t happened. It was expected to cost $17 million to buy out those investments.

In the last days of 2010, a group of retired superintendents form Glacier Park and Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada issued a letter calling for action by both countries to finalize park protection actions. The letter urged Congress to support the America’s Great Outdoors Act of 2010. The Act contained several bills that would relinquish 200,000 acres of oil and gas leases held on public lands in the North Fork Flathead drainage. The Act did not pass before the Christmas holiday.

A FEW well-known members of the community passed away this year.

Loren Kreck, conservationist and wilderness advocate, died at his home Friday, March 26. He was 89. Kreck, a dentist, was the first president of the Flathead Chapter of the Montana Wilderness Association. He fought for protection of what is now the Great Bear Wilderness and the Jewel Basin Hiking area.

Ruder Elementary music teacher Patty McClenahan passed away of complications from brain cancer Nov. 6. She was 56. She is remembered for her love of music and the children she taught.

Here’s a month by month look at the top stories of 2010:

January

• Snow storms ramped up the avalanche danger. It was listed as “considerable” by the Glacier Country Avalanche Center and a storm promised to add more snow load to already unstable snowpack.

February

• The Wildcat speech and debate team won its fifth straight Class A state championship. Columbia Falls beat out Billings Central, 159 to 132. The competition came down to the final round when Columbia Falls came back from an early 60-point deficit to win.

• Many of the subdivision agreements in the city were expiring. Three preliminary plats for subdivision expired earlier in the year and one had just a year to be completed in time. The economy was forcing many developers to not move forward with projects.

• A new law that allows firearms in national parks and wildlife refuges went into effect. However, shooting a gun in those areas still remains illegal.

March

• A Whitefish mountain climber claimed to have summitted all of Glacier National Park’s 10,000 foot peaks after he bagged Mount Cleveland in a 17-hour round trip Feb. 23.

• Ramona Bauer, 59, and her grandchildren, Jeremy Dodge-Sanders and Jade Ulrich, died in a two-vehicle accident on U.S. Highway 2 West. Jacob Colclough, 17, of Libby was in a separate vehicle and also died in the accident.

• The Columbia Falls City Council decided to monitor medical marijuana businesses, but not take any steps to block them from operating.

• Pfc. Nicholas Cook, 19, was killed in action when insurgents attacked his unit with small arms in the Konar Province of Afghanistan on March 7. Cook went to Canyon Elementary, Columbia Falls Junior High and graduated from Columbia Falls High School in 2008.

April

• Former Canyon Elementary principal Matt Fawcett was cited for shoplifting at Smith’s in Kalispell. Fawcett appeared in Kalispell municipal court and pleaded guilty to theft of more than $40 of jelly preserves, honey and protein bars. He was fined $400 and given a 30-day suspended jail sentence. Fawcett resigned as principal at Canyon after the incident.

• A group of business owners in the Canyon joined together to create the “Gateway to Glacier – The Canyon” in order to explore opportunities to expand shoulder-season business.

• A public meeting was held on how to best address a stretch of the rough and often dusty section of the North Fork Road from Blankenship to Camas Creek. The state planned to conduct a $125,000 study to examine the road and possible solutions.

• Columbia Falls Mayor Don Barnhart issued a proclamation supporting paving the North Fork Road to Camas Creek.

May

• A medical marijuana march was held in Columbia Falls. Organizers hoped to create awareness by holding the march, which was part of the 2010 Worldwide Marijuana March, an event held in more than 300 cities around the world.

• Barb Riley and Larry Wilson retained their seats on the School District 6 Board of Trustees. Both faced off against challengers in the first school board election in 10 years.

• Fire destroyed a South Hilltop Road house. Phylicia Toren and her son Jace, 5, escaped from a fire that consumed their home.

• A Columbia Falls teen was recovering after she was struck by a westbound Amtrak train in Columbia Falls. Siehra Salois, 17, was jogging on or near the tracks May 13 near the viaduct when she was hit. She suffered a broken arm and multiple contusions.

June

• The Swan View Coalition threatened to sue the Forest Service if a 100-mile footrace along the Swan Crest wasn’t stopped. The coalition claimed the race could harm grizzly bears. Organizers asked the Forest Service for a special use permit to hold the race.

• Zac Perry and Jerry O’Neil claimed victories in the 2010 primary election. Perry, a Democrat, and O’Neil, a Republican, would face off in the race for House District 3.

• Glacier Park suspended a University of Montana mountain goat study after the first two animals that researchers attempted to tranquilize and capture died.

• Heavy rains and runoff closed the Inside North Fork Road from Logging Creek south to Fish Creek. The road was closed due to flooding at Anaconda Creek. In one week, West Glacier saw 3.25 inches of rain. St. Mary saw nearly 4 inches.

• The City of Columbia Falls decided against running a public safety levy. The City Council started exploring the idea after a few residents expressed concern about an increasing number of home and vehicle break-ins.

July

• Abbott Valley Homestead on the edge of Martin City turned 100 years old. Homesteader Mickey Wagoner built the homestead after coming out west to fight the 1910 fire. The fence and cabin he built still stands.

• Columbia Falls High School turned 50 years old. Construction of the 113,000-square-foot school began on July 24, 1957.

• Two Columbia Falls High School graduates died in a car accident on Montana 35 east of Kalispell. Shayla Dunlap, 22, and David Ampudia, 24, died after the single-vehicle crash.

August

• Native American dancer Clinton Croff died in Two Medicine in Glacier Park apparently from self-inflicted wounds. Croff often performed for crowds at St. Mary and across the country at pow-wows.

• Flathead County commissioners approved $500,000 in funding over two years for reconstruction of the Red Bridge. The First Best Place is working to restore the bridge into a pedestrian path.

• U.S. Marshals were looking into leads that the subject of a nationwide manhunt was seen dining at a St. Mary cafe, just outside the entrance to Glacier Park. Law enforcement officials were searching for John McCluskey and his cousin and fiancee Casslyn Welch after she helped him escape from prison. The pair was later found in Arizona.

• A federal judge ruled that taking wolves off the Endangered Species List in Montana and Idaho, while a novel approach, was a political move and was contrary to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service policy and the Endangered Species Act.

• Flathead County commissioners decided to abandon the last 150 feet of Gamma Road in Hungry Horse. Developer Bill Daggat had approached the county about building a private, gated bridge at the end of Gamma Road to provide another entrance to the Flathead River Ranch.

September

• A Columbia Falls couple died in a fiery crash near Paradise after their vehicle collided head-on with an SUV. Rudy Arriaga, 78, and Beverly L. Smith-Arriaga, 60, died at the scene after their Oldsmobile Cutlass became engulfed in flames.

• The Columbia Falls City Council gave the community garden a place to officially take root. The Council agreed to let the garden have space in River’s Edge Park.

• Kalispell Regional Medical Center announced plans to open a primary care and imaging clinic in Columbia Falls in 2011.

• A construction worker in Glacier Park fell about 35 feet off the Going-to-the-Sun Road. Wainuma Ned of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, was operating a small excavator when it became unbalanced and fell from the Sun Road near the East Tunnel. Ned jumped clear of the equipment as it fell. He dropped 35 feet, then slid and tumbled down the hill, ending up about 100 feet below the Sun Road on a scree field.

• Michael William Sloan, 30, of Hungry Horse drowned in Lake McDonald while fishing. His body was recovered 200 feet offshore in 65 feet of water. Sloan was the sous chef at Belton Chalet and an avid outdoorsman.

October

• A completed study of improvements of the North Fork Road didn’t embrace any one concept for fixing the dusty road. The study put the future of the road back in the county’s lap. The study, commissioned by Flathead County and the state Department of Transportation, looked at the possibility of paving a nine-mile section of the road from just north of Glacier Rim to Glacier Park’s Camas Road. The study came up with a variety of alternatives, from paving the road, which would cost $5.2 million to more than $15.2 million, to dust mitigation measures, which would cost $78,000 to as much as $461,000 annually.

• A North Fork man faced a charge of felony arson after he allegedly set a neighbor’s yurt and outhouse on fire.

• Columbia Falls High graduate Russ Porter appeared on “Jeopardy!” Porter, who graduated from CFHS in 1984, won $20,001.

• The Columbia Falls Youth Softball Association began working with Flathead County to transform the 16-acre Vetville Park into a sports park.

November

• Republican Jerry O’Neil won in the race for House District 3. He defeated Democrat Zac Perry, garnering 52 percent of the vote.

• Biologists in Glacier Park were making progress in the fight against non-native lake trout. Efforts to remove the trout, through gill netting, were showing some success.

• Fire consumed a home on Wood Bridge Drive about a half mile from the Silver Bullet Bar. More than 30 firefighters from four departments worked to contain the blaze. Firefighters were on the scene for about 12 hours.

December

• Frigid temperatures and heavy snow likely helped hunters in the last week of hunting season. Hunters in Northwest Montana’s Region 1 showed a 7.8 percent rate of hunters with game.

• Montana Sen. Jon Tester issued a letter to Bonneville Power Administration urging the electricity provider to sign a long-term agreement to supply power to Columbia Falls Aluminum Co., a move toward restoring the jobs lost in the plant’s shutdown in 2009.

• A Columbia Falls man who was living in his car was found frozen to death. Jeffery Tolson, 56, was found severely hypothermic without a pulse in his car.

• Flathead County commissioners delayed a decision on a request by the Columbia Falls branch library for $268,000 in funding. The First Best Place wants the money to move the library into Glacier Discovery Square.