Top news stories of 2011

A top news story for 2011 in the Hungry Horse News is likely the same for every other newspaper - impacts of the continuing recession. But locally there's been some signs of improvement.

Other top stories include a deal to stop coal mining in the headwaters of the North Fork of the Flathead River, talk of tearing down the historic Red Bridge, changing of the guard at City Hall, and a young wrangler whose stand against a grizzly bear got her a seat on The Late Show with David Letterman.

The economy

The three-year old credit crisis and high unemployment continued to dog the local economy this year. Unemployment was 14.1 percent in January, tapering off to 10.6 percent in November, and the volume of residential home sales fell a slight amount compared to 2010.

With 14 homes in or near foreclosure in Columbia Falls alone, the city's real estate broker recommended lot prices be lowered in two subdivisions the city owns north of town.

Raw land and subdivisions were the hardest hit in the real estate market. Four of six subdivision plats in Columbia Falls have expired, and Glacier Bank sued this year to foreclose a subdivision in Hungry Horse once slated for 900 units.

Hope turned to the Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. smelter, which has been shut down since October 2009. In August, Bonneville Power Administration officials held an open house in Columbia Falls to announce a possible power contract for the aging plant, but no deals with Swiss-based owner Glencore have been forthcoming.

Meanwhile, skilled workers headed east to the Williston Basin oil fields for good-paying jobs. A Halliburton representative was in the Flathead this summer looking for 300 more workers. BNSF Railway hired 415 new workers in Montana this year, although many are on call awaiting assignments. Plum Creek CEO Rick Holley was bullish on the timber company's future, which plans to process the same amount of locally harvested timber in 2012 as last year.

B.C. coal mine

Forty years after the Flathead Coalition formed to stop coal mining in the headwaters of the North Fork of the Flathead River, the British Columbian provincial government passed a law prohibiting mining, oil drilling and natural gas extraction in the area just across the U.S.-Canada border.

Efforts to protect the one of the wildest places in the Lower 48 included baseline studies, lobbying by conservation groups and Glacier National Park, drafting of international memos and treaties, retiring oil and gas leases, and finally buying off companies with exploration investments on 400,000 acres on the Canadian side of the drainage.

The Nature Conservancy of Montana and the Nature Conservancy of Canada together agreed to come up with $9.4 million to compensate the mining and energy companies.

Meanwhile, Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester encouraged companies to voluntarily retire oil and gas leases on more than 200,000 acres of land on the U.S. side of the North Fork drainage.

Vets Home

Word in February that a legislative subcommittee was considering privatizing the Montana Veterans Home to save money drew a heated response from both workers and veterans. The subcommittee also recommended cutting $2.2 million in cigarette tax money to the home over two years.

Flathead's Republican legislators, including Sen. Ryan Zinke, R-Whitefish, and Rep. Bill Beck, R-Whitefish, both veterans themselves, quickly banded together in opposition to the proposal. By March, as the state budget was being finalized and veterans organized marches, the $2.2 million was restored.

Red Bridge

The start of fundraising efforts to restore the 100-year-old Red Bridge in Columbia Falls was announced by the First Best Place nonprofit in February after the group lined up $500,000 in federal Community Transportation Enhancement Program (CTEP) money for the project, funneled through the county.

But by May, with restoration estimates climbing from $843,000 to $1.9 million, the county commissioners had questions about the fundraising effort. Commissioner Jim Dupont suggested restoration costs might reach $2.5 million and questioned whether First Best Place could come up with the required CTEP match.

By September, the commissioners had "unencumbered" the $500,000 from the bridge project and developed a stricter trail funding policy for the whole county.

That's when discussion switched from restoring the Red Bridge to tearing it down, as First Best Place and other locals pointed to graffiti and decay and labeled the structure blight. The county began to line up bids for tearing down the bridge.

City Hall

A changing of the guard at city hall began in May when longtime city manager Bill Shaw announced he was departing to head up Kalispell's public works department. Shaw was city manager here for 10 years, pulling double duty toward the end as the city planner.

Susan Nicosia, who has served as councilor, mayor, city clerk and city finance director over the past 13 years, was the lone applicant for interim city manager and the city council's unanimous choice to replace Shaw in June.

Bear wrangler

Erin Bolster, a wrangler with Swan Mountain Outfitters, not only saved an eight-year-old boy from harm when a grizzly bear charged into her horse party on July 30 - she also landed a stint on The Late Show With David Letterman.

As first reported in the Hungry Horse News on Aug. 10, Bolster guided Tonk, a big white Percheron horse, between the young boy and the bear, which had turned its attention from a white-tailed buck it had been chasing to the boy's horse. Either Bolster's yelling or Tonk's size convinced the bear to move on.Bolster later purchased Tonk, who received five-star treatment as he was transported to New York for the TV show.

Stop signs

The idea that a four-way stop at Sixth Street and Nucleus Avenue would improve pedestrian safety and boost the local economy didn't attract any supporters to a Jan. 3 public hearing. A 3-3 city council vote two weeks later temporarily stalled the proposal.

On Feb. 7, the council approved the stop signs on a trial basis with a 4-3 vote. Councilor Dave Petersen, a supporter who owns a building at Sixth and Nucleus, said the stop signs would inform passersby "we're open for business."

By October, a Montana Department of Transportation traffic study concluded that traffic volume did not warrant the stop signs and a four-way stop would decrease the level of service at the intersection. Petersen's motion to lobby MDT for the stop signs was defeated 4-3, but he vowed not to give up the idea.

Library move

Members of the Columbia Falls Library Association in January announced their opposition to a proposal to move the library from City Hall to the Glacier Discovery Center. The First Best Place group, which managed the center, counted on the library as the center's anchor tenant, and county library director Kim Crowley supported the move.

The library association was concerned about how much room would be available at the center, what would be the additional costs and if library books and other resources would be protected during public events held at the center.

Mtn. deaths

A 16-year-old foreign-exchange student at Columbia Falls High School died following a skiing accident at Whitefish Mountain Resort. Niclas Waschle fell in a tree well on Dec. 30 and lost consciousness. He was transported to Kalispell Regional Medical Center, where he died several days later.

An avalanche on Jan. 8 near Beta Lake, on the east side of Hungry Horse Reservoir, killed Bruce Jungnitsch, 53, of West Glacier. He was snowmobiling with seven others when the avalanche occurred.

Gregory Seftick, 31, of Columbia Falls was backcountry skiing in Grand Teton National Park when an avalanche ran over the tent he was in on April 16. He and Walker Kuhl, 27, of Kalispell, were killed.