Our top 10 stories of 2019

As the year comes to an end, here’s a look back at what were some of the top local stories of 2019.

1) Weyerhaeuser’s sale of 630,000 acres of land in Northwest Montana for $230 an acre. The $145 million deal, which was announced Dec. 17, did not reveal who the buyer was and left conservation and local communities concerned about public access and the availability of timber. The buyer was later revealed to be Southern Pine Plantations, a Georgia-based real estate company that specializes in timber and woodlands for sale in southern states.

Southern Pines claims it has no plans to restrict public access, but local officials fear the company will sell the land to private owners who will.

2) Announced in September, the proposed Glacier National Park’s Going-to-the-Sun Road Corridor Management Plan has drawn sharp criticism from locals. The plan calls for a number of changes in the park to help combat ever increasing number of visitors seen there each year, including limiting many of the parking spaces at Logan Pass to a permit system, making part of the Highline Trail a one-way route, the possible use of some camping spots as overflow parking near Avalanche Creek and more. The plan also calls for the expansion of the park’s free shuttle system, though that could be tough after the Flathead County Commissioners voted in December to end the county’s operations and maintenance deal for the park’s shuttle fleet. The Park says it has roughly $1 million put away to fund the shuttle system next year and it is looking to future funding options.

3) Columbia Falls voters approved a $37 million school bond issue in October for the construction of one new elementary school to replace Glacier Gateway as well as the renovation of Ruder Elementary. The bond also includes funding for new sports fields between Ruder and the junior high school as well as about $200,000 for increased security at the junior high school.

4) The reconstruction of the Sperry Chalet in Glacier National Park was completed, restoring the historic structure after the Sprague Fire left it gutted in Aug. 2017. This year’s work began June 30 and was completed Oct. 11. Rebuilding the remote chalet — about 6.5 miles from the road and 3,300 feet uphill in Glacier’s high country just a few miles from the Continental Divide was no small feat. Crews hiked back and forth to the worksite and lived in wall tents for two summers. The contract for the first phase was $4.08 million, which stabilized the structure and $4.73 million to finish the work.

5) The Department of Commerce determined in May that Columbia Falls qualifies as a resort community under state law, opening the doors for the city to look into instituting a resort tax in the near future. The determination came after the city council asked the Department of Commerce to do an economic analysis in the fall of 2018. The analysis found that 25.7 percent of all businesses in the city, both public and private, are either entirely or partially dependent on tourism demand, according to a report by Department of Commerce senior economist Joe Ramler.

A public meeting to discuss the proposed resort tax is set for Jan. 21.

6) Crews finished the job of tearing down the Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. plant, which was once the largest building in Montana. Now the company and the Environmental Protection Agency will work on a plan to clean up the site for future use. Right now the site where the buildings once sat looks like a giant parking lot. Tests at the site itself show high levels of cyanide and fluoride, but the good news is the contaminants don’t appear to be spreading to the Flathead River or neighboring communities.

7) The Flathead National Forest released a proposed draft of its Comprehensive River Plan for the forks of the Flathead River in July, which stays the Forest may have to impose a permit system for some sections of the rivers to combat increasing usage.

The proposed action sets thresholds based on desired conditions of various sections of the rivers and brings up the possibility of a permit system for each fork, depending on its “desired condition” and what section of the river a person or party is floating.

A study completed by University of Montana students in staff using remote cameras shows a wide range of use, with averages running from 449 rafters per day in the busiest stretch of the Middle Fork to less than three per day at Mid Creek on the South Fork in the Bob Marshall Wilderness.

8) Whitefish-based Potter’s Field Ministries closed its MudMan Burgers restaurants and food trucks, and its ministry internship program amid allegations of abuse against the ministry’s interns in July. Since 2016, the popular burger outlets were been staffed by participants in Potter’s Field Ministries’ IGNITE internship program, but numerous interns that left the ministry and shared stories of alleged verbal abuse, sexual harassment and intolerable conditions during their time in the program.

9) The Columbia Falls community was rocked in April after high school freshman Erin Howk was tragically killed in Evergreen after an alleged drunk driver plowed his pickup truck into her Evergreen home, killing her as she slept in her bed about 2:10 a.m.

The driver of the vehicle, Jared Parsons, pleaded not guilty to one count of vehicular homicide while under the influence before Flathead County District Court Judge Dan Wilson May 30.

10) Tourism continued to be a major force in the economy, as Glacier National Park reached the 3 million visitor mark for only the second time in its history. The tourism economy has sparked growth in the outlying towns surrounding the Park, with another housing and building boom in full swing once again.