Montana State News

Harmful algal bloom found at Lake Helena

Sat, 03 Aug 2024 17:46:00 +0000

A Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) has been confirmed on Lake Helena near the Causeway Fishing Access Site.

Signage has been posted warning recreators to take precautions when swimming or wading in the water.

Blooms can impact human health and sicken or kill pets and livestock.

A local observed the bloom on July 29, 2024, and Lewis and Clark County collected water samples the following day.

Do not drink, swallow, or swim in water that shows signs of a HAB and keep kids, pets and livestock out.

If you suspect a HAB-related illness in a person or animal, including livestock, call your health care provider or veterinarian.

For emergencies, call Poison Control immediately at 1-800-222-1222.

Great Falls set to host third annual Montana Cultural Fair

Sat, 03 Aug 2024 14:09:00 +0000

More than 18 cultures will be represented at the third annual Montana Cultural Fair in Great Falls, featuring live performances, food samples, and activities.

Visitors will have the opportunity to learn about different cultures and traditions through crafts, clothes, and food.

A $10 admission fee called a passport will take you on a trip to a variety of booths representing nationalities such as Tonga and Samoa, East India, and Venezuela to name just a few.

The $10 passport fee is for admission, inclusive of food samples at the cultural booths and all cultural performances on the stage at the venue. Event t-shirts, the beer garden, Pepsi stand, and food trucks of full meals are all separate purchases.

The event will feature live performances including dances, music, and storytelling from local and international artists.

In Great Falls especially, we're such a small community. It's great to see that even in our own backyards, that we have the opportunity to come together and really showcase what we're most proud of, which is the diversity and the cultures and community that we have," Zach Swartz, the chair of the event, explained.

The event is hosted by the Rotary Club of Electric City, and they are still looking for additional volunteers to help out the day of the event for a variety of shifts ranging from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Each volunteer will receive free entry to the event and a t-shirt. If youre interested in volunteering, click here.

They are also participating in an international fundraising project to supply clean water stations to Guatemala. Proceeds from the beer garden, t-shirt sales, and donations from the event will go toward installing Tippy Tap water stations. There will also be demonstrations of these Tippy Tap water stations at the fair.

This is the third year of the event, and it has continued to expand as more members of the community and businesses join in.

Seeing new cultures pop up has been great, Swartz says, Like this year we have Tonga and Samoa. We had not had those in previous years, so it's really great to see the buy-in and spreading the word year after year and getting some new cultures involved.

Sponsors of the event include KRTV, Eagle Beverage, Calumet Montana Refining, TDS Fiber, and the Great Falls Military Affairs Committee.

The Montana Cultural Fair will be on Thursday, August 8th, at the Great Falls Civic Center (#2 Park Drive South) from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. For more information about the event, click here.

What's up with the traffic lights at this Helena intersection?

Sat, 03 Aug 2024 01:04:57 +0000

Traffic lights at the intersection of Last Chance Gulch, Neill Avenue, and Helena Avenue - often referred to as "Mini-Malfunction Junction - have been out since mid-July.

MTN News viewer Marty Thieltges wanted to know what is going on, so we went to the City of Helena transportation systems director David Knoepke to find out.

The reason the lights went out is still a mystery, but it has to do with the systems control box.

We had a catastrophic failure of the control box, Knoepke said. What caused it? Were not quite sure.

Knoepke said it could have been a power surge or lightning strike, although he said no businesses in the area reported issues at the time. Whatever happened, it did extensive damage.

You know, were not even sure fixing the control box would fix the lights, Knoepke said. Our contractor said there may be additional damage that went out from the control box.

In place of the signals, the city installed stop signs at the intersection to direct traffic flow, and so far, Knoepke said that has been working well.

We have received a lot of public comment that they like the stop signs better than signals, he said.

There have been plans in the works for a while to replace the signals at mini-malfunction junction with a roundabout. Originally the project was scheduled for 2027, but due to the situation with the traffic lights, it could get fast-tracked.

That would be dependent on it getting designed, getting the public comment done, getting approval, because this is a joint right-of-way jurisdiction with MDT, so wed have to get their approval, Knoepke said.

Knoepke said the earliest the roundabout project could start is next summer.

People can have a say in what happens at mini-malfunction junction between now and when the roundabout is built, comments can be submitted to the city online by clicking here.

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Historical experts recount deadly Mann Gulch Fire

Sat, 03 Aug 2024 01:03:29 +0000

It's been 75 years since the deadly Mann Gulch Fire in the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness.

In early August of 1949, after about two weeks with temperatures in the 90s, a storm system moved through the area producing a lot of rain and in turn a lot of lightning.

When Canyon Ferry Ranger District manager Bob Jansson finally spotted the fire from the air it was less than 10 acres.

By the time it was over it had burned thousands of acres and claimed 13 lives.

Dave Turner is a retired National Forest Service employee. He's also a pre-eminent historian when it comes to the 1949 Mann Gulch Fire.

Hes even written a book about the event, called the 13th Fire.

The Mann Gulch Fire was the 13th of 57 fires that the men on the Helena National Forest would tackle that summer, said Turner who retired as the Meriwether Guard Lookout fo the Helena national Forest Service. It was the same position that Jim Harrison, who died in the Mann Gulch Fire, held.

Turner says the story of the Mann Gulch fire really begins on August 4th, 1949.

After two weeks of hot weather with temperatures exceeding 90 degrees, a storm system made its way over the area, producing a lot of rain, a lot of lightning, and in turn, a lot of smoke.

Turner says the ranger district phones were ringing off the hook that evening with reports of smoke.

So, the men of the Helena Ranger District in the Canyon Ferry Ranger District were out until well after midnight chasing smoke from that from that storm, said Turner.

Turner said most of the attention at the time was centered on fires burning near York and Cave Gulch.

On August 5th, Meriwether Guard Jim Harrison, who had left the smoke jumping profession a year earlier at the request of his mother, set out looking for a fire which he found. Back at the cabin, he tried unsuccessfully to relay the information over radio, prompting him to head back out.

He hiked back up the canyon, 37 switchbacks, to get to the ridge and begins the build line to try to keep the fire from getting into the canyon, said Turner.

A Colorado Mountain lookout finally spotted the fire and a plane was dispatched to monitor the fire and two others that were burning. Ironically, the flight would go right over Mann Gulch.

At that point in time, either it wasn't smoking or it was right underneath the plane, said Turner.

Not seeing the fire, the crew went back to Helena and another call came from Colorado Mountain again reporting a fire near Mann Gulch.

So they reloaded in a plane, and flew directly over the fire, said Turner.

The early estimate of the fire size was 5 to 8 acres. Because it was burning in rough terrain, the forest service requested 25 smoke jumpers.

So, the smokejumpers were coming in from the Missoula Smokejumpers Base, said Laura Marsh, and archeologist and Community Engagement Specialist with the Montana Historical Society. Many were college students who were doing this work for their summer.

Due to other fires burning, the smokejumper base was able to send 15, including supervisor, Wagner Wag Dodge, a nearly 10-year smoke jumping veteran.

The flight from Missoula to Helena was a rough one.

The plane bucked and switched back and forth, so much so that one of the jumpers got sick on the flight over and decided not to jump. Consequently, of course, saving his own life, said Turner.

With the fire size estimated at 50 to 60 acres, the pilot found a spot where the jumpers could land near Mann Gulch, some with more difficulty than others.

I think it was a total of six of the guys had difficult landings, said Turner. One guy landed in a tree. One guy landed on his back. Two guys parachutes intertwined, and they landed together, still entwined, but safely.

Dodge assessed the fire as too aggressive to attack head on. He instructed the crew to go down to the river and begin building a fire line. When Dodge came up on a ridge, Turner says he was likely shocked at what he saw.

He sees that the fire has kicked firebrands off the fire on the ridge and they've landed in the bottom of the gulch where there's a lot of grass, a lot of brush and that's on fire, said Turner.

The fire was directly below. Dodge ordered the crew to head back uphill to a ridgetop, but the scree slopes they had to cross were treacherous.

Rocks in there are the size of Volkswagens down to bricks, and there's no trails whatsoever, said Turner.

No longer in a line, Dodge asked Bill Hellman, his second in command to order the crew to drop their heavy equipment in hopes of moving quicker against the rapidly advancing flames.

Then Dodge did something unconventional.

Without a word to anyone, he leans down and with a book of paper matches, starts tossing matches into the grass, said Turner.

So, he lit what is by many accounts considered the first escape fire in firefighting history, said Marsh.

He unsuccessfully encouraged the others to join him in the escape fire.

At that point, the guys who are nearest to him think, this guy's nuts, said Turner. We already have enough fire here, and here he is, lighting more stuff on fire.

"We don't know if they simply didn't hear, they didn't understand what he was doing because that wasn't part of their training at that point in time, said Marsh.

It was technique employed by Native Americans years earlier.

Two men, Bob Sallee and Walt Rumsey, were able to stay ahead of the fire and scramble to safety.

They run to the bottom of that scree field and another tongue of the fire comes over the top of the ridge, heads directly at them, and they run back to the top, said Turner. Bottom line is they survive the fire without so much as a first-degree burn.

Bill Hellman also made it to the ridge but got caught from behind by the fire.

While he's burned over 80% of his body, he still managed to struggle another 200 yards down that slope and rescue dogs before he collapses, said Turner.

Hellman and another badly burned firefighter, Joe Sylvia, would eventually be carried to safety.

The rest of the guys are caught in a matter of seconds, said Turner.

Later that fall, investigators estimated the fire burned through that grass at 600 to 700 feet per minute with flames as high as 30 feet. Turner says fire that powerful typically consumes the oxygen in front of it.

So, as it would come up on these guys, all of a sudden they'd have no breath, said Turner.

Despite optimism, Hellman and Sylvia would die after being transported to St. Johns Hospital in Helena later that afternoon.

The fire burned until August 10th. Turner says a search for the other 11 firefighters commenced on August 6th.

It isn't until Sunday, the seventh, that they recover the last body which was so badly burned, the only thing it was left with a large leg bone, said Turner.

Lessons learned from the Mann Gulch fire, the lessons learned help shape firefighting strategies of today. Even though it happened 75 years ago, its serves as a reminder to never forget the 13 who died.

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Carroll College president will step down next year

Sat, 03 Aug 2024 00:35:18 +0000

In the video above, Allie Kaiser talks with Carroll College president John Cech, who announced that he will retire at the end of the 2024-2025 academic year.

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Montana is closing the waitlist for Section 8 vouchers

Sat, 03 Aug 2024 00:32:10 +0000

In the video above, Jonathon Ambarian reports on a change in federal funding that will require the Montana Department of Commerce to close down the waitlist for Section 8 housing vouchers.

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Montana to close housing voucher waiting list

Sat, 03 Aug 2024 00:29:46 +0000

Montana leaders say a change in federal funding allocations will require them to close the states waitlist for Housing Choice Vouchers commonly known as Section 8 vouchers later this month.

Montana Housing executive director Cheryl Cohen says they currently have about 3,000 households on the waitlist to be considered for the rental assistance program. Starting Aug. 15 and until further notice, none of those applicants will receive vouchers and no new households will be added to the list.

As we receive calls, we have resources prepared for our staff to try to direct individuals or families to what would best meet their needs, said Cohen.

The Montana Department of Commerce is sending out letters to people on the waitlist this week, announcing the change.

Housing Choice Vouchers help eligible recipients including low-income families, older people and those with disabilities pay for housing on the private market. Cohen said roughly 3,300 households are currently receiving vouchers through the states program, and another 4,000 are receiving federal assistance through subsidies for specific properties.

State leaders say they heard last month from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that Montanas monthly budget authority for the voucher program would be reduced to less than $1.5 million. They said the state is currently spending closer to $2 million a month.

In a release Thursday, Commerce said the states share of the budget was reduced because of shortfalls in other states programs.

Commerce, having responsibly managed Montanas HCV program, must now spend down its HUD-held reserves and close its waitlist to ensure the program remains solvent and able to serve current participants, the release said.

Cohen said leaders are making a last push to qualify some of the waiting applicants for vouchers.

We just pulled about 850 as one last draw from the waitlist, to try to lease up as many individuals as we can, knowing that this closure was going into effect, she said.

Michael ONeil, executive director of the Helena Housing Authority, says he regularly sees people spending well over a year on the waitlist. He says one major reason is that its getting harder for those receiving vouchers to find housing using them.

Only 40% receiving a voucher are able to lease up using that voucher, which I think is a broken promise, he said. That's why we have to fix some of the fundamentals in the program.

A Washington Post analysis of nationwide data provided by CoStar Group found the average rent in Lewis and Clark County is now $1,493 up 3.7% since last year and up a whopping 58.8% since 2019. Over those same five years, the average rent rose 30.3% in Missoula County, 35.2% in Flathead and Yellowstone Counties, 43.4% in Cascade County and 48.8% in Gallatin County.

How much a voucher will pay is determined by the fair market rent, an amount calculated by HUD that is intended to mirror how much it would take to rent a moderately-priced dwelling in a given area. However, ONeil believes data on Montana rents arent being collected accurately because of the states low population, and the current fair market rates are far short of where they should be.

This week, Gianforte approved a recommendation from a state behavioral health commission to spend $1 million on a study of fair market rents in Montana.

We think it will make a tremendous difference for some of our most vulnerable being able to afford a place to live, and making sure that we're receiving in our communities the federal rental assistance dollars that we need and that our landlords are getting paid to help address the high costs they're facing, as well, ONeil said.

The waitlist is remaining open until Aug. 15, and Cohen said theyll continue to accept applications through that time.

There's no harm, and we would certainly encourage people to apply just with the knowledge that we won't be pulling names off the waitlist to do lease-ups until we have a better understanding of the financial position and what we will be receiving from HUD in the future, she said.