Eisenzimer, Judisch capture TJ tournament
TOP TEAM Lane Judisch and Ryan Eisenzimer teamed up for the two-man scramble, Todd Johnson Memorial on Saturday at the Pondera Golf Club and won the tournament with a score of +26 using a modified Stableford scoring system. I-O Photo by Buck Traxler
Using a modified Stableford scoring system where you use points instead of regular scoring as the winning team came in at +26.
Teams played 27 holes and were flighted after nine holes.
Placing second in the championship flight were Dave Howard and Jerry Naylor with the Hofstad brothers, Nick and Kris placing third.
In the first flight, it was Ryan VanDyke and Lee Diedrich at +28 in the top spot followed by Casey Vandenacre and Shawn Brown with Jerry Ivers and Gordon Nelsen in third.
In the second flight, the three man team of Don Sollard, Duane Gjesdal and Boyd Nealy took first place. They were followed by Jeff Hardy and Jordan Newmiller and a pair of golfers from Helena, Trevor Briggerman and Todd Huston settled into third place.
For individual course prizes, Dave Howard came on to cozy up close to the pin at the par 3 sixth hole.
Wyeld Converse was closest to the water without going in at the seventh hole. He was also closest to the pin in two shots at the par 4 second hole.
Lee Diedrich was closest to the pin in two shots at the par 4 eighth hole and Lane Judisch dialed in the long putt at the par 4 fifth hole.
Ryan VanDyke nailed a boomer for long drive in the fairway at the par 5 first hole. Ryan Eisenzimer hit his tee shot closest to the 200 yard marker at the par 5 fifth hole.
Howard Bouma landed his tee shot oh-so-close to the Bullwinkle bush at the par 3 third hole and Willie Schlepp smoked his tee shot at the par 4 ninth hole, winning the short drive.
Proceeds from the annual tournament go into a scholarship fund for the Cowboy and Cowgirl golfers.
Brown resigns from city council
By Buck Traxler, I-O Editor
Alderman Gary Brown submitted his letter of resignation to the city council Monday evening.
He is moving outside the city limits, making him ineligible to serve as a council representative.
In his letter he recommended Karla Breding be named to replace him for the remainder of his term. Brown commented that, “It was a hard decision for us to make. I appreciate everyone I’ve worked with while on the council.”
Mayor John Shevlin said, “We’ll miss you for the remainder of the year.” Councilman Sandy Syvertson echoed those remarks.
Breding is already the lone declared council candidate for Brown’s seat. He had chosen not to run for re-election in November.
Mayor Shevlin asked Breding, who was present at the meeting, if she would be willing to accept an appointment to fill out Brown’s term in office. She said she would.
Breding’s appointment to the council will be effective Sept. 1, although she may be sworn in before that date.
Once she is sworn in as a city council member, Breding will serve as the city representative on the Port Authority, the Interlocal board, and help work with the city budget, as do all council members.
In other business before the council, four building permits were approved. One permit is at 606 S. Michigan. The others are at 318 S. Montanan, 209 S. Montanan and 320 S. Illinois.
Resolution 1004, dealing with a $7,400 general fund transfer to a SID revolving fund for the fire truck to be purchased was passed.
Resolutions 1005 and 1006, dealing with a bond for the wastewater project, and a loan with Rural Development for the same project were passed. The full resolutions may be viewed by interested individuals at city hall during normal working hours.
The council voted against buying advertising in the book, A History of Pondera County. The book is a project of Cope Graphics.
Courtesy Ford and Van Motors each submitted bids on a new city truck. However, both businesses submitted their bids past the deadline date.
By law, they now are not considered bids, but “quotes,” thus allowing the city to go into a negotiation phase with each business and make the best deal possible.
The Ford shop entered a quote of $33,920 with a trade-in of $6,620 for a 2010 model pick up. Van Motors quoted a price of $33,520 with a trade in of $7,535.
The use of Norley Hall at Blue Sky Villa was approved for city judge Al Farnstrom for a trial court.
The city council meets every first and third Monday at city hall, 411-1/2 S. Main, 7:30 p.m. The public is encouraged to attend.
LAYING THE CHIPS Fed by a gravel truck in front, a chip machine from Pavement Maintenance Solutions out of Columbia Falls/Kalispell, lays down a thin layer of rock called chip on a fresh sheet of water based asphalt hot mix on I-15 just outside of Conrad Tuesday afternoon. I-O Photo by Buck Traxler
He is moving outside the city limits, making him ineligible to serve as a council representative.
In his letter he recommended Karla Breding be named to replace him for the remainder of his term. Brown commented that, “It was a hard decision for us to make. I appreciate everyone I’ve worked with while on the council.”
Mayor John Shevlin said, “We’ll miss you for the remainder of the year.” Councilman Sandy Syvertson echoed those remarks.
Breding is already the lone declared council candidate for Brown’s seat. He had chosen not to run for re-election in November.
Mayor Shevlin asked Breding, who was present at the meeting, if she would be willing to accept an appointment to fill out Brown’s term in office. She said she would.
Breding’s appointment to the council will be effective Sept. 1, although she may be sworn in before that date.
Once she is sworn in as a city council member, Breding will serve as the city representative on the Port Authority, the Interlocal board, and help work with the city budget, as do all council members.
In other business before the council, four building permits were approved. One permit is at 606 S. Michigan. The others are at 318 S. Montanan, 209 S. Montanan and 320 S. Illinois.
Resolution 1004, dealing with a $7,400 general fund transfer to a SID revolving fund for the fire truck to be purchased was passed.
Resolutions 1005 and 1006, dealing with a bond for the wastewater project, and a loan with Rural Development for the same project were passed. The full resolutions may be viewed by interested individuals at city hall during normal working hours.
The council voted against buying advertising in the book, A History of Pondera County. The book is a project of Cope Graphics.
Courtesy Ford and Van Motors each submitted bids on a new city truck. However, both businesses submitted their bids past the deadline date.
By law, they now are not considered bids, but “quotes,” thus allowing the city to go into a negotiation phase with each business and make the best deal possible.
The Ford shop entered a quote of $33,920 with a trade-in of $6,620 for a 2010 model pick up. Van Motors quoted a price of $33,520 with a trade in of $7,535.
The use of Norley Hall at Blue Sky Villa was approved for city judge Al Farnstrom for a trial court.
The city council meets every first and third Monday at city hall, 411-1/2 S. Main, 7:30 p.m. The public is encouraged to attend.
Cattle deaths looked into by EPA
By Adam Jerome, I-O Reporter
Last April, Craig Dyer of Brady noticed something wrong with some of his cattle. Some of his calves and even his mature cattle were getting sick. He couldn’t even get them to water. A few days later they were dead. Dyer took them to the veterinarian and when they were opened up; he noticed a lot of little blood clots in the cattle’s stomach.
The cause of death was ruled as natural bovine illness, but Dyer believed that the clots in the stomach looked like his livestock had been exposed to radiation. This lead Dyer to investigate around his property, what he found was some snowmelt that pooled in his corrals where his livestock was calving.
The snowmelt was from the big storm in late April. It had not runoff, but instead pooled giving the cattle a closer water source. Dyer had noticed his cows drinking the pooled water and decided to take water samples of the area.
When Dyer got the results back from the samples it showed that the Gross Alpha Emitters in the pooled snow melt were 83.1 picocuries per liter, which is more than five times the human health standard. It is worth noting that the health standards were developed for humans, and not for cattle, so it is difficult to hypothesize what effects if any the consumption of the snowmelt might have had on the cattle.
After he received the results Dyer contacted the complaint management section of the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).
Richard Opper, director of the DEQ released this statement when contacted by Senator Max Baucus regarding the situation. “Although I am sympathetic to Mr. Dyer’s loss of livestock, DEQ only regulates radionuclides/radioactivity in community public drinking water supplies and this situation falls outside DEQ’s area of expertise.”
Instead of just dropping the issue and moving on, Sen. Baucus contacted the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on behalf of Dyer and asked them to look into the situation.
The EPA received the data and turned it over to their Region 8 radiotoxicologist, Dr. Richard Graham in Colorado.
Graham reviewed the samples and came to the conclusion that the loss of livestock would not have been caused by the concentration of uranium, gross alpha, and gross beta in the livestock water supply.
However, Dr. Graham recommended that the EPA further investigate the condition of groundwater, which is also a drinking water source for neighboring ranchers and their livestock.
The EPA explained further, “Near Mr. Dyer’s ranch are both Minutemen missile silos and oil fields. We are aware that previous use of solvents, degreasers, and drilling fluids at these types of operations elsewhere in the Rocky Mountain region has led to local groundwater contamination, and could potentially be similarly impacting groundwater in the area of Mr. Dyer’s property. Therefore, within the scope of EPA’s emergency response site investigation and assessment authority, water samples from the area will be collected, analyzed, and the results will be shared with Mr. Dyer and others in the area.”
The EPA expects to begin collecting samples within the next few weeks. Analysis and presentation of the results may take as long as two months after the samples are collected.
Dr. Graham has already notified Dyer of the EPA’s plans and will provide updates to him and his neighbors directly.
Keep reading the I-O for further updates into the situation as we get them.
Last April, Craig Dyer of Brady noticed something wrong with some of his cattle. Some of his calves and even his mature cattle were getting sick. He couldn’t even get them to water. A few days later they were dead. Dyer took them to the veterinarian and when they were opened up; he noticed a lot of little blood clots in the cattle’s stomach.
The cause of death was ruled as natural bovine illness, but Dyer believed that the clots in the stomach looked like his livestock had been exposed to radiation. This lead Dyer to investigate around his property, what he found was some snowmelt that pooled in his corrals where his livestock was calving.
The snowmelt was from the big storm in late April. It had not runoff, but instead pooled giving the cattle a closer water source. Dyer had noticed his cows drinking the pooled water and decided to take water samples of the area.
When Dyer got the results back from the samples it showed that the Gross Alpha Emitters in the pooled snow melt were 83.1 picocuries per liter, which is more than five times the human health standard. It is worth noting that the health standards were developed for humans, and not for cattle, so it is difficult to hypothesize what effects if any the consumption of the snowmelt might have had on the cattle.
After he received the results Dyer contacted the complaint management section of the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).
Richard Opper, director of the DEQ released this statement when contacted by Senator Max Baucus regarding the situation. “Although I am sympathetic to Mr. Dyer’s loss of livestock, DEQ only regulates radionuclides/radioactivity in community public drinking water supplies and this situation falls outside DEQ’s area of expertise.”
Instead of just dropping the issue and moving on, Sen. Baucus contacted the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on behalf of Dyer and asked them to look into the situation.
The EPA received the data and turned it over to their Region 8 radiotoxicologist, Dr. Richard Graham in Colorado.
Graham reviewed the samples and came to the conclusion that the loss of livestock would not have been caused by the concentration of uranium, gross alpha, and gross beta in the livestock water supply.
However, Dr. Graham recommended that the EPA further investigate the condition of groundwater, which is also a drinking water source for neighboring ranchers and their livestock.
The EPA explained further, “Near Mr. Dyer’s ranch are both Minutemen missile silos and oil fields. We are aware that previous use of solvents, degreasers, and drilling fluids at these types of operations elsewhere in the Rocky Mountain region has led to local groundwater contamination, and could potentially be similarly impacting groundwater in the area of Mr. Dyer’s property. Therefore, within the scope of EPA’s emergency response site investigation and assessment authority, water samples from the area will be collected, analyzed, and the results will be shared with Mr. Dyer and others in the area.”
The EPA expects to begin collecting samples within the next few weeks. Analysis and presentation of the results may take as long as two months after the samples are collected.
Dr. Graham has already notified Dyer of the EPA’s plans and will provide updates to him and his neighbors directly.
Keep reading the I-O for further updates into the situation as we get them.