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1 week ago | 
hungryhorsenews.com | Chris Peterson
Michael Ray Downing of Hungry Horse was no stranger to law enforcement veterans of the Flathead Valley when he was arrested and charged recently with burglary related to an alleged theft ring of about $1 million in tools, vehicles and other items from seasonal homes and local businesses. In August 2006 Downing, then 27, earned the nickname “Cocaine Fairy” after he was busted by the Northwest Montana Drug Task Force near Bigfork.
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1 week ago | 
hungryhorsenews.com | Chris Peterson
Lee Jester has always had an eye for photography. When he was a senior in high school, he took all the photos for the yearbook. “Every kid got a full page,” he recalled. Having said that, there were only 20 kids in the class. Jester went to a boarding school in Switzerland, while his father sold oil refineries to Arabs, he said. He started out with Rollei twin lens reflex camera and an Exacta, which was “built like a tank.” They were film cameras, of course.
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2 weeks ago | 
hungryhorsenews.com | Chris Peterson
A public forum last week took the first look at a remodel of the Columbia Falls High School. The focus of the discussion centered around safety and security at the school. The school has about 25 doors currently and it’s relatively easy for someone to get in, as doors are sometimes propped or left open for various reasons. This allows people to skirt the secure entrance at the front of the building.
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2 weeks ago | 
hungryhorsenews.com | Chris Peterson
Local trails and conservation organizations say they hope to fill in some of the gaps created by federal cuts to the National Forest crews this summer. The Montana Conservation Corps will be operating this summer in the local woods, despite the future of its umbrella organization, Americorps, being in doubt.
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3 weeks ago | 
hungryhorsenews.com | Chris Peterson
Glacier National Park snowplow crews continued to work in the Big Bend area of the Going-to-the-Sun Road over the past week. The area saw an avalanche before road crews arrived that sent about 25 feet of snow over the roadway, which isn’t uncommon for that stretch. Big Bend, as the name implies, is a curve in the road just before Haystack Butte. It's about three miles from Logan Pass. Park spokeswoman Gina Icenoggle said the comfort station at the Big Bend parking area was completely buried.
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3 weeks ago | 
yahoo.com | Chris Peterson
Apr. 23—The Columbia Falls government review commission plans to hear from an expert next month on whether the city should consider having self-governing powers. Self-governing would allow the city to craft its own laws, as long as they were not contrary to state or federal laws. The city hopes to have a representative from the Local Government Center of Montana State University speak to the commission at its May 15 meeting on self-governance and other issues.
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3 weeks ago | 
hungryhorsenews.com | Chris Peterson
About 24 families living at the Lazy Day Mobile Home Trailer Park were served eviction notices on April 14. According to the eviction letter shared with the Hungry Horse News, people must have their trailers removed by Oct. 18, though the owners of the park have been given financial incentives to move out sooner. If trailer owners move or sign over the title to the trailer to the park owners by July 18, they would receive a $10,000 payment. If they do the same by Sept. 18, they’d receive $5,000.
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3 weeks ago | 
hungryhorsenews.com | Chris Peterson
The Columbia Falls government review commission plans to hear from an expert next month on whether the city should consider having self-governing powers. Self-governing would allow the city to craft its own laws, as long as they were not contrary to state or federal laws. The city hopes to have a representative from the Local Government Center of Montana State University speak to the commission at its May 15 meeting on self-governance and other issues.
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3 weeks ago | 
hungryhorsenews.com | Chris Peterson
Deer Park School is hoping to replace an aging and unsafe Quonset hut and its old teacherage/office with a new 5,000 square-foot building. There’s a long list of problems with the 57-year-old Quonset hut. Years ago it used to be an inadequate gym. Now it houses the school’s music and art classrooms and the building isn’t in any better shape, just older. The bathrooms also serve as storage rooms and in order for the music class to go to the bathroom, kids have to walk through the art class.
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4 weeks ago | 
hungryhorsenews.com | Chris Peterson
Columbia Falls firefighters responded to a fire in the hot oil room of the Weyerhaeuser MDF plant early Thursday morning. An oil circulation pump seized and caught on fire, Columbia Falls Fire Chief Karl Weeks said. Fortunately the plant’s fire suppression system did a good job of knocking down the fire, Weeks said and there was minimal damage to the plant. No one was injured. The initial call was that a 5,000 gallon tank of oil was on fire, but fortunately that was not the case, Weeks said.
