The Montana Chamber of Commerce, the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce, and the Billings Chamber of Commerce have taken a clear and united stand against Initiative 194. We believe Montanans deserve a full and transparent explanation of why. 

No doubt, I-194 would prohibit Montana businesses and nonprofits from participating in the political process. Under this initiative, family-owned businesses including farms, ranches, restaurants, and retail stores could not respond publicly to a ballot initiative targeting them. A Main Street restaurant could not support a local levy to improve public safety. A small business coalition could not push back against misleading claims that threaten their livelihoods and their employees’ jobs. These are not hypothetical concerns; they are the everyday realities of how Montana businesses engage in the civic life of our communities. 

But make no mistake, I-194 does not remove big money from our politics. 

While cleverly named “The Montana Plan”, I-194 should be called the “California Plan” since California is home to more than 200 individual billionaires and places no restrictions whatsoever on out-of-state wealthy individuals. Under I-194, a single well-funded outsider could bankroll a campaign to devastate a Montana agricultural practice, a logging operation, or a ranching family, while the Montana businesses under attack would be legally silenced. That is not campaign finance reform. That is a one-sided disarmament of Montana’s own voices. 

The supporters of I-194 like to reference the Copper King’s influence that occurred at the beginning of the 20th century. And while this initiative would have prohibited the Anaconda Copper Company from supporting candidates, the actual individual Kings of copper–the millionaires that owned those companies–would have still been free to bankroll their preferred candidates, while the rest of Montana’s small business community sat in silence. They would have loved this proposal. 

Montana has a proud history of fighting outside influence in our politics, from the battles against the Copper Kings to the Corrupt Practices Act of 1912. But that Act targeted corruption and covert control of government, not the right of businesses and community organizations to have an open voice in the state they call home. There is a meaningful difference between a corporation secretly buying a legislator and a chamber of commerce publicly advocating for its members. 

We raised constitutional and legal questions about I-194’s scope before the Montana Supreme Court because those questions deserved an answer. We respect the Court’s ruling. And now we are doing exactly what any organization or individual is entitled to do: making our case openly, with our names attached, and letting Montanans decide. 

That is what chambers of commerce do. We advocate for Montana’s businesses and workers—the coffee shops, hardware stores, family farms, and yes, the larger employers whose presence helps keep smaller businesses alive. We are Montanans representing Montana’s economic engine. 

We agree that Montanans deserve a political system where their voices matter more than outside money. Silencing Montana businesses while leaving out-of-state billionaires free to spend without restriction does not achieve that goal. It simply changes who gets silenced. 

We urge every Montanan to read I-194 carefully—all of it—and ask: Does this make our democracy stronger, or does it make some voices louder by making others disappear? 

This guest column was submitted by the Montana Chamber of Commerce, Kalispell Chamber of Commerce, and Billings Chamber of Commerce.

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Democratic candidates Nathan Dugan, 36, and Colton Little, 20, are facing off in the primary race. Neither have previously held elected office. The winner will move on to challenge Abell, who was elected in 2020 and is seeking a second term on the three-member commission.

Both candidates are running on platforms that center around the affordable housing crisis, and say Abell has failed to provide adequate leadership on affordability issues. Still, Republicans have retained a party stronghold on the commission since 2010, and previous attempts by Democrats to crack the electoral lock have proven unsuccessful.

In Dugan and Little, Democrats must choose between two candidates hoping to challenge that balance of power while elevating an affordability agenda that’s struggled to gain traction in Flathead County’s partisan political bubble.

Dugan, who lives in Whitefish and works as a physical therapist, co-founded the housing nonprofits Shelter WF and Livable Flathead. He said building more homes while promoting responsible land use is an essential step toward tackling affordability.

As large-scale projects continue to clear the commissioners’ desks, such as last year’s unanimous approval of a preliminary plat for a private luxury golf course and marina in Lakeside that drew widespread opposition from neighbors, Dugan said careful and long-term planning are important factors in deciding controversial proposals.

“To some extent, there are some things that need to be allowed,” Dugan said, referring generally to development proposals. However, he added, “fast tracking developments and not going through proper channels, things that lead to lawsuits — those are things that cost the taxpayers money.”

Little, a political science student at Flathead Valley Community College who lives in Columbia Falls, said controversial projects are often “bulldozed” through the commissioner’s office. To that end, he said he would support more community engagement.

As his top priority, Little said affordable housing could be solved with stronger community partnerships while also taking advantage of state and federal grants.

“I think we should have a Flathead County Housing Authority,” Little said. “We truly do need to build more housing and there is housing in the county that is under-utilized.”

As a member of the Flathead County Transportation Advisory Committee, Little said he would also prioritize public transportation if elected. He said the Mountain Climber bus is “not meeting the needs or demands of public transportation” with limited coverage and a failure to connect municipalities.

“My goal is to have a low-cost and potentially … fare-free county-run bus service that connect Kalispell, Whitefish, Columbia Falls and potentially Bigfork,” Little said.

As a large demographic of county residents continues to age, Dugan said he would support Flathead County’s seniors with emergency services and resources like meals and transportation to allow seniors to age in place.

Following recent tension between the board of commissioners and the Flathead County Deputy Sheriff’s Association, which says hiring recruitment remains challenging amid non-competitive wages, both candidates agree that deputies should be earning more.

“We should not be losing deputies to other sheriff’s offices or city departments that pay substantially better,” Dugan said.

Little, too, believes any public employee should earn fair pay and benefits.

“I am always in favor of people getting fair and livable pay,” Little said. “If you’re putting our life on the line, I think it should be compensated.”

maggie@flatheadbeacon.com

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The only rental place nearby was closed, and buying a canister just to throw it away after a couple days seemed wasteful. They resorted to knocking on strangers’ doors, hoping someone might lend them some. Eventually, the front desk clerk at a hotel gave them a canister left by a guest. But they had no idea if it worked. If the former owners had deployed it, there might not be enough to deter a bear. And even if it were full, had it been stored right? Heat and improper storage can weaken the propellant. That’s the thing with bear spray: The only way to know if it works is to use it when you need it.

Frustrated, they drove down the Kenai Peninsula toward Seward. Why, in one of the most bear-dense places in the country, was it so hard to find bear spray? As they continued to drive, a roadside coffee shack — a tiny trailer in an empty dirt parking lot — came into view. And that’s when it came to them: Why not a bear spray shack? 

In the 40 minutes it took to reach Seward, they mapped out their vision for Bear Spray Shack, a fully automated bear spray vending machine. That night, they bought the website domain while waiting for their dinner reservation. 

Five years later — after two years of development and a soft launch in 2023 — their bear spray vending machines are equipping visitors with the potentially lifesaving deterrent, from Glacier and Grand Teton national parks to Denali. 

The process is simple: Customers swipe their ID and credit card — the machine requires renters to be 18 or older and agree to a digital waiver — and out pops a canister of bear spray complete with a belt holster. They return the canister to any machine when they’re done hiking. 

“Last season, we put over 7,000 canisters in people’s hands over five machines,” said Febo. 

It costs $10 the first day and $5 per additional day to vend a canister — low enough to change the calculus on one of the biggest barriers to carrying bear spray in the first place. Renters are only charged the full canister price if it isn’t returned, or if it’s deployed — at which point, most people would agree, it’s worth it. But spending $40 or more to buy a canister, especially when it’s not allowed in checked or carry-on luggage, is hard to justify for many visitors. And if you’re only going for one hike, it seems easy to opt out — and many do.

But it’s a gamble, and one I’ve lost before. I took my parents hiking in Alaska in 2022, exactly a year after Longen and Febo’s trip. We chose a popular trail less than an hour from Anchorage. The parking lot was packed, so when I realized I’d forgotten my bear spray, I didn’t worry. There were so many people around, I assumed bears would steer clear. 

I was wrong. Less than a mile into our hike, my mom heard rustling in the brush. I told her not to worry, but secretly stayed alert. Not five minutes later, I threw my arm out, stopping my parents in their tracks as a black bear barreled across the trail toward a large group of people at an overlook. They screamed, and the bear veered off into the woods — a bluff charge. No one had reached for their bear spray. Carrying it and being ready to use it, it turns out, aren’t the same thing.

Managing the coexistence of people and bears is no small task. Glacier, for instance, is home to more than 1,000 bears, and earlier this month the park closed 10 hiking trails after a hiker was killed in an apparent bear attack — the first fatality there in nearly 30 years. Bear spray was found nearby. Investigators haven’t disclosed whether the victim had managed to deploy it. After the infamous 1967 “Night of the Grizzlies” incident, in which two campers were killed by two different bears on the same night, Glacier implemented bear safety policies that remain today: bear-proof trash cans, food storage lockers, public education, and the relocation of problem bears. These have reduced conflicts at campgrounds and backcountry campsites, but they can’t prevent a close encounter on the trail.

Bear spray offers no guarantees, and how to handle bear encounters is a perennial debate in outdoor circles. But a 2010 study in the Journal of Wildlife Management found bear spray — which sprays a cloud of deterrent up to 40 feet — stops aggressive bear behavior more than 90 percent of the time. To Longen and Febo, the challenge isn’t whether it works but whether visitors have it when they need it.

Before starting Bear Spray Shack, Longen and Febo had no prior business experience, but they did have backgrounds in programming and engineering that allowed them to design and build the machines in the garage of their Salt Lake City home — literally in-house. The shacks’ retro exteriors pay homage to the iconic national parks artwork commissioned by the WPA during the Great Depression. But the minimalist shapes and clean lines of the artwork belie the complexity of what goes on inside. 

“We stumped a lot of experts in the vending machine field,” Febo said. “Bear spray isn’t symmetrical so you can’t stack them like cans of Coke. And the machine needs to be able to check the canister before it’s rented out again.” 

Each canister must pass six inspections before it can be re-rented. Any that fail are pulled into a reject pile and recycled. 

The machines are designed with a visitor like Juan Melli in mind — open around the clock, so there’s no race to beat store hours. I found Melli online while looking for people who had used Bear Spray Shack. He’d planned his first Glacier trip from Hoboken, New Jersey, and wanted bear spray waiting when he arrived. He texted the number on the website to confirm the Columbia Falls kiosk was stocked and heard back within a minute. When the machine gave him an error message, one of the founders logged in remotely and dispensed the canisters while he was still on the phone.

“I was beyond impressed with the responsiveness of the owners and the use of technology,” he said.

Some visitors arrive with bear spray but don’t know how to use it. Longen and Febo have thought of that, too.

Canisters rented from the shacks have a QR code linking to their “On the Go Guide” on bear safety, which includes how to use bear spray. This year, they’ve added a multilingual demonstration video that plays on the kiosk’s screen while the canister dispenses. 

“We have a captive audience,” said Longen. “We’re going to use that time to make sure you’re getting some bear spray education.”

Navigating the logistics of installing kiosks inside national parks has proven to be one of their biggest challenges. Small businesses are often excluded from national park contracts in favor of bigger companies. Longen and Febo have had little success securing contracts inside Glacier or Yellowstone — the five shacks associated with those parks sit outside hotels and gas stations in nearby towns such as Whitefish and West Yellowstone.

Grand Teton National Park is a different story. There, a partnership with a nonprofit concessionaire got them two machines inside the park — a model they’re now using to pursue similar arrangements elsewhere. 

“It’s a very complicated path to being in the park,” Febo said. “You have to find the right threads to pull.” 

While they’re not alone in the bear spray rental space — Bear Aware and TrailQuipt have lockboxes around Yellowstone — they have the only fully automated machines and the largest network by geography. A customer can rent a canister in Grand Teton and return it in Alaska. 

Last season was their first in the black, and they’ve since taken on an investor. They hope to hire their first employees this year and commit to Bear Spray Shack full-time.

This season, they’re installing six new machines, including one at the entrance to Denali and another at the National Elk Refuge in Jackson Hole — going from five machines to 11. One is at Cooper Landing on the Kenai Peninsula, where the idea for Bear Spray Shack was born. It’s a new model, more compact but with the same capacity, built from everything they’ve learned so far.

Now, they hope, someone who shows up without bear spray won’t have to knock on a single door. They can find a machine and do what they came there for: hitting the trail. 

Libby Riddle is a science journalist and master’s student in the Environmental Science and Natural Resources Journalism program at the University of Montana. In her previous life as a wildlife biologist, she chased grizzly bears through the Alaskan bush, searched for songbird nests along the Clark Fork River and collected bison poop in Yellowstone National Park. She is passionate about translating research into stories that explain the science shaping our lives. You can read more of her work at www.libby-riddle.com.

This story originally appeared in The Pulp, which can be found online at thepulp.org.

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Over the course of my career in county government, I learned that leadership matters, but so does service. The best public servants are the ones who know their job, respect the responsibility they have been given, and never lose sight of the people they are there to serve.

Sheena Sterling brings those qualities to this race.

She has had the benefit of being mentored by Debbie Pierson, the current Flathead County Clerk and Recorder, who is retiring after three terms of service. That kind of mentorship matters. At the same time, Sheena has built her own experience through years of dedicated work in the Clerk and Recorder’s Office, preparing her well for this position.

I have also been impressed by Sheena’s commitment to customer service. In county government, the public should be able to expect professionalism, courtesy, and knowledgeable assistance, and Sheena has demonstrated those qualities in the way she serves others.

Flathead County will be well served by someone who is experienced, grounded, and ready to lead. I believe Sheena Sterling is ready, and I encourage your support for her as our next Clerk and Recorder.


Jed Fisher
Kalispell

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Visitors will encounter a silhouette of that proposal this summer when, for the first time in a half-decade, they can drive through all of the park’s entrances without a vehicle reservation. But they’ll confront other changes in 2026, including parking restrictions at Logan Pass and a new reservation-only shuttle system.

Still, with the rollback of vehicle-reservation requirements, which took a slightly different shape each summer as park officials refined a strategy to manage congestion and break up gridlock, Glacier National Park Superintendent Dave Roemer said the long-term goal balances parking predictability with resource protection, and visitor experience with visitor capacity.

“I think it’s fair to say that most people in the community would like us to graduate from piloting different methods of access and instead provide a long-term predictable solution for access to key destinations in the park,” Roemer said at a recent community meeting in Kalispell. “And I think my staff would agree with you. It’s a lot of work each year to be wrapping up summer and already feeling the pressure of trying to lock in our system for next year. Well, we’ve been talking about this for a while. And it all leads us to where we are now.”

For the park’s planning specialists, “where we are now” looks a little like where they’ve already been. But to hear Roemer and his team describe the path forward, it’s where the park is going that’s important.

The new proposal, which magpies elements of a pre-pandemic transportation plan while drawing from a deep well of community input, could be approved as early as next winter, with phased implementation beginning next summer. In addition to signaling a total departure from the vehicle-reservation system the park has been optimizing over the past half-decade, the new proposal would restrict personal vehicles in the park’s alpine reaches by setting a three-hour time limit at Logan Pass while implementing a lottery for longer-term parking. Critically, it would scale up an outmoded shuttle network to ferry visitors between the park’s most popular destinations while adding hundreds of new parking spaces at key locations near park entrances and in outlying valleys. And it would establish a bicycle-only season during which personal vehicles would be prohibited.

Without any guarantee of federal funding, however, stakeholders worry they’re moving forward without a fallback plan.

Glacier Park launched its current fleet of 36 shuttles in 2007 to mitigate congestion during the rehabilitation of Going-to-the-Sun Road, the park’s only alpine thoroughfare connecting its east and west entrances. With an annual operational cost of $1.7 million, the shuttles are funded through visitor entrance fees, which, according to Roemer, “is not very sustainable for us.”

“While people have loved the shuttle system, they’ve also found a lot to not love about it,” Roemer said, including long wait times, a narrow schedule and unreliable service. To improve the system, park officials are proposing adding between 540 and 600 new parking spaces at strategically located “hiker hubs” near the east and west entrances. From those hubs, visitors would be served by a reservation-based “alpine delivery system,” Roemer said, as well as by lower-elevation “circulator shuttles” available on a first-come, first-served basis.

The park would also add 150 park-and-ride spaces in outlying valleys such as Two Medicine, East Glacier and Many Glacier, where Roemer noted the park recently added 170 new parking spaces to the Swiftcurrent area, with a total of 339 spaces available this summer. (The park currently has approximately 2,250 spaces.)

Meanwhile, half of the parking spaces at Logan Pass Visitor Center would be available through a lottery to accommodate personal vehicles that require parking for more than three hours, while the other half would be available on a first-come, first-served basis under a three-hour time limit.

Park officials will test the three-hour Logan Pass parking limits for the first time this summer. Although Roemer was reluctant to discuss the details of the park’s enforcement plans, he warned that “scofflaws” could return to their vehicles to find them immobilized by a parking boot.

“I have heard that scofflaws are planning to take advantage of our ability to enforce the time limit, and to that I would just say that it will take a commissioned ranger to put a boot on a car, and it will take a commissioned ranger to take a boot off a car,” Roemer said. “And it’s not unreasonable to model a day on Logan Pass in which a ranger puts a boot on the car and then gets called away for multiple hours. That could be a real bummer.”

The park currently has the transportation infrastructure to “deliver somewhere north of 780 people” to Logan Pass per morning, which matches the threshold for management action on the Highline Trail, the park’s most popular alpine hiking route that begins at Logan Pass. It’s also the same daily average use the Highline Trail received in 2017, when the park set its all-time record for visitation with more than 3.3 million people. In July 2017, visitation hit more than 1 million people in a single month. In the past decade, the park has recorded more than 3 million visitors five out of the 10 years.

“So, knock on wood, if everyone who gets on a shuttle to Logan Pass is a Highline hiker, then we will have piloted just about the perfect system for the Highline for any summer in Glacier Park, now and for future years,” Roemer said. “By adding between 560 and 600 parking spaces at hiker hubs on the east and west sides, we’ll also be able to deliver people to other alpine areas; not just the Highline, but at some other stops along the way, like Siyeh Bend.”

“We’re trying to work backwards from what the right capacity is for those destination trails, and then build the transportation system so that people can arrive at the park’s hiker hubs, reliably find the transportation they need to do their thing, and then go do it,” Roemer said.

But some stakeholders worry that, by working backwards, the park is overlooking an essential step toward moving forward: funding.

On Thursday, after months of warning from park advocates across the country that national parks are in dire need of financial support, a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee rejected dramatic cuts proposed by the Trump administration. Instead, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies maintained funding at $2.9 billion, which represents a 1.3% overall reduction to the National Park Service budget.

Even as park advocates commend Congress for rejecting the steepest budget cuts, they’ve been warning of a deepening crisis for years.

“Just last year, members of Congress came together to pass a budget that supported our parks and their staff. They must do it again,” said John Garder, senior director of budget and appropriations at the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA). “Our parks and the people who protect and keep them running deserve more investment, more protection and greater commitment to their future.”

NPCA Glacier Program Manager Sarah Lundstrum attended this week’s community engagement meeting and expressed concerns about the proposal, in part because it hinges on a pair of assumptions: that funding will be available to revitalize the park’s floundering shuttle system and expand parking, and that this summer’s untested visitor-access system will work.

“And those are pretty big assumptions,” Lundstrum said. “They’re doubling down on this summer’s plans without knowing whether the plan is going to be effective, and they’re proposing a long-term solution without knowing that the money is going to be available. And it’s wholly dependent on the money being available.”

For Roemer’s part, he acknowledged that the plan is in its preliminary stages.

“Let me be clear, we don’t have a fully baked plan right now,” he said. “There’s not a stack of paper that we’ve already written and reviewed. We’re still early in the process. But we do feel like we’ve identified what our preferred alternatives would be. And it involves making heavy investments in the park to increase the parking capacity and increase the number of shuttles and shuttle services to effectively serve the people that come to the park and help them get where they want to go.”

“Approval of the plan doesn’t mean approval of the money, but it does help to show that we’ve already done this preliminary work,” Roemer added. “And we’ve heard from our gateway communities and stakeholders. The people have spoken to the need for this level of investment in order to solve these issues for us.”

tscott@flatheadbeacon.com

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But for young baseball players across Montana, the last few years have been a continuous cycle of “firsts” as more teams join the high school ranks following the state’s inaugural sanctioned season in 2023.

This year, Kalispell saw its two Class AA high schools join the fray of firsts with the Flathead Braves and Glacier Wolfpack fielding their first-ever baseball squads in March. 

“I’ve been doing this for a long time, had some great jobs, and I don’t care what happens in the season … this is the best coaching job I’ve had,” Wolfpack Head Coach Erik Brink said. “When you look at things, you only get a chance to be first, like very few times in life, you know? I get to be the first to start a program at … the place I love. 

“When I got offered the job, I kind of got a little emotional saying I’m the first. I feel blessed that I am the first to get this thing kickstarted, then get somebody younger down the road and let them take it.”

The historic moment itself has been a main catalyst throughout the inaugural seasons, guiding and motivating both teams’ first swing at the high school landscape.

“With the kids, it was really important to let them know that, hey, you guys are the first block; you guys are the foundation,” Braves Head Coach Rich Burland said. “That’s the most important part of a building, and it’s the most important part of a program. You guys are going to be the foundation of this program.”

“You’re gonna be in that trophy case,” Brink told his Wolfpack team at the start of the season. “Your picture will literally be there 80 years from now and you’ll be that old, faded photo. They smiled. I think they’re embracing it.”

This message of history and legacy has also served as a unifier for both teams, which are made up of players from several different club and travel teams in the area. 

While high school baseball in Montana is only in its fourth season, baseball — and its rise in popularity in the Treasure State — isn’t an entirely new phenomena in the Flathead Valley. Brink, who was part of the Kalispell Lakers Baseball organization, said he’s already coached half of his 18-player roster through the baseball club, while the remaining players come from a mix of other teams. Burland’s Braves squad is composed of three local ball clubs, he said.

“We have kids that play for each program and they’ve come together and gelled really quick,” Burland said. “There hasn’t been any ‘this program’s better than this program’ talk or anything like that. I think they’ve all really bought into the inaugural season and setting that good foundation for the program, and I think that’s what kind of brought them together really quick.”

Eli Coopman, a senior for the Braves, said it’s been a “completely different feeling” playing for his high school instead of playing for a club team.

“Going to school with these guys for four years and then all of a sudden being put on a baseball team, it’s just kind of cool how you can even just deepen your connection with all your friends through this,” Coopman said. “And I made new friends playing this that I’ve gone to school with all four years, and I just now realized I have a connection with them through baseball.”

Establishing a difference between club and high school baseball was a key first step for Brink when building what he hopes to be a long-lasting culture in Wolfpack baseball. 

“For the most part, it takes a little bit to understand practice every day; make sure you’re in class every day; make sure your grades are good; every day we work out,” Brink said. “So that’s probably been tough for a lot of them, if not all of them.

“My goal always is to create good baseball players, good men and create a culture that’s going to last forever.”

Brink’s young Wolfpack team has certainly shown signs of buying into this culture already this season, with the payoff being racking up 11 wins so far and a third-place finish in Class AA’s West division. Glacier will host the West’s 6-seed, Hellgate, in a state tournament play-in game on Friday for a chance to go to the state tournament next weekend, where the first-ever Class AA baseball state title will be up for grabs following classification realignment late last year.

“I think we have a really good team, and we have a team that can make that final push into playoffs and into state,” Wolfpack senior Teagan Dixon said. “I want to play our last game, no matter which game it is, play the last game and not have any regrets or feel like we should have done better in the season.”

At 7-13, the Braves haven’t had the season they thought they would where the win column is concerned, but Burland said the team is filled with talent, from the top to the bottom of the batting order, and has been “dialing in” the last few weeks with the team’s sights set on its Friday state play-in game. Flathead, the West’s 5-seed, will need to beat the 4-seeded Butte High School twice on the road to get to the state tournament.  

With some of the top hitting in the state, all Flathead needs is to string together complete hitting and pitching performances to achieve their full potential in their first playoff push, senior Hunter Fann said. 

“I know we can make a really good run at it,” Fann said. “Our coaches believe in us. We all believe in each other. I think we can all get together at the right time and we can go really far at state.”

No matter where each team’s inaugural seasons come to a close, both head coaches have already felt overwhelming support from the Kalispell community in yet another installment of the crosstown rivalry — which has already yielded two nail-biting one-run affairs that saw both Flathead and Glacier walk away with a win. 

“I didn’t expect the community happiness and the excitement to see high school baseball,” Burland said. “I came from Washington state, where high school baseball was around for 100 years. To come here and just see the excitement and see the community get behind both schools … it’s been just awesome to see the community reach out to both programs and help them get off the ground and everything.”

lauren@flatheadbeacon.com

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During my 18 years as a Montana 11th Judicial District Court Judge, it was my distinct pleasure to come to know and respect Amy Eddy, both professionally and personally. She was an exceptional attorney, representing her clients skillfully and always with the highest ethical standards. When she took the bench over 10 years ago, I had no doubt she would bring those same characteristics to her work as a District Court Judge. My belief proved true.

For more than a decade, Judge Eddy has served Montana with the greatest distinction. She has managed a very heavy workload efficiently, fairly and in an unbiased manner, while giving all participants her utmost attention and respect. Moreover, Judge Eddy is vested in the community, piloting programs to assist families and children in child abuse and neglect cases and teaching regularly at local high school government and law classes.

Judge Eddy is committed to the rule of law and the Constitution; she understands that the judicial branch was created to function as a separate, independent, impartial, nonpartisan branch of government, operating as a check and balance on the other branches of government. Judge Eddy’s decisions are governed solely by the facts and the law pertaining to each case; you won’t find her pandering to politicians or seeking favor from political parties.

Judge Amy Eddy’s values, experience and work ethic make her the best candidate to be our next Montana Supreme Court Justice. I hope you will join me in supporting her with your vote.

Judge Katherine “Kitty” Curtis (Retired)
Whitefish

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WMR Sales and Marketing Director Matt Gebo on May 19 told the Whitefish Community Town Hall on Tourism and the Local Economy audience that overall skier visits totaled 457,000, which were down 40,000 visits from the 2024-2025 season.

Despite the 3% rise in season pass sales, which totaled more than 17,000 and broke previous records, Gebo said the visitation drop was likely due to the poor conditions. Out-of-town visitation dropped 11%.

Gebo described the season as “the winter that wasn’t” and said inconsistent snowfall and warm temperatures posed challenges for mountain operations that included limited snowmaking and terrain openings, with only 70% of average snowfall on Big Mountain’s summit and far less at the base area.

“It was obviously pretty challenging overall,” Gebo said. “Snowfall was down and it was a really tough start to winter itself. If you all remember, the first couple weeks of the ski season, we had really limited terrain. We were getting nervous because we weren’t getting the temperatures to make snow at the lower elevations. We really didn’t all winter long.”

According to the National Weather Service, Kalispell saw its fourth-warmest winter, averaging 30.6 degrees Fahrenheit throughout the winter, which was 5.7 degrees warmer than average.

But while Big Mountain saw fewer visits and failed to meet the budget, Gebo said a rise in lodge stays helped offset losses, which brought in revenue 5% higher than last season.

According to guest surveys, average overnight stays were roughly six nights while visitors skied for about four days, meaning tourism dollars were spent beyond Big Mountain.

“It’s really an important economic driver for our winter months,” Gebo said.

Although underwhelming snowfall deterred skiers and snowboarders during periods of dry spells and rain, Gebo said WMR saw its record visitation day on Dec. 27 following a 14-inch storm over the holidays in the middle of a period that has historically been the resort’s most heavily trafficked timeframe at the end of December into early January.

“It was primarily driven by season pass holders,” Gebo said. “It was also the most parked cars I’ve ever seen up there.”

Mid-February, too, served as some of the resort’s busiest days during the five days following President’s Day Weekend, which coincided with Canadian family ski week. WMR has also become a popular spring break destination in mid-March.

Gebo said that despite northwest Montana’s warm winter and weak snowpack, WMR’s season was strong compared to much of the western United States, which ended with well-below normal snowpack averages.

“When you look at the macro level of the ski industry in what was happening, especially in the West, we fared much better than most of our neighbors.”

maggie@flatheadbeacon.com

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Recently, the Daily Interlake reported on revived conversations between members of the Friday night car community, City Council, and the newly formed Downtown Forward Coalition. Two years ago, city council was presented with an opportunity to consider an ordinance to put limits around cruising, a move akin to applying appropriate speed limits, but that failed in favor of motorists’ rights and maintaining the myth of nostalgia. Yet, significant public comment from area stakeholders, including businesses and homeowners, continues to identify the concerns of declining business, noise disturbances, and unsafe and reckless driving behavior. Increase police presence is now required, adding to an already untenable load our law enforcement officers are expected to manage simply because this type of cruising is somehow a protected right. The “bad apples” who turns Main Street into their own private racetrack are simply shrugged off, because what’s more American than cars? 

Nostalgia and community building are often cited as why downtown is the preferred venue and somehow these attributes equate to the right of an automobile over the safety of businesses, property owners, and anyone else who wants to shop or eat downtown without inhaling greasy smoke from burning tires. Small business owners in Kalispell face a myriad of challenges to keep their shops open and they are, without a doubt, the backbone of our community. They don’t need the additional challenge of a weekly event that causes them to close early or refund hotel guests for the disturbance. These are the businesses that donate for the glut of causes needed throughout our valley. Automobiles have no right to hijack our downtown and threaten the stores that work tirelessly to stay open, making significant contributions to local the tax base, economic success, and job creation. Somehow, the rights of motorists trump these American goals in Kalispell. 

It’s a curious set of double-standards when it comes to who belongs and who doesn’t in downtown. Members of this community, which included town leaders and county officials, were disturbed by the presence of homeless individuals, many of them in this situation not because it’s a preferred “lifestyle choice” but rather the Flathead Valley is one of the most expensive counties in the county. There were some “bad apples,” if I may use the same folksy phrase, that caused issues at local business and residences but officials took swift actions from dismantling park benches to revoking the Flathead Warming Center’s permit. These “bad apples” didn’t belong and didn’t require attention but somehow motorists who troll downtown might even be worthy of having the city construct a drag strip for their habit. 

Turns out, when it comes to nostalgia and cars, these self-ordained rights matter more than anything else.

So, if there are guaranteed rights associated with dragging, I think there should be an impact fee. Businesses must pay impact fees to offset their usage and reliance on city and county services like sewer and water, and if this group is serious about their integrity to our community, they should offset their burden on downtown by paying an impact fee. This fee could help reimburse the businesses who can’t stay open on Friday night or have to issue a refund for a night in a hotel where sleep is prevented by the roar of an engine and squeal of tires. The fee could be applied to offset the need for additional law enforcement and compensate taxpaying homeowners in the surrounding neighborhoods. The fee could surely be used at the road department to repair the very roads that cater to these cruisers. 

Rights come with responsibility, but the second half of that argument tends to get lost in nostalgia. I’m also nostalgic for well-funded public schools, libraries, and emergency services. There are state constitutional protections for a clean and healthy environment and it might be worth testing air quality in downtown after a Friday night. Isn’t that my right, too?

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A couple of handfuls won’t fill a salad bowl on their own, and the garden hasn’t yet produced a lot of add-ins. I sometimes mix a simple side salad of greens, radishes and scallions. Or I let spring greens contribute to a filling main course, tossing them with a cooked grain, nuts and cheese.

Pearl barley cooked until just tender and spread out to cool retains some bite and texture, instead of softening into creamy Hot Pearl Barley with Honeyed Nuts. It still takes time to cook, but you can make it in advance and refrigerate it for several days. In salads, I prefer pearl barley’s texture to quick-cooking presteamed barley or longer-cooking hulled or hull-less barley.

The earthy barley grains, spicy vegetables and salty cheese in this recipe get a slightly sweet tomato kick from the freezer-based salad dressing I shared in last week’s column. It coats the cooled grains when freshly made but soaks in for even more flavor the next day. This is a great salad to prepare early in the week and take to work for lunch over several days.

If made in advance, the dressing will soften the tender greens. Hold off on mixing them into the full bowl and instead fold them into each day’s serving, along with the feta, chives and final nuts.

Spring Pearl Barley Salad

Serves 4

1 cup pearl barley, rinsed

1 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 cup Tomato and Herb Salad Dressing

2 cups arugula, cress or other spring greens, torn into bite-sized pieces

6 salad radishes, trimmed and cut into thin matchsticks

4 scallions or small walking onions, thinly sliced

3 tablespoons coarsely chopped cilantro or sorrel (optional)

3 tablespoons shelled pistachios, toasted and coarsely chopped, divided

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Extra salad dressing or extra-virgin olive oil to taste

2 ounces feta cheese, crumbled (about 1/2 cup)

2 tablespoons minced chives

In a 4-quart or larger pot, bring about 10 cups of water to a boil. Add the barley and salt, return to a boil and cook for about 30 minutes, until tender. Drain through a fine-mesh strainer, rinse under cold running water and drain again. Spread the barely onto a rimmed baking sheet and let sit for about 15 minutes, until completely cool.

Pour the dressing into a large, wide bowl. Add the barley, greens, radishes, scallions, cilantro (if using) and three-quarters of the pistachios and toss gently to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Let stand for about five minutes.

Divide the salad among individual bowls. Drizzle with extra dressing or oil as needed. Sprinkle with the feta, chives and remaining pistachios and serve.

Julie Laing is a Bigfork-based cookbook author and food blogger. Learn more about this month’s salad dressing and risotto workshops at TwiceAsTasty.com.

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