Sorted by date Results 931 - 955 of 1004
It was a week for children. Traditionally the Big Sandy Carnival has been happening every year for at least 80 years. I talked to a woman in her 90's who remembers going when she was a child. It is the one event that allows the classes to do fund raisers to support their class. There were 18 events for little kids to participate in, and willing adults willing to play and laugh with their children. There was also a Country Store which was a silent auction, Baked goodies and coffee if all you...
Grade school concerts are one of the best concerts around. It's a wonderful place to enjoy the little things in life that make it worth living. If you had attended you might have noticed a little girl wearing a white airy summer dress with matching white high-top sneakers. She was the first to arrive and was at least 15 minutes early. I asked some of the kids if they liked their spring concert there were a chorus of "NO" and then a chorus of Yes. I laugh out loud. One said she would rather be...
I first met Robert Lucke when I was a Sophomore at Glasgow High School. He was my English teacher. I was a very shy girl. My friends remember the first time they saw me, I was walking down the hall with my eyes glued to the floor, running my hand along the lockers so I wouldn't run into anyone. I hated English. I now know I had a learning disability, but back then I was just stupid. I couldn't spell at all and therefore couldn't read. I remember standing in front of the class trying to read and...
The Bureau of Land Management, BLM, have been having meetings, which they call scoping meetings, around the state trying to make sure citizens of Montana and the true owners of public lands are completely informed concerning the request of the American Prairie Reserve (APR) has made concerning modifying their permit to allow year-round grazing by the bison and to remove interior fencing on the BLM allotments. The BLM wants to take public comments to help them determine exactly what will need to be studied during the environmental impact study....
There is a new business in town. Lisa Myers is excited to open a Kitchen Cabinet and Counter Top showcase in down town Big Sandy. And she knows her stuff. Lisa received her degree in Interior Design from the Montana State Great Falls, which is a two-year intensive study just in interior Design in 2008. She also has an Associate Kitchen and Bath Accreditation from NKBA (National Kitchen and Bath Association) which is a big deal. To receive that she needed to pass a comprehensive test knowing...
The Power Award, created by Big Sandy Activities, and was designed to encourage all students to empower their classmates, teammates, and community members. It was designed to reward those students who encourage not demean, to reward team effort not individual power, and to reward community involvement and inclusion not individual glory. Hopefully it will lessen bullying and teasing and foster empathy and understanding. Everyone needs to strive for personal excellence, to work hard for his or her best and although excellence should be rewarded,...
Margaret Grubb was born April 22, 1918 and will be 100 years old on her birthday. What a birthday party that will be! With a lot of laughter Margaret and her two daughters Shirley and Carol sat down to remember just the smallest pieces of information. Margaret was born in the town of Big Sandy at home. According to Joe Balazic, her brother who wrote in the Gathering of Memories, her father, Martin F. Balazic learned the shoemaker trade in Austria before he arrived in the United State on...
I started by talking to Faith Gasvoda who is part of the team that is judging in Livestock (cow, pigs, goat, sheep) at the state FFA Convention, she hoped she knew enough. They've been practicing hard. The FFA members who went to the state Convention were gone for four days and three nights. FFA has to raise their own funds and this convention will cost around $3,000. They'll need to raise further funds for future activities, as this will drain their banking account. That is why they have...
The Big Sandy City Council met April 5th at 7:00 p.m. at city hall. Pledge of Allegiance started the meeting. A short discussion about repairing the city streets after the winter’s destruction of them. It was noted there were a lot of potholes. They have about 1,000 to 2,000 yards of replacement asphalt which should be enough to do all the repairs. The street that goes by the phone building is not really asphalt. It only has two layers of chip and seal on top and going down the center of the street below those two layers is a concrete vault t...
Kelly Haaland of Melstone High School has accepted a contract to serve as Big Sandy's new school superintendent. When asked why he wanted to move he said, "I just want to move back home." Kelly grew up in Inverness and still has many relatives in the area. He got interested in teaching while he served in the Army in Germany. Haaland has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Industrial Technology and a Minor in Library. He said, "My greatest accomplishment is my two daughters are teachers now. My...
Brad Moore, after resigning as Big Sandy Superintendent last month, has a new job and challenge at MSU-Northern. His new position is Director of Student Support Services. His job is to help the students to succeed. There is a counselor, a tutor and an administrative assistant who will work with Brad to support and personalize an academic and career plan for students of MSU-Northern. They have a private computer lab and study area for any student in the program TRIO SSS Scholar. Brad is completin...
Big Sandy’s High School District Musical Festival will be held on April 20th and 21st in Havre. The Pioneer Band, Pioneer Choir, and piano solo’s will be judged on the 20th and solos, duets, quartets, and quintets will be judged on the 21st. Big Sandy students will compete with 18 soloists, 8 duets, 5 quartets, one quintet, the Sandy Select and Sandy Sweethearts. The accompanists are Melanie Schwarzbach, Nona Danreuther, Cheryl Strutz, Bailey Gasvoda, and Mrs. Robertson. According to the music teacher, Mrs. Robertson, “The kids have worke...
It's here! Spring, the season we've wanted for weeks every time we were digging ourselves out of icy snow drifts. The country roads still have drifts of snow along the sides and the gravel doesn't appear to be there at all as we fight through, but as the mud flies to the top of the pickup, covering the license plates so you can't even read it, and muddy water covering the windows so bad a highway patrol will stop and ticket you, we know it is Spring. It was exciting when it rained because it was...
The wind chill factor was zero and it was snowing out so the Easter Bunny asked Rotary if they would please move their annual Easter Egg Hunt indoors this year. She wanted to visit with the kids and felt it was too cold outside for the little ones. So, the annual Easter Egg Hunt was held inside city hall at 11:00 with Bob Nelson giving the count down. The fire alarm from a fire truck which usually triggers the start of the hunt, was missing so the entire community members started making the...
The 2018 Big Sandy Barracudas, the Big Sandy Swim Team, held its registration March 29th and during the Rotary Easter Egg Hunt they held their 2nd annual Barbecue dinner. The excitement of the year has already bubbled to the top of their conversations. For seven years Travis Baumann has been the head coach of the Big Sandy Swim Team the Barracudas. The first year there was 13 kids on the team. On this Thursday 36 signed up to be on the 2018 team. Travis believes there will be at least 40 by the...
Parents quickly decided to create a fundraiser for the 5th and 6th grade boys' and girls' basketball team. Before the fundraiser, the Big Sandy swim team held their first registration of the year at the same place. The swim team had already scheduled their event, but it was determined it would be a good night to serve a meal to many people already at the school. It was also the night that two candidates for Big Sandy School Superintendent were being interviewed. Kelly Haaland of Melstone, and...
Big Sandy Activities is still getting request for flowerpots; therefore another explanation is in order. It was a great privilege for Big Sandy Activities to serve the community by yearly planting and taking care of flowerpots around the town of Big Sandy. They do believe it helped make our community prettier, and the 99 flowerpots at the cemetery have helped make it a wonderful place. A big thank you needs to go to John Siebrasse for all the extra work he did for the community by going around all the flowerpots every summer at the cemetery....
Crystal Geyer is more than excited about their new adventure at Big Sandy Senior Center. Starting in April the Senior Center will have a self-serve soup and salad bar to go. They will offer three salad choices and one soup. If it takes off they'll try more salads. Also, they are offering frozen meals for sale for $2.50. These will be made from the left-over meals served during the week and offered at half price of the hot meal. The board of Big Sandy Senior Center would like everyone to know...
Republican candidates for Montana’s Senate seat will be Senator Russ Tempel, R-Chester and Brad Lotton of Havre. Brad Lotton was elected as a Montana Delegate to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. He is a former Hill County Republican Chair and the owner of Lotton Construction Company. Russ Temple was selected, in 2017 to replace Kris Hansen, who resigned. Tempel has served as a Liberty County commissioner for 18 years, before he became a Senator. The open primary will be held on June 5, 2018. The deadline for filing was March 1...
Trenton Butler has been reappointed by Governor Steve Bullock to Montana Council on Developmental Disabilities. During his time on the Council they have concentrated on the last half of the word "disabilities" which is abilities. Trenton just returned to Big Sandy after participating in a Council meeting in Helena, visiting the Governor's office, and participating in a rally. March is Development Disabilities Month and this year's Rally theme was See Me. See me as your neighbor; see me as a...
The 34th annual Big Sandy Rotary Banquet, Wild Safari Night, is over and Connie Green is the winner of the grand prize of $3,000, but really everybody wins! To date, over $600,000 has been returned to the Big Sandy Community from proceeds of the last 33 Benefit Banquets. Farmers and ranchers, who could leave their calving operations, fought through horrible muddy roads, with mountains of snow still along the sides. The true Irish were wearing green for Saint Patrick's Day, while others wore...
As always the Big Sandy Science Students represented us well at the Hi-Line Regional Science & Engineering Fair held at MSU-Northern SUB Ballroom on Monday, March 12 earning all three top places. Melanie Schwarzbach has been the director of the Hi-Line Regional Science Fair for 15 years. The scientist needed to be there by 8:30 am, where their projects were judged for physical presentations, actual testing results and reports, and their oral interviews. The day isn't over till 5:00 that day....
Melanie Schwarzbach loves running herself. While she was in high school and during her freshman year at Concordia, she ran the sprints and hurdles. It wasn't until she was an adult that she embraced distance running. Melanie has coached track for 20 years and is the track coach again this year. She is excited because the team is almost doubled in size. This year twenty students are now practicing track in the gym and they will wait until the roads are cleared before they go outside. "We have...
Big Sandy City Council met at City Hall March 8th at 7:00. All hats were removed prior to saying the Pledge of Allegiance. Mayor Schwarzbach called the meeting to order by saying, “Steve it’s good to see you can still draw a crowd.” The first order of business was to present to the former Mayor Steve Stiles an official proclamation and plaque for his contribution to the city of Big Sandy. Brad Moore wanted to thank the city crew, Tim LaBuda and Larry Geyer, for all their help in removing the snow from the school parking lot. He said they were...
This winter has been a nightmare for everyone, but more so for those who are calving out in this weather. We all have a pretty good understanding of what it must be like, but not really because we aren't experiencing it. We aren't in the thick of it. We aren't exhausted. We aren't struggling hourly with the elements of the weather, the freezing wind, the enormous drifts, or the temperamental cow. We aren't fighting for the life of a calf or it's mother. We aren't frozen to the bone after...