Dillon Tribune (Dillon, Mont.) 1989-current, November 03, 2004, Image 1

Suggestions made F i r n at the polling place • • • on museum issue By Elaine Spicer Betty Aim, representing a group called \Friends of the Museum\ met with the Beaver­ head County Commissioners Monday to present a document to them which details the group's concerns over a Renewal Plan addressing Bea­ verhead County Museum operations proposed last winter. Aim's document lists nine requested changes to the plan, suggestions for restructur­ ing the plan, and questions on the plan's con­ tent. Also presented was a \Proposed Solution for the Management Gridlock at the Beaverhead County Museum\ by Mike Ryan, acting as a concerned citizen, though Ryan is also the chair of the Museum Association. Ryan's proposal is to solve, in writing, the differences between the museum trustees and association directors regarding the renewal plan by January 1,2005. The document continues to propose that, if said agreement is not made and those entities or their members do not show a \good faith\ effort move forward, that one of two recommendations follow. His suggestions are: one, to close the mu­ seum and declare a \cooling off period\; and two, to remove every member of the current Museum Board of Trustees as well as the Asso­ ciation Board of Directors. Commission Chair Mike McGinley said the commissioners will meet again with those in­ volved in an effort to bring the conflict to a resolution. Pedestrian path eyed Happy judges Tom Satterly and Betty Wanty enjoy a joke with other election judges at the Senior Citizens Center Tuesday morning. A large local turnout, perhaps a near record, appeared to be turning out Tuesday for what promised to be a barn-burner close race nationally. Several precincts actually ran out of ballots and required a special printing late Tuesday. Locally, the county commissioner race between Republi­ can incumbent Mike McGinley and independent Mike Klakkan is the only contested one in the county, but state and national races promised a long evening Tuesday night for the Clerk and Recorder's office. See page A-3 for latest results. on Sweetwater Road By Elaine Spicer A new pedestrian path may be in the works for Beaverhead County, according to Commis­ sion Chair Mike McGinley. Beaverhead County Grantwriter Frank Mastandrea has been given the go-ahead by the commissioners to deter­ mine what would be involved in creating a path along Sweetwater Road, already a popular area for walking and cycling, McGinley explained. After driving the route to \eyeball\ the po­ tential path’s route, McGinley notes, \it's doable in a way that would be safer than it is now.\ Currently, pedestrians and cyclists use the road surface. Preliminary work to be done by Mastandrea includes determining the width of the road's right-of-way, the status of the road itself, and answering concerns over power poles located on each side of the road. WRC receives domestic violence awareness grant money The Women's Resource Center (WRC) in Dillon is the recipient of a $15,000 grant from the Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation, as part of the foundation's support of Domestic Vio­ lence Awareness Month. The grant will support the shelter's ongoing efforts to help women affected by domestic violence. The Women's Resource Center is one of 100 shelters throughout the country, each of which will receive a $15,000 grant from the foundation dur­ ing the month of October. This is the sixth time since 2000 that the Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation Inis awarded grants to selected women's shelters throughout the United States. \I am thrilled to accept this grant from the Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation on behalf of Women's Re­ source Center,\ said Therese Rawson, General Administrator. \Domestic vio­ lence is a significant and growing prob­ lem, one that affects millions of women, men and children. This grant will help us continue our work to protect, edu­ cate and care for victims of domestic abuse.\ The grant funds will be used by the local agency to make improvements at its Safehome, including new electrical service, some updated wiring and roof work. With help from community do- See GRANT on page A-3 SID eyed again for downtown sidewalks By John Barrows It was a totally different atmo­ sphere from just a few months ago when an attempt to pass a Special Improvement District for Montana Street South for sidewalks, new lights and some shrubbery went down to defeat by property owners. Monday night, at a special infor­ mational meeting called by Mayor Marty Malesich, property owners in the five block area from Helena Street to Orr along the east side of Montana Street South seemed much more en­ couraged by the wording of the new attempt to improve the appearance of the commercial area. A major impetus for the improve­ ment, Malesich said, is the plan for the city to let bids soon on the paving and storm sewer project along South Montana, which is planned to be com­ pleted by June 15. A part of that project includes new curb and gutter on the east side of the street, which would mean the existing sidewalks would not line up, requir­ ing replacement. The project as proposed by the city would be only for the sidewalks, and would be paid for over a period of 10 or 20 years, through a Special Im­ provement District. The project did not include lights or shrubbery, but would keep the ex­ isting wooden light poles, but provide for conduit in the new sidewalks in case they would at some time be re­ placed. The street project, which is part of it, is not being paid for by the SID but by a variety of other sources, includ­ ing the city's street maintenance fund, water and sewer funds and for a later phase for lights and sidewalks on por­ tions of the west side of South Mon- See SIDEWALKS on page A-6 See County on page A-3 Council meet planned ¡ S a f e h e l p s g u a r d D M S s t u d e n t s The Dillon City Council will be meeting Wednesday, Nov. 3, at 7:00 p.m. in the council room. Among the agenda items are the mayor re­ port, resolution for SID 35, Request for Propos­ als for the Dillon Sewer Main Extension Project, Resoltuion for SID 35, Helena Street railroad crossing, and reports of officials and commit­ tees. The public is invited to attend. Lima meeting to set priorities for area The City of Lima will host a priority setting meeting on Tuesday November 9 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Lima Elementary School multi­ purpose area. The community is invited to attend this fol­ low-up assessment meeting which will be con­ ducted by Gloria O'Rourke of the Montana Eco­ nomic Developers Association (MEDA) and members of the Resource Assessment Team. The Lima Assessment Report will be pre­ sented and discussed; copies of the report will be available, prior to the meeting, at the Lima City Office. Call Mike Strang, 276-3745, if you have questions concerning the meeting. Burgess benefit Nov. 6 at Elks A benefit for Susie Burgess will be held November 6 at the Dillon Elk's Lodge, to help with medical expenses. The Spaghetti Feed and Silent Auction be­ gins at 3:00 p.m. Cost is $5 per person or $15 per family. Donations may be made at State Bank and Trust in the name of Susie Burgess Medical Fund. Silent auction items are also needed. Call 683-6607 or 683-2545 for information. Internet awareness Ann Minckler of the Division of Education Research and Service at the University of Montana gives an overview of the new i-SAFE and i- STICK programs being offered locally at Dillon Middle School. Both programs help to make youths safer while accessing the Internet. Elaine Spicer Photo By Elaine Spicer The Internet and safe use of it were the topics of several presentations last week at Dillon Middle School by Ann Minckler from the Division of Educa­ tion Research and Service at the Uni­ versity of Montana. •The talks were presented to sev­ enth and eight graders, fifth graders, and the general public in an effort to improve the safety of students, with a focus on a program called \i-SAFE America\ which, as described by Minckler, \promotes in kids the safe use of the Internet by educating the kids that they can be responsible for their own behavior.\ The program is a non-profit Inter­ net safety education foundation with a mission of teaching young people to take control of their Internet experi­ ence by giving them the knowledge necessary to act safely and responsi­ bly while exploring the Internet. Minckler continued, \parents teach their kids to be safe in the community but not necessarily on the Internet.” The goal of her talks was to raise awareness on the part of students who use the Internet regularly for both edu­ cational and personal reasons. She ex­ plained how students can be sure their use of research materials doesn't in­ fringe on \intellectual property issues\ and focused on the subject of Internet predation. Dillon Middle School will be one of only six schools across the United States to benefit from a new program called \i-STIK\, a pilot program pro­ viding identification tools for students' use of so-called \chat rooms\ said Minckler. The tool allows students to be sure that they are talking to people within their own age group. The pro­ gram is free to participating schools. The programs i-SAFE America and VeriSigri recently announced the new i-STIK, a portable tool that can be in­ serted into USB ports to help safe­ guard the integrity of a youth's online experience. It allows kids and teens to enter an age-centered chat rooms with confi­ dence that everyone logged in will be who they say they are. Chatters’ ac­ tual ages and genders can be confirmed from the i-STIK. Since Dillon Middle School has been chosen as a pilot school for the i-STIK program, students wall receive their i- STIKs in the next several weeks ac­ cording to i-SAFE CEO Teri Schroeder. Schroeder was part of a Dateline NBC investigation which aired in Septem­ ber 2004, in which hidden cameras were used showing volunteers posing as 13 and 14 year olds in chat rooms. Reporter Chris Hansen caught on tape 18 adult males in just two days in the documentary. Safeguarding Internet use is impor­ tant, Minckler noted, because statis­ tics say that one in every 33 kids \has received an aggressive solicitation from someone on the Internet\ to meet a cyber friend in person. And, one in live young people re­ ceives an \inappropriate\ email mes­ sage on a daily basis, she said. These statistics hit home particu­ larly in Dillon, with the recent guilty plea of a local I.DS Church official in an FBI Internet sex solicitation case. The Federal Bureau of Investiga­ tion has even created a task force in the state of Montana which concen­ trates on child predation on the Inter­ net, she added. \We live in Montana and think we're isolated,” said Minckler, but 'here' isn't here when it comes to the Internet.” Minckler stressed that young people often believe the people they're 'talking to' via email and Internet pro­ grams are being honest about them selves, when it is a real possibility that they are being lied to. Another facet of the Internet issue is whether or not young people iden­ tify themselves when they are con­ versing with someone. \I was im­ pressed with the seventh and eighth graders [at Dillon Middle School],\ she noted. \They know the Internet is real. They're real savvy in picking cyber names that don't have identifying in­ formation.\ Some of the students she talked to have \buddy lists”, which en­ sures they know everyone on the list, which she cautions means those \bud­ dies\ shouldn't be people you've met online. \Pedophiles profile kids and invite kids to a more private place to chat,\ noted Minckler. \You have to be care­ ful with what you’re saying, be sure you're not giving out information that you can be identified with.\ Another concern is that a person can be logged into a chatroom, but basically sit on the sidelines so others will forget they are there. \Kids will See ¡SAFE on page A-3 Still i \ our subscription lo llic Dillon Tribune totlav - Call 683-\23.Vl^* l^uail us with y our nuns at JillontribuncO/bmt.net