Yesterday's Phillips County News Memories for week of April 16

April 21, 2004

– 10 Years Ago

• Hospital Administrator Larry Putnam announced this week that the old hospital is now listed for sale with local realtors. Anyone interested in buying the old hospital building should contact Paul Koss or Gary Anderson at Northwest Realty or Dennis Beebe or Jim Knudsen at Missouri River Realty.

• Officials of the Malta Irrigation District got a verbal promise from Senator Conrad Burns to “confront the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) over what the local group calls an uncooperative attitude. District officials met with Burns last Thursday afternoon while he was in Malta to give the keynote speech at the annual Lincoln Day Dinner.

• When will the Malta Public Works Department start spraying the city with Malathion to fight mosquitoes? “We’ll start when the calls get bad enough,” Public Works Director John Demarais said. “We’ll load up the truck when the residents say they’re being eaten alive.”

April 19, 1989

– 25 Years Ago

• High workers’ compensation rates are being blamed for keeping a Havre based firm from doing drilling work in Phillips County. Elenburg Exploration, Inc. president W.D. Elenburg used the Malta area as an example in a recent letter to the Havre Area Chamber of Commerce in which he pointed out the handicap Montana businesses bear regarding workers’ compensation costs.

• Three Phillips County residents will get to pay a visit to Justice of the Peace… but they won’t like it. The JOP told the PCN Tuesday that she has no choice but to cite three residents who failed to show up for jury duty Monday with contempt of court. The JOP polled 24 jurors Monday for a DUI trial and three failed to show. “I know it is a real headache, but they’re given ample warning,” the JOP said. “They better have a good excuse or I’ll have to fine them.” Failure to show up on a jury summons is a contempt of court violation punishable up to a $100 fine and 24 hours in jail The JOP pointed out.

March 26, 1964

– Around 50 Years Ago

• V. S., a 15 years old, was escorted to the Western Star Tuesday night by Sheriff Norman Nybo after a two week sojourn in the county jail awaiting word from court authorities or her family in Des Moines, IA. V. S. was picked up in Malta by city police with a 17 year old boy, D. B. who was returned to Des Moines by officers from that city to face a car theft charge. D. B. left a wife in Des Moines, stole a car and with V. S. started west, getting as far as Malta before an investigation was made.

April 13, 1939

– 75 Years Ago

• Forty-two applications for disaster loans have been received in the Malta office of the Disaster Loan Corporation to date, according to Carl J. Nepper, supervising engineer for the agency. Approximately $25,000 has been asked to repair damage caused by the recent Milk river flood. Most of the damage is confined to fields, buildings, fences and ditches. Amounts of individual loans requested range from $400 to $800, Mr. Nepper says.

April 16, 1914

– 100 Years Ago

• The Supreme Court held that where commissions adjust the indebtedness between new and old counties, they must not take into consideration the value of bridges. The question came before the court on the application for a writ of mandamus made by C. A. Foster to compel the commissioners who are adjusting the debt between Valley and Sheridan Counties to take into consideration bridges valued at $54,000 in Sheridan County and at $168,000 in Valley. Under the decision, old counties will be benefited, because it will have the effect of increasing the debt owed by new counties, bridges not being considered part of the “property” which the commissioners are required in debt adjustance to consider.