Memories for February 24, 2021

10 years ago-

Wednesday,

February 23, 2011

Phillips County’s top speller crowned

Justin Funk’s been here before. The Saco School eighth grader won the Phillips County Spelling Bee Tuesday afternoon at Dodson School for the second time in his life. He also won the honor as a fifth grader and finished second last year as a seventh grader. The son of O.D. and Tanya Funk of Saco correctly spelled the word “propaganda” to win the title after 24 other participants in the county spelling bee had been eliminated. Second place went to Tyson Carney, a seventh-grade student at Malta Middle School. He is the son of Darrell Carney and Lori Carney of Malta. Justin will represent the county at the state spelling bee in Billings on Saturday, March 26.

Dodson advances with one point win

The Dodson Coyotes are headed to divisionals following their 63-62 win over Frazer in a District 3C Tournament loser-out game Monday in Scobey. Jimmy Martin sunk one of two free throws with less then a minute left to give Dodson the victory. The Coyotes led by as many as 13 points late in the third quarter and held a 58-50 lead midway through the fourth. The Eastern C Divisional tournament will be held March 3-5 at Sidney High School.

25 years ago-

Wednesday,

February 21, 1996

Seniors decide to purchase center; need $32,000 more

Malta’s Senior Citizen organization decided at their annual meeting recently to purchase the building they are currently renting for their center. Purchase price of the building owned by Malta businessman Larry Mathews, is $50,000, which comes out to $17 per square foot, according to Noel Emond, a spokesperson for the senior citizens group. Emond said the senior citizens organization will launch an effort to raise the additional funds necessary for the purchase.

Prominence building golf courses

A former Malta resident 's talent driving a bulldozer is making a name for him among the builders of America’s golf courses. Niebur Golf of Colorado Springs, CO, owned by Malta native Joe Niebur recently climbed into third place in Golf Course News’ annual balloting for “Builder of the Year.” The national magazine conducts an annual survey of golf course developers and architects who they think are the top builders in the country. When it comes to taking their designs from paper to actual landscape. Niebur’s firm is new to the magazine’s finalist list this year. “What I really admire is that in just seven or eight years, Joe Niebur has built his company into a very good one that builds great golf courses for a very reasonable price, and has done so much with his own money” said Dana Fry of Hurdzan Gold Design in Columbus, OH.

50 years ago-

Thursday,

March 4, 1971

In Sunday Fire… G.N. Hotel Total Loss

The Great Northern Hotel, a Malta Landmark since its erection in 1900, was totally destroyed in a fire which began Sunday afternoon about 2 p.m. Cause of the fire is unknown. In addition to the hotel itself, the fire destroyed the lounge and dining room, a coffee shop and a realty office in the hotel building. The fire began on the third floor of the three-story building and raged most of the afternoon on that floor before spreading to the other parts of the building. It was 24 hours later when the Malta volunteer fire department began shutting off the hoses and mopping up operations were still going on Tuesday. Marlan Olson, owner of the hotel for the past 10 years, told the News this week that he could give no estimate of the loss in terms of dollars and cents. He added that he had no definite plants at this time on what would be done at the location of the old 40-room hotel.

Next issue of News to Be Printed by Offset Method

Next week, as the Phillips County News enters its 48th year of publication, we are going to be converting our paper from the letterpress method of printing to offset. For the past several months we have been preparing for this conversion to photomechanical printing by getting in quite a bit of new equipment and trying to familiarize ourselves with how to use it.

75 years ago-

Thursday,

February 21, 1946

Women Join VFW Auxiliary At Malta

Seventy women were initiated into the Auxiliary of the Buster Deo Post 4067 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars at a regular meeting last Wednesday. Mrs. Walter Clark of Havre department president, and Mrs. Margaret Green of Great Falls, department chief of staff, were here for the meeting and conducted the initiatory rites. It is expected there will be another initiation at the regular meeting on March 13. There will also be a regular annual election of officers at the next meeting.

Red Cross War Fund Drive Under Way

The Phillips county Red Cross chapter officially opened its 1946 fund raising campaign today with an announcement from John Leib, war fund chairman, that the quota is considerably less than last year. Funds will go for the maintenance of Red Cross services to the armed forces, services to veterans, disaster preparedness and relief and community services.