PCN's Top Stories of 2022

In our lifetime and history, 2022 is saying good-bye. As you peruse this article, you may want to make your own "Top 10" events in your year that had an impact on your life. This list is derived from the number of hits the article had. Sit back, relax and enjoy history as it was made in our corner of the world.

#1. MIRAMON, Jr. SENTENCED TO FORTY YEARS

(by Mark Foss-Feb. 9, 2022)

Fifteen months after making his initial appearance in the courtroom, and following many delays, representation changes, and a change of plea, the case against Ernest Miramon, Jr. has come to a close.

On Tuesday, January 25, at 2:32 p.m., District Court was called to order for the sentencing hearing with the Honorable Judge Yvonne Laird presiding via Zoom from Blaine County. Present in Malta was Dan O'Brien, representing the State of Montana, and Lee Pekovitch, legal intern via Zoom. Paul Neal, representing the defendant Ernest Miramon, Jr. via Zoom from Valley County Detention.

The only testimony presented on that day was from the two victim statements that would be read by the victim witness advocate, Jewel Etherington, under oath.

Per the plea agreement, the State asked for a sentence of 40 years to the Montana State Prison with the last 20 years suspended under the terms and condition that might be recommended in the Psychosexual evaluation and the PSI report.

The defense did ask the court to consider a 20-year sentence with the last 10 years suspended, due to the nature of the defendant's upbringing.

The Court asked Mr. Miramon if he wished to make a statement, to which he declined.

After a 10 minute recess, the court came back with the verdict.

The Court finds that given the seriousness of these offenses, a 40-year commitment to the Montana State Prison is appropriate. The Court is going to suspend the last 20 years as recommended by the Deputy County Attorney and designate the defendant as a level II offender. Prior to being eligible for parole, the defendant must complete Phases I and II of the Sex Offender Treatment Program at the state prison. Under parole, the defendant will be subject to the conditions in the PSI for the suspended portion of the sentence.

#2. Hi-Line Retirement Center Announces Closure

(by Kari Hould-Aug 24, 2022)

A relatively quiet audience, hopeful of getting some clear, concise answers, filled the dining room at the HiLine Retirement Center last Wednesday. Amid rumors and speculation, a captive audience was waiting for the word.

Duane Murray, Administrator of the HLRC (formerly the Good Samaritan Center), addressed the families, workers and friends gathered after Chaplain Rick Mikkelson provided a prayer and scripture.

However, the "word" wasn't what those in attendance were hoping for.

Murray first played a recording from KRTV citing the crisis across Montana that has led to the closing or pending closing of seven facilities across Montana.

Pre-Covid, the average number of residents was 42. Even with the low census, Murray said they "were able to cash flow and cover all the expenses and sometimes even tuck a little money away."

After Covid, census started dropping, as was typical across the state. The HiLine Retirement Center is still home to 22 residents and 11 live in the Assisted Living quarters. There are six living in the apartments.

"It doesn't cash flow - we have been losing, on the average, around $24,000- $25,000 a month, which, to a large organization is not that much money...but to us it's a lot of money," Murray said.

He went on to state that on a quarterly month when bed taxes, and the quarterly expenses were due "...we lost an average of $100,000 a month." "Needless to say, the money we tucked away in good times is quickly dwindling", Duane said. "One thing we said was we did not want to wait until we were out of money and then to have try to do some changes. So, we wanted to make some changes prior to running out of money and so that we could weather the change."

Accordingly, a lot of different options were looked at, over the last couple years, including closing the assisted living and moving everybody into the nursing home. It was hoped that would help with the staffing issues, and increase the census. Multiple scenarios were looked at, including looking at Category B.

"The only viable option" came down to closing the nursing home and converting it to Assisted Living.

"I told the Board everything had to go click, click, click and everything had fall into place for it to work. It was a ...nothing guaranteed that it would work."

The alternative was to close the doors and walk away.

"None of us wanted that... we didn't want that, Murray said. "So we elected to go to assisted living...that did not fall into place."

Duane shared, "...local network providers did not support that. The local hospital did not support that. AND the licensing bureau in Helena did not support that idea."

"So, without the support and everyone involved and everyone willing to work together and see if we could come to something that would work it's not going to work."

The nursing home closes.

Unfortunately, if the nursing home closes, the assisted living and the apartments could not sustain the building. The income cannot make the mortgage; the facility has one heating system, one electric system, one cooling system - it is one unit. It is not financially feasible.

#3 PCHC Hires Malta Grad as CEO

(by Pierre Bibbs-Nov. 23, 2022)

Earlier this month, the Phillips County Hospital and Family Health Clinic hired Jo Tharp, a 2005 graduate of Malta High School as their newest CEO.

Tharp is the daughter of Mac McGinty and Willie McGinty, who is the Head Teacher at Malta's Head Start. Tharp now joins her sister Skye McGinty in becoming a CEO. McGinty is CEO of Indian Health Services in Missoula. Both Tharp and McGinty are enrolled members of the Little Shell Tribe.

She is married to Rhei Tharp and the couple has four children Mackayla, Blake, Kaiden, and Mira. Jo and Rhei will celebrate ten years of marriage in December.

"It feels good," Tharp said about becoming CEO. "It has kind of been a whirlwind going from doing Clinic Manager duties one day to going Interim CEO, the next. There is a lot of change within that but the team that I have and their support has made a big difference. I couldn't have done it without them for sure."

Tharp's hiring as CEO was made official on Thursday, November 3, after having served as Interim CEO since Thursday, September 15. The board decided to install Tharp in the interim capacity since former PCHC CEO Andrew Riggin was placed on administrative leave. Riggin no longer works at PCHC.

Tharp was asked about the current state of PCHC and about what she wants to focus on.

"We are continuing to provide rural frontier healthcare as we have been doing," Tharp said.

She also said that they are continuing to work on projects that they have started in the last calendar year. Many of the goals on PCHC's list are to expand on Healthcare options for locals.

"A major focus within the last couple of years has been to get more services to Phillips County so that our patients aren't having to travel long distances because I know that's hard," Tharp said. "We are always looking at avenues and working with other facilities in terms of what they can provide."

Tharp's hire as CEO from her interim position was unanimously approved by the PCHC Board of Directors. The Phillips County Hospital's Board of Directors consist of Board Chairwoman Susy Johnson, Vice-Chairman Rick Starkey, Dina Meneely, Sharon Young, and PCH's newest members are Howie Hammond, Shonda Jenkins, Melissa Moog, Craig French and Lance Hould.

#4 Sheriff Lytle, Deputy Matthews Honored for Making Arrest after Border Breach

(by Phillips County Sheriff's Office-Jan. 12, 2022

On Thursday, December 23, 2021, at approximately 0630 hours, Phillips County Dispatch was notified by US Border Patrol that a breach of the border at the Port of Morgan had occurred and they were requesting assistance from the Phillips County Sheriff's Office.

Deputy Taylor Matthews and Sheriff Jerry Lytle responded to the incident. USBP Agent Branham, the Malta Border Patrol Station Agent in Charge (PAIC), was also responding and made contact with the suspect vehicle near the intersection of Highway 204 and US 191 North. PAIC Branham conducted a traffic stop on the vehicle and took the suspect, Jonathon Whitehead, into custody.

Deputy Matthews assisted PAIC Branham with the traffic stop and then continued north to the Port to secure the crossing until relieved by Customs Agents. On Tuesday, January 4, 2022, PAIC Branham presented Deputy Taylor and Sheriff Lytle with a letter of appreciation and Malta Border Patrol Station challenge coins for assisting Border Patrol in their mission of border security.

#5 Edgewater Inn Welcomes New Owners

(by Mark Foss- Mar. 2, 2022)

The new owners of the Edgewater Inn & RV Park are Challis and Laura Crismore.

The couple took over on February 10, to start running things before the official closing was taken care of on February 18.

They moved to Malta from Libby, MT. Laura was working as a quality risk manager and corporate compliance officer at the hospital. Challis was a line crew foreman for Flathead Electric Cooperative, Inc. "We gave it all up," Laura said with a laugh. "This was something we wanted to do when we retired. Own an RV Park. The opportunity came open and we jumped on it."

"A little bit earlier than planned," added Challis.

The couple has six kids between them from previous relationships. Challis has two girls, and Laura has three boys and one girl. The youngest boy, Grant, is a junior enrolled at Malta now. The couple also has eight grandkids, all boys.

When asked what they thought of Malta so far, Laura said, "I really enjoy Malta. He (Challis) was over here hunting. He called and said the hotel is for sale. I said I don't want to go to Malta, it's cold there."

She went on to explain that Libby is the banana belt, "We don't have a lot of wind there."

"But as he was driving home, I looked the place up. I said ok, let's go check it out. We came in November and met Jim Knudsen, the real estate agent. Everywhere we went, people were waving at us. You see kids working and they were really friendly. Everyone is so nice. I call it 'Old Montana'. That's what I grew up with and I love it. So we decided to go for it."

#6 Simanton Square on the National Registry of Historic Places

(by Mark Foss-Apr. 20, 2022)

The building that stands at the southeast corner of 1st Street and 1st Ave., originally known as the Edwards and McLellan Block, and now known as Simanton Square has been recognized on the National Register of Historic Places.

Two representatives of Senator Daines's office recently stopped in Malta to get a tour of the historic building.

"I'm glad to see this Malta staple added to the National Registry of Historic Places," said Sen. Daines. "This will help folks experience Malta's rich history dating all the way back to the turn of the 20th century. What a treasure for Phillips County!"

The current owners, Scott and Gina Simanton, have completely refurbished the building that was originally built in 1910 with bricks that were made right across the street at a brick factory.

The lower part of the building was originally a mercantile store and is now the home for Julia's Junque, a vintage store selling redesigned furniture and vintage décor. The store is 80 percent or more original material, from the original maple wood floors to the ceiling décor panels, including a shotgun blast hole in the ceiling that Gina Simanton says there are two stories to go with how the blast got there. The first is that someone was buying a new shotgun and it went off. The second is that someone was messing with a man's wife and the man came in and fired a warning shot to leave his wife alone. Believe what you want with that story.

The upstairs of the building that originally housed multiple business offices of some of Malta's founders, is now known as the Inn at Simanton Square. A lodging space that has five bedrooms, three bathrooms, a fully stocked kitchen, a dining room, and a cozy den. As well as a rooftop deck.

Owner Scott Simanton spent many hours scraping off layers of paint to bring back the original wood. Each room is named after a business that had occupied the space at some point. Many of them were the original occupants.

#7 Grasshopper forecast, a slight improvement

(by Marko Manoukian P.C. Extension Agent-Feb. 9, 2022)

Unfortunately for most of Montana, the grasshopper outlook is only slightly better than 2021.

The Rangeland Grasshopper outlook is developed through surveys of adult grasshoppers in the fall of 2021. The United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) conducts the survey and compiles the outlook map. In the state of Montana, 45.8 million acres are forecasted to experience 8-15 grasshoppers per square yard (orange) and 8.6 million acres are projected to have more than 15 grasshoppers per square yard (red) with 15 grasshoppers per square yard being the economic threshold.

In looking at the map, Phillips County looks like it is 50/50 for the orange and red, respectively. There are two things to remember regarding grasshoppers; they can move and if we continue to stay dry, the grasshoppers will have a larger impact even at the 8-15 grasshoppers per square yard.

"It just seems that our agricultural industry can't get a break, said Marko Manoukian, MSU Extension Agent. "Whether it is drought or grasshoppers, it all has an impact." Specifically, for grasshoppers, APHIS usually provides cost share funds to assist producers with hopper control. However, in 2022, the agency does not have any funding for control. Producers should remain vigilant for newly seeded stands and rangelands. Control options for producers include cyfluthrin, pyrethroid, and dimilin. While the first two chemistries control a broad range of insects including grasshoppers, dimilin is a growth regulator and is specific to grasshoppers. Dimilin also has the longest residual control. For more information on control, call the Extension Office at 654-2543.

#8 A Fire-Breathing Dragon is Brought to Life in Saco

(by Pierre Bibbs-Sept. 7, 2022)

If you were at the Saco Fun Days event held last weekend, chances are that you likely saw a metal dragon on top of a trailer.

And even if you missed Saco Fun Days, there is no chance you missed that dragon while passing through the town.

The PCN stopped by Larb Creek LTD, to approach the owner, Michael Wiederrich of Saco, to talk about his art and the dragon that has been talked about around Phillips County, and many passing through, for the last few weeks.

Wiederrich, the son of Wayne and Della Wiederrich, was born in North Dakota, but has lived in Saco for most of his life. He attended Saco Schools until the 7th grade and finished middle school and high school in Hinsdale, where he graduated in 2003. He transferred to participate in the FFA program.

In 2005, he moved to Glendive to go to Dawson Community College. In 2007, he earned an Ag Power Degree and a certificate in welding.

Though he earned the certificate, which he said doesn't make him a certified welder, Wiederrich said that his first project was a tandem bike that he embraced together with his dad. He was welding by the age of 12, thanks to his father, Wayne, and his uncle, Jay Yeska.

"The tandem bike was the first bicycle that I owned, when I was eight or nine," Wiederrich said.

He found the other half of it in a dumpster.

"It was a 20-inch tandem bike," Wayne said. "Nearly everyone around Mike's age rode it at the fair. We took it to the fair all of the time."

The bike was later painted orange and black to honor Saco's school colors. It was used in the Saco Fun Days Parade once.

Though his father taught him a majority of what he knew in his younger years, today his father is impressed by his son's work.

"He's experienced with metals that I have never encountered," Wayne said. "Like, I have never been a good welder with aluminum, but Mike can do it."

After earning his degree, Wiederrich joined the Navy, for 3-and-a-half years. He was stationed in Japan on the USS Kitty Hawk and then transferred to the George Washington. He worked as a plane captain and then worked on an air framing rig.

"We work on the skin of the airplane and hydraulics," Wiederrich said. "A majority of the aircraft is our responsibility. From the landing gears and the shell of the aircraft."

During that time, Wiederrich worked on the EA-6B Prowler, which is now discontinued.

He moved back to Saco in 2011, to work on the Yeska Ranch, a ranch owned by his mother and grandfather, John Yeska. He worked at the ranch for over a decade, and now shares time with his shop, Larb Creek LTD. The store opened up in February of this year.

#9 Pekovitch joins O'Brien and Amestoy

(submitted by Amestoy & O'Brien Law Office-May 4, 2022)

Dan O'Brien and Edward Amestoy are pleased to announce that Lee Ann Pekovitch has joined their law firm as an associate attorney.

Lee Ann was born and raised in Malta, MT. Lee Ann received her undergraduate degrees in Chemistry and Criminal justice, along with her Master's degree in Criminology at Minot State University.

Following her education, Lee Ann worked in law enforcement in Montana, spending the last four years as a detective with the Lewis and Clark County Sheriff's Office.

Lee Ann graduated magna cum laude with her Juris Doctorate from Mitchell Hamline University in January of this year. She passed her bar examination and was admitted to practice law in Montana on April 26, 2022.

Lee Ann returned to Malta with her family to join our law firm.

#10 Malta man arrested after suspicion of Criminal Endangerment

(by Sheriff Jerry Lytle, Phillips County Sheriff-May 25, 2022)

On Saturday, May 14, 2022, at approximately 1640 hours, Phillips County Sheriff's Office dispatch received multiple 9-1-1 calls reporting a vehicle running over a person near 904 South Central Avenue in Malta, MT.

Deputies and EMS personnel responded to that location and found a male victim with severe lacerations and road rash over the upper half of his body.

The suspect vehicle had left the area after the incident. Information was received at the scene that a vehicle commonly driven by Daniel Luton of Malta, MT, was the suspect vehicle.

A deputy drove to Luton's residence to make contact and found a vehicle matching the description the suspect vehicle parked at that residence.

Luton was not at home but the Deputy was informed by a passerby that Luton had taken off running towards the North from his residence.

The Deputy returned to the Sheriff's Office to find Luton waiting for him. Luton was taken into custody and his vehicle was seized as evidence. Luton was arrested on suspicion of Criminal Endangerment, Reckless Driving, Assault with a Weapon, and leaving the scene of an injury accident without reporting it to law enforcement by quickest means.