News

By CHELSI MOY of the Missoulian

Missoula County has lots of indoor and outdoor ice skating opportunities to take advantage of this winter.

Glacier Ice Rink is sporting new facilities, thanks in part to the Missoula Maulers, the new local Junior-A hockey team.

There are new bleachers, new offices, a new locker room for the Maulers’ players and a new concession area, said Glacier Ice Rink executive director Bill Mathews.

The Maulers started playing games several months ago in their inaugural season. Games are mainly on Friday and Saturday nights.

POLSON - The Flathead Lake cherry crop hung in there this summer, right up until it was time to be picked.

The cherries survived a tornado, extreme heat, and an unusually early season to produce approximately 4 million gross pounds of fruit shipped from the Finley Point Warehouse - not a record, but well above the 2 1/2 million-pound average taken out of orchards around the lake.

No. 52 somehow survived the flames that blackened its bark 20 feet into the air on a hot August day in 2000.

But then the beetles came.
Hundreds of tiny creatures about the size of a pencil eraser began boring into its charred bark to lay thousands of eggs.

By CHANDRA JOHNSON of the Missoulian
Rio Ebinger knew his dad was in trouble when he asked Rio where his hat was.

“It was on his head,” Rio said. “And he asked for it when we first got into the raft.”

Eric Ebinger and 10-year-old Rio were camping along the Flathead River between Dixon and Perma last Saturday when Eric was bitten by a rattlesnake.

By TYLER CHRISTENSEN of the Missoulian

Authorities in Washington have arrested a man suspected of scamming dozens of Missoula businesses and individuals using a fake business called All About Signs.

Police in Spokane and Airway Heights, Wash., say Michael A. Patenaude sold bogus raffle tickets and collected advance payments for goods he never delivered in several Western states, including Montana, Washington and California.

WEST GLACIER - Travelers hoping to cross scenic Going-to-the-Sun Road this summer could face delays, as highway crews repair recent damage and begin phase one of a multi-year reconstruction of the alpine route.

Last November, torrential rains flooded much of Glacier National Park's popular roadway, eroding large sections of blacktop in some places. East of Logan Pass, road crews report that parts of both lanes were lost in six separate locations, and park superintendent Mick Holm said fixing those washouts remains a top priority.

Art by seniors at the University of Montana