2007 49'er Wrap-Up

My Christmas posts are coming... Promise. But, I ran across this re-cap of Livingston's highlights for the year 2007. It will enlighten all near and far of life in Park County. 49'er by the way is our licence plate numbers. In Montana you refer to people from particular counties by their "tag number." I know when I see other numbers other than 49-xxx that they are "from out of town" and obviously have no idea what they are doing.

Buckle your seat belt, and prepare for funny, scary and interesting long read. Also, feel free to peruse by topic (fire, pet killings, politics, or wind). Yes, "wind" in Livingston is a topic in itself... Another story to follow on that fun natural phenomenon!

This is courtesy of my friends at the Livingston Enterprise

Park County saw it all in the year that was 2007

By Tahlia Ganser and Peter Vandergrift Enterprise Staff Writers

EDITOR’S NOTE: The year 2007 in Park County had it all. There were stories that made big headlines, like roaring wildfires, a murder sentencing and pet killings, to quieter but nonetheless important ones, like a super-low unemployment level and a home-schooler finishing second in the first-ever National Vocabulary Championship.

Here is that year in review, the good and the bad, and sometimes, a little of both.

Crime and punishment

• Guatemala native and former Los Angeles gang member William Wassmer, 23, admitted in June to murdering the former owner of The Main Hotel, 63-year-old Marcia Beck, in her Wineglass Mountain home last year.

Wassmer was sentenced in September to 160 years in prison. He will be eligible to apply for parole in 2047.

• Former Livingston Church of God pastor Terrence Passmore, 49, was convicted in December of molesting two sisters from his congregation nearly a decade ago. Passmore was released to return to Virginia, where he is now living. He’ll come back to Park County for his sentencing.

• Three alleged burglars were arrested after a rash of local business break-ins last spring. One of the three men, Charles Rickett, admitted to taking part in the burglaries, and was sent to Montana State Prison.

Politics

• After a turbulent year with the rest of the Livingston City commissioners, including suing them over the procedure involved with putting the old East Side School up for sale, Commissioner Patricia Grabow lost to Juliann Jones in the November election.

• The city split from Park County on the issue of trash, deciding to build its own transfer station and haul its own garbage.

• County Commission Chairman Larry Lahren faces a possible recall election if two local residents who filed a petition against him this fall gather enough signatures to place the issue on a ballot.

• The county faced numerous lawsuits, including two from former department heads, one who was fired and another who claims she was forced to quit because of a hostile work environment.

Animal shootings

• A worried mother, who claimed her neighbor’s dog, Marbles, was growling at her three young children, shot and killed the dog, sparking a statewide campaign by the owners against pet killing.

• Less than two weeks after Marbles was shot, another perturbed neighbor shot an emu that, he claimed, was harassing his horses.

• Several months later, another man shot an invading pit bull when he walked into his own home and found his dog being attacked by the vicious dog.

• On Cokedale Road, a horse was shot by a trespassing hunter.

Wind

During a particularly windy day in November, gusts up to 85 mph knocked over three semitrailers on Interstate 90 and uprooted two 50-foot trees onto a Livingston couple’s home. The wind also wreaked havoc with signs, garbage cans and flower pots.

Super-low unemployment

• Unemployment in Park County reached an all-time low during the summer, leaving local businesses struggling to find workers.

• With a looming threat of new floodway/floodplain maps, Livingston’s east side residents feared they would soon have strict regulations applied to their lots, causing a a drop in property value.

Wildfire

Wildfires again ravaged Park County in 2007. The Wicked Creek Fire started from a lightning strike on Aug. 10 and grew from about five acres to more than 15,000 acres on one blustery, dry Sunday afternoon.

Soon after, another blaze — the Hicks Park fire — began in the Main Boulder drainage. A Type 1 suppression team came to fight the fires, which grew to more than 28,600 acres.

It cost the Gallatin National Forest $5.5 million to fight the WH complex fire, which state officials said might cause erosion, flushing thousands of tons of sediment down Mill Creek in 2008.

Grizzlies, wolves and trout

• The federal government took grizzly bears in the greater Yellowstone area off of the endangered species list in 2007, and the gray wolf might be on its way to delisting as well. Both delistings have met with opposition from some environmental groups.

• With wolves venturing further from Yellowstone National Park in search of food, area ranchers dealt with them attacking their livestock as close as Springdale.

• In August, trout suffered at the hands of illegal dumping of chemicals, possibly dumped in a storm drain or into Fleshman Creek. Dozens of fish, including Yellowstone cutthroat trout, were killed. A Bozeman-based hazardous materials crew quarantined the area, but the culprits were never found.

• However, a culprit was found in the case of a car driven into the Yellowstone River off of Ninth Street Island in July, but the car remains submerged just upstream of the Ninth Street Bridge.

• Grizzly bears mauled five hunters in less than two months in two areas of southern Park County in early fall. Three of the hunters were hospitalized, with one seriously wounded. Hunters shot two of the bears during the attacks, and Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks officials urged the public to carry pepper spray in the wilds.

Agriculture

• A May outbreak of brucellosis in Bridger sent the cattle community into a panic about the state losing its brucellosis-free status, which would make it difficult to sell Montana beef.

The herd where the outbreak occurred had ties to a Paradise Valley ranch owned by Rep. Bruce Malcolm, R-Mont. The Malcolm’s cattle were tested and found to be free of infection, saving the state’s brucellosis-free status. The entire Bridger herd was slaughtered under state and federal guidelines.

Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer advocated splitting Montana into two zones — one of them an area around Yellowstone Park, including much of Park County, and another the rest of Montana. The “split-state status” was met with disdain by county ranchers. The idea was eventually dropped.

• In other ag news, local grain growers benefited from wheat selling at an all-time high of $10 a bushel.

Yellowstone Park and Gallatin National Forest

• Seven historic buses, which carried Yellowstone Park visitors more than 50 years ago, were refurbished and returned to action in 2007.

• In other park news, the Bush administration gave Yellowstone more money through 2016, increasing its 2008 budget by 10 percent to $34 million.

• A controversial winter use plan further limiting the number of snowmobiles allowed in Yellowstone Park went into effect late 2007.

• Another controversial program — the Travel Plan for the Gallatin National Forest — was implemented this year. The plan closed popular riding areas for all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles in parts of Park County. Citizens for Balanced Use, a multiple use advocacy group, is suing Gallatin Forest over the plan.

Schools

• Criticism followed Park High School Principal Erik Messerli into 2007 after he gave a student a “wedgie” the previous fall. Messerli stepped aside at the end of the school year, and former University of Montana basketball player Gary Kane became the new principal.

• Kane urged the school board to adopt breath tests for alcohol at school sponsored events, and the board approved the policy.

• Area students again excelled in many different fields of study, from math and science to music, writing and business.

• Jack Ausick, a 15-year-old home-schooler from the Shields Valley, finished second in the first-ever National Vocabulary Championship, which was hosted and televised by The Game Show Network.

• Park High Student Body President Walker Stole was elected governor at the Montana YMCA Youth and Government in Helena. Stole also traveled to Washington, D.C., meeting Senators Baucus and Tester when a clerical oversight left him out of a national Youth and Government convention at the nation’s capital.

Now who wants to come and visit?