Police and victims are trying to puzzle out an apparently aimless burglar in Libby.
The Western News reports someone or ones broke through the back window of 48 Degrees North Engraving last week and started throwing things around. Vacuum cleaners, stepladders, doors and a bracelet were among the victims. The cash register containing $150 was not.
“It's consistent with a drunk, things knocked around and valuables left,” was Police Chief Clay Coker's take on it. A bottle of wine was shattered on the floor, and the burglar left wine-saturated footprints as evidence.
The encroacher missed the next room where there were lots of things to break: a glass and acrylic city, a collection of tea lights, and glass frames and decor.
At about the same time, someone broke into Burger Express next door but left with neither patties nor fries.
Earlier, Coker responded to a report of a 5-foot-9, 200-pound man stumbling west on U.S. Highway 2 but couldn't find him. A motorist said the man asked for directions to a local motel, but no one at the motel matched the description.
SKC honors founder McDonald with health and athletic center
Many of the buildings on the Salish Kootenai College campus are named for people and families who have played important roles in the tribes - Kenmille, Mathias, Michel - and when longtime SKC president Joe McDonald stepped forward to help dedicate the college's newest structure, no one was surprised at the name the school's board of directors had chosen.
The Joe McDonald Health and Athletic Center was dedicated as the college celebrated its 30th anniversary, honoring the man who has played a major role in guiding SKC from its earliest days, when about 45 students were taught in borrowed public school classrooms, to today, when more than 1,100 students attend classes on a 140-acre tree-covered campus in Pablo.
McDonald was a longtime high school and college coach before helping to found the tribal college.
The building is a $5.7 million project that covers 36,069 square feet, according to the Valley Journal, and represents a huge step in McDonald's goal of bringing intercollegiate athletics to the campus.
“I want to see a big electric sign out front that says, ‘Game tonight, SKC versus Western, conference championship,” said Doug Allard of the SKC board. The college has talked about applying to join the Frontier Conference.
The building houses a new 2,700-seat gymnasium, a fitness center that has been operating for about a year, as well as locker rooms, classrooms and a culinary kitchen, and will allow the school to consider adding health and physical education programs in the future.
Rising unemployment hits Sanders County
Unemployment in Sanders County is headed the wrong direction, the Sanders County Ledger reports.
The jobless rate in August was 3.6 percent, compared to 3.1 percent a month earlier and well above the state average of 2.2 percent.
Led by Sweet Grass and Fallon counties, which showed 1.1 percent unemployment, 17 of Montana's counties were under 2 percent, the Ledger said.
The slip in Sanders County followed several months of improved unemployment statistics, and climbed “in a month when employment should be at its peak,” the newspaper said. There are 4,894 people in the Sanders County labor force, and 4,717 working.
The numbers were worse in several other Montana counties. Roosevelt County showed an unemployment rate of 4.9 percent, followed by Big Horn (4.7), Glacier (4.4) and Rosebud (3.9).
Lake County shooting range opens back up
Lake County hunters can get their rifles sighted in before the general big game season starts.
The county's shooting range reopened Saturday, according to the Lake County Leader. After reporting the range was still closed for repairs due to scheduling conflicts between Polson Shooters Association volunteers, who took over management of the range, and the county, PSA board member Ron Smith said instead of angry phone calls, he fielded a number of calls from people volunteering to help get the range ready.
The shooting range had become a partying spot for teenagers, a dumping ground for old appliances and a place where all-terrain vehicles were used, leading county commissioners to turn management over to the association, which plans to staff it and charge fees to help with upkeep. Plans to have it open earlier this fall failed when availability of county equipment and PSA volunteers' schedules didn't match.
“We will keep it open as much as possible with the volunteers we have,” Smith told the Leader. “There is a lot more work to be done, but we do have a shooting range with moveable targets for pistol shooting and for sighting in all the way out to 200 yards.”
Smith said an annual fee of $30 per person, or $40 for a family, would be charged. Individuals who don't need to use the range that much can pay $5 a day.
No schedule has been set yet, but Smith said volunteers should try to keep the range open as much as possible leading up to the Oct. 21 start of the general season.
Weeklies Reader is compiled by reporters Vince Devlin and Kim Briggeman.
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