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Run, Darby, Run
Why am I running the Ridge Run this Saturday? The story starts with a poorly behaved dog.
Even as a puppy, Darby was chunky, thick-muscled and bull-headed. The white and liver English springer spaniel strained at the leash whenever I’d walk him in our neighborhood. Walking Darby was like trying to rein in a runaway bulldozer with a piece of twine. His furious panting only added to the spectacle.
Frustration led to inspiration when, one day, I started jogging behind Darby to see if I could gain some slack in the retractable leash. Darby looked back in surprise and then quickened his pace with a lumbering side-to-side gait that, oddly, mimicked my own plodding running style. His 10-minute-a-mile pace turned out to be a perfect match for me; Darby remained five yards in front of me with little tension on the leash. He became so focused on running that, for the first time, he ignored the barks and growls of neighborhood dogs. I returned home, sweaty and smiling, announcing to my wife Laura, “It turns out that Darby’s a runner.”
From that day forward, Darby became my running partner. Until that point, I ran only occasionally, but Darby enjoyed running so much that I found myself running more often and for longer distances. When Darby heard the telltale clues – running shoes being laced up, poop bag being shoved into pocket – he’d sprint to the door, start trembling all over, and emit a series of high-pitched chirps.
Over the years, Darby and I logged hundreds of miles together, him five yards ahead of me, running at a 10-minute-per-mile pace. I’m not sure why our pace never improved over time; perhaps I thought I was running at Darby’s pace, and he thought he was running at mine. Gradually, the length of our runs increased as I began training for 10K and half-marathon races. In 2009, I learned an interesting lesson as I was training for the New York City Marathon. On days when I had “long runs” of 10 miles or more, I had to walk past Darby – who was chirping and trembling at the door – because the conditions (busy roads, minimal water, long distances) weren’t safe for him. It broke my heart to disappoint him. I discovered that I enjoyed “running with Darby” more than I enjoyed just “running.”
Eighteen months ago, we learned that Darby had liver disease, a progressive condition that would eventually lead to his death. Our veterinarian assured us that we shouldn’t curtail Darby’s running; we should strive to maintain his fitness and quality of life. Knowing that my time with Darby was limited, I decided last October to start training for the Ridge Run, Bozeman’s iconic 20-mile race considered one of the most rugged trail runs in existence. I had served as a Ridge Run volunteer for years but had never before considered running the race. Training for this grueling event would require regular trail runs throughout the winter, spring and summer, which would maximize my time with Darby, doing what he loved best.
Even though most of our trail running was leash-free, Darby took up his usual position, five yards in front of me, leading me into the distance. He plowed through snowdrifts. He clawed up steep, icy trails. He trudged through thick mud and splashed through puddles. On days when I was tempted to cut the run short due to cold, fatigue or nasty trail conditions, I’d look at tough-as-nails Darby happily running in front of me and I’d keep moving forward.
This April, Darby’s health took a sharp turn for the worse as the liver disease entered its final stages, much earlier than was anticipated. His physical decline was dramatic and heartbreaking; when I’d change into running clothes, he could only lift his head and watch me walk out the door. On June 10, Darby let us know it was time to let him go. Just before he was put down, he sat on Laura’s lap and fixed me with a clear-eyed stare. Eight years of memories passed between us. Then Darby had to run.
The Ridge Run is at the absolute limit of my physical abilities. To finish the race, I’m going to need to find inspiration, but luckily, I know where to find it. I’ll just picture Darby, five yards ahead of me on the trail, leading me into the distance.
Bozeman kids’ school assignments delayed
Parents of Bozeman elementary students won’t find out until one week before school starts Aug. 29 which schools their kids will be assigned to this year.
While many Montana school districts are struggling with declining enrollments,
the Bozeman School District is facing an unusually large signup of more than 600 new students. It has postponed sending out school assignment notices to parents from this Friday until Aug. 22.
That will give school secretaries and principals an extra 10 days to phone families and find out which registered students are actually going to attend this fall and how many have moved without telling the schools.
It will also give the district more time to figure out whether two more teachers have to be hired to teach kindergarten or first grade. The district has already had to increase hiring from the six new teachers budgeted this year to eight, Superintendent Kirk Miller said Tuesday.
getting a more precise headcount, Miller said, “We’re being cautious so we don’t have to double-move kids.”
He acknowledged the delay is frustrating for families.
“This is one of the most important things for parents,” Miller said. “We’re working as quickly as we can. We appreciate the patience of folks … We want to continue to have their trust.”
School officials are trying to balance parents’ wishes, tight budgets, state class-size standards and the district’s neighborhood school policy.
School Board Chair Denise Hayman and Vice Chair Bruce Grubbs said they hadn’t heard from any parents about the delay. Drew Seessel, parent council president at Hawthorne School, said he hadn’t heard any comments, but it’s likely parents will be concerned.
One question facing administrators is whether to hire another kindergarten teacher and move kids from their neighborhood schools to that new class or put more kids in existing kindergarten classes and hire overflow aides.
Meanwhile, parents keep coming in to sign up new students. Families seem to move more than in the past, perhaps because of the economy, Miller said.
Three years ago, the Bozeman schools ended its old enrollment system, which gave parents the choice to sign up for any elementary school on a first-come basis. That led to parents camping out overnight to sign up for kindergarten at certain schools.
The School Board instead created geographic attendance boundaries for each school and gave first priority to kids who live within the boundaries.
At the moment, however, there isn’t room for about 113 students — most of them kindergartners and first-graders — in their neighborhood schools.
Another 40 first-, second- and third-graders who attended a school other than their neighborhood school last year will be bumped this year to make room for kids who live inside the attendance boundaries. Only fourth- and fifth-graders, who were in place when the switch to neighborhood schools occurred, are still grandfathered in.
Bozeman’s elementary enrollment has grown by nearly 10 percent or 230 students in the last three years. That’s why the new Hyalite Elementary School was built in 2009.
So far, Bozeman has 2,740 elementary kids signed up. There are 27 more kindergartners than anticipated, more than enough to fill a 20-student kindergarten class. And there are 18 fewer kids in both third and fourth grades than expected. The district may create more combined-age classes, such as mixing kindergarteners and first-graders, as one solution.
Miller urged parents to keep a positive outlook and help their children maintain a “healthy excitement” about the first day of school, even if they’re not sure which school they’ll be in.
Gail Schontzler can be reached at gails@dailychronicle.com or 582-2633.
Despite economy, gold prices breaking records as Bozeman residents sell high
Judy Keeler walked out of downtown Bozeman’s Gem Gallery on Tuesday with a $192.28 check in her hand.
“We Buy Gold” signs in the store’s windows convinced her to sell two unused rings to Don Baide, the store’s owner.
Baide has seen a steady upswing in customers selling gold rings, jewelry, dental pieces and nuggets in the last few years – as many as 10 pieces per day.
Their mantra: Sell high.
“Don’t sell things that are important to you or important to your family,” Baide said. But if you don’t want it, he’ll take it.
The price of gold has risen steadily since the recession began in late 2007, and on Tuesday gold prices broke records for the second consecutive day — more than $1,700 per ounce.
Like Keeler, most of Baide’s gold-selling clients are women with unwanted jewelry, he said. They bring in rings from broken engagements and previous marriages, old family necklaces – that sort of thing. Baide melts the jewelry and either sells it to a refinery or turns it into new jewelry.
It works out pretty well for everyone. At high prices, jewelry owners are eager to sell their pieces, and in times of economic uncertainty, investors are eager to buy.
Because the price of gold fluctuates more slowly than the prices of stocks, both large- and small-scale investors use gold to hedge against tumultuous financial times – the recession, debt crisis and first-ever downgrading of the U.S. credit rating are prime examples.
For smart investors, it’s like sitting in the eye of the recession’s hurricane – provided they get out at the right time, Baide said. If they wait too long, they’ll face a low return rate: Gold’s price tends to climb just slightly faster than inflation, said Gregory Gilpin, Montana State University economics professor.
“Gold isn’t very productive,” he said, comparing gold investment to investing in companies in the stock market. “It doesn’t innovate and it doesn’t come up with new ideas.”
When the economy reverses, Baide expects people will take their money out of gold and put it back into bottom-dollar stocks, hoping to see them rise again.
“Maybe the stock market is just paper games and I need to go into something real,” Gilpin said, explaining the mentality of gold investors. That sense of security comes from the past, he added. Gold has a long history as a currency-backer – it’s tangible and it makes people feel safe.
But the price of gold isn’t fixed. Like any other commodity, it’s contingent on speculation and the state of the economy.
“I think if we got our debt under control, gold probably wouldn’t continue on its upward path,” Gilpin said.
“Things that tend to go up really, really fast tend to go down really, really fast,” Baide said, adding that the price of gold could go up to $2,000 per ounce or drop to $1,000 in a short period.
He keeps an eye on the gold markets on his iPhone, from his stool behind the jeweler’s counter.
“It’s fallen since we started talking,” he said, shaking his head as he thumbed through charts.
Verizon proposing to camouflage cell tower as pine tree
After residents complained that a proposed cellphone tower would block mountain views and hurt property values, Verizon Wireless has offered to camouflage the tower to look like a pine tree.
“It’s now been modified to a shorter station that will be what we call a stealth site,” Verizon spokesman Bob Kelley said Tuesday. “It’s an attempt to make the site less noticeable.”
Verizon applied to the city of Bozeman in May to build a wireless-communications tower at 705 Bridger Drive — on the north side of the road next to Zig’s Electric & Plumbing as you’re leaving town and heading toward the Bridger Mountains.
The tower is intended to improve cellular network capacity for northeast Bozeman and provide coverage to Bridger Canyon, according to Verizon.
But residents say the tower would mar the views for anyone entering or leaving the city through the Bridger Canyon corridor, a popular route to Bridger Bowl Ski Area and the ‘M’ Trail.
The tower was initially proposed as a 90-foot-tall, steel lattice tower.
Verizon revised its proposal this month, shortening the tower to 84 feet, making it a single, monopole and disguising it as part of the treeline, an effort that will cost the company more, Kelley said.
Still, some residents say there’s a better solution.
“We still think there are better alternative sites for the tower,” said Rolland Rounds, who lives in The Links condominiums adjacent to the proposed tower site. “We’re not against cell towers, it’s just that we think there are better, less intrusive places for the cell towers to be placed.”
The tower would be located in Rounds and his neighbors’ backyard.
The Links subdivision, an 18-home “green technology” subdivision, is only partially built, and the developer has expressed concerns that it will be harder to sell the rest of the homes and finish the neighborhood with a cell tower so close.
Opponents have formed the Bridger Corridor Enhancement Team and hired the Bozeman law firm Goetz, Gallik and Baldwin to represent them.
Bozeman resident Don Lucker, who used to work in cell tower site development, serves as a consultant to the corridor enhancement team. He suggested other nearby sites where he believes Verizon could put the tower instead.
He suggested next to the Panda gas station, just south on Bridger Drive from the proposed site, or by the old city landfill, north of Griffin Drive and east of the East Gallatin Recreation Area.
Kelley said Verizon looked at a number of sites, including a nearby water tank, radio broadcast tower and grain elevator. The company decided on the Bridger Drive location, which is zoned for industrial use, because it’s “the optimum site for that section of the city.” Mountain ridgelines block other sites the company considered, according to Verizon’s application.
The proposed new tower would make it easier for people in Bridger Canyon to call 911 in an emergency and for Verizon to serve the growing number of smartphones and data devices in town, Verizon’s application states.
The Bozeman City Commission will consider Verizon’s proposal during its regular meeting Monday.
The commission reclaimed decision-making authority over the application last month in order to give it a full public hearing. Typically, the city planning director would have the final say.
Amanda Ricker can be reached at aricker@dailychronicle.com or 582-2628.
Gallatin County sets jail incarceration rates
The Gallatin County Commission on Tuesday adopted a daily incarceration rate, a required step for housing outside prisoners in the new jail.
Commissioners set the rate at $123.43 per day, which will be charged to government agencies that use the Gallatin County jail to house inmates, Sheriff Jim Cashell said.
“What the other counties are hopefully looking for is a situation where Gallatin County will take care of their detention needs and they won’t have to worry about it,” he said.
The rate approved Tuesday includes the actual cost of housing prisoners, as well as depreciation and debt interest costs, but excludes construction costs, he said.
Montana law requires local governments to set incarceration rates each year using calculations from the state Department of Corrections, Cashell said. An established rate allows the county to negotiate long-term contracts with other government agencies, he said.
The daily rate can be reduced for agencies that sign contracts for at least two years, Cashell said. Rather than paying the full rate, those agencies could pay as little as $65 per day.
“The contract could be structured a number of different ways,” he said.
About $45 of the daily revenue earned will be placed in a reserve account for future expansion of the detention center or for refinancing jail-related debt, said Ed Blackman, county finance director. The rest will go toward actual operating costs, such as food and staffing.
Cashell said he is working on contracts to house prisoners for Sweetgrass, Madison and Park counties, as well as the corrections department.
Bozeman man released after sentencing for sexual assault, criminal mischief charges
A Bozeman man was released Tuesday from the Gallatin County jail after a judge sentenced him to credit for six months already served for misdemeanor charges of sexual assault and criminal mischief.
Justin Tyme Cowin, 23, was sentenced after pleading guilty last week. He will spend six months on probation for criminal mischief. Cowin also must pay restitution if money for a broken window is requested.
Cowin was initially charged with felony sexual intercourse without consent and criminal mischief. He pleaded guilty to the reduced charges as part of a plea agreement.
According to the charging document:
Cowin came home Dec. 22 and found his babysitter trying to sleep on a couch in his apartment.
The victim told police Cowin had come home very late and offered her a pill. She refused. But Cowin forced a pill into her mouth and then began touching the girl.
The girl said she never told Cowin to stop, fearing his violent temper, though she rolled over to try to stop him.
The incident ended when Cowin’s girlfriend came out of a bedroom and saw him stroking the girl’s hair.
A neighbor told police she later heard Cowin screaming outside the apartment and “watched (him) turn and run head first into the glass door next to the entry door … and began beating his head against the window.”
During an interview with a Bozeman detective, Cowin “denied touching or doing anything” to the victim.
Jodi Hausen can be reached at jhausen@dailychronicle.com or 582-2630. Read her blog at jhausen.wordpress.com or follow her on Twitter @bozemancrime.
WEB ONLY: Thursday’s Calendar
Adoption Support Circle welcomes adoptees, birthparents, adoptive parents and family members, 7-8:30 p.m., Pilgrim Congregational Church, 2118 S. Third Ave. (south of Kagy Blvd.), Bozeman; 586-0786. Belgrade Senior Center: Gentle Yoga, 8:30 a.m.; pinochle and games, 10 a.m.; computer class, 10 a.m.; NeedleAires, 1 p.m.; 388-4711. Bozeman Senior Center: walking, 8:30 a.m.; Scrabble, 10 a.m.; tai chi, 10:15 a.m.; arthritis tai chi, 11:30 a.m.; pinochle, yoga, bingo, 1 p.m.; Balance, 2 p.m.; 586-2421. BMRG Al-Anon, 7:30 p.m., Bozeman Church of Christ, 1825 W. Kagy Blvd., 599-8240. Cancer Support Community: walking, 10 a.m.; Life After Loss, noon; food presentation, noon; 102 S. 11th Ave., Bozeman, 582-1600. Car seat clinic to verify proper child safety seat installation, noon-2 p.m., Bozeman Fire Station 1, 34 N. Rouse Ave.; for information, contact Stacy at 587-7786. Celebrate Recovery, a Christ-centered 12-step program, dinner 6 p.m., meeting 7 p.m., 324 N. Fifth Ave., Bozeman, 763-5872. Dual Recovery Anonymous Meetings (D.R.A.) for chemical dependency and psychiatric illness, noon-1 p.m., Open Arms Drop-in Center, 695 Farmhouse Lane, Bozeman; call 556-6500. Family Assessment Program, 7-8:30 p.m., Willson School room 298, use entrance facing Holy Rosary Church, 586-3979. Gallatin Valley Toastmasters, 12:10 p.m., basement conference room of First Security Bank, 670 S. 19th Ave., (406) 219-1468. Kiwanis of the Bridgers, 6:45 a.m., The Baxter Hotel. Manhattan Rotary Club, noon, Garden Café in Manhattan, 570-8281. Narcotics Anonymous: 6 p.m., Belgrade Baptist Church, 608 Jackrabbit Lane; 7 p.m., Grand Avenue Christian Church basement, 110 S. Grand Ave., Bozeman; 1-800-990-6262. TOPS No. 548, 5:30 p.m., Pilgrim Congregational Church, 2118 S. Third Ave., Bozeman; call Theresa at 587-3318.
Alcoholics Anonymous, area answering service, 585-4079; tollfree 1-888-607-2000. Al-Anon, for families and friends of alcoholics; 599-8240. Alateen, for ages 6-18 who are affected by someone else’s drinking; 599-8240. Gamblers Anonymous, call Deb or Jim, 924-6310. Narcotics Anonymous, 1-800-990-6262. Overeaters Anonymous, 599-2420.
Economic recovery may not include construction
HELENA (AP) – A University of Montana economist says the state’s economic recovery likely will happen without a boost in the construction industry.
Patrick Barkey, the director of UM’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research, is presenting a mid-year economic update across the state titled “Montana’s Construction-less Recovery.” The Independent Record reports (http://bit.ly/ppc8Hf) he was in Helena Monday.
Barkey says the bureau forecasts continued growth in household and corporate earnings, is optimistic about energy and agriculture, but expects a stagnant construction and wood product industry.
Barkey says fewer people moved from state-to-state last year, reducing demand for new housing.
Montana Building Industry Association executive director Dustin Stewart says housing usually leads the economy out of a recession. He says once the economy starts to recover, housing will follow.
Bozeman City Commission votes to increase water and sewer bills to fix aging pipes
Pay now or pay later.
That's the philosophy that guided Bozeman City Commissioners' decision Monday night to increase water rates by 9 percent and sewer rates by 12 percent over two years.
The rate increases will be used in part to replace the city's deteriorating underground pipes.
"I can't, with a good conscience, continue to defer these infrastructure costs to the next generation," Deputy Mayor Sean Becker said.
The average resident's water and sewer bills will go up by a combined $4 per month in September and another $4 a month in September of 2012. Mayor Jeff Krauss noted that the city offers discounted rates for eligible low-income families.
Some of Bozeman's water and sewer lines are 100 years old. They generally only last for 75 years, but the city has so far not been able to afford to swap them out. With the rate increases, the city aims to be caught up on its deferred water and sewer maintenance in 20 years.
"The longer we wait (to replace those pipes), the behinder we get, and I just don't think we can pass that on," Krauss said.
Commissioners unanimously approved the rate increases.
They had initially considered increasing the rates by another 3 percent. They opted for the lower increase based on improved, higher estimates of impact fees the city expects to collect.
Amanda Ricker can be reached at aricker@dailychronicle.com or 582-2628.