GLENDIVE RANGER REVIEW Sunday, January 10, 2021 • Vol. 59, No. 3 • Glendive, Montana $1.00 More deaths in READY TO TUMBLE: Montana Elite county in Gymnastics Academy opens its doors, giving 2020 may new life to the former Kmart building. More organizations will soon not be that open in the facility, Page 12 unusual By Hunter Herbaugh Ranger-Review Staff Writer Last year saw the highest number of deaths in Dawson County in recent years. Preliminary counts note that 112 deaths occurred in Dawson Coun- ty last year, meaning more people passed away in the county than any of the past six years, according to Photos courtesy of Glendive Medical Center information from the Dawson County Clerk and Recorder’s office. However, Hello, baby! Clerk and Recorder Shirley Kreiman noted that as of Monday, Jan. 4, this The first baby of the new year born at Glendive Medi- is not yet the final number, as there cal Center made his appearance on Monday, Jan. 4 are still some deaths that occurred in at 10:37 p.m. December that have not been added Isaac Jared Dalton Bowman, the son of Levi and to the official total. The numbers provided by the Clerk NEW ROLE: Brenna Bowman of Glendive, was 7 lbs., 7 oz. and and Recorder account specifically for 21 inches at birth. people who passed away in the coun- Former state The baby and his parents received a gift basket full ty, even if they weren’t county resi- of items donated by local businesses. dents. Residents of Dawson County representative Allen who passed away outside of the coun- Doane will serve as ty are not accounted for in county records and the Montana Department Montana Attorney of Health and Human Services has General’s legislative not published a vital statistics report since 2018, so it is unclear how many liason during the 2021 total county residents actually passed Montana Legislative away last year. By Dec. 31, 27 Dawson County resi- Session, dents passed away due to complica- Page 8 tions from COVID-19. According to information provided by the Dawson County Health Department, three of those who passed away were out of county. With the remaining 24 pass- ing away in the county, that means COVID contributed to 21% of county deaths last year. Overall, 2020 deaths were a 36% increase over deaths in 2019, which coincidentally was the year with the lowest county deaths since 2015, at 72 for the year. The next highest of the last six years were 2015 and 2018, So far winter is missing in action which both counted 108 deaths in the county. By Jason Stuart According to county coroner and COVID-19: Ranger-Review Staff Writer Silha Funeral Home owner Tyler The Unified Health Silha, he has also been considerably December 2020 was one of the busier with funeral preparations this Command of Dawson driest Decembers in Glendive’s year but said that, overall, he doesn’t County has released its recorded weather history, as the think the death rate in the county is entire region remains stuck in an too out of the ordinary. He explained COVID-19 vaccination unusually warm, dry weather pat- that death counts tend to be cyclical distribution plan, tern for winter. in five year periods, with those five The total recorded precipitation years generally seeing one year with Page 12 for Glendive for December 2020 a higher than usual death rate and one was just 0.02 inches according year with a lower than average death to the National Weather Service. rate but death rates over the whole That ties the month for the third period tend to be comparable. TRUSTEES SOUGHT: driest December since record- “This has been a very busy year keeping began in 1893, equaling for us at the funeral home and for The filing period for the totals of December 1991, 1987 our county, but nationally the funeral local school board and 1952. The driest December trend, it has five year trends, during on record for Glendive was 1913, those five years, in certain areas, the trustee positions is open, when not one drop of precipitation death rate will be very high one year was recorded. Hunter Herbaugh photo and during those five years there will Page 2 Snowfall for the month was also The City of Glendive Public Works Department took advantage of continued warm be one that is exceptionally low, and severely lacking. Glendive record- weather to tackle several projects at Whipkey Park last week. Among the work com- then there’s three years that are all ed just 0.1 inches of snow for De- pleted was tree trimming and mulch replacement in the playground area. about average. So when you take the MAKING THE GRADE: cember 2020, whereas the historic one high year and the one low year monthly average is 3.6 inches. ally warm for Glendive, but to gion before it bumps into a stub- and the three average years, it still Alumni from Dawson For the entire year 2020, Glen- what degree, the weather service born ridge of high pressure that kind of averages out,” Silha said. dive’s precipitation clocked in at cannot say. According to Brad pushes the colder air and storms Going by the numbers on county County High School and over three inches below the his- Mickelson, a meteorologist with off to the east, Mickelson said. It’s record, the average number of deaths other school districts in toric annual average. The total re- the weather service’s Glasgow sta- a pattern he said has repeated it- in Dawson County in the last five year corded for the year was 10.11 inch- tion, the official instrumentation at self over and over again for the period, from 2016 to 2020, equalled the area are doing very es, ranking 2020 as the 21st driest the Glendive water plant has been last couple of months now. out to about 91. Removing the years well in college. Here year since record-keeping began. out of commission for the last sev- “That northern jet stream just with the highest and lowest death The annual average precipitation eral months due to the ongoing doesn’t have enough time to get counts leaves 2016, 2017 and 2018, are just few, – watch for Glendive is 13.55 inches. construction at the plant. Mickel- storms here before it moves off which had 82 deaths, 108 deaths and for others in upcoming Total snowfall for 2020 in Glen- son said due to that, the weather to the east, and that just seems 81 deaths respectively. Those three dive was actually a bit above aver- service unfortunately has no tem- to be a recurring theme this sea- years average out to roughly 90.3 issues of the Ranger- age, with 22.9 inches recorded for perature data for Glendive for the son,” Mickelson said. “So we get deaths per year. Between just 2019 Review, the year, whereas the historic av- past few months and was unable occasional bouts of cold and some and 2020, the average death rate is 92 erage is 19.9 inches. However, the to cobble together any viable data snow, but it’s just a passing glance. deaths per year. Page 7 lion’s share of that fell in the win- from any other sources. For now, it’s a repeated pattern Among the causes of death over the ter and early spring months at the The culprit behind the unusu- of warm and dry weather, with last year that he has observed, Silha beginning of the year, with almost ally warm, dry winter so far is a storms being shunted off to the said he has seen a wide variety. How- nothing in the way of meaningful jet stream that just can’t make it east far too quickly.” ever, he noted that among the cases he snowfall since the end of October. down from Canada to allow cold December 2020 was also unusu- arctic air and storms over the re- See WEATHER, page 5 See DEATHS, page 2 New Year, New Ideas Have a marketing and advertising idea or plan? Let us help! Contact Tracy Dey and let’s talk goals. 406-377-3303 • [email protected] Glendive Ranger-Review Sunday, January 10, 2021฀•฀Page 2 This weather report for Glendive and the area is www.americanford.us brought to you by: 100 Ford Ave • (406) 345-3673 School board filing period is open By Jamie Ausk Crisafulli Ranger-Review Staff Writer The filing period for school board trustee seats throughout the county is now open. The school election will be held May 4. The filing period began Dec. 10, 2020 and will end March 25, 2021. The Declaration of Intent and Oath of Candidacy must be filed with the Dawson County Elections Office. The terms of three Glendive Unified School Board members are expiring. The positions weatherforyou.com held by Kris Mothershead, Lara Crighton and Cindy Dufner will be on this spring’s ballot. These are three-year terms. Additionally, the Dist. #3 seat currently held by Kevin Pena is up for election. field East High School representative cur- Candidates are also sought for rural posi- rently held by Jeremy Johnson; and a Bloom- tions on the school board have been left field West High School position currently unfilled for several years. The District #367S/ held by Kristi Janssen, who was appointed to at large is open for a one-year term and the the position last year. The Bloomfield West Dist. #367N seat is open for a term of three High School position is a two-year term.