GLENDIVE RANGER REVIEW Sunday, February 21, 2021 • Vol. 59, No. 15 • Glendive, Montana $1.00 State again paying full TOURNEY TIME: Information released per diem for upcoming Eastern A Superdivisional Basketball Tournament. Find out how to get your rates for tickets, Page 13 prisoners By Hunter Herbaugh Ranger-Review Staff Writer Progress has been made in getting the state Department of Corrections to pay their contractually obligated Hunter Herbaugh photo per diem rates for state inmates at the The Montana Veteran Affairs Health Care System provided 100 first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to local veterans on Wednes- Dawson County Correctional Facility, day, Feb. 17. Local veteran Jerome Handran (pictured above) was one of the many who received his vaccine. bringing a years long issue to a more stable footing. The issue with the DOC paying their per diem rates began in LEGISLATURE: 2017 when the state legislature made significant cuts to the DOC’s budget. Lawmakers hope 100 Glendive-area veterans The contract between the two enti- ties was signed roughly around 1998, education tax credits according to DCCF Warden Tom will help to increase the Green, and has a 30 year life. Under number of skilled receive first COVID-19 vaccines the contract, the DOC is suppose to pay the county $81.26 per day to cover laborers in the state of By Hunter Herbaugh ing to Dr. Maganito, they will be the costs of housing state inmates. Fol- Ranger-Review Staff Writer returning to administer the second lowing the 2017 budget cuts however, Montana, doses sometime around March 16. the DOC was paying only $76.24 per Page 5 Montana VA Health Care Sys- As vaccine doses become avail- day. tem provided 100 first doses of able, MTVAHCS will continue hold- This left county officials concerned the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to ing vaccination events around the over the future of the facility. The Glendive-area Veterans on Wednes- state and will do so until all enrolled issue was discussed by county offi- day, Feb. 17. veterans who want to receive a cials, most recently last April, when VA staff transported the vaccines COVID-19 vaccine are immunized. Green held a special meeting with from Billings to Miles City then to Of course, given how large the the county commissioners and coun- Glendive on Wednesday morning. state is, reaching some of the more ty attorney about the deficiencies. At MTVAHCS is able to store Moderna rural communities presents chal- that time, county officials had become vaccines at three sites, which have lenges, especially since the Mod- so frustrated, they were considering specific temperature-controlled feel better about getting their first erna vaccine and the other only potential termination of the contract. freezers: Fort Harrison VA Medical dose as well,” he said. vaccine approved for use in the More recently however, Green said Center, Billings’ Benjamin Charles Increasing veterans’ access to U.S., the Pfizer vaccine, need to be the DOC has been able to pay the Steele VA Clinic and the Miles City vaccines is an issue that U.S. Sen. kept at very cold temperatures and agreed upon per diem rate, bringing VA Clinic. Jon Tester has been pushing for. can’t be left out of the cold very a bit of relief to the situation. Though MASKS REQUIRED?: The Wednesday event was Tester serves as the chairman of long. This is why the vaccines had this could mean good things going for- While the state mask MTVAHCS’s first rural vaccina- the senate’s Veterans’ Affairs Com- to be delivered to Miles City and ward, he noted there isn’t much of an tion event in Glendive. So far, they mittee and has used his position to then transported to Glendive the avenue to recoup the rates that were mandate has been have provided more than 4,200 first request more doses for veterans. morning of the clinic. not paid up to this point. lifted, local schools and doses of the Moderna vaccine to This has included sending a let- Besides access to required vac- “The state finally did agree to pay Montana veterans. Including the ter to the president, urging him to cine storage freezers, another chal- the last agreed upon per diem calcula- public entities will local stop, roughly 22 veteran vac- provide a larger allocation of doses lenge to rural vaccine distribution tions, so they have been paying that. continue to require cination clinics have been held at to the VA. With Wednesday’s clinic, is finding a space large enough We did get a little bit of (retroactive nine locations across Montana. Tester noted it was a good step to safely administer vaccines and payments) but there’s still some hang- masks for the time “These vaccines save lives,” said in protecting Montana’s veterans staff the clinics. Staff from mul- ing out there that we feel that they being, MTVAHCS Executive Director Dr. from the pandemic. tiple MTVAHCS sites came to Glen- owe us but I don’t know if there’s Judy Hayman. “We serve 47,000 “This is a great day for Montana’s dive to help operate Wednesday’s much that could be done about it,” he Page 2 veterans in the fourth largest state veterans who are now one step clos- clinic, which was held at the EPEC. said. in the country, and we are grate- er to being protected from the coro- Despite these challenges, the County Commissioner Dennis Zan- ful we can bring these vaccines to navirus,” said Tester. “I’m proud MTVAHCS is determined to carry der noted that some of the pay back Glendive veterans.” to have worked with folks on the on holding vaccination events. came through the infrastructure bond- TIME TO QUIT: While these clinics have served to ground and in the administration to “With each person who chooses to ing bill passed in the 2019 legislative provide vaccines to veterans that ensure this first round of vaccines get a vaccine, we all become safer,” session. Under that bill, the county Giving up tobacco can want them, they have also man- reaches veterans in Glendive and said Jolyn Hoff, Clinic Nurse Man- received money that they put towards impact your health in aged to convince more veterans rural areas across the state. I’ll con- ager for the Southeast Region. things like HVAC systems and roof to get their shots as well. Accord- tinue holding the VA accountable “Each Glendive veteran who choos- repairs for the facility, as well as a big way. There are ing to MTVAHCS’s chief of staff, to quickly and efficiently deliver es to get their COVID-19 vaccine is recent control center upgrades. How- many resources Dr. James Maganito, seeing other this vaccine to more communities helping their family and communi- ever, he also sounded less than opti- people receive their shots has been in need and into the arms of those ty become one step closer to safety mistic that the county would be able available to help you enough to make them more confi- who’ve served.” from the pandemic’s impacts. We to receive more of the back per diems dent in the safety of the vaccine Veterans who received vaccines are grateful for their leadership.” that the DOC owed. quit, and get their own. Wednesday will be scheduled to “The more veterans that get their receive their second dose approxi- Reach Hunter Herbaugh at rrre- Page 6 shots, the more others see that and mately four weeks later. Accord- [email protected]. See PER DIEM, page 2 CONSTITUTIONAL Council votes down Lloyd Square disc golf course CARRY: By Hunter Herbaugh cited by council members that voted Utility, Property and Recreation the space to adequately establish Ranger-Review Staff Writer against the approval of the course Committee, Reichert has been a course. They do believe Gregg The governor signed a was the concern that there isn’t involved with the discussion of the Park in Forest Park would also be a bill this week that will After giving the topic some critical enough space in the park for a nine- proposed course since it was first suitable location but they preferred discussion, the Glendive City Coun- basket course. brought up. During every discussion Lloyd Square due to its central loca- allow Montanans to cil voted not to approve installing thus far, he has continued citing the tion. carry concealed a new disc golf course as it was “That park is busy. It is by possible overloading of the park as Local garden club members proposed during their meeting on a point of concern. He noted that expressed their concerns about the firearms in public Tuesday night. The general consen- far the busiest park we have even in his one-on-one conversations proposed course to the council. They settings without a sus seemed to be that everyone was in Glendive and that green with local residents, the response he noted two baskets in particular which in favor of the idea of adding the received the most was skepticism of they felt got too close to their garden permit, course but were not in favor of the space, even though there’s the location. in the park. They felt as though the Page 3 proposed location. nothing there, it gets used,” “I applaud the folks who brought chances of stray discs flying into The addition of the course in Lloyd this forward. They’re being very the garden and damaging foliage, as Square Park was proposed in Octo- Gerald Reichert, progressive about Glendive, they’re well as the risk for potential damage ber by Joe Varriano, a member of the City Councilman taking an interest.