Twin Bridges, MT

I’m so far behind, my kids may get their Christmas sometime near Valentine’s Day! Paula Kinoshita and I attended the meeting of the Twin Bridges Senior & Community Center board earlier this month. Louise Ellingsworth, board secretary, promptly sent me a draft of the minutes (my apologies Louise!). Please click here for a copy of the minutes. This project was, by far, the most popular project from our community survey. Paula and I were VERY impressed with the progress the board has made in developing the plans and infrastructure for the Center. If you voted for Senior & Community Center as a top priority for our community, we encourage you to attend the next meetings on December 9th or January 13th at 6pm at the Masonic Hall.

My darling husband and I went for a walk yesterday afternoon, and we decided to try the new part of the Riverside Park walking trail that extends around Jessen Park.  We had our dogs with us, and it was a really nice afternoon.  We started along the trail, which goes right along the river.  Wow, the river is really full.  Lots of water. We get to the part that crosses under the Highway 41 and were greeted by a bunch of water (like around three feet) covering where the trail is supposed to go.  Evidently, with the rise in ground water there is a little problem with the low elevation of the trail route.  So, we jumped the highway and got on the trail on the other side of the highway and continued our walk.  It is beautiful, except for the part where you need a Venician pole boat to get under the highway.  We were talking about how they are going to keep that part of the trail dry, and we really can’t see how they will.  Twin Bridges has a very high water table.  We have water in our crawl space during the wet months, and since we can’t have a sump pump (against ordinance) unless it pumps out into the yard (ummm, where is the water going to go except back into the crawl space), we just had anti-mold/mildew stuff sprayed down there and hope for the best.  Any ideas from all you civil engineers out there?????

Don’t forget to send in your letter this week supporting the Madison County Fairgrounds Grandstands Reconstruction Project. The What’s Happening section of the Ruby Valley Chamber’s website has the details.

Just thought I would pass this newsworthy information along so that you could add it to the Twin Bridges blog, http://twinbridges.communityblogs.us/.

Hope Caregivers of Montana, a licensed Medical Marijuana Caregiver company is opening a patient dispensary just north of the town of Ennis. The patient dispensary is for HCoM Marijuana Patients and folks interested in learning about Medical Cannabis and it’s cousin Hemp. We will provide a full array of medical marijuana caregiver services in accordance with and under the protection of the Montana Medical Marijuana Act, Montana Initiative 148.

We will be located just north of True Value at:

100 Prairie Way #9
Ennis, MT 59729
406-579-2786

We offer delivery services to all our Madison county patients at no additional charge.

We anticipate opening our doors October 1st this year, if not sooner. Thank you for your time and I look forward to seeing this news on the blog!

Regards,
Brad

Hope Caregivers of Montana
Providing “Hope” for Better Daily Wellness
Montana Medical Marijuana Program Caregivers
info@hopecaregiver.com
http://www.hopecaregiver.com
http://www.hopecaregiversofmontana.com

Did you stop by the Twin Bridges Horizons booth at Fair? If so, what are your thoughts on the Vision Statement. If not, here’s the Vision Statement -

“Twin Bridges is a friendly Montana town with a safe, relaxed pace of life. Situated in outstanding natural beauty, residents and visitors enjoy an abundance of recreational opportunities. Twin Bridges is a family oriented community which strongly supports our youth and our school. We honor our heritage and embrace the diversity of our citizens.
“The area has an abundance of resources. Some have been developed; others remain untapped. The development and application of these resources will provide opportunities for prosperity. Community members strive to direct new growth for our town while maintaining the authenticity of its history, civic pride, and natural beauty. The people of Twin Bridges seek to ensure a sustainable future for our children, our seniors, and everyone in between.”

Now, you can tell us what you think.

There is going to be a public input meeting on June 9, 2009 at 7:00 pm at the Bethany Hall in Sheridan regarding the proposed expansion/addition to the Tobacco Root Mountain Care Center. This is such an important asset to our community. As a person who has had a loved one in residence at the Center, I cannot tell you how much it meant for us to be so close to our family member. It is very exciting that this project is moving forward. Please support it any way you can!

We met at the Montana Room on Jan. 8, 2009 to discuss how to best deal with the “WELCOME” signs at all 3 entrances into town. After much discussion it was decided that we all bring some type of visual concept to our next meeting–FEBRUARY 5, 2009– and then decide how we want to make the changes. These signs all come apart in 7 sections and Bob said that would be easy to take care of.  The new ones will continue to be made out of metal but with different designs and color.  The high-end estimate of cost would be around $500 for each sign with the low end of $300 plus whatever Bob’s labor would be. It was then discussed how to get funding to do these. Janie suggested selling “raffle tickets” on when the snow melted that the State had dumped to the west end of Jessen Park.  After discussion on all the things that would be involved to monitor this it was decided that we first needed a design and then do a fundraiser.  It may be possible to get some monies from the Horizon Project and also the Twin Bridges Main Street Improvement Team.  This will be followed up on after design and cost is complete. It was also discussed about not allowing any other signs to be attached to the WELCOME signs.  There was a concern about the Rotary sign. It will be addressed with at a later date.  There was also discussion about Community Bulletin Boards coming in to Twin from the Dillon way.  I will talk to Shelia at the Mad Hatters and Leslie at the Anchor about possible putting one at each of their locations.  We talked about just doing universal signage on them–M–Museum, the book symbol for Library and so forth. Our next meeting will be held FEBRUARY 5TH AT THE MONTANA ROOM AT 6pm.

I attended some of the meeting on Tuesday night, I was lucky enough to be able to hear the presentation by Bill White about promoting the services available to bikers - pedal bikers, that is.  This idea came out of the Study Circle activity, and Bill and his group have run with it.  I am really impressed with how much time and effort they have invested in getting the foundation laid for this project, which will make it known to the bicycling community that our town is ready, willing and able to provide services to the bikers going through our town. From what I understand, the next step is a website to study the interest in our town as a popular “stop” for bikers - including putting in showers.  Way to go Bill, Norm, and all of your group!

Wow! If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes.  Today we saw warm, windy, cold, snow, rain and sun.  Amazing.  I think our town and county are well-equipped to deal with incliment weather. Do you all feel the same? Did you have any needs that didn’t get met during our latest bout with Mr. Winter? Let’s talk about any problems and potential solutions!