Page 12 - Flathead Beacon // 10.28.15

NEWS
Warm Hearts, Warm Homes Montana Conservation Corps crews help locals winterize
BY CLARE MENZEL OF THE BEACON
Two Octobers ago, when Walks the West Wind moved to Montana from Arkansas, she settled into an older mobile home in Columbia Falls with her Rott- weiler, Niki. Then it got cold. The mobile had little insulation and no storm win- dows. Winter air sunk in through the thin panes of glass and heat—costly heat—eas- ily escaped.
Walks the West Wind lives with a pace- maker, scoliosis, diabetes, and Raynaud’s, a condition where the arteries spasmod- ically respond to cold temperatures by decreasing blood flow to extremities.
“That first winter was bad,” Walks the West Wind said. “There was no heat. Thankfully, dogs’ body temperatures run at 100.”
This winter will be different. Recently,
as part of the decade-old Warm Hearts Warm Homes initiative, a crew of Mon- tana Conservation Corps AmeriCorps members visited Walks the West Wind to winterize her home.
The state-funded program, now in its 10th year, aims to help people who have qualified for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program get through the winter and keep up with their energy bills through colder months.
“I look at it as a true blessing,” Walks the West Wind said. “Montana really takes care of its old and disabled folks. It cares that we live in safe and healthy homes.”
MCC crewmembers also educate, leav- ing the resident with a plan for managing energy usage through winter.
“That’s where we all stand to gain,” said Jedd Sankar-Gorton, a MCC field
coordinator. “We go out and educate peo- ple on their own energy usage – the con- nection between comfort and money spent and how they can have a little more agency with that.”
For the past two weeks, MCC crews have spread through the state winterizing the homes of about 1,200 Montanans like Walks the West Wind, said Sankar-Gor- ton. The crews operating from the Kalis- pell office have assisted some 350 homes this fall, 75 of which were in the Flathead.
Lorraine Wigner’s Evergreen mobile was one of the last that Kalispell crew- members visited this season. The Flat- head native, who has lived in her home with her German Shepherd Blueboy since 1996, has seen her fair share of harsh winters.
“Their service is priceless,” Wigner said. “I can’t go out there and do it myself,
and I can’t afford it. For me it’s really seri- ous. There’s not much to me, I get cold eas- ily. I have arthritis and you get hurting bad in the cold.”
Like Walks the West Wind, Wigner said, “they [the crewmembers] are a blessing. They’re wonderful, good-hearted people.”
They arrive with window insulation and leave people like Wigner and Walks the West Wind with the prospect of a winter both affordable and warm.
On a shelf below Walks the West Wind’s kitchen windowsill is an opti- mistic garden. Fourteen multicolored children’s sand pails hold budding herbs and vegetables. There’s even an apple tree sapling poking out through the dirt. It rises up starkly against the insulated glass windowpane, bathed in warm sun- light as cold northern winds blow outside.
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Flathead County Looks to Close Juvenile Detention Center
As population at adult jail continues to grow, county sheriff proposes moving juvenile inmates to detention center in Missoula
BY JUSTIN FRANZ OF THE BEACON
Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry is proposing the closure of the juvenile detention center in Kalispell to make more room for adult inmates.
The proposal comes as law enforce- ment officials continue to grapple with an overcrowded county jail. The Flathead County Detention Center can hold up to 107 inmates, but Curry said recently it has housed nearly 120 prisoners.
Closing the juvenile facility, which is adjacent to the adult jail, would open up 14 additional beds.
“Everyone knows the old jail is crowded, but in the last few weeks it’s been a crisis,” Curry said. “This is my Plan A and I don’t have a Plan B right
now. I don’t have any other way to quickly increase my jail space except by moving adults into the juvenile deten- tion center.”
Curry said he would recommend the closure to the county commissioners on Oct. 28. If approved by commissioners, the juvenile inmates would be moved to a detention facility in Missoula. The sheriff hopes to start placing adult prisoners in the juvenile space by Dec. 1.
The local facility averages about four juvenile inmates a day, Curry said.
In the past, jail officials have worked with district court judges and the county attorney’s office to release low- risk adult prisoners. Curry said on two recent occasions, inmates released on a Friday were back in the jail before
the end of the weekend. One had sto- len multiple cars during the few days he was free. Curry said the Flathead County jail traditionally housed a mix- ture of people accused of or convicted of misdemeanor and felony crimes. In August, when there were 108 inmates in the detention center, 106 were charged with felonies.
Until recently, Flathead County was looking to buy the former WalMart in Evergreen and convert that into a jail, but in September another party offered more money for the building.
“This is a Band-Aid until we can come up with a long-term solution,” Curry said, adding that the juvenile facility could reopen in the future.
Curry noted that most communities
do not have a juvenile detention center. Youth who are arrested in Lake, Sand- ers and Mineral counties are usually held in Missoula. Curry said the county has negotiated a reduced fee for the Mis- soula facility to hold inmates from the Flathead.
But not everyone thinks closing the juvenile facility is a good idea. Mike Renaud has volunteered at the facility for 15 years and worries that moving kids to Missoula will be hard on families who want to visit them.
“This would take these kids away from their community and away from any sup- port system they may have,” he said. “To move them 120 miles away could be dis- ruptive of the support system they have.”
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OCTOBER 28, 2015 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
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