Crews Nearly Finished Demolishing Historic Montana School

It's only been about 2 weeks, but contractors are almost finished tearing down a landmark school complex in Western Montana, making room for more houses.

The project is a rare occurrence in the state, where even some of the oldest school buildings are often converted into other uses.

Crews begin demolition on the old Lolo School south of Missoula just before Thanksgiving. Initial work involved tearing down the southernmost building, which had been used as an often crowded lunchroom and location for many community meetings over the years.

Excavators then moved to begin tearing out the old gym and other buildings at the top of the hillside campus. Finally, this week the work became more visible, as crews tore down the newer buildings on the site, including the main gymnasium on the north side of the campus. Only the original school building and some of the older elementary classrooms are still standing along Highway 93.

The school has been vacant for the past couple of years, after Lolo voters approved a new school about a mile away on Farm Lane, and classes were moved in 2023.

Last summer, Missoula County approved plans by Developer MCG-Vines for the Belltower Subdivision, which brings 56 homes to the nearly 34-acre property. Plans had called for repurposing the older "Building 4", but it was removed this week.

      🍎 The original Lolo School House will be "memorialized" in some fashion, although a survey has determined it's not "historically significant."

READ MORE: The Dramatic Changes at Lolo School

Wind, rain, and crazy warm temperatures

Montana continued under a "crazy quilt" of colors today, as numerous watches, warnings and advisories covered nearly every corner of the state.

Rain, and wind were the main challenges, although some wet snow hit parts of Northwestern Montana early Wednesday morning. Some areas east of the Divide continued to see very high winds, gusting to 73 miles an hour in Livingston, 59 miles per hour at MacDonald Pass, and 62 miles per hour west of Browning. Western Montana was also experiencing gusts upwards of 40 miles per hour at times.

It appeared Kalispell was going to see a new rainfall record, with nearly an inch of rain for the day by mid-afternoon. Missoula had hit 55 degrees by afternoon.

Arctic cold returns on Thursday. Temperatures in Plentywood and Glasgow will drop to 12-to-15 below zero Friday and Saturday, not warming above zero. Winter storm watches and advisories are also up around Miles City, with overnight subzero lows and single-digit highs during the day.

Northwestern Energy pitches plan to acquire new Colstrip power

Northwestern Energy is arguing that it needs a "tariff exemption" as it takes over Avista's share of the Colstrip plant, saying the change will allow it to access energy from the plant without impacting rates and operational costs in Montana.

Northwestern's Mike Green told the Public Service Commission this week the exemption would help the utility assume the 222 megawatts of Avista power at "no cost".

"As a result, this waiver really is not about Northwestern Energy making money or about our profit. It's about, it's a request for an opportunity to minimize our losses and an opportunity to try to break even until new rates are put in place in these unique circumstances," Green told the commissioners.

But intervenors in the case, including the Montana Environmental Information Center, criticize the move, saying Northwestern is just attempting an "11th hour" change before taking over the resource in January to avoid scrutiny.

Jenny Harbine, speaking for the Montana Environmental Information Council at a PSC hearing yesterday, complained the change was being treated as an "afterthought".

"And it let nearly 3 years pass before seeking any rate treatment for the Avista share at all," Harbine complained. "And now it asks the commission for extraordinary and unprecedented rate treatment for that share, in order to avoid purported harm to the company, without any discussion of the impact on rate payers of the proposal or the precedent it would create."

     🔌 PSC staff will analyze the request, but a decision may not be made for several weeks.

Rollover crash kills woman near Drummond

Montana Highway Patrol says a 37-year-old Granite County woman was killed Monday evening when her vehicle rolled over on MT 1, south of Drummond.

Troopers say the victim, who was from the small community of Hall, missed a tricky curve on the road and overcorrected, sending her Ford off the road, where it rolled over and broke through a fence. Troopers say she was wearing her seat belt.