February 16 - February 23, 2023
Race to the Sky winner Jessie Royer with her team of dogs. Royer won the event for the seventh time last weekend and is setting her sights on Alaska. See our story on Royer below. Photo courtesy of Jessie Royer.
New era planned for vacant Broadway lot
By Gwyneth Hyndman
After more than four decades as an empty lot, a prime piece of Philipsburg real estate is finally being utilized.
Jon Bergerson of Granite Custom Homes said that the 60x80 foot building going up on Broadway Street will hopefully be finished by August and as well as four to eight retail spaces on the street level, the upper level will have four two-bedroom apartments. These will be long-term rentals, not vacation rentals Bergerson said. A lower space below the street will be used for storage.
Bergerson and three investors - all are former clients; one is from Montana and two are out-of-state - bought the property from long-time Philipsburg residents Ron and Judy Paige for $400,000 he said and the estimated cost of the building project is $1.4 million. Bergerson - who has lived in Granite County for 30 years - said that the Paiges had sold the property because of his carefully-considered plans for the space. Bergerson created the architectural design himself, before passing it on to a structural engineer for the permit process. He had also visited with the Philipsburg Town Council in the summer to alert them to his plan and get input. So far, everyone was enthusiastic about the project.
“I started thinking about this a few years ago,” Bergerson said, describing the building as fitting in with the town’s historic area, featuring a brick exterior and metal balconies on the second level as well as rear balconies facing Winninghoff Park, behind the property. “I had been wanting to move my office to Philipsburg for a few years and it was hard to find space.”
Bergerson has had his business largely outside of Drummond, and has generally been taking on two commercial projects and two residential projects a year.
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Race to the Sky winner got her start at Georgetown Lake
By Asa Thomas Metcalfe
Feb. 13 brought another first place win for local dog sled racer, Jessie Royer.
The 46-year-old musher and dog trainer crossed the finish line with her seventh win in the Race to the Sky event, a 300-mile trail-race from Lincoln to Seeley Lake, and back.
Royer has been running sled dogs for 31 years and got her start when she was 15.
Royer recalls living in the Philipsburg area when she became interested in the sport. Her father managed the Riva Ridge Ranch on Skalkaho Road for 24 year and Royer said she started mushing at the Georgetown Lake dog sled races when they were held in 1991.
Two years after getting her first dog team she won the event in Lincoln and she’s competed many more times since.Spending a childhood between cattle ranches in Ennis, White Sulphur Springs, and Philipsburg meant spending a lot of time with animals. She didn’t have a pack of dogs to pull a sled - but she had the imagination to improvise.“I used to hook up my billy goat with my border collie and that was my first dog team,” Royer said.
The sport of dog sled racing dates back hundreds of years, but its North American popularity is closely related to the western expansion of Canada and the Alaskan gold rush of the early 1900s.
The sport term “mushing” is said to be an Anglicized version of the French-Canadian command of “Marche”.
It is a test of personal endurance and training, for both the human and animal athletes. Montana has a history with the sport, as does any snow covered territory with settlements pre-dating roads, as dog sleds were the sole mode of winter transportation for many decades of western settlement. Mushers trained teams of dogs and ran long routes through isolated and often dangerous routes.
The most famous of these routes is the Iditarod Trail, an Alaskan supply line from Anchorage to Nome which was turned into a competitive event after the 1925 “Race for Mercy” when sled dogs were used to transport a life-saving supply of antitoxin serum needed to save the city’s children from a diphtheria outbreak.
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Rising Sun Estates ordered to pay out to county
By Gwyneth Hyndman
The owner and developer of Rising Sun Estates, a major subdivision near Georgetown Lake, has been ordered to pay Granite County $103,635 as well as more than $10,000 in compensation for an expert witness, after a judgment on a breach of contract in the fire suppression system servicing the estates was entered in favor of the county on Feb. 7 in Montana Third Judicial District Court in Philipsburg.
The judgment from Judge Ray Dayton followed a bench trial on Dec. 19, 2022, in a case that dates back to 2017, involving Rising Sun Estates, LLC member-owner and developer Jack McLeod. The estates are a major subdivision in the Dude Ranch area of Georgetown Lake, comprising 24 lots over one acre in size.
Court documents state that Granite County filed the action on March 24, 2017, alleging a breach of contract relating to the fire suppression system servicing the estates. The subdivision application process for Rising Sun Estates began in early 2005 and was reviewed by the Granite County Planning Board and approved by the Granite County Commission in May 2005. This included Subdivision Regulations, under Section IV-A-16, which sets standards for subdivisions to “minimize the risk of fire and to permit the effective and efficient suppression of fires in order to protect persons, property and forested areas.”
Court documents state that McLeod, along with the Georgetown Lake Volunteer Fire Department (GLVFD) and Granite County, agreed to the construction of a 60,000-gallon fire suppression pond with a dry hydrant to satisfy Section IV-A-16. At a planned density of 24 residences, the 60,000 gallons accounted for 2,500 gallons required for each residence.
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