Weekly roundup

The building in downtown Plains that housed the long-shuttered restaurant Benji’s is being transformed into potential commercial space.

For years, Benji’s was a Plains and Sanders County restaurant popular with folks throughout the valley for good meals and hearty portions. Then, several years ago, the eatery abruptly closed its doors.

Paul Jaeger, who moved to Plains from Florida after falling in love with the Plains area, is now transforming the building.

“I came here a few years ago and was struck by the beauty of this area,” said Jaeger, a semi-retired businessman with experience in commercial real estate ventures. “I’m not really sure what I will do with the main floor of the building, but I have had some interesting ideas along with good suggestions from residents of this town.”

Already Jaeger has remodeled the upper floor of the building. The second floor is now what Jaeger refers to as Jaegerhaus, his personal living quarters in his newly adopted hometown.

“I’ve been considering several options, including possibly creating a brew-pub with the brewing equipment in the basement and seating in what was the restaurant. I have no plans to make it another restaurant and really wouldn’t want to do that anyway,” he said.

A possible sports pub or retail outlet of some kind are other options. He bought the building from ownership involved with nearby Quinn’s Resort.

“I’ve heard how much people liked Benji’s when it was open and I would want to make something locals and tourists would come to like just as much,” Jaeger said.

— Clark Fork Valley Press

After lengthy discussion and review by multiple boards, the Flathead County Board of Adjustment approved a conditional-use permit for Ranger Springs to operate a camp/retreat center on a farm located along Montana 35 in Bigfork.

The property is owned by Reed Darrow and will be managed by Doug Averill Management. Their shared objective is to restore the ranch to its former glory, host educational programs centered on the farming and ranching lifestyle, along with providing opportunities for underprivileged youth and terminally ill children to experience the Western way of life. To improve the financial viability of the farm and prevent it from being developed into a subdivision, Ranger Springs also plans to host equestrian and ag-related events. Finally, Ranger Springs will serve as the home base for a nonprofit organization, Paladin, dedicated to the preservation of Western history.

The application has been through a number of review processes before receiving final approval by the Board of Adjustment. The proposal was examined by the Bigfork Land Use Advisory Committee twice — the second time due to errors with adjacent property notification. Property owners across the highway weren’t originally notified of the permit request, hence the need for the second review.

The Flathead County Planning Board unintentionally created cause for alarm by noting that the farm could support up to 6,500 parking spaces, despite the applicant having no intention to draw such a large number of vehicles.

“Nobody was saying that there is going to be a need for 6,500 parking spaces on the property,” county Planner Erik Mack said. “Staff was just trying to illustrate that there was more than enough areas for parking for these large events,” Mack said. “There’s never going to be that many cars on the property — at most you’d be looking at like 600, according to the applicant.”

The proposed camp-retreat center has also drawn significant concern from neighbors in the surrounding area over potential crowds and noise from events.

However, both the Advisory Committee and Board of Adjustment addressed these community concerns and agreed on limits for the number of large events per year and hours of operation for these gatherings. It was agreed that Ranger Springs would be permitted to host two large events each year — large events being gatherings of more than 500 people with a maximum of 4,500 attendees over a three-day period. Averill also requested the ability to rollover events to the following year should they be forced to cancel due to outside factors such as a bad fire season or the coronavirus.

— Bigfork Eagle

The Mineral County Chamber of Commerce needs a boost.

“Today, our membership is as low as it’s been in years,” reported Jackie Callison, president for the last four or five years.

The mission statement 12 years ago was “Use ‘Em or Lose ‘Em,” in an effort to encourage people to buy locally. It changed to “Building and Promoting the Businesses in Mineral County” a few years after that.

Today, Callison says it is “To Find More Supporters to Help with Projects” as a plea for the businesses between Saltese and Alberton to roll up their sleeves, work to promote each other and become involved along the county’s 77 miles of Interstate 90.

Callison and David Mirisch, a local publicist and marketing professional, are about “it” these days to keep projects moving while trying to increase the awareness of what the county has for retail, personal services and the industries that are established in the county.

“We need to educate the residents of what we have in our area, today, that can save them a trip to Missoula or an Amazon order and in turn help the local businesses,” said Mirisch.

Mirisch suggested, and Callison agreed, to rekindle the old ‘Welcome Wagon’ by delivering a greeting-basket of gifts and coupons to everyone that has moved into the county in the last six months.

— Mineral Independent

The Lincoln County commissioners approved a 3.5% cost-of-living pay increase for county employees in the coming fiscal year, but directed department heads to find room in their budgets for the raise.

Public sector employees earn about $43,200 a year on average, according to County Administrator Patrick McFadden. The pay increase, slightly above the rate of inflation, represents a roughly $1,512 annual pay increase on average.

Reiterating his stance when the county’s compensation board reviewed elected officials’ salaries earlier this month, McFadden asked commissioners to keep cost-of-living increases pegged to inflation and job duties rather than available revenue.

County employees received slight pay increases in 2011, 2013, 2017 before receiving slightly larger bumps for fiscal years 2019 and 2020. They went without increases in 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2018, according to McFadden’s June 24 presentation to the board of commissioners.

All three county commissioners expressed support for employee raises in theory. The problem, they said, is the associated $163,296 drain on county coffers.

Adding a rub, the compensation board, which includes all three commissioners, voted the week prior to give elected officials a 2.5 percent cost of living increase.

The hotly debated decision ultimately earned support as a way to grant Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office deputies a wage bump. Deputies’ salaries are tied to the sheriff’s, and that position only sees a cost of living increase when elected officials receive a raise.

— The Western News