Letter from the editor
With session over, a few thanks in order
Last Tuesday the final gavel dropped on the 61st Legislature in Helena. It was a far less contentious session than some of late — a lack of money to spend will do that.
In the end, both side came together to hammer out differences on the budget bill and the federal stimulus money. Now it's in the Governor's hands.
And while citizens in general should thank their legislators for volunteering so many hours of their time to serve the public, the Eagle owes a few thanks as well.
As you have likely noticed, we have been the recipient of fine reports from Helena each week thanks to the work of a few students from the University of Montana's School of Journalism.
Covering the Legislature is a good idea. Providing coverage to small community papers like the Eagle is a great one. Since we can neither send correspondents to the capitol or benefit from the incredibly expensive Associated Press coverage, UM (full disclosure: My alma mater) provides updates from Helena free of cost as a service to readers throughout the state.
Reporter Molly Priddy's last article on the session is on page A1 in today's paper. I hope you agree that her work has been very valuable.
The Eagle also owes a special thanks to House District 9 Representative Scott Reichner. His (almost) weekly column was one more thing for an already busy man to take on, but hopefully it gave readers a bit of insight as to how this district was represented.
Reichner approached the Eagle with the idea shortly after the elections in November, and was willing to follow through on it, even after he realized the workload required of a freshman representative.
One of newspapers' greatest services to the public is that we pay people to keep an eye on government proceedings. The Eagle is grateful that the university and our own representative were willing to help out to make it a little easier on us.
50 years is no small thing
As downtown business owners have not been shy about telling me, there are a lot of anniversaries in the Village this year. But none of those stack up to the 50 years that the Bigfork Summer Playhouse celebrates in 2009.
This modest mountain town has churned out such a stream of talent that Bigfork is known around the country for its summer series of productions. There will be many events and opportunities for taking stock of this great accomplishment, and we are proud to present one of them in next week's paper.
Please be sure to grab a copy of the May 14 Bigfork Eagle for a special section chronicling the history and achievements of Electric Avenue's cornerstone.
—Alex Strickland