
Monica Trenel and Debo Powers
Monica Tranel spoke to a standing-room-only crowd at a fundraiser in Kalispell. Hopefully, Monica will replace absentee Congressman Ryan Zinke who is best known for his numerous ethics violations and his attempts to eliminate National Monuments when he was Secretary of Interior. He continues to lie about his support for public lands. We need Monica!
The Legislative Listening Tour arrived in Columbia Falls after meeting with citizens in towns all over Montana. Many people spoke to Legislators about issues that concerned them: Affordable Housing, Medicaid Expansion and Health Insurance, high Property Taxes, underfunded Public Schools, Mental Health services and Suicide rates, clean-up of the CFAC Super Fund Site, and Water Quality.


The Winter Interlocal was held this week in the Community Room at Glacier National Park. Interlocal meetings are held twice a year for North Fork landowners to meet with representatives from all of the national and state agencies who manage the public lands in the North Fork. Flathead County also sends people mainly to talk about the North Fork Road. Scientists who are conducting research in the North Fork report on their work. Each group presents information regarding the North Fork and answers questions from landowners. Landowner groups also give reports. Debo gave the report from the North Fork Preservation Association.
Debo Powers is one of two Democratic candidates running for House District 3. To learn more about this huge district, see “About HD3” on this website. The Flathead Beacon published an article about Debo Powers and her opponent in the Democratic Primary. Click on the link below to read the article. The race will be decided on June 4.
About 25 friends and supporters met at the Last Chair Restaurant in Whitefish to kickoff the Powers for the People Campaign!
Along with pristine wild lands and towering mountains, House District 3 also has a Super Fund Site where the old Columbia Falls Aluminum Company (CFAC) used to operate. Last night, I attended a meeting of concerned citizens called the Coalition for a Clean CFAC who are working to ensure that the cleanup plan is not “waste in place” but removal of the waste to an appropriate toxic waste site. There are major concerns with the current plan to contain waste behind slurry walls onsite which could pollute the Flathead River and surrounding wells. The current plan would leave the 900-acre site a toxic waste dump forever. The Coalition is asking for a pause before this plan goes forward in order for there to be an independent cost feasibility analysis on waste removal and the chance for community visioning about future uses for this site which is located outside the city limits of Columbia Falls. For more information, visit the website at: www.cleancfacnow.org