40 YEARS AGO • MARCH 29, 1984

EDNA HILL LEADS A RUGGED REWARDING LIFE

by Linda Shaffer

Continued from last week…

During her childhood in Trout Creek mainly - a few years in Polson - Edna recalls all eight grades being housed in one room. “There were three of us in the eighth grade. I still have my report cards.” It was a frame building sawed out by her granddad, she says.

High school for Edna was in Thompson Falls, boarding at the dorm during the week and riding the train home on Fridays. “We liked catching the #3 train back to Trout Creek on Fridays at 1:30 because that meant only four and one-half days of school” she laughs. The train would pull into Trout Creek at around five or six because of all the stops. Sunday we’d all pile into a car, pitch in on gas and head back to Thompson over a road so muddy that teams of horses often had to pull cars through the mud. I remember one man bragging that his ford could go 37 miles per hour!”

Horses have played a major role in Edna’s life. She raised appaloosas and thoroughbreds and now raises American saddlebreds.

This woman who has had run-ins with grizzlies, also has a knack for growing lemons in her home. And sizable ones, too, right next to the flourishing aloe vera plants in the same room with some of her paintings of elk and horses.

Edna tells a story of a talented painter friend who became ill and put his painting aside for many years. He grew somewhat despondent. “I told him if you love to paint, then you should paint!” He recently sent Edna and Wayne some completed works. Edna takes her own advice. If you love something, then you should do it. Many hunters and family and friends agree that Edna does what she loves and does it well and it has made for an invigorating life with not all that much time to reflect. “Too much still in the works,” she muses.

FIRE CHIEF TELLS COUNCIL FIREHALL IS FALLING DOWN

Telling council members that conditions were much worse than expected. Thompson Falls Fire Chief Ron Turk urged the mayor and city council to move forward on plans to construct a new downtown fire station.

Turk said that the building located directly north of City Hall is so weak that a foot of heavy wet snow would likely cause a total failure of the roof system.

Earlier this year the city had to brace the roof from the inside to keep the light fixtures from sagging into the apparatus on the city’s main fire truck. For years the station has been so cramped that crews have had to remove the topmost spray nozzle before being able to back the truck into the building.

The city hasn’t been caught off guard, explained Mayor Neal, and for the past few years has been adding to a special fund for fire station improvements. With almost $50,000 and another budget year’s revenues, the city feels a new station could be constructed without major borrowing.

The generally accepted site for a new fire hall would be the former Funk property, west of City Hall, which the city obtained recently.

Turk told the council that he would like to see the fire hall ready for occupancy by next winter. He offered that the current strategy discussed among the fire department includes a metal building that would be large enough to hold four fire vehicles with entrances/exits in the alley and on Maiden lane. Turk said they would like to be able to pull into the building from the alley and exit on Maiden Lane.

The council will take up the matter again at the April meeting.

25 YEARS AGO • MARCH 1999

LOW GAS PRICES FINALLY COME

How long has it been since the gas prices have been below $1 a gallon?

Forty years ago, a gallon of gas was 24¢, a Coke was a nickel and a loaf of white bread cost a quarter.

In the 1970s with the oil embargo, gas prices quadrupled and have remained high ever since. But during the past month, they have taken a slide from $1.30 a gallon for regular gas to 99.9¢ at Town Pump in Thompson Falls. In Plains, Colyer Sinclair’s price is $1.00.9; at Spring Street Exxon in Hot Springs, regular gas is 99.9¢. Prices in the west end range from $103.9 at Aitken’s Quik Stop at Noxon to $11.3.9 at Trout Creek and $1.15.9 at the Heron Store.