Around the lake, April 29
From the West Shore News:
Candidates prepare to face off for local school board seats
Registered voters in the Somers-Lakeside School District will be facing a number of choices on the ballot next week.
The elections for the two open seats on the Somers-Lakeside School Board as well as for the high school seat on the Kalispell School Board that represents Somers, Lakeside and Kila will both take place Tuesday, May 4. Five candidates are vying for the Somers-Lakeside seats and two for the Kalispell seat.
Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. at both district schools. Absentee ballots have to be returned by May 3 at noon.
From the Bigfork Eagle:
Guitar concert to be held this weekend
Bigfork will play host to two renowned guitarists Saturday at a concert sponsored by the Crown of the Continent Guitar Foundation.
Guitarists Andrew Leonard and Doug Smith have toured together for more than four years, sharing concerts that combine Leonard's classical stylings with Smith's original acoustic compositions.
The concert was originally set to feature Bigfork native Mike Boshka as well, with the premiere of his original composition "Triple Divide Peak," which he wrote in honor of the Glacier National Park Centennial. Due to a medical emergency, Boshka will not appear.
Classically trained Leonard brings together music from all over the world, including South America and Turkey as well as the Romantic and Baroque eras and folk-inspired music from the United States.
He has been hailed by magazines as "critic's choice" and called "a guitar phenomenon."
Leonard has two recordings, "A World of Guitar Music" and "Music of the Ages." Both have received airplay throughout the country on National Public Radio affiliates.
Smith is a Grammy Award-winning guitarist. His style combines folk, classical, jazz and contemporary forms with virtuoso guitar technique to create a unique, flowing and highly melodic finger-picking style reminiscent of the playing of guitarists Chet Atkins, Leo Kottke, Michael Hedges and Alex de Grassi.
His original compositions have been heard on the sound tracks of movies such as "August Rush" and "Twister," as well as numerous radio and TV shows.
Smith has numerous CDs to his credit including a Best Of recording, a Christmas CD and the recently released "Alone Again," the follow up to his best selling "Alone at Last." Doug records for Solid Air Records.
The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Bigfork Center for the Performing Arts.
Tickets are available online at www.bigforktheater.org as well as at Electric Avenue Gifts and the Coffee Cellar in Bigfork and at Coulter Coffee in Kalispell.
This is the first event for the recently established Crown of the Continent Guitar Foundation.The foundation will host its largest event this summer - a week-long guitar workshop and festival featuring world-renown guitarists Pat Metheny, Larry Carlton, Alex De Grassi and Scott Tennant on Aug. 28 through Sept. 5 at Flathead Lake Lodge.
School district cuts staff, programs
After four months of committee discussions, the Bigfork School Board adopted a number of personnel and program cuts for next year to make up for a $297,000 budget shortfall.
"There have been hundreds of hours of administrative and school board finance committee time to minimize the effects," Superintendent Russ Kinzer said. "This is my 22nd year as superintendent and this is the most difficult, longest and completed one I've helped put together."
The most significant of these cuts came in both staffing and activities. Two certified teachers were cut and another will be left unfilled. Five classified staff positions, both full and part time, will also be eliminated. A number of other positions, certified and classified including tenured staff, also experienced reduced assignments or were reassigned.
In addition, two sports programs, golf and cross country, will no longer be funded.
More than 80 percent of the general fund budget is tied up in staff salaries, which is why that area is one of the first looked at in a shortfall, Kinzer said.
Administrators and the district's finance committee began meeting in January to look at budget scenarios, board chair Maureen Averill said, adding that this week's preliminary budget was probably "draft 100."
"I can't tell you how many scenarios have been looked at," Averill said. "None of it has been easy."
Lake may not reach full-pool
The lack of snow this year didn't just affect the ski season by closing mountain resorts early - it's also making it "questionable" as to whether Flathead Lake will refill to full-pool elevation by the target date of June 15.
"Estimates using the current projected runoff indicate that achieving the inflow necessary to fill the lake to 2,893 feet by June 15 is questionable," according to a press release from PPL Montana, which operates Kerr Dam south of the lake.
Mountain snowpack as well as the runoff forecasts have been well below average. The April runoff forecast for Flathead Lake is 66 percent of average, which is a decrease from the 70 percent forecast for March.
However, officials are anticipating the Lake will approach full pool - or 2,893 feet.
It's currently projected to be at approximately 2,892.2 feet by June 15 and 2,892.85 feet by June 30.
Representatives from the CSKT, PPL Montana, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bonneville Power Administration conferred on the current conditions on April 12 and will meet again next month to assess any needed changes.
The current outflow at the dam is 3,400 cubic feet per second and the lake elevation is 2,886.35, or about 6.7 feet from full pool.