The Billings Gazette from Billings, Montana • 14

2C Monday, August 24, 1992 CITY STATE The Billings Gazette ig Timber hospital assesses future by the month By PAT BELLINGHAUSEN Of the Gazette Staff Sweet Grass Community Hospital in Big Timber will stay open until October, if possible, Board Chairman Louie Strand said Sunday. But neither the chairman nor anyone else is guaranteeing the longevity of the financially struggling hospital. The hospital board will have a special meeting at noon today with the Blue Ribbon Committee that recently formed to work on solutions for community health care. Sweet Grass Community is the only hospital in the county, which has a higher than average population of senior citizens. Strand said the Blue Ribbon Committee asked for to day's meeting because members wanted "a more definitive answer from us on whether we can stay open another two or three months." Strand said he doesn't know the answer to that question.

"We're just going to play it month by month to see if we can survive another month," Strand said by telephone from Big Timber. "We haven't closed it yet." The panel plans to complete some of its work by October, and asked the hospital board to keep operating till then. The board earlier recommended closing the hospital, possibly in mid-September. But in a meeting this month, the board agreed to hold on a while longer. The cost of reopening would be high, Strand said.

The older, one-story brick hospital currently is subject to 1976 hospital building standards, but if it closed and wanted to reopen, newer standards would apply and require expensive changes, he said. The board directed Administrator Karen Herman to cut hospital staff and raise some prices to the level charged by other facilities in the area. All staff cuts would be in the business office, because nursing and other patient care staff must stay at current levels to meet requirements for a licensed hospital and emergency room. The chairman said he has heard from community people about the hospital. "There's a strong feeling" for keeping it open, he said.

Yet the hospital's basic problem is a dwindling number of patients. He said the community also is looking at the possibility of combining the hospital and nursing home, a move that would reduce operating costs, but would require new construction. A "strong option" is converting the hospital to a medical assistance facility, a sort of mini-hospital that wouldn't be subject to all of the staffing requirements of a hospital. Medical assistance facilities are operating in; four Eastern Montana towns with physician assistants at; the sole or primary practitioners. The committee was formed by a community health council with members representing the medical clinic, nursing home, hospital, county commission and one "at large" member.

The committee is working with consul-; tants from the University of Washington who have done; studies on the community's health care needs. Although-neither the committee nor the health council actually nasi authority to make changes in local health services, said the hospital board will work with them. All-American billboard Sheriff seeks help with bone mystery iWWMMIJMIiBUlSWWM i ii II I ii 1 1 ii i vvy tw jf-m 5T 'All-America Ctvlr 11 7V WirM i tl II is A TK T7 'ji t.i t- "vv it. BLM board meeting set' By JUNE RAM BO For the Gazette LEWISTOWN The Lewistown District Bureau of Land Manage-; ment Grazing Advisory Board will meet at 10 a.m. Sept.

15 at the Public Library in Malta. The agenda for the meeting will cover fiscal year 1992 range improvement accomplishments and fiscal year 1993 planned range; improvement projects. Additional items on the agenda' include allotment management plans, grazing administration issues-, weed control, ferret reintroduction and prairie dog surveys. The Lewistown District Grazing Advisory Board is authorized under-the Federal Advisory Committee' Act. The board advises the Lewis-town district manager regarding the district's rangeland management program, including the development; of allotment management plans and; the utilization of range betterment-funds.

Advisory board members include Kenneth Blunt, chairman, Malta; Fred Itcaina, Dodson, John Hughes, Roundup; Joe Meissner, Chester; Larry Grass Range; Don Burke, and Willard Lybeck, Zurich. The public is welcome to attend the meeting and may comment at the end of each agenda item. 1 i "From all indications, it looks like they will go with it," he said. After interviewing the trunk's former owner for about two hours in Dallas, Lumley said he is uncomfortable with the man's answers. One of the biggest questions was why the man didn't open the trunk while he had it, he said.

The investigation into the mysterious skeleton has grown to include the state Division of Criminal Investigation and Texas authorities. The DCI investigation indicates the skeleton is that of a white male 35 to 50 years old who was killed 45 to 70 years ago with one shot to the head from a .25 caliber weapon. Investigators say the weapon was a style of Colt pistol manufactured between the turn of the century and about 1930. The DCI also has established that the skeleton had been buried, then dug up and placed in the trunk. DCI Deputy Director Sandy Mays has almost completed a reconstruction of the skull, which will show what the man might have looked like.

Authorities have been unable to link the remains to any missing persons reports, Lumley said. "I've sat and speculated and speculated on this thing and I just can't figure it out," Lumley said. "This case is a challenge." THERMOPOLIS, Wyo. (AP) -After a fruitless trip searching for answers, the Hot Springs County sheriff is seeking help nationwide to solve the mystery of a skeleton discovered in a trunk. Sheriff John Lumley flew to Dallas last week to interview the former owner of a trunk that contained the skeleton.

The padlocked box of bones was discovered earlier this year in Thermopolis by a retired repairman, who was cleaning out a shed a friend gave him five years ago. Newel Sessions said the friend who gave him the shed told him that he bought the trunk at a yard sale in Oklahoma City in the early 1980s, but never bothered unlocking it. Lumley flew to Dallas to talk to the man who originally owned the trunk, but said late last week that the trip yielded no answers. Now, the sheriff said he's ready to talk to the producers of the television show "Unsolved Mysteries" to try to answer the questions. "Within two weeks, a producer should be out to talk to people, interview people, take pictures, he said.

The show's producer, Mary Pat Carver, has contacted Lumley several times for information, he said. She was supposed to contact the trunk's owner late last week and tell him the results, Lumley said. 1 mMwkvitttimtto aftrtatiifoatla T-T'Ti Gazette photo by Lany Mayer eral expected to be erected in the Billings area. Dennehy was instrumental In planning and donating the billboard. Ott, Larsen and Senile, who also is president of the chamber, were instrumental in winning the designation for the city.

The designation allows Billings to use the Ail-America program in its promotions and marketing. Paul Dennehy of Myhre Advertising, far left, and Billings Mayor Richard Larsen, pose with Butch Ott, far right, of the Billings Area Chamber of Commerce and Billings Gazette Publisher Wayne Senile on a billboard erected by Myhre in the 3600 block of Montana Avenue. The sign, which marks Billings' designation as an All-America city, is one of sev- MONTANA IN BRIEF NOW OPEN at 7 AM available at Time to renew your subscription? Don't miss an issue of The Billings Gazette Call 1-800-669-NEWS Sheila Hogan, president of Local 4447 of the than $14 billion over four years, and Medicare Federation of Social and Rehabilitation Service Workers, said the endorsement follows a mail survey of some 330 union members statewide. She said about 70 percent of those responding favored Bradley. BUliz The union said Bradley will meet with state The Source.

employees in the SRS Auditorium in Helena on Sept 1 to discuss state employee issues. Baucus wary of Bush cuts HELENA Sen. Max Baucus, said last week that President Bush's convention call for an across-the-board tax cut would be paid for with reductions in federal programs for farmers, veterans, the elderly and the middle class. 14 Mr1' II State PAC limits raised HELENA Commissioner of Political Practices Dolores Colburg has announced higher new limits on how much state legislative candidates may accept from political action committees. She said each state Senate candidate may accept no more than $1,650 in total donations from all such committees during the entire 1992 election cycle, while a House candidate may collect no more than $1,000 in such funds.

The limits are an increase from the 1990 election cycle when Senate candidates could received no more than $150 and House candidates no more than $100 from political action committees. Such committees are groups formed to support or oppose candidates or ballot issues by making donations. Under a 1983 state law limiting aggregate political action committee donations, the political practices commissioner is required to adjust the figure for inflation every two years and round off the figure to the nearest $50. Colburg noted that the limitations don't apply to donations from political party committees. SRS union backs Bradley HELENA A union representing workers in the state Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services said Friday it has endorsed Democrat Dorothy Bradley for governor.

benefits would be cut for the elderly, Baucus charged. But Medicare taxes would increase by more than $64 billion. College student aid programs would be cut by more than $12 billion over four years, Baucus said, while children's benefits would be cut by $9 billion, including a $4.2 billion cut in child nutrition programs. Baucus said Bush was trying "to buy this election at the cost of rural America and the middle-class. It's one of the most cynical ploys ever attempted by a presidential candidate." Ethanol plant progresses GREAT FALLS Work on the $100 million ethanol plant scheduled for Great Falls is moving right along, even if people can't see it happening, said AmericanEthanolCorp.

President Gary Hebener. "Our of fice is fairly quiet right now," Hebener said. "I think some people interpret that lack of inactivity as meaning there is something wrong with the project. It doesn't mean that at all." The final engineering work on the plant is being done at Bechtel San Francisco headquarters. Construction is scheduled to begin next spring, Hebener said.

He said he had heard rumors of trouble among the corporate partners AmericanEthanoL Bechtel and others and said they may have been started by a disgruntled former employee. He declined to name the employee. teJlIiliilRfflJl 11 No Discount VdaUt Nigrtrry No hjaday Bargains Bush told the closing session of the Republican National Convention that he would propose an across-the-board tax cut to the new Congress that convenes in January if re-elected. He said the cuts would have to be offset by spending reductions. In a statement issued last week, however, Baucus said the spending cuts sought by Bush would strike hard at Montanans.

Baucus, state chairman for Democratic challenger Bill Clinton, said they include cuts of $28 billion over five years in federal farm programs, including $3 billion from the export enhancement program. Bush also would raise federal grazing fees by more than $115 million and charges for the use of federal water by more than $85 million over the next four years, Baucus said. Veterans benefits would be cut by more i SAPID JillL No Poiiw or Dugwn fofaw Nightly No estfayBoigcwn m) Billinffs Gazette The Source. SSSr ANNOUNCEMENTS COMMERCIAL RENTALS MERCHANDISE RECREATIONAL PERSONALS PROPERTY Ll 11 500-L)vaatoctlPture 501 Farm 6 Ranch Suppaa 502 HoraaatSuppkaa 503 Pant Suppasa 505 PouNry Smal Stock 506 Wood Foal Daatart 507 Faad-Saad-Grant 508 Urxtecapa-Garrjaning Gazette Classified is now open at 7:30 a.m. Monday thru Friday 430 Incona Ftoparty 432 Comrnaroial PropartySala 434 Commaroal Proparly Laaaa 438 Ofnca SpacaLaaaa 438 Storaga or Warahouaa 600 -Bicyctoa Rapair 601 BoatoManttoSuppiaa 602 SUEouipmant 603 Snowtnobaaa 604 SnrjawiopaiSMAraat 605 Campvig Eompmanl 607 RVa-Campan Motorhomat 603 RV Motorhomaa Rant 609 Gun 4 Archary Equip 610 Hurting Farting Gmdaa 61 1 Sport, AM8c, Exarcia Equip 613 PorjlSpaHoaub 101 Happy Adl 102 HndlFfWid 103 CMaOrganzitiora 104 AnnouncsMiPiMi 105 PtnonKNotcw 107 Pubic Notkat 10S UMIFouid 111 UgriNotOM 113 kmMontoBid 115 Card Thar! an i-runa a vagaaixaa 300 Fum RoomaRant 301 Fum ApartniantoRant 302 Fum Townhouiai Condoa 303- FurnDurjNmMuraptoxa( 305 Fum Homaanant 307 FunMoWasRant 306 ParSy FurnRant 300 Untorn Apaflmanto Rani 311 Untom OuptoxaakUlvtoiaa 312 Unten Tunnhouaai Condoa 313 Untorn Houaai Rani 314 Unhm Mobiaa Rant 315 Motoaaltawanlai 31 GaraoaaPartang Rant 317 Out ot Town Rantaia 319 Vacanon SnaTana Sham 321 WamadtoRant 312- Farm Macriirtary-Trucfcs -ioo-Pumpa-fcrioxiaa 11 mi BUSINESS 4 117 518 DrtanrHianing Equip 118- FINANCIAL 11t TmparMon Tnl 120 School A Imfcmaum 121 la.

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