Flathead County Sheriff
Flathead County Sheriff's Office got calls about vehicles sliding into ditches all over the county with Thursday night's and Friday's heavy snowfall. From midnight to 8 a.m. there were 12 slide-ins reported in the Lower Valley Road area and along U.S. 93 south of Carpenter's Arena. Seven more vehicles were in the ditch on Lake Blaine Road, with all but two towed out by a little after noon.
Just before 1 p.m. an accident a mile and a half north of the county landfill, near Happy Valley, ended in one person being extricated from a vehicle and taken by Whitefish Fire Ambulance to Kalispell Regional Medical Center.
Possible animal cruelty was reported when somebody spotted a horse at the corner of Solberg and Harmony that didn't appear to have any feed or water.
Others reported a stray llama and cows on the road. Another reported hitting a horse and running over it; he feared it was dead.
Skiers who got lost at Round Meadows Thursday about 7 p.m. used their cell phone to call for help. They were prepared with head lamps, but didn't discover until later that one of the skiers also had a trail map in his pocket. They found their way out safely.
It was child endangerment, one caller complained, that a four-wheeler was towing a youngster behind it in the Meadow Hills subdivision. The caller's husband, she said, nearly hit the towee with his truck.
Suspicions were raised when somebody came to a historic lodge near Hungry Horse looking for plowing jobs. The lodge's lot, after all, already had been cleared.
A vehicle was reported still running but parked on the road near a landmark restaurant on U.S. 2 West. Another vehicle hit a county plow on Helena Flats Road.
A rural Whitefish landlord-tenant disagreement developed into a disturbance that prompted a call to the sheriff. Deputies couldn't get to the home because Lodgepole Road had not been plowed, so the partied decided to deal with the issue on their own.
Drivers between Lakeside and Somers were doing the neighborly thing and pulling each other out of snowy ditches. Others on Seven Row, just off U.S. 93 south of Kalispell, weren't so neighborly; one neighbor got stuck in another's driveway and left the vehicle, drawing the driveway owner's ire.
The sheriff's office got 132 calls for help between 3:30 p.m. Thursday and 3:30 p.m. Friday.
Kalispell Police
Kalispell police got 10 calls from drivers stuck in the roads and ditches starting just before 8 a.m. Friday. One pedestrian was reported stuck in the snow and walking down the middle of the highway north of town; police gave him a ride to a nearby home improvement store.
A smoke alarm had been sounding for 20 minutes from an apartment where two small children live, a worried caller reported. Police discovered a pot left on the stove was the culprit. A man eventually came out of the bedroom saying he had been sleeping and the children were fine. According to the report, he's a heavy sleeper.
Late-night door slamming and stair stomping did not please one resident on 12th Street East.
Word to the wise: Police made several stops for obstructed license plates.
A Ford Ranger and a full-size GMC pickup collided at Three Mile Drive and Empire Loop Thursday evening. The pickup went nose-first into the ditch and needed a tow.
Police arrested a 30-year-old woman on suspicion of theft at a drug store.
A compact car got stuck in the middle of a snowy Two Mile Drive and Cooper Lane and had to be towed to make way for traffic. An unknown car was towed from someone else's driveway to make way for a plow that was standing by to clear the drive a little later. Another vehicle was locked and running, but police had no time to help on Friday morning. But police did unlock the locked and running vehicle with a 1-year-old inside later in the afternoon.
Fire had fully engulfed a car near the fairgrounds office building by the time Kalispell firefighters arrived Friday morning, and threatened to become a structure fire. It was extinguished safely.
A Department of Transportation supervisor didn't appreciate the snow-plowing contractor's decision to push snow out onto the highway near Gateway West Mall, and told him about it. It prompted a belligerent response, the highway official reported.
The department received 65 calls for help from 3:30 p.m. Thursday to 3:30 p.m. Friday.
Columbia Falls Police
Columbia Falls police arrested a 45-year-old woman on suspicion of drunken driving at 12th Avenue West and 11th Street, and discovered three outstanding county warrants during the arrest.
The department had 18 calls for help from 3:30 p.m. Thursday to 3:30 p.m. Friday.
Whitefish Police
Whitefish police arrested a 42-year-old man on suspicion of drunken driving on Second Street West early Friday morning.
The department received 41 calls for help from 3:30 p.m. Thursday to 3:30 p.m. Friday.