Evergreen well-served by chamber
Our heartiest congratulations to the Evergreen Chamber of Commerce for a successful first year of operations.
The chamber is a valuable new ally for businesses in Evergreen and for the entire local business community, helping to promote an area of the county which has long had its own identity and which was once the center of commercial development in the valley.
The chamber is bringing attention to Evergreen with highway signage and an information center in the Kmart parking lot.
It has also helped to bring business leaders together for activities and events such as luncheons and evening “energizers.”
No doubt the Evergreen business community faces lots of challenges in the next decade, but with a Chamber of Commerce to lead the way, those challenges will be a lot more manageable.
The energy to succeed
Persistence has prevailed for the folks at Stoltze Land and Lumber, who have for years been brainstorming, planning and negotiating a way to develop an economically feasible biomass co-generation plant at their facility west of Columbia Falls.
The company has done just that, largely thanks to an agreement with Flathead Electric Cooperative that allows Stoltze to sell up to 2.5 megawatts of power annually starting Oct. 1. Power revenue, in turn, will help pay off the plant, which also provides steam for Stoltze’s kilns and heat for its buildings.
Serious talk about biomass potential started to ratchet up when the pulp mill in Frenchtown shut down several years ago. That mill was the destination for wood waste that comes from a sea of forests that surround the Flathead Valley. People at Stoltze envisioned the potential for biomass power generation and they’ve managed to make it happen.
Congratulations to them! Maybe they have established a workable example for others to follow.
Welcome home, 495th!
We join the entire Flathead Valley in welcoming home the 68 soldiers of the 495th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion who returned safe and sound last weekend. They spent nine months in harm’s way, providing logistics and support in Southern Afghanistan.
It was heart-warming to see these heroes embraced by family and friends, and welcomed and honored by so many thoughout the valley. We hold a special place in our hearts for our service men and women who so selflessly give of their time and talents to serve their country.
Editorials represent the majority opinion of the Daily Inter Lake’s editorial board.