Stories from Wednesday, April 30, 2008

The $37 million Mountain Home School District bond issue went down to defeat in heavy voting Tuesday. Only 1,465 voters cast ballots to approve the bond, with 952 of the 2,417 total ballots cast marked "no." Although the bond receive a 60.6 percent approval rate it required 67 percent to pass...

Mountain Home Junior High has announced its honor roll for the third quarter. Students named to the list are: 8th grade 4.0 GPA -- Marrisa Aiken, Sarah Alley, Sydney Baldridge, Cara Buckner, John 'JT' Cristobal, Dallas Croft, Nicolas Duvall, Kalena Galloway, Ryan Goldsby, Tia Gustafson, Jake Hennessey, Jenna Knutson, Anna Martin, Emily McCabe, Anthony McKenzie, Karen Ortiz, Leah Riley, Brent Sexauer, Katie Siira, Chealsey Straw, Liliana Vera, Jessica Wheeler...

"This is really the culminating moment for Pacific," President and CEO Ray Wahlert said in describing the ribbon cutting ceremony and open house for their new recycling and shredding facility in Elmore County. The facility utilizes cutting-edge industrial technology with a "green twist," he said...

King Hill resident Doug King has announced his candidacy for District 2 County Commissioner. King is running on the Republican ticket and will face incumbent Larry Rose in the May 27 Primary Election. This will be King's second attempt to unseat Rose who has served as county commissioner for District 2 since 1997...

Local fourth-grade students (or wranglers) got a "hands-on" opportunity to experience life on the Western frontier during "Wagons Ho," a three-day event at Carl Miller Park last week. In its 15th year in Mountain Home, the events aids in teaching the schools' curriculum on Idaho history...

District Court James Munson, 23, was found guilty for burglary (5/18/06). Munson was ordered to nine years probation (retained jurisdiction) and ordered to pay $347.50 in court costs. Munson had a charge of grand theft (5/18/06) dismissed by the prosecutor...

Arrests Ronald Jason Ivey, 37--urinate in public; probation violation Dereck Michael Kelser, 26--assault. Jesus Juarez, 23--failure to purchase drivers license. Jaime Juarez-Tapia, 23--warrant. Micheil Patrick Erickson, 20--petit theft/criminal trespass...

We had a lot of fun doing the "backyard burial" story, and think most people got a good chuckle out of it. It was one of those classic cases where people assume some kind of law is in place, then discover nobody had ever gotten around to actually doing it...

Dear editor: Whatever happened to making prisoners work off their fines in the community? I cannot believe that the courts will put a person in jail for driving with a suspended license. Instead of giving them community service to work off their fine...

Dear editor: I have been a PGA Golf Professional for over 25 years and have never been associated with people like we have at our municipal golf course. This is just one example of the care that the citizens of the City of Mountain Home have for their golf course...

Dear editor: I wish to publicly thank Peter Humm of Mountain Home for the letter of support in the April 22 edition of the Idaho Statesman. I had written a letter describing first aid kits that were donated to the North Vietnamese Army, by subversives of the college in Berkeley, Calif., one of which I had removed personally from a dead Communist soldier in Khe Sanh, Vietnam, after one of our many firefights in the spring of 1968...

Dear editor: Hello, my name is Jacquie, I'm 13 and a student at MHJHS. I would like to express some of my concerns about our school. Our school is not perfect. Like many schools we have gang problem, drug problems and a lot of violent fights. The biggest problem we have is bullying. ...

Dear editor: The following statement is my considered opinion and is intended to reflect my personal point of view: A flurry of anti-police letters have appeared in the newspaper and this concerns me. Mr. Heiman, I do agree with you in part. Some of our officers are indeed fine people. However, you wrote that Mr. Thirion's opinion was "inaccurate."...

Melvin Patrick Freeman, 78, of Mountain Home, died on Tuesday, April 22, 2008, at a local hospital. No services are planned at this time. Arrangements are under the direction of Rost Funeral Home, McMurtrey Chapel in Mountain Home.

Evelyn M. Barnett, 80, of Mountain Home, died Tuesday, April 22, 2008, at a local care center. A graveside service was held Friday, April 25, at Mountain View Cemetery in Mountain Home. Arrangements were under the direction of Rost Funeral Home, McMurtrey Chapel...

Leonard Wayne Bledsoe, 87, of Hammett, died Saturday, April 26, 2008, at a local hospital. A viewing will be held on Friday, May 2, from 4-6 p.m., at Rost Funeral Home, McMurtrey chapel. The graveside service will be held Saturday, May 3, at 11 a.m. at Glenn Rest Cemetery in Glenns Ferry. Arrangements are under the direction of Rost Funeral Home in Mountain Home...

Donna V. Kundsen, 76, of Mountain Home, died Monday, April 21, 2008, at a Boise hospital. No services are planned at this time. Donna was born on April 9, 1932, in Idaho Falls, the daughter of Samuel and Bertha Waddell. She married Ray Knudsen in 1957 in Elko, Nev. They moved to Mountain Home in 1966...

Doris D. Davis, 93, of Hammett, died Friday, April 25, 2008, at a local care facility. A viewing was held on Tuesday, April 29, from 5-7 p.m. at Rost Funeral Home, McMurtrey Chapel. Services will be held on Wednesday, April 30, with a viewing from 10-10:45 a.m. and funeral services beginning at 11 a.m. at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Glenns Ferry. Burial will follow at Glenn Rest Cemetery in Glenns Ferry...

Ninety-nine members of the MHHS choirs have returned from Anaheim, Calif., with six winning plaques presented at the Heritage Festival. Competing against 33 choirs from around the country, the MHHS Madrigal Choir, the Mixed Choir, the Ladies Treble Choir, the Varsity Treble Choir and the Jazz Choir all won Gold Awards...

Democrat Janet Langfitt is hoping to win the District 1 county commissioner's post. In announcing her candidacy last month prior to the filing deadline she noted that "my family has lived, worked and raised our families in Mountain Home since 1898. I am the fifth generation in the seventh generation line...

Army Specialist Steven Cornford, a former resident of Mountain Home until he joined the Army, was presented with the Silver Star two weeks ago at Fort Hood, Texas. The Silver Star is the third highest military decoration awarded to a member of the armed forces...

Mountain Home golfers finished sixth in the girls competition and ninth in the boys at last week's Broadmore Invitational Golf Tournament. Middleton won the girls competition, shooting a 408, with Emmett a distant second at 446. Columbia was third with 454, followed by Vallivue, 461, Skyview, 484, Mountain Home, 486, and Centennial, 526...

The Mountain Home Junior High Tigers collected 25 individual medals and 12 Relay medals last Friday and Saturday at the YMCA Invitational Middle School Championships held at the BSU track. Winning gold medals for the Tigers were: two by Austin Lesonbee, the 7th- and 8th-grade Boys Medley Relay, Jacci Cristobal, Boys 7th- and 8th-grade Medley Relay, Boys 6th-grade 4x400-meter relay and the Boys 7th- and 8th-grade 4xl00-meter relay...

Coach Rob Daniel's U14 Boys soccer team completed its league season games with a huge 15-0 shutout over Middleton Gold at Eastside Park and now work on preparing for post-season tournament play. Brent Sexauer led the charge with five goals, followed by Tony McKenzie's three-goal hat trick on the day. ...

The Mountain Home Tiger girls track team won Thursday's Skyview meet, while the Tiger boys finished second. Mountain Home picked up 11 first-place finishes to roll up 119 points to easily win the girls competition. Skyview was a distant second with 65 points, Boise had 55, and Borah, 27...

The Mountain Home Tigers junior varsity baseball team took two games from Middleton last week. Tigers 17 Vikings 6 Mountain Home pounded out 13 hits in a 17-6 JV win over Middleton at home last Thursday. A five-run sixth ended the game in the sixth inning by the 10-run rule...

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers JV softball team outscored its opponents, 45-13, last week in picking up three more wins. Mtn. Home 18 Skyview 10 Mountain Home scored in every inning on its way to an 18-10 conference softball win over Skyview last Tuesday at home...

The Mountain Home Tigers boys tennis team came away with victories in two of their three matches last week. Tiger Boys 2 Bishop Kelly 5 Tiger Girls 0 Bishop Kelly 7 The Tiger boys picked up wins in singles and doubles against the tough Bishop Kelly squad. Ricky Guadarrama lost the #1 singles match, 0-6, 2-6. Chris Oswald picked up a win at #2, 6-3, 6-4, while Andrew Martin was blanked at #3, 0-6, 0-6...

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers picked up three more softball wins last week as they get ready to close out the regular season and head into the postseason. Mtn. Home 4 Skyview 0 Nickayla Skinner struck out 15 and scattered three hits as Mountain Home beat Skyview, 4-0, last Tuesday in conference softball at Mountain Home. Skinner helped her cause with a two-run home run...

The Mountain Home Tigers beat Middleton twice last week in conference baseball to increase their current win streak to six. Mtn. Home 7 Middleton 6 Alex Hoffman's double knocked in Ricky Lee with what proved to be the winning run in the top of the seventh inning at Middleton Thursday night as the Tigers took a 7-6 conference win over the Vikings...