Ravalli Republic from Hamilton, Montana • 1

Athletes on tour See page 3 Court news See page 2 Erhardt on board Singer remains mute By RUTH THORNING As he was wheeled from a crowded courtroom, Hoyt Axton was asked by a reporter if he had anything to say to his many fans. Axton responded quietly, I have nothing to say." Axton, 58, and his companion, Deborah Hawkins, 43, appeared for their initial arraignment of felony drug possession charges uesday afternoon. All courtrooms were full at the time and Axton, Hawkins, their attorneys, an entourage of family members and friends, the judge, the deputy county attorney and media representatives had to crowd into a tiny arraignment room. Television cameras and microphones blocked the doorway and Axton, who spends much of his time in a wheelchair See Singer, page 6 First appearance Country singer Hoyt Axton (right) watches his companion Deborah Hawkins sign a waiver of extradition with the assistance of her attorney, Milton Datsopoulos. Axtons attorney, Michael Sherwood, consults with Hoyt's mother, Mae Axton, in the background.

The pair face felony drug charges. (Ken Dey photos) In a whirl of information By MARY HOPKIN As whirling disease spores spread through Montana streams and infect a vast percentage of trout populations, Hamilton High School science students are making a concerted effort to inform the public about the disease, and how to help hinder its spread. The Science Club became interested in doing a project after attending a whirling disease seminar in the spring of 1 996. After brainstorming, the group decided to design placemats and distribute them to local restaurants. The placemats would warn diners about the dangers of the disease, and measures one could take to help safeguard against the spread of it.

The most important thing is to stop the but where? spread of whirling disease, club member Rick D. Wells said. The group presented their idea to Governor Racicot, while he was visiting in April, and after Racicot gave them some positive reinforcement, decided to complete the project. With the help of biology teacher and faculty adviser Tom Schmit, the group applied for grants to help fund the project. They received $300 from Trout Unlimited, which the group plans to use as matching funds for the grant.

The group of young scientists are also planning to sell advertising on the placemats to help fund them. The teens are completing the final draft of the placemat, which features a word search game, answers frequently asked questions about the and gives guidelines to help stop the spreading of it. We wanted to keep it light and fun, Wells said. It had to be easy to read and interesting. The club even came up with a mascot to help in the fun department, a fishing worm they christened Willie, the whirling warrior.

According to Schmit, local science professionals have checked their information for accuracy and given critiques. Its been fun to have other people give support, Schmit said. Weve been working on this project for so long. But periodically, there have been things throughout See Whirl, page 6 Emil W. Erhardt, chairman and president of Citizens State Bank of Hamilton, has been named director of the Helena Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis He will serve a two-year term, which began Jan.

1, 1997 Erhardt succeeds Don Olsson, president of Ronan State Bank. Erhardt is a member of the board of directors ot the Montana Bankers Association and Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital and a trustee of the Hamilton School Foundation. He graduated from MSU-Bozeman with a B.S. in accounting and earned a masters degree in public administration from the University of Oklahoma. Earhardt is a S.

Air Force veteran and a Montana native and lives in the Bitterroot Valley with his wife, Audrey. Bomb scare at USFS Participants of a water meeting at the Bitterroot National Forest Supervisors office were concerned when they noticed a box in an exterior window ledge at the building Tuesday afternoon. It was suspected that the box might contain a bomb and Hamilton police officers were called to the scene. After examination, it was determined the box was a tackle box that did not contain a bomb. Hamilton police did provide increased security patrols at the USFS building Tuesday night.

HPD officers referred all questions to Forest Supervisor Steve Kelly Tuesday evening but no Forest Service spokesman was available for comment. Scholarship soup The Stevensville Business Womens Club is sponsoring its second soup luncheon from 1 1 :30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in Stevensville Town Hall today and the public is invited. The fund raiser is for the Martha Burke Memorial Scholarship the club awards to a Stevensville High School senior girl each spring.

The Soups On luncheon will feature homemade soups, breads and desserts and the price of the all-you-can-eat event is $3.50 per person. The club also will be selling raffle tickets for a C.A. Grende, numbered and framed print titled Battlegrounds. The 32-inch by 26-inch print features elk in a Bitterroot Valley landscape and tickets for the raffle will be available at the lunch. In addition, Grende will be on hand so guests can meet the artist as well as see the print.

Stevensville Business Womens Club is in its second decade of service to the community. A top priority to the club is youth projects and. last year began what it intends as an annual appreciation See Club, page 6 Handgun classes More and more people are signing up to take the National Rifle Associations Personal Protection Handgun Class. The classes are taught locally by instructor Mark Kowack, president of Montana Handgunning, L.L.C. He has announced enrollment opening for the spring classes.

Class sizes are limited and fill early and then names are placed on waiting lists. Signing up for the classes is not an aggressive move, Kowack said. He stresses that he teaches people who do not want to be victims how to stay alive in lethal social encounters. The basic class teaches the knowledge, skills and attitude to safely and properly shoot a handgun. It introduces the students to the legal aspect of self-defense.

Kowack teaches the eight hours of firearms and Ravalli County Sheriff Jay Printz presents a four-hour class on the legal aspects. His class goals are to teach responsible. safe gun handling, to help people develop an apprecia-, tion for good weapons and good shooting and to teach' people to protect themselves. The basic class is offered to men, women and teen-agers (15 years or older) but in recent years classes have been more than 50 percent women, There arc several advanced classes offered for those who successfully complete the beginning class. 1 For information or to enroll, contact Kowack at 363-1336.

i 7 i 1 i 1 i By RUTH THORNING The river frontage at Hamiltons Hieronymus Park is a precious resource that should be impacted as little as possible. The community desperately needs more softball fields and a four-field complex must be built Those were theconflicting messages the Hamilton city council and park board heard for.an hour-and-a-half Tuesday evening at a public hearing, bn Hamilton park system. It was attended by more than 80 people. Former county commissioner Fritz Tossberg asked the most pointed question of the evening. Why should the city of Hamilton provide the grounds and the maintenance for any asked.

If people want recre-; ati6ri, let them pay for iu Form a part district that is larger than the city.Trr Tossberg said he agreed there was a See Park, page 6 HHS Science Club members Assuring quality health care for all Montanans Benedict takes it slowly What is managed care? By KEN DEY Managed care plans also usually A lot of information has been floating quire consumers to get authorization prior around about the state of Montana moving to receiving care from a specialist or hospi- its health care toward managed care. Yet tal. And in further efforts to control costs, despite the significance of the change the managed care plans will review a proposed concept of managed care, is still a foreign treatment to determine whether it is neces- idea for most Montanans. sary. If the plan determines that the treat- i According to State Auditor Mark ment isnt necessary, then the plan wont OKeefe, managed health care is a system pay for the treatment, designed to manage the delivery of health In essence, managed care plans are services to consumers and control costs.

more restrictive than the traditional health -In a traditional health insurance plan, insurance policies in which consumers can consumers can choose their doctors and pick and choose their health care providers health care providers and seek treatment and get medical treatment whenever they whenever and wherever they want. But in want. a managed care plan, consumers generally Managed care is growing in Montana; have to choose their health care providers, A typical managed care plan is an HMO, or doctors and hospitals from a list provided health maintenance organization. Member- by the plan. If a consumer in a managed ship in HMOs in Montana more than care plan seeks treatment from a doctor or doubled from 1993 to 1995, rising from provider not on the plans list of providers, 11,413 members in 93 to 24,137 in 95.

then the consumer will have to pay out of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana his or her own pocket for the treatment. See Care, page 6 avoid any duplication or confusion. You dont want to move too fast on issues like this Benedict said. You want to make sure when you pass legislation that its going to work the long term. Benedict apologized about holding up the bills, but thinks he did nothing wrong and was upset with the charges against him.

It was a blatantly political attempt to embarrass the chairman, Benedict said. The two bills Benedict has in the works deal with the upcoming managed care changes in state health care and one dealing with the Kennedy-Kassebaun health care reform act passed by Congress last year. Senate Bill 365, which will be heard on Wednesday, Feb. 19, in the Senate Public Health Committee, is tilled The Managed Care Oversight ct and will act as a safeguard for the consumer. We need to make sure when we have managed care no one gets caught in the I See Benedict, page 6 By KEN DEY As chairman of the Senate Public Health Committee Sen.

Steve Benedict said he never had any intention of holding up bills, but at the same time he wanted to take things slowly to ensure ho mistakes in health care reform. Its very crucial on sweeping changes in health care that we make absolutely certain we- havent made any mistakes, Benedict said. Senate Minority Whip Eve Franklin, (D Great Falls) accused Benedict of holding up action on at least four healthcare proposals. Benedict insisted that wasnt die case. He delayed action on the bills because the bills were peripheral bills and he felt it was important to hear the larger bills first.

Benedict is working on his own man- aged care bill and felt that because the -smaller bills dealt with that issue it was important to hear the larger bill first to A.