Sign up for the free Helena This Week newsletter and stay in the loop on Helena city government, public school meetings, business news and upcoming entertainment and events. Sign up 4/14/2025“Helena This Week” is reported and written By JoVonne Wagner. Send your Helena news and tips to jwagner@montanafreepress.org.City approves sidewalk variance for local property owners, despite connectivity issuesA divided Helena City Commission last week approved a sidewalk variance request it had previously rejected, highlighting the city’s ongoing struggle to implement local connectivity. In a city meeting last Monday, Transportation Services Director David Knoepke presented the commission with an appeal from property owners David and Shelly Pinto after their request to delay installing sidewalks around their home at the corner of LeGrande Cannon Boulevard and Cleveland Street was partially denied last year, according to city documents.While the commission initially granted a variance for the LeGrande Cannon portion of the Pintos’ property, it required the couple to install a sidewalk on Cleveland Street. The property owner’s attorney of Crowley and Fleck submitted an appeal to the city in December, stating that the Pintos would defer sidewalk construction until the commission implements a city-wide sidewalk installation plan.Because Cleveland Street is steep and the surrounding neighbors don’t have connecting sidewalks, the property owners said that adding a sidewalk, which would cost them between $20,000 and $30,000, would make it unsafe for pedestrians. City Commissioners Melinda Reed and Emily Dean questioned how it would be safer without sidewalks. “The people that use it right now are used to navigating it,” said Morgan Pettit, who represented the property owners during Monday’s meeting. “And in a certain way, granted, that’s not maybe the best way, but installing a sidewalk right now on this one part would be unsafe for all the reasons that we stated until potentially there could be more sidewalks installed at the same time on Cleveland Street.”Sidewalk variances are issued for applicants whose property has “unusual conditions” or when compliance would result in “undue and extreme hardship,” according to Helena code.“I think I’m struggling with a couple things,” Reed said during the meeting. “The arguments that are being made about the sidewalk do not appear as if they will go away with a deferral and so I’m not hearing a convincing argument about why the sidewalk will not be protested again if there is a comprehensive plan, and that concerns me a bit.”In addition, commissioners have voiced their concerns about approving the first variance because of the ongoing effort to improve Helena’s lack of connectivity and existing sidewalks. Commissioner Sean Logan, who previously supported approving the variance, said during the meeting that the requirement to add sidewalks at the property “makes little to no sense” and doesn’t contribute much to Helena’s overall accessibility issues.“I guess part of the idea here is that we’re trying to solve Helena’s sidewalk problem, but I don’t think we can do it at 60 yards at a time,” Logan said. “Especially when it’s a sidewalk that makes little sense and comes at a significant cost.” Logan continued that the city would need to add a new taxing jurisdiction to fund the necessary sidewalk infrastructure in Helena, which city staff estimates would cost $50 million.“We need to uphold the rules and regulations and use common sense,” Mayor Wilmot Collins said before the vote. “When we’re lacking common sense in this, you know I’m just baffled by that.”The city commission approved the variance appeal, 3-2, with Commissioners Dean and Reed voting in opposition. Public NoticePre-bond meetings: Helena Public Schools, in partnership with SMA Aritchecture and Design, will host meetings at Captial High School and Kessler Elementary for the public to learn more about the buildings’ deferred maintenance and the upcoming bond election. Capital’s meeting will be held on Wednesday, April 23, at the school’s cafeteria, 100 Valley Dr., at 6 p.m. On Wednesday, April 30, Kessler will hold its meeting in room 110, 2420 Choteau St., at 5:30 p.m.School levy discussion: The League of Women Voters of the Helena Area will hold a community discussion regarding public schools, proposed levies and public education laws on Monday, April 28, at 6 p.m. at the Lewis and Clark Library, 120 S. Last Chance Gulch. Rob Watson, executive director of the School Administrators of Montana, and Helena School Superintendent Rex Weltz are scheduled to speak. Community health plan: Lewis and Clark Public Health is seeking public input on the draft 2025 community health improvement plan, which aims to improve the population’s health. Residents will have until April 18 to submit feedback through an online survey. 5 Things to Know in HelenaCity open seats: Candidate filings for Helena area governments open on April 17 for the following positions:Helena Mayor East Helena Mayor Two seats on the Helena City Commission  Two seats on the East Helena City Council All seats on the Helena Citizens Council Residents can visit the Lewis and Clark County election web page to access candidacy forms for commissioner, mayor and council seats. Candidate filing forms are due by 5 p.m. on Monday, June 16, and write-in candidate forms can be submitted from July 7 to Sept. 2. The municipal general election is Nov. 4. Ming Theatre study funded: Last week, the Helena City Commission approved funding of $35,000 for a fundraising feasibility study of the Ming Theatre project, led by the Helena Symphony. City staff allocated the funds from a former Consolidated Central Helena Urban Renewal Area’s TIF. Although the commission approved the funds, Commissioner Melinda Reed questioned the city’s process for accessing the money. “I also am a little concerned about the process of these funds,” Reed said. “It doesn’t sound like there was a public process. It doesn’t sound like there was an opportunity for other projects to submit applications. It doesn’t sound like there was even an actual application. So I’m a little bit hesitant to commit funding in sort of this manner for something that’s not a demonstrable benefit to the entire downtown.”The commission approved the allocation, 3-2, with Commissioners Logan and Reed voting against the motion.School board candidates: The Lewis and Clark County Elections office published a sample of the official school and special purpose district election ballot, showing who is running for three school board of trustees seats. Trustee candidates include Jenny Murnane Butcher, current board chair Siobhan Hathhorn, Carrie Jones, John Klein III, current board trustee Kay Satre and Hanna Warhank. Voters will choose three candidates who will each serve a three-year term. School boundary discussion continues: The Helena School Board of Trustees will continue discussing the potential for school boundary changes during a board meeting May 13. The public will also have the chance to comment. The boundary changes, first brought up during a meeting last month, aim to balance student enrollment across Helena’s middle and high schools. Suspicious newspapers?: Last week the Helena Police Department’s Facebook page posted a photo of several old Independent Record newspapers left at the city’s Law and Justice Center with headlines regarding the deaths of former U.S. Presidents Kennedy and Roosevelt and a Helena earthquake with a caption that said the papers were left under “suspicious circumstances.” However, later in the week, the caption was changed. Police officials told MTFP that they hoped the original post would help locate who had left the newspapers and that there was no serious concern. 3 Questions For Metta Barnhart, second from the left, poses with her college rowing teammates during the induction ceremony into Western Washington University’s Hall of Fame. Credit: Metta BarnhartMetta Gilbert Barnhart, who was born and raised in Helena and now works as a nurse at St. Peter’s Health, recently made her way back to her alma mater at Western Washington University to be inducted into the WWU Hall of Fame. Barnhart was a member of the university’s rowing team that earned back-to-back NCAA rowing championships, marking the school’s first rowing NCAA titles. MTFP spoke with Barnhart about the ceremony and her time on the rowing team. Her comments have been edited for length and clarity.MTFP: Can you share some of your history with rowing and how you were introduced to the sport?Barnhart:  I really loved Western. There were a couple of people that I knew who had gone there. So that made it slightly more appealing. When I went to visit, it felt a lot like Missoula, but it was out of state. It was very beautiful. It was right on the coast. I had a perfect weather window when I visited. Then I went to an informational meeting with a bunch of my dorm mates to see about rowing. I just remember seeing the assistant coach, Karla Landis, and she was just this tall, incredibly strong-looking kind of woman. I think that for me was the impetus to show up at the tryouts for rowing.  I just happened to start rowing with a group of women that were dedicated and excited and athletic and we just had perfect chemistry, and it was sort of the perfect combination of factors that led to us being very successful.MTFP: Can you describe what your rowing career was like?Barnhart:  It was so cool. Our freshman year was the first year that we had won the national championships and they had subsequently won a total of nine championships. I think they won seven in a row.  The combination of there’s so much individuality to rowing, but you are not successful if you don’t figure out how to work as a team, was just so intriguing to me.  And finding chemistry with a bunch of women, it was just so cool. When you’re rowing, you don’t talk to your teammates. The only person who’s talking is your coxswain at the stern of the boat and she is like guiding you along, and it was just a fun sport. College is just such a formative time and experiencing these things with these women where you are doing one of the hardest things that you’ve ever done in your life athletically. And you don’t think you have anything else left in the tank, but your teammates are also doing their best and working their hardest and showing up to their classes and showing up to practice and you know, like figuring out how to pull a little harder or train a little more. Having other people to do that all with you is just so powerful and such an incredible experience. MTFP: How was your experience at the induction ceremony? Barnhart:  I think going back really just highlighted how special the bigger picture was and how meaningful of an impact we have made on that program. And even the rowers before us, right? They were building a framework for us. We got to build on that, and they set us up to be champions.I find that when I’m talking about it, sometimes I cannot find the appropriate words to describe how meaningful it is to me. I think being a woman in sports and then getting to see a successful program continue like that is so awesome.  IN CASE YOU MISSED IT Parents, teachers urge Helena district not to close Hawthorne Elementary During the school district’s public hearing, about 40 people urged the board to consider other options to curtail its budget shortfall. by JoVonne Wagner The post Helena commission at odds over sidewalk plans appeared first on Montana Free Press. ...read more read less