Burns visits with community groups

During the day Saturday, U.S.. Sen. Conrad Burns met with the mayors from Libby, Troy and Eureka about their individual and collective needs and then with groups with concerns about the EPA cleanup, broadband access, infrastructure improvements for the old mill site, a medical access network linking doctors and hospitals throughout northwest Montana, a medical trust for asbestos victims, and a group concerned about proposed spills from Libby Dam for the endangered white sturgeon.

He met with representatives from the Technical Assistance Group who expressed concerns about the EPA cleanup of asbestos-tainted vermiculite. And he met briefly with Gordon Sullivan, former TAG director, and small group of residents who had similar concerns.

The Libby broadband committee told Burns that the NetUSA bill pending in the Senate does not necessarily help bring high-speed access to the community because "Frontier is a monopoly and charging higher T-1 line prices than any in any city around," said committee spokesperson Jeanie Gentry. She said Frontier was threatening to squeeze other local Internet servers out of business so they would provide the only local service.

NetUSA seeks to broaden the contributions to the Universal Service Fund, which subsidizes the cost of telephone service to rural areas. The bill also seeks to bring broadband and cell phone service to rural areas considered underserved.

Committee members told Burns that fiber was at Troy but not lit for local use.

There was brief discussion on the pending sale of Adelphia's local cable television franchise to Comcast, which is owned by Bresnan Communications. Bresnan provides digital telephone services in six of Montana's largest cities and an array of other services across the state including high speed Internet access.

Broadband committee members also mentioned that the Bonneville Power Administration was rebuilding the transmission line from Libby to Troy and perhaps fiber optic lines could be hung on the same towers.

Burns then met with a group of hospital representatives from Libby, Whitefish, Kalispell and Ronan who are trying to establish an effective Electronic Health Records networks so that doctors and hospitals can easily access patient records. Gentry, representing St. John's Lutheran Hospital, said patient histories are available on online but it takes expensive interfaces to make the various systems communicate with one another.

The Northwest Montana hospital group, working with Shelby and Cut Bank, have looking for a way that allows that the different systems to better communicate while keeping IT costs down for the hospitals and individual doctors and clinics. Sun Microsystems has developed a program that would overlay the various existing computer systems and enable them to communicate, Gentry said. A doctor in Libby working with a patient would be able to access their complete medicate records and history quickest and more easily.

The northwest Montana pod of hospital has been evolving into a bigger group called the Montana Rural Health Information Organization and includes Great Falls and Missoula. Gentry said Sun Microsystems said the whole state of Montana could be included in the system. Cost of the systems for the northwest pod is $2 million paid out over the next five years, Gentry said.

"We're applying for grants everywhere bit we need federal assistance," she said.

"We think this is a good opportunity for Montana to be showcase," she continued. "We need to show the country that Montana is ahead of the curve."

Burns has been an advocate of telemedicine since first being elected to the Senate in 1988. He recently held a statewide meeting on telemedicine.

Gentry noted that over the years, doctors and hospitals have been working on their systems.

"Libby has been working on a RHIO because we need to talk among ourselves but we have to be able to talk to Kalispell, too," she said.

"There is no place in the U.S. doing this," she said. "Maybe pieces of it."

Gentry explained her ATM card works in England providing her with financial information and cash access but her medical records are not accessible in the case of an emergency.

The $2 million will establish a network in northwest Montana that is expandable to the rest of the state, she said.

"The systems have to talk to one another," Burns said. "If they don't you will find yourself very isolated and confusion reigns."

The committee agree to provide more information to Burns' staff on the RHIO and the Sun Microsystems software.

The senator next met with the Industrial Board, who manage and are developing the former Libby Mill. The group is seeking just under $500,000 for upgrades to the railroad tracks, power lines and a new truck scale at the entrance to the grounds.

Industrial Board director Paul Rumelhart explained that railroad track system is used by Stimson Fingerjointing Plant to ship finished materials out. And the rails system is used to ship out ore concentrate from the Troy Mine to a smelter.

"If Rock Creek or Mines Management (Montanore Mine) gets going, this system is going to be used more and more," Rumelhart said.

The railroad ties need replacing throughout the old mill site. Estimated cost to maintain and upgrade the track system is $300,000.

Also needing work is the electrical power system at the old mill site. Rumelhart said there are only two meters on the property.

"What we would like to do is hand it over to Flathead Electric Co-op because we're not in the power business," Rumelhart continued. "They won't take it without $120,000 in upgrades but they would contribute about 20 percent."

The other expense is the a 90-foot scale is needed for weighing trucks. Presently there is a working 50-foot scale on site and the Forest Service would like to a 90-foot unit, Rumelhart said.

"Tell the Forest Service to involved," Burns said.

"They work for you," Rumelhart replied. He explained that there is presently a pole operation on the site and a possibility of bringing a small-diameter saw mill back to the site.

Board member Dan Larson noted there were a lot of jobs at the old mill site and the potential for more if the property were improved.

Next on the senator's schedule was the Task Force for a Medical Trust Fund for Libby asbestos victims. Group members explained they came together for a teleconference last week with W.R. Grace vice president William Corcoran. A second conversation is scheduled on Wednesday, April 12.

"We have been very busy putting together facts and figures for putting together a trust," said Sandy Wagner.

Burns said it is doubtful that the Fairness in Asbestos and Injury Resolution Act will be passed during this session of congress. He said the act became more contentious as time went on and now immigration problems have moved into the legislative arena.

"There's a lot of us who would like settlement of this," Burns said. "There are victims who will never see a dime because they will never see a day in court. That's wrong."

Burns said unless there is breakthrough in discussions and the act could be voted on quickly, it won't pass this year.

Burns' chief of staff Clark Johnson said one of things that fell apart in FAIR was the perception by other states with Grace asbestos problems that Libby was benefiting at a cost to them.

Task force members told Burns that there was a discrepancy in what Grace was saying about their health plan administered by Health Network of America and what services they were actually providing. And healthcare providers can bill Medicare until Grace denies a claim.

"It takes too long for the patient," said Jeanie Gentry. "They (Grace) think their solution works wonderfully while we don't if for no other reason than they can pull out at any minute. We need something we can rely on."

Dr. Brad Black of the Center for Asbestos Related Disease said there is an influx of retirees coming back who worked in the area during the dam years and they are testing positive for asbestos-related disease.

"We have an unknown number of ill people out there that is bigger than you think," he said.

Burns said he would keep the pressure on Grace.

"We can't let this health plan go away, it would kick all the underpinnings to this town away," he said.

Finally, a group of county residents explained to Burns that they had asked the county to take the lead in filing for an injunction to stop the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from spilling water from Libby Dam.

"Our fear is that they will miss the inflow forecast as they did in 2002," Terry Andreessen said.

"If they do these spills for three out of the nest four years then these guys are out of business," Andreessen said pointing to Dave Blackburn, owner of the Kootenai Angler fishing guide service.

John Johanson noted that a "suite" of in-river projections proposed for the Kootenai River north of Bonners Ferry can't be constructed without a National Environmental Policy Act process but a study is not needed for the spill and its impacts to the river.

Andreessen said he didn't understand how they could spill and cause damage to the Montana fishery, the threat of or actual property damage to homeowners along the river and create stress on the people with scientific evidence that what they want to do could work to save the sturgeon.

"I just don't understand it," Andreessen said.

"Can we lay this out for the new Secretary of Interior if I bring him here this summer?" Burns asked.

"It will be too late," Andreessen said, explaining the spill will occur in late May or early June.

Burns agreed to look into the problem.

"If the county doesn't take the lead in the lawsuit, we're going to do what we have to," Andreessen said. "We're trying to diversify our economy as we've been asked to and we're not being allowed to do it."