Area briefs

Mixed pool league

to hold meeting

The Mixed Pool League will hold the 2014-15 season organizational meeting at 7 p.m. on Sept. 17 at the VFW small meeting room. This is the only time to address rule changes or problems from previous seasons. Election of officers will also be held.

All representatives and players from last season are encouraged to attend. Sponsors are welcome and any players wishing to start or join a team are encouraged to attend.

Contact Sherrill and Ben White at 293-5262 or Linda Wagner at 293-9383 for information.

Prescribed burns

set for Three RIvers

The Three Rivers Ranger District is implementing their fall prescribed burn programs. Three Rivers uses prescribed burning as a resource management tool to reach their management objectives.

Some of these treatments are in close proximity to private property. Local communities and the valleys may experience some periodic smoky conditions.

Candidate forum at Maki Theater

The Libby Area Chamber of Commerce is sponsering a Candidate Forum at 6 p.m. Sept. 23 in the Maki Theater. All candidates running for office in Lincoln County have been invited.

If you have questions you would like to have answered, please send them to: executivedirector@libbychamber.org. Only questions received before the forum will be asked. You can also mail them to P.O. Box 704 or call 406-293-4167.

Montana third in

deer accidents

Montana ranks third for states where a driver is most likely to hit a deer. Montana drivers have a 1-in-75 chance of hitting a deer, well above the national average of 1-in-169.

Pennsylvania (1-in-71) and West Virginia (1-in-39) are the only states in the country where a driver is more likely to hit a deer. Iowa (1 in-77) and South Dakota (1-in-82) round out the top five.

For the eighth year in a row, West Virginia tops the list of states where a collision is most likely. Hawaii rounds out the bottom of the list also for the eighth year in a row with odds of 1 in 10,281. Hawaiians are three times more likely to get struck by lightning in their lifetime than they are to hit a deer in the next year.

After 70 years, dead

Montanan to return

A Montana Airman who was killed in action during World War II will be laid to rest Friday in his hometown of Augusta. The interment ceremony for United States Army Air Forces 1st Lt. William D. Bernier will be held at the veteran’s section of the Augusta Cemetery at 2 p.m.

“The motto of the Joint Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Accounting Command, which handled the recovery, investigation and repatriation of 1st Lt. Bernier’s remains, is ‘Until they are home,’” said Maj. Gen. Matthew Quinn, Adjutant General for Montana, “This particular case, which involves more than a decade of careful and diligent work to return this Airman, is just one example of the strength of that motto.”

Bernier served as bombardier on the 12 man crew of a B-24 Liberator bomber. His aircraft was shot down on April 10, 1944 near Hansa Bay, Papua New Guinea. Bernier was initially reported missing, but was later presumed killed in the crash. At the end of the war his remains were determined unrecoverable and he was reported killed in action to his family.

 In 2001, the crash site was discovered by a team of the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory. Further investigation identified the aircraft as Bernier’s B-24. Human remains were recovered from the site in a series of excavations between 2008 and 2011. Following an analysis of dental records and comparing recovered DNA with that of surviving relatives, in June portions of the remains were identified as Bernier’s.

Bernier was born in Augusta in 1915. At his time of death, he had served one year and three months in the Army Air Forces, having joined the service in January 1943. Bernier attended Montana State University and planned to return to Augusta to ranch following the war.

The interment is being conducted in accordance with the wishes of Bernier’s surviving next of kin.

Bernier’s remains are scheduled to arrive in Montana via Billing’s Logan International Airport Wednesday at 9 p.m.

For more information, please contact Lt. Col. Tim Crowe at 406-423-3009.