Scobey, MT

It is with a heavy heart, though working toward the future, that the community of Daniels County says “see you later” to County Extension Agent, Bobbie Roos. Bobbie has been the lead coordinator for the Horizons Program since the beginning of the project 3 years ago. Bobbie has been a wealth of information and networking for a variety of successful programs that she has brought into the community. The Horizons Program will be led by Mike Stebleton and Esther Kramer, bringing the next phase of the program to another level. On July 27th, the group met to discuss the budget for the next phase, as well as involvement in the grant proposal to Enhance the Health, Well-being and Daily Functioning of the elderly in rural MT.

Peggy Iba, Regional Coordinator, from Glendive, also attended the meeting to help with the transfer of leadership and to work on the next phase of the program. A few of the goals will be to improve Health Literacy, Personal Healthcare Responsibility and to empower each person to continue independent living as an elderly person in our rural community.

Another goal of the meeting was to focus on educating our community members concerning energy efficiency, as the rates of heat and gas continue to soar, Horizons would like to help our community become more energy aware and prepare in advance to keep costs for the winter months as affordable as possible. Discussion of having copies of the “End of Suburbia”, a DVD educating viewers about energy, at the D.C. Library for interested individuals will be advertised for check out. This film will increase awareness of differences each day we each can make to conserve energy and save money, as well.

Other discussion included helping with matching funds for CDBG for housing projects and beautification in Daniels County, moving the Flaxville School building to an Independent Living Facility, as well as discussion concerning ambulance and fire department needs, along with senior citizen center and chamber of commerce concerns.

Next meeting will be August 10th at the Extension/Ambulance meeting room at 2:00pm! All interested are invited to attend!

Our best of luck to Bobbie Roos in her move to Ravalli County and our forward thinking will bring her back in years to come, thus we bid her “see you later!” and thanks for all you have done in the community and the State of MT!