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Rep. Arnold Olsen reported Wednesday he is confident Montana will have a completed Knowles dam and reservoir by 1970.The White House Tuesday an-ounced that the Bureau of Reclamation had been assigned responsibility for the project and that Knowles would be included in eight water projects to be recommended to congress by the Corps of Army Engineers.The $234,910,000 project on the Flathead river four miles east of Paradise was approved by the Bureau of the Budget Tuesday also. Friday Olsen had announced that the bureau was expected to approve the project.Meanwhile, J. E. Corette, pre-sidet of Montana Power Co., called Knowles the most wasteful project in the Columbia river watershed.” He said the project would cost approximately $259 million of taxpayers’ money to build and would operate at an annual loss of more than $8^ million.Corette said Knowles would: Flood out 1500 people and 9,000 acres of farm and pasture land besides the Buffalo Rapidsam sites; eliminate from thetax rolls valuable property, reducing tax revenues for school, county and other purposes; impair bonding capacity of school districts in the flooded area; create unsightly mud flats, and usurp water rights of present and future water users upstream.'Olsen said obtaining approval of the Bureau of the Budget was a major hurdle, ‘perhaps the major one.”The dam, to be located 2.7 miles upstream from the juncture of the Flathead with the Clark Fork, will have two basic roles, Olsen said:To provide cheap power anlt; to control flooding. In addition, the project would provide cam ping and picnic sites and opportunity for swimming, fishing and boating.Early plans envision 170 family camping and picnic units, four docks and three boat ramps. w.,In Washington, Olsen said, the next big step for the project is appropriation of funds by congress. He said he was optimistic about this, especially with the “strong backing President Kennedy and Senators Mike Mansfield and Lee Metcalf have given the project.”Actual construction would require five to six years, barring major snags. “If tremendous snags develop on the job, it could take 10 years, but I’m toldthis isn’t likely,” he said.The Ledger was the first to ! break the news last week of the j impending approval of the project by the Bureau of the Budget. Daily newspapers, press associations and radio and television stations picked up the news Thursday morning from the Ledger.COMMISSION TO STUDY PERMA BRIDGE PLANSWhat effect early authorization by congress of the Knowles dam project would have on the new Perma bridge has not been determined yet, a spokesman for the Montana Highway Dept, told the Ledger this week.“When the Montana highway commissioners meet later this month, they will attempt to resolve the matter,” George Sime, lirector of information, said.Sime said the recent push to construct Knowles came as a complete surprise to us.”He pointed out that the Perma bridge was programmedin December on the strength of letters received from Montana’s congressional delegation whichstated that construction of Knowles was “several years off.”The span was programmed for construction late this year or early 1963.Sime pointed out that a similar situation arose four years ago. At that time the Perma bridge was programmed, but construction was postponed because of renewed interest in Paradise dam by Army Corps of Engineers.He said as far as he knew, the current recommendations for Knowles would have no effect on construction of the bridge across the Clark Fork river on the St. Regis cut-off, which now is underway.CANCER FUND DRIVE TO START SOON HEREA local task force of some 25 Thompson Falls residents will became part of a nationwide army of more than two million volunteers who will launch the American Cancer society’s annual April crusade and fund“Our immediate objective is help save these lives—an estimated 260,000 men, women and children. The long-range objective, is to save the other 260,000 cancer victims who will get cancer this vear. Hope for them rests
Newspaper Details
Thompson Falls Sanders County Ledger
Thompson Falls, Montana, US
Thu, Apr 12, 1962
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
University O.
USA 20 Mar 2021
Other Publications Near Thompson Falls, Montana
Thompson Falls Sanders County Independent Ledger
Thompson Falls Weekly Montanian
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