The American Association of School Administrators named John McNeil, superintendent of schools in Savage, the 1997 Montana Superintendent of the Year in January.

Fairview High School students studied in makeshift classrooms due to a boiler malfunction shutting down the heat in the school.

Koch Industries, Inc. of Wichita, Kan., sold 2,500 miles of pipe and a gas processing planet to TransMontaigne Oil, a Denver-based company. Koch sold all of its northeastern Montana holdings, which were held in a subsidiary - Koch Hydrocarbon - to Bear Paw Energy, Inc., a subsidiary of TransMontaigne. A prisoner in the Richland County Jail escaped from the facility; he was recaptured without incident approximately 2 1/2 hours later.

The Sidney Volunteer Fire Dept. and the Holly Sugar fire-fighting team put out a fire in a pulp dryer at Holly Sugar in February.

Vance and Jackie Johnson started V&J Taxi service in March. Sidney hadn't seen a taxi service for 16 years, since the oil boom from the early 1980s.

Fairview upgraded its trash removal system with a new truck and trash bins. The new system was automatic and handled by one man - it was estimated that 24 man-hours were saved with the new system.

Lauren Kostopoulos, owner of Fairview Liquor, Inc., offered to sell the business for a $50 entry fee and a 100-word essay on "Why I want to own my own business" in April. If she received 800 entries, the winning essay would be selected by June 15. Kostopoulos moved to Montana in 1994 after going on a cattle drive in 1993. She returned to Massachusetts to be near a new grandson.

Owners Marvin and Linda Schultz closed the Eagle Caf/ in May, an institution in the community for more than 50 years.

The Sunshine Homemaker's Club disbanded in June after 68 years of community service to the Cartwright area. The club was formed on Nov. 24, 1929, with 21 members.

First Hay Creek became First Hay River late evening and early morning on June 22 and 23 after a torrential hail and lightning storm dumped more than six inches of rain on parts of the county. The county road crews took graders out to the intersection of Highway 16 and County Road 201 to clear some of the hail.

Two weeks after the last storm, Richland County was hit again by an all-day rain on July 1. That dumped 1 1/2 to 6 inches of rain swelling local creeks that prompted a flash flood warning from the National Weather Service.

The Beanie Babies craze hit Sidney over the spring and summer. Johnson Hardware and Furniture ordered 15 dozen in mid-April and sold them all in a week. In June they ordered 18 dozen and were sold out in 7 1/2 hours; on Saturday, Aug. 16 they got another 216 babies and sold out by Monday.

The Sidney Health Center took over operations of the fitness center Sept. 1 from the private board that ran the Fitness Center. The hospital hired Brian Wiest, an expert in sports management and community health, to establish year-round training programs for the center's members.

Lambert seniors Trisha Goss and Jeremy Klempel were crowned queen and king of the homecoming festivities and Bryce Quale and Melissa Conradsen were crowned Savage's king and queen. The Furies football team, Lambert-Savage co-op team, lost its contest against Circle-Richey, 40-8.

Five local beet growers teamed up to harvest Ed Clemmer's crop in October. Clemmer farmed south of Sidney and was diagnosed with cancer earlier in the year. Holly Sugar scheduled a special date for Clemmer's harvest - no one had to wait in line to dump the beets off at the Sidney factory.

The bi-annual Leininger, Nehring & Sidney Livestock Market Horse Sale attracted 1,200 people for 169 head of horses, which was a record number for sale.

Russ Denowh, Sidney, was picked by the American Angus Association to be inducted into the Angus Heritage Foundation Hall of Fame. Denowh partnered with his father-in-law, Joe Gartner, to establish the Gartner-Denowh Angus Ranch in 1955.

The Montana-Dakota Utilities Lewis and Clark Station near Sidney shut down in November temporarily to make improvements which extended the life of the plant another 20 years.

The Sidney Health Center replaced its outdated 20-year-old phone system with a new system and got a new prefix, 442, from U.S. West because of the amount of extension needed for the hospital. The new prefix and system allowed callers to route their calls directly into the SHC's various offices and patient rooms that allowed for better customer service.

Pumbaa, a pot-bellied pig, was sent packing after the Sidney City Council denied changing the city ordinances prohibiting livestock in town. The porker found a temporary home near Missoula at owner Vicki Hinds' brother's place. Hinds planned on establishing a business outside of the city limits and bringing Pumbaa back to Sidney.

After an eight-year hiatus, the high school once again had a newspaper, The Spokesman, thanks to journalism teacher Carol Hearron and her students including Britton Cottrell, business manager and assistant news editor; Chad Pedersen, executive editor and Eagle's Eye assistant editor; Kris Goss, news editor; Andrew Goss, news assistant editor; Ryan Dahle and Chuck Denowh, opinion editors; Levi Jacobs, arts and entertainment editor; Jeff Mead, sports editor; Rachel Lee, Eagle's Eye editor; Sara Degn, feature editor; Stephanie Prevost, sports assistant editor; Nina Pfifer, photo editor; Jessie Pfau, staff writer; Krystal Lee, adverting manager; and Julina Thompson, exchange editor and circulation manager.

Holly Sugar announced its Top 10 growers in December. They included Roger Bearce, Kenneth Gardner of Gardner Farms Inc., Troy Conradsen and Shawn Conradsen of Triple C Farms, Brad Haidle, Rusty Knels, Gerry Rod, Milo Pyaette, Arthur Dam, Bill Iversen and Dale Iversen.

Footnote: Information provided by the MonDak Heritage Center's archives. Previous years can be found on the Herald Web site www.sidneyherald.com/herald_facts