08/12/2024
“Helena This Week” is reported and written By JoVonne Wagner. Send your Helena news and tips to jwagner@montanafreepress.org.
Schwerin stands next to his aircraft in Presidio, Texas, on July 30, 2024. Credit: Sara Schwerin
A Montana teen pilot is seeking to set a world record as the youngest person to fly across the lower 48 states in an effort to raise scholarship funds for the aviation program at Helena College.
Joshua Schwerin, 17, will be a senior at Bozeman High School this fall. Unlike most of his peers, he will begin the school year having earned his private pilot’s license.
Schwerin had just received his pilot’s license in July when he and his parents decided to raise awareness of the aviation maintenance program at Helena College, the only Federal Aviation Administration-certified program in Montana.
“There’s just not a lot of awareness for trade school opportunities and in-state trade school opportunities, especially for aviation mechanics, which is a really needed job and it’s a very high-paying job,” Schwerin told Montana Free Press. “I also just wanted to make it more accessible for students in Montana.”
That’s why Schwerin set out to create the record as the youngest pilot to circumnavigate the contiguous United States while raising money for a scholarship fund for Montana high school graduates pursuing a career in aviation mechanics.
The trip began on July 24 when Schwerin and his mother, Sara, who is also a pilot, departed Bozeman for their 11-day journey. They made their way up to Canada and down into Michigan, then flew east over Maine before flying down and across the Gulf of Mexico to Texas. From there, they flew to California and Washington before returning home to Montana.
Schwerin had to submit GPS evidence, videos and photos of the journey to Guinness World Records for the global record-collecting organization to review before he can officially claim his feat. His mother said they should have the results in the next few weeks.
Overall, Schwerin flew more than 9,500 nautical miles in almost 60 flight hours, raising about $11,000 through donations. An anonymous donor matched that, bringing the total of scholarship funds raised to about $22,000, enough to fund two students’ tuitions for the five-semester program.
“We just always like to set all of our students up for success. It is our mission to provide education plus secondary training to everyone and from all economic backgrounds,” Helena College Dean Sandra Bauman told MTFP. “We like to make sure that we’re always finding those resources to help our students in any way we can.”
Bauman said that Schwerin’s parents also wanted to find ways to support the aviation industry. The couple was in the news in 2020 for illegally landing their helicopter in the Bob Marshall Wilderness.
According to Helena College officials, the program has about 20 openings each semester, which are filled with a mix of in- and out-of-state students. Aviation maintenance instructor Tod Dumas told MTFP that graduates who leave the program help feed the rest of the country’s need for mechanics.
Public Notice
Capitol traffic open house: Capitol officials will host an open house to discuss traffic direction changes around the state Capitol complex. Members of the public are invited to give their input about the recommendations of changing Sixth Street between Montana Avenue and Roberts Street into a one-way eastbound and turning Lockey Avenue into a one-way westbound between the Captiol’s south parking lot and Roberts Street. The open house will be on Wednesday, Aug. 14, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Department of Health and Human Services Auditorium, 111 N. Sanders St.
City supports passenger rail: On Aug. 8, the city commission, by consensus, agreed to join the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority and contribute $4,000 to the organization. Earlier this year, the Federal Railroad Administration identified the North Coast Hiawatha rail route that connects Seattle to Chigcao to potentially be renovated for passenger trains. The route goes through some of the state’s urban areas, including Helena. The Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority is a group comprised of route-affected county and local municipalities that support the route. Lewis and Clark County, however, has not joined, citing concerns over potentially higher taxes.
5 Things to Know in Helena
Family Promise & Ruth’s Place: Good Samaritan executive director Theresa Ortega, alongside Family Promise executive director Renee Bauer, announced in a meeting last week that Family Promise’s expansion will include room for a women’s shelter. The update came after several months of searching for a new location to house the shelter, called Ruth’s Place, when the previously proposed location suddenly changed ownership. The city awarded Good Samaritan a grant last year to help its efforts in providing additional shelter options in Helena. Ortega said that after a bit of reworking the grant application, those funds will be transferred to Family Promise. The plan is to build a two-story building at 2814 N. Cook St., with Family Promise dedicating one floor to provide shelter for families, while, on another floor, Ruth’s Place would provide a women’s shelter.
BID restroom update: According to city staff, plans for a downtown restroom are on pause while the Business Improvement District changes leadership. The former interim director, Megan Helton, resigned last month.
In other railroad news: Helena officials announced last week that city transportation staff have been discussing changes to the crossing at Montana Avenue with BSNF Railway, including potentially adding a tunnel or a bridge.
Malfunction update: City transportation director David Knoepke updated the commission on the mini-malfunction junction traffic light shortage last week and said the Montana Department of Transportation approved the continued use of stop signs while the city works toward adding appropriate pedestrian crossings and signs. Knoepke said they are currently working on fast-tracking a roundabout for the intersection.
Dusty Davis Street: Residents voiced their concerns to the city commission last week about dust caused by traffic on South Davis Street and South Davis Gulch. A Helena Citizens Council representative recommended that the speed limit be decreased to 15 mph, which is currently set at 25 mph, and requested magnesium fluoride to be sprayed more frequently around the area. City officials said they would look into changing the speed limit.
3 Questions For
At the beginning of August, Carroll College President John Cech announced that this upcoming school year would be his last at the school. Cech spoke with MTFP about the changes the college has seen during his tenure, what achievements he’s most proud of and how the job impacted him. His comments have been edited for length and clarity.
MTFP: How did you come into the presidency position and what prompted your retirement?
Cech: My son went to school at Helena High and was the middle linebacker. He was quite a good football player and our football coach at the time, Mike Van Deest, had his eyes on my son, probably beginning his sophomore year in high school, and just started connecting with him and saying, “You need to come to Carroll College to go to school and play football at Carroll College.” So my son came up here, met with Coach Van Deest, toured, and he came home one night and he said, “Mom and Dad, I’m going to Carroll College.”
We were going to all of his games and got to meet some faculty, and I got to know the previous president pretty well, Dr. Tom Evans. We just were so impressed with everything we saw about Carroll. So when Dr. Evans accepted a position as the president of the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas, that created an opening and a search. After a lot of discernment, prayer, and long conversations with my wife and some of my mentors, I decided to apply.
On July 1, my wife Victoria and I celebrated the start of my 40th year in higher education. Life is a continuum. I reflected back a moment ago on the past president, the archbishop. Everybody has their place in time, and I felt like I did what I could do to move the college forward and support our students, support our faculty and staff. And this is a good time for somebody else to come in and take it to another level.
MTFP: What would you say were some of the biggest successes at Carroll during your presidency?
Cech: In my inauguration, one of the things I outlined was a health professions initiative that I wanted to see happen. I think we made some really good progress on that. One of the first things that we did was the complete renovation of the nursing training facilities, which included the classrooms, the offices, the consultation rooms, and the simulation facilities. As a part of that initiative, we also created an accelerated nursing program, which is now in its third cohort. It’s designed for people who already have a bachelor’s degree and decide they want to come back and become a nurse. Another program that was a part of the Health Professions Initiative is our master of social work program preparing students to be licensed clinical social workers. It achieved its national accreditation, and with no findings.
The infrastructure improvements on campus I’m really proud of as well. That includes the Simperman Learning Commons over here in the library. Every inch of that building has been renovated since 2018. Every inch. I’m really proud of the renovation of the campus dining facilities and the campus center improvements. Major work there and completely renovating those facilities as a part of that process, we were able to negotiate with our dining services provider to have that facility open seven days a week. Then of course, the renovation of the stadium. The lights are state-of-the-art lights designed to minimize light pollution. That is going to be finished here in a couple of weeks. It’s going to serve Helena because we want to open it up to the community.
MTFP: How has Carroll affected you?
Cech: It’s just had such an impact on their lives. The biggest joys I had in my life and my career was to be able to hand my son his diploma and a year later I handed his wife, a Carroll College graduating nurse, her diploma. My son is now a teacher for the Project for Alternative Learning at Helena Public Schools. He’s passionate about helping people who need help, and his wife is a full-time nurse for Helena Public Schools, so they are all in education.
The faculty and staff here are so caring about our students. There’s a spirit. There’s an entrepreneurial spirit here that is so rich. A spirit of trying different things, which is really powerful. I think of the fact that Helena being the location of Carroll is so special. We live and work here. Our faculty and staff live and work here with our students and are very connected with the Helena community. It’s just not the location of our college, but we really have a role in the community that’s really important to us in everything that we do.
By The Numbers
The number of Naloxone kits picked up from local vending machines in Helena in the past 18 months, as reported by county health officials last week during a joint city-county commission meeting. The Naloxone kits, also known as Narcan, provide two doses of the drug used to help reverse opioid overdoses. In March, Lewis and Clark Public Health distributed a Narcan vending machine to the county’s criminal justice center.
Celebration time
Distinctly Montana Magazine recently named the Helena Farmers’ Market the best in the state for the second year in a row. A press release from the Helena Farmers’ Market stated that the public submitted nominations to the magazine for its “Best of Montana” awards. The Helena Farmers Market is every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Fuller Avenue between Lawrence Street and Neill Avenue until October.
This newsletter was updated August 12, 2024, to correct the source of the matching donation to Helena College.
