This was a week of lasts for one Hi-Line community: last matches of pinochle around tables in the Gildford Merc, the last chance to browse for candy.

On Friday, the Gildford Merc closed. The Merc was the last grocery store on the Hi-Line on the 60-mile stretch of Highway 2 between Chester and Havre.

Tax records date the business to 1915, though some argue it’s at least as old as the town, founded in 1910 to serve a wave of homesteaders.

John Campbell, who owned the merc for 35 years, remembers when Gildford had two stores, and so did nearby Kremlin, Rudyard and Hingham. Chester had four. Then farms got bigger and farmers got older, with the average farmer now 59 years old and the average farm more than 2,100 acres, according to the latest USDA ag census.

“This town was a going place. We had a hardware store, oil stations, elevators,” Campbell, 86, said. “When this goes, it ends the only active business. The post office is it.”

Campbell traced the history of renovations, additions and his family through yellowing photos of the store. One showed a crowd for a pancake open house. Another showed concrete forms ready for an addition. The storefront changed; so did his parents. The photos are on display with paintings of the town.

Now, with better cars and better roads, it’s easier than ever to go to Havre or Great Falls to shop in a big-box store.

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7:39 a.m. A woman driving through Evergreen reported that a man in a pickup truck pulled up next to her and flipped her off. He then dropped back behind and tailgated her.

8:23 a.m. Someone made a failed attempt to break into an Evergreen bank when they rammed their vehicle into the ATM machine.

8:59 a.m. A Dream Sleep delivery truck was reported stolen from Bando Lane. Apparently, the same truck was also involved in the attempted ATM theft earlier this morning.

9:24 a.m. A small pack of loose dogs was seen wandering the streets of Hungry Horse.

9:58 a.m. A Bigfork woman reported that she was scammed by the Publisher’s Clearing House.

5:19 p.m. A man in a parking lot reported that a woman with no rear view mirrors nearly backed in to him three times.

8:32 p.m. A Columbia Falls woman reported that someone called from the Treasury Department and said, “so, you wanna rock?” Apparently, this is one of many threatening phone calls she has received from these people.

MORE>>>Flathead Beacon Journal

The tumbling value of Canada's currency has business owners and communities in northern Montana concerned.

Plagued primarily by plummeting oil prices, the Canadian dollar reached its lowest value in six years recently. That means Canadians must spend more on American goods and services.

The Flathead Beacon reports ( http://bit.ly/1zrQFT4) that more than 913,000 Canadians visited Montana annually in recent years, collectively spending $275 million on average.

Concerns about reduced Canadian spending cast a cloud over this past week's annual Flathead Valley Economic Forecast event at Flathead Valley Community College.

Brad Eldredge is director of Institutional Research, Assessment and Planning at the college.

Eldredge described the situation as one of the largest risks facing the local economy in 2015.

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