Did we spend too much, or, not enough? The answer of course is in one’s perspective. In the end it turned out that this session had three groups of legislators. Two groups are feeling that they didn’t get their way nearly enough on the spending bills, the liberals and the conservatives, because the outcome…
Category Archives: Letters
Unfair utility practices
On Saturday, April 14th, the power up Skalkaho and Grantsdale was out for about half an hour. I’m with Ravalli Electric Co-op who gets their power from NorthWestern Energy. NorthWestern went down, so the coop went down, so 3000 customers had no power for half an hour. When my power came on there was…
Legacy Ranch a looming disaster
The Legacy Ranch subdivision, which has no public support, is an environmental and legal disaster waiting to happen. Behind it is some fishy politics that compel us to follow the money. The environmental catastrophe posed by plunking down an entire town adjacent to Ravalli County’s twin jewels – the Bitterroot River and the Lee…
Open space idea unrealistic
Recently I have noticed heavy coverage in local news about the Flatiron residential planning and most recently the Legacy Ranch residential development. In 1979 when my wife and I built our retirement home on Blodgett Creek, as immigrants from California we obtained Montana tags for our vehicles as soon as possible. Driving with California…
Smear campaign under way
One of the offices that we will be voting for is for a member of the School Board. One of the contenders, Lee J. Tickell, is listed on the ballot. The other, Terry Nelson, will be a write-in opponent Word is being been passed out by someone that Tickell had been accused, at some…
Thanks to Stevensville gallery
The Stevensville High School Art program would like to publicly acknowledge and thank River’s Mist Gallery in Stevensville, owned by Gretchen Spiess. Gretchen donated her gallery for the month of April for the high school student art exhibit. There were more than 50 works by students. Gretchen hosted a reception for the students on…
Report from Helena – Week 15
One week remaining, and several of the big bills still remain in flux. The big question (back when I was a young feller we used to say this is the $64 question) – can we maintain the desired ending fund balance (significant surplus) and still fund the remaining bills? Not everyone is likely to…
Report from Helena – Week 14
Inside the maze is confusing – Are bills like Lazarus? Last term I was looking through the window into the maze. This session, even though I am actually standing a little ways into the maze, I still can’t see the other side. The other side being the end zone, the finish line of the…
County needs to listen
Somehow I cannot believe that the Ravalli County Planning Board has not yet figured out that it needs to listen to the public it represents! It seems obvious that for many varied important reasons the people of our County, and especially the Stevensville districts, are insistent about NOT allowing the Legacy Ranch project to…
Guns stand for fear
“Only an armed people are a sovereign people and only armed people are free.” Really? I don’t exactly want to argue, just to point out that very few people in this country and the world agree with that. All of the guns in the USA are owned by way fewer than half of the…