Who said there's no limit to which people will sink in the service of greed?
Last Best Place? It's not for sale
Probably no one.
The latest example of man's propensity for making a buck off his fellow man comes from a Las Vegas businessman (is anyone surprised?) who decided to trademark the unofficial state slogan of Montana.
"The Last Best Place" has been in common usage to describe Montana since 1988 when Bill Kittredge and Annick Smith used it as the title of their huge (and hugely successful) anthology of Montana writings. Other people have made claims to the name as well, but Kittredge and Smith are given credit for popularizing it.
They probably could have trademarked the name, too, if they were that sort of people, and they would have fattened their bank accounts considerably. But they aren't that kind of people.
David Lipson apparently is. In addition to his holdings in Vegas, he also owns a ranch resort in Montana's Blackfoot Valley. Like hundreds of other businesses, he uses the phrase "Last Best Place" to capitalize on the Montana mystique when advertising his ranch. But unlike everyone else in the world, he decided he wanted it just for himself.
Sorry, Mr. Lipson, but Montana is not for sale, and neither is our heritage.
North Valley Hospital has once again proven it's the little hospital that can get the job done. The Whitefish facility caught the eye of the prestigious Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which asked North Valley Chief Nurse Maura Fields to participate at a recent national nursing conference.
In a health-care arena in which many small rural hospitals have closed due to declining Medicare reimbursements, North Valley Hospital has secured its future with a three-pronged approach, Fields told fellow health-care professionals attending the conference. Obtaining a critical-access designation, using the Planetree model of patient-centered care and building a new hospital have set North Valley on a course not only for survival but also for continued growth.
There's a reason why patients love North Valley Hospital, and we're glad to see the facility get the attention it deserves.
Good job, Charlie Johnson.
The county road and bridge supervisor pulled off a remarkable feat, saving the county money and re-opening the historic Old Steel Bridge way ahead of schedule.
The 111-year-old road relic east of Kalispell is due for replacement in 2007.
Work to keep the bridge open until then was initially estimated to cost $200,000 and to take 20 months to complete. That's a lot of work and investment that would be razed with the bridge just months after it was completed.
Johnson eventually hit on an alternative repair, prepared by engineers, which cost just $60,000 and took less than two months to finish.
The bridge over the Flathead River connects the Fair-Mont-Egan community to Kalispell. Drivers have had to detour to another bridge on Montana 35 with the Old Steel Bridge down.
It's nice to have it back in service.