Gravel study a legislative priority

Some bad news from state government trickled out recently when a proposed in-depth study of gravel pits in Flathead County was shelved.

The study by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality was sunk by lack of funding.

The study would have analyzed cumulative impacts of the county's numerous gravel operations - impacts that are not considered during the current piecemeal permitting process for gravel mines.

The state has acknowledged that the current system is inadequate here, particularly given the pace of growth and development. The study might have answered important questions: What cumulative impacts do gravel pits have on water quality? What effect do gravel pits have on property values?

But those questions - important ones - won't be answered anytime soon.

Gravel is a big deal in the Flathead. Some 2.63 million cubic yards of sand and gravel were mined here in 2004. And gravel pits have increasingly become the targets of neighborhood squabbles.

As a new Legislature convenes next year, it might be a good idea for our local representatives to push for funding of the countywide gravel study.

There no doubt will be many hands held out trying to get pieces of the burgeoning state budget surplus, but finding the $250,000-plus for the Flathead gravel study would be money well spent here.

It's not a national crisis, but the missing article in a moon speech has puzzled some Americans for decades.

Now a computer programmer says he has found the missing "a" in astronaut Neil Armstrong's famous quote as he stepped onto the moon.

With special software, the programmer divined that the missing letter was indeed spoken and transmitted to NASA.

That means the quote really was: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."

We all knew that's what he meant to say, anyway, didn't we?

Armstrong uttered his famous words in 1969.

That also was the year Linderman School was set up as a haven for seventh-graders in Kalispell.

The seventh-grade arrangement was supposed to be "temporary" until a new high school could be built.

"Temporary" stretched into 37 years, but at long last the new high school is around the corner and after this school year, seventh grade will be at Kalispell Middle School.

There probably are many former students and their parents who will fondly remember the unique Linderman arrangement that gave one grade its own school for almost four decades.

To honor Linderman's last year and special history, administrators are putting together a yearbook of community photos and anecdotes. The school will be remembered for many years to come.