Blue skies bring flood potential

Inter Lake editorial

It looks to be a gorgeous weekend in Northwest Montana: mostly clear skies, little wind and high temperatures that may approach 90 degrees.

But the downside of that rosy forecast is what will happen once that heat wave hits the still-substantial mountain snowpack: flood potential.

Everyone who lives near waterways needs to be aware that the water will rise next week along with the temperatures.

Current forecasts call for flows well above flood stage on the main Flathead River and the Middle Fork of the Flathead, as well as the Yaak and Fisher rivers in Lincoln County.

What that means - other than a muddy opener for fishing season Saturday - is that people in flood-prone locales need to be prepared.

That might mean getting sandbags ready, moving pets and livestock to higher ground, securing hazardous materials, and preparing an emergency kit of 72 hours' worth of food, water and medications.

Above all, it means that people need to ask themselves, "Where would I go if it floods?"

For more information on preparing for and responding to flooding, contact the Flathead County Office of Emergency Services at 758-5561.

News last week that Congress was debating allowing pennies to be made out of steel instead of the more expensive copper set off a debate of its own in the newsroom at the Inter Lake.

Forget pennies altogether, some said. Waste of time and money! Too inconvenient!

But others argued that the nostalgic value of the penny needed to be considered, along with the real value of retailers rounding all prices up to the nearest nickel.

Since it seems unlikely that pennies will indeed be eliminated, we ultimately support allowing the U.S. mint the flexibility of minting coins out of metal that is cheap enough to make the coin practical.

Imagine what would happen if a $20 coin today were made out of gold! It would be melted down in the parking lot of the bank for its gold value.

The situation isn't quite so dire with nickels and pennies, but a nickel now costs about 7.7 cents to make, which is just too much to make sense. A zinc and copper penny costs 1.26 cents each to make, about half a cent more than it would cost to use steel.

Clearly something should be done. The government is famous for throwing away money, but this is just ridiculous.

The Inter Lake and the Kalispell Area Chamber of Commerce will sponsor a forum for the Democratic and Republican candidates for county commissioner on Tuesday, and we encourage voters to try to attend, as the primary election is just two weeks later.

Those who wish may attend the chamber luncheon at the Red Lion starting at 11:45 a.m. in advance of the forum. The program starts at 12:15 with the debate to begin shortly thereafter. Call the chamber at 758-2800 for more information.

This could very well be your only opportunity to see all three candidates together before the election.