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Support levies for EMS service

We have a looming crisis for Emergency Medical Services in the Flathead Valley. If not dealt with soon, this will result in loss of life for you, a family member, friend or neighbor.

What happens when you dial 911? An ambulance shows up with qualified personnel who provide treatment and transportation to the hospital. What most folks don’t realize is that the system in its current form is not sustainable. The common thought is that EMS service is government-funded much like police or fire. It is not.

There is no legal mandate for EMS service. Communities struggle to provide this service; some through volunteers, others through paid staff. Both models are failing. The first because fewer people are volunteering and those who do are working fewer hours. The latter because to attract professional people you actually have to pay a professional wage, and EMS services lack the funding to do this. Current ambulance collections in the Flathead are below 50 percent. Do you know of any business that can survive if half its customers demand service but refuse to or cannot pay? You could charge those who do pay twice as much, but no matter what you charge, insurance will only pay a reasonable percentage. The federal government is one of the biggest reimbursement offenders, paying only a fraction of the cost of each patient under their system. EMS is an essential service and should be community supported.

We rightfully expect EMS providers to be highly trained and demonstrate advanced skills necessary to save lives. Do we really think we can get this by depending on volunteers or paying just a bit more than minimum wage?

Do you even know who provides EMS transport services to your community and how they are funded? Now would be a good time to find out. As a community we have kicked this can down the road far too long. Yes, it will take a sizable hit to the wallet to get us where we should be, but we’re talking about human lives. Get informed, get involved. Does your community have a proposal on the ballot? Take some ownership of this and do the right thing. The life of your loved ones depends on it. —Dick Sine, Bigfork

Protect valley; vote to stop bottling plant

Northwest Montana is a place of beauty and bounty belonging to all of its inhabitants. We share its natural beauty and natural resources. Water, which is becoming a finite resource in our country, must be protected. We cannot know our valley’s needs in the future. How can we allow one individual to remove our resource and deplete our aquifer?

Recently the Inter Lake ran a story about recycling and noted China as well as our own county will no longer accept plastic for recycling. We know plastic water bottles are a major source of debris in our oceans and countryside. The Montana Artesian Water Company plans to fabricate 1.2 billion bottles of water per year and send them out of state for consumption.

To quote Chris Hall’s letter to the editor (January 2018) “The Treasure State is turning into the sold-out state.” Giving up our water supply and contributing to the plastic debris problem is not only a bad idea but a sad idea.

This fight is not over. We can curtail this by voting for Initiative 17-01 on June 5 to keep our water in the valley, where it will be needed as we grow. —Kateri Iwersen, Kalispell

How do you teach children about Trump?

I wonder what do people say to the children they are raising and are trying to bring them up to have a good and productive life. What do you say to them about the person who is our president? Would you tell them he is a good role model? Do you say it is OK for him to lie, but only if you get that far to the highest of?ce in our country?

People who have kept track say he has lied over 2,000 times in this past year. If you have a daughter, would you want any male to disrespect her the way Trump has all women? He has made fun of people with disabilities and uses language that I have never heard another president use. I know the younger generation is more accepting of that than the generation I was raised in, and I am OK with change — that is part of the aging process for me. But this man is making us the laughingstock of the world and is unable to even try to understand our Constitution because he is too busy gol?ng and making mega bucks off of our stupidity to let him keep ?eecing we the American people.

I grew up during the WWII years and we were taught to respect our president who was FDR, and I remember crying when we heard the news he had passed away. So much has changed, so we know what is going on all the time and of course there are many pluses in that. No matter who we elect, most of us will all have disagreements with that person and that is as it should be. Many years ago I belonged to the League of Women Voters and learned it is important to let your representatives know what you expect and want and if many do that, they may change their minds about some of the things they are voting on.

Let your voices be heard — it’s so easy to email them. I am very concerned about where our country is going. —Lila Kruckenberg, Kalispell

Give Trump a chance to govern

Political change is desperately needed in the USA! Yes it is true. The problem is the simple-minded people that are too blinded by the past that has failed to improve the operation of our country!

It is true! Fifty-plus million aborted babies cannot be wrong! Unbalanced budget is doing fine using borrowed money to run our country! Welfare recipients increased to all-time highs! Fifteen million illegal immigrants love our free benefits while legal citizen programs are lessened. Sex rampant throughout government workers!

Get the picture? If everything was fine in the past, why do we have all the problems today? OK, so do we need another black plane with $150 billion to help finance terrorist groups to give us more reasons to worry about world peace? How about government workers destroying government property, computers to hide illegal activities that sold top secret info to foreign countries? How about MILLIONS of dollars paid to government workers by foreign governments to buy favors that are a path to the destruction of the USA?

You are the USA! Doing the same procedure will result in the same results! Change is the only salvation! Give a business-minded politician a chance to show more great changes that he is proposing. Yes, workers hired should perform as expected or be fired, not promoted to other jobs as has been done in the past. (Yes, screw up to move up! How about do your job or be fired!) Seems business people understand this but the complainers are the ones leaching off our failing system of “no one can fail.” Really? Finally people that cannot handle the president’s blunt assessments of a terrible situation should get their heads out of the sand and look around at what they have allowed all around them on TV, music, magazines, etc. If you do not like the rhetoric change the surrounding conditions!

I would like to see a balanced budget, strong military, improved education where students fail if lazy, employers pay wages based on employees’ abilities and experience, women and men treated the way they present themselves, illegal immigrant criminals deported back to their country and death upon re-entry to U.S.! This would be a great start.

Now open your eyes and see the positive changes of the past year and see what three more will bring. If not better than the past, then vote for change in ALL state and federal positions. —Ron Albrecht, Kalispell