Letters to the editor April 21

Why not a traffic light?

I have a question to pose please.

Why is a traffic light at Dern and Springcreek not the solution to that dangerous intersection? Flashing lights to indicate a traffic light is ahead are already in place. We could lower the speed (as in school zones) and put in traffic lights in just a few months.

It seems this would be less expensive (Wow, $3 million or more for the roundabout no one wants) and we wouldn’t have to wait two years.

It seems reasonable to believe, if death due to accidents is the prime reason for this change, it would be done immediately.

And a reminder — it isn’t the fault of the intersection. It simply boils down to the most easy of human responsibility — be polite.

And since I am here talking about driving safety...

We see you texting and driving. Have you not heard you can kill yourself or someone else doing this while driving! Death is permanent. Your text can wait. Respect others just by driving safely. Our families will thank you when we make it home safely.

—Kathy Putney, Kalispell

May we be the keepers of the land

In reading the headline from April 7 “Toxicant proposed to eliminate non-native species” in Glacier Park, my heart sank.

In the article the adverse effects to the terrestrial insects, fauna and the wildlife’s existence in this park region is not fully addressed.

I live on a lake in Lincoln County that was poisoned in the late fall of 1998. There were adverse effects to the whole ecosystem of Tetrault Lake.

The statements that are made in relation to using this substance in the park are so focused on the eradication of fish. What happens to the whole affected lake and its local influenced area is a sense of no life. Death permeates the air.

It was 10 years before I knew that life was restored to Tetrault Lake. There were finally dragonflies flying above the water. The frogs were completely destroyed.

My physical health and life was totally changed by that application. I had received positive testing of Rotenone in my system, and it was causing major health issues. We had been told this substance didn’t affect mammals. I moved out of my home for four years.

In 2012 the desire of Fish, Wildlife and Parks to poison another lake in our valley was proposed. Because of concerned, informed citizens, the application was thwarted. There was a sense of keeping our valley safe from destroying the larvae, insects, amphibians and mammals now surviving here. In April of 2013, the announcement was made that Bass Lake would not have Rotenone applied.

There’s documentaries of how frogs have been affected, in other states, in areas where a form of Rotenone was used.

My grandfather and grandmother were part of a team or crew that built the Going-to-the-Sun Road. Growing up in the Flathead Valley, we were always able to go to the park. Memorial Day it was a tradition to have a picnic at Avalanche Campground. I’m saying this because we all know how, when you cross the official boundary into Glacier Park, there’s a sense of pure, pristine creation. In some areas you know there’s a direct link to heaven.

My heritage is part of being a member of a native tribe, The Little Shell Chippewa. There is a depth of honoring the land, and a knowing that the land and its creator has sustained us. May we be the keepers of the land in honor and in peace.

—June J. O’Connor, Lincoln County

Funding Montana’s Medicaid expansion

Pretending that opposition to continuing Montana’s Medicaid expansion had anything to do with the federal budget deficit is a joke almost as funny as the proposal by state Sen. Scott Sales earlier this Montana legislative session to “contribute” additional millions of Montana taxpayers’ dollars to building a higher wall between the U.S. and Mexico. Seriously?

The current national debt is more than $21 trillion and the current fiscal year 2020 federal deficit is $1.103 trillion. Montana’s Medicaid expansion program will utilize a tiny fraction of the federal budget, less than a “drop in the bucket” for federal spending. In Montana the program will save lives and net the state many millions in health-care cost savings.

If you in the Montana Legislature who voted against expansion were truly serious about controlling the federal budget deficit, consider supporting a federal balanced budget resolution. Perhaps you’d like to also return all of Montana’s share of federal highway dollars? In fiscal year 2018, that totaled $380 million spent. Don’t like that idea? Then your opposition to Medicaid expansion wasn’t really about the money, was it?

And if you are truly committed to protecting Montanans’ wallets, don’t even think about saddling your kids and mine with millions upon millions of unregulated debt with a Colstrip coal plant bailout that would directly benefit only NorthWestern Energy and the town of Colstrip. Sorry, Senator Ankeny, that dog won’t hunt. The price is far too high.

—Ken McLean, Helena