Letters to the editor Sept. 29

Heart of America

To the people of Kalispell: The story of how you helped Carole and Verne King find their Border collie, Katie, has now gone around the U.S. We wonder: What kind of people live in Kalispell, Montana?

They treat strangers like family. Hotel staff, people searching in neighborhoods, farmers, people calling in tips, landowners, the owners of a home opened up for the Kings to stay in, businesses posting notices about a lost dog, people willing to give their time to try to reunite a family — these are the kind of people who live in Kalispell, Montana.

These days, all we hear on the news are terrible things, and an American fiercely divided over political hatreds. I wonder what happened to the real America?

Apparently, it’s still alive and well in places like Kalispell. That’s the America where kindness and self-sacrifice still rule. You’re the real heart of a great nation fallen on hard times.

— Barbara Wagner, Nashville, Tenn.

Columbia Falls development

On Sept. 10 the Columbia Falls City-County Planning Board approved The Benches, a Planned Unit Development and Major Subdivision. This subdivision would create 48 single-family residential lots and 30 resort cabins on a 55-acre property located at 7073 U.S. 2, east of Columbia Falls.

This proposed subdivision could have significant impacts on the viewshed, wetlands, wildlife, groundwater and traffic.

The cabins, and accompanying buildings, roads and parking are to be placed in the middle of the wetland area. Not only will the view from U.S. 2 be affected, the wetland area itself will be changed forever. As roads and parking are built, utilities are buried and salt from the roads is brought in on vehicles, the birds and animals currently using the wetlands will most likely be there no more.

Each of the 48 homes would have its own individual septic system. The septic from the resort cabins would also be retained on site. Despite work done by the developer’s consultant, the effect of these septic systems on neighboring properties’ groundwater is an unknown.

The 48 lots, with virtually no open space between them, will essentially cut off any wildlife movement through the property. Elk that often spend time there in the winter and spring will lose this piece of habitat.

The city planner’s staff report states that this subdivision could create up to 760 vehicle trips per day onto U.S. 2 and Rogers Road.

Be sure to comment in writing, or by speaking at the public hearing at the City Council meeting Oct. 7 at 7 p.m.

If we do not participate in the process, we can hold no one accountable.

—Luci Rogers Yeats, Columbia Falls

Trump misrepresented

When Donald Trump became President, his sons stopped doing international business deals. When Joe Biden became vice president, his son Hunter started doing international business deals. Democrats demanded nothing of the Bidens as they did the Trump family. Why?

FACTS: Trump never threatened U.S. aid. There was no investigation. Does this appear as political desperation to get rid of a president who may blow the whistle on government corruption? Should Democrats and Republicans alike fear exposure?

Trump didn’t influence the Ukraine president. However, as president shouldn’t he have cast aside how the Democrats would have reacted and required a Hunter Biden investigation, relative to American justice?

Hunter Biden’s investigation should have continued and the prosecutor rehired. (On video and now on record, Vice President Biden bragged he got the prosecutor fired.) Didn’t Biden save his son, himself, Obama’s administration and Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2016 from any true or false repercussions?

Investigation: $166,000 Hunter Biden monthly transfers and alleged money laundering scheme. Which, in turn, caused John Kerry’s stepson to back out of his partnership with Hunter.

I don’t care if a person is a Democrat or a Republican, and I don’t care if you vote for or against Trump. What I don’t like are the lies and then no one who researches the truth is in print. I get why President Trump Twitters.

Rep Devin Nunes: “Once again, the Democrats, their media mouthpieces and a cabal of leakers are ginning up a fake story with no regard to the monumental damage they are causing to our public institutions and to trust in government.”

Listen, I don’t support the new Democrat socialism, however, I am not saying support Trump. I am saying that no man should be misrepresented such as what is happening to Trump!

—Joanne Stern, Kalispell