Letters to the editor Dec. 13

Septage facility

I attended the second meeting for the county regional septage facility after finishing my 12-hour shift. This was no attack on Flathead County Commissioner Brad Abell. This was simply him not understanding the passion the local neighborhood has for this land and their homes.

Many of the neighbors expressed to me they couldn’t even be in the room because they were afraid they couldn’t control their reactions. I didn’t understand that until looking at the commissioners only to realize one taking a siesta, and my blood boiled along with several of my neighbors. His excuse? Sleep apnea.

Try rebuilding two homes over 22 years, putting absolutely everything you can into it, only to find out the county wants to put a septage facility across the street. The county taxpayers should know the proposal is to buy 36.1 acres with only 22 usable for $1.5 million. The proposed property would never appraise for this unless you compare it 50 acres next to the Majestic Valley Arena and right off U.S. 93. Which they did.

I also want to mention in the diagram from the engineers, part of the septage facility is constructed in the 500 year floodplain.

— Jason Mahlen, Lower Valley

Election mailers

During the last election cycle and after I’ve received a bunch of mailers promoting Rep. Matt Rosendale, they claim to be, “Official Document. Paid for by official funds authorized by the House of Representatives.”

Good grief!

Living between Kalispell and Whitefish, I’m no longer in his congressional district. “Official funds authorized by the,” probably means a super PAC. Actually the court made that possible. I had thought we had a rule in Montana for proper disclosure. Apparently it’s being ignored under the current administration. Those on the hard right do have a way of twisting words.

Conservatives are supposed to be fiscally prudent. Printing, sorting and mailing has to cost a large bundle.

What more can one say?

— James How, Kalispell

Good deed

I went shopping at Walmart this afternoon to fill out some grocery items on my list. When I went back out to my car, I slammed my cart into the cart rack and took off for home.

When I got home and looked for my purse, I couldn’t find it. My husband and I both thought it would never be found or at least would have had the contents removed. There were four $20 bills, three credit cards, my driver’s license and my glasses.

Thank you to whoever returned my purse to the store! You have my gratitude.

— Judie Overbeek, Kalispell

Water Compact

I am writing regarding the CSKT Water Compact. The wording of this behemoth of government overreach, constitutional (U.S. and Montana) violations and lack of due process is deliberately full of confusing legalese, so that the average person cannot begin to understand it, much less realize how hard they need to fight to oppose it.

In my opinion, the compact basically says that the Tribes (meaning the elitist leaders, not the people we know as our neighbors) own all of our water, regardless if you have water rights with your land. You have to get their permission to use the water on your own land and they have first rights. That is equivalent to telling a farmer that they cannot harvest their crops on their land, because the crops actually belong to the Tribes and they have first rights to harvest, so the farmers can have the leftovers. If there are any.

Such a notion is completely ludicrous, but here we are.

— Julie Martin, Kalispell