Letters to the Editor - Aug. 7

My son and I live in San Francisco and come up here for the summer to visit family. Back home, I have had the hardest time helping my son learn to swim! The lessons are incredibly expensive and there are long waiting lists for classes. Well, I signed him up for lessons at the pool in Plains and it has been an amazing experience! I am so grateful to Laurel and her team for their patience and consistency. They are great instructors, and after one week, my boy is swimming with all the other fishes. Thank you so much!

Erin Marie McCarthy

Dear Editor,

This is a reply to the Guest Opinion: Water law and the compact!

When the government has an “Agenda”, allowing 32 “winners” is cheap in order to achieve that agenda. Now I am not saying that you “sold out”, but it has happened before many times where “Progressive Government” has an agenda and they need some of the “Nay Sayers” to sign on to the agenda without ever really knowing… that they are perhaps only temporary winners in this great game of cat and mouse. A game that eventually will change eleven western counties from what they once were to the new “Utopia” embraced by the “New World Order”. And… may I add, this is only the beginning.

You referred to the Senior and Junior organizations from Oregon who were nothing more than chosen winners and losers. After a select number of winners are chosen, the losers are given an unreasonable contract to sign on to, which leaves them somewhere in-between the winners and losers and they also lose, after the losers are forced out.

Look at California and the water mess there, that has left thousands of losers being forced out of a valley rich in workers, resources and soil, but short on any water. Another gain for the “Agenda”!

Look at the proposed Tester Bill that is named for saving wilderness area and providing lumber jobs. Yes, the government picked another winner here to sign on to... in order to be given a “bone” without meat on it. One… perhaps two lumber companies have signed on in order to become the winners, but as far as lumber jobs? They are all very superficial and temporary and the pickings are so lean that there are very few dollars to be made by Montana employees to support Montana families. But… when you are hungry, even a dog will sit up for his bone and sign on as an approved lumber representative that sells their soul while the rest of Montana ends up as not just Wilderness Area, but as “Wild lands Areas”. Think about that transformation! Think about one day… being forcibly moved from your “rural” Montana home to be housed in high rise ghettos where your “friendly” government can keep an eye on you and yours.

Look at Common Core. Who are the winners here? You guessed it. The schools, who have signed on, are now… flush in temporary… money from the government. Prior to this there were threats and in some cases actual denials of any more Federal Money (as previously promised) to support local schools “until…” they signed on to Common Core. And who are the losers in Common Core? They are the children and the children of the children and the grandchildren of the children who will have to continue being indoctrinated to such a degree only... the government will be able to choose winners and losers in the game of life.

Doesn’t anybody watch Jay Leno on the street, exposing just how dumbed down our children have been getting? How will it feel for your son or daughter being chosen at an early age to train for a “needed” government job as a domestic worker or a plumber or as an athlete to represent “their” government in “World Order Games”.

Now… let us get back to the question before us: Do we... as Montana Residents believe that 32 chosen winners in the Flathead Indian Irrigation Project should cause us to pick up our phones or pens and call or write in to support Government Paid Winners so that the Government Agenda can move on without a fair hearing?

No… I don’t think so. Even our new Governor is not that dumb… or is he…? Perhaps he has been chosen as a winner? After all, he does support Common Core! And anyone who has studied this, knows that is continued indoctrination but at an escalated speed.

Call your state legislatures and let them know that they need to either reject this blackmail offer of a “new” treaty that gives our water rights away, or this needs to be studied very carefully and revised appropriately so as to protect all of our water rights on and off of the reservations.

Also… remember this; whenever there is government chosen winners, it is your money, your taxes, which are being used as bait to deprive you of your rights and… costs you more in taxes, fees and penalties. This seems to be the way things are done now-a-days. How many more “chosen winners” such as “Solyndra”, do we have to pay for in higher energy costs?

Les Wood,

Plains

My father’s family moved to the Superior area in the late 1920’s. In 1929 my grandparents purchased a ranch near the mouth of Trout Creek, where our family has lived ever since. One of my father’s earliest memories is of traversing the “road around the hill,” otherwise known as the Cyr/Iron Mountain Road. The road allows access from Trout Creek and travels behind the old Diamond Match mill site, where it ties into the Quartz road and I-90. The road has been open to public use for over 80 years and is a valuable mountain access to the area south of the Clark Fork River. It has been used for hunting, fire-wooding and recreational use for countless years.

During my adult life, my wife and I continue to use this road to travel from our home on Quartz Flats to my father’s home in Trout Creek. On a recent trip from Lozeau, my wife and I found that a gate had been erected, closing off the road to public travel. There was a sign on the gate that said “I have purchased this land from a private timber company and appreciate the public’s concern for my privacy.” We then traveled the road from the Trout Creek side and found a log gate with the same sign, along with extensive ditching on each side that effectively closed off the area around Cougar Gulch. The two gates constitute the closing of the Cyr/Iron Mountain county road without public input.

We have researched the state laws that govern the closing of Montana county roads and found statute 7-14-2615 stating that “abandonment or vacation of county roads once established must continue to be county roads until abandoned or vacated by:

1. Operation of law; Judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction; or

2. The order of the board.

3. An order to abandon a county road is not valid unless preceded by notice and public hearing.

4. The board may not abandon a county road or right-of-way used to provide existing legal access to public land or waters, including access for public recreational use as defined in 23-2-301 and as permitted in 23-2-303, unless another public road or right-of-way provides substantially the same access.

5. The board may not abandon a county road or right-of-way used to access private land if the access benefits two or more landowners unless all of the landowners agree to the abandonment.

6. Secondly it states, “No party can encroach upon or block a county road.”

Clearly a fence, gate or other obstruction in the roadway preventing travel would seem to constitute an encroachment. It seems that the law is very clear on this matter and that the road, which has long been open to public transit, has been illegally closed by a private property owner.

It is our understanding that the property is to be used as a retreat honoring fallen service members. We feel this is a very honorable intent as both of our sons have served. Our oldest son served in the army for 12 years, of which 18 months were being deployed in Iraq. Our youngest son has been in the Navy for five years and has just enlisted for another five years. However, we cannot see that closing off public access through an area that has existed for almost a century serves to honor our veterans. If the new landowner fenced off both sides of the road and continued to allow public access through the area, then we feel that the intent of honoring veterans would be fittingly served.

It is our hope that the matter recognizing public rights while preserving private property rights can be resolved without involving public officials and have faith that it can be solved amicably.

Dale and Becky Magone

Superior