Letter to the Editor: Veterans as taxpayers

To the citizens of Sanders County:

The Sanders County commissioners, the fair board and the fair manager have slapped every veteran in the face by refusing the Stand Down to be held in the fair buildings without first paying a fee of $2,500 and forcing the organizer to move it to the west side of the county.

The fairgrounds are owned by the citizens of Sanders County, not the fair board, nor the fair manager. As property owners, my wife and I pay taxes twice yearly and one of the items we pay is “county fair.” It is extortion to require taxpayers and veterans to pay again for what they have already paid for. The fine people of Trout Creek have generously offered their facilities free of charge. However, their facility is not adequate. The buildings are small and open faced. Unlike our fairgrounds, the Trout Creek facility lacks security and is accessible to anyone day or night. If the Trout Creek facility is used, the Stand Down must be scaled down by perhaps 50 percent. In addition, the articles of clothing could be exposed to the weather. The Sanders County Fairgrounds, with all of the space and all of those empty buildings, will sit there unused. Total nonsense.

The Stand Down is a non-profit event staffed by volunteers. It is an opportunity for veterans to receive surplus articles of clothing and medical attention they most often could not afford to pay for. As I shoveled snow last week in -10 degree weather, I was kept warm by “body armor” underwear I received at a Stand Down. At 75 years of age and on a fixed income, the articles I received from the Stand Down have been appreciated and well used.

The veterans and their families who attended the last Stand Down came from several states and Canada. They spent money in Plains. They purchased fuel, groceries, meals, rented rooms, shopped at the hardware store, the drug store and the automotive parts store. By denying the Stand Down you have also cheated our merchants of income. Every business was directly or indirectly enriched by the visitors during the Stand Down. I believe the amount of money spent locally would far exceed the amount the fair manager wishes to extort from the Stand Down organizers. So, county commissioners what have you to say?

The fair manager and fair board function at the discretion of the county commissioners, therefore it would seem we need to elect commissioners who actually represent the people who elected them. Before I vote again for a county commissioner, I will need to know their view on who they represent and their feelings toward veterans. The current commissioners seem to have misplaced priorities; they have appointed a fair manager who seems to think he is omnipotent and running his own little fiefdom.

And commissioners, tell us why you are allowing those who sacrificed for your freedom to be dishonored.

John T. Hodge,

U.S. Navy veteran

Plains