AM Hucks: Polishing Copper Basin’s Image

Your mischievous Huckleberry Hound launched a long Huckleberries Online thread Tuesday p.m. by posting the contents of an e-mail circulated by a Copper Basin Construction rep. In a note to “dear family and friends,” Linda Davis/Copper Basin tries to drum up support for the controversial plan that will allow “750 families to have lovely homes at a reduced price” on 290 acres of Rathdrum Prairie farmland, near Hauser. In Linda’s view, everyone’s for the project – “the (Coeur d’Alene Press), the chambers, the college, the school districts, and 5,500 members of the manufacturing community” – except the opposition “from people who don’t want to share.” Some of those opponents weighed in immediately, wondering what Linda and Copper Basin consider “affordable housing.” Commented TC: “I am against this project because of the location, not who is doing it. Affordable housing is a buzz word that can mean lots of things to different people. But the fact is the area they are proposing to build on would eventually harm the aquifer and the overall ecosystem.” The, ahem, overwhelming support for the project may be a figment of Copper Basin’s imagination. By 4 p.m. Tuesday, a Coeur d’Alene Press online poll of 1,413 respondents revealed the project was opposed 69 percent to 29 percent. In political terms, that’s a landslide. So, Linda asked “family and friends” to vote in the poll to change the numbers. Nothing wrong with that. But her signoff line made me pause: “Keep your stick on the ice. … We’re all in this together!” We are?