Recent incidents hurt Rathdrum, its citizens
Two things happened in Rathdrum last week that riled many of its citizens, including me.
First, some vandals broke into Rathdrum’s historic jail and damaged irreplaceable historic items. They took the time to spray-paint nearly every picture, photograph and artifact and tear to pieces dresses and uniforms donated by the family of an early resident.
News of this damage hit town about the same time a mean-spirited and inaccurate article about our town appeared in the “Handle Extra.” Both things hurt.
Members of the Rathdrum/Westwood Historical Society have spent many years seeking out, cataloging and caring for historic clothing, pictures and artifacts from Rathdrum’s early history. These artifacts are housed in an 1890 building that was the county jail when Rathdrum served as the county seat. The building is currently undergoing a $600,000 restoration due to a generous donor from the community.
All this didn’t matter to some vandals looking for something to do one night last week. The cost of their vandalism to the building and its unique artifacts is high and hurts our entire community. There will be no replacement of some of these items, and no amount of money will make this better. It is demoralizing to those who have worked for so many years to protect our history – only to have it purposefully destroyed.
While still upset about the vandalism, many of us sat down to read the newspaper, only to be stunned by Patrick Jacobs’ column, Get Out! Mr. Jacobs usually writes as a food critic, but this week he decided to flesh out his column by proving how worthless it is to visit “dowdy old Rathdrum,” unless one is after a hamburger. The resulting column, researched during a three-minute drive-by critique of our downtown area, was negative and self-serving.
Although Mr. Jacobs may be an expert at wolfing down a hamburger, he needs to be aware that it takes more than taste buds to write about a community. He should have gotten out of his car and taken the time to meet some of our residents and ask a few questions before he asserted “Rathdrum isn’t really the kind of charming hamlet that anybody might visit just for the thrill of it.”
He would have discovered Rathdrum is a community that works hard to encourage downtown development; has completed millions of dollars of downtown revitalization projects and is full of hard-working, law-abiding citizens. He would have discovered our pride at the growth and vitality of our downtown area, where, despite his assertion, few buildings sit empty.
Instead of focusing on our two taverns (one misnamed), Mr. Jacobs could have mentioned the new espresso and bookstore, our attractive city hall or the busy beauty shop.
It must have been while he was ducking under his dash, hiding from the stares of the guys at One Eye’s, that he missed The Salsa Factory, where visitors from around the world have signed the guestbook, and where the NBC “Today Show” filmed a segment recently.
Oh, and that building he called a “noticeably renovated large historic building” was built in 2007.
Although nothing can erase the damage these two events did to our community, hopefully we can find a way to see they do not happen again. Studies on vandalism report vandals aren’t as likely to damage places in which they are invested, so perhaps the Rathdrum/Westwood Historical Society could invite the community to help them clean up the damage to their building and then include them with ongoing work like cleaning up the grounds, and helping to plant trees, bushes and flowers. I know they could use the help and I bet a lot of great people would show up.
And, to Mr. Jacobs, actually we’re glad you like the burgers at Burger Heaven, as do many of us. But, the next time you come for one of our burgers, we would like to invite you to take the time to Get Out! of your car and get to know us; most of us are pretty nice and darn proud of the little town we live in.
In fact, I’ve heard those four guys at One Eye’s, have invited you back to town so they can buy you a beer. Game?