Huckleberries: Committed committees are an asset to the city

Coeur d’Alene Councilman Dan Gookin shot from the hip last week – and hit his foot. After opposing the reappointment of competent Denny Davis to the Lake City Development Corporation, The Gookinator told the Coeur d’Alene Press: “We’ve got some people who serve on five or six committees. Our committees are weak because they don’t have a good cross-representation of the city.” Gookin would have a good point, if his info was correct. A look behind the numbers shows that 130 resident volunteers serve on Coeur d’Alene committees and commissions. No volunteer serves on five or six committees. In fact, only three serve on as many as three committees. Six others serve on two committees. Gookin might have found that out before he popped off by doing what Huckleberries Online did – contacting City Hall. Meanwhile, Gookin should consider the city lucky to have volunteers for committees that deal with such things as signs, urban forestry and dogs. In divided Coeur d’Alene, no good deed goes unpunished.

PlayStation 3 flap

Post Falls police were called to perform an intervention at a Third Avenue home last week. Seems a mother got tired of telling her 13-year-old son to quit playing with his PlayStation 3. After he ignored her several times, she called the cops. The request she made to Chief Scot Haug’s finest? Get my son to turn off his PlayStation and give me the gaming system. A PFPD shift report tells the rest of the story: “Police arrived on scene and were able to assist the mother by educating the 13-year-old on Idaho Law and respect for his mother. After a short conversation he kindly gave up his gaming system without argument.” Do you suppose the PFPD blues are available to make kids clean their rooms?

Huckleberries

Poet’s Corner: Not much point/to sit and parley;/you are madmen,/“We are Charlie” – The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“Reasoning with Lunatics”) … How big was that mudslide at Beauty Bay on Lake Coeur d’Alene Thursday? Big enough to bury a semi, according to one gendarme. Fortunately, it didn’t. Or any other motorist, for that matter … In a legislative preview presser Thursday, Gov. Butch Otter described Idaho as being “in great shape.” Do you suppose Butch knows the difference between Idaho and Iowa? There’s a lot of school districts and working poor in the Spud State who might disagree with him … Front Porch columnist Cindy Hval described a sad sight she saw in Spokane Valley last week – a soaked and bedraggled young man dressed as Lady Liberty, playing his Liberty Tax sign like an air guitar on a sidewalk. Which should make us all sad. That means tax season is upon us again … According to the Tax Foundation, gummint-hating Idaho gets 34.9 percent of its total state general revenues from (drum roll, puh-leez) – the federal government. The Gem State stands 16th percentagewise in landing dollars from the federales. Meanwhile, No. 37 Democratic Washington receives only 28.6 percent of its general revenues from the feds … If you lost a police scanner walkie talkie, it might still be sitting atop the crosswalk button at Lakeside Avenue and Government Way. That’s where it was photographed by skyline-productions.com – and posted on Facebook for our amusement.

Parting shot

Huckleberries Online experienced a record year for page views and unique views in 2014. My Idaho-based blog finished with 2,627,127 page views and 1,672,554 unique views. Those numbers bested Huckleberries Online (www.spokesman.com/blogs/hbo) records set in 2013 and 2010, respectively. And you wonder why I didn’t retire when I turned 65 in November? I’m having fun. And the readers apparently are enjoying themselves, too.