D.F. Oliveria

You can accuse Bonner County and Sandpoint residents of a lot of things but one of them isn't apathy. At times, they're ornery. Self-destructive. Combative. Clannish. Puzzling. They're also fiercely involved in their community and love it deeply. Their commitment to their small town is refreshing in this era of skepticism toward government and drop-outism. Sandpoint residents believe and act as though they're part of the community. As though their opinions make a difference. They do.

The powers that be don't want the unwashed masses to have any advantage in pushing initiatives. Grass-roots law is terribly flawed, they sniff. It doesn't face the purging fire of the legislative process. Of course, such bleating is horsefeathers - as is the contention that paying for initiative signatures is somehow unethical.

Newt Gingrich and President Clinton occasionally do goofy things - like gripe about plane seats or admit a tax hike was too high - but their antics can't compare to the political zaniness found in Spirit Lake. The tiny Idaho town has had more mayors this year (four) than this country has had presidents in the last two decades. World War II tail-gunners lasted longer than Spirit Lake mayors do. Mayor Bob Knapp, elected only a month ago, already is in trouble. He probably will face a recall effort, along with two council members, after he's served long enough to qualify for one - three months. After campaigning on mundane issues, Knapp and his council shocked townsfolks by firing widely respected Police Chief Jeff Alexander.

Quaking bureaucrats and elected officials routinely conjure the liability bogeyman when they don't have the will to get a project done. Their mantra is: Gee, someone might stub a toe. Or break an arm. Or worse. Then, we'd be sued. Woe is us.

Has anyone checked to see if President Clinton still intends to send American troops into Bosnia? It's been 3-1/2 days since he officially committed us to this long-shot mission, and ... well, he has a way of changing his mind. In fact, Clinton decided only recently - after 44 months of "ethnic cleansing" - that America has a vital interest in the Balkans. Something's happening here. What it is ain't exactly clear. Is Clinton concerned about human-rights violations? People are being killed and tortured in dozens of wars around the world today. Why are Bosnians so special? Does Clinton want peace? The United States can't foist its ideals on bitter enemies who don't want them. World leadership? It's time we made our freeloading European allies take responsibility for their own security problems.

(December 1, 1995, page B10, Editorial page.) The report of Lady Bird Johnson's death, in Thursday's editorial, was greatly exaggerated. The former first lady is alive.

I have just the place to name after former North Idaho College president Barry Schuler. It's on the southern edge of the Art on the Green area at the college campus. You know, the spot President Barry ordered dolled up at taxpayers' expense - after it was cleared of wild shrubs, weeds and mosquito larva - for (drum roll, please) his daughter's wedding. We could call it Schuler's Garden. That would be more appropriate than renaming the performing arts center in Boswell Hall after Herr Schuler - an action supported by a few but opposed by the student body and faculty. On the other hand, the NIC Sentinel editorialized that a soccer field on campus should be named after Schuler. The editorial closes: "However, if Schuler had such a questionable reputation, maybe it's better that we not name anything after him." Bingo. Gentlemen (and women), start your engines Frankly, I'm glad to see the double-nickel go the way of the dodo bird - no matter how "deeply disturbed" President Clinton is about it. The feds never had any business micromanaging state speed limits, particularly in the West where a 55 mph limit along some wide-open stretches is a driving bore. When the law goes into effect Dec. 8, Montana will have no speed limit (which is a bit drastic), while the limit will jump to 75 mph in Nevada and Wyoming. The state of Washington can do motorists a favor by raising the limits on Interstate 90, outside the Spokane business core, and on four-lane U.S. 395, outside the Tri-Cities, to a more realistic 60 or 65. Now, if Oregon would only raise the 55 mph limit on most of U.S. 97, I could shave a couple of hours off my annual visit to the Golden State.

They're called the "Founding Moms" - three women who gambled on Sandpoint's commitment to the arts and won. Jane Evans. Laurel Wagers. Susan Bates-Harbuck. Their campaign to save the historic Panida Theater from a wrecking ball ended in complete success this month. With $17,000 donated by Marilyn Sabella's annual Holly Eve auction, The Panida board of directors paid off the theater's 20-year mortgage.

Whatever happened to the 12 days of Christmas? The jolly merchants who bring us Christmas in November are trying to push back the start-up time to Halloween and even earlier. Some of them have had their decorations up for months.

The proof arrived in the mail last week: Property taxes are falling in the Idaho Panhandle - though taxable values increased an average of 23.2 percent last year. Overall, North Idaho taxpayers will pay 3.1 percent less in property taxes this year than last. In Coeur d'Alene, for example, an owner of a home valued at $92,000 saw property taxes fall 5 percent, although overall property valuation increased 20 percent.

Let's have several helpings of Hot Potatoes for the whiners out there who fretted about the federal government's shutdown. What's that you say? The government (sniff!) was shut down (sniff!) because Newt Gingrich got a bad plane ride to the Middle East (honk!)? Horsefeathers. A shutdown was the only way Newt, Bob Dole, et al., could get this president to keep his word on balancing the budget. Bill Clinton has been promising balanced budgets out of both sides of his mouth ever since he became a candidate - in seven years, nine years and, finally, 10 years. But his idea of a "balanced budget" adds at least $1 trillion in debt over five years and an additional $100 billion in annual interest payments. This six-day "train wreck" wasn't government as usual. It was a gutsy effort by the new Congress to get this country's financial house in order, finally, and to protect our children and grandchildren's futures. ... Seriously, how many of you were affected by the feds' holiday? Wilbur pervert deserves punishment What would you do with a 16-year-old sicko who had filmed your daughter or sister undressing for a sports event? School district officials in Wilbur, Wash., are wrestling with that question. Rightly, they're not dismissing the action as a "boys will be boys" prank. Seems our teenage pervert rigged a remote-control camera in a locker room to film female classmates undressing for basketball games. And he might have made copies for his pals. Movie producers make money promoting this kind of "Animal House" voyeurism, but it's not funny in real life. This boy should be expelled so he can begin his career on the trash-talk TV circuit. Next on Sicky Ricki: "Peeping Toms and Girls They Repulse."

St. Louis Rams? Oakland-Los Angeles-Oakland Raiders? Nashville Oilers? Baltimore Browns? Los Angeles Seahawks? The blackmail continues unabated. Professional Football Owner: "Give me a new stadium or I'm taking the (fill in the blank - Cardinals, Astros, America's Team, etc.) to Timbuktu. They're going to build me a (football- or baseball-only) stadium there. Give me a key to the city. And name a street after me, me, me."

Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary has answered the year-old question: "What're we going to do when we don't have Joycelyn Elders to kick around anymore?" O'Leary wanted to make a name for herself when she signed on with the Clinton administration. Now, thanks to her paranoia of the media, she has. The Energy Department acknowledged Wednesday that it paid a media consultant at least $264 per day ($68,640 per year) to develop media strategy (read, prepare a press "hit list" and map out in detail how O'Leary could become a "household name"). White House aides rebuked O'Leary last week for using a consulting firm to analyze hundreds of news stories and rate reporters on the basis of the favorability of those stories. (And you thought Nixonism was dead?) At this point, Hazel had better keep a low profile and avoid using the word "masturbation." Right, Joycelyn? 100 Hooter Girls can't be wrong

Unquestionably, decathlete Dan O'Brien has become a positive role model for youth in the Northwest, with his pursuit of an Olympic gold and his foundation for underprivileged youth in his hometown, Klamath Falls, Ore. Many star athletes forget to give back to their communities. O'Brien deserves commendation, too, for overcoming problems with alcohol that threatened his remarkable track career and for speaking out against the dangers of social drinking.

The Associated Press read too much into Idaho's poor voter turnout during last week's city elections. Among the top five cities, turnout ranged from 29 percent in Lewiston to 15 percent in Twin Falls. Further down the list, Coeur d'Alene and Post Falls had respective turnouts of only 15.4 percent and 22.8 percent. The AP equates voter apathy with contentment with the status quo: GOP dominance in Idaho, four more years of Clinton. I see it as an off-year election with no controversial issues to excite voters. But they'll be back next year when the Idaho ballot offers elections for president, the U.S. Senate and a fistful of initiatives including the Third Coming of the One Percent and Anti-Gay II. Still, you gotta wonder why 84.6 percent of Coeur d'Alene has better things to do than have a voice in its city government. The government closest to the voters. The government that provides their fire and police protection - that decides how far and how fast the city grows. You couch potatoes deserve a Hot Potato for sitting this one out. Status quo sides with 'Thong Man' "Thong Man's" right to bare buns on City Beach survived another election when Councilman-elect Chris Copstead won a seat on the Coeur d'Alene council. Like retiring Councilman Mike McDowell, Copstead opposes a city ban on thong bathing suits. The council remains one vote short of a deadlock, which would allow Mayor Al Hassell to decide the matter. The mayor favors a thong ban. Of course, Hassell has yet to announce a replacement for the vacancy caused when former Councilman Dan English resigned to become the Kootenai County clerk. So, all is not lost for those of us who are tired of the council's tolerance of Thong Man's immodesty.

Like every other community, Sandpoint has problems. A bypass needs to be built. An orderly plan for growth should be drafted. Taxes are too high. Unlike most other communities, however, Sandpoint has been handed a monumental problem not of its own making that won't go away. Because a mountain man refused to come down from Ruby Ridge and because one of the 20th century's most controversial figures moved there, it is viewed by many as a haven for racists. High-profile supremacists and militiamen elsewhere in North Idaho and in nearby northwestern Montana also feed that image - though, as Idaho Gov. Phil Batt correctly noted last week, the majority of Sandpoint residents are "peaceful and fair-minded."

Hagadone Hospitality's fingerprints are all over an attempt to bring unlimited hydroplane racing back to Lake Coeur d'Alene - along with large crowds and ESPN cameras. First, national racing commissioner Bill Doner from Kent, Wash., brings the matter before the City Council on election night, eliminating any chance that his controversial proposal could become a campaign issue as it did 10 years ago. Then, businessman Duane Hagadone's newspaper, the Coeur d'Alene Press, blatantly promotes hydroplane racing on its front page, in its sports columns and editorials, and by conducting unscientific phone-in polls as it did 10 years ago.

Who can blame the country's moderates and media pundits for being crestfallen by Colin Powell's decision not to seek the presidency? He's what they thought wishy-washy "New Democrat" Bill Clinton was when he came to power: A leader. A fiscal conservative. A moral moderate who won't take guff from the religious right. A unifying force. Plus, Powell had advantages over Ol' 43 Percent: He's also a military general, the first black with a bona fide chance to win the presidency, and a best-selling author. The moderates (who basically are liberals without the guts to say so) went gaga in their uncritical hero worship. In fact, Arianna Huffington, the new GOP queen bee of Washington, D.C., endorsed him in a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece.

Whew. For a minute there, I thought Idaho Gov. Phil Batt had gone off the deep end. According to rumors, Batt had ordered his name changed from plain ol' Phil to Philip E. on Idaho Department of Transportation stationery - at great cost to taxpayers. Of course, that was out of character for the P.E. (Penny-pincher Extraordinaire) Batt. He had refused, for example, to have his name placed on signs welcoming visitors to Idaho because he thought it would waste money. Eventually, Batt's name will be elongated as new ITD stationery is ordered. But, even then, he'll still answer to "Phil." That's one reason why he's popular here. 'Woody' deserves Hot Potato, boot

Sandpoint is at a crossroads. Struggling to keep the Festival at Sandpoint and improve its human-rights image, the city is faced with replacing its mayor and two-thirds of its council. With such wholesale change ahead, the new mayor has to be experienced, able to communicate, a consensus builder and a capable representative to the outside world, which knows Sandpoint only for Mark Fuhrman and Ruby Ridge.

Most people would agree that the original intent of the Endangered Species Act was noble: To preserve species of plants and animals from being made extinct through man's actions. But the act has been expanded and interpreted way beyond its initial bounds. It has evolved into a formidable weapon wielded by environmental activists to block the natural-resource industry, important public-works projects and other activities on private and public lands.

Sandpoint clothier Ben Tate probably won't attract much business from Post Falls. His disparaging comments about the Festival at Sandpoint's possible move to Post Falls were brought up twice at a Post Falls candidates' forum. Said Tate: "Post Falls doesn't have any character. People are not going to go to Post Falls to shop. There's not a downtown like there is here. It doesn't have the appeal that Sandpoint does." Apparently, Ben hasn't heard of the Factory Outlet Mall. Or met the progressive elected officials and community leaders in Post Falls. Downtown Post Falls (wherever that is) certainly isn't as picturesque as downtown Sandpoint. But its leadership - unlike Sandpoint's - works together to promote the many assets it does have (read Templin's resort, Highlands golf course, Spokane River, etc.). Post Falls never would have allowed factionalism and pettiness to chase away the festival as Sandpoint is in danger of doing now. Maestro gives 'em hell, too And, if you don't believe me, I'll yell a little louder: Festival maestro Gunther Schuller is ready to pack his baton and go elsewhere unless Sandpoint gets its act together. Said he: "I'm now 70 and will not waste my time with what has become a seething cauldron of antagonisms, miscommunications, jealousies and shortsighted decisions." Schuller blames Sandpoint's business community, which belatedly has realized the golden-egg-laying goose is on life support, for not supporting the festival. In a four-page letter, he wrote, "You can't have it both ways: crow about the festival as your own and at the same time not adequately support it." You gotta love a Pulitzer Prize winner who fires from the heart and isn't above using a term like "deep financial doodoo" to make a point.

In the past 15 years, Post Falls has transformed itself from a bedroom community for Coeur d'Alene and Spokane into one of Idaho's most dynamic towns. That didn't happen by accident. A succession of progressive leaders, led by former mayors Frank Henderson and Kent Helmer, persuaded the community that it needed a sewer system and other infrastructure improvements. Then they extended sewer and water lines west and east, prompting development of Riverbend Commerce Park, Harpers furniture manufacturing plant, Highlands Golf and Country Club - and much in between.

How does conservative Bob Hunt expect to win a Post Falls council seat if he doesn't talk to the press? Hunt refused to be interviewed by The Spokesman-Review for a routine candidate profile. Said he: "I have given up on papers." I feel his pain. The media are notorious for making life rough on conservatives. We "presstitutes" have a way of sneaking in nouns and adjectives such as "extremist," "right-wing" and "radical" to slime people with whom we disagree. But we're talking about a City Council election here - not a race in which abortion, gay rights and other social issues come into play. City councils are responsible for sewers, streets, public safety and planning. If Hunt's not willing to discuss those mundane issues publicly, he shouldn't be running. Play ball! And go to school, too!