Letters To The Editor

IDAHO VIEWPOINTS

School district most appreciative

The Coeur d’Alene School District wishes to express thanks to the loggers, Washington Water Power Co. crews, parents and passing motorists who came to the aid of our buses during Tuesday’s ice storm. Because of their help in clearing tree branches and assisting bus drivers, we were able to get all children home safely.

We also appreciate the families that willingly made arrangements to pick up their children when buses couldn’t complete routes due to road conditions.

A special thanks to Red Cross personnel and volunteers for establishing and staffing a shelter at the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Our District 271 transportation and maintenance staffs also are to be commended for their work in keeping our schools and children safe during severe weather conditions. Doug Cresswell, superintendent of schools Coeur d’Alene

Of course there’s a lead risk

I would like to clarify a comment taken out of context regarding lead exposure in the lower Coeur d’Alene River Basin (“Veteran lawmaker faces challenge” Oct. 25).

I have never denied that there has been a serious lead exposure risk in those areas near the Superfund site. My remark regarding a “low risk” referred to the lower river drainage, specifically, Coeur d’Alene Lake and the Spokane River.

In addition, I commend those who have worked diligently to make the Silver Valley a safer place to live. Jack Riggs, state senator-elect Coeur d’Alene

SPOKANE MATTERS

Drivers have reason to be proud

In the wake of possibly the worst snow-and-ice storm in Spokane history, when power outages were tripping over each other - eight substations escalating to 27 in less than four hours - Spokane drivers exhibited a stop-and-go courtesy that was refreshing and pleasant to behold.

While city crews were fanning out across the city to get stop signs in place at intersections that lacked a stoplight, drivers proceeded in a steady, after-you choreography. You’d very circuitously slow to a stop, wait a minute or two for the intersection to clear and move across without ill will from any quarter.

I couldn’t believe it. Who says the world is totally full of rotten people who don’t give a damn?

The talk shows, with their ditto-heads and inflammatory rhetoric, and that “Terminator” movie, in which everybody you don’t like gets blown away, would have us believe that all that’s left in this world is a herd of complete dolts.

Yes, there was small percentage of drivers who, in their self-supposed defiance of authority, would run through traffic barricades and knock over garbage cans and other warning signs trying to speed over fallen, live power lines. But they were an extreme minority. We only heard about them on the radio news.

My wife and I made a very safe and uneventful journey during the height of the ice storm from Ruby Street to Indiana Avenue to the end of Northwest Boulevard, through dozens of darkened intersections, with a minimum of delay.

That was because of the good, old-fashioned Western courtesy of Spokane drivers.

Hats off to you all! Robert Cunningham Jr. Colville

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

It’s been an honor to serve

It’s not easy to accept defeat at the polls, but one does not have a choice and so, should attempt to be as gracious in defeat as comes naturally in victory.

I wish the two new county commissioners the best of luck and have already assured them of my cooperation with anything that may be of assistance to them. Their success as administrators, although some of our political philosophies may differ, will have a significant impact on the well-being of Bonner County for years to come. That well-being, after all, should be of the utmost importance to all of us.

I would like to thank those who invested time and energy in my ideas for the two years I was in office. I only wish we would have had the next four years to bring more of them to fruition. A special thanks to the folks on the Jail Committee for the countless hours we spent coming up with a practical design. Good luck with the new board and construction process. As an outgoing commissioner, a heartfelt thanks to all the volunteers who serve on the numerous advisory boards to the commissioners, because the county would be hard-pressed to function without you. Also, I feel real gratitude for the cooperation I received from county employees; you’ve been great, and my fellow elected officials.

I appreciate every person who voted for me, in any of the elections I’ve been in. It is an honor to represent Bonner County, and don’t be surprised to see me try again in the future. Steve Klatt Sagle

Olson primary win a big mistake

Organized labor and the questionable leadership of certain Spokane County Democrats did a disservice to voters when the aforementioned pulled out all the stops in support of Judy Olson for Congress.

Olson’s primary victory all but guaranteed the re-election of Rep. George Nethercutt. She was unknown and, frankly, unloved by most Democrat activists in Spokane County.

Most Spokane Democrats were disappointed when Susan Kaun lost the primary after her unprecedented grass-roots effort could not compete with a slick, well-funded campaign for an inferior candidate who ultimately couldn’t even carry her own county (Whitman).

Nethercutt was most vulnerable in this recent campaign. Had Kaun, the better candidate, opposed him in the general election, we could easily have had a Democrat reclaiming Tom Foley’s seat in Congress. Now, we can look forward to two more years of inept, Gingrich-controlled representation and to a campaign in 1998 that will pit a more-entrenched Republican against whoever can be coerced into opposing him. Dale McLeod Otis Orchards