Post Falls Politics Can Be So Confusing

It’s alphabet time in the River City’s version of the classic “Who’s on First?” Abbott and Costello bit. In January 1983, Post Falls Mayor Frank Henderson resigned to become a Kootenai County commissioner and councilman Kent Helmer was appointed mayor. Helmer was elected mayor a time or two before being elected to a county commission seat and being replaced by councilman Jim Hammond in 1991. Hammond ran for mayor and continued to serve in that position until being hired as city administrator in July 1996.

The era of mayors whose last names began with the letter “H” ended when councilman Gus Johnson was appointed to replace Hammond. Johnson ran for mayor and was elected. Then this year he ran for county commissioner. He won in the primary and faces no Democratic opposition in the November, so he is assured Dick Compton’s seat on the county commission come January.

So we currently have councilmen named Grant, Larkin, Bodman and Jacobson. Nary an “H” in the bunch. But if the trend now is toward mayors whose last names begin with the letter “J,” then Ron Jacobson is the obvious choice to replace Johnson by appointment. Except for the fact that Clay Larkin is the likely front-runner for the mayoral replacement. Or maybe, just maybe, the first letter of a councilman’s last name really isn’t the deciding factor. The mayoral appointment doesn’t even have to come from the ranks of the current city council. John or Jane Q. Citizen could be named mayor if there was a stalemate on the council.

Here’s a point to ponder, although Mayor Johnson isn’t a glutton for punishment, legally and technically he can be both mayor of Post Falls and a Kootenai County commissioner at the same time.

And we thought the presidential elections were really getting exciting.

I mentioned here in August that the son of my CHS classmate, Dr. Tom Thompson, qualified to represent the U.S.A. in the Olympic Games in Sydney. Swimmer Chris Thompson’s grandparents, Dr. C.E. and Cathy Thompson are Coeur d’Alene residents.

Last week I received an e-mail from another classmate, Tim Shepperd, who teaches French at Post Falls High School.

“Bonjour! Tom’s son, Chris made it to the finals in the 1,500 meter freestyle in Sydney. It will be shown tonight on NBC sometime between 7 p.m. and midnight. If you can’t wait to find out how he did…scroll down. If you can wait, watch Channel 6.”

I scrolled down. Congratulations, Chris, on your Olympic bronze medal!

After about a decade of “will they or won’t they,” they are. Post Falls will become home to Sam Walton’s Wal-Mart in 2001. The downside is that any addition of a large national retailer in a relatively small town will adversly affect the locally owned retail businesses that cannot compete with the volume buying and pricing of a behemoth like Wal-Mart. When these “mom and pop” businesses cease to exist, we lose Little League sponsors and contributors to local causes.

The upside of a Wal-Mart in our town is an expanded tax base, increased job opportunities for young workers and senior citizens, as well as keeping more local shopping dollars local. There will be no reason for Post Falls residents to drive across the state line to shop Wal-Mart or even to head into Coeur d’Alene.

Post Falls likely will capture shoppers from other North Idaho communities who would have passed by on their way to Spokane Valley. There’s also a good chance that while here, those shoppers will grab a bite to eat, fill up their gas tank or become aware of more of our retail businesses just by coming here.

This no doubt will be an emotional, much-discussed and debated development, so we’ll have to decide whether to take the half-empty or half-full approach.