Letters

Kindness after death much appreciated

I just wanted to give a warm thank you to all of the people in North Idaho. I know this is a great place to live but after the recent week, I realize just why so many people want to be here.

My dad (Richard “Yogi” Manuel) died last week, and I just wanted to say thank you to a few special people. To start, as always, Kootenai Medical Center staff always goes above and beyond. The ER department made my father’s passing tolerable with the chaplain and the nursing and social service staff. My mother works in the dietary department, which also went above and beyond. They collected donations, flowers, and are even going to help her out by preparing meals for the coming days.

The staff at Kootenai Cancer Center are always angels and offered donations and food or anything else needed. Monte, Marie, Devin, Sherrie, Carley, Michael, Shawn and everyone from The Wheel in Bayview put on an amazing display of community support; everything from food to room for the wake, and even changing the reader board to “Till we meet again, Yogi.” Beaks, and The Pastime even had his wake posted in their establishments and help inform everyone in the community of his services.

George and Devena graciously got back together and learned my mom and dad’s favorite song for the event. “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain.” Thank you.

Sherri from the Eagles brought cards and donations from members there. The American Legion Post 149 Auxiliary members put on a wonderful feast for everyone, and also donated money for my mom. Thank you to all the people who stood up and said something about my dad. Commander George Wolf and Doug Harms respectfully honored my dad with a ceremony of flag that they presented to my mom, and did a gun salute for his service to his country. Thank you, it meant a lot to my family.

Dr. Pataky, who kept my dad alive even after they told him six years ago he only had six months to live. Thank you Shawn from ISP for making sure all went well. Charlie and Brenda Weber, Josh Horvath, Bill Hollenbach and Scott who have volunteered to put up a carport for my mom this winter since this was the last project my dad was working toward. Thank you also to the gentleman trying to help finish the well.

Especially thank you to all my brothers and sister, nieces and nephews who all came from out of town to help take care of all the arrangements, everything financially and emotionally. And everyone I forgot to tell about the wake I am truly sorry. Yogi touched so many lives and each and every person he knew touched his heart and ours. Thank you for proving Idaho to be as great as people say it is.

Dan-Yell Liaty

Athol

Park closure creates hardship on residents

On Tuesday The Coeur d’Alene Press recently ran an article saying that the El Rancho Trailer Park had been sold and the tenants will soon have to move to make way for a mini mall. The tenants were aware that the park had been sold but not that it was being developed. This park is home to families, disabled and low-income people who cannot afford to move their homes and, because of their credit or the fact that they live paycheck to paycheck, will not be able to find a new place. If they do find a new place the next problem is their trailer being accepted in the park that will take them as tenants. There are a lot of people here who cannot go out and get a new trailer so that it will be accepted in the park. Many of the tenants are still paying on their homes and now they will lose those homes.

Most of the parks in this area will accept a 1990 or newer but most of the trailers here are middle to late ‘80s and older. Is the developer going to pay them a decent amount to move out and give up their homes? Probably not.

Most developers that buy a place like this do it for one reason and one reason only – money. There is money to be made in tearing down people’s homes and putting up strip malls instead, sad to say.

Yes, the law states that we have to be given a six-month written notice but again the problem of money – most of the tenants here cannot afford to pay more than the $260 per month that the lot rent here is and so will have nowhere to go. There are no homes in this area that can be rented or leased for that amount. Even if the developer pays the initial costs for the tenants to relocate the tenant still cannot afford a $600 or $700 per month rent, and HUD has a four-year waiting list even for their subsidized housing.

We also do not want to be uprooting our children as many of them are just getting settled into school and there are those parents who have children getting ready to graduate. The children will have to be uprooted and some of them will not even have their friends at school because they will have to move out of the district so they have to start over. This is hard for children of any age. If a child is disabled then it is harder, and there are some children with disabilities in this park.

We as tenants were not allowed to voice our opinions on the matter of losing our homes, nor were we allowed to hear anything from the developer except what was in the paper. We still are expected to pay our space rent but have to save money to move if we can find a place to go. When a person lives from paycheck to paycheck there is no way to save money for a major expense like moving a trailer which can cost $10,000 or more. The developer is Dick Vandervert. The same developer who is building the $6 million building in Spokane.

Ellen Maurer

El Rancho Tenant, Post Falls