Huckleberries Hears …

… That it was standing room only at Cricket’s last night as the who’s who of volunteers, philanthropists, nonprofit board members, city officials and business leaders turned out to honor the volunteerism of Charlie Nipp and accentuate the positive. Basically, the gathering was an opportunity for community leaders to thumb their collectively noses at the Coeur d’Alene Press for over-playing the community critics and naysayers to anything involving LCDC, the city of Coeur d’Alene and North Idaho College. Said Jay Baldwin of NICHE: “There must have been 300 people there, all raising their glasses to acknowledge that despite the loud voices of critics and their seemingly endless supply of ink and irk, lots of good people are doing a lot of good and unheralded work in this community.”

Question: Here’s my theory why Duane Hagadone has turned his editorial guns loose on volunteer extraordinaire Charlie Nipp: Charlie had the audacity to support the Walker-Macy plan back when. Which didn’t include Duane taking over McEuen Field for his proposed botanical garden. And Charlie opposed the city shutting the western end of Sherman Avenue when Hagadone tried to build his garden there. Do you have a better theory?