Hearings on mining rules should be held closer to home

To the Editor:

A hearty hello from way up here to the bureaucrats and meeting schedulers in Helena. Some of us in Lincoln, Sanders and surrounding counties are wondering why there aren't any hearings here on the latest plan by the Montana Environmental MisInformation Center to rid the state of all mining. After all, this part of the state will likely be the most affected by this anti-jobs scheme.

The Board of Environmental Review, which will decide whether to adopt the MisInformation Center's proposed mining rules, is holding two hearings to get comments from the public. One hearing's at the Bingo Hall in Fort Belknap (Blaine County) and the other's at the Fellowship Hall in Boulder (Jefferson County).

I checked on Mapquest (we got that Internet thing up here last week) to see how long it would take to drive to one of those hearings. I also checked for our friends over the hill in Noxon, which like Libby could greatly benefit from the two underground mines proposed up here. Here's what I found:

* Libby to Fort Belknap: 8 hours, 21 minutes.

* Libby to Boulder: 6 hours, 31 minutes.

* Noxon to Fort Belknap: 9 hours, 32 minutes.

* Noxon to Boulder: 5 hours, 10 minutes.

That's with no timeouts for eating or stretching.

We'd just like to let Helena know that between Lincoln and Sanders County, we have halls for both bingo and fellowship, so that shouldn't be a reason we're not getting a meeting.

I hope it's not because the bureaucrats and schedulers running things in Helena don't want to hear from us, the people most affected by this proposed rule and who mostly support the one operating mine and the two proposed up here that the MisInformation Center's rule would keep from opening.

A meeting in Kalispell or even Seattle would be closer.

Robert Myers