Can't vote for someone who takes land without compensation
To the Editor:
This letter is to inform Commissioner Roose that I cannot vote for her and to give her the reason why I cannot vote for her.
First the background information for my reasoning. My grandfather moved to Lincoln County in the early 1900s. During his life here he was a constable for many years. In 1958 he bought a quarter section of land just outside of Troy. The 1958 Kootenai National Forest map showed a poor motor road going into the home site from the east only. It also showed the road J. Neils Lumber Co. had leased as a good motor road behind the house. The plat books in the court at that time did not show any road through the property.
When the county bought 8-plus acres of land from my grandparents in 1969, they did not buy the family road and the road was not shown on the survey even as a reference. County road foreman Jack Brown asked my grandfather if he could improve the family road so the county dump trucks could haul down the road. My grandfather gave Jack Brown permission.
During the improvements of the road the county removed the rock fence around the field. My grandfather died in 1972 and the county ordered a survey of the road through the family land in 1973-1974.
In 1974 the county bought land from my grandmother to add to what they had purchased in 1969. The first parcel of land was amended to fit with the county's new survey of the road.
The county did not purchase the family road when they purchased the other land. In 1982 the county was accused of trying to sneak a dump onto the land it had purchased from my grandparents (see the related story in the Dec. 30, 1982, The Western News). My grandmother had told the county she would close the road if they did put the dump here.
I decided if I ever got the chance to buy the family road I would, the reason for wanting the road was to trade with the county on the land they had purchased from the grandparent so they could never try to put in a dump again. In 1994 I got the chance to buy the road from my grandmother. I paid $2,700 to get it surveyed out and approved by the county. I then paid my grandmother for the amount of land in the survey.
I recorded the deed which included two requirements I was to follow. I was to negotiate a trade with the county and I was to leave the road open to the family residents living along the road (for those who do not understand leaving the road open, it means no gates!).
At this time I started paying taxes on the family road and the taxes have always been kept paid. The first part of August 2000 I went to a meeting with Commissioner Chair Roose, and commissioners Windom and Konzen to see about a trade/purchase of the land the county had purchased from my grandparents. At that meeting I was offered $1,000 an acre for the road. I informed the commissioners if they were going to purchase the road it needed to be based more on the value of my land adjoining the road. ($1,000 an acre would just cover my survey costs).
I was informed by the commissioners they would let me know by the end of August of their answer. It was not until Oct. 13, 2000, (two and a half months later) that I got a letter signed by all three commissioners claiming a 60-foot right of way through the property.
So Commissioner Roose I cannot vote for someone who can take my land without compensation (did not pay for the land) and without having any filed deed, easement, or right of way recorded in the court as required by law and knowing I pay taxes on the family road.
The only reason I can think of for you to take my land was because of your support for Commissioner Konzen's hidden agenda of moving the county shop onto the land the county had purchased from my grandparents, the land the county wanted to move the dump onto.
I would have thought with Libby dealing with the creosote Superfund site, the commissioners would have an understanding of why the families with their wells and their kids do not want a county shop near the water table.
Glenn Garrison
Troy
Libby family grieving over suspected theft of beloved cats
To the Editor:
I live on the corner of Fifth and Minnesota. I have a family - a husband and two beautiful children. My family included at one time our two cats whom we also very much love.
One is an orange male tabby. He is fixed and on the lean side. He also has scars from an old fight with a dog on his rear leg. I can't remember which leg as time has a way of making memory fuzzy, but they've healed and the hair grew back.
The other one is a black female with some white on her chest and stomach. Her tail has am "L" shape at the end. She is slightly chubby and is also fixed.
I am writing this letter because our two cats have been missing for somewhere in the range of two weeks. After searching the pound, Kootenai Pets for Life, the vet's office, and even the streets for them, I have come to the conclusion that someone out there must have taken them. So this letter is to whoever has them.
I want you to know that we love our cats dearly. Tater, the orange tabby, went to Alaska with us when we moved there and back home when we moved back here. I want you to know that he became our cat when he was a kitten and fell asleep in the hood of my hoody. Sweety, the black cat, (thusly named for her sweet personality) became our cat when I found her as a stray outside of my husband's work.
Above all, what I really want you to know is the heartache you caused by taking them. The days we have worried that they are or have been hurt, not to mention how much we miss them.
Would you please return our pets? Just drop them off in our neighborhood. They know how to get home.
I don't care who you are. We just want our babies back.
Also in my search for our pets I have come across someone else who has had problems with pet stealing. Her neighbors were able to stop it in progress twice. Whoever is out there stealing people's pets, I say this: Go find your own pets and leave ours alone!
Laura Glover
Roger Morris was a great friend
To the Editor:
I want to add my voice of deep appreciation for Roger Morris. He was my friend.
Most people do not realize this, but it was Roger who encouraged me to pursue getting what is now KJRZ 105.3 FM on the air. He personally visited, on site, many of my meager endeavors in broadcasting Libby's earlier micropower FM station at 88.7
He was a faithful listener who at times listened to 88.7 through rain, snow and static. Later he became a big voice of support for what is now KJRZ before it went on the air.
I've known Roger since 1993, and he has been a great friend since. I truly feel the loss of this great man, encourager and friend.
Rick Vogel
Cheap oil needed for the poor
To the Editor:
Me and Yvonne have asked Sen. Baucus, Sen. Burns, Rep. Rehberg and Gov. Schweitzer for two years to provide cheap heating oil to Montana's poor families through Citgo, an oil company in the United States but owned by Venezuela. We have received no response at all.
Me and Yvonne are asking our county commissioners, John Konzen and all other county commissioners, to provide this cheap heating oil to the poor families of Lincoln County. We also ask Sen. Jim Elliott, Sen. Aubyn Curtiss and Rep. Ralph Heinert to provide this cheap heating oil to the poor families of Lincoln County and the state of Montana.
The callous disregard of our congressmen and governor last year toward the heating needs of our poor families is a social injustice to the people of Montana.
Daniel Gawain Waters
Troy