Working for a better Lincoln County

To the Editor:

In a recent Letter to the Editor from Sen. Aubyn Curtiss, there was some criticism of us concerning our discussion and action in moving forward in a positive manner with Communities for a Great Northwest to appoint a broad-based citizens' group to work on defining the customs and culture of our County.

In our attempt to do this, we decided to accept the offer of Communities for a Great Northwest to facilitate this effort and submit a diverse group of names for this committee. C.G.N.W. has a strong history of working with different groups on public land issues and experience in this kind of endeavor. In this type of undertaking, that is important.

This effort will be the first step in possibly moving ahead in an attempt to have more input on public land issues with the Forest Service and other federal agencies and give us a stronger voice on actions that are taken by these agencies that affect all of us.

We understand that there is a lot of frustration whenever discussions are held concerning forest management. Most of our lumber mills are gone. We all know many longtime residents who have had to move to find other employment. Every summer we all worry about catastrophic wild fires destroying our homes and forests. Our public comments addressing these issues seem to go unheard.

We attempt to remain optimistic and diligent in working towards overcoming these obstacles. We believe this can only be accomplished by working toward broad-based support with people and groups on all sides of the issue. Attempting polarization on these issues does not lead to success nor does it benefit our residents who are trying to support their families.

We do not plan to address each issue raised by Sen. Curtiss in her letter but instead ask her, and those working with her, to work with us for the betterment of our citizens. Discussion and debate are good.

But let's agree to disagree on some small issues and work toward a common goal of a strong voice for Lincoln County families.

Board of County

Commissioners, Lincoln County

Rita R. Windom,

John C. Konzen,

Marianne Roose

Dist. 1, Libby

Dist. 2, Troy

Dist. 3, Eureka