In a positive light: Libby tries to work past negativity

Vans equipped with rooftop satellites scoped out opportunities to illustrate a town that had been declared by the federal government as a public health emergency.

Even before the June 17 announcement, television news stations attempted to show the town’s struggles by filming elderly residents with oxygen tanks in tow or the low-hanging curl of wood smoke from a winter inversion.

An early morning shot of Libby before businesses opened or the town filmed in black-and-white also lent itself to a story of what was perceived as a deteriorating community.

“When they were doing all those negative stories about Lincoln County and Libby, they said, ‘We’ve got to film in black and white because it’s just too pretty here,’” county commissioner Tony Berget said last week during the Libby Area Chamber of Commerce’s monthly luncheon. “I feel blessed that they (had to do that).”

Berget gave business owners a pep talk about overcoming last month’s negative news coverage concerning the Libby Asbestos Superfund Site’s new designation.

“We need to keep looking at the positives we have,” Berget said, “and keep improving.”

National news coverage of the declaration panicked potential tourists and yielded some strange inquiries, becoming the most recent stumbling block in Libby’s efforts to shed the label of “a town left to die.”

Dusti Thompson, executive director of the Libby Area Chamber of Commerce, estimates that about every six months, the Superfund site comes up in national news and reverses headway on efforts to change Libby’s image.

“Every time I feel that Libby is standing on its own two feet again, trying to get past this stigma, they do something like this, and it just pushes us 10 steps back,” Thompson said. “… They come in, they stir up everybody and then they leave.”

The morning after the public health emergency was announced, Thompson was greeted with about 25 voicemails and 45 e-mails from alarmed outsiders that believed Libby was quarantined – that no one could come in or out of the area.

“They wanted to drop their reservations; they wanted to know if there were alternate routes,” Thompson said. “One lady’s mother lives here and she was worried about how to get her mom out.”

Motels in Libby and Troy did not report cancellations immediately after the announcement, though a few reported receiving inquiries about the safety of visiting the area. One motel manager said that business has been slower than usual, but that it could be attributed to the economy.

Jeff Forster, owner of Woodland RV Park, had a number of reservation cancellations and heard rumors that motels had too. He was on vacation when the declaration was announced.

“When I came back, I asked, ‘What happened to all of the reservations?’” Forster said. “They thought we were quarantined – it was plastered all over the Internet.”

Thompson worries that small businesses that depend on summer tourism to survive the winter will suffer from lower sales in August and September. Her office is doing what it can to throw light on what the declaration means and to debunk any myths about Libby being unsafe.

“When they see this on a national news channel, the first thing they feel is panic,” Thompson said. “We were able to talk a lot of them back to sticking with their plans.”

The declaration has had no apparent impact on real estate, according to Mark Roberts, president of the Lincoln County Board of Realtors.

“It might be discouraging initially,” Roberts said, “but I think we’ll be fine. There’s been no major upheaval.”

While local real estate hasn’t been booming for years, Roberts said that the past four or five years have been positive until the recent national housing crash, which has slowed the local market.

The public health emergency has also led some outside companies to fish for business in Libby.

Two law firms – one based in Pennsylvania and the other in Georgia – approached The News immediately after the declaration to advertise that they could help get compensation for patients who suffer from asbestos-related disease. The firm that ended up advertising reported receiving no calls.

Environmental restoration contractors also jumped on the opportunity for work in Libby, said Mike Cirian, field leader in Libby for the Environmental Protection Agency.

“I don’t know if they thought it (the cleanup work) was new or what,” Cirian said. “I told them there’s a lot of people waiting for jobs around here already.”

Cirian reported a number of calls the first week, but said that things have since died down and that he only receives an occasional inquiry.

Thompson, too, said that correspondence with alarmed outsiders has slowed to about 10 calls and five e-mails per week.

Though news of the declaration has had a negative impact on Libby’s image, Roberts points out that the designation will have positive effects, other than just providing health care.

“It’ll help in some regards,” he said. “It will bring jobs, and doctors and researchers in, and I’m sure we’re going to get plenty of grants.”

Thompson believes that the future story of Libby will be a positive one.

“When it’s all said and done,” Thompson said, “Libby is going to be the cleanest place on earth to live, and it’s already the most beautiful place.”