Leasing undermines school system
Prescott School is again in the cross hairs of school officials.Prescott’s five-year lease to Missoula International School, ratified in 2004, expires in 2009. An appraisal of Prescott, not yet completed, was to also assist in determining a lease price if the board decided to continue to lease rather than sell.
Therefore, it was surprising that a lease extension was approved at a meeting last week, without a price, to be voted on at the June 10 board meeting. About 400 people have signed a petition against a sale and for a short-term lease of Prescott School. However, trustees have proposed to lease until 2012.
I have nothing against private schools. However, leasing to MIS has undermined the school system. Because of per-child state funding we may have subsidized MIS $250,000 so far due to its growth and low rent. Trustees may also be violating their oath of office, which insists on loyalty to the district.
More troubling is if a trustee was a former officer of MIS, as was Board Chairwoman Toni Rehbein, who held the positions of president and vice president from 1998 to 2000. Rehbein abstained from voting for the lease, although she did voice support for a lease to MIS before the vote and extension or sale thereafter.
A responsible course of action is to offer a one- or two-year lease (using a request for proposal) to a non-competing entity until the district re-opens Prescott School for students or for other district needs.
Jeanne Joscelyn, Missoula
Members’ meeting to discuss incident
Never before in the history of the Missoula Senior Center has there ever been a more heart-wrenching scene than the one that took place as witnessed by some 60 members and volunteers at the center on the afternoon of June 5.The director of the center called the police to have two longtime, hard-working members removed from the building. These two members were told to keep out and stay out. Both members - one lady and one gentleman - have given hundreds and hundreds of hours of volunteer service to the center. Their efforts over the years have been greatly appreciated by all the members.
Due to a lack of management skills, police were used to expel the members who, for one reason or another, did not see eye-to-eye with the center’s director.
On Tuesday, there will be a meeting of the center’s board of directors. Because members are not allowed to make comments during the directors’ meeting, a members’ meeting will be held afterward. Discussion will be held on how to best reconcile the differences between the director and the members.
All regular members are encouraged to attend.
Dean Robertson, Missoula
Roker knows which way the wind blows?
I was bothered by a recent ad with professional golfer Nick Faldo inviting people to leisure golf-course living in Montana. It recalled another in USA Today, heralding: “Stake your claim in Montana.”A first woman and a hoary warrior staked theirs here recently, while a black man struggled to do likewise within the context of their shared minority status and the mainstream’s fear of his beliefs. Troubling as the latter one is, what really haunts me is the surreal image I beheld during all this on NBC’s “Today Show”: Al Roker down a Minuteman silo near Great Falls.
Dating from the migration of movie types to Livingston’s vortices to avoid Edgar Cayce’s predicted maelstrom, through the Faldos, Cabelas, Kaczynski, Gates of the Schwab; rural airports at taxpayer expense for L.A. commutes, SUVs with magnetic yellow ribbons proudly adorning their gas access covers, and even larger RVs with no Victory Garden atop, I have pondered how the Dharma’s movement would play out in Montana.
My personal vortex is a spinning montage of $5 gas, more people unsustained - watching others they elected putting food into gas tanks, and, with pellucidity experienced only by free marketeers and the comatose, ready to scrape Alaskan earth for “our” oil, and, of course, the actual end of the Cretaceous period. Other visions flash by: food shortages (rice at Costco!) and ocean fisheries unreplenished, falling airlines, unobtainable health care, residential and college lenders and borrowers in darkness, a 100 year war ... and, in its still center, stands Al, that engaging smile beaming up and out.
Maybe he reports the nuking of global warming, but I think he’ll stake his claim to the best last place. Guess you need to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.
Bill Shea, Missoula
Consider more options for city buildings
I am responding to various commentary published in the Missoulian concerning the city and county’s need for additional space.We as citizens need to think big and long-term regarding these issues because I believe our elected officials are not. Specifically, I am appalled the city would consider selling the Fox Theater site for its current perceived value to partially fund a police building, which would be housed in a jointly owned condominium building.
The Fox site is the city center’s best undeveloped asset. When will another city-owned riverfront parcel come along in the Missoula downtown core? It seems short-sighted to suggest selling a parcel of this value for private development and moving city agencies further from downtown.
One letter suggested the police create a satellite facility for a portion of the force in an effort to serve more citizens in a quicker response time. This idea is worthy of consideration. Another may be to have the city and county work together to create a civic building on the Fox site, incorporating the county commissioners, City Council and related meeting rooms, as well as a civic meeting space. Perhaps we should consider a new library overlooking the river with joint city-county meeting spaces that would serve a broader community base.
It seems that every three to four months there is another agency or department woefully lacking in space and hampering their delivery of services. If Missoula were able to provide this civic entity we would start to define a “place” which could be used year-round, complementing all of the seasonal activity which happens under the Caras Park tent. By building a civic multiuse facility, we will free up existing space that could be reconfigured for other departments and agencies that will continue to be burdened as Missoula grows.
John Paoli, Missoula
Mills are vital, necessary part of state
Stimson Lumber is one more casualty. So what if we lose another sawmill?In the past 10 years we have lost about half of the sawmilling infrastructure in Montana. Substantial reductions in the timber available for harvest on public lands has led us to this point. There are many factors, but the bottom line is there has been less timber available for harvest. So the free market economy takes care of the excess milling capacity.
That is how it is supposed to work. But what is happening now in Montana and has already happened in other western states - Utah, Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming - is that they have lost their forestry infrastructure entirely. So what?
To any landowner with timber reserves, it spells disaster. When sawmills become fewer, the distances the logs have to travel to market become greater. With the increasing rise in costs of fuel, equipment, labor, etc., the value of stumpage becomes less and less.
With no sawmills there will be no loggers, so when the lumber market improves, as it surely will, the landowner won’t be able to realize the revenue stream that has traditionally been available for his forest resource. His previous resource now becomes a liability (a virtual haven for disease and a tinderbox for fire) because there are no professionals with the equipment or know-how to help manage his complex ecosystem. Bug kill? No problem. Let it burn. Increased fuel loading? No problem. Let it burn.
The mill at Bonner has been a constant in our community for more than a century. Things are changing. It is my hope that the remaining mills are able to survive and allow the hard-working people they employ to remain an integral part of our culture and communities while assisting in the use of our natural resources.
Luckie Bryant, Drummond
Public should benefit from bailout
It has been interesting to watch the results of deception and greed in the banking world recently, with the collapse of the mortgage-backed securities market, aka the sub-prime meltdown.Unregulated investment bankers cleverly rolled junk mortgages together into securities, sliced up supposed AA-rated bonds and sold them to unsuspecting investors, and they did rather well. When the collateralized debt obligations market collapsed and revealed the emperor had no clothes, lots of banks - notably Bear Sterns - ended up writing off billions in bad debt. They continue to do so worldwide.
The wisdom of the Federal Reserve bailing out a private institution is debatable, but I’ll take their word for it that Bear Sterns was “too big to fail.” Thus the Fed exchanged its junk securities for U.S. treasuries, propping it up enough to allow another bank, JP Morgan, to acquire it with little risk and at great discount.
I honestly don’t know why business is so averse to the government when they can always count on a bailout - if they’re big enough. Think Lockheed in ’71, Chrysler in ’78, the savings and loan bailout in ’89, Long Term Capital Management in ’98. Of course, it’s because more expensive - Chrysler cost less than $1 billion, Bear Stearns cost $200 billion or more.
What I like less is the concept of private profits but public debt. When the U.S. government bails out poorly run businesses, we should get a piece of the action, i.e., any future profitability should go to the public coffers. This did happen in the case of Chrysler -
$300 million worth of equity kicker - and when the government bailed out the airlines after Sept. 11, 2001 with $15 billion in public funds.
However, what the public got in this case is a basket of rotten mortgage-backed securities in exchange for treasuries.
Paul Stafford, Huson
We need a rational compromise
Apparently the “greens” are running a very successful campaign for world domination.We are constantly bombarded with this nonsense of man-made global warming, which is backed up by junk science and is even being promoted in our public schools. We are being told what kind of light bulbs to use, where and when we can drill for oil or build refineries, what kind of gasoline to burn in our vehicles; lead has been removed from paint and glass; no DDT is allowed even though hundreds of thousands have died in Africa from malaria. It’s a court fight to allow loggers to harvest in areas that have been consumed by fires.
Asbestos fear-mongering is another arrow in their quiver. Of course, asbestos in some forms, such as airborne, is harmful to living creatures and needs to be dealt with expeditiously. Libby is a prime example. Other forms, as in shingles or siding, are not dangerous and there is no proof that they are.
We need intelligent environmentalists who can look at things in a logical and non-emotional manner. People who are truly dedicated to protecting the Earth. People without personal agendas or profit motives. People who are willing to negotiate in a reasonable manner. Are you out there?
We don’t want endless clear cuts, air filled with asbestos dust, polluted rivers and streams. I don’t want to be forced to live in a cave surrounded by lush green forests or live in a toxic environment devoid of trees, breathing filthy air and eating fish filled with mercury. It’s balance, it’s living in equilibrium with the Earth and with others.
We are capable of the most wondrous achievements or the most horrible acts. Let’s shoot for the former. I know we can do it.
Mark King, Missoula
We need honest leader in White House
It’s sad to see that Americans will vote for a senator, veteran and former POW who lies to deceive my fellow Americans.What kind of America do we live in where a senator jokes by changing the lyrics of the Beach Boys song “Barbara Ann” to “Bomb Iran”? Saw it all on YouTube. It is bad enough that Sen. Hillary Clinton also caters to the health care industry by accepting their campaign contributions, and was at one time the second-highest paid senator. The industries also raised $100 million to defeat the health care plan she was pitching as first lady.
We need to take back the government. We need a president for the people, by the people. We don’t need another president who is going to be a corporate puppet with pockets fat at the expense of Americans.
I pray that we have a new president who isn’t another “war president” or corrupt like this administration. America may never see justice, for the president can be above the law. Thousands of innocent lives. But the Lord shall pass final judgment.
Also, what’s with the stimulus package? Maybe it’s just another way to lure more unknowing Americans over to the “dark side” again. Bush came into office with the peoples’ surplus and turned it into a deficit. And some may wonder why our dollar is so low. Please do your research and you will find the truth, America, or remain blind to the facts.
God bless America and the world!
Ralph Escalante, Missoula
|
 |
 |
Add your comment now! Write your comment in the form below.
(Email address is for verification only. If you'd like to email a story, look for the link above)