Don't fail us, Congress

In the daily newspaper, there's been a lot of talk about building a bypass around downtown Kalispell. The project has ranged in price, depending on various designs, from around $20 million to more than $90 million.

If one nickel goes into that bypass before the Going-to-the-Sun Road is repaired fully and completely, Montana's congressional delegation has failed this state miserably.

The bypass around Kalispell is about convenience, plain and simple. It has little to do with safety, and almost everything to do with politics.

The Sun Road, on the other hand, is in dire need of repair and is, without a doubt, the main economic engine in the summer months for hundreds of valley businesses. If you doubt this in the least, just ask anyone in the tourism business how they did when the Sun Road shut down in the summer of 2003 because of wildfires.

As the U.S. Senate begins to mull the six-year highway bill, we urge them not to forget one of the nation's most coveted highways. This is not about pork projects. This is about the local economy as well as the history and heritage of Glacier National Park.