Whitefish or Deadfish?

Whitefish or Deadfish, you choose.

A recent, brief letter to the editor said many Whitefish citizens are against the city's proposed Critical Areas Ordinance, which will protect our water quality.

The letter writer and his developer friends, some of them from out-of-state, are playing the old "fear game" with us unwitting citizens. They're trying to frighten us into believing the developers just want to protect our property rights for us.

Citizens of Whitefish, beware of these fear tactics planted by men desiring unrestricted development without citizen input.

Here's a lake experience I had. I lived in Lake Oswego, Ore., for 10 years, and in that time the water quality deteriorated significantly due to upstream and up-bank runoff.

By the time we moved off the lake, the summer algae were growing in the lake by late June rather than late August. Our sons could not go waterskiing without getting eye or sinus infections from contact with the polluted water. And, yes, a dead fish occasionally came floating by.

We should applaud and thank the efforts of the citizens committee and scientific consultants who put together this proposed Critical Areas Ordinance to protect our water supply. If we don't support these efforts, clean water will be a rare commodity for our grandchildren.

Also, with this new law our property values will be higher than in other areas of the country in the not-too-distant future because we had the foresight to protect the soil, water and lifestyle of Whitefish.

Jim Lewis

Whitefish