Letters to the Editor

Thanks, Brach

I am writing to thank Brach Thomson and the Bigfork Playhouse Children's Theater for using our Crossroads facility during the time the Bigfork Center for the Performing Arts has been under renovation.

Brach does an amazing work in creating opportunities for our kids. He shapes and guides the development and expression of their talents to the delight of families, friends and schools throughout our area. Thank you Brach . . . you do wonderful things with our kids and we are grateful! It has been our delight to host your theater during this time.

Hal Curtiss

Pastor, Crossroads Christian Fellowship

Gravely concerned about gravel

I would like to call attention to an issue of profound importance to the future of Montana and the integrity of our communities and the quality of life that we enjoy and that our economy depends on. This is the application by Spoklie for a major gravel mining operation right next to Glacier National Park and surrounded by private residential properties. The Department of Environmental Quality has called for a public comment period and recently did the wise thing by ext ending the period of public comment from a mere 10 days to May 1. This was important in that it removed the impression, for many people, that this was a "fast track" process to favor private interests over public rights. The existing Environmental Assessment proposal appears to many people in the community to be superficial, arbitrary, subjective and lacking in the hard scientific data to support the scale of the proposed gravel mining operations. Significant environmental impacts are not even addressed. The degree to which such a gravel mining operation would permanently diminish our national treasures, Glacier National Park and the Middle Fork of the Flathead River (a Wild and Scenic River) and the tourist economy it supports, is evident in the outrage already expressed by local resi dents, businesses, and public land agencies that have the interests of all Americans, not just a local corporation, in mind. Please write to the DEQ and other representatives and demand a full scale Environmental Impact Statement and public hearing so that this decision is made with true scientific data and full adherence to the law and policies of Montana and the USA and doesn't become another example of corporate benefit over common citizens. We've seen enough of that with bailouts and economic melt downs. Let's have real accountability be the order of the day for a change.

Ann Casler-Fagre

West Glacier