City politics

I am writing to say how upset and disappointed I am that the Whitefish City Council has voted to award the 'streetscaping" contract before the test period ran out.

While everyone agrees the basic infrastructure downtown is in need of repair, to re-make Whitefish in the image of the latest and trendiest urban design is silly. The trendiest buzzword in tourism is "geotourism," a theme being promoted by the National Geographic Society in reaction to what happens when tourist hot spots get loved to death.

The so-called "Geo-tourism Charter," politically-correct as it is, calls for marketing of the "distinctive assets of the locale." Hasn't our history as a hard-working, common-sense railroad town with lots of snow left us with darn distinctive assets downtown?

And what about the need to "encourage market differentiation and cultural pride"? What will we do to "differentiate" when downtown looks and feels the same as any tourist trap? As for cultural pride, when you are proud of something, you don't bury it under generic concrete — and piles of impossible-to-plow snow.

Councilor Nick Palmer was absolutely correct when he said the council broke the faith with Whitefish citizens. He and his fellow councilors should have taken a step back before throwing our city over the cliff. His subsequent withdrawal from the election was the honorable thing to do, but it is probably too little, too late.

I can only hope that the election in November, after voters have replaced three incumbents with the common sense of Phil Mitchell, Chris Hyatt and Bill Kahle, won't be too little, too late.

Bob McConnell

Whitefish

Great race

I wanted to thank everyone who volunteered and helped out at the Two Bear Marathon this year.

All the race volunteers and crew were friendly and helpful. The course was wonderful, and I look forward to returning to race again.

Philip Kepler

Chicago

The doughnut

We have sought legal redress for our property rights for two years now, and worked on various committees longer than that attempting to be heard by the current Whitefish City Council.

We are now facing a new election to the city council with no resolution, no voting rights for our property and no visibility as a body being denied these rights and our experience living here that we eagerly want to contribute to civic improvements.

The one remedial access "doughnut" residents have to this situation is to encourage friends and relatives who do participate in the Whitefish voting franchises to remove the council members who have demonstrated their lack of respect for representative government.

The three city residents seeking new seats on the council have indicated in their public statements and election campaign their sensitivity to the injustice being done the "doughnut" residents, and the experience and knowledge the council is ignoring through this behavior.

Please call your Whitefish friends and relatives and ask them to vote for the three new candidates. It's the principled thing to do, for the city and the "doughnut."

Don Feldman

Luther Campbell

Lion Mountain Assoc.

No consensus

Leaving the Whitefish City Council meeting on Aug. 17 after the vote was taken to move ahead with the streetscaping and water/sewer construction bid before the trial period ended was disappointing.

Most alarming, it was another example of the current city council not listening to the will of the people. The general consensus over the last two months is not being followed. Approximately 85 percent of the downtown businesses, along with 600-plus signatures of local citizens, do not want this plan.

How did this pass and why did we not wait for the six-week trial period of temporary curbing to end? Those council members who voted for the streetscaping clearly do not care about the local people who voted them in (this is very self-serving and out of touch).

Maybe they would listen to another consultant. They sure do not want the local opinion. How sad. Please vote for a change this fall.

Phil Mitchell

Whitefish

Downtown

There are two items on my mind. One, our current city council and the immediate previous one seemed to have no money sense or regard for the taxpayers.

Why spend $5,000 or $8,000 (I've seen both figures' on temporarily widened sidewalks if they are going to let the bid before six weeks? And a real test should be in winter when snow is piled up.

Just this past week, when driving down Central Avenue, I had to pull over as close as I could to the parked cars, stop, and let a large truck pass me.

Second item, does it bother anyone else that an out-of-county non-profit comes here, interviews candidates with loaded questions and then tries to influence our election? It sure irritates me. Where does its major funding come from?

Mitzi Anderson

Whitefish