Sickened by loss of historic home

Dear Mayor Muhlfeld and Councilors:

I was sickened yesterday to drive by the former Duncan/Sampson home and my former office at 233 2nd St. and witness the senseless destruction of 100 years of Whitefish history. I disagreed with the Council’s visionless decision to displace it with another sterile, high density, big box residential and commercial building in what had previously been a residential neighborhood but was comforted by what I believed was the developer’s commitment to preserve and re-locate one of the few remaining examples of early Whitefish residential architecture. I believed that the promise, if not an express condition of City approval, played some role in that process.

Then I read that the developer, Mark Panissidi appeared before the Council two days earlier and made the incredible representation that random vandals broke into the building for the sole purpose of cutting the rafters and that, as a result, the home was too de-stabilized to move. I wish I could have been there. Rafter vandals? Really? Never before in the nearly 100 year history of the building have vandals shown any interest in it, much less its rafters.

Since neither I nor most other interested members of the community were in attendance, could or would any of you please help me by answering a few questions?

First, was anyone else on the Council as incredulous as I am? Was Panissidi asked why anyone else in the world could possibly be motivated to risk a felony conviction to break into a home with which they had no connection for the sole purpose of vandalizing the rafters? Rafters aren’t typically the target of vandals. This might be the first example in history. Was he asked how much he saved by destroying this historic home rather than moving it as he promised? Has a criminal investigation been requested? Was he asked to preserve the building pending that investigation rather than destroy the remaining evidence? Has the council considered asking for assistance from the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation?

Was any consideration given to revoking Panissidi’s permit pending that investigation?

Finally, does anyone on the Council even care about the senseless and mysterious destruction of an historic landmark?

A community with no regard for its history is doomed to a bleak and uninteresting future. There are community values worth protecting other than one corporation’s profit and more tax revenue. That’s where you come in. But the majority of the Council totally dropped the ball. People in Whitefish deserve better stewardship.

Terry Trieweiler, Whitefish attorney and former occupant of the Duncan/Sampson home