Why not know what happened?

At the business meeting this week, during public comment period, I asked if it was possible for the Board of Commissioners to provide and accounting of the funds pre-paid for operating Commercial Air Scheduled Passenger service out of Sandpoint Airport.

The first reaction was, "We never used any of our funds for vouchers."

I believed the strong push for this service was provided by the Board of County Commissioners, the Airport Advisory Board, Chamber of Commerce, etc. Vouchers were purchased by groups and individuals, with intent to use during the six to twelve month trial period. Reports vary but some amount of $230 to $270 thousand was made available as seed money. I believe that the service which ceased Friday has lasted considerably less than six months.

I realized that this is a piddly amount but it would be nice to know where it went. I hope no one is reluctant to keep the public in the dark.

JAMES A. BLAKE

Sandpoint

Mines not responsible for lake's problems

Let's see if I have this correct. The miners didn't bring Eurasian Milfoil to Lake Pend Oreille and the Pend Oreille River. The miners are not racing around the lake in their gas-guzzling polluting power boats and jet skis. The miners are not replacing critical shore line wildlife habitat with obscenely large summer homes. The miners are not planting waterfront lawns and shrubbery or building golf courses that are leaching fertilizers and pesticides into the lake and its tributaries. The miners are not causing the algae blooms in the lake's bays, along its north shore or down the river. The miners are not building ill conceived silt producing roads higher and higher on the mountain sides so that the big spenders can have a view of the lake from their summer home. The miners are not spreading thousands of tons of sand laced with deicing chemicals on our roads and allowing it to be sluiced in to the lake and river.

In short, the water quality in Lake Pend Oreille is being degraded and will continue to do so, not from a potential mine in Rock Creek but as a direct result of the unbridled and largely unregulated development of the lands tributary to the lake and river.

It is time for the local citizenry and our elected representatives to tackle the real causes of water degradation in Lake Pend Oreille and the Pend Oreille River. Let the state and federal regulators do their job if and when the potential mine in Rock Creek goes into the development mode.

RICHARD F. CREED

Sagle

Columbus doesn't deserve holiday

"In 1492 ,Columbus sailed the ocean blue …" So, another Columbus Day has gone by. Governmental agencies had the day off and little children everywhere learned about the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria.

Modern estimates place the 15th century, Pre-Columbus population of North America at 10 to 12 million. By the 1890s that number was down to approximately 300,000. This was done through massacres, forced march relocations, starvation and disease. Europeans were given permission to commit genocide by their churches and their kings. Americans were later given the same permission by their god and their presidents.

Continuing to honor this day and continuing to teach our children all the rosy little lies is a perfect example of the American cultural insensitivity that the rest of the world so often talks about.

Shall we celebrate the Holocaust? Shall we celebrate the dropping of the Atomic bomb? Shall we celebrate all of the other atrocities committed in the name of conquest?

I'm sure some of you will say yes most enthusiastically. I hope most of you will say no and then find the courage to speak out against all acts of hate and racism under any guise.

PARISE WHITLEY

Careywood