To ticket or not to ticket, therein lies the question
To ticket or not to ticket, that is the question.
A friend of mine, who is a Sandpoint Rotarian, was peeved recently when he exited a local business and found he had received a ticket for "parking on the curb."
He was even more ticked when the officer wouldn't give him a warning and gave him the slip of paper now worth $10.
He was at full boil when he met with Sandpoint Police Chief Mark Lockwood who told this unnamed citizen that the city expects Lockwood's department to generate revenue.
"That comment showed he had no interest in hearing this citizen's point of view, so I paid the city its $10 and have told the story many times to others. People have said they are not surprised, and it speaks to the issue of why they go to Ponderay to shop whenever possible," he wrote.
The offender took a picture of the infraction and presented it to Lockwood and admitted he deserved to have his hand slapped.
It should be mentioned that as the offender was photographing the curb-hugging vehicle, several people gathered around and mentioned how unfair a ticket was in this situation.
"An owner of a business right at this spot actually came out and took his own picture saying how unreasonable this was," the offender wrote in an e-mail to me. "I explained (to Chief Lockwood) our downtown merchants need all the help they can get right now with the bad ski year for tourist trade and this sends a terrible message to these visitors, several of whom commented very negatively as I was taking the picture."
You be the judge … should Chief Lockwood have reduced the "parking on the curb" citation to a warning, or do you feel justice was served in this case?
E-mail me your responses to dkeyes@bonnercountydailybee.com
Have you ever wondered how those 13th century, two-story stone castle towers were constructed?
The History Channel is coming to an area 25 miles from Sandpoint in a few weeks to build an authentic 20-foot castle tower.
Actuality Productions, the production company in charge of the shoot, has been sending out feelers for suppliers for this unique endeavour.
In a press release, the Castle Tower episode will explore such ancient building challenges as:
? Placing large angular rocks in a circular pattern four-feet thick and stacking the stones in an ever-climbing circle up to 20 feet in the air without scaffolding.
? Finding a "smithy" to forge a medieval sword and a stained glass artist to fill an upper window.
? The top floor will have a slate roof and crenalated suitable for pouring boiling oil onto attackers.
Unique to this build, the release said, was finding a place to construct this tower.
"Not surprisingly, not all land is zoned for castle towers," stated the release. "So we'll head to the hinterlands to build our medieval monstrosity."
My guess is they want to get this built before Bonner County has a building department and something that resembles building codes.
We'll keep our eyes open for any developments on the tower front and report back to you.
The nesting geese at Arlo's are attracting just as many people as Arlo's signature lunches.
Local film expert Ted Parvin wants to help locals understand the art of the moving image in his free From Script to Screen class to be offered April 4 at 6 p.m. at the Sandpoint Public Library.
Mr. Parvin, who has a list of Hollywood credits longer than my arm, will discuss editing, screenplay development, casting and staffing and many other aspects of moviemaking.
His favorite movies? Hawaii and the original Around the World in 80 days. Tell him about yours at this class.
Information: 265-1759.
The Cedar Post staff did it again!
Even though CP adviser Erin Daniels is on maternaity leave, she somehow found the time to let us know about some of the awards Columbia University bestowed on eight current students and one graduate.
Some stats on the competition: Columbia sponsored 75 categories in newspaper, yearbook, magazine, etc., and had 10,271 individual and staff entries from across the nation to enter the competition. 556 winners for either first, second or third place or honorable mention were awarded.
"I'm pretty excited we had so many kids place nationally. The newspaper, as a whole, was also awarded a Silver Crown Award," she glowed.
"What that means, simply, is that out of the 1,238 student newspapers around the country that entered, we are one of 64 rated "silver." (48 received a "gold" rating.)
Below are our students who placed in the individual competition. The winners include:
Personal Opinion: On-Campus — honorable mention. Ashley Allen, ('04 grad) "Temperatures rise, clothes come off,"
School Issues — second place. Michael Staggs, "Overcrowding editorial eartoon,"
Portfolio of Work — third place Yarrow Frank, "Feature Photos,"
Sports Page Design — honorable mention Adam Eich, Tori Smith and Amanda Swerin, "BMX,"
Photo Layout, Full Page — honorable mention Yarrow Frank, Marbo Lane and Aaron Short, "Dance Fever."
E-mail of the week:
Just a little humor to help ease the pain of your next trip to the pump…
Think a gallon of gas is expensive?
This makes one think, and also puts things in perspective. Compared with gasoline:
? Diet Snapple 16 ounces $1.29 … $10.32 per gallon
? Lipton Ice Tea 16 ounces $1.19 … $9.52 per gallon
? Gatorade 20 ounces $1.59 … $10.17 per gallon
? Ocean Spray 16 ounces $1.25… $10.00 per gallon
? Brake fluid 12 ounces $3.15… $33.60 per gallon
? Vick's Nyquil 6 ounces $8.35… $178.13 per gallon
? Pepto Bismal 4 ounces $3.85… $123.20 per gallon
? Whiteout 7 ounces $1.39… $25.42 per gallon
? Scope 1.5 ounces $0.99… $84.48 per gallon
These prices make it easy to understand why there isn't too much pressure to have vehicles powered by Pepto Bismal.
And this is the real kicker …
Evian water 9 oz $1.49… $21.19 per gallon — $21.19 for water — and the buyers don't even know the source. (Evian spelled backwards is Naive.)
So, the next time you're at the pump, be glad your car doesn't run on water, Scope, or Whiteout, or God forbid Pepto Bismal or Nyquil.
Just a little humor to help ease the pain of your next trip to the pump …
And — if you don't pass this along to at least one person, your nose will fall off.
David Keyes is publisher of the Bee. His column runs Tuesdays.