Memorial Field should not fall on LPOSD's shoulders

With due respect to everyone involved when I read "Sandpoint offers LPOSD lease on Memorial Field" in the Bonner County Daily Bee (Feb. 10, 2006), I couldn't help but wonder if Ray Miller, Mayor of Sandpoint and Kim Woodruff, Parks and Recreation director were out of town all week having pizza. The statement that the use of a "base of property owners to generate funds … through a bond or a plant facility levy" is counter-productive towards property owners who just mandated "no new property taxes" within an election held this last week. It sure sounds as if the city fathers of Sandpoint abandoned the 50-year-old structure a long time ago and decided to wash their hands of it by moving the tax burden to a different group and giving up a 50-year commitment to it's own community that it didn't keep up in the first place. They justify their behavior by calling it "subsidizing for years" and put it on your table at the last moment hoping you'll forget your responsibility to the other communities of the district.

Priorities are priorities. I can't speak for the other schools in the district, but in Clark Fork we need a new boiler before we need bleachers in Sandpoint. I am sure that I could come up with a laundry list of what's needed. What's not needed is for you to bail out the city of Sandpoint. I hope the board uses caution as it already has set precedence in these matters. The board has not allocated money for the Clark Fork track field to bring it up to standards for competition with visiting schools. To set aside money for Memorial Field to allow visiting schools to compete in Sandpoint would show bias on your part.

MISTY LANE

Clark Fork