Bypass was top story for all the wrong reasons

A recent headline in the Bee declared that the bypass was the story of the year.

Perhaps so, but for the wrong reasons.

The events leading to the desecration of Sand Creek are a local version of the same kind of rot that has putrefied our national government for the past eight years.

Many years ago, the Idaho Department of Transportation proposed a bypass that beautifully resolved the traffic problems in and around Sandpoint. Heading straight north from Algoma Lake and crossing the river near Springy and Rocky Points, the highway would proceed alongside the Great Northern tracks, and reconnect with U.S. Highway 95 near Bronx Road.

A big stink went up. Some Sandpoint merchants feared loss of sales of chewing gum and other items to travelers, failing to realize that Sandpoint was rapidly becoming a tourist destination. Ponderay merchants and landowners were a bit greedier; a Sand Creek Bypass would allow Sagle shoppers to proceed directly to Ponderay, completely bypassing Sandpoint merchants. Then there were the speculative landholders who viewed a westside bypass as a threat to their properties near the GN tracks and a Sand Creek bypass as an asset to their properties nearby.

The ITD not only caved in to the howling but for many years it actively participated with the local politicos in disseminating lies and distortions about bypass issues. When a required public meeting was held in Bonner Mall, the public expressed such outrage at the whole idea of a Sand Creek bypass that the ITD never made that mistake again; all subsequent "public meetings" were staged as "dog and pony" shows where only a few people could gather at a time.

While the ITD was busy playing its dirty tricks, some of their personnel were more enlightened. Their district engineer stated flatly at that Bonner Mall meeting "If the Sand Creek Bypass were built today (20 years ago), we would still need the west side bypass."

Meanwhile, the Sandpoint government was working its own bag of tricks. Particularly reprehensible were the open displays of conflicts of interest by some elected officials.

When the publisher of the Bee was asked about certain problems with the Sand Creek Bypass, his response was that since he was not an engineer, he had to take the word of the highway engineers. Now there's a statement guaranteed not to win a Pulitzer Prize. What happened to real investigative journalism?

Now, in the depths of a deep recession, our schools and colleges are facing a severe financial crisis. Would it not make good sense if the state brought the bypass construction to a screeching halt and diverted those millions of dollars to something really valuable — like education?

JOSEPH HENRY WYTHE

Sandpoint