Support your county weed supervisor

Bonner County has been blessed with Brad Bluemer as our weed supervisor for the past few years, but it has come to my attention that he does his job with one arm tied behind his back.  He is mandated to enforce the state noxious weed law, but to date has never been given the authority to do so by the county commissioners.  He has stated that 40% of the private property within the county is owned by individuals who live outside the county.

 From his contact with them he has found that the vast majority would be more that willing to have him take care of their weed problem and bill them, but without the authority from the commissioners this is not possible to enforce.  At our FB county summer picnic he also stated that there other counties within the state where the weed supervisor has been given the authority by the local commissioners and the result has been a good working relationship with the land owners. 

Although 60% of the property within the county is controlled by the state or federal government, that isn’t reason to hinder Brad from taking care of the private land problems in a working relationship with the private land owners.  For the county to take a more aggressive posture with the current problem it needs to start with Brad and then work to compel the state and feds to control their problem or let Brad look into how to do it at their cost!

There is needed some pressure from the residents of this county to support our weed supervisor and compel the commissioners to either give him the authority to do his job, or start pulling the weeds themselves.

LOUIS KINS

Sandpoint