Flooding situation needs to be addressed

This won't be a very popular letter for Schweitzer Basin, but they have caused a flooding situation that needs to be addressed. Prior to the ski resort even being there, it was a forest, now the forest has been replaced by ski runs, buildings, roads and parking lots. F

Forests retain water, parking lots and buildings don't. So in heavy snow years, if melting comes quickly, Schweitzer Creek overflows. I happen to own property at the base of the mountain that Schweitzer Creek flows through. Sadly, many acres have been stripped of the top soil. The county road has been damaged several times, once the bridge was even taken out. Houses have been surrounded by water.

I say, how would you like it if that happened to your home. One time, one lady had a river running through her crawl space. According to Bonner County P&Z, each project up there has to have a water retention plan, but there isn't any master water retention plan. I have written to the resort, they didn't even reply. ( I am just little potatoes to them.) They need to have an engineered master water retention plan that includes a pond of several acres, or they should be shut down. I am writing to the County Commissioners about the problem.

For information, I am not some Johnny-come-lately rabble-rouser. My dad, George Gregory, came here from Austria in 1908. I was born and raised in Sandpoint, so we are old-timers getting tramped on. Hopefully, this issue will be addressed.

ROGER GREGORY

Priest River