In the decades of time since my wife and I retired to this beautiful valley I have never experienced the uneasy impression the political leaders of our local county government are devious, deceptive, and “tricky” as I have found present in the County Commission today. The three freshman Commissioners are the fountainhead of my belief that the citizens of Ravalli County are being subjugated to the ideas, ideologies, philosophies and personal motivations of three individuals led by a sympathizer to the cancerous ideals of the “militia/freemen radicals.” I have tried some effort to enumerate specifics, but I discovered the negative impact of the County Commission is so pervasive across all human endeavors and walks of life, the “specifics” are self-destructive, each and every one. This is self evident as reported in the newspapers. The present overview is disheartening, the future is chaos. I have followed a move by the “fearful three” that started shortly after the elections and hasn’t reached maturity as yet. Shortly after assuming the power of their office they announced the hiring of yet another engineering consulting firm, one no one has ever heard about, to make yet another study of airport expansion. This time the results of the study will be given to the Commission. I believe the results are a foregone conclusion. When the County Commission decides the time is right the citizens of the Valley will be home to two Missoula International Airport satellite airports. The closest to Missoula will be the Stevensville owned City Airport located on County land outside Stevensville City limits. The second will be the North Star Aviation/ County Airport located in the County outside of Hamilton. These airports will probably handle the majority of airfreight/mail destined for Missoula and surrounding towns via the four-lane highway that will be completed this summer. The guise for spending millions upon millions of federal/state/county dollars on these developments will be jobs and business. That is simply an untrue sucker deal. These upscale destination airports will be a great attribute to the realty world of upscale home developments, gated communities where transfer funds find homes, not the workaday homeowners who derive their income here in the Valley. Watching the life and times of Foss Realty will be an interesting subject. One thing is for sure, farms and ranches here in the Valley will disappear. The rural way of life just cannot survive the accelerated flood of transfer funds. Land will be simply too valuable. Voters have caused this ongoing calamity and voters are the only ones who can end the fiasco.
Earl Pollard
Hamilton