By Ed Sperry Col USAF (ret), Stevensville
I’m an old veteran and I’m flat angry. Stevenville’s newest realtor with offices across the street from the Forest Service Office has managed to offend veterans across this valley. Veterans, not including their family members, make up over 10% of the Bitterroot population and I think I speak for most of them when I deplore how they have defaced the mural overlooking the Stevensville Veterans Park. We worked hard about 10 years ago to upgrade the park. The Garden Club supported us. Many of the Stevi merchants freely contributed. At present, we are upgrading the monument, once again with the support of a cross section of our community. The mural set the stage for the park; it was a theme setter. The mural has been violated with the realtor’s large wall advertisement. The American Legion asked them to be respectful of our community effort. Our arguments were in vain.
We now see the mural defaced while out in front a large unused professional sign holder protrudes over the sidewalk. I repeat — empty and unused! I suggest that our new, global realtor headquartered in Hamburg, Germany and New York did inadequate market research. They obviously do not respect our patriotic values. Perhaps it would have been better if they had just continued on their way over ‘flyover country’. We have enough professional, capable realtors without them; realtors that share our values. Comrades, friends I suggest we deal elsewhere when it’s our time to sell or buy real estate. Could their attitude be a harbinger of the nature of rapid changes underway in our beautiful valley? Are we doomed to be another Vail, Colorado?