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| Volume XVII, Number 34 | Wednesday, March 20, 2002 | |
Nation's future in good hands Dear Editor, The Hamilton Elks are proud to announce the winners of their essay contest, "What the Flag of the United States Stands For.": Over 200 valley youths in the 5th to 8th grades participated. It was extremely gratifying to read how these young people feel and express themselves on their feeling for our nation and flag. We in the valley can be proud of our educational system and our youths. The winners were Kerry Roebke from Stevensville and Riley Lubbers of Florence in Division I and II respectively. Jim Laux Hamilton Elks |
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Re: Martineau's defense of Erickson Dear Editor, Richard Martineau's intellectual mumbo jumbo on character assassination regarding Dallas Erickson was a waste of time. Unfortunately, it was self-inflicted. An epithet for Mr. Martineau: It is better we think you are a fool, than for you to open your mouth and remove all doubt. Ruth Carmona Stevensville |
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Stevi skateboard park still a go Dear Editor, Many of you have been asking me "How's the skatepark coming?" and I feel guilty because the concrete is not yet poured and so am now bringing you all up to date. This project will happen--don't give up! I have had a busy winter and have not had much time to do much more in the way of fund raising. As a group, we have raised $9,787.87 since we started less than a year ago, which is great! This money is being held in an earmarked account by the Stevensville Community Foundation. I have lined up an experienced concrete person who is ready to do the concrete slab as soon as the weather warms. The changes were made to the engineer's drawing which were needed so that we will not have to bring in additional sand, just compact the material that is there and pour on top of that. We will need a few volunteers to do some "grunt work" to help prepare the ground and then a couple experienced concrete hands to help with the actual pour. We are about $3,000 to $5,000 short in funding to pay for all needed materials and labor. I have also been working with a Civic Club committee, the Lewis & Park Clark Committee, which last summer put in a great deal of effort, both in terms of labor and in fund raising, to do improvements to the kids' play area in the park. This committee has agreed to help take over some of the Skatepark Project and, in fact, has included the Skatepark in its 5-year budget planning process. While I do not think the budget for this year has been finalized, the proposal included $4,000 for the Skatepark. If the Civic Club is able to raise that amount and/or the separate Lewis & Clark Park Committee is able to raise that amount, then we'll have enough to be comfortable about pouring the concrete. Pouring the concrete will be a big step but just a first one. After that, we still need to get ramps and rails and some signs made (signs to meet city insurance requirements). The Farr Side sign shop originally agreed to do the signs for us as a donation. The research I have done over the winter tells me that ramps are expensive. Kits are available for an average of about $8,000 to $10,000 depending on what materials are used, etc., while fully built ramps can cost upwards of $12,000 each. We could still make our own and do have some 2" x 4"s which were donated by the Civic Club last year. We would still have to buy sheeting material, such as the Skatelite Pro material and have people who could actually build them but maybe someone could do one or two so that there would be something to skate on. We still have available a place to build if we had the experienced volunteers to do the actual work and the funds to buy needed materials. I am not able, for a variety of reasons, to continue to oversee and/or manage the Skatepark Project, which is one reason I enlisted the help and cooperation of the Lewis & Clark Park Committee of the Civic Club. I would like to remain involved but just cannot do the level of involvement that I did at the beginning. For instance, I'd like to try to put together a very nice looking multi-page color brochure that could be used for fund raising, that could be sent to several larger donors, to try to raise funds for ramps. Any of you interested in helping design and/or put something like that together? I have some ideas and examples and some photos. Once the slab is poured, we'll at least have a place to skate and it will have the few rails that have been down at my office. During the winter, it can be flooded and used for ice skating. We will get this done, it is just taking longer because of the cost. What I would like is to hear from any of you who are still interested in this project, in helping, and who have the time. I can continue to be a liaison between the original Skatepark group and the Civic Club's Lewis & Clark Park Committee. I have also been appointed as a member of the Town's Park Board and so am tied in with the Park three different ways. I just cannot continue to try to spearhead a separate group, call and hold meetings, etc. Thank you to all our donors and to the Foundation for continuing to hold our money for us and to receive donations. Thank you Town Council for giving this project the green light last year and working with us to prepare the site. Thank you to the Civic Club for its continued support. Thank you to the Skatepark Project group for continuing to have faith. Give me a call and let me know who is still interested and willing to put some time and energy into the project and so that I can update my mailing list. I hope to hear from you! If you think it would be a good idea, I can schedule a group meeting, I just need to hear from you! Judith Loring Stevensville |
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Thanks from Darby library Dear Editor, The Darby Community Public Library Board of Trustees would like to thank everyone who made our ninth annual Hootenanny so successful. A special thank you to Bill Molenda who secured the musicians and emceed the program, Mike and Tari Conroy who provided the sound equipment, Bud and Shirleyıs who donated the pizzas, MacDonalds who donated the lemonade, Trapper Creek Job Corps who provided the cookies, VFW Post #6697 who donated the hall and to everyone who donated raffle items. We deeply appreciate the $400 matching grant that doubled that amount from our gate receipts from the Aid Associations for Lutherans. All the proceeds will be matched from the funds of our $250,000 Build a Library Grant. Thank you to all who contributed so generously. And, thank you to everyone who came and joined in this fun filled annual library event. We hope to see you all again next year. Veryl Kosteczko (for) Darby Library Board of Trustees |
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