“I have come forward with a deep abiding passion for the condition of how we might move forward with dignity, unity and thoughtful purpose toward establishing a Vital Plan for our community and all its future generations,” wrote Kierig in an e-mail.

“While hoping to coalesce a unified stance of resolve and fortitude among us, there is, evidently, nothing more of meaningful substance for me to bring to the Noble Cause in this venue, as some stand against the ‘Call’ to inculcate the Vital Messages that are, indeed, incumbent upon those who occupy the chairs of community leadership. Indeed, some among us are actually standing opposed to, or ignorant of, the urgent ‘Call’ for Common Purpose, Common Truth, Common Trust and Common Responsibility to protect all vital elements of the Public Trust Domains and ‘don't have time for’; ‘see the point of’ or resist the charge of duty and resolve to express the vital importance of that which is trusted upon us... a common problem exhibited by those who sit in the chairs of leadership across the scope and breadth of the lands and places of the world. Too flowery, you say? Hmmm. Opining is exactly what we should all be doing.

“It is, then, with some sense of success and some sense of disappointment, sorrow and futility, that I put forward, now, my resignation and withdrawal from the RCPB.”

Kierig said that the primary reason he quit was that all summer long the Planning Board had done anything and everything but planning and he was tired of it.

“The straw that broke the camel’s back,” he said, “was when a few of the board members berated me as president for opining.”

Kierig calls “opining,” in his sense, a duty of public officials. He calls it public outreach.

Kierig said that he been trying to foster community outreach for the last three years and promote the publication of statistics and information about sustainability.

“I tried to get interest to do land and resource assessments to determine what a balanced population might be,” said Kierig. “I tried to point out issues of sustainability here that are the same as what the world faces, but addressing them can start here.”

He said that what he kept hearing was that nothing could be done because there was no Growth Policy.

“But we can still plan,” he said. He said that it was worth planning even if the plans might not be officially adopted and implemented right away.

“We need to work towards responsible growth,” he said, “while recognizing the limitations imposed on us by the resource base.”

Health care legislation rally held

By Michael Howell

The Change That Works Campaign organized by the Service Employees International Union brought the issue of proposed health care legislation to Hamilton last week as part of a 23 city and town tour of the state.

Shaine Truscott, Field Director for the Montana Campaign, said that half of the two million members in the union are health care workers. She said that union members voted over a year ago to focus on health care reform and legislation. Truscott is putting close to 3,000 miles on the old 1990 Chevy ambulance that she is driving around the state organizing community meetings to accomplish that goal.

The rallies are meant to supply information as well as glean some through questionnaires. The Campaign is also soliciting letters which they plan to deliver, along with survey results, to Senators Baucus and Tester and Representative Rehberg in Bozeman on August 13. They are also asking people to describe in a simple phrase their current health care coverage.

Plastered across the library wall, where the meeting was held in Hamilton, were some numbers with commentary appended.

104,000 – the number of non-elderly Montana families spending more than 10 percent of pre-tax income on health care.

88.8 – the percentage increase in health care premiums in the last ten years.

600 – the number of Montanans that died between 2000 and 2006.

744,000 – amount of new wages in dollars generated by every $1 million invested in federal Medicaid.

78.5 – percentage of uninsured working families in Montana.

Corrine Gantt, a local businesswoman and mother, told about her family’s experiences with health care problems and about the high cost of health insurance for small businesses. It costs her business, which employs nine people, about $3,500 per month.

Chris Stoehr, from Miles City, told how she and her husband Kurt were forced into bankruptcy over medical bills. She called it a frightening, embarrassing, horrible and humbling experience that can happen to anyone under the current set up.

“The best laid plans can be torn asunder by forces outside our control,” she said. She said something needed to be done to address the situation.

Truscott said that by sharing stories like this people can come to realize that they are not alone in the problems they face.

“We are simply working for affordable health care coverage that will benefit both consumers and taxpayers,” said Truscott. “We want more choices with more competition to bring costs down.”

River Park changes voted down

Proposed changes to the city’s Park Management Plan for River Park were rejected at last week’s Hamilton City Council meeting.

Objections to the proposed changes surfaced in the initial public comment phase of the meeting, even before the council took it up as an agenda item.

Dennis Palmer said that council members were trying to make it an “urban park instead of a people’s park.”

“Parks are for people,” he said, “not for weeds, tall grass and hazardous trees.”

Others challenged the changes as threatening the current use by families and especially kids by leaving hazardous trees in a play area. A City Parks Department employee said that use of the park was very high compared to the time when the no-mow policy was in effect. He also objected to the prospect of having to walk into the park to collect garbage.

When the agenda item did come up, Nancy Hendrickson, Chair of the Parks and Recreation Committee that recommended the changes in management be adopted, told the council that under the new policy, the lawn in the upper three acres of the 33-acre park was going to be mowed.

“We are not changing the lawn,” she said. “We want to be sure that the lawn gets mowed.”

The plan calls for letting some cattails grow and for letting the grass grow within a certain radius of the large cottonwood trees located on the lawn area. The idea, according to Hendrickson, is to give the replacement trees, small saplings, a chance to get started.

Hendrickson said that there are people concerned about the survival and preservation of the cottonwood trees. She said that she recognizes the safety issue involving the old trees.

“But it is hard to see how trees can grow if you are removing all the smaller trees by mowing,” said Hendrickson. She said that the saplings should be allowed to grow and the rest of the lawn should be kept in short grass only with no shrubs.

The plan calls for leaving the 30 acres to the south along the river in a natural state. Hendrickson said that the plan does allow for motor vehicle use by emergency and authorized maintenance vehicles.

The resolution also establishes the process for cutting trees in the park. Trees considered a hazard to public safety shall be removed by order of the city council after consulting with a qualified arborist or an urban forester.

Councilor Al Mitchell said that he believed the old management policy did need to updated and clarified, but he had reservations about the portion of the resolution that referred to a Park Management Plan that had not yet been adopted. He also had concerns about micro-managing the Parks Department by requiring Council approval of any tree cutting.

City Parks Director Terry Cole recommended that the Council vote down the changes, saying that no new plan was needed. He said that it was contradictory to say that water would be able to flow freely in the ditch and yet cattails will be maintained. He said that two state foresters had examined the two groves of cottonwood trees under discussion and concluded that they should be removed.

“Let’s not play Russian roulette,” said Cole. He said the trees should be taken out and replaced with new trees. He was especially critical of the requirements of council approval for the cutting of trees.

“Does this council really want to sit here and tell me and my Department what to do? Do I have to come to you to get permission to cut a tree to take care of a safety issue? You know I’m going to do it properly. Have some faith in your man here.”

Cole emphasized the danger of the hazardous trees and criticized the City for taking six years to cut the trees in Legion Park and now putting off the removal of twenty trees in River Park.

“I will do what you tell me to do,” said Cole. “But I want it put on record that I refuse to neglect a safety issue on your behalf.”

“This is being kicked around as though it was the end of civilization as we know it, but it’s not,” said City Special Projects Director Dennis Stranger. He said that it was not micro-management so much as adding clarity about implementation of the arborists’ recommendations.

Councilor Mike LaSalle called the resolution a “slight to the director and the Park Department, and a form of micro-management.” He noted that a total of four city employees had spoken against the resolution, including a department head.

Hendrickson said that the resolution was meant to provide some control to the council when major decisions are made such as placing playground equipment in the park or cutting down six trees.

Councilor Mitchell said that the old management policy did need to be upgraded. He said that he was not opposed to the cottonwood management plan in the new resolution, but he was opposed to referencing a Master Plan that has not yet been adopted.

“I’m not ready to pass this,” he said.

In the final vote Councilors Jenny West and Nancy Hendrickson voted in favor of the resolution. Councilors Mike LaSalle and Al Mitchell voted against it. Mayor Jerry Steele broke the tie by voting against the resolution.

The Council approved on first reading a change to the city’s ordinance governing animals. It will raise license fees for spayed and neutered animals from $6 to $10 and increases the fees for unaltered animal licensing from $15 to $20. There is no longer any special fee for senior citizens. A license is valid for a year from the time of purchase. A three-year option is available. Impoundment fees have been changed to a per day basis. The “two-bite rule” for determining whether a dog is classified as a “viscious dog” was dropped to make it more congruent with state law. An animal will be classified as “unredeemed” after 96 hours instead of the current 72 hours.

In other business the council:

• unanimously confirmed the regular employment status of Jamie Guisinger who serves as the receptionist and secretary at City Hall.

• unanimously approved the appointment of Jim Whitlock to the Police Commission through May 2011.

• unanimously approved on first reading an ordinance allowing the handing, dropping or throwing of candy by parade participants to spectators.

• unanimously approved a waiver to allow the throwing of candy at the Fair Parade.

• unanimously approved changes in the sewer service charge billing procedures to make them consistent with water billing practices

• authorized Allied Engineering to apply for a Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery Grant at a cost of $6,500. Councilor Mitchell called it a “gamble,” but one that could pay off big in the end if the $5 to $6 million grant is achieved. The money would be used on road projects including Fairgrounds Road, State St., Pine St., and New York Avenue projects.

• authorized the Mayor to sign a 2009 CDBG grant contract for $450,000.

City asked to join canal bridge access lawsuit

By Michael Howell

Hamilton resident John Boland was at the last Hamilton City Council meeting. He was at the one before that, too. And he promises to be at the next one. He wants the City of Hamilton to join in a lawsuit he has filed against the Corvallis Canal and Water Company over a bridge and headgate on a canal that runs through city property near the waste water treatment plant along Adirondac Street. He wants the City to declare whether the property along the river behind the sewer plant is open to the public or not. He claims that the City owns the property and that the canal company only has an easement. He claims that the public has been using the bridge to access the property for years but are now trespassing since the canal company has closed the bridge and denied access to local property owners.

The council, at its last meeting in July, already considered the matter of joining in the lawsuit and took no action. But Boland is persisting and asked the council at its latest meeting to take some official stand as to whether there was public access to the property or not.

“There’s nine acres of riverfront property there. Do you want the public to use it or not?” he asked. “I want something official we can put in the paper and say the public is welcome to use it, or, to stay away, the Chief of Police will give a ticket to anybody who trespasses.”

Special Projects Director Dennis Stranger said, “As you recall that was not what the City Attorney recommended. Again, I do not have a fight with the ditch company. They do not have a problem with us… You’re trying to drag the city into a lawsuit. This isn’t the time to be taking positions and fighting it out in the newspapers. The legal advice of our attorneys is to send it all to our attorney.”

“I want something official from the City,” Boland insisted.

“We will have our attorney look at your request,” said Mayor Jerry Steele.

Boland has property near the sewer plant that is bisected by the Corvallis Canal and, as he put it, a longstanding disagreement with the canal company.

Boland told the Bitterroot Star in a telephone interview that his troubles began with some flooding in 1996. He said the headgate on the ditch was in great disrepair and could not control the water flow. He said that he asked the company to get a professional inspection of the headgate as his property was threatened. He said the company refused to do that for years and so he sued them to force them to get the structure inspected.

Public traffic on the bridge has been officially prohibited for a long time, but local property owners, including Boland, were given keys to allow access through a locked gate until one year ago when the lock was changed and property owners were denied access. Boland claims that because of that he cannot get emergency vehicles to his property on the other side of the canal where he has a small cabin.

Boland admits that he has personal reasons to see that access is maintained across the bridge but that the public also has an interest at stake, at least those members of the public that access the area across the bridge. He has asked the court to include the city in the lawsuit as “Involuntary Plaintiffs,” that is, whether they want to be included or not.

David Markette, attorney for the Corvallis Canal and Water Company, said that local landowners had always been allowed permissive use of the bridge until Boland wanted to drive propane trucks and heavy equipment across it. He said the company decided to close it at that point.

Markette said that the canal company offered to give Boland an easement to build his own bridge on his own property before the lawsuit was filed, but that offer was rejected.

Boland told the Star that he is proposing that the gate be moved to the other side of the bridge to allow access across the bridge and still keep people from driving up to the headgate. He said that he would upgrade the bridge to make it safe.

Markette said that both the City and the canal company saw no need for people to access the property behind the sewer plant and that it was unsafe and would be dangerous for people to access over the bridge. He said that if the bridge was opened to public use it would present a big liability problem.

The lawsuit is headed to a settlement conference at the end of the month.

Markette said that the judge might rule on Boland’s motion to include the City in the lawsuit as an involuntary plaintiff before then.

Boland, who is representing himself pro se in the case, said that he was planning on submitting his reply to Markette’s brief opposing City involvement this week, opening the way for a judgment on the issue.

County denies Stevi request for funding

The Ravalli County Commissioners balked at a request from the town of Stevensville for the county to pay half the cost of the town’s application for grants to do water system repairs along Middle Burnt Fork Road.

County officials met with the Stevensville Town Council last February and discussed their mutual concerns about Middle Burnt Fork Road. The county has looked at repair of Middle Burnt Fork Road as a major priority for over four years now. The project has been delayed in order to allow the Town of Stevensville to secure the grants required to do repairs to the Town’s water lines that run from the water treatment plant on South Burnt Fork Road under Middle Burnt Fork Road to town.

County officials expressed great frustration at the delays in their meeting with the town officials last February. There was a lot of talk about sharing costs and making joint grant applications.

The town has now asked the county to pay half the $5,138.75 cost, paid to Professional Consultants Inc., for making the grant applications to fix its waterlines. The complete cost of the project is estimated at $10.676 million.

County Commissioners expressed surprise at the request.

“Why are they asking us to pay half the cost of their grant applications?” queried Commissioner J.R. Iman.

Commissioner Jim Rokosch said that the town was, like the county, strapped for funds and was “looking to their big brother for help.”

The Commissioners were in agreement that a letter should be written to the town telling them that their request had been denied.

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