MAIL NO TO GREENBELT INITIATIVES
established in comprehensive city Greenbelt pathway plans is to establish and maintain a diverse spectrum of recreational opportunities. These strategic recreational preservation commitments to the public supersede any building developer’s vague site plan drafted over 30 years ago. The fact is, Garden City’s Nature Path is one of the few remaining recreation settings on the Greenbelt that does not discriminate against the primary interests of underrepresented hiking/walking user groups. In addition, the connectivity of several endangered urban wildlife travel corridors between the river and adjacent wetlands/ponds will be impacted and threatened by the construction of this inessential bike route. Taxpayers have demonstrated amazing generosity and support for recreational bike riding in the Treasure Valley. Therefore, the demand by some to needlessly ruin one of the last undeveloped walking paths on the Greenbelt seems intolerant and selfish. I trust these initiatives do not reflect the values many responsible riders share in the community. I urge Garden City residents to vote “No” on Initiatives A and B and rebuke these misguided and divisive initiatives, save taxpayer money and protect an endangered recreation resource.
Lochsa Exchange. Mr. Phillips’ opinion article is extremely misleading and As an avid bike rider relies on a number of false and frequent user of the or incorrect statements. Greenbelt pathway, I think First, Mr. Phillips claims it is senseless to promote that the U.S. Forest Service bicycle travel on Garden and the American people City’s Nature Path as proare getting the raw end posed in Initiatives A and of a potential exchange B. A $727,000 taxpayerbetween the USFS and funded grant to build a Western Pacific Timber that West Side Bridge thankwould result in the agency fully completes a desired receiving “cut-over” and continuous bike corridor “denuded” checker board from Lucky Peak to the parcels currently owned City of Eagle. To build a by WPT. This could not be superfluous bike lane on further from the truth. the south side of the Boise The WPT Lochsa lands River through Riverside have been well manVillage would make the priaged for over 100 years. mary justification for this Healthy, well-stocked planexpensive bridge a fraud. A tations cover many of the vote for these unreasonable sections. Other parcels coninitiatives would result in tain stands of well-spaced a scandalous waste of pretrees with multiple age cious taxpayer money and, classes. Yes, these private in effect, create a boonsections look different than doggle bridge to nowhere. many of the older stands As a property taxpayer and on the current federal land, utility bill “round up conbut it does not mean these tributor” supporting the lands are not healthy. Greenbelt, I believe limited Additionally, Mr. Philfunds should be invested lips conveniently leaves out in existing infrastructure the fact that the lands the needs and should not be USFS stands to gain are squandered on a parallel some of the most environand redundant bike route. mentally sensitive lands In my years of experiin the West. The Lochsa ence working for federal area is part of a vital land management agencies wildlife corridor used by serving a resource planner, many endangered species I have worked on many and serves as the headwaroad/trail development ters of the Lochsa River. projects. In my opinion, According to estimates the completed feasibilby StreamNet, there are ity study related to these nearly 123 miles of streams initiatives likely underestiutilized by sensitive fish in mates the final costs. Based the block, including spring on regulatory, environmenchinook, steelhead and bull tal and public safety best George Solverson, trout. Upon the acquisition management practices govBoise of these lands, the USFS erning urban recreational will have an opportunity projects in this sensitive to more efficiently manage riparian floodplain, there THE OTHER SIDE OF lands in “blocking up” are significant engineering LOCHSA ownership within the Upchallenges to construct This is in response to per Lochsa area and will a mixed bike/pedestrian Scott H. Phillips’ letter to also allow the agency to eflane. Citizens of Garden the editor in the Oct. 17 fectively manage the water City should not approve Boise Weekly (Mail, “Keep quality of the Lochsa drainthese proposed initiatives Public Land Public”), age—critical for support of given the uncertainty and whereby he opposes a the water species. financial risks involved. potential land exchange Second, Mr. Phillips also The guiding principle known as the Upper falsely states that WPT would stand to gain a $150 milS U B M I T Letters must include writer’s full name, city of residence and contact information and must be 300 or fewer words. OPINION: Lengthier, in-depth lion windfall from opinions on local, national and international topics. E-mail editor@boiseweekly.com for the deal. In supguidelines. Submit letters to the editor via mail (523 Broad St., Boise, Idaho 83702) or port, Mr. Phillips e-mail (editor@boiseweekly.com). Letters and opinions may be edited for length or clarsites a “research ity. NOTICE: Ever y item of correspondence, whether mailed, e-mailed, commented on our Web site or Facebook page or left on our phone system’s voice-mail is fair piece” done by
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
SOON, V E RY S OON, THE IDAHO RE P U LSI CA N TALIB AN R ELIGIOUS POLIC E WI LL BE SHOOTING YOUNG GIR LS IN THE HEAD FOR HAVING AN ABORTION AND/OR GOI NG TO SCHOOL.”
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—Mick, boiseweekly.com (BW, Opinion, “Take Care Girl,” Oct. 25, 2012)
“economist” Clarence Chapman. A link of the so called “telling” research paper (stoptheswap.net) is nothing but an opinion piece. The $150-million figure sited in the “report” apparently is grabbed out of the air, as there are no numbers or appraisal that would support this figure. It should be noted, however, that Mr. Chapman claims he owns property located within one-half mile of potential exchange land. It should also be noted that Mr. Chapman is not an economist at all. According to his LinkedIn site, he is an independent hospital and health care professional and previously did IT work for an insurance company in Arkansas. Third, Mr. Phillips completely ignores the basic requirements that govern federal land exchanges. In order to protect the taxpayer, federal law mandates an equal value exchange of federal and nonfederal acres. As such, an exchange involving one party owning younger, and therefore less valuable, timber must be accounted for in the number of acres to be exchanged. In turn, the party owning the more valuable timber will get more acres back in an exchange. The values must be established by an appraisal, which must be in compliance with federal and state law standards. Accordingly, Mr. Phillips’ claim that WPT would gain excess value in the exchange does not hold up as the USFS, under federal law, cannot accomplish any exchange in which equal values are not gained. Finally, Mr. Phillips attempts to label WPT as a notorious and shady
company. He also tries to “connect” the company to an owner who is no longer with the company—which he conveniently fails to mention. Even though this connection is totally inaccurate, WPT’s record stands on its own. It has been in existence for 20 years and has an exemplary environmental record. WPT is also an important part of the community in the areas where it does business, as it retains local logging contractors and supports local mills and businesses. Brian Disney, Western Pacific Timber, land manager
STUDENTS AREN’T VICTIMS Upon reading your article “Economics 101” Oct. 17, (BW, Feature) I take exception to the examples used to present student loans as creating “victims”—specifically, the woman attorney who attended two private (expensive) colleges (College of Idaho, Lewis and Clark College of Law), then took on a low-paying legal position ($38,500). These are conscious decisions on her part. She is not a victim. She had the option of public colleges (less money) and/or taking a higher paying legal position (Ada County pays $60,000-plus to start). Please stop presenting student loans as creating victims. Thomas Barbeiro, Pleasanton, Calif.
CURIOUS TIMING Was it just me? What happened to my expensive audio system? On Oct. 9, after watching “The Voice” on local NBC affiliate KTVB, better know as the “... news LEADER. Visit our website ... KTVB.com ... gimme a break, please,” I was enjoying the highly promoted following comedies, which include The New Normal. Now, I fully realize what a right-wing bastion I live in, after all, I was born here 62 years ago. And it makes my skin crawl that during this program, KTVB “... the news leader, visit our website KTVB.com,” has a crawl screen across the bottom, warning me that the program I am watching may offend my delicate sensibilities, as if the Republicans hadn’t done enough of that already. But during the night in question, the audio portion of the show disappeared. I thought it was odd, and I did a check on the system, when I heard the shows music in the audio, but none of the dialog ... strange and weird? I was hearing the music, but not the dialog. It was at a critical point in the series, where one of the gay characters was expressing his love and devotion to his partner. Has KTVB, “..the news leader ... please visit our website, KTVB.com, to further our revenue source ...”, decided that I am not adult enough to make my own decisions on what I want to hear? WTF? Will somebody please explain this to me? Bill Sargent, Star
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