Justice Trembles

It has come to our attention that in all, Waterford Park Homes, LLC has had eleven projects red tagged by the County. According to my sources in Building & Planning, all have been ignored, none have been lifted. When we were about to invite all residents of Kootenai County to build without permits, we hear that the Kootenai County Prosecutor is planning possible criminal charges.

When respect for the rules is flagrantly ignored, government must act, or forever be insignificant. We are happy that belatedly, the enforcement end of things will be protected.

Jim Wilson

I woke up to a nightmare today. Every Friday, at 4:00 Jim Wilson showed up at the Captains wheel. He had one drink, then asked, "Is there any of Herb's Potato Salad left? I always had a go box full of potato salad for him.

I made potato salad Friday. Jim showed up on schedule. Before clocking out, I made a go box for him, like always. I brought it out to him, and thanked him for his loyalty. He left with good wishes, and he thanked me for the Potato salad, and left, after buying me a beer for the courtesy.

Jim died in his sleep last night, and I find myself breaking into tears, and I don't know why, except my keyboard keeps getting blurred.

God Bless you, Jim...

May you have a safe journey to what is beyond. I loved you Man...

Bayview Disappears

As I looked out over the bay this morning, I realized I couldn't see across it. Smoke billowed down to lake level, smelling like a forest fire. I thought at first that it was one. It is hard to believe that the grass seed farmers were that callous.

Apparently they were. Traffic on Highway 95 between Chilco and Athol slowed to a crawl, as visibility lowered down close to zero. People in Bayview were choking with the air close to unbreathable.

Silverwood Theme Park, a tax machine that pays much more in taxes to the County than farmers, was obliterated by the clouds of smoke. Usually in these conditions, one or more guests or employees are rescued by ambulance.

Hopefully, the EPA will change this. That the fields were burned even though forest fires were already smoking up the sky was criminal. Recently, the EPA ruled that they were going to tighten up the rules.

It is terribly unfortunate, that our elected state officials didn't care enough to make these changes. Now the Federal government will. It's about time.

Comprehensive Plan

The Kootenai County Planning Department has held out an olive branch to those that oppose growth. This doesn't mean that growth won't happen, it just means that we are being asked for our opinions as to how to control it.

I applaud the Department for it's forward thinking idea of "Meetings in a box."

This is an informal way of collecting opinions from many different sources. I was honored to be selected by the staff, to conduct, host, and produce the results of such a gathering, consisting, but by no means eliminating others, bloggers. It amazes me that someone from the County would think that we bloggers are opinionated, but there it is...bloggers throughout the County that have opinions are invited to attend.

This is not a substitution for the blogfest earlier announced. That will occur in late September or early October. The purpose of this exercise is vital. It will form the master growth plan that we will have to live with for years. Done right, we shouldn't have to deal with a flurry of conditional use permits, or exceptions, as is now the norm...

Since this is a business meeting, I will attempt to hold it in Coeur d' Alene, date and time to be announced. The meeting must be held before September 29, as that is the deadline for comments. I need RSVP from those that are interested in attending. Please direct these to me at: hhuseland@aol.com...

Army vs. National Guard

I pretty near choked when I read the article in the Spokesman-Review about 550 soldiers from Ft. Lewis being assigned to fight fires in Central Washington.

That is the job of the Washington National Guard. If they are not available, where are they? Iraq? If the Guard is in Iraq, while regular army troops are hanging around in garrison, it makes me wonder if we have this backward.

Guard troops are to be used only in case of National Emergency. Other that that, their contributions to the community are riot control, flood and firefighting...

These are under trained citizen soldiers helping out in their own states. I don't like what I'm seeing, what with Northern State Guardsmen and women being assigned out of their own states for border patrol, or foreign duty, while the Army sits in garrison and trains.

Dog Days of Summer

There is a mystery about August. One day, people are swarming into the resort areas like ours, the next day they are gone. The weather is great...Maybe the greatest week-end weather we have had in memory.

Is it the cool nights that have descended upon us? The shopping trips for school clothes/supplies? Who knows. All I know, is that the seasonal heat has disappeared, the nights are cool again, and my tomatoes are ripening a month earlier than usual.

That brings us to another subject. Tomatoes. I have raised tomatoes as a religion for many years, both on the coast, and here. This year, with slightly modified methods, and great weather, I hit the jackpot. I have ripening tomatoes. Big ones. Blossom -end rot is still a problem, but not as bad as previous years. If I could find a place to buy calcium foliage spray, I would win that battle.

Labor day week-end is almost upon us. I've worked hard this Summer, which was good for me. Dropped from 200 pounds to a svelte 179. Anyone of you that knew me in my youth would wonder where I put 200 pounds. I do too. Hopefully I will keep it off.

I am still contemplating a blogfest, probably one or two weeks after Labor day, but need to consult DFO before setting a firm date.

Hollandville, USA

I am posting this as a community service, as requested by a great friend and community stalwart. For those of you that don't know, a moratorium on new float homes was put into place by the State of Idaho, several years ago. Apparently, they figured out that the float home owners didn't represent enough votes to form a dissident group. Fighting from behind for years, the Float Home Owners Association was created for the purpose of keeping the marina owners from totally controlling the price of moorage. Moorage that they can't leave.

"To all Bayview float home owners,

As some of you may know, Randy Ragan and I have been meeting with Bob Holland to push the dockominium concept forward. After several discussions, we have an outline of the anticipated program, which has been substantiated by Mr. Holland. I have attached it to this email in both MS-WORD and PDF format. Both documents read the same.

We are organizing a meeting with all Bayview Marina float home owners for this Saturday (Aug, 12th) @ 10:00AM. We have arranged with Steve from the Buttonhook restaurant to open early for this private meeting. Mr. Holland will not be attending this meeting.

Hope to see you there.
JR



John Ragan

MOR Manufacturing, President

5676 E. Seltice Way

Post Falls, ID 83854"

Bayview Chamber

Tuesday evening will be the usual chamber meeting at 7:00 PM. What won't be usual, is it will be followed by a potluck. I am about to trek down to the Captain's Wheel, where I have been commissioned to make a huge bunch of potato salad.

We expect around 70 or 80 folks to attend, so it will be a huge bunch of potato salad. Unlike the splinter group, numbering 15 by their own count, we have a large membership mostly comprised of individuals, with great support from local businesses.

I hope to see all of you there...

Patience

I learned something of value this week. Actually, I learn something of value every week, but this one was special.

I had just posted my last,"Whacko." I was in the process of copying my first paragraph for the purpose of pasting it to INWBA. Bad things began to happen. In three tries, I failed to highlight the offending three lines.

Every time I tried, the whole article would turn blue. I couldn't get the @*&%#@@ lines to highlight separately. I turned blue. I decided, (I had a few drinks prior to this decision) to punish my computer.

Never try to punish your computer. This mass of chips and garbage invented by that #@%*@# guy Bill Gates, is in charge. I head butted my screen. Nothing. Then I slammed my mouse down hard on my pad. That got my computer's attention alright.

The mouse was broke. The moral of this story is, of course, never try to outsmart the ugly gnomes that inhabit the mysterious computer. I was out of touch for three days, until I could run to town, get Office Max to recommend a new mouse, (I am now the proud owner of a Microsoft mouse) and then streak back to Bayview to install it.

Actually, remembering the 70's, streaking might not be the correct terminology. Bottom line, DO NOT ATTEMPT TO DISCIPLINE YOUR COMPUTER. IT WILL RETALIATE.