The People Roar

Only those that can't read, or live out of the area, have missed the finale. The population of Bayview, Idaho, normally a tolerant folk, roared back in anger at Bob Holland and by reference, his Company, Waterford Park Homes, LLC.

LLC means Limited Liability Corporation. This developer forms a new one each time he buys or operates a new business. Some information obtained from Arizona, and California, allegedly indicate that this man has not only Ravaged Bayview,Idaho, but has a sterling reputation in these aforementioned States for the same.

In the last three years his strategy has apparently been that fines are just another business expense to be born along with the other routine expenses. Numerous "Red Tags" or stop work orders have been issued by the Kootenai County Building and Zoning Department. These have been issued for either exceeding the scope of a permit, ignoring the permit process completely, and many other Sins of commission.

James Hagengruber's fine expose front page article in Saturday's Spokesman-Review was, it seems the last straw. Open warfare has developed between the Community and his Company over the wanton destruction of one of the last great Kokanee spawning beds on Lake Pend Oreille. The Developer brought in a tug and barge with a pile driver. After driving numerous steel pilings into the spawning gravel, Fish & Game officials sent divers in to assess damage and take pictures of the results. I have seen them and they are complete. Virtually an entire generation of the endangered fish has been killed, either by being speared with the steel piles, or murdered from the seismic shock of the pile driver, incessantly pounding and shaking the spawning gravel.

One should remember, however,that individual employees with the Company are not the villains and should be treated with respect.

What then is the answer? If the County and State Governments can't or won't prosecute this man, how are they ever going to be able to enforce any of their respective ordinances? The people cry out for justice and all they get is cowardly "We don't want to be sued" for an answer. I have no envy of wealth. But Wealthy developers should not be able to buy and sell local Governmemts, nor should they be able to intimidate them.

We, the people are the ones they represent, not special interests. It will be interesting, as future elections occur, how many votes these developers have oppossed to the rest of us. Prosecutors that only want high profile cases can't seem to be bothered with going after scofflaws such as this.