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Letter

More Sloppy Work by the Commissioners

After the Dockstader Island debacle (the bridge also has to be torn out) our county commissioners should have learned their lesson

By Joseph Biby

Pam Holmquist and the other county commissioners have done it again. Without doing their homework (which we pay them to do) they rubber stamped another ill-conceived project, the Whistlestop Retreat, and have cost us money that is NOT covered by insurance. Perhaps the county commissioners should pay the $47,000 in attorney fees from their own pockets, rather than the public coffers.

As with the “bridge to nowhere” on Flathead Lake’s north shore, the county commissioners recklessly issued permits, ignoring problems with the projects even after being put on notice by concerned citizens. Property owners near Lake Five had to band together and form Friends of Lake Five to point out to the county commissioners that Whistlestop had no viable means of access to the resort, among other serious problems. Whistlestop just continued to develop, knowing our county could be bullied into retroactively rubber stamping just about anything.  

Friends of Lake Five successfully challenged the project, and Judge Amy Eddy correctly ruled that the Whistlestop Retreat tear down all buildings and pay attorney’s fees. She has now ordered the county (you and me) to pay Friends of Lake Five’s attorney’s fees, which they never should have incurred. After the Dockstader Island debacle (the bridge also has to be torn out) our county commissioners should have learned their lesson. This sloppy work at Lake Five shows that they did not.  

Joseph Biby
Kalispell