Did not speak for LCCDC

Editor,

I commend John Stromnes for his story in the Oct. 12 Missoulian Montana Section) for an accurate account of the Oct. 11 public meeting in Polson concerning Wal-Mart's latest plan to further dominate retailing in Western Montana. An overflow crowd watched as Wal-Mart introduced the Polson City-County Planning Board to its proposal to build a new Super Center (a 156,000 square-foot one-stop-shop behemoth) east of U.S. 93 on property adjacent south of the current Polson Wal-Mart.

I was correctly quoted as making comments critical of the proposal and I was also correctly identified as president of the Lake County Community Development Corp. and Chairman of Ronan Telephone Company.

I feel compelled to publicly state that my comments at that meeting that were quoted in the paper expressing my opposition to this development ARE NOT those of the Lake County Community Development Corp. The Board of the Lake County Community Development Corp. was unaware of this proposal and the issue has never come before it.

It was obvious at that meeting that my personal concerns and those of Ronan Telephone Company about the negative social and economic impacts of massive big box retailing in rural areas such as Lake County are shared by many of my fellow citizens in Polson and the Mission Valley.

It is my hope that our community can have a serious and substantive debate about these impacts prior to a decision on the wisdom of a retail development this overwhelmingly large compared to the size of our local economy.

My fear is that the magic of the Flathead Lake region is being irrevocably eroded by this kind of greedy corporate development that enrich a few, impoverish the many and leaves as our collective legacy huge and ugly architectural monuments to retail hegemony.

There is a better way.

Jay Wilson Preston, Chairman

Ronan Telephone Company