Detention officers have many responsibilities

Editor,

The Lake County Detention Officers Association would like to express our thanks to the people of Lake County for your continued support. Lake County Detention has the critical task of detaining and caring for the needs of inmates standing accused and awaiting the adjudication process. Some inmates are actually serving out sentences already handed out while some inmates are awaiting transfer to treatment programs or incarceration with Montana Department of Corrections.

Detention staff recognize that their jobs are not to determine guilt or innocence of inmates but to treat each inmate equally. Detention staff must deal with persons under the influence of alcohol, physical distress and often physically violent people. This is for the most part a very thankless but essential task.

Detention officers are highly trained and motivated individuals. With the unprecedented growth in Lake County, there is an unprecedented growth in the needs for detention services. In 1998, detention staff took 900 people through the booking process. In 2007, there were 1,535 people that went through the Lake County booking process. This increase is being handled by the same amount of detention personnel with the same funding in the same facility as 10 years ago.

To say that the Lake County detention facility and personnel are being stretched to the limits would be an understatement. This is equally true of the Lake County law enforcement officers and the Lake County judicial facilities.

Some people that are booked through the detention facility are only there for a few hours while others can spend days, weeks, and even months. Lake County Detention staff will continue to provide professional services to the best of our abilities.

Our goals have been, and will always be, public protection and safety, inmate protection and safety, and staff protection and safety.

If you have comments or questions, please email us at: lakecountydeputies@gmail.com

Thank you sincerely for your continued encouragement and support.

Sgt. Lonnie Erickson

Lake County Detention Officers Association

World-wide flood vs. glacial theory

Editor,

The Bible says that God is angry with those who deliberately shut their eyes and close their minds to what is obviously true in regards to Him. In Paul's letter to the Romans, chapter 1, verses 18 through 25, it says in essence: "…God's wrath is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth…because what may be known of God is plain, for God has shown it…that since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen…so they are without excuse…they became futile in their thoughts …professing to be wise, they became fools…who exchanged the truth of God for a lie."

There is much that could be said to objectively support the above statement. I would like to give just one example of this: The world flood that the Bible speaks about. The Apostle Peter refers to this in his second epistle: "For this they willfully forget…that by the Word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water."

When Louis Agassiz, the Father of Natural Science in America, came up with the glacial theory, those who were predisposed against God or believing the truth of the Bible were quick to grasp onto this theory. But to accept this theory in its entirety while rejecting the biblical account of the flood would require a greater miracle than a world-wide flood! I will reserve my argument for a later time. Is there anyone who would like to take up the challenge to debate this matter in future letters to the editor? My thesis is this: The biblical account of a world-wide flood is better sustained by evidence than the glacial theory.

This should make for an enlightening and interesting discussion. I hopefully wait for some reply to this challenge.

Vern Hicks, Ronan

Flyer info was meant to mislead

Editor,

I am writing this to publicly apologize to a nice young man who recently opened a new liquor store in Polson. I am sorry that I was easily duped into believing the rumor that was spread around town in a flyer about him, his mother and their business.

I have come to find out that what I read was nothing more than half-truths, innuendo, and meant to intentionally mislead the reader. People having a personal agenda wrote the flyer. The truth is, the new liquor store is owned and operated by Toby Glantz. He is 27 years old and is raising three young children on his own. Contrary to the rumors, he is not married to the woman who owns the Kalispell liquor store. She is his mother and neither have a criminal record.

I am angry at myself and am more angry at the authors of the flyer. I am disappointed in all of us small-minded people, businesses and organizations who were so easily led astray from common sense and the truth. Polson is a close-knit community and we should not tolerate lies. This makes us all look bad and sends a negative message. Shame on us. We should have known better.

To Mr. Glantz, his mother and their respective businesses, I deeply apologize and hope the rest of us who were misguided will have the intestinal fortitude to admit we were wrong and apologize, too. It is time to do what it right. We are truly good people and hope you do not judge us as we erroneously judged you. I welcome you, your family, and your business to Polson and wish you every bit of success.

And to the authors of the vile-filled flyer, your scheme failed with me and I see it as nothing but a direct and written testament of your lack of character and ability to be a decent citizen and human being. I care not to know you.

J. Rose

Polson

Long-term home value outlook OK

Editor,

Merrill Lynch's Jan. 23 report predicting a free-fall in home prices was yet another panic analysis based on faulty assumptions. While home values are adjusting, flattening out or even declining in some markets during the current economic downturn, the long-term outlook for home values remains positive. Consider the facts:

Except for about 30 or so high-flying metro markets where home values doubled in four or five years, the correction now underway in home values has been relatively modest for the vast majority of U.S. markets. And home values can be expected to stabilize and then edge upward again with the next recovery.

To argue that home values will continue to decline and will never recover, someone has to make a convincing argument that it will cost less to build a new home three years from now than it does today. That's not going to happen. The cost of land will rebound as the recovery gets underway, particularly in high-growth urban markets where there is a very tight supply of land available for development. And the hard costs of building — labor and materials — can also be expected to continue to rise.

There is no monolithic housing market. Like politics, all housing markets are local in character and driven by their own unique set of supply and demand pressures. That makes national forecasts on home values, such as those issued by Merrill Lynch and others, irrelevant. People want to know what's happening in their own market, and factors affecting home values vary considerably from one market to the next.

America is on a growth path, with the projected growth in population and households being formed year after year requiring about 1.8 million new housing units per year over the next 10 years just to meet demand. Once the current inventory of unsold units is cleared out, the pace of home sales and new housing construction will return to more normal levels.

The Flathead Building Association along with the Montana Building Industry Association is so committed to this message that we will launch a "Buy Now" campaign this spring. Please contact the FBA at 752-2422 for more information.

Robert Helder

President, Flathead Building Association

Kalispell

Best wishes to Ethan Smith

Editor,

I want to wish Ethan Smith the best. I will miss his columns, conversation and his genuine down-to-earth attitude.

The position he held at the Leader was more often than not a challenging one. Balanced between the public's right to know and the sensitivity of people who feel something should not have been published is like walking a tightrope.

Ethan, the wish is for you to have a wonderful future in whatever your endeavors may be. Stay safe.

Doug Chase

Polson Police Chief