Letters to the editor
Ninepipes fundraiser success
The weather cooperated so that we were able to hold the postponed annual fundraiser dinner for the Ninepipes Museum of Early Montana on Thursday, Feb. 2. The board of directors is very grateful to the Morton family and the staff at the Ninepipes Lodge - Allentown Restaurant for accommodating the change of dates due to the snow we received in January. The Black Tie Dinner was a success in large part due to the wonderful meals served by the restaurant.
The frosting on the cake, so to speak, was having Denver Holt from the Owl Research Institute regale us with stories of his adventures with snowy owls. It is quite fortuitous that we have been able to view these creatures here in our own valley this winter, and to also see slides of their home and nesting sites in Barrow, Alaska as part of Denver’s program.
Denver’s notorioty as an expert in owls is international in scope and we feel quite fortunate and grateful to have had him speak at our recent dinner. Our best wishes to Denver for continuing his work, and look forward to hearing more about the owls of Montana. The evening’s musical entertainment provided by Karen Sergeant and Joyce Kackman was also delightful with renditions of popular country ballads.
So many businesses supported the museum by donations for auction items. Please see our ad listing these friends — we realize the museum is but one worthy nonprofit entity in this valley vying for support and we are grateful for their consideration. We encourage your support of these businesses — keep your dollars here in the Valley!
A big thank you to all the dinner ticket buyers; thank you for hanging in there while we waited for better weather to come along. Montanans can roll with the punches, and we were very glad to see the capacity-crowd turnout for the evening.
Once the museum re-opens in the spring for the season, we hope to see you come through the doors to enjoy the treasures and history inside. We would love to have more volunteers come for a morning or afternoon once or twice a month to assist with the gift shop and museum. It is a great way to spend a few hours. Please call the museum at 644-3435 and let us know of your interest.
Thank you everyone for the gift of your time, money, gifts and interest. We look forward to a wonderful season in 2013.
Kathy Senkler, Ninepipes Museum of Early Montana
Thank you, Polson schools
We want to say thank you to Polson School District employees for all their hard work in securing the Montana State Speech, Debate and Drama meet, and for operating such a well-run event.
While certainly not every event that comes to town reaches all of our members and local businesses, we have heard from several that were very positively affected by having this large group of students and their family members in our community.
Furthermore, we have heard that several of the attendees, supervisors and spectators have complimented the Polson staff on the overall organization of the event. From what we understand, Scott Wilson, Jon and Bonnie Peterson, Pat Cross and several others were instrumental in securing and coordinating this event. There were also many teachers who contributed their time to help run the event, and over 300 community members volunteered their time to help judge.
We are very proud of our schools and our community, and we just wanted to take this opportunity to acknowledge their contribution to our overall economic vitality and thank them for their efforts.
Heather Knutson, President of the Polson Chamber of Commerce
Race for the White House
As we listen to and witness the present race for the White House, considering what the Republicans have been able to achieve in taking over the House of Representatives in 2010 and effectively blocking most every initiative President Obama has wanted to put forth, isn’t it just amazing that this great Republican Management Team could not find a more suitable person to run for president?
Doesn’t this seem odd? I think it does, and having just returned from my family home in Wisconsin, among very staunch Republicans, they are saying the same thing back there! How is it a political party can be so effective in legislating from a fully negative point of view, but when a positive act is required, like selecting a person to run against President Obama, they can fail so obviously?
Is the Republican party to be seen as ‘the party of negativity?’ I surely hope not. But it had better get its act together pretty soon if it can shift from negative to positive in a matter of months.
Bob McClellan
Polson
College-bound
Senator Mowbray, thank you for a respectful and interesting exchange of views about the importance of federal aid to students concerning the affordability of higher education on our country.
1) You stated that $180,000 is typically available for students from Polson High School each year in local private and service club scholarships. You also assert correctly that education at a sector of the Montana University System runs about $18,000 per year. Simple math shows that this is the equivalent of only 10 students’ costs to attend an in-state public institution, which happens to be the cheapest form of education available to them. These scholarships are historically swept by about 10 students with particularly strong resumes every year. Many of these scholarships are only available for one year, and leave a student struggling to find a new source of financial assistance after only one year.
2) I checked with the Polson High School guidance office, which reports that typically 66 percent of a senior class is college bound. In 2012’s class of 114, that is about 75 students. In the considerably larger Class of 2014, there will be about 105 college-bound seniors. So as you can see, local scholarships support at best 10 percent of the students that are in need of aid.
3) You point out that $580,000 was provided in 2009 in merit-based scholarships from colleges. This statistic is true, but very little of this money comes from the Montana University System, rather from private or out-of-state institutions where students are often paying twice or three times the amount of a Montana public education.
For example, a year of schooling at the University of Washington costs a student over $46,000, and the total cost of attendance for a year of school at Brown University costs $53,000. Note that these are mere well-known examples, not specially picked because of high tuition and rates. At around $50,000 per year for four years, a person is paying $200,000 for a four-year education. When you apply this to the $580,000 mentioned, you can see that would pay for the cost of attendance for approximately three students to an out-of-state or private university, an obviously miniscule amount.
Once again, I stress that today’s young people are not looking for a free education, we are merely looking for a way to graduate college without being shackled by crushing personal debt. It is common these days to graduate with $80,000 or more in student loan debt. This is what we protest, not the possibility of having to get a job. If you expect our young people to bail us out of our current economic situation through innovation and hard work, Senator Mowbray, give us the basic tools without huge debt to pay off before we even get our feet on the ground. This is not a matter of political bias, as we are not influenced by party opinions. This is a matter of investing in the future of our country, more necessary than anything else, and pure common sense on the part of the American people.
Saddling the majority of young people with massive debt is no way to build an economy or a strong society. Do you disagree, Senator Mowbray?
Peregrine Frissell
Occupy Polson organizer
Sincere effort
The Feb. 9 edition of the Leader featured a sensational front page headline proclaiming “Polson man embezzles...’ The article concerned the circumstances of Eric Baszler who has admitted to his addiction to gambling and his guilt in writing unauthorized checks from a local brewery to cover the debts resulting from that personal problem.
I have had the pleasure of getting to know him through his dedicated volunteerism at the Polson Food and Loaves and the Journey Bee [Soups On]. Eric has enrolled himself in three-day-a-week counseling sessions. On Feb. 13 he is starting a night job with a local company so that he can continue his daytime volunteering, counseling sessions, and making restitution to the brewery. I believe he is making a serious and sincere effort to put his mistake behind him in a very proactive way. The good in Eric was not even hinted at in the paper’s coverage.
If you need to fill the front page of your paper, I would recommend that the Leader start sending their reporter to cover the Polson City Council meetings in their entirety.
Bob Fulton
Polson