Letters to the editor
In support of Southerland
I would like to take this opportunity to present Jill Southerland, candidate to represent Ward 2 on our council. I have had the opportunity to work with Jill during the last 4-5 and I consider her to be one of the most competent people I have ever had the experience of working with during my 30+ years in management. I have seen first hand, Jill’s ability to listen to all sides, analyze the different points of view and make a recommendation on how to move forwards towards a solution. An open communicator, Jill relates well with people.
Jill’s experience includes:
- 4 years on the La Crescenta City Council, a community of over 20,000 homes.
- 2 years as the General Manager of a homeowners association for 1,500 homes and condos.
- 7 years serving on a Home Owners Association Board
- 33 years in education. An education teacher for gifted children and as a college professor and program administrator. Jill earned a BA in Education, a MA in Human Development and a PhD in Education and Human Development.
I am confident that Jill’s experience and education makes her an outstanding candidate to not only represent Ward 2 on our City Council, but also to serve the people of Polson in general. She and her husband Mike love calling Polson their home and look forward to many more years here. They want a place their children and grandchildren enjoy visiting and will perhaps someday make it their home too.
I strongly recommend you vote for Jill Southerland to represent Ward 2 on our Polson City Council.
Jane Irwin
Polson
See you next year
Another successful year of Native American Awareness Week for The People’s Center. We owe our success to the many students and their teachers that attended and the many volunteers that helped each day. We apologize to the schools and students that were scheduled for Tuesday, we cancelled due to rain. We would like to encourage you to call us and schedule a field trip here to see our museum, play games, watch a video and/or participate in a craft.
Special thanks for donations and volunteering to the following: Kicking Horse Job Corps students, Bear & Erma Malatare, Mary Rogers, Tribal Health Department, Tribal Fitness Program staff, Tribal Defenders Office, Bryce Finley for providing the wild game and teaching, Two Eagle River students, Aggie Incashola, Tribal Elders; Clara Bourdon & Janie Wabaunsee, Salish Pend d’Oreille and Kootenai Culture Committees staff, Pastor Mitchell and family and Arnold Torosian Sr.
We ended the week with our annual Social Pow-wow. Thanks to all that came and danced, our drums, spectators, vendors and emcee Emory Wilson. The winner of the drum is Allen Pierre! Winner of the 50/50 is Gale Fyant. Thanks everyone for your support! See you all next visit!
Sincerely, the staff of The People’s Center
What community is about
Recently I attended a Polson “Heart & Soul” planning meeting for the important and vital “Polson Heart & Soul Community Values Summit” later this fall, something we all should put on our calendars. The “Heart & Soul” project is part of the Greater Polson Community Foundation’s work, in cooperation with the City of Polson.. Polson’s “Heart and Soul” project was launched from a $100,000 grant, two years ago, from the Orton Family Foundation. Officially called “Heart & Soul Community Planning Grant”, the money is used to “change the way small cities and towns engage their citizens and plan for the future”.
This meeting was for planning the upcoming community-wide meeting in which we can all not only learn the results of the last two years work, but also participate. Just as “it takes a community to raise a child”, it also “takes everyone’s input and ideas to grow a community”.
This is what community is all about. Most of us are very good at seeing a problem and complaining, but not so good at sitting down with others, who may have opposing views, and working out solutions which are ultimately better than either person’s dearly held positions. But that is what is needed. And it works. It is quite a challenge to get this to happen in a community. But it is essential. The Orton Family certainly recognized this. Penny Jarecki, president of Greater Polson Community Foundation knows this. Daniel and Darlis Smith, Heart & Soul coordinators know this. And many, many people in and around Polson who have participated in the 19 “Polson Heart & Soul Neighborhood Gatherings” this past year know this.
There is much that is being done in and around Polson by individuals and groups to help take care of specific needs. But is there collaboration? Is there sharing of information? Is there a feeling of community togetherness? Is Polson a community where the religious, economic, social, and political elements actually interact and work for the good of the whole? These, it seems to me, are questions we should be asking and thinking about if our community has meaning for us.
Our total involvement is important. Want more information? Contact Heart & Soul at 406-270-8258 or email: polsonheartsoul@montanasky.net.
Bob McClellan
Polson
Our sincere thanks
We can all rest a little easier knowing we have such incredible assets and personnel for fire control in this Valley, thank you all. We would also like to express sincere thanks to everyone that helped us evacuate our facilities.
Rick & Sheryl Van Voast
Polson
Need for upcoming referendum
Historic changes are coming to Flathead irrigators. Whether they will result in a broadly supported water agreement or one that does not protect your property rights and is forced on you is the question. The majority of the FJBC is working to reach an agreement regarding Project water that you will support. It does not want litigation. But it is determined to reach a good agreement that protects irrigators’ property rights in land and water.
A minority of four out of twelve FJBC commissioners oppose this effort. So, they decided, essentially, the minority should control the majority! Without asking their constituents to vote, they decided to dismantle the FJBC, leaving irrigators divided and easily conquered, so they can adopt the flawed water use agreement described below.
Consequently, the majority of the FJBC will hold a referendum on the issue, which is really about whether the majority of the FJBC is handling the water rights negotiations in a manner you support or not.
Based on many meetings and discussions over the summer, we think you do. Here is the background.
In the last Legislature, there was a determined attempt to pass a Flathead Compact with an agreement, the Flathead Project Water Use Agreement (also called the WUA), that would have decided for you that the Tribes own the water you use for irrigation, and you would only have their permission to use some of their property. It would also have decided the maximum amount of water you can use, without verifying that this amount is at least similar to the amount you have historically received, as we have been assured. It would also have set up a special Water Management Board and a Unitary Management Ordinance that is different from the rest of the State of Montana. This proposed system for administering this right and all water uses on the Reservation bears some additional discussion to ensure that all water users have an equal right to a say in that administration.
The former FJBC majority supported this agreement, and the minority four who want to dismantle the FJBC want to adopt it for the Mission and Jocko Valley Irrigation Districts.
Since elections in May made a new majority responsible for the FJBC, we have been reviewing the Compact and Water Use Agreement with the goal of suggesting a few basic but important changes that could form the basis for a negotiated settlement and a Compact. The majority of the FJBC supports many aspects of the WUA and it clearly prefers an agreement to litigation. But any agreement must respect the legal rights of everyone.
After about a dozen public meetings this summer, here is what irrigators told us very clearly:
1. You’d like the ownership of the water right to the irrigation water delivered by the Project to be held by either fee land irrigators or the FJBC, with the United States, in trust for the fee land irrigators. Either way, irrigators must have a property right in that water.
2. You’d like to verify the assurances many have made that the amount of irrigation water would not be diminished.
3. You are concerned with the system proposed in the Compact for administering water uses, including irrigation water.
These are reasonable positions. So the majority of the FJBC recently voted to communicate them to the Tribes and the U.S., who are parties to the WUA, asking for further discussions regarding them. We also sent them to the Governor of Montana, on whose behalf the Compact Commission works, and the state Attorney General.
These letters and other useful information are posted on the FJBC’s website at: flatheadjointboard.com.
The majority of the FJBC is attempting to continue discussions with the Tribes and the U.S. specifically so that we can reach an agreement. The majority is not in favor of litigation. But it also is not in favor of an agreement that does not protect irrigators. To be willing to accept essentially any agreement, without basic protections and without verifying the fundamental assertion that irrigation water would not be diminished would be irresponsible. Some advocate such a defeatist attitude, but the majority of the FJBC does not. We think you agree.
In the coming weeks, I will post a series of messages similar to this one stating facts about this issue. Please take the time to keep yourself informed. You will receive ballots concerning the Referendum in late October. They must be returned to the Lake County Elections Administrator by November 19. Please read them carefully, vote your ballots, and return them promptly.
Our motto: Ownership, Verification, Equal Participation.
Boone Cole
FJBC Chairman