Jopek on Maedje

Whitefish is the fastest growing city in Montana. In five years, we grew our tax base by 63 percent. That's a whopping 18 times that of Eureka. It's also roughly three times that of Kalispell or Bozeman or Billings. And it's a staggering 12 times the pace of Helena.

With that pace of growth come responsibilities. We all want to keep our community the kind of business-friendly place where we can live and raise our kids. We recognize that we have become both urban and rural, both full of new-comers and old-timers, but still one great place.

Thank you, Rep. Rick Maedje for pointing out in last week's Pilot that I sponsored House Bill 293. This bill would have made sure that when national developers subdivide land which wholly surrounds lakes and waterways, that public access be preserved via planning. Read the bill at www.leg.state.mt.us.

More simply, HB 293 would have required local governments to include a strategy for preserving public access to lakes, streams, rivers and waterways in their growth policies.

According to our Constitution, the water belongs to the people of Montana, regardless if the use is for trout in a favorite fishing hole or that local swimming-hole. We should be able to go boating, fishing and swimming on hot summer days even during periods of rapid growth.

Our Constitution also has a good and healthy respect for private property. Taking people's homes and giving them to national developers is not how we do business in Montana. We plan on introducing legislation preserving and enforcing these rights. I know many good Republicans will join us in this legislative call to protect rights come the next session.

My Republican father taught me the value of conservation. I feel confident that during the next session, lawmakers from both parties will join our fight to preserve access onto our lakes and conserve our public lands, which drive our local economy.

Whitefish has a rich tradition of planning, of keeping our water clean and preserving access to public lands. Many good folks in Whitefish have worked hard for years in assuring that our public lands are not sold for development. Our current trails and conservation project for public lands will drive our economy for decades to come.

Beaver, Smith, Boys, Murray, Lost Coon, Blanchard, Whitefish, Sampson lakes and many more are all within minutes from downtown Whitefish. The challenge which we must address is whether we value our property and public access enough to assure that our kids can afford to pay taxes and still catch their first fish locally.

Montana should be open to Montanans. It saddens me that there is such mistrust in Montana between the parties. We must set aside petty political differences in order to find workable solutions which lower property taxes, protect public lands and preserve access to water.

Rep. Mike Jopek

Whitefish