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Appaled by library moves

| August 28, 2008 11:00 PM

I am appalled by what happened recently with the library trustee appointments. I am disappointed by the actions taken by the Flathead County Commissioners when they shuffled the board's make-up.

It would appear that their motion "parroted" Mr. Harvey's e-mail and one would suspect that they had some knowledge of it prior to the meeting. This seems at best unethical and at worst, possibly illegal.

The library belongs to the people of Flathead County and both the Library Board and the Library Foundation exist to serve the citizens' best interests.

I would vote against a bond issue for a library at Tidyman's because of the longstanding pollution problems, which are not solved easily. The cost is beyond prohibitive, even if they didn't have a pollution problem. It also appears that the Library Board was being pushed to hurry its review process, and that concerns me.

The fact that Marge Fisher, for whom I have great admiration, resigned from this board legitimizes the former trustees' concerns. I would also like to say I have known Anne Moran for 30 years and always found her to be honest, interested in her community, and certainly not "provincial."

I have also observed Jerry Hanson and Kala Lougheed serving their communities. All three of these people have histories of dedicated service. They formed a legitimate majority and did not put their self-interests ahead of their community.

When people sacrifice time and energy, and research hard-to-make good decisions, our elected officials should support them and respect their input.

Susan Schwarz

Whitefish