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Jay Scott for commissioner

When looking at the candidates for Flathead County commissioner, Jay Scott is the candidate of choice that stands out for many reasons. Jay will be a full-time commissioner. He will devote the time needed to make quality decisions for Flathead County.

Jay is fiscally conservative. He will concentrate on public safety and health for all residents of Flathead County.

Jay is a 30 year 4-H leader; he is a small business owner; his kids and grandkids live in the Flathead Valley. He is passionate about family values, is strongly committed, has a hard work ethic and is a servant of all citizens, not just a few.

Jay stands out above all others. He will make this position a priority and always keep in mind that he works for the people by listening to needs and providing the leadership necessary to accomplish any task. —Lori Keller, Kalispell

Candidate will fight socialism

Margaret Thatcher famously said that “the problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”

Her comment is far from a complete description of the problem with socialism. For instance, she never addresses how a country gets from freedom to socialism. Nor does she mentions what happens when “other people’s money” runs out.

The real problem with socialism is that it demands the supremacy of the government over the supremacy of the people.

It’s time for normal citizens to take back control of our government. The only meaningful way to do that is to run for and win a controlling percentage of seats in the legislative bodies and then to go on the offensive against the corruption in the executive and judicial branches.

We can’t fight this fight defensively; we must go on the offensive and strike them at the exact point they are most vulnerable. Legislatures can write statutes, amend constitutions, control budgets, as well as impeach. Our Founding Fathers understood why the legislature must be controlled by the people.

I was asked to run for House District 7. The man currently holding that seat is a Republican that voted for higher gas taxes, voted for Obamacare and voted to KILL the Montana School Safety Act which would arm teachers.

Join me in defeating the political elite who have hijacked our government.

My name is Robert Welzel; I am an American, and I will never surrender to tyranny,

I am a United States Marine, and I will fight for right and freedom,

I am a Montanan who will not compromise to cunning, ambitious and unprincipled men.

I will fear God to Whom we will all give account. I will love justice. I will hate bribes and I will fight for right. —Robert Welzel, Kalispell

Vote FOR plan to stop water bottling plant

I am a recent resident of Bigfork. We moved from Creston where we resided for several years. I continue to have serious concerns about the possibility of a water bottling plant being built on the Flathead River just north of Creston.

Since I moved to Bigfork I have become aware of the total lack of knowledge the people outside of the Creston area have about the looming danger to the quality of life in store for the entire county. I am not trying to inform residents about the water bottling plant, the information is readily available by reading the Daily Inter Lake. What I hope that the citizens of Flathead County will be thinking about is that the pollutants discharged from the factory into the Flathead River will affect the river and Flathead Lake. This is not an issue only of concern to the to the well owners and farmers in Crestn; it is a quality of life concern of everyone in the area.

Please remember one thing, if the water bottling plant is approved, what is it to say that another, and another, bottling plant will be built since it has become an established precedent? It will happen; you can be sure of that!

On June 5, I urge you to vote FOR the enactment of Resolution 1594C to add property to the Egan Slough Zoning District. The future of all of Flathead County is at stake. —Lynn Woods, Bigfork

Vote to expand Egan Slough zoning district

The letter from Erica Wirtala, a spokesperson for Realtors in the valley, is an incredible piece of confusion and total lack of understanding of the issue before the voters. The Egan Slough zoning vote asks the voters if they support the right of the neighbors who live in that area and who voted to expand the zone to prevent the water-bottling industry from setting up shop in an agricultural area in Creston.

Ms. Wirtala, our First Amendment right is a wonderful thing but with it comes responsibility in just what we say. Wirtala’s letter sounds like it is right out of the talking points of Darryl James’ PR message for the water-bottling plant and Lew Weaver’s interests in selling the public’s water for his own benefit. One wonders if she is just trying to confuse the voters and obfuscate the facts.

Wirtala says we shouldn’t get involved in someone’s rights who lives 50-60 miles away, and then asks if the reader even knows where Egan Slough is! (I hope she does if she represents Realtors who should be familiar with property in the Flathead.) What her letter does is to try to redirect the voter from the real issue before them on June 5. The residents of the Egan Slough area who voted to expand the zone know exactly what Resolution 1594C provides — it gives these residents the right to retain the nature of their community and keep it agricultural and not industrial. The commissioners chose to impose their own ideology on this community and rejected this resolution. The voters always have the right to correct an egregious violation by the commissioners. The upcoming vote is an exercise of that right. The voters know what is at issue here and know whether or not they want a water-bottling plant extracting the public water supply and selling it out of state for personal gain. They also understand that it is the public that will suffer from the negative effect the heavy trucking traffic will have on their own pocketbooks, as well as the local economy and its tourist dollars.

I don’t live in the Egan Slough Zone, but I understand just what they are up against and I wouldn’t want an industrial plant going up next door to me. I don’t know where Ms. Wirtala lives but I doubt she would welcome a large plant with 18-wheeler trucks coming and going all day long every day if she lives in an area where that is inappropriate. (Readers need to know that Lew Weaver was legally compelled to provide written evidence which showed his attempts to get water-bottling companies to come in and “own and operate a water bottling plant in Montana,” despite his half-hearted statements that his initial plan is to go small. It’s the long-term plan that counts! Readers should also know that a state statute limits the ballot descriptions to 100 words so initiatives and laws being voted on are never printed by the election department in their entirety.)

If Ms. Wirtala lived in an area already zoned, which Egan Slough is, and our elected officials decided to ignore the will of the public in her zoned area and allow a tire-burning plant, for example, I would support her efforts to stop it. Gee, isn’t that why there are business and industrial zones in most areas like the city of Kalispell? —David Eychner, Kalispell