Tom Cleveland of the Bonner County Republican Central Committee, and author of the resolution that ended Bonner County participation in the Bonner Regional Team said of the BRT, that “It’s brought in as a charade and then one day you wake up and you’ve got the shackles and chains around you.” The only shackles and chains I see are those that have been placed on the ability of the county commissioners to make informed decisions for the benefit of the citizens of Bonner County.

The BRT is composed of “elected and appointed public officials from incorporated cities in Bonner County”. Elected officials are chosen at the ballot box by the citizens of Bonner County, and appointed officials report to those elected officials. We all live in the same county. It’s our region. What is it about sharing information concerning common problems with those chosen as their representatives by their own constituents that worries two of our commissioners? For Commissioner Steve Bradshaw sharing information with other Bonner County citizens is regionalization and that is another word for socialism. Sharing information about common problems with your neighbors in the same county is not socialism, it’s just common sense.

I agree with Commissioner Jeff Connolly, who said “What I am fearful of is people who twist the facts to scare people that are uninvolved in these things.” Maybe it’s time the voters of Bonner County ask just who’s twisting the facts and why.

RON KILGORE

Sagle