Avoid Kalispell Main Street on Friday nights

Be thankful you do not live anywhere near Kalispell’s Main Street, especially on Friday evenings.  

You have been spared the parade of reckless drivers and show boaters, who run laps up and down Main Street for hours, revving engines with no mufflers or modified mufflers (to make them even louder). You don’t have to be concerned for the safety of kids, pets, family, or friends that might be threatened by the drivers who veer off the Main Street drag strip and head through the adjoining neighborhoods at squealing their tires at speeds that are at times double the speed limit.  

You have been spared attending the City Council meetings where, despite the number of residents in attendance, almost all strongly against the Friday event, you are told at the outset by council members like Jed Fisher and Sid Daoud, “I will not violate the rights of our citizens (the cruisers),”  and “I will not be any part of taking this away from our people (the cruisers).”  You will have heard from these same council members that speed limits are “on the books already” and therefore “what ain’t broke don’t need fixing.”  

You have not had to ask, If the laws exist, why are there so few examples of those laws being enforced? And despite another council member hoping there would be “some sort of self-policing,”  you have been spared the eye rolling that follows that kind of ludicrous statement.  

Be thankful that you have not lost your enthusiasm for city police where the business card you’ve been handed includes the motto, “striving to exceed expectations.”  

The Police Department is situated where the officers cannot help but hear and see these juveniles.  They seem to be afraid to do their job.

Joe Biby

Kalispell