Businesses should not be above accountability

As a lifelong resident of Bonner County, I am down on the owners of Schweitzer Basin Ski Resort and county officials, and the following is the reason why.

My father, George Gregory, came to Bonner County in 1908 from Austria. I was born and raised here and have been a lifelong resident of Bonner County, except for five years in the Army, which included a year in Vietnam with the 1st Infantry Division.

It is sad that I am being treated like dirt in my request for a master water-retention plan at the resort. My parents bought property at the base of Schweitzer Mountain in the early 1960s, and I inherited a portion of it. Schweitzer Creek runs through part of the property.

Prior to the ski resort being there, it was a mountain forest. Now the forest has been denuded with ski runs, buildings, parking lots and you name it. Without a forest, there is very little natural water retention.

The results have been that when we have a spring thaw or a winter Chinook, water overflows from the creek. Initially, it took out a wooden bridge over North Boyer Road. Then, on three later occasions, it took out the culvert and again washed out the road. The last time, it even took out a good portion of the railroad embankment.

The result was that the overflow went all over the place, stripping the topsoil off my property. In fact, there is now only one building site on about 9 acres of my property north of the creek. The rest is in a flood zone.

Just think what you would say if it were your property and this happened.

In checking, I found out from Bonner County Planning and Zoning that the initial development of the Basin did not have water-retention plans and, to this day, there is not a master water-retention plan.

I wrote to the owners, Alterra Mountain Co. of Denver, Colorado, three times. I did not receive the courtesy of a reply. Finally, I got a nasty letter from Lake City Law saying that I was miles away and they don't have any responsibility. But common sense denies that, as the creek jumped a 4-foot bank and ran all over the place.

I contacted the manager of the resort about it, and he said they were working on it. In follow-up conversations, I got the same reply. Now, nothing.

I have written again recently. I have contacted Bonner County Planning and Zoning and the county commissioners, but sadly they don't do anything about it. It seems they don't have the nerve to take on Schweitzer Basin.

It is money and big corporations that rule over the little people like you and me. I could sue, but they have a battery of lawyers and it would cost me thousands of dollars, and they know it.

So, my only recourse is Bonner County Planning and Zoning and the county commissioners, and I am not getting help from them.

I have just been thrown to the wolves. No one seems to care.

ROGER GREGORY 

Priest River