Reagan on Bush

Perhaps those on the far right who defend our current president as being above all criticism have a disagreement with President Ronald Reagan who wrote in his diary on May 17, 1986:

"A moment I've been dreading. George brought his ne'er-do-well son around this morning and asked me to find the kid a job. Not the political one who lives in Florida. The one who hangs around here all the time looking shiftless. This so-called kid is already almost 40 and has never had a real job. Maybe I'll call Kinsley over at The New Republic and see if they'll hire him as a contributing editor or something."

Now, the question becomes whether those on the far right want to disagree with their exalted deceased leader or agree with him.

Ray Peck

2412 Columbia Ave.

Better mall idea

Betty Babcock, Dave Lewis and Janet Kelly, please step back and imagine the following:

It clearly is in the best interests of the state of Montana to purchase the Capital Hill Mall site, but a terrible waste of public resources to tear down the building. Use the mall as is, but convert the purpose to a "Made in Montana" Mall to promote tourism and showcase Made in Montana products. Low cost rents could be subsidized by hotel/motel bed tax receipts.

What a grand entrance statement it could make to Montana's capital city! Constructing the showplace historical society museum complex near the historic Capitol building makes sense too.

Keep our history showplace near our historic Capitol building! Come on guys, get off your perch and start using some imagination without wasting taxpayer dollars!

Dan Elliott

990 Elizabeth

Ignorant of facts

C.T. Canterbury's alleges in his Oct. 15, 2007, letter that those who penned the Oct. 8 Your Turn article are not a new group. Mr. Canterbury's assertions lack understanding and ignore facts. MAPGrowth is less than 6-months old. As a former state employee and agriculture producer, categorizing me a "developer, contractor or real estate" person is flattering, but not well founded unless his/her label respectively applies to: building my home, operating construction equipment, and formerly owning farmland.

His indictment of me as a vocal minority having significant financial interest has merit when county regulations cannot be defended. My financial interest, along with all taxpayers, is tax dollars. Those dollars are significant in my budget and many others. Every property owners' taxes, including Mr. Canterbury's and mine, reimburse the county's coffers to pay settlements for lawsuits and damages provoked by unwarranted and impulsive decisions guised as comprehensive planning.

Obviously Mr. Canterbury's deeper pockets can afford more of the county's ill-fated decisions than the "vocal minority, " property taxpayers. His opinion appears to solely focus on supporting an anti-development agenda with preconceived bias to shift the cost of the county's past oversights on to developers, contractors and real estate people.

Larry Holman

2685 Tuohy Road

Vote for Matt

At a time when the US political scene is in dire need of fresh ideas at all levels, Matt Elsaesser is the right person to lead Helena into the future with his hands-on, results-oriented approach to sustainable and responsible use (and reuse!) of resources. His work with the SAVE Foundation has proven both his ability to create a positive environmental impact and his commitment to making Helena a better place to live. Please join me in voting for Matt to bring a young, forward-thinking perspective to the City Commission.

Kent Schlosser

322 N. Howie

Good parks needed

Kindrick-Legion Field needs to have the upgrades stated in the general obligation bond. They are only the bare minimum required for a professional minor league stadium. People from all over the country and world come to our stadium to watch ball while on vacation. The announcements made at every game say that this is a city owned stadium. People look around, see the need for paint and rotted wood ,after looking hard for a parking spot, what do you think they think of our city? The visiting players, their families, scouts, and our players go to other stadiums. Of course they compare one to the other. What do you think they say during and off season about the facility we provide them? It's not good believe me. Boy, I betcha that's good word of mouth advertising for our city.

The pool and park that need improvements are at picnic entrance to the ball park. Visitors would see all those fun possibilities we provide our children plus see what we already provide like the fancy wooden play ground, skate park, plus the children's museum and carousel, they may consider bringing their young families to Helena to live.

Cyndi Forbes

2526 Heritage Drive