Smart times ahead for Sandpoint

Now, don't go thinking I'm gonna get political on this day after election day. The chips fell. Some folks got elected. Some didn't. I'm here to tell you, however, that there are good times ahead for our community.

I know this because of something I read in the Daily Bee yesterday, and it certainly wasn't the Sandpoint election results. After all, those pour clerical souls were still counting votes until well into the night before they could ever go home and start counting sheep.

So, the local blat had to settle for a headline story about Dover and Randy Curless' re-instatement as mayor. My husband Bill is a little bit upset about that story, though, cuz somewhere along his educational journey, Bill learned to add up numbers.

When he pointed out to me last night that all the numbers in the story about Randy's re-election did not add up, I told him that was one of the basic rules of journalism. Add all numbers mentioned in your story and do your ciphering, along with your double checking.

This is especially true when the reporter knows a person's age and, for some reason, all the interviewee's claimed achievements would take most folks two or three lifetimes to accomplish. When something doesn't ring true, you do some adding and checking to make sure this person really has accomplished Superhuman feats in their 30-something lifetime.

In the Dover case, it was the individual tally that exceeded the votes cast. I don't know who the clerk of Dover elections was, but there may need to be some 'splaining, or maybe the newspaper reporter made a mistake. Anyway, it's still bothering Bill this morning. Not that he doesn't like Randy. We all love Randy, but Bill, who dabbles in details, likes his numbers to add up.

Now that I've got the Dover debacle taken care of, I'll tell you why we've got smart times ahead in Sandpoint, according to the Daily Bee. Actually, I heard this a month or so ago from the horse's son's mouth. That would be Scott Thompson. His dad Pete Thompson's land on HWY 95, north of the Schweitzer stoplight, will soon be the new setting for Slate's Restaurant AND a Holiday Inn Express.

Once that hotel gets built we can solve all the problems that have been dogging us for years. That new Sandpoint mayor and city council and all those commissioners and, of course, the political power brokers in Ponderay, Kootenai and Dover (Mayor Randy, included) can just go stay some nights at the Holiday Inn Express-----and BINGO, they'll solve all local problems overnight.

I know this cuz I watch those Holiday Inn Express ads, and I've been impressed with how brilliant all those folks have begun after a night in those motel beds. Think of what could happen if the Sandpoint politicians and the Idaho Department of Transportation and NICAN held just one joint summit at that new motel.

Shazaam! All byway problems and conflicts would miraculously waft their way through that hotel's ventilating system, just slip on over the hillside into the "Jewel of Sandpoint," and wash on out into Lake Pend Oreille with no milfoil to bog them down. Of course, this summit would have to happen in the late spring cuz has anyone driven past the Jewel of Sandpoint lately? I don't think much swimming, floating or washing could occur right now, 'specially north of town.

Magic happens at Holiday Inn Expresses, and I'm anxious to see our own franchise here in the greater Sandpoint area, i.e. Ponderay. Once the facility opens, we can all finally rest easy, knowing that those beds can solve all our problems and we can look toward a future of bliss. Then, we can go over to Slate's, have a beer, look up at Schweitzer and celebrate the notion that we'll live in bliss forevermore.

But first, for my husband's sake, we've got to get that Dover election straightened out.