"Don't leave me," I cry. "Don't take that airplane ride.
Silver wings shining in the sunlight.
Silver wings shining in the sunlight.
Silver wings slowly fading out of sight.
I'm so glad we don't live there anymore. It's been more than three years since we hauled the last of our belongings from our home of 30 years on Great Northern Road.
We owned nearly ten acres, just west of the county airport and east of the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe switch tracks. Forty trains a day passed by, and, with the years, more and more big, noisy jets took off several times daily. Having a conversation while sitting in the back yard was nearly impossible at times because of all the noise.
Still, we didn't complain. We had become accustomed to it, just as we were becoming accustomed to all the "progress" occurring around the airport. Some of that progress eventually provided our ticket out of there.
We'll never regret the wonderful relationship we had with Quest Aircraft Co. over the years as that empty piece of bog land to the east of us slowly turned into a thriving airplane manufacturing facility, employing hundreds of workers.
The Quest folks went out of their way to become good neighbors, and they eventually provided the ultimate show of neighborliness when they purchased our farm in 2006, allowing us to return to a more pastoral lifestyle here in the beautiful Selle Valley.
After our move, Great Northern Road finally got a new coat of asphalt. Things were improving over there, but we didn't miss it one bit.
And when the humongous piles of dirt started showing up in the land south of our place, we missed it even less. We knew we got out of there in time to avoid living in the midst literal upheaval of the earth around us.
Those dirt piles were destined, however, to become something beautiful----a high-end residential airpark. Millions of dollars would come flowing in as wealthy airplane buffs would purchase the 45 lots and live the good life where all it took was a walk downstairs to fire up the lear jet, taxi to the runway and head off to Paris or Dallas or wherever.
SilverWing, it was called. Well, things kinda went bust, just in case ya didn't know. They kinda went bust in a lot of places here in Idaho where the filthy rich were gonna come and live in their own private shangrilas.
I had some friends here visiting a few weeks ago who told me how eery it is to drive around the Tamarack development down there in Southern Idaho where all those trophy homes sit vacant.
Well, there aren't a bunch of trophy homes at SilverWing, but there's a lot of that dirt, a 6,100 square foot model home, some streets and underground utilities. And, according to this morning's Daily Bee, that's as far as it's gonna go. Cuz now, the County may get to buy SilverWing from the developers.
It's a complicated situation, which involves the FAA which has been watching those residential units going up around Sandpoint Airport and thinking they're just not a good idea. I wonder where the Feds were when that housing development went in on the Northwest side of the airport off Boyer Road.
Well, when SilverWing came in and got started, the FAA balked at giving the county the usual grants. So, the county can't get grants. SilverWing folks seem to want to get out from under their huge investment, and so the FAA hinted that the county ought to buy those 18 acres with the model mega-mansion and the paved streets.
So, it seems that Merle Haggard's lyrics above appear pretty timely right now. And, it seems the county has a lot of head scratching to do.
I remember a few years ago when some of this unbelievable and seemingly unrestricted development started happening and suggesting that the reason it occurred had a lot to do with revolving door decision-makers---folks who were in office for a couple of years, made some decisions and then either got voted out or made their own decision to get outa here.
And, when you're outa here, it's sort of an "out of sight, out of mind" situation, left for the next poor political sap to figure out. I sure wouldn't want to be the county decisionmakers right now in any of those places around Idaho where big money came in, got started, ran out of money and then got the hell out of Dodge.
Yup, our Bonner County officials have a big job ahead, trying to clean up the bureaucratic mess and all those dirt piles.
Situations such as these make me think that the strategy of "voting the bums out of office" might be backfiring on the voters. Maybe it's better to work harder to keep them IN office so they've got some history of a situation, where they actually take ownership and responsibility for their decisions and where they're stuck dealing with the consequences if it all goes foul.
If that were the scenario, maybe decision-making will eventually be done with a little more care and knowledge of the situations.
In the meantime, we'll just be watching those silver wings fade out of sight and wondering when the next big money bonanza is gonna hit town. And, Bill and I will continue to thank God that we live in the pretty and peaceful Selle Valley.
1 comment:
...and I thought the poetry was original from you .... until I read the line about Merle.... :)
Helen
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