Letters May 7, 2008
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
By Planet User
Wyoming is as Wyoming does
I personally can’t kill anything. I once used up 20 minutes, a roll of duct tape, and a perfectly good shoe box emancipating a scared little mouse from my bathtub. Yet when my cat proudly brings me her mouse-kill, I am grateful as I acknowledge that I really don’t want those nasty critters in my house.
Many of my friends are hunters and I do not consider it ironic that these men and women are also some of the most animal-loving people I have ever met. They have a genuine respect for all wildlife. They would never kill an animal just for the “sport” of watching it die.
I drool over a good rib-eye steak, and I know that it wasn’t manufactured in a plastic wrapped package at Falers. I’m from Wyoming. I know where “beef” comes from. Yet I had tears in my eyes along with the rancher in Utah last week as he recounted finding nine of his cows shot to death by some vandal. Yes, he lost money, but I truly felt his tears came from seeing those tiny calves crying by their dead mommies.
No, I personally would never kill a wolf. But I applaud the Bondurant man who chased a wolf for 35 miles and then shot it; the wolf had killed two of his beloved horses. Perhaps there are no moral absolutes.
So as you sit in California and New York and pass judgment on all of us redneck, Wyoming wolf- haters, just remember: you haven’t walked the north forty in my snowshoes.
And just for the record: If you, or any man, or any beast ever attacks my husband, my children, or maybe even my dog, I will instantly change my nonviolent point of view.
I will shoot you dead. After all, I’m from Wyoming. That’s what we do.
- Brenda Wismer, Pinedale
Just say noPlease say “NO” to Teton Meadows Ranch on the basis of our Comprehensive Plan. Show the town and county that there is a purpose for the Comprehensive Plan, that it can and should be followed, and that there is reason for the community to be involved in its update.
- Heather Mathews, HobackFreeze TMRI was very pleased at Commissioner Ellis’ leadership in proposing a freeze on ALL developments over 20 acres in order to give the County time to create a True Comprehensive Plan.
I am now puzzled by the talk of a revision (aka “conditions attached”) to the Teton Meadows Ranch proposal, presumably in order to allow it to slip through (with a still huge up-zone) before the new Comprehensive Plan is enacted. I am particularly concerned because the discussions with the developer are not public. Therefore, I fear that the outcome will not be in the community’s best interest. Even reduced, the scale of this project remains huge and the up-zone illegal. I wonder if it was not a negotiating tactic on the part of the developer to ask for 500 homes with the goal of being allowed 300.
Any version of Teton Meadows Ranch that includes up-zones is deficient for the same reasons as the version before us now (density, timing with respect to the new Comprehensive Plan, road and water capacity, wildlife, environment, etc.)
I caution our County Commissioners against adding to these faults the inherent riskiness of last-minute major changes that leave no time for government, community or peer review. Any substantive changes require a new traffic analysis and water study as well as peer reviews from agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service. There must also be time for public comment and staff review. The former is only a short list of the careful consideration by the public, elected officials and government agencies that projects of this scale require.
- Kristine O’Brien, JacksonHalf-baked building<This is the text of a speech to be delivered to the county commissioners. - Eds>
I urge you to enact the proposed moratorium without any exclusionary or exemptive language. This would include all projects that are either on or under the table, including the jumbo-sized Teton Meadows Ranch monstrosity.
I attended the TMR hearing last Tuesday. I was astounded by some of the testimony and questions. It was obvious, in listening to the whining of the well-paid lawyer for TMR talk about the “big picture,” that this particular development plan came to you in good faith. That is, you were asked to approve the TMR plan on good faith alone, without having the answers to dozens of critical questions.
For instance, the developers have no signed agreement with either Rafter J or Melody Ranch to provide alternate access – and they are not likely to get one. One option is to connect directly to Highway 89, but even the developers admit that won’t happen. So they have absolutely no idea as to how this access roadblock (so to speak) would be circumvented. But they want you to approve their plan without that missing information. Perhaps they expect it to fall from the sky.
There are many other problems with the TMR proposal, of course, but I am not going to list them. What I want to do is call your attention to the fact that this half-baked plan - along with how many others? - was passed on to you too hastily by both the planning commission and its staff. How that could happen? How could the planning staff slip the TMR proposal on to the planning commission with so many unanswered questions? And how could the planning commission then recommend this board’s approval of such a flawed application?
You should not even be considering such incomplete plans as the one from Teton Meadows. You should insist on having the answers to those make-or-break questions before you even take a first look at a development proposal. Otherwise, you will waste a lot of your time, cause your constituents a lot of grief, and perhaps make decisions that will negatively impact this valley for all time to come.
If the planning staff and planning commission are going to waste your time by sending you such half-baked proposals as the one from Teton Meadows, you should enact a moratorium to slow things down and bring everyone back to their senses. If you are not prepared to do that, you may as well just turn your planning responsibilities over to Mr. Paddleford and his fellow Housing Trust board members and let them earn their 30 pieces of silver from such profiteers as the money men behind Teton Meadows.
- Fred Whissel, Rafter JPERMALINK:
Letters May 7, 2008 | Planet JH News Article: Letters To Editor
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