As 37-year lakeshore residents, we feel compelled to respond to Dan Averill's statements regarding Jim and Lisa Stack and the Whitefish Lakeshore Protection Committee.
Who exactly does Mr. Averill think would oversee the maintenance of our scenic lakeshore if the committee did not do so? The city has no jurisdiction beyond the city limits, the county's watchdog Tri-City Planning Office is grossly overburdened, a piece of the shore is state controlled, and the railroad owns a great deal of it.
Having attended numerous meetings of the committee in the past, we have seen how lakeshore owners routinely violate lakeshore protection guidelines by planting lawns, pouring concrete and building within the 20-foot setback, installing unapproved or oversized docks, cutting trees in the setback, burning campfires on the lakeshore and doing countless other thins that threaten to impair the quality of the water and scenic lakeside vies.
The only organization tasked to provide stewardship of the lake is the Whitefish Lakeshore Protection Committee.
Mr. and Mrs. Stack and committee members work countless hours, donate materials and devote personal resources to monitoring and documenting development. They ask for nothing and get nothing for it.
Where do you get off, Mr. Averill, complaining about costs when you chose to make this a "public" marina that will line your pockets with rental income?
Your continuous delaying tactics and last-minute changes were designed to make it difficult for the committee to monitor the project. In addition, you saved millions of dollars by postponing borrowing while interest rates fell dramatically during the 15 years this has been going on.
If anything, we believe that the city and the Lakeshore Committee have been way too lenient with your past violations. Among many others, they allowed you to add the final 35 boat slips before you built the final stage of the hotel, once again increasing your revenue from the leases without holding you to your committed development plan.
"Your children's future," as you put it, depends on the attractiveness of the lakeshore that will bring the hotel visitors. Thanks to Jim and Lisa Stack and the volunteer committee members being willing to respond to your last-minute changes, you are able to build the marina.
If you really didn't want to "polarize the community," you would have kept your mouth shut, and a lot fewer people would have known about your outrageous behavior.
Contrary to your opinion, the responsible developers in the valley support the Lakeshore Committee and work with them in their development applications to the county and city rather than building first as you did, forcing the committee monitors to find the violations and recommend stop work orders, fines or after-the-fact permits to fix them.
Thanks to the reasonable members on the committee, the city has approved your "public marina." We will be interested to see if the "public" ever gets to use it.
Rick Kinonen, Sybil Kinonen, Don Harring, Jessie Harring
Whitefish