Part-timers

Regarding the Whitefish Pilot article "Growth is inevitable, but major change is not."

Certainly there are and will continue to be growth problems. However, the statement "part-time residents, some of whom build large homes here, but reside in them as little as two weeks per year, are a potential threat to the community because they don't contribute to the local economy nor support local schools and other community projects" demonstrates a lack of knowledge on the part of the writer and the meeting attendees, and promotes the alienation of a generous affluent group of people who love the beauty of this area and want to spend part of their lives here.

The building of whatever-size homes these people build supports the local construction industry and the economy. The very high property taxes these people pay helps support our schools and all other public services that these taxes support.

These same people do not place a large demand on schools or other services because their principal homes may be elsewhere, and if they have children, they are going to school in those other locations, so for their tax dollars, they are giving more than they are receiving, and our local permanent residents are the beneficiaries.

As for support of "other community projects," I suggest the "participants" in the "area-wide visioning session" and the city planning director open their eyes and minds. They should check into the donor lists and amounts of money donated by our "part-time residents" to such projects as the O'Shaughnessy Center, the library, the soccer and Little League fields, The Wave, The Stumptown Ice Den, the Central School auditorium project, the Whitefish Community Foundation and the North Valley Hospital.

They will find that a very significant portion of the moneys raised comes from the so-called "part-time resident." Most of the part-timers spend a lot more than two weeks here, and they participate in community activities as well as spend a considerable amount of their money here and donate serious amounts to community projects.

Open your eyes and hearts to these people of good will, for they love Whitefish and want it to grow in a healthy direction as much as the local interested people do.

Herbert Kameon

Whitefish