Critical of Mitchell

It appears that our new representative in Helena has focused his legislative efforts on high school sports, road kill, and helping communities over 500 miles away to keep their 50-year-old coal power plants operational. 

Not to take away from the importance of these issues; however, I would suggest that the families in Columbia Falls actually have more pressing concerns.  

 1. Affordable housing for middle class Montanans is a massive issue in this area and has reached a crisis point. 

 2. The current remediation plan for CFAC doesn’t actually call for the removal of the toxic waste next to our town and river. This may be great for out of state polluters. Not so good for Columbia Falls residents. 

 3. Right now public access to hundreds of thousands of acres of private land in Northwest Montana that have been accessed for generations of Montanans is in jeopardy without new access agreements. 

I respectfully request that Rep. Braxton Mitchell uses his next legislative update to inform us of the good work he is doing in Helena on these issues.  

And to be honest, I don’t really care about what big city our state representative flew to, who he took a selfie with, or what “brands he reps.”  

But who knows, maybe I am just out of touch and need to get with the times.   

Jason Sawyer

Columbia Falls