Briefs–fish, homeless, fires

Boise Guardian A different slant on the news.

Environment

Briefs–fish, homeless, fires

July 28, 2005 ⋅

CATFISH
We made a run over to the Snake River at Brownlee Reservoir after reading reports of “thousands of dead catfish lining the banks.” There are indeed dead catfish, they DON’T line the banks, the water is low and hot, and there is plenty of visible pollution. Not a good situation, but not an obvious crises–minor compared to die offs of perch and trout at Cascade in the past.

COMMUNITY HOUSE
The Boise city council turned down a non-cash “equity bid” of $250,000 from Community House Inc. as down payment on the City owned homeless shelter. The council then turned around and GAVE them $206,000 to pay the bills at the privately operated facility.

This is a real thorny issue because no one seems to know WHO should pay for homeless people. Many are unable to care for themselves, some are down on their luck, some are mothers and kids, some are single men. Society knows better than putting kids with adult men and women, but it seems there is no logical answer from government.

The city has ponied up close to $800,000 in the past year and a half and it would seem logical for them to cut their losses and GIVE the building to a responsible private group with big hearts. The city wanted cash which seems odd when they pull all kinds of shenanigans of their own with fire stations, the airport and other real estate.

FOOTHILLS FIRES
There was quite an air show Tuesday with C-130 Hercules tankers, helicopters, lead spotter planes, and helicopters along with hundreds of firefighters battling two brush fires near Boise
.
“Fire Diva” Jessica Gardetto, the BLM spokeswoman, is convinced the fires were “man caused.” They could have been caused by a WOMAN, a downed power line, birds dropping cigarette butts, squirrels chewing through wires, etc. She may have said HUMAN caused, but The GUARDIAN is trying to coin the phrase, “Only lightning has been ruled out as a cause.”

We were impressed with the cool efficiency of the BLM and local firefighters who worked well together delegating duties, sharing equipment, seeking common radio frequencies etc.
Expect some shocking dollar figures soon about the cost of the two fires.

Comments & Discussion

Comments are closed for this post.

mark
Oct 31, 2005, 2:48 pm

I was fishing Brownlee reservoir in August and yes the banks were covered with rotting catfish and floating everywhere. Did they ever find out the cause and will it be the same next year in your opinion?

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