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THE WEEK AHEAD – AUG. 30-SEPT. 5 THURSDAY: Mostly sunny FRIDAY: Sunny SATURDAY: Sunny SUNDAY: Sunny MONDAY: Sunny TUESDAY: Partly cloudy WEDNESDAY: Sunny

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Well cast

Rodeo time

Steve Love creates unique art at foundry

Nice job, whoever ordered this.

41st annual event set for Saturday and Sunday

ARTS Page A7

See SUPPLEMENT

Methow Valley News

PUBLISHED WEEKLY SINCE 1903

TWISP, WASHINGTON

By Ann McCreary

still celebrating

By Don Nelson “Enthusiastic Crowd Hears Talks, Plans for North-Cross State Hiway” –March 20, 1958, Methow Valley News

“It must have seemed at times that the highway would never be completed, and the call for facts about the making of the highway never forthcoming. They must have despaired as time slipped past and the progress of the highway slowed or stopped altogether because of events which seemed to have little bearing on the area through which the highway was being built.”

–Washington Highways, September 1972 The history of the highway – which has been variously known as the Skagit River Road, the Methow-Barron Road, the Roosevelt Highway, the North Cross State Highway and the North Cascades Highway – has been well documented, particularly by JoAnn Roe in her authoritative book, North Cascades Highway, Washington’s Popular and Scenic Pass (The Mountaineers, 1997), and in state Department of Transportation archives (http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Traffic/ Passes/NorthCascades/default. htm).

What these works reveal, and which may be lesser known to folks who simply enjoy driving the highway, is that its route was long-debated and not settled until the last few years

Photo courtesy of WSDOT

Above: The barely graded route for the hairpin turn below Washington Pass as it appeared in the 1960s. Below: How it looks today. of its construction.

Trappers, miners and explorers – and for centuries before them, Native Americans – found their own trails through the North Cascades. The idea of a road began to take shape in the late 1800s.

The original proposed highway route, one that persisted for decades, would have taken the road from the Skagit River valley to the Marblemount area and then over Cascade Pass, and then eventually down the Twisp River.

“When the 1933 survey was ordered, it was significant for two major reasons. This was the first time anyone had recognized that the Washington Pass route might be feasible. Further, with [state highway engineer Ivan ‘Ike’] Munson’s first exposure to the North Cascades region, he

An application for a senior housing development on open land next to Methow Valley Family Practice in Twisp was scheduled for consideration by the Twisp Town Council Tuesday (Aug. 28) after being approved by the town Planning Commission last week.

The planned development application submitted by Joe and Beverly Jensen proposes to build 17 small individual residences or cottages next to the medical clinic on Second Avenue.

The senior housing is one of the largest developments proposed in Twisp in several years. New construction in the town has been stymied by a combination of concern over availability of municipal water and the poor economy.

The “Eldercare Residential Planned Development” proposes one- and two-bed-

As usual, the Methow Valley contributed the largest share of new construction in the county during the past year, bringing in one-third of the total value, or $13.2 million.

While the value of building in the Methow Valley School District created the biggest dollar amount of all school districts in the county, it accounted for just over one-fifth of the total number of parcels with new construction, according to Jim White, chief appraiser for Okanogan County.

Each year, county appraisers physically inspect and assess all new construction, which adds to the total property-tax revenue collected by the county. For the 12 months ending in July, the county picked up $41.3 million in assessed value from all new buildings and additions – 10 percent more than last year.

File photo by John Hanron

became a leading proponent of the highway and attracted other influential people who would eventually throw their support behind the project. … Thus the eventual route that the highway would take was discovered, although it would be years before the decision to use that route would be made.”

–The Confluence, the Quarterly Publication of the North Central Washington Museum: First and Last Frontier, A History of the North Cascade Highway, by Mitch S. Reister, summer 1994 It wasn’t until after World War II that work on the highway resumed in earnest, pushed by advocates on both sides of the mountains. George Zahn was a Methow Valley orchardist who was a relentless supporter of the highway and is credited for much of the momentum that got it built.

A 1947 state study of Harts

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Pass, Cascade Pass and Rainy Pass determined that, for cost and construction reasons, the Rainy Pass route was the best.

It required no switchbacks (Cascade Pass would need 25), had the fewest snow slides and was the middle of three in projected expense, according to the Reister article cited above.

In 1945, “the surveys were dutifully made and the conclusions of the trip indicated again that the Rainy Pass route was the most desirable of the three routes considered. It was to be 12 years before the final assault to complete the highway was launched, but in the meantime events were to take place which determined that the highway would indeed be completed at long last.”

–“Building the North Cascades Highway,” Washington Highways, September 1972

See HWY 20 on Page A3

MVN, pg 1

room residences varying in size from 672 to 960 square feet, to be built on 1,000-squarefoot lots. The homes would be grouped, with large garden areas, and 60 percent of the development would be in common open space, said John Hayes of Technical Assistance Group, who is working with the Jensens on the project.

“The operative word is independent living,” Hayes told planning commissioners last Wednesday (Aug. 22) in describing the project. “For the most part the residents are active seniors … this is not assisted care, which intimates medical care.”

The property would be maintained by an owners association, and the small lot sizes and residences are designed to meet the needs of people who are ready to “downsize,” Hayes said. “The target group is 55 to 60 years old,” he said.

See HOUSING on Page A2

Methow leads county in new construction

By Marcy Stamper

“The board found the route up the Twitsp (sic) River, over Twitsp Pass, down Bridge Creek, up the Stehekin River, over Cascade (or Skagit) Pass and down the Cascade River the shortest and most feasible and practicable.”

–Final Report of the Board of State Road Commissioners, 1896 Imagine Highway 20 today if it dropped directly from the mountains into Twisp, bypassing the upper valley and leaving Mazama and Lost River truly at the end of the road. The valley’s history and development would likely have been quite different.

But eventually the Cascade Pass traverse was deemed too difficult, as was a potential Harts Pass route, and once the Rainy Pass route was established the only question left was how to get from there to the valley floor.

Some work actually started in the late 1890s after the Board of State Road Commissioners recommended funding to start the Cascade Pass route. But after some initial road-building – in some cases, trail-gouging – the money ran out, parts of the road washed out and momentum petered out. State surveys of possible routes followed in 1921 and 1933.

AUGUST 29, 2012

Twisp planners OK senior housing project

Highway 20 at 40:

Enthusiastic, indeed, and boosterish and optimistic. And a little uncertain.

The Methow Valley News reported that “the largest crowd ever to gather in response to a call for directors and boosters of the North Cross State Highway” had met in Bellingham for what amounted to a progress report on the status of a northern route across the Cascades that had, by then, been under discussion since the 1800s.

It would be another 14 years before what is now called the North Cascades Highway would officially open – on Sept. 2, 1972 – and change the Methow Valley forever.

Until the day that then-Gov. Daniel J. Evans did the honors, the engineering marvel we now take for granted had been kept on hold for decades by politics, geology, geography and variable funding. But in the end it seemed inevitable.

So opined Ernest Cowle of Walla Walla, chairman of the state highway commission, at that 1958 Bellingham meeting, who according to the News account “states flatly: ‘The highway would be built at some future date.’”

State Highway Director Bugge – whose first name the article did not divulge, perhaps under the assumption that everybody already knew who he was – said the final route had been “pinned down” to Rainy Pass, and that a study would soon commence to determine its route from there to Mazama.

VOL. 110 NO. 16

75¢

Viewed by school district, the Methow Valley came in first (as it has every year except 2008, when a development on Lake Osoyoos and the Buckhorn Gold Mine near Oroville both saw considerable building activity); followed by Oroville, with 15 percent of the total, Omak with 13 percent, Tonasket with 13 percent, and Okanogan with 11 percent.

There were 626 parcels with new construction throughout the county, 139 of them in the Methow. Construction within the city limits of Twisp was valued at almost $555,000 and in Winthrop at $729,000. The rest of the $13.2 million comes from unincorporated areas.

Until this year, new construction had declined annually from its $88.6 million peak in 2008 (for building that occurred in 2007), according to data from the assessor’s office.

After bottoming out at $37.4 million last year (the lowest See CONSTRUCTION, A2

Heli-skiing company cited for cutting trees in National Forest

By Marcy Stamper The U.S. Forest Service has issued a notice of non-compliance to a Mazama heli-skiing company for cutting two dozen trees on a high ridge to create an unauthorized helicopter landing zone.

The Forest Service received a call from a backcountry skier at the end of February describing the cutting of at least 21 trees on a ridge between Varden and Silverstar creeks, east of the Cascade crest, according to the notice of non-compliance, which was issued by the Forest Service to North Cascade HeliSkiing on March 30.

A notice of non-compliance is essentially a warning, advising the permittee that if the action occurs again, the permit could be canceled or restricted, according to Jennifer Zbyszewski, recreation program manager for the Methow

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Valley Ranger District.

Notices of non-compliance are “infrequent, but not uncommon,” issued for any action that violates the terms and conditions of a permit, regardless of the severity, she said.

“This is a serious noncompliance issue for North Cascade Heli to cut that landing in – it is different than a packer taking an oversized party,” said Zbyszewski. “It’s not like those trees are going to grow back next year.”

Zbyszewski said she had had a very frank discussion with North Cascade Heli-Skiing co-owners Paul Butler and Ken Brooks after the incident, and that they understand that it was not acceptable to cut the trees and create a new landing site.

Butler would not comment on the situation except to say, “We are working with the Forest Service to better understand

See HELI-SKI on Page A3

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Methow Valley News

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

HELI-SKI

what we are allowed to do to ensure our guests’ safety.”

Laurie Dowie, special uses administrator for minerals and wilderness for the Methow Valley Ranger District, hiked to the site on Friday (Aug. 24) to evaluate the damage and found that 21 live trees – 15 whitebark pine, five subalpine larch, and one subalpine fir – and three snags had been cut.

The trees, 2 to 11 inches in diameter, were sawed off 4 to 6 feet above the ground and some (particularly the smaller ones) still have branches that could regenerate, said Dowie. Given the slow rate of growth at that elevation (about 6,800 feet), she concluded that the larger trees are “pretty old.”

Documents about the incident obtained from the Forest Service by a member of the public through the Freedom of Information Act and provided to the Methow Valley News include correspondence between Dowie and Butler. In an email to Dowie on April 11, Butler wrote, “The top landing located there has historically been very tight for the helicopter. This season, with a pilot who hadn’t flown with us before, we decided to limb some trees and branches to make the existing landing safer. ... The trimming occurred on two separate days between 2/18 – 2/20 ... The cutting was done by owners Ken Brooks and Paul Butler, along with the pilot, Scott Murray.”

The Forest Service is working with North Cascade Heli to be more specific about what is permissible in terms of trimming vegetation, said Zbyszewski. The company is permitted to trim trees or branches to keep the landing sites safe, but they are not authorized to create a new landing or to enlarge an existing one, she said. The new landing is about one-quarter mile from the old one, along the same ridge, said Dowie.

“We were clearly mistaken in doing this, and should have sought permission, or better yet, perhaps given up on the run altogether,” wrote Butler in the email. “I hope this unauthorized removal of vegetation, in deference to safety, is seen as

HWY 20

By 1968, construction crews had completed a crude, primitive road along the route, passable so that supporters could drive to Rainy Pass from each side. The roads met on Sept. 29.

As the September 1972 opening date approached, construction crews were solv-

Page A3 From Page A1

Photo courtesy of U.S. Forest Service

These subalpine larch were among the 21 trees cut to create an unauthorized helicopter landing spot. an aberration, and that North Cascade Heli is trusted as a good steward of this public land.”

Zbyszewski said the helicopter pilot had previously worked in areas where different rules apply and she understood he was trying to find a safer spot.

“I felt confident [after meeting with the owners] that the pilot who did the cutting wasn’t doing a willful noncompliance act,” she said. She said she stressed to Butler and Brooks that they must clearly communicate to employees what is and is not permissible.

Calculating compensation

The value of the damage will be assessed based on the size and species of trees, and North Cascade Heli will be required to compensate the Forest Service for the loss, said Zbyszewski. It is not clear how the value will be calculated – it could be based on the cost of replanting or re-seeding the area, including staff time, said Zbyszewski. Because these species are not usually used for timber, assigning a value is not straightforward, she said.

Dowie said it is difficult to imagine digging a hole on the ridge to plant a tree and that most trees seemed to have taken hold by seeding. “It’s really rocky ground – just a rock point,” she said. The agency will consult with staff botanists and other specialists to determine the amount of restitution. The meeting has not been set but could occur within the week, said Dowie.

The Forest Service first learned about the damage from

several backcountry skiers, who documented and photographed the cut trees in deep snow last winter. The skiers also posted accounts and photos of the damage on an online discussion site frequented by backcountry skiers. Some of their exchanges mentioned concerns about avalanche risks if skiers cannot coordinate their ski runs with others in the area.

The backcountry skiers typically get to their ski runs by traveling on the North Cascades Highway by snowmobile and then using climbing skins on their skis to ascend to the runs.

A 30-year history

North Cascade Heli has a permit and an operating plan with the Forest Service that identify all authorized landing sites and ski routes, indicated by dots and lines drawn on a map.

Forest Service administrators are in the process of assigning more precise GPS coordinates to the landing sites, said Dowie.

There are close to 150 drop-off and pick-up sites, according to the map.

The permit specifies that “any new ski runs, drop points, or pick-up points must be approved in the annual operation plan after review by the District wildlife biologist and recreation specialist to assess potential impacts to grizzly bear denning habitat, northern spotted owls, wolverines, and other winter recreationists.”

While the permit area encompasses almost 300,000 acres, the company is limited in terms of where it can land and ski, said Zbyszewski. Their operating

plan allows 1,050 skier days between Dec. 1 and April 30, use of a wilderness yurt and hut, and filming of skiers. It also specifies fueling sites and the location of remote fuel caches, among other details.

The company is allowed a maximum of 25 skiers per day, including guides (typically four skiers per guide). The plan notes that North Cascades Heli will make efforts to avoid conflicts with other users, to the extent possible, while maintaining safe skiing conditions.

The first special-use permit for helicopter-assisted skiing in the Methow Valley Ranger District was issued in 1982, although a succession of businesses has operated under the permits. North Cascade Heli took over the business in 1988 and has been under permit every year since then, according to an environmental analysis done by the Forest Service in 2002. Butler and Brooks bought the company in 2005.

While the permit had been in existence for years, the Forest Service had not conducted a proper environmental analysis, so they used the 2001 permitrenewal process to study the impacts of several alternatives and to invite public comment, said Zbyszewski. The review also led to inclusion of more specific terms in the permit, such as the number of user days and helicopters.

Zbyszewski said the review was “contentious” and the permit was appealed by backcountry skiers and environmental organizations in 2001 and 2002.

The environmental groups also challenged the agency’s review in a lawsuit in 2004, but the Forest Service’s analysis and decisions were upheld in court, said Zbyszewski.

Under the terms of their permit, North Cascade Heli pays the Forest Service 3 percent of its annual gross receipts, which ranged from $10,500 to $14,000 over the past several years, said Dowie.

The operating plan is up for renewal this year and the Forest Service is currently reviewing a draft submitted by the company. The permit expires in 2016.

From Page A1

ing problems and finishing off portions of the highway right up to the last minute.

Locals were surprised and angry that the pass was closed in the winter of 1972, apparently having expected that it would be kept open year-round, according to articles in the Methow

Valley News.

That only happened once, in 1976-77. Otherwise, the pass has been closed at least several months every year because of heavy snowfall. It has opened as late as May 25 (in 2011), and as early as March 10 (2005); and has closed as early as Oct. 17

(2003) and as late as Jan. 9 (1989).

In 1984, the route was designated as a National Scenic Highway, or Byway as it is now called – yet one more name for a highway that has gone by many.

For more on Highway 20, see Page B2

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Naked Eye

The winged horse

Fall evenings are a great time to spend out under the stars at night. The weather is still warm and you do not have to stay up late waiting for it to get dark. One of the largest constellations in the fall sky is Pegasus, the winged horse.

Look for him high in the east below the three bright stars of the summer triangle.

Four stars in a large square define the main body of the horse. Coming off the western side of the square, two curving streams of stars outline his front legs. The whole constellation takes up a lot of sky.

Pegasus is one of the most famous of all mythological characters. He was born when the ancient Greek hero Perseus cut off the head of Medusa, one of the dreaded Gotham sisters. You might remember Medusa. She was that babe with snakes in her hair, a hairdresser’s nightmare, and a gaze so icy she could turn you to stone just by looking at you. The blood from her decapitated head dripped into the sea foam and out sprung Pegasus the winged horse.

Perseus went on to rescue the beautiful Andromeda, who was being sacrificed by her evil mother queen Cassiopeia to the sea monster Cetus. Perseus held David Ward up Medusa’s head, which still possessed its icy powers, for Cetus to see and the monster turned to stone and sank to the bottom of the sea. All of the characters of this old story can be found in the fall night sky. Andromeda trails off the northeast corner of Pegasus, and Cassiopeia and Perseus are to the north of the horse.

Pegasus was famous for many exploits. With a single stroke of his hoof he caused the spring named Hippocrene to flow out of Mt. Hellicon. The muses drank from this spring to receive inspiration.

The handsome Greek youth Bellerophon was the only one who could ride Pegasus, a feat accomplished using a bridle of pure gold given him by the goddess Athena. Together the pair killed the awful Chimaera, a beast part-lion, part-goat and part-serpent. Also, they defeated the Amazons, the fierce female warriors who lived east of Greece.

In his old age Bellerophon became proud and boastful, two traits detested by the gods. He decided to ride Pegasus to Mt. Olympus itself, the home of the gods. An enraged Zeus, seeing the pair winging their way toward his domain, sent a gadfly to sting the horse, who bucked off his rider.

Pegasus made off to Mt. Olympus, where he carried the famous thunderbolts of Zeus. Because of his many heroic deeds he was given a place of honor in the night sly. Bellerophon, however, was doomed to wander the Earth lame and blind for the rest of his days. He never got that final resting place in the sky and has faded into obscurity.

If you find yourself out under the night sky, be sure to check out the Milky Way stretching all the way across the heavens from north to south. That is our home galaxy in the cosmos, which we share with 200 or 300 billion stars, countless planets, comets, asteroids, zillions of tons of hydrogen gas plus a whole lot of dark matter – a complete mystery to astronomers. The brightest planets are visible early in the morning. Look for Venus, the brightest thing up there in the east before sunrise. Jupiter is to the west of Venus. You cannot miss them if you look up just before sunrise.

The moon passes just below Jupiter on the morning of Sept. 8 and it is near Venus on Sept. 12. The autumnal equinox when day and night are of equal length happens on Sept. 22.

One more thing about Pegasus I should mention. In the sky only the front part of the horse is depicted. What happened to the rear of the horse? Modern mythologists have suggested that it fell to Earth, where it founded the race of current politicians, an idea that is particularly appealing at this time!

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Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Highway 20 at 40: It was 40 years ago today ...

Interviews by Patrick McGann We asked a sampling of Methow Valley residents to reflect on the building and significance of the North Cascades Highway. Here’s what they had to say.

“I didn’t work on it or go to the celebration. I was working on a proposed campground and trailhead at Canyon Creek, though. Before the highway, the road was a county road in the upper valley that didn’t even have a center line. I remember there was an old barn just above where the Ashfords live, about where there is a line of black walnut trees. It had unique construction and they wanted to save it, so the route of the highway had to be moved right in there. Well right after they finished the highway, the barn fell down.”

Jim Hammer, retired Forest Service and rancher, Twisp

“I had to choose between being a smoke jumper and working on the highway. I figured smoke jumping wasn’t regular and working on the road was, plus it was good pay. So I spent a summer sharpening drill bits for the powder boys.”

Mike Maltais, sportswriter, Twisp

“I was working in production and distribution for the Methow Valley News – we had to hand-fold the paper – and went up there to Rainy Pass in a four-wheel drive with the editor, Denny Lintz, for the ground breaking. It was a rough road. Tom Foley – Denny called him Tom Foolery – was

up there campaigning for his first term in office.”

Dawna Laughlin-Fowler, grant writer, Whidbey Island

“The opening of the highway was really something. Cars were lined up for miles. You could see the difference in traffic immediately.”

Rick Northcott, contractor, Winthrop

“We were pretty young at the time, but we all knew it was going to be a boon for business and a really good thing for the people who wanted to enjoy this part of the Cascades. When the mill and timber went, what we have left is tourism and that highway.”

Clay King, business owner, Twisp

“I got to ride up there in a cement mixer with my dad who had the concrete plant in Twisp. We had to buy land up in Mazama and build a batch plant because it took so long to get up there, the concrete would set in the truck if we didn’t. I remember Jack Abrams was a county commissioner and very important in getting that road through.

One time Dad and I sneaked around the barrier in his ’63 Chevy to go up there fishing and broke a tie rod. I remember really being impressed that he could put it back together with just two open end wrenches and some baling wire. He drove it out of there.”

Logging. We cleared what was basically a goat trail of brush, trees and rock. It took us 45 minutes to get to work every morning.

I was in the last truck out one day and we passed a white Corvette convertible on its way up. We told them the road was closed and the driver held up a map and said it was not closed. Well, we locked the gate behind them and they were there waiting for us in the morning. Some of the older people weren’t very happy about the highway, but you can’t stop progress. My folks said, ‘We’ve opened Pandora’s Box.’ And I guess we did.”

Ted Hallowell, retired roofer, Twisp

“I owned a business in Winthrop before the highway was opened. And let me tell you, it [the highway] was a big, big thing in the long term. It was hard to tell an immediate effect because Boeing had just hit a rough time in 1969 and the state was just starting to recover by ‘71, but there is no doubt that the highway introduced the Methow to many, many more people.”

Herb Rosenberg, retired real estate broker, Twisp

“We bought the property in 1962 [from Jack Wilson]. When we bought it we didn’t know the road was going through. I can’t remember if the road [then] was still gravel.

We really enjoyed it at that time. The kids could play out in the road. I had a dirt bike and I used to drive up there during construction to check things out. Then we were 50 feet off the road, now we’re 500 feet and it makes a difference. We have no problem with it [the highway], but we do sometimes talk about the old days. The valley is still a great place to live.”

Darrell Ford, Mazama, who with his wife, Marlene, operated the Chokecherry Inn on Highway 20 for many years.

Clint Estes, auto mechanic, Twisp

“I worked four-and-a-half years on that road. I worked on the first phase for Lloyd

A long time coming: A North Cascades Highway timeline Native Americans used the North Cascades Highway corridor as a trading route from the Eastern Plateau country to the Pacific Coast for more than 8,000 years. Beginning in the mid-1800s, white settlers arrived in search of gold, fur-bearing animals, and the possibility of finding a new home. The agitation for a northern route across the Cascades began soon thereafter.

• 1896 – The State Road Commission, after surveying pos-

sible routes in the upper Skagit, concluded that the Skagit gorge was not practical. They settled on the Cascade Pass route. In 1897 a road up the Cascade River was roughed out as far as Gilbert Landre’s cabin. Although the wagon road never went any farther, it was shown on maps as State Highway No. 1 or the Cascade Wagon Road.

• 1897 – Floods took out most of the newly completed work along the Cascade River.

• 1905 – Joseph M. Snow,

the first state highway commissioner, reported that almost all the money appropriated to that time for a road had been wasted.

• 1905 – State designated a highway to be built along the Methow River from Pateros to Harts Pass.

• 1909 – The road was completed to Harts Pass.

• 1940 – Highway promoters broke the stalemate about routes across the North Cascades that had persisted since the days of Alexander Ross (1814). L.D. Holloway persuaded other boosters to go along with the U.S. Forest Service and State Highway Department in scrapping forever the Cascade Pass highway idea and agreeing on a route across Rainy and Washington passes.

• 1953 – The North Cascades Highway Association was formed. Boosters made plans for promotional and political campaigns. During the 1950s, requests were made for huge timber sales along the highway corridor. These proposals were used to support the need for a

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highway.

• 1958-1959 – The state appropriated funds to build a highway from Diablo to Thunder Arm and to improve access roads on both sides of the mountains.

Construction began in 1959.

• January1966 – The North Cascades Study Team report was released. Its proposals included new wilderness areas and a North Cascades National Park. The Study Team envisioned the new road as a scenic highway, not an access for logging, mining or development.

• September 1968 – A rough pioneer road was completed.

On Sept. 29, hundreds of fourwheel drive vehicles formed a caravan to make the first crossing and celebrate at the summit of Rainy Pass.

• October1968 – President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the North Cascades National Park bill.

• Sept. 2, 1972 – North Cascades Highway officially opened.

Source: Washington State Department of Transportation.

MVN, pg 2

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Methow Valley News

Supreme Court asked to hear powerline case

By Marcy Stamper Citing the need to preserve his discretion to determine the best current and long-term use for state land managed to benefit schools, the Commissioner of Public Lands has asked the Washington State Supreme Court to hear his challenge to the PUD’s efforts to condemn the land for its powerline.

In the motion to transfer the case directly to the Supreme Court, the attorneys representing the commissioner said the question of whether school trust lands can be condemned is too important to be left to entities such as a public utility district.

If municipalities are permitted to “chip away” at the school trusts, that could undermine the state’s ability to ensure their long-term productive use and benefit to the trust beneficiaries, they argue.

The state is appealing a May 2010 ruling in Okanogan County Superior Court that the Okanogan County Public Utility District is entitled to condemn more than 12 miles of state land for the Pateros-Twisp transmission line, despite the fact that the land is leased for grazing.

The attorneys appointed to represent Commissioner Peter Goldmark, the Pacifica Law Group, are petitioning the Supreme Court because they anticipate the case will ultimately come before that

court, said Pacifica attorney Paul Lawrence.

When a case involves a state agency or constitutional issue, it is often heard by the high court, said Lawrence.

The state land in question has five active grazing leases and two grazing-permit range areas. DNR earns approximately $3,500 a year from the leases for the school trust fund, according to testimony presented in Superior Court.

In addition to the 100-foot easement along 12.2 miles of DNR’s land, the powerline would necessitate the construction of 22 miles of new roads, many on state trust land, according to the motion.

The Supreme Court justices issued a decision on a related matter in September 2011, when they ordered Attorney General Rob McKenna, who had declined to represent Goldmark in his appeal of the condemnation ruling, to appoint a special assistant attorney general to handle the case.

The motion was filed on Aug. 22. The Supreme Court will probably decide at the end of September whether to hear the case, and it would be scheduled for oral arguments late this year or early next year, said Lawrence. All briefings were submitted to the Court of Appeals by the end of June, and Lawrence said he expected a similar schedule if the case is first heard at the appellate level.

Credit card snafu hits Twisp River Pub

By Ann McCreary

People who dined recently at the Twisp River Pub and paid by credit or debit card may have noticed something odd if they checked their account online.

The payments were identified as going to a hair salon called “Mayra’s Hair City” in Prescott Valley, Ariz.

Pub owner Aaron Studen said Tuesday (Aug. 28) that the mix-up occurred last week after he changed credit card processing companies.

“It was a clerical error.

A number on the (company) identification number got transposed,” Studen said. “It’s actually kind of a stressful situation… I’ve since done about $30,000 in credit card sales and have no idea where it is.”

Studen said representatives of the credit card processing company assured him Tuesday they were working to correct the problem and get the funds in the right account. The incorrect charges apparently began around Aug. 23. The problem was brought to Studen’s attention Monday by a customer who ate at the Pub and paid with a card Aug. 24.

The mix-up probably affected several hundred customers, Studen said. So where is the money now?

“I’m asking that question too,” Studen said. “I’m assuming the money got sent to Mayra and will get sent back. They will have to go back in and take it back out. If the person on the other end has taken it out, that’s a problem.”

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Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Methow Valley News

Opinion

No Bad Days

20 turns 40

Every time I drive over the North Cascades Highway in either direction, at some point where the route seems particularly impossible, I wonder: How did they do this?

With incredible ingenuity, determination and plain old grit, it turns out, not to mention some of the most spectacular highway engineering anywhere. And the Washington Pass/Rainy Pass route was, all things considered, chosen as the least problematic solution to the century-old conundrum of how to establish a northern passage over the Cascades.

It wasn’t easy for them, but the road-builders certainly made Highway 20 easy for us, considering the terrain and its geological obstacles. Another suggested route was Harts Pass. Can you imagine that?

For decades, it looked like the road would depart from the Skagit River at Marblemount and switchback up over perilous Cascade Pass, then work its way by various drainages to the Twisp River, and thence to the town itself.

What a different place this would be if that plan had prevailed. Surely, many people would turn left at Twisp and head up-valley, but Mazama and Lost River would truly be the end of the road, and Winthrop would be on the way.

The highway finally opened on Sept. 2, 1972, and I’ve been driving on it for about Don Nelson half of those 40 years. It still seems “new” to me, as it must to others, but then I’m one of those Seattle-area natives who still refers to the I-90 span over Lake Washington as “the old floating bridge,” and Highway 520 as the “new” one.

Four decades on, we rarely think about history’s what-ifs. The highway has not only become of incalculable value to the valley’s commerce, but also continues to dazzle with unmatched scenery.

I’m grateful it’s there, for its beauty and utility. So happy anniversary, North Cascades Highway, and a big thank-you to all the dedicated folks who made it possible.

The siren’s call

I’m not really a devoted siren chaser, though that is the clichéd characterization of us “news hounds.” For one thing, it often doesn’t result in much information or produce a story at all.

And covering accidents has always been the least-favorite part of my job. If you want a stark reminder of human fragility, check out some crash scenes. Sometimes I wonder how the first responders do it day after day.

But a couple of times in the past few weeks, I pulled over to get out of the way of fire trucks, police cars and ambulances doing the lights-and-sirens thing. Since they were going my direction anyway, I decided to follow (at a safe, non-interfering distance).

One pursuit led to a house fire that was quickly extinguished with no injuries (and a News reporter was already there). In the second instance, I was actually going home, and the motorcycle accident I encountered was on the way.

Lots of people hear the sirens, and see the equipment flashing by, any time the crews head out, and I know they are wondering what’s going on. Sometimes we can tell a bit about the situation on the police scanner, other times not.

It’s hard to gauge the newsworthiness of such things from the get-go. When we can get it, we try to post whatever information we can on our website, and follow up in the newspaper – by which time the “news” may be several days old and the most recent fire siren has our attention. Of course, major incidents and accidents always merit coverage.

I don’t get much useful information out of pictures of wrecked vehicles, but apparently some people do, so they are of public interest. I take pictures when I’m at an accident or fire scene, just in case. Part of the job.

More interesting to me is the work of the firefighters, police officers and EMTs who often have to act with speed and precision in fearsome situations – many of them as volunteers. I admire them for it, and I hope they don’t mind if once in a while I show up to watch.

Don Nelson is the publisher of the Methow Valley News

Methow Valley News PUBLISHED WEEKLY SINCE 1903 101 N. Glover St., P.O. Box 97, Twisp, WA 98856 Telephone: (509) 997-7011 FAX: (509) 997-3277 Email: editor@methowvalleynews.com Homepage: www.methowvalleynews.com Don Nelson, PUBLISHER/EDITOR Sue Misao, PHOTOGRAPHY/DESIGN Marcy Stamper, REPORTER Ann McCreary, REPORTER Mike Maltais, SPORTS Laurelle Walsh, REPORTER/ PROOFREADER

Marilyn Bardin, OFFICE MANAGER Robin Doggett, ADVERTISING MANAGER Callie Fink, ADVERTISING Janet Mehus, OFFICE ASSISTANT Dana Sphar, AD DESIGN/PRODUCTION Linda Day, AD DESIGN Jay Humling, DISTRIBUTION

CONTRIBUTORS

Bill Biddle, Erik Brooks, Tania Gonzalez Ortega, Sally Gracie, Patrick Hannigan, Jim & Jane Hutson, Rosalie Hutson, Ashley Lodato, Patrick McGann, Sam Owen, Joanna Smith, Bob Spiwak, Solveig Torvik, Dave Ward

Display advertising deadline for this newspaper is on the Friday previous to publication at 5 p.m. Classified advertising deadline is Monday at noon. The deadline for news items is Monday at noon.

Member of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association.

THE METHOW VALLEY NEWS (USPS Publication No. 343480) is published weekly by MVN Publishing, LLC, 101 N. Glover St., Twisp, WA 98856. Subscription rates: $30 inside Okanogan County, $40 outside of Okanogan County and $50 outside of Washington State per year (in advance). Periodical class postage paid at Twisp, Washington, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE METHOW VALLEY NEWS, P.O. Box 97, Twisp, WA 98856.

THE METHOW VALLEY NEWS does not refund subscription payments except to the extent that the newspaper might fail to meet its obligation to publish each week of the individual subscription period, in which case the prorated cost of those issues missed would be refunded.

Box 97: Letters to the editor

Tania Gonzalez Ortega

Not on East Chewuch

Dear Editor: In response to “Is Winthrop ‘terrain?’” in the Aug. 22 issue: One of the comments attributed to the North Central ATV Club is, “They say their numbers are not so great that the town or surrounding roads they might use will be overwhelmed.” What may start out as a small group of riders will eventually include family, friends and other ATV riders who will hear of this opportunity and the end result could be very overwhelming.

Safety and logic are the most important factors in considering this proposal. As has been mentioned by others, the safest and most logical place for the ATV route to start is at the end of East Chewuch at the beginning of Boulder Creek. The added congestion to an already very busy, multiuse stretch of roadway makes no sense at all.

If the North Central ATV Club is as polite and conscientious as you say (and I believe that most probably are), they should realize that the most responsible decision would be to begin their adventures where there are fewer inherent risks which translates to a lot less traffic.

Spencer King, president of the ATV club, is quoted as saying, “We just enjoy being out there in the woods and would like to be able to do it from this side [of the county].” Then yes, Mr. King, you should begin in the woods and driving from town up East Chewuch is certainly not the place to start. It would seem to me that if this proposal is accepted, the next request will be for snowmobiles to start in town.

Jennifer Elden Winthrop

Don’t lose the magic

Dear Editor: One recent evening, while putting our feet up for a bit at Sheri’s Sweet Shoppe, we were surprised to hear the familiar clip-clopping of hooves coming towards us. As soon as they had “pulled up and parked” near us, a crowd began to gather.

The cowboys and their horses were like

Hello?

magnets to young and old. Soon, Doug (Mohre) came out with a couple of apples.

One of the cowboys cut up an apple and handed half of it to a young lady. I will never forget the glowing smile and the look of admiration on that girl’s face as she reached out her hand to feed the horse. The people were all so excited to see these real cowboys and their horses.

This is what Winthrop is all about, I thought. It is a magical experience for many people that come to visit, and it’s moments like these that they will always remember, and many will come back. The western theme of Winthrop isn’t just a theme that is loved by many.

It is much more than that. It is a way of life for a lot of people that live here. It is a piece of history, and it needs to be preserved. We can all take part in seeing that Winthrop doesn’t lose its magic, or we can be complacent and wake up one day to find it gone.

So, let’s pull together and make sure that our town continues to be that special place where people can come and experience a piece of the past, and at the same time help our town to prosper and grow together as a community.

Many of the local businesses have said this has been one of the best years ever. Imagine that, in a time when many towns around the country are struggling

to stay alive. We definitely have a good thing going here, and what a blessing to be able to share it and bring some joy into the lives of others. Winthrop is a special place.

So let’s work together to keep it that way, so we will never lose that magic!

Lauri Martin Winthrop

Keep the parking

Dear Editor: Re: “No Tunnel Vision” letter to the editor, Aug. 22. I would suggest to the Winthrop Chamber of Commerce that they solicit the help of Bob Spiwak to count the number of bicyclists traversing Highway 20 over the Labor Day weekend to get a good idea of how many bike parking spots they should plan for.

Do away with the little parking available in downtown Winthrop? What are they thinking? Most of a weekend the parking is taken up by four- and two-wheel motor vehicles. These are the folks who spend dollars to help the local economy.

Make it difficult for them to do this and they will just keep driving through! Put the bike racks at the Barn – seems the folks riding them are the most fit and can walk the distance to town. Just a suggestion.

Patrick Johnson Upper Rendezvous/Seattle

Men who fear women

When should women bear the children they’ve conceived? U.S. Rep. Todd Akin (R-Missouri) has a ready answer to this anguishing question: always, even when inseminated by rapists.

Akin’s breezy certainty on this point is informed by the thinking of the best 13th-century minds, who believed women can’t get pregnant unless they enjoy the intercourse. Akin recently explained that women are magically equipped with a special secretion that shuts down the sperm of rapists. So no worries; children can’t be conceived during “real” rapes. Only women guilty of enjoying rape conceive.

Ergo, it wasn’t rape.

Hello? Ask your doctor about that one.

Or settle for this from Michael F. Greene, professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School: Akin’s comments, said he, are “just nuts.”

Or ask women routinely raped as acts of war in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo, from where playwright, activist and rape survivor Eve Ensler writes of mothers struggling not to project their hate and anger onto their children who bear the faces of their rapist fathers. “Why don’t you spend your time ending rape rather than redefining it?” she asks Akin.

But that would mean absolving women of blame for men’s behavior.

A very special class of men – blessed with superior moral insight – commands our attention today. These are men in the business of controlling women. For this “Father knows best” ilk, it is, and always has been, about fear of female challenges to male power and authority, both sexual and moral.

Akin, who actually sits on the House science, space and technology committee, has done us a favor. He’s succeeded in raising alarming questions about the intellectual competence of many of our lawmakers and focused overdue attention on how some male politicians really view women.

The present anti-woman zealotry in Congress puts me in mind of nothing so much as the 1880s Lutheran clergy in Finland who forced my great-grandmother

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to stand before the church congregation to be publicly shamed by confessing that she bore my grandmother out of wedlock.

The fathers in these cases were never shamed or called to account. It was well understood that men were utterly powerless against women’s sexual enticements, so they were absolved of blame. It was the duty of women, not men, to protect men from sexual sin.

The overwhelming power of women’s sexuality was so feared that after giving birth, even married women were considered unclean. So they were isolated for 40 days, during which no one could touch them lest the sexual contagion they carried spread.

This deep-seated, unacknowledged fear of the power of women is by no means limited to clergy in 1800s Finland. It has a long, wide history Solveig Torvik and flourishes worldwide to this day. Those Finnish religious prosecutors are spiritual forerunners of the likes of Akin, the Republican U.S. Senate candidate, and U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (RWisconsin), the Republican vice presidential candidate.

So it comes as no surprise that these men are sorely troubled by what constitutes rape. There’s rape, they and 225 other lawmakers in the House argue, and “legitimate” rape. Webster’s dictionary, a history of word usage, makes for unambiguous reading on this elementary point: “rape … The offense of sexual intercourse with a woman forcibly and against her will.”

Never mind. These are ideologues who missed the part about separation of church and state. Like the Taliban, they mean to legislate their personal religious sentiments into laws everyone must obey.

Perhaps it’s a mere accident of history that the Republican party, at this moment of blossoming anti-woman sentiment in Congress, has offered up as presidential and vice presidential candidates an ecumenical dream team consisting of a

MVN, pg 4

Mormon and a Catholic. These are religions that know something about keeping women in their place.

My co-religionist Mitt Romney was taught that he has a special channel to God not available to others. He’s been formally anointed with divine powers of a priesthood that gives Mormon elders authority to act for God on earth. Pundits forced into a crash-course study of Mormonism overlook this singular aspect of Romney’s presidential qualifications.

Mormon women, though, cannot hold this priesthood routinely bestowed on 12-year-old males because we’re the wrong gender. No personal diminution intended, of course, of us ladies. It’s just that gender confers moral authority.

Then we have the benighted Catholic priesthood, which doesn’t want women speaking for God, either. Catholic Women Religious, 45,000 nuns dedicated to good works in education, health care and social services rather than, say, moonlighting as sexual predators in godly garb, have been set upon by Pope Benedict’s Vatican for their uppity behavior.

They’re accused of failing to take instruction from their male betters on ordination of women, abortion and gay marriage. Plus, heaven forefend, they’ve espoused “radical feminist” themes.

If true, it’s an unprecedented female affront to the exclusive moral power claimed by male Catholic clergy. This isn’t a challenge to its already deeply discounted moral authority that the venerable old boy’s club in Rome can countenance.

For his part, the conservative Catholic Ryan says “the method of conception doesn’t change the definition of life.”

Thus he signed the “legitimate” rape bill and the sleeper “Personhood” legislation declaring a fertilized egg to be a legally protected person.

Meanwhile, Catholics worried about social justice quite rightly castigate Ryan for his “un-Catholic” budget cuts penalizing the poor – who, of course, are all too often those troublesome single mothers.

So what else is new?

Solveig Torvik lives in Winthrop.

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Winter’s not kidding this time.

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Happy Thanksgiving! ?

THURSDAY: Cloudy FRIDAY: Snow showers SATURDAY: Cloudy SUNDAY: Partly cloudy MONDAY: Partly cloudy TUESDAY: Sunny WEDNESDAY: Sunny

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THE WEEK AHEAD: NOV. 22-28

Methow Valley News

PUBLISHED WEEKLY SINCE 1903

Campbell leads Hover by eight votes; hand recount required

By Marcy Stamper With all the votes counted, Ray Campbell leads Bud Hover by a mere eight votes, meaning that the contest for Okanogan County commissioner for District 2 will go to a mandatory manual recount.

Okanogan County elections staff finished counting all 17,151 generalelection ballots on Friday (Nov. 16), with a final tally of 7,184 votes for Campbell and 7,176 for Hover, a difference of 0.06 percentage points.

Under state law, a manual recount in local races is mandatory when the difference is less than one-quarter of 1 percent and fewer than 150 votes.

After county elections administrators certify the election on Tuesday (Nov. 27), the county canvassing board will meet to set a date and time for the recount, according to Mila Jury, chief deputy auditor for the county.

The canvassing board is made up of the chair of the board of county commissioners, the county’s prosecuting attorney, and the county auditor (or a designee for each).

In the recount, elections staff will first separate all ballots into the county’s 237 precincts. Then, one precinct at a time, two counting boards of two people each will go through every ballot, sorting them into piles for each candidate and for over or undervotes (when a voter chooses more than one candidate in a race or does not vote in that race). Each stack is manually counted by each board member and the total recorded.

They are recounted if the tallies do not match. There is no deadline to complete the recount.

The counting boards consist of a member from each of the major political parties or two staff members from the auditors’ office. Each candidate is entitled to two observers. If there is room, the general public is also permitted to observe the recount.

State law mandates a machine recount when the difference is less than one-half of 1 percent. But in a close race, there is more confidence in a manual recount, said Shane Hamlin, co-director of elections for the Secretary of State’s office. “There are more opportunities to explore questions of voter intent,” he said.

Some voters may make marks on the ballot not readable by a machine but that should have been counted, said Hamlin. The state’s 78-page “Voter Intent” manual describes just about every conceivable situation, helping counting boards differentiate between intended votes and stray marks.

For example, checkmarks or other marks in the “target area” (the box voters are instructed to blacken completely) are generally counted.

Circling or underlining a candidates’ name may also qualify as a vote, if the voter was consistent in marking all choices in that manner.

Even voters who consistently circle the words “Democrat” or “Republican” under the candidates’ names or who cross out the name of a single candidate in each race will have their votes counted – as long as the method was applied consistently throughout the ballot.

Campbell said he was “not at all surprised” the election was so close.

See RECOUNT on Page A3

TWISP, WASHINGTON

VOL. 110 NO. 28

Westernization revisited The original plan put Winthrop on the map, but lax enforcement is a threat

Emphasis on authenticity

A short history of the past 40 years begins with the Wagners’ dream of turning Winthrop into a

Photos courtesy of Carl and Roxie Miller

Westernization transformed an old service station at the southeast corner of Winthrop’s four-way intersection into the Fuel Yard – which has since transformed again to become Sheri’s Sweet Shoppe. frontier town streetscape. As Sally Portman (now Winthrop’s librarian) relates in her seminal history of the Methow Valley, The Smiling Country, Otto died but Kathryn

kept the dream alive. Working with Leavenworth architect Robert Jorgensen, who came up with

See REVISITED on Page A2

Winthrop’s western theme lives on

By Laurelle Walsh In the forward of “The Winthrop Design,” Hu Blonk of the Wenatchee World wrote, “The appearance of Winthrop’s main street was rebuilt in 1971 to honor its historic past.

The renovation stands as a symbol of America’s deep-felt interest in the preservation of its historic origins, as an inspiration for the young to be creative, and as a means of providing a better life for the people who live this community’s proud heritage.”

Blonk understood that the westernization of Winthrop was not only about producing the “mythological frontier mainstreet [sic]” that architect Robert Jorgensen envisioned, but it would also be a living part of the town’s legacy, whose significance to the community would continue for generations.

People are still the driving force behind maintaining that western style, and while it is important to remember the energy and vision of those who made Winthrop a destination 40 years ago, it is also important to recognize that individuals continue that legacy today, from shop owners to the chamber of commerce to members of the Westernization Architectural Committee (WAC).

Winthrop’s Western Theme

Exterior Construction Standards occupy Chapter 15.08 of the town’s municipal code, which can be found in its entirety on the Town of Winthrop’s website, www.townofwinthrop.com.

According to the standards, structures within the town’s business district “shall be authentic in appearance to the time frame of 1850 to 1900.” It goes on to say that buildings “should reflect the proportions depicted in The Winthrop Design by Robert Jorgensen, AIA … The design shall not use cantilevers … Advertising signs and murals shall reflect the period of 1850 to 1900 and shall follow the same permit approval process and standards required for signs.”

Adding to, externally altering or erecting any structure within the business district requires a westernization structure permit.

Building style, siding, windows and doors, roofing and deck materials, paints, electrical hardware, lighting, sidewalks, dumpsters, and fencing all are addressed under westernization.

Signs and their permits have their own section in the code with stipulations for allowable and prohibited signs, their locations, structural and material requirements, lettering styles, colors and lighting.

Unlawful signs may be removed by

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MVN, pg 1

State will ask FAA to allow pilot-activated beacon here

By Don Nelson

By Don Nelson Back when the Methow Valley News used REALLY BIG HEADLINES for really big news, the year 1972 had a bunch of them. The Twisp High School Yellowjackets basketball team went to the state tournament for the first time.

Persistent flooding led to the valley being declared a disaster area.

Voters approved consolidation of the Twisp and Winthrop school districts.

And with nearly incalculable historic impact, the North Cascades Highway over Washington Pass finally opened, ushering in a new, expansive era of tourism and changing the valley forever.

When all those drivers got to Winthrop – sometimes after crawling along in a lengthy traffic jam – they encountered something startling: The old, frankly not very attractive town had a fresh new face that made it look like an even older town.

Winthrop was a bit of a tatty place when Otto and Kathryn Wagner – longtime valley residents who owned a lumber company – conceived and began to build momentum for a dramatic, time-machine style makeover. They urged that the entire town be renovated to look like a frontier village, with buildings designed or restored to resemble those that might be seen on an early 20th century street.

Westernization, it was called, and the term stuck.

NOVEMBER 21, 2012

the marshal’s office.

Westernization administrator and deputy clerk Cindy Pilkinton keeps reference materials for public use – including “The Winthrop Design,” The American Builder’s Companion, Frank Matsura: Images of Okanogan County, and “Atkinson Sign Painting – all on hand at Town Hall. People are encouraged to make color choices from a Harrison Brothers “Town and Country” paint card of 1871. A booklet of acceptable fonts is also available for reference.

The WAC’s job

Pilkinton works with the WAC and the public to interpret and enforce the codes, and processes applications and fees for structure and sign permits.

“Input from businesses is really important. If you own a business in town you should take an interest in westernization,” Pilkinton said.

Pilkinton also notes that too many available design options “don’t seem western at all. Is it too open for interpretation?” she wonders.

Six people – Don Elsing, Lauri Martin, Ron McCollum, Agi Ottlyk, Jenny Tissell and Lynette Westendorf – currently sit on the WAC, a permanent body created in 1993.

See LIVES ON on Page A3

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The Washington State Department of Transportation will request that the Federal Aviation Administration allow a new rotating navigational beacon at Methow Valley State Airport to be pilot-activated, the state agency said Monday (Nov. 19).

WSDOT reported that it received more than 400 comments about the new beacon, which was turned off on July 18 after valley residents complained that the light’s constant sweeping pattern was intrusive.

WSDOT did a visual impact analysis to study the effects of the beacon from Nov. 5-7, then asked the community to weigh in during a public comment period from Nov. 9-16.

“Over 90 percent of the comments indicated that the different angles and shielding resulted in no improvement to the beacon’s effect on the community,” WSDOT said in a press release. “Many residents preferred to have a pilot-controlled beacon rather than operating the beacon from dusk to dawn.”

The FAA typically requires rotating beacons to operate from dusk to dawn at federally funded, lighted airports, such as Methow, WSDOT said.

WSDOT Aviation Director Tristan Atkins met last week with the manager of the FAA Seattle Airports district office in Renton to discuss the community’s concerns and the planned request to modify the beacon’s operation. WSDOT said it will submit its request to the FAA for a pilot-controlled beacon once the visual impact analysis report is completed in January 2013. The beacon will remain off until a determination is made.

Late last week, local attorney Alexander “Sandy” Mackie sent a letter to WSDOT raising several procedural and regulatory questions about the beacon’s installation.

In the Nov. 16 letter, Mackie – who is with the highly regarded, Seattle-based international law firm Perkins Coie – suggests that, in the absence of documentation to the contrary, the state may not have conducted all the necessary environmental impact reviews.

“With the present state of the record, it would appear that the state has failed to comply with the most basic planning requirements for a major facility change adversely affecting both residences and habitat throughout the mid-section of the Methow Valley,” the letter says.

Mackie requests in the letter that the state not operate the beacon “until such time as all permitting, environmental review, final program approvals and ultimately payment of damages or purchases as necessary are complete.”

“Should the state insist on the beacon remaining in place and on 24 hours a day, the state will necessarily have to acquire a light and glare easement from all the affected properties,” Mackie asserts in the letter.

WSDOT said it would forward Mackie’s letter to the state attorney general’s office for review.

The airport had a less-bright, pilot-activated beacon in the past, but it was damaged in a 2008 snowstorm after which it did not operate until the new one was installed earlier this year in conjunction with safety upgrades at the airport.

More information is available at www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/Aviation/ MethowImprovements.

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Wednesday, November 21, 2012

REVISITED

News Briefs Highway 20 closed this week

District 6 creates advisory group

A citizen advisory council has been created by Okanogan County Fire District 6 and held its first meeting last Wednesday (Nov. 14). The ninemember advisory council, appointed by District 6 officials, was given an overview of the fire district and a tour of the Twisp Fire Station.

Roy Reiber, chairman of the district’s three-man board of commissioners, said the council was created to increase awareness about the fire district in the community.

“There isn’t a whole lot of understanding in the community about who protects who. We’re trying to make ourselves more visible,” Reiber said.

Liz Johnson, a member of the advisory group, asked Chief Don Waller why the council was created. “Are you having some problem that you’re trying to solve?” she asked. Waller said a significant challenge facing the district is the need to build a new fire station in Winthrop, and money to do that will have to come from a levy approved by voters.

County gets A+ bond rating

Okanogan County would save approximately $220,000 through lower interest payments after refinancing $2.2 million dollars of bonds issued in 2003 for improvements to public facilities, according to a press release from the county treasurer. The refinance would translate into an annual savings of $20,000 for the remaining 11 years of the bonds.

As part of the refinancing process, the county applied for a rating from Standard & Poor’s and received a grade of A+. “This is a great accomplishment, considering this was the first time we pursued a bond rating grade,” said county treasurer Leah Mc Cormack. “The higher the rating grade, the lower the interest cost.”

The A+ grade was based on five factors, including little outstanding debt, sound financial practices and signs of a growing economy. The county commissioners are still considering whether to proceed with the refinance.

The refinance will probably be approved by the county’s underwriters early next month, said Mc Cormack.

Twisp hikes property tax 1 percent

Twisp Council members approved increases of 1 percent in Twisp’s property tax and Emergency Medical Service (EMS) levies for 2013.

The town is limited by law to a 1 percent increase annually for those taxes.

The property tax generated $162,208 for the town in 2012 and the increase means another $1,622 for the town. The EMS levy brought in $44,040 this year and will bring an additional $440 in 2013.

Holiday closures

Okanogan County offices, Twisp and Winthrop town halls, Methow Valley public schools and local libraries will be closed Thursday and Friday in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday.

Local banks will be closed on Thanksgiving Day with regular hours on Friday. Last-minute holiday grocery shoppers should note that the Winthrop Red Apple Market will be open 8 a.m.-noon on Thanksgiving Day, and Hank’s Harvest Foods will be open 7 a.m.-2 p.m. The Methow Valley News office will be closed Thursday.

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From Page A1

elaborate designs for downtown buildings, she won over civic leaders and downtown business owners.

Merchants were asked to pay $2,000 each toward the renovations, and Kathryn offered to pick up whatever else was necessary.

“The westernization of Winthrop took off like a shot,” Portman writes, perhaps evoking the image of a dusty western thoroughfare where gunfights were still played out.

The renovations began with 20 downtown buildings, all restored to Jorgensen’s exacting specifications for authenticity. Chet Endrizzi, another longtime valley resident, was engaged to paint the buildings in western color themes.

Portman quotes Kathryn Wagner on the thought behind the theme: “I don’t like to call it a tourist attraction. This is a living town. People live in it. They aren’t tourist attractions.”

Winthrop is indeed a living and working town. It is also, despite Kathryn Wagner’s powerful idealism, a tourist attraction, and that is pretty much the beginning and end of the little community’s economy.

Wi t h o u t w e s t e r n i z a t i o n , Winthrop was likely going to be a drive-through with gas stations, a few shops, motels and restaurants, and no compelling reason to get out and wander around.

Instead, within a month after the new highway opened and Winthrop unveiled its new old self, the Methow Valley News reported that “the town has received scores of letters from visitors who enjoyed the town, the valley and highway but who complained of the traffic problem in Winthrop.”

The News periodically covered the progress of westernization, with an efficient, straightforward style that nonetheless conveyed a bit of excitement as well. But because the 1972 News had almost no photography – in fact, it didn’t look much different from the 1952 News or even the 1932 News, except for the REALLY BIG HEADLINES – the paper did not document the changes pictorially.

You could learn, however, that “attractive blue trim on the white building of the Farmers State Bank is planned to make it look a little newer and more prosperous for its era than some of the other buildings,” as the paper reported in August 1972, about a month before its renovation debuted.

“A deep rusty tinge matched to some old barn roofs gives the maroonish-brown shade to the small roof overhanging the post office [now the empty Grubstake restaurant],” the paper reported. “The exterior walls have been given aged brown tones to the wood.”

Jorgensen and Endrizzi were meticulous, insisting on details they

Highway 20 – Washington Pass – was closed indefinitely on Monday (Nov. 19) because of dangerous avalanche conditions, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT). Several snow slides and continuing heavy snowfall were making travel unsafe, WSDOT said.

Gates were closed at mileposts 134 and 171, according to WSDOT spokesman Jeff Adamson. After a series of storms pass through this week, WSDOT crews will reassess conditions to determine if the highway can be reopened for Thanksgiving, if at all. Adamson said about 15 inches of snow fell over the weekend, and more was expected early this week.

“It started snowing hard again about 9 a.m. [Monday] and by 10:30 a.m., we’d gotten 4 inches and had three slides come in,” Adamson said Monday in a press release. That forced WSDOT to close the highway at noon, rather than at 6 p.m. as originally planned.

“We were trying to keep it open until 6 p.m. so the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service and our crew could identify vehicles parked at trailheads, and either make contact with the drivers or leave a message so they’d know the highway was closing,” Adamson said.

Storm systems moving across the Cascades this week are expected to create uncertainty about travel conditions in all mountain passes over the Thanksgiving holiday. For updates, visit http://www.wsdot.com/traffic/passes.

Great Baby Gifts, too!

Methow Valley News

Great expectations:

westernization in the beginning From the March 18, 1971, Methow Valley News came these comments by local businesspeople about plans for westernization in downtown Winthrop: Bob Hawkins Insurance Agency – “Having been in business in Winthrop since 1946 I very much appreciate the fact that the business that really supports the local merchants is the local year round resident. I also appreciate the fact that without tourism and recreation trade we get from outside the valley we would be hard pressed to stay in business. I am 100 percent for the old west style renovation Winthrop is undertaking this coming spring. I believe this new ‘old’ look will create an atmosphere that will benefit all, directly or indirectly, who live here.”

Lyle Walker of Evergreen Store – “I think it is a real good thing. I think it’s nice that we still have people like Mrs. Wagner around. I believe Winthrop will have something now that will be

uncovered in their research. “Endrizzi checked the existing roofs on old barns in the valley to create the correct effect,” the newspaper said.

fallen standards

Larry Higbee of Winthrop, who was a foreman on the westernization work, said in a recent interview that “each building was unique,” per Jorgensen’s instructions. Details mattered. For instance, Higbee said, the builders were not allowed to use finish nails because those did not exist at the turn of the previous century. And the paint was all flat colors, Higbee said – nothing bright or flashy.

Higbee says that standards have eroded in 40 years and he believes the original guidelines are not being observed or enforced, notably in signage. Gradual modernization, even in small ways, “really hurts the town,” he said. Residents and merchants should insist on authenticity, he said. “It’s their bread and butter.”

Without modernization, Higbee said, “Winthrop would have dried up ... it was a drab old town.”

John Lester, a longtime Winthrop resident, businessman and town council member, echoed those sentiments in a recent interview. Like Higbee, Lester was there for the planning and execution of westernization.

Lester said he believes that the original intent of westernization held up well for about 20 years, and then began to slide. “They started chopping up the ordinance,” he said.

“It seems to be a different thought process. It hurts to see it slide when it didn’t have to.”

Lester attributes that in part to

a good thing – they’ll have their own recognition.”

John Lester of H and J’s Hardware – “There are various ways it will benefit the town. It will help ease the employment situation because it will attract people because it will be something different. It will give them a reason to come in off the highway.

The renovation will also make the town uniform in appearance.”

Gorden Serrurier of Winthrop Motors – “I’m very much for it. I feel it will benefit the town. It should make business very good here this summer as it will make work for people.”

Frank Buell of Farmers State Bank – “If the plans of Mrs. Wagner and her architect Mr. Jorgensen are carried through to completion for the old time historic restoration of the Town of Winthrop, it will undoubtedly be the most outstanding philanthropic gift that has ever occurred for a Methow or Okanogan community.”

a lack of historical knowledge about how much planning, money and effort went into the transformation, especially the meticulous research and insistent attention to detail.

Lester said he’s seen some “huge steps backward,” especially in signage, paint usage and plastic window casings rather than the original wood. Could that be reversed?

“If you could stop it where it is now, even that would be good,” he said.

The town council and residents “have to believe in what they want to do,” he said. “The town is the only government that can enforce the rules.”

That could be confrontational, but Lester said the ordinance has been challenged and upheld in court.

Enforcement is more than nitpicking – it’s about the economic health of the town and protecting the assets of all merchants and building owners, Lester said.

After Winthrop completed its westernization, Lester said, representatives from other towns asked how it could be done elsewhere.

“Without a gift from heaven, you can’t do it,” he said, referring to the Wagners’ support.

And without westernization, he said, Winthrop would be “just another town on the way through.”

Maybe the 40-year celebration will cause the town to refocus on the original ideals of westernization, Lester said.

“Are they [town officials and residents] going to do something about it as a town? It’s their choice,” Lester said. “I can only tell them what they’re losing.”

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Methow Valley News

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

LIVES ON

Members are appointed by the mayor and serve two-year unpaid terms. They meet on the second and fourth Wednesdays of every month to review applications, suggest changes, and approve or reject plans.

The committee is now working with Pilkinton on developing a pamphlet to be distributed to new business owners to help them navigate westernization rules. WAC member and business owner Lauri Martin said, “It’s really not that complicated if you know up front.”

Martin joined the WAC two years ago “because of what I went through with my sign,” she said. She and her husband opened the antiques shop Robins Egg Bleu on Riverside Avenue in 2009 and moved the shop to the corner of White Avenue and Highway 20 last June.

“Westernization is a good thing and really important,” Martin said. The town’s western style “is the main reason people come to Winthrop,” visitors to the shop have told her.

The committee has been sorting through some of the regulatory changes that have happened over time and is discussing “getting back to basics,” Martin said.

“The area is changing and growing in lots of ways, but we have to keep a reason for tourists to come and shop.

Visitors feel like Winthrop is a piece of history, and we have to work to keep it that way,” said Martin.

A vibrant Winthrop

Winthrop Chamber treasurer Julie Muyllaert said, “We have the Winthrop of today because 40 years ago a small group of people had a vision.

Now our task is to inspire people to envision the town 10,

From Page A1

Photo by Laurelle Walsh

Sign painter Marti Darling with one of two posters she painted for the Winthrop Information Center.

20, 40 years into the future to sustain a vibrant Winthrop.”

Muyllaert is excited about the potential development of Winthrop’s River Walk trail, and the “possibility of a couple of businesses putting in pocket parks” next year. “It’s important that we don’t discard the past, but bring the past along with us,” Muyllaert said.

After some years out of the business, sign painter Marti Darling is now “coming out of retirement,” to act as consultant to the current WAC and help touch up some of the signs and murals around town, she said.

Darling worked alongside Winthrop’s original sign painter Chester “Chet” Endrizzi in the early 1980s, repainting the map on the side of H&J Hardware (now the Tenderfoot), and painting signs at the Chevron station and the Virginian, among others.

Darling said Endrizzi incorporated faux painting techniques to help “age” the town, including distressing siding where snow would rest against

buildings, and adding water and rust stains to boards. He was also a stickler for historical authenticity, referencing the early 20th century photos of Frank Matsura.

“If people today do their research, it would be a lot more exciting and historically accurate than doing it by the book,” Darling said. “It’s time to give Winthrop a fresh punch in the arm.”

Recently rediscovered are two large canvas posters of a cowboy and a cowgirl that Darling painted in 1995 for a sign at the former information center, located where the library is today. They were recovered from the basement of that building by former WAC administrator Heather Rivard.

“Those posters are awesome,” said Winthrop Chamber marketing director Kristen Smith, who is excited to work with Darling on rejuvenating the town’s signs and murals.

“Our goal is to bring that kind of stuff back,” Smith said.

Doug Mohre, owner of Sheri’s Sweet Shoppe, one of downtown Winthrop’s major attractions, said, “Westernization is what makes Winthrop special. It’s what brings people back each year. We hear from tourists all the time what a special place this is.”

Mohre was Winthrop chamber of commerce president from 2002-2008, and served on the WAC for two years from 2004-2005. During that time, he said, the officials of several towns who were considering implementing a western theme came to Winthrop “to see how it worked. They saw it takes a lot to make it happen.”

“We are fortunate that back in ’72 they got consensus on westernization. I don’t know if you’d get that today,” said Mohre.

RECOUNT “There are a lot of different factions and mindsets in Okanogan County,” he said.

Hover was in commissioners’ meetings and could not be reached.

When all is said and done, if the results of the manual count do not match the results of the original count, the county canvassing board must

say their vote doesn’t count, this shows how important it is,” said Jury.

Sheilah Kennedy defeated Albert Roberts by almost 17 percentage points for District 2 county commissioner. All other races were also easily decided. Overall turnout in the election was just over 80 percent.

Comment on state environmental rule changes The Department of Ecology is seeking public comment on the first of two updates to reviews required under the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA).

One change would increase thresholds local governments can use to exempt new construction projects from review.

SEPA gives local governments the option to allow some minor projects, including small-scale housing developments and agricultural structures and minor excavation activities, to be exempt from review.

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Before setting new minimum thresholds, the county or agency would have to show that existing policies provide adequate protection to the environment.

The proposed rule is also designed to make the SEPA checklist more efficient, allowing state and local agencies to skip questions that do not pertain to their project (such as potential impacts on air and water, plants and animals or transportation).

Every year, state and local agencies evaluate about 6,000

projects under SEPA. Information learned through the review can be used to deny a proposal or place conditions on it when adverse environmental impacts are identified.

In 2013, Ecology will conduct a second, broader round of SEPA rule revisions.

For more information about the proposed changes, visit www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/ sea/sepa/rulemaking2012.html.

Written comments regarding the proposed rule changes can be sent to separulemaking@ ecy.wa.go through Dec. 11.

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From Page A1 verify that all ballots have been recounted.

While manual recounts are uncommon, in almost every election, one is conducted in a small jurisdiction somewhere in the state, said Hamlin. A race may be recounted only twice, after which it is decided by lot.

“For all the people who

Page A3

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Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Methow Valley News

Opinion Editorial

Back to the future, Winthrop style

Many of us have never known it any other way.

From the first day we saw Winthrop, the town has looked like it was stopped in time around the Guy Waring era.

Winthrop didn’t stop time. Rather, the town reclaimed it, harkening back to a true western village struggling for identity in one of the country’s most remote outposts.

If ever a place needed dressing up, it was Winthrop.

Even in 1972, town looked like it was stuck in 1952, judging from some of the photos of buildings and streets as they appeared before westernization.

The westernization idea had been kicking around for awhile, in part because some community leaders saw the value of it, in part because the North Cascades Highway was nearing completion and would be funneling thousands of visitors through the four-way – and immediately beyond, if there was no reason to stop.

Winthrop wasn’t just gussied up in old-fashioned finery.

It was reimagined, thanks to the vision, energy and – no getting around it – money provided by Otto and Katherine Wagner. Local merchants and residents also contributed funding, sweat equity and a common sense of purpose.

Talk to people who were around then – many of whom worked on westernizing – and a common theme emerges: The restoration was done with exquisite care and devotion to not just a realistic look, but to strictly authentic materials, colors, signage and architecture.

At the same time, those folks now lament a gradual retreat from the genuine standards that made Winthrop special, largely in those critical details. They blame it on the unwillingness of town officials to rigorously or consistently enforce those standards.

Some of that slippage could have been expected. Too much of it, the old-timers warn, and Winthrop will fritter away its own reason for being. Westernization is, four decades in, what Winthrop has become. De-westernization – a sign here, a non-period paint color there, a phony façade – is a real concern.

The hard part has always been enforcement, which has periodically met resistance over the years. Sometimes the outcome has been decided in court. It’s not easy to tell a friend or neighbor or fellow businessperson that the rules are the rules, and they have to conform. Like it or not, that’s part of the cost of doing business in Winthrop.

Most of us are not looking that closely at the details, or worrying that much. As the old adage goes, that’s how a frog in a pot of water gets boiled: one degree at a time. Westernization won’t sustain itself without constant attention.

It’s a good weekend to think about these things.

Winthrop will be immersed in its unique seasonal celebration, Christmas at the End of the Road. The town will be arrayed in its Christmas finery. Many of the weekend’s events will revolve around the 40th anniversary of westernization.

With maybe a touch of snow, what could be lovelier? Something to be thankful for, in concert with the holiday – and something to cherish with the attention it deserves.

–Don Nelson

Exercise your freedom Letters must be fewer than 350 words and may be edited for libel, grammar and taste.

Send to: Methow Valley News P.O. Box 97, Twisp, WA 98856 FAX: 509-997-3277

e-mail: editor@methowvalleynews.com or drop by 101 N. Glover St., Twisp

Methow Valley News PUBLISHED WEEKLY SINCE 1903 101 N. Glover St., P.O. Box 97, Twisp, WA 98856 Telephone: (509) 997-7011 FAX: (509) 997-3277 Email: editor@methowvalleynews.com Homepage: www.methowvalleynews.com Don Nelson, PUBLISHER/EDITOR Marilyn Bardin, OFFICE MANAGER Robin Doggett, ADVERTISING MANAGER Sue Misao, PHOTOGRAPHY/DESIGN Callie Fink, ADVERTISING Marcy Stamper, REPORTER Janet Mehus, OFFICE ASSISTANT Ann McCreary, REPORTER Dana Sphar, AD DESIGN/PRODUCTION Mike Maltais, SPORTS Linda Day, AD DESIGN Laurelle Walsh, REPORTER/

PROOFREADER Jay Humling, DISTRIBUTION contributors

Erik Brooks, Tania Gonzalez Ortega, Sally Gracie, Patrick Hannigan, Jim & Jane Hutson, Rosalie Hutson, Ashley Lodato, Patrick McGann, Sam Owen, Joanna Smith, Bob Spiwak, Solveig Torvik, Dave Ward

Display advertising deadline for this newspaper is on the Friday

previous to publication at 5 p.m. Classified advertising deadline is Monday at noon. The deadline for news items is Monday at noon.

Member of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association.

THE METHOW VALLEY NEWS (USPS Publication No. 343480) is published weekly by MVN Publishing, LLC, 101 N. Glover St., Twisp, WA 98856. Subscription rates: $30 inside Okanogan County, $40 outside of Okanogan County and $50 outside of Washington State per year (in advance). Periodical class postage paid at Twisp, Washington, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE METHOW VALLEY NEWS, P.O. Box 97, Twisp, WA 98856.

THE METHOW VALLEY NEWS does not refund subscription payments except to the extent that the newspaper might fail to meet its obligation to publish each week of the individual subscription period, in which case the prorated cost of those issues missed would be refunded.

Box 97: Letters to the editor

Tania Gonzalez Ortega

Real responses

Dear Editor: My partner Erich and I have been overwhelmed by the positive response we’ve gotten from valley residents to our proposed reality show, “Twisp.” We are delighted with one Facebook commenter, who said, in her years in the valley she has been “amazed and amused, but never bored.”

We think that’s a great description of the community people have created here.

While we can understand those of you with doubts or reservations, the strongest evidence we can offer of our intention to portray the valley in a positive light is the fact that, so far, the “stars” are all our friends, and the rest of you we hope to one day call neighbors. If “Twisp” is successful, that day may be sooner, rather than later.

Who knows? I mean … it’s crazy!

Micheal Parks Ojai, Calif./Methow Valley

Don’t worry about fame

Dear Editor: To our Methow neighbors: We were pleasantly surprised and hugely gratified by the predominantly positive response we’ve received from valley residents to our proposed reality show, “Twisp.” We can also understand the concerns of those who are not so sure that fame, or notoriety, is such a good idea. I would probably react protectively too. The Methow is a special place, which is why we intend to live here full-time one day – hopefully among friends!

I do believe that fears of ruination may be overstated. My sons and I drove through a town on the Olympic Peninsula that was the setting for “Twilight.” It’s practically deserted. My sister was on “Oprah,” but has remained quite anonymous. It’s a big world out there, with lots of distractions.

Hello?

The Methow’s “fame,” should the show be successful, is likely to be temporary.

The motivation behind “Twisp” is to raise the issues that people here are dealing with – which should be on everyone’s mind – and celebrate the resourceful people we’ve met and friends we’ve made here.

Leslee Goodman Ojai, Calif./Methow Valley

Snowblower safety

Dear Editor: To my fellow snow country folks: Now that it looks like winter is soon to show her face, I feel moved to pass on some annual advice.

A number of years ago I had a moment of brain-deadness and ended up turning off a snowblower with my left hand, being flown to Harborview Hospital in Seattle where three surgeons spent 21 man-hours rebuilding my hand. I write to remind all of you snow blower operators this winter season to not repeat my stupidity!

Even with new designs and safety features on today’s machines (mine was 20 years old) blowers can still jam with wet snow or “yard” objects. Due to the

potential kinetic energy stored in the engine compression and belt tension when jammed, the impellers in a blower can rotate slightly when a jammed or clogged machine is freed up.

There is very little clearance in the impeller housings … if your hand is the “freeing” agent you can lose fingers or an entire hand. Never use your hand or foot to clear a clogged or jammed snow blower.

Use a broom handle or long, stout stick – not a body part. From what I’ve seen lately all new blowers even come with a plastic paddle used to clear jammed blowers.

Some even advise removing the spark plug to release any engine compression before working on a machine.

Snowblowers, like many powered devices, are in and of themselves not dangerous. They do need to be respected and operated with care and attention. Fatigue, being in a hurry, distractions, objects left out in the snow, etc. are the real dangers.

Hopefully you will remember my story every time you operate a snow blower and not create your own story. Have a safe winter season.

Barry Stromberger Twisp

Memo to losers: do the math

“The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one- term president.”– Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, October 2010.

So, senator, to paraphrase Sarah Palin, how’s that working out for ya?

His remark will stick to McConnell in the history books as a cautionary tale: Running on empty obstructionism isn’t a winning strategy.

But what really went wrong? Did Republicans lose because they weren’t conservative enough? Or because they weren’t moderate enough?

Solveig Torvik Only 15 percent of voters in this election were older than 65. Only 34 percent of the voters on Nov. 6 were white men.

Fifty-three percent of voters were women, and they voted for Obama by a 16 percent margin. Non-churchgoers accounted for 75 percent of the people who voted Nov. 6. Do the math, people.

It was evident that disaster was looming when the Parade of Fools showed up for the Republican presidential primary vowing to lead their party into irrelevance.

When you can’t produce a credible candidate, something’s wrong with your political narrative.

So many losers, so little ink: Republican super-strategist Karl Rove, who disbursed $104 million from his American Crossroads super-PAC in an effort to elect GOP candidates. Not one of them won.

Billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who spent $53 million promoting nine Republican candidates; only one of them won. The more frugal United States Chamber of Commerce, which spent $24 million on 15 Republican candidates; two of them won. A poor return on investment indeed for businesspeople whose claim to fame is doing the math.

These losers found themselves on the wrong side of history. And they showed that money couldn’t buy them a ticket to the winning side.

“The GOP is rapidly becoming the party of yesterday’s America,” wrote Republican columnist David Frum in

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Newsweek. Old white men have the most to lose in this demographic shift; they hold most of the power.

But now, in two elections, a young black man was preferred by most voters, including white people who take America’s promise of racial equality seriously enough to put a black person in charge of the country. So what does this tell you about 21st century American voters, Mr. Rove? Mr. Adelson? Hello?

It’s this: The rules have changed about who our deciders are. Already, the majority of Americans under 18 are non-white. This, of course, is what animates the nightmares of anxiety-ridden white supremacists.

But you never know. Perhaps when their time comes, people of color will prove brighter about sharing political power with us than we whites have been in sharing it with them over the last two centuries?

More big losers: male politicians justifying rape as God’s will or declaring pregnancy to be the test of “legitimate” rape. Been there, done that, guys. Not a vote-getter.

About women: Still losers. A recordsetting 20 percent of U.S. senators are now female. Pathetic! Move women out of the losers column when the Senate reflects the citizenry, which is 50.8 percent female.

About Mitt Romney: Intellectually shallow, vacuous to the point of goofiness, he displayed alarming signs of multiple political personality disorder, and it scared people. In the very heart of Mormondom, the Salt Lake Tribune published a wellargued editorial headlined “Too Many Mitts” urging readers to vote for President Obama. (Footnote on the power of the press: 73 percent of Utahans voted for Romney.)

Perhaps Romney’s painfully constricted worldview can be blamed on his being insulated by wealth from the economic realities of the world inhabited by the infamous “47 percent” of the citizenry he so cavalierly proposed to write off.

Tin-eared and tuned out, he doggedly pursued his losing vision post-election.

His loss, he claimed, was not of his own making but caused by Obama’s “gifts” to college students, young women, Latinos and citizens in need of health care coverage. Ouch. Back to math class, Mitt.

Romney may also have been insulated

MVN, pg 4

by his sunny Mormonism. We Mormons, aka God’s Chosen People, are counseled to be “in the world but not of the world.”

My own take is that this might be yet another reason Romney proved incapable of describing a world most voters could recognize.

Political parties always have a lunatic fringe yammering at their edges, but in the Republican party, that fringe now calls the shots. It’s become a party run by, and for, people fearful of change. Its only legislative strategy is obstructionism.

Reactionary rather than proactive, it panders to our worst instincts, racism and anti-intellectualism prominent among them. Post election, Louisiana’s Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal – the IndianAmerican son of immigrants, Rhodes Scholar and likely presidential contender – ripped Romney’s exclusionary policies and warned his party against coddling the rich. “We’ve also had enough of this dumbed-down conservatism,” he said.

“Stop being the stupid party.” Amen to that.

If dumbed-down conservatism and coddling the rich remains the best Republicans can offer, we’re doomed to the despotism of permanent one-party Democratic rule. But the nation needs a reality-based Republican party capable of persuasively arguing its case. No party is omniscient; neither has all the right answers. To win elections, though, Republicans must become “economically inclusive, environmentally responsible, culturally modern, and intellectually credible,” Frum rightly argues. Let the next battle for the soul of the Republican party begin.

Former Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, who so confidently had predicted a Republican victory, acknowledged that Republicans need to ask themselves, “If I was that far off, what do I need to learn to better understand America?”

This, for starters, Newt: Most Americans don’t hate their government or obsess about taxes. They don’t want to disenfranchise the poor and people of color. They do want government policies informed by science, not religious sentiment.

Just do the math.

Solveig Torvik lives in Winthrop.