Public speaking at Growth meeting

Those who know me know I really don't like to speak in front of crowds. That is part of why I didn't speak at Tuesday's growth policy meeting. But at Thursday's growth policy meeting I eventually screwed up my courage and stepped to one of the two microphones and spoke. While I could submit written comments, by speaking I would know the Planning Board members would hear my comments.

I waited to speak until late in the process. I am taking a cue from the engineering planners and others who do this for a living. As I had mentioned when describing the Whitefish River Ranch commissioner meeting, these types of people wait till near the end so as to rebut selected comments and make it appear all issues are resolved in the developer's favor.

My reason to comment on the growth policy was to comment on bicycle paths. I wanted to planners to consider that bicyclists are not a single type. Bicyclists can be:

• kids riding to school
• recreational riders
• commuters

Each type of rider has its own needs and types of paths. For example, bicycle lanes should be incorporated into the policy. Currently the policy only mentions bicycle paths separated from roads.

I commented that while a number of people had commented on how vague the policy was, I had an opposite comment. The policy recommends a bicycle path on each side of a road. I commented that wasn't always feasible or necessary. I had concerns these bicycle paths would be nothing more than glorified sidewalks.

A person earlier commented that the policy document needed to mention about protecting the night sky and establishing a lighting standard. I echoed that comment, adding that since a business was built a few years ago a half mile away from my place, I now see shadows created by their light at night.

A number of "property rights" people earlier said that a proposed open space board was unnecessary. The federal, state, and tribal governments make up 82.5% of the land in Flathead county. The comments were that we have more than enough open space now. I commented that some open space needs to be preserved near development for small parks so the kids could ride their bicycles and visit these local parks. The federal and state lands are too far away for the children to visit.

Lastly I tried to work in traffic and the recent inaction on Tronstad Road by the Commissioners during the Whitefish River Ranch proposal. BJ from the County Planning Department had raised the pink card by now alerting me that I only had 30 seconds left of my 3 minutes. I went over the 3 minute mark by a little bit as I stumbled to make my point.

In fact my entire 'speech' was disorganized and rambling and too many topics covered in three minutes. I am not a speaker and it showed. I don't think I got any of my points across. I now regret not taking high school speech class seriously and only doing what I had to do to get through the class. I also think I should have taken debate class in high school. "Youth is wasted on the young."

While people spoke, four or so planners entered the speaker's comments into their laptops (or so it appeared). People could also submit written comments so I grabbed a piece of paper that outlined the meeting's agenda and wrote my comments on the back. I feel I can write far better than I can speak. While I had thought I had spoken near the end, people continued to trickle up the microphone after I spoke. I had room on the paper so I added comments in support of other people, and made comments opposed to those speakers I didn't agree with.

A number of people had a speech prepared that they read from. Only a few of these speeches held my interest, partly because the speaker wasn't a dynamic speaker as they stumbled through reading their speech, or else their speech was generic.

The best speeches were by good speakers who had good voices and could deliver the speech well. Usually the best speakers were people who didn't ramble, spoke without reading a speech, and made their point describing their situation in an emotional - but not overly emotional - tone.

One old grizzled fellow - who I initially thought would be another 'property rights' fellow - was the opposite. He came from the South many years ago and his ancestors had been slave owners. Somehow he compared some 'property rights' people to slave owners of old. He spoke extemporaneously and, while a touch rambling, spoke well. He also had humor, though I am not sure if all of his humor were intentional jokes. His comment describing the relationship between developers and their neighbors cracked everyone up. He compared the relationship as follows: "An old man's fondest dream can also be a young maiden's worst nightmare."

Later the head of the 'property rights' group felt obliged to deny a link between 'property rights' and slave owning.

Thursday's meeting was split between the 'property rights' people opposed to the policy, and people who favored it. Each group would applaud the speakers aligned with their position.

Linda, her husband and some of their grandchildren also attended and spoke. As they are far better speakers than I - even the grandkids are - they were among the people quoted in the newspaper article on the meeting.

One of the last speakers was an elderly man who lived a few miles down the same road as I. He said he had lived there since the 1950s. After the meeting I introduced myself to him. While he lives some miles away, he said he had known of my dad.

The meeting lasted over 2 and 1/2 hours, the same length as the previous meeting, even though there seemed to be less people at this meeting. When the meeting started I doubt if even 50 people were there. But as time when on more people came. I think a higher percentage of the audience spoke this night.

Again I had to drag myself to attend the meeting. Another hot day and I was tired. Again I rode my bicycle to the meeting. Again the weather forecast had rain and thunderstorms in it. Unlike Tuesday's meeting it hadn't rained during the meeting. But leaving the meeting I could see signs of approaching rain. It wasn't hard: dark blue clouds and lightning stand out.

I was one mile from home when the rain came down. After heat lightning here and there I saw a large lightning bolt that went in a jagged manner from high in the clouds to my west over to the ground far away to the northwest. The lightning bolt was pink and purple with a touch of yellow. Right after that lightning bolt the rain came. Wet again before I got home. No matter, we really need the moisture.