Libby Commissioner’s Meeting Notes
by KLCB Libby News Radio
February 9, 2007
"We believe that we can clean up Libby in place", Paul Perinard, EPA project director told the Lincoln County Commissioners at their regular meeting on Wednesday, February 7th. According to Perinard, no clean up option can be taken off the table. But it is believed that Libby can be cleaned in place.
This discussion was in response to recent interest that put the buyout of contaminated properties and moving the town of Libby as an option in the ongoing EPA cleanup. "No one in (the) Libby (EPA) is talking about relocation" said Perinard. Lincoln County Commissioner Rita Windom said, "I don't think our community is a throw away".
Libby was the topic of a recent high level conference in North Carolina. EPA and federal scientists met to identify and prioritize toxicity tests to support the Libby amphibole toxicity assessment. Once funding levels are approved lead organizations will develop study descriptions based on the funding that becomes available.
The EPA is planning a town meeting in Libby for March 7th. The intent is to have a progress update on where the project is going. It has not been determined who will be in Libby for the meeting.
When questioned about Troy, Perinard told Troy Commissioner John Konzen that work in Troy will begin this summer. The EPA has rented office space and is looking for employee housing. It is as yet unknown how many structures in Troy will need to be cleaned.
Three recent house fires in Libby have brought to the forefront the high exposure risks of firefighters as a group. The most recent of those houses contained a raw/popped vermiculite mix used as insulation. Heat from the fire blew the mixture into the air causing the need for on site decontamination measures of equipment and firefighters. It required three days for the EPA to decontaminate the turn out gear and turn out room of the Fire Hall.
The Lincoln County tourism board will receive $5,000 dollars from the county. The group approached the commissioners for money to help reach their goals of making Lincoln County, as a whole, a tourist destination. Included in the monetary request were dues for Glacier Country, display tables at the Governor's Conference in Helena, travel to trade shows outside Montana, grant matching money and printing of Kootenai River Country brochures.
Spokesperson for the group, Debi Davison, told the Commissioners that there are people who don't understand what tourism could do for the area. Not as a replacement for existing jobs, but as an addition to those jobs. Davison said that the tourism dollar has a 350 percent return.
It was acknowledged that tourist industry jobs are not usually high paying jobs. The "living' wage in Montana for a family of three, a single parent and two children, is $19.98 per hour, and tourism jobs are notoriously minimum wage, which will be $7.25 an hour when congress gets done.
Commissioner John Konzen said, "it is a given that we should find the money," referring to the $5,000. It was a unanimous vote to fund the tourism board request.
Story by KLCB Libby News Radio, www.todaysbestcountryonline.com
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