Havre Daily "News" forgets a few facts to protect Havre's Obstructionist Council Member



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 I see in tonight’s so-called “News” paper another fine piece of work by one of our award winning investigative journalists. The story titled Buffalo Jump has Visibility Problems would lead one to believe that Elaine Morse, chair of the museum’s foundation, came to last night’s council meeting to simply get the potentates blessing on re-erecting an old directional sign that used to be in the mall parking lot guiding folks to the Buffalo Jump. My first thought was why would they even need the council’s blessing as the sign was to be erected out of city limits and on private property.

As I sat slightly confused over what the jest of this story was supposed to portray to us I decided to do a little investigating myself. Coincidently as I was mulling this all over the Corrector received an e-mail pointing out a few facts that were missed in the HDN investigation of the facts.

I would assume that everyone from Havre has seen the historical markers the State used to place along the hi-way at periodic turn-outs where a person could pull over to read a bit about local historical points of interest such as the sign south of town near Fort Assiniboine a picture of which we have posted here. It seems that the Highway department has over the years removed several of these signs that used to be located in our area for one reason or another and have been storing them in the local DOT shop where they have been gathering dust for the last decade or so. When the museum board found out they still existed a couple years ago they asked if they could acquire them so they could erected again to help out with disseminating local historical information about Havre and the points of interest in our area. The problem is that they want to erect them on private property so the State finally told them they could have them if they got a letter of support from the Hill County Commissioners, the Havre City Council and the local tourism committee of the Chamber of Commerce. The commissioners immediately sent a letter of support but a few people like Mayor Dim and Councilman Bob Kaul thought the community would be best served by erecting the old signs at the county fairgrounds even though they have not lifted one finger to assist the museum anytime in the past and this sign project has been on the museum's radar for over two years

The Museum foundation wants to install the old Buffalo Jump sign describing the mall jump site and the old historical sign that used to be near the Vet Clinic east of town that describes local railroad, mining and other Havre history on private property along with the brick mural that is east of Murphy’s Pub. Interestingly the owner of the property has given the Museum Foundation a 49 year lease to develop a historical park to promote Havre’s points of historical interest.


Vote No to send this Cowboy Rat back out to pasture


The HDN article also went on to say that the council unanimously approved the foundation’s request which is not the truth. Councilman Bob Kaul voted NO to their request and the other 7 voted yes.  You don’t suppose that NO vote had anything to do with this private property owner erecting the Vote for Anybody but Bob Kaul sign downtown this spring do you? It certainly could be the case as I see numerous Vote for challenger Rick Dow signs on that property.  How petty is that?
 
I have noticed over the last couple of years that these volunteers with a heart for the museum are very active in promoting Havre’s fine points of interest. They rose over $15,000 for the mural, they are working on improving the Buffalo Jump, and they have held various fun activities for the kids such as the mall historical fun day, the Attala competition and a host of other events such as the historical play and dinner they are currently advertising to be held this upcoming Sunday. I stopped by the new Mural last week and was shocked to see the amount of $500 bricks that had been sold to local citizens to raise money for the foundation. If you haven’t stopped by the mural to view it close up you will be amazed at the dedication of these folks. The informational e-mail we received also went on to say that the mural and the erection of these signs is just the first phase in the plans to develop this park. People have already purchased concrete park benches and trees to make this park a reality and a member of our own city council, who is up for re-election by the way, casts the lone NO vote to this becoming a reality.

I don’t know about you but I will be casting my No vote for Cowboy Kaul to continue on as our city council representative which is a position he was only elected to in the first place because the Republicans failed to field a candidate against him in an uncontested race. Good luck to the foundation at this Wednesday’s Chamber Tourism Committee meeting where we would hope they would receive the Chambers blessing to get the ball rolling.