GEORGETOWN LAKE
Neighbors Blue About Montana Governor’s New Neighborhood
By Headwaters News, 7-31-07
Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s new home on Georgetown Lake must be a sight to behold. Gwen Florio’s article in Monday’s Great Falls Tribune paints an inviting picture of the 4,000-square-foot cedar and sandstone house that juts out into a picturesque bay on Montana’s Georgetown Lake with the Pintler Mountains towering in the distance.
Schweitzer paid $2 million just for the land, buying two lots in industrialist Dennis Washington’s Badger Bay subdivision, where the Schweitzer’s four-bedroom, six bath home is the first to be built.
The governor says he’s glad to be making his home among the blue-collar folk of the state--people who herald from Butte, Anaconda and Phillipsburg.
But longtime residents of the area say the governor’s new neighborhood is anything but blue-collar. The Badger Bay subdivision will have 51 homes an lots that range in size from two acres to nine acres, and some of the new homeowners in the subdivision are from areas a little outside the state’s borders, with at least one from China.
And as disgruntled as those longtime residents were about the Badger Bay subdivision, the planned Lakeside at Georgetown subdivision, a high-density development, really irks them. That subdivision on Denton Point, across the lake from the Badger Bay subdivision, calls for lots three-eighths an acre in size, and one septic tank--located just yards away from the lake--will serve the entire subdivision.
Schweitzer agrees with critics’ concern about sewage from the Denton Point subdivision, but remains assured that people will approve of the Badger Bay subdivision.
And if the house becomes a campaign issue for the popular Democratic governor when he runs for re-election in 2008, he can simply remind voters that Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Nelson Rockefeller, all multi-millionaires—were quite popular with blue-collar voters.
When will DEQ and state Water Quality Bureau begin enforcing the state environmental LAWS at Georgetown Lake? The 'cummulative impacts' of subdivisions require an environmental analysis and or environmental impact staement 'draft' for public review and comment.That is the Montana Enironmental Policy Act (MEPA). We didn't write the laws so why can't they be enforced? Call the Attorney General. Will we all set by and watch Georgetown Lake to continue to be destroyed?Get the news media out there and let's talk about the LAWS. The area is over-developed now and soap suds going into the lake. Who is sampling after the permits were issued? NO ONE!Where is the sampling data DEQ?
What about Denton boatdock which has USFS public land? Because the 'dumb' Granite Co. Bd approves the subdivisions doesn't mean its a done deal. They have to obtain state permits from the state agencies required to enforce the laws.Why are they rubber stamping permits at Georgetown Lake?
Then we have the wimpy FWP. How will our fisheries be protected? Motorboats for water skiing and other toys have turned Georgetown Lake into a circus.The shoreline is being eroded with this activity. Look at Rainbow Bay. Then we have the new boat docks for the rich. Those boatdocks require permits from the Corps of Engineers ,Bur. of Reclamation and public input on the draft E.A. as well. Where are the E.A's for all the new boatdocks? Yes, lets start following the environmental laws that were signed by previous governor's. If agency people won't follow the laws fire them. Why do we need them? DEQ has one of the largest staffs in the state but just set on their 'duff' in Helena. WHERE IS THE DRAFT EIS FOR BADGER BAY AND DENTON PT.SUBDIVISONS FOR PUBLIC REVIEW??? USFS PUBLIC LAND NEXT TO CO.RD. CLOSED AT BADGER BAY? WHY?WHERE IS THE USFS HIDING?