SOB club featured Compton, too
Dick Compton didn’t make friends when he voted in the 2-1 majority on March 6, 2000, to allow BNSF to build a refueling depot near Hauser.
His vote wasn’t a surprise. Nor was the deciding one cast by fellow Republican Dick Panabaker.
They had tipped their hands earlier in the year by refusing to second a motion by the third commissioner, Ron Rankin, to reject the conditional-use permit.
“The thing that I will probably be remembered for is I’m the son of a bitch that OK’d the Burlington Northern depot,” Panabaker told a reporter years later.
On Monday, the Press profile on Compton, now 87 and ailing, brought back the BNSF depot turmoil.
On the day of the vote, BNSF officials and the opposing Friends of the Aquifer were ready for the outcome. Each side had prepared statements based on expected commission approval.
Friends of the Aquifer had gathered 5,000 signatures opposing the project. Many county residents feared that Compton and Panabaker had sold out the region’s drinking water to aid an industry with a spotty environmental record.
In his motion to approve the BNSF plan, Compton got little credit for including 33 conditions to protect the aquifer. Among other terms, he forced the railroad to pay for a state environmental officer to be stationed at the depot to keep an eye on things.
Opponents accused Compton of bowing to pressure from “big business.”
But Compton believed the comprehensive plan at the time allowed projects like the refueling depot. BNSF could have appealed to the federal Surface Transportation Board. And won approval to build the 500,000-gallon depot without the laundry list of county requirements.
After a successful career as an IBM exec, Compton served as a commissioner and a state senator.
His crowning achievement in public office was his skill to make a refueling depot over a sole-source aquifer work for business — and the environment.
Sighted
Diane Tuntland recalls her encounter with Pierce Brosnan during the 1996 filming of “Dante’s Peak” in Wallace. The reigning James Bond actor at the time, Brosnan rented the house across the Spokane River from Diane. She grabbed her son’s binoculars upon spying Brosnan outdoors for the first time. But she couldn’t make them focus. So, she raced back into the house for the boy’s toy telescope. Same result. Desperate, she snatched junior’s .22 rifle with scope. Finally, she sighted the actor clearly — in the crosshairs. And realized how that might look to neighbors or boaters on the river. At that point, Diane tells Huckleberries, “I went back into the house and scoped him through the kitchen window!” Later, Diane relates, she stood outside on the dock, sans rifle, with her thumb out when a yacht carrying Brosnan passed. It was en route to fireworks on Lake Coeur d’Alene. Alas, she said, 007 didn’t stop.
Huckleberries
• Poet’s Corner: A lovely gift/in time for Yule:/an aquifer/of diesel fuel — The Bard of Sherman Avenue lamenting the refueling depot at Hauser (“Thank you, BNSF”).
• And the answer to chuckling Anna Heisey’s question is: The writers of those Healthy Community advertorials on Page C10 Wednesday — Dr. Wayne M. Fichter Jr. and Holly Carling — provide their own headlines. It was a happy coincidence then that the top column headline read: “Is your gut causing you pain?” And the bottom one responded, “My digestion is fine, thank you.”
• Daniella Cross of Coeur d’Alene is among those who want Wikipedia to correct its claim that the Lake City is a “satellite of Spokane.” Says Daniella: “I would clarify to say that Coeur d’Alene is a refugee, day camp for Spokane.” Huckleberries seconds that emotion.
• Tom Richards of the Enaville Resort now sees the glass as half full. He has mistakenly complained for years that the historic building was drafty and poorly insulated. It turns out, he says, that the Snake Pit “is the best ventilated restaurant in all of Idaho.”
• A friend who manages a Coeur d’Alene retail business is bone-tired of dealing with potential cuss-tomers who ignore the chain store’s mask rules. And then angrily stomp off when she tells them to mask up. “Don’t Tread on Me” types don’t mind treading on others.
Parting Shot
At 101, Freda Catalano, of Post Falls, still can putt straighter than Seasoned Citizens decades younger. On Sunday, March 14, Freda’s son, former FBI special agent Wayne Manis, escorted her to the Garden Plaza putting green. Wayne dropped a golf ball about 6 feet from the hole and challenged her to knock it in. Plop. She hit it dead center. Then, Wayne did it again. And his mother nailed a second putt. On the third try, she missed by inches. Freda once had a hole in one at a tournament. Now, her golf ability amazes her son and the 102 Facebook friends who responded to his post about the outing. Wayne agrees with everyone who said how fortunate he is to have an active mother at her age. Or any age.
• • •
D.F. “Dave” Oliveria can be contacted at dfo@cdapress.com.
