SHERIFF: Livable wages required

Sheriff Norris has a valid point. These people protect us day and night and their wages are completely inadequate.

A friend in the Spokane force told me that when they recruit, a large number of applicants can’t pass the background or the physical check so that shrinks the number of applicants. In this county and now in Spokane, the price of housing is prohibitive.

I Googled what it would take to buy a house in Kootenai County. One would have to make $40 an hour to purchase a home here. And rent has skyrocketed.

Perhaps ignite cda should quit buying property and selling it to developers who build more homes for millionaires. Will all these millionaires enjoying their new condos on the river really want to live in a community that has no restaurants because the wait staff can’t afford to live here? Will they have to jet down to L.A. to get a decent meal?

Developers always say they want to build workforce housing and yet, when the housing is built, it is beyond what the workforce can pay for housing. I read that a developer in the county wanted to build housing for low-income people, but his plan called for three-bedroom, two-bath homes.

It’s time to wake up and time for the commissioners to wake up. We need our deputies in this county. As population has increased, so has crime as Sheriff Norris has told us. The deputies need a living wage.

DONNA HARVEY

Hayden