THE GUARDIAN received the following letter from Mr. Eugene Smith of Caldwell. Mr. Smith submitted the below letter to the local paper per their stated requriements. He received a call from the Opinion Page Editor that his letter would not be published.
THE GUARDIAN is publishing Mr. Smith's letter in the spirit of a debate about the issues of the day.
Idaho Press Tribune
1618 Midland Blvd.
Nampa, Idaho 83651
Dear Editor,
Recently there was an announcement on the radio that business was coming back to downtown Caldwell. Has the attitude toward business by Mayor Nancolas, the City Council, and city department heads changed? If change has occurred, is it because there is an election looming? Those are important questions to ask. A survey of most businessmen in Caldwell would indicate the City of Caldwell is not particularly business friendly and our downtown is dying.
A recent example is the “BIG BOX” retailer who wanted to locate a store just east of the Flying J and new freeway off ramp. Instead of expediting and welcoming this project to our community, city officials stretched the time envelope until it was clear to the retailer that economic conditions had become so negative they could not precede.
Caldwell lost several hundred much needed jobs and a significant amount of tax income. The retailer is moving the project to a nearby community that already has a large expanding retail base.
The real question here is: Are Mayor Nancolas and the incumbent city councilors serious in their attempts to make Caldwell a business friendly community, or is this just another case of election jitters and political smoke and mirrors? They clearly lost sight of the fact that “time is of the essence” with real estate transactions.
It should be obvious to most people business will tend to locate in business friendly environments. The “environment” starts at city hall and how folks are treated when they come to our community. Business friendly environment is something that has been missing in the city of Caldwell for quite some time.
Eugene Smith
Caldwell, Idaho
Eugene and Paul:
ReplyDeleteWhen Phil Bridges called to speak to Mr. Smith, Phil said about five words before Mr. Smith hung up the phone. Had he stayed on the phone, we would have been able to explain that because there's no documentation the claims the letter makes about the city's negotiations with the "big box" store that was looking at moving to Caldwell, we couldn't print the letter. Had Mr. Smith listened to Phil, he would have found out what he could have done to get his letter published. If Mr. Smith wanted to provide valid proof — besides gossip or hearsay or anonyomous (note misspelled annonomous above) information, we would have printed the letter. He also could have altered that part a bit and his letter would be accepted.
Vickie Holbrook has let people say things in the past about other people that have not been substantiated. These have been individuals not even running for political office, and then later they were proven to be false what’s the deal? Some get a pass because of who they are then the others are held at a higher standard because that is her excuse to exclude their comments is that how it works?
ReplyDeleteThe Idaho Press Tribune has been filtering peoples opinions that don't agree with Vickie Holbrook for a very long time. They will only print opinions that fits her position. The post above is very true. The ones who get a pass are the ones that agree with what Vickie agrees with. I stopped taking the IPT a long time ago because it is nothing but a propaganda pushing piece of crap. They will not print stories that go against the positions of Vickie. She has single handily made the IPT worthless as far as any meaningful news is concerned. I keep hoping they will go broke and go away as their subscriptions keep dwindling but so far they have managed to stay in business.
ReplyDeleteThis may sound mean but it would then encourage someone to bring in a news paper that actually prints the news and gives everyone a voice on community issues. As long as the IPT is allowed to keep spreading it's propaganda that is all we are going to get.
Mr Smith has found out what most of us have known for a long time. If it don't agree with Vickie it won't get printed. They need to rename the the Press Tribune to "Vickie Holbrook's Community View". Instead they try to push their paper as news. They haven't printed any news since Rick Coffman left the paper years ago. It stopped being a news paper when Vickie took over.
ReplyDeleteThe Press tribune won't even let some one place an Ad in their paper if it dosen't agree with what Vickie thinks. If it goes against what she beleives it won't get in. She is the queen of the IPT. This is why I stopped subscribing to it. They will only print what they want the public to know. If it doesn't fit their agenda they hide it from the public or they spin it to fit their agenda. This paper is a total waste of of your money and time to read it.
ReplyDelete