“Absolutely not handsome”
That was Councilman Dave Strohmaier’s conclusion a couple weeks ago on ExxonMobil’s super-sized mobiles. No beauty pageant tiara for you, big rigs.
Strohmaier offered the trucks the big fat zero — like an “O” for obese — on May 10 when the Missoula City Council took up a resolution urging the Montana Department of Transportation to do an in-depth environmental review.
In 1943 Joseph Kinsey Howard … published his history of Montana, titled “Montana: High, Wide and Handsome.” In my estimation this proposed undertaking is certainly high and wide but it’s absolutely not handsome. I think if anything is befitting of intense scrutiny and the level of analysis required by an Environmental Impact Statement it is a project like this that certainly has the potential to create significant impacts for our community here in Missoula and throughout the state, both short term and long term…
We may be able to take look ourselves in June when these monster trucks roll through town for a ConocoPhillips project. I’d say one wrong move on their part, and Exxon is in even bigger trouble around here.
In other news, last night, some dignitaries from New Zealand dropped in on the council meeting. They were from Missoula’s sister city, Palmerston North, a place one guest said generates 55 percent of the power it uses.
Wind appears to be the main fuel, and Councilman Jason Wiener has a sisterly proposal to let folks in Missoula put up windmills, too. It’s an update to Missoula’s new zoning regulations, and it’s up for discussion this Wednesday.
At the meeting, Mayor John Engen introduced some visitors of his own, some family members. The New Zealanders proffered a flag, and not to be outdone, Engen said his cousins brought chocolate-dipped potato chips. (True? A joke? A true joke? I couldn’t tell.)
Were the snacks the thing that prompted one dignitary to turn to the cousins with a compliment? “You are beautiful women,” he told them.
– Keila Szpaller
May 28th, 2010 at 10:30 am
[...] wasn’t sure this week if Mayor John Engen was joking when he mentioned the chocolate-covered potato chips his North Dakota relatives brought [...]