Volunteers importantat special fishing event

The 18th annual Fishing Has No Boundaries event for peo-ple with disabilities was held on the Eagle River Chain ofLakes Friday through Sunday. More than 50 volunteers as-sisted on the piers at Wild Eagle Lodge and on the 23 pon-toons donated by area businesses and residents.

--Staff Photo By GARY RIDDERBUSCH

To MAINES, Pg. 15A To ROONEY, Pg. 15A

EDITORIAL OPINION/COMMENTARY

14A VILAS COUNTY NEWS-REVIEW/THE THREE LAKES NEWS WEDNESDAY, JUNE 8, 2011

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SINCE 1985

AndyRooney

Eagle River Vindicator Established 1886Eagle River Review 1890 ~ Vilas County News 1892

VILASCOUNTY NEWS-REVIEW

MEMBER

Published weekly by Eagle River Publications, Inc., P.O. Box 1929, 425 W. Mill Street atEagle River, Wisconsin 54521 e-mail: erpub@nnex.net www.vcnewsreview.com

Member of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association and the National Newspaper Association

Publisher KURT KRUEGEREditor GARY RIDDERBUSCHAssistant Editor ANTHONY DREWLifestyle Editor MARIANNE ASHTONProduction Manager JEAN DREWAssistant Production Manager ELIZABETH BLEICHERPhoto Technician SHARINA ADAMSCopy Editor/Lead Typesetter JEAN DEDITZProofreader JEAN FITZPATRICKCirculation Manager ELIZABETH SCHMIDTAccounting Manager TERRY POSTOAdvertising Consultants MARY JO ADAMOVICH

DIANE GLEASONMARCIA HEYER

MADELINE MATHISENJASON MCCREA

Fishing Has No Boundariesshows heart of community

The greater Eagle River community showedits heart last weekend by staging, for the 18thstraight year, a Fishing Has No Boundaries eventthat gave people with disabilities a chance toenjoy the camaraderie, excitement and outdoorsplendor that goes with the sport of fishing.

The special fishing weekend attracted 81 par-ticipants from across Wisconsin and as far awayas Illinois. The turnout is a testament to the morethan 50 volunteers who plan and run this educa-tional and compassionate event, sharing theirtime, their friendship and their love of fishing.

This is truly a community effort, evidencedby widespread donations that included dozens ofpontoon boats as well as radios, porta-potties andlive bait. Volunteers make it happen, whetherserving food, helping anglers, tending the piers,cleaning boats, filleting fish, driving a boat ormaking sure donated boats find their way to andfrom the owners. There were four EMT boats onthe water to handle medical emergencies.

As all anglers know, a fishing trip is aboutseeing new places and new faces, experiencingnew challenges and taking in all the frills, fromevening fish fries to entertainment. Fishing HasNo Boundaries offers all of that to people whomight otherwise not have the opportunity.

Our photographers visited a couple of boatsSaturday morning on the water, and the laughterwe heard would bring a smile to anyone’s face.These anglers were having the time of their liveshauling in mostly crappies, bluegills and perch.The camaraderie in the boats was inspiring.

The event has had special appeal since itsmove to the Wild Eagle Lodge property four yearsago, a perfect setting with plenty of privatelyowned space for tents, parking, boat launchingand docking. Our hats are off to this nonprofit or-ganization and all its sponsors and volunteers, es-pecially longtime Chairman Wil Campbell.

While the financially strapped U.S. PostalService (USPS) continues to kick around the ideaof ending Saturday mail in hopes of saving an esti-mated $3 billion a year, the issue is more complexthan government analysts would have us believe.

First, five-day mail would be a disaster for alot more small businesses than the newspapersand other print media outlets that rely on Satur-day delivery for its publications.

According to the Postal Regulatory Commis-sion, (PRC), as much as 25% of first-class mailwould be delayed by two days. Small businessescount on first-class mail to bring in checks sothey can pay their bills, and nobody knows howmany cash-strapped businesses will be hurt.

Besides, Saturday mail would then be deliv-ered Mondays. But Monday is already the heaviestpostal volume day. If they add workers to handlethe extra load, would the plan still save money?

The PRC estimates that the Postal Servicewill lose $600 million in existing business byshifting to five-day mail — twice as much as the$300 million the Postal Service claims it will lose.

We aren’t convinced that ending Saturday mailis a good answer to Postal Service financial woes,and we know business owners need six-day mail.

Jury still out on USPS planto terminate Saturday mail

Our View

Behind the editorial ‘we’Members of the Vilas County News-Review

editorial board include Publisher Kurt Krueger,Editor Gary Ridderbusch and Assistant EditorAnthony Drew.

ANOTHER SCHOOL yearhas drawn to a close. Highschool and college graduateshave been showered withwords of wisdom by parents,teachers and representativesfrom all walks of life.

In case the graduatesweren’t paying attention, hereare a few messages that I feelevery person should heedwhether they are leavingschool or are well into theirlife’s journey.

About eight years ago, MarkWarner, then governor of Vir-ginia, told a graduating collegeclass, “Every person here whois graduating should find theirparents in the crowd and say,‘Thank you and I love you.’ It’llmake them feel good and it’llmake you feel good as well be-cause,let’s face it, in this world,billions of people will nevereven be able to dream of goingto college.

“You didn’t make it here onyour own. Your family helpedyou get here and they won’t bearound forever. So go aheadand say it. It will make you feelbetter and it may be the mostimportant thing you take awayfrom today’s celebration.”

Many people will tell you at-titude is important. There aremany reasons for that. Here iswhat Rich Wilkins has to say.

“Attitude isn’t simply a stateof mind, it is a reflection ofwhat we value. Attitude ismore than just saying ‘I can,’ itis believing you can.

“It requires believing beforeseeing, because seeing is basedon circumstances, believing isbased on faith. Attitude is socontagious, especially when weallow it to turn our doubts of thepast into passions of today andset the stage for our tomorrows.

“We have total ownership ofour attitudes. No one else hasthe power to alter our attitudeswithout our permission. Ourattitude allows us to becomemore empowering than money,to rise above our failures and toaccept others for who they areand what they say.

“It is more important thangiftedness and is the forerunnerof all skills needed for happinessand success. Our attitudes canbe used to build us up or put usdown — the choice is ours.

“It also gives us the wisdomto know that we can’t changeevents of the past. I am con-vinced that life is 10% whathappens to me and 90% how Irespond to it, and it’s with thisstate of mind that I remain incharge of my attitudes.”

The third message is calledThe Pareto Principle and itcomes from the teachings ofJohn Maxwell. He teaches peo-

ple about leadership.“The idea is this: If you

focus your attention on the ac-tivities that rank in the top20% in terms of importance,you will have an 80% returnon your effort.

“For example, if you have 10employees, you should give80% of your time and attentionto your best two people. If youhave 100 customers, the top 20will provide you with 80% ofyour business.

“If your to-do list has 10items on it, the two most im-portant ones will give you an80% return on your time. If youhaven’t already observed thisphenomenon, test it and you’llsee that it really works out.”

The three messages Warnershared with his audience havebeen tested over and over bymany successful people. Theyhave withstood the test of time.There is a reason for that.Learn from it and you will be-come successful leaders inwhatever field you choose.

* * *I WAS TALKING to a friend

who has two kids in college. Wewere talking about how natu-

ral disasters seem to be comingmore often and how they aremore deadly and costly.

That’s when the college kidschimed in. They agreed. Theysaid one day Facebook wasdown for two hours during theday and the response at schoolwas total shock and disbelief.

Thousands of studentswere lost. “We just didn’tknow what to do. It was such arelief when the site was backup and running.”

* * *JUST ABOUT everyone has

received a letter or an e-mailfrom a Nigerian with an oppor-tunity to make a large amountof money for simply helping theNigerian to get money out oftheir country.

I was thinking, why wouldanyone in Nigeria think of try-ing to scam people here inAmerica?

Do they think we’re stupid?Is that how they look at us?Have they tried scamming peo-ple in China?

Do cyber-criminals in theUnited States or Russia try todefraud people in Nigeria?

Maybe they look at our gov-ernment, the one with $1.6 tril-lion annual deficits, a $14.4trillion national debt, a govern-ment that has to borrow 45cents of every dollar to spendon unsustainable entitlementprograms . . . and they see amessed-up system that begs tobe scammed.

Education starts, does not end, with diploma

DO YOU REMEMBERyour first bear story?

Chances are, the very firstfairy tale was the one aboutGoldilocks and her threefurry buddies, but how aboutyour first real live bear story?

I don’t think I heard abear story before my first in-troduction to live bears, so, inessence, my initial meetingwith “Blackie,” a tryst sharedwith many other peopleparked in cars around thetown dump one summerevening, would be my firstbear story.

Though I don’t rememberdetails of that first night atthe dump, I do remember an-other when an idiot got out ofhis car and wandered up tohugging distance of a coupleof feeding bears to try andget a picture of them withtheir noses inside tin cans.

Then there was the night I

took a fair lass to the StarLake dump in my ’63 Ram-bler to “watch the bears,” ah,but perhaps that’s a storybetter saved for another time.

Then there was the time Irode my bike up the old rail-road grade from Uncle Neal’shouse to the Sayner dump. Itwas midafternoon, and I hada gunnysack with me to fillwith ripe tomatoes, cucum-bers and other veggies thatgrew in abundance in whatamounted to a gigantic com-post heap in the middle of thedump.

I hit the edge of the circleroad around the dump andcame to an abrupt halt as Idiscovered bears don’t neces-sarily wait for dark to cometo their favorite restaurant. Avery large bruin quickly con-vinced me that vegetablepicking could wait.

Fortunately, he didn’t findthe smell of burning tire rub-ber trailing back from myfast-disappearing bicyclemore appetizing than thevegetables upon which hewas gorging.

This spring, as usual, blackbear stories abound in thisneck of the woods, just asthey do every spring whenour furry friends wake upand start looking for food.

Most often, it seems, theyfigure a meal can be mosteasily procured from some-

Everyone has a bear story

ON THE DAY I write acolumn each week, my mindflits around looking for anidea that interests me andone I hope will interest you. Ilike football, the study of phi-losophy and anything aboutfood. The subject of religionis of great interest to me, al-though I’m not religious.

I could spend my life writ-ing about these topics, buteven though football is one ofmy favorite subjects, I’d prob-ably run out of things to sayabout it first. Football is lim-ited intellectually and, to begood to write about, I think atopic has to have some intel-lectual dimension. The studyof religion exceeds football inthat department. For all thenonsense there is about it,religion has that.

There’s no end to theoriesabout religion. The study ofreligion provokes more longand heated discussion thanany other subject — certainlymore than football.

When I was a freshman incollege, I got my first expo-sure to philosophy, and I washooked for life. When I wasgoing to school, they didn’tteach philosophy before col-lege. Philosophy isn’t forkids.

I don’t think many peoplewho get deep into the studyof philosophy are that reli-gious. I don’t think the twosubjects fit together well. Re-ligion is believing. Philosophyis skeptical. It’s skeptical ofreligion. It’s even skeptical ofphilosophy. I don’t thinkthere are many priests orministers who’d admit tobeing skeptical of religion.Those who are should findother work.

I’ve never heard whetherpriests and ministers getalong. They’re in the sameline of work but sometimeson opposite sides of the fence.If they didn’t get along,though, they probably would-n’t say anything about it. I’dlike to hear a priest and aminister talk about the dif-ferences in their beliefs.

The good thing about writ-

Some philosophicalthoughts on religion

People Make the DifferenceBy Byron McNutt

Trails& Tales

ByWill Maines

VILAS COUNTY NEWS-REVIEW/THE THREE LAKES NEWS WEDNESDAY, JUNE 8, 2011 15A

OP-ED/READER OPINION

one’s deck or garage.We had one of those bears

thinking that way last week, alittle guy who greeted my wifeshortly after she got homefrom work. He was intent onchecking out the grill on mydeck and paid no mind to thelady watching him throughthe window.

Once he decided the grillwouldn’t fill his belly, hechecked out the plastic tubwhich holds a store of sunflow-er seeds for the birds all win-ter but which is empty now.

Disappointed with the slimpickings on the deck, he am-bled back down the steps andstarted checking out whateversmelled interesting downbelow. The bags of compostand mulch held little interestfor him, and when my sudden-ly courage-filled wife tiptoedout on the deck to check outwhat he was doing, he took offlike a streak.

I suspect, given his size, heis in his second year, kickedout by Mama Bear somewhatrecently and still without aclue as to how he will obtainhis next meal.

Over the weekend, while atmy brother’s vacation mansionon Mead Lake near the centralWisconsin burg of Greenwood,I stopped in to visit MitchEichman, a friend with whommy wife and I have shared acondo at Lakewoods Resortnear Cable for the AmericanBirkebeiner each winter forsomewhere in the neighbor-hood of 20 years.

He and his wife, Cindy, livein a 100-plus-year-old farm-house just south of Thorpwhere Mitch plays gentlemanfarmer to three llamas, twodonkeys, a horse and fourdogs.

And oh, by the way, he hashis 12-year-old granddaughter,Jordan, to show him how toshoot turkeys and big bucks.Last fall, she shot her firstbuck in full flight at 107 paces,a dandy 10-pointer. Grinninghunter and said buck were

posed prominently in a photoMitch just happened to haveon hand to show me.

This spring, she got herfirst gobbler, a 25-pounderthat set the bar pretty high forGrandpa when his turn came.

But we’re getting awayfrom the subject. While visit-ing with Mitch, the subject ofbears came up, and I found outwe in the North aren’t theonly ones who get visits.

I think Mitch said it was aweek ago when, while enter-taining friends, they all sat inthe upstairs sunroom of hishome and watched a bigbuster of a bear run 200 yardsacross a field from the west,cross the highway and thenrun practically through theyard on the way to a woodedcreek bottom a few hundredyards from the house.

Even more interesting washis story of four bears hisneighbors discovered lastNovember during the gun deerseason, curled up together in aswale of tall grass, soundasleep for the winter withoutthe faintest vestige of a den.

They left them alone, andthe bears — a sow, two cubsand a yearling — maintainedtheir slumber in the same spotall winter.

In January, several friends,along with Mitch, decided tosneak down the creek bottomto check on the bears. One guywas shaking in his boots allthe way and literally crawledaway on all fours at 50 perwhen the group got too closefor his liking.

The fellow’s wife, braver byfar — and worse, much morefoolish — decided to walk upto the four sleeping bears andpet one of them. Not some-thing I’d do but, in this case,after she patted it a few times,it stirred, got up and walkedaway.

Deciding discretion wasneeded, the group backed offand left the bears alone. Soonafter, the sleepwalking bruincame back and rejoined itsfriends to sleep away the restof the winter.

I can’t top that story, but if Iwere to try, did I ever tell youabout the time . . .

ing about religion is that younever run out of material.And no matter what, some-one who will be offended bywhat you write.

Atheists suspect there’s noGod. My grandfather was amilitant atheist. My fatherand mother didn’t go tochurch, but said they werePresbyterians and sent me toMadison Avenue Presbyteri-an Church. I was indifferentto the religion, but I liked

going because there weregirls who attended the ser-vices.

I had an aunt and unclewho were serious Baptists.They didn’t approve of mynot going to church veryoften, and they didn’t like itthat my mother took me to aPresbyterian church. I knewmany Catholics, but I neverlearned the difference be-tween the Presbyterians, theBaptists and the Methodists.

I was Presbyterian, butdon’t ask me why. Some of mybest friends were Catholic. Iwas in love with Lucy Buck-

ley, and she was not onlyCatholic but three years olderthan I was.

The closest I came to beingreligious was attending HomeTime on Sunday afternoonsat a church near a friend’shouse. I liked the name and Iliked the girls who came,even though I was never sureabout the religious aspect ofthe meetings.

(Write to Andy Rooney atTribune Media Services, 2225Kenmore Ave., Suite 114, Buf-falo, NY 14207 or e-mail ataarooney5@yahoo.com)

RooneyFROM PAGE 14A

MainesFROM PAGE 14A

Letter to the Editor:Again all-terrain vehicle

(ATV) routes are being re-quested for Vilas County. Thistime enthusiasts want to usepublic roads to get to theUpper Michigan trails. Thisissue was rejected in 2004 bythe citizens of Vilas County.

In addition, the Departmentof Natural Resources board re-jected ATV trails in the North-ern Highland-American Le-gion State Forest in 2008. Thelatest request is to appeal totown, city and county officials.I ask these elected officials tothink through this request.

Has anyone asked thelandowners along the request-ed route how they feel? Hasanyone asked landownerswithin a mile of the requestedroute? Aside from the noise,dust and enforcement issues,the safety issue should be up-permost in the minds of ourelected officials. Imagine beinga landowner who uses thesame roads daily — to go towork, to run errands, etc. Thereis definitely a safety issue.

Several years ago, I was vis-iting Iron County for possiblevacation plans. While there, Ibecame extremely uncomfort-

able sharing the roads withATV enthusiasts. Imaginetraveling in a vehicle the samedirection as a group of ATVs.

While the vehicle drivercould go 55 mph, the ATVdrivers are going 25 to 35 mph.So you are thinking, well justpass them. Not so fast, there’sdust obscuring the way andsome of the ATV riders arezigzagging in their group. Yourealize some of these driversare children. You wonder if youcan trust a rider not to zip outinto the road a little more asyou pass the group.

Now, what if from the oppo-site direction there’s anotherconvoy of ATVs heading to-ward you? This is what I en-countered. I couldn’t wait toget off that road.

Think about being alandowner who needs to usethe road on a daily basis. Ican’t imagine what it’s like todeal with this on a daily basis.By the way, I have not re-turned to Iron County sincethen. I encourage you to ex-press your concerns for thesafety on our roads to yourelected officials.

Lauri GerlachSayner

Concerned about safetywith ATVs on roads

Dear Editor:I have an idea. I think it’s

time to start a new party. Weshould call it the “USA Free-dom Party.”

It is time to get rid of the Re-publican, Democrat and TeaParty parties. They do not carefor us. All they want is powerand money. I think our goalshould be a balanced budgetwith also drawing down the na-tional debt. Too many foreigncountries owe us.

Term limits that wouldbreak up the “good old boys” so-ciety. Maybe we then could getpeople in Washington who real-ly care for this great country ofours. We should also freezetheir wages, no more perks, nomore pay for serving on com-mittees.

I also believe we should endbailouts and breaks for big

companies and banks becauseof their stupid decisions — be-sides, they do not care forAmerica; all they want ismoney. We should give thepresident line-item veto powerso that we can stop pork-barrelspending, one that theSupreme Court can’t turndown.

I think we should put refer-endums on the ballot when wevote; that way Americans canpass them, instead of a fewhundred House and Senatemembers who do not care forthe people of this great coun-try.

Again, people of America, itis time for change — let’s takeour country back with theUSA Freedom Party.

Thank you,Laurie MugerauerEagle River

Time to start new party

Dear Editor:I think Mr. Boscamp is con-

fused. In his letter of May 25,he wrote, “If all-terrain vehicles(ATVs) want to be on the pave-ment of our roads and high-ways from May through Octo-ber, why can’t we let snowmo-biles do the same?”

Either he is pulling our legagain or he is unaware of Wis-consin Statute 23.33, whichstates that an ATV “must be 10feet or more from the roadwaysurface (shoulder) of U.S. num-bered highways, state or coun-

ty highways.” This can befound on page 12 of the Wiscon-sin ATV manual. Yes, we dohave one!

I assume law 23.33 is for theprotection of ATV riders and themotoring public — you and Iand our children. Why the coun-ty of Vilas is trying to get aroundthis statute is beyond me.

Please vote “no” on the ATVonline survey being conductedby the town of Conover byJune 30.

Ellen ZittlowEagle River

ATVs must run 10 feet off roadDear Editor:

There are two items Iwould like to address. First, Iwant to thank you for your ed-itorial of June 1. I have noproblem with the concealed-carry legislation beingbrought forth in Madison.But, like you, I feel verystrongly that there should bea period of training required,as well as a permit, to carry aconcealed weapon.

I also feel that the names ofthose persons who have ap-plied for and have received apermit should be made public.

The second item refers tothe letter written by Mr. Har-vey Hyslop. In his letter, he

blasts Democrats for challeng-ing the Supreme Court elec-tion between Ms. Kloppen-burg and Justice Prosser.

He states: “Why are theseparties so eager to put ourstate in further financial andpolitical chaos?” And later: “Itseems to me that it is time toget over the past election andget on with the serious busi-ness necessary to make ourgreat state prosperous onceagain.”

And finally: “Are we goingto continue with a republicform of government, wherethe voters decide their repre-sentatives, or are we going torely on trickery by special-in-terest groups?”

I can only guess that Mr.Hyslop forgot all about the

presidential election of 2000.Was it not the Republicanswho were challenging whatappeared to be the election ofAl Gore? Was it not the Re-publicans who could not ac-cept the defeat of George W.Bush?

Was it not the Republicanswho dragged the electionthrough the courts, finallyending up before the U.S.Supreme Court? And was itnot the Republicans who hadtheir conservative court electMr. Bush and disregarded thewill of the voters?

People should rememberthat when President Clintontook office, our national bud-get was in the red due to Mr.Reagan’s tax cuts which, bythe way, did not create jobs.

When Mr. Clinton left office,there was no deficit and wecould well have been on theway to reducing our nationaldebt.

But after George W. Bushtook office, he signed into lawa tax-cut bill which did notcreate jobs and entered usinto two wars that he had noidea how to pay for. When heleft office, our country was al-ready in debt for trillions ofdollars.

I believe that the right-wingers are against PresidentObama, not for his politics butbecause he is a Democrat andhe is black. That is plain andsimple racism.

Thomas KernThree Lakes

Don’t forget the presidential election of 2000

About 70,000 studentsare graduating from ourstate’s public high schoolsthis spring. As they marchto the strains of “Pomp andCircumstance,” their par-ents, families, teachers andfriends share in this proudcelebration. This is an ac-complishment. You graduat-ed. Look to the future.

Graduation from highschool was not always theexpectation. It hasn’t beenthat long since students asyoung as 16 could legallydrop out before earning ahigh school diploma. It wasa step in the right directionfor legislators to change ourstate’s compulsory school at-tendance law.

The future requires edu-cation, and the vast majorityof our students graduate,with many pursuing studiesbeyond high school.

Wisconsin has one of thehighest graduation rates inthe nation. This is some-thing we can be proud of, butwhat does it mean to be agraduate?

Students who earn a pub-lic high school diploma inWisconsin have studied fouryears of English, three yearsof social studies and twoyears each of mathematicsand science.

Public high school gradu-ates also earn one and one-half credits in physical edu-cation and one-half credit inhealth. On average, ourgraduates earn another 10.6credits that include addi-tional math and scienceclasses, art and music, worldlanguages, career and tech-nical education or othercourses of their choosing.

Educators have devel-oped a well-rounded curricu-lum so dedicated studentsleave high school ready forcollege or careers.

To further ensure thatstudents learn what theyneed for the future, Wiscon-sin is aligning courseworkwith the Common CoreState Standards, which re-flect the real-world knowl-edge and skills needed forcollege and careers.

We also are looking atmore options for dual enroll-ment, which allows studentsto earn both high school andcollege credits, and schoolsin the Wisconsin InnovationLab Network are exploringpersonalized and perfor-mance-based learning tokeep every student chal-lenged and engaged.

Graduation from highschool is an important mile-stone. It is a take-off pointfor further study andgrowth. I congratulate our2011 graduates and wishthem success.

Tony Evers is the state su-perintendent of public in-struction.

WHAT OTHERS SAY

Our graduates look to the future___________

BY TONY EVERS___________

Letters policyThe Vilas County News-Review/The Three Lakes

News welcomes letters from its readers. Letters should bewritten legibly, or typed, and must include the name, ad-dress and telephone number of the writer. No letters willbe published without the writer’s name. Initials and/orpseudonyms will not be used. Unsigned letters will be dis-regarded. While the maximum limit is 700 words, writersshould note that shorter letters will receive top priority.No political letters will appear in the last issue prior to anelection. They should be mailed to us at P.O. Box 1929,Eagle River, WI 54521; e-mail address: erpub@nnex.net.

16A WEDNESDAY, JUNE 8, 2011 VILAS COUNTY NEWS-REVIEW/THE THREE LAKES NEWS

READER OPINION

Dear Editor:As towns (and hopefully

chamber of commerce offices)are surveying people aboutwhether or not to allow all-ter-rain vehicles (ATV) access inVilas County, I wish to expressmy opinions.

I am opposed to ATVs on anypublic lands or roadways inVilas County. The argumentthat allowing ATVs will boostthe local economy is a veryshortsighted view.

Deep Lake Road, which iscurrently designated as amountain biking trail andhunter/hiking trail, is part ofthe recently proposed ATVroute. Right there, there are po-tential user conflicts. There areat least six gated and/orbermed logging roads andsnowmobile trails along DeepLake Road that would be verytempting to rogue riders.

Deep Lake itself is a fragilebog ecosystem, easily accessiblefrom the road. Imagine ATVtracks ripping up or compact-

ing the bog mat. People come here for the

beauty and serenity of the nat-ural world. The way to main-tain or boost our economy is byletting people know whatmakes Vilas County unique. Wehave one of the highest concen-trations of high-quality lakesand forests (in the world), andwe care about them enough tonot allow ATV access.

If you want long-term eco-nomic stability, keep Vilas Coun-ty ATV free, and highlight thatas a selling point as to why peo-ple would want to come here.

There will come a day, in thenot-too-distant future, whenpeople throughout the statewill be looking for a place to es-cape from the noise, fumes, dustand scarred landscapes that goalong with ATVs.

Vilas County is the onlycounty in Wisconsin that does-n’t allow ATVs. That is a valu-able selling point.

Sandy Lotto Eagle River

Vilas should market ATV-free county

Dear Editor:Rep. Dan Meyer’s June 3

vote in the Joint Finance Com-mittee, to roll back the phos-phorus standard, would haveallowed more of this fertilizingnutrient to be discharged intoWisconsin waters. Meyer’s wasa vote against the economicengine of the 34th District.

Priorities in Wisconsin, andmost particularly in the dis-trict Meyer represents, are toprotect the things that sustainand move our economy for-ward. Meyer’s vote was not thevote of a steward acting to pro-tect Wisconsin lakes, rivers

and groundwaters, to sustainour tourist economy, to protectthe jobs that service Wiscon-sin's tourists and residents,nor to sustain waterfrontproperty values and the enor-mous real estate tax base theyprovide for towns and countiesacross the state.

Any change in phosphorusstandards never belonged inthis bill, because it had no fis-cal impact, and lower phospho-rus standards violate a federallaw that has served to improvewater quality throughout theUnited States.

Vilas County alone has

1,324 lakes, miles of streamsand many springs and ponds.Private citizens, local lake andriver associations, town andcounty governments work to-gether to guard water quality.

Local businesses and gov-ernmental units are sustainedto a large degree by tourists,who come here to recreate onlakes and rivers. Real estatetaxes from properties on29,300 miles of lake shorelinein Wisconsin support commu-nity services. Not even includ-ed in this shoreline distanceare the taxed miles of shore-line properties on our rivers

and ponds.

Fortunately, all six Republi-can senators and four Joint Fi-nance Committee Democratsvoted to strike out the phospho-rus rollback from the budgetbill. We thank them for havingthe vision to protect the naturalresource that drives the third-largest sector of our state’seconomy and the courage toguard our natural resources.When we protect Wisconsinnatural resources, these fea-tures pay us back more dollarsthan anyone can count.

Sandy GillumEagle River

Some lawmakers protect natural resources

Dear Editor:In the June 1 edition of your

paper, the Wisconsin EducationAssociation Council claims that“Scott Walker admitted the billwas never intended to be about‘budget repair,’ but instead, away to bust public employee

unions.”This is an outright lie being

told by the state’s largest unionof education. Is this their goal— to teach the younger genera-tion that lying is acceptable?

I knew Walker would nevermake such a stupid statement,

so I called his office. I wasright. He never did say hewanted to bust the unions.

What a shame that we can’ttrust our educators to betruthful.

Mary Lou HakeConover

It wasn’t about busting unions

Dear Editor:The Teaching Drum Out-

door School in Three Lakes isstarting a collection of wildbird eggshells to help studentsidentify those they find in thewoods. Will you please ask yourreaders to give us a call at (715)546-2944 when they find aban-

doned eggs or shells fromhatched birds and we will pickthem up. We hold a federal fishand wildlife permit to collectnonviable eggs and shells.

Thank you,Tamarack SongDirector, Teaching DrumThree Lakes

School seeking bird eggshells

Letter to the Editor:No new taxes, no new

taxes, big spending cuts to ed-ucation, senior care, etc. Thishas been the theme of the TeaParty. Now all of a suddenthere seems to be lots of tax-payers’ monies to spend on re-call elections.

Ms. Simac, leader of the re-call effort in this area, has de-cided to run against Sen.Holperin. What about those ofus who don’t agree with this

recall? We will still have topay for it through our taxes.Let those people or partieswho want this recall come upwith the money to sponsor it.

We don’t need to spendmoney on this needless recallelection. Those who want torun for office should bringtheir agenda before the votersand campaign at the propertime for the general election.

Jane O’BrienEagle River

Recall election wasting money

HIDING OUT — While this newborn whitetailed deer thought it wasprotected by the leaves on the forest floor and fresh blades of

green grass, the photographer spotted it along a town road in thetown of Lincoln Monday. --Staff Photo By GARY RIDDERBUSCH