Planned growth will ruin community

Dear editor,

I wouldn't "shoot the messenger;" just the message. The recent editorial about Roger Brooks International (At least give 'em a chance before shooting messenger, May 8 Mountain Home News) is by no means the first time I've heard "Let's turn Mountain Home into another Meridian" over the past 30 years.

At the pre-election forum last year, nearly every candidate wanted to continue stuffing 10 pounds of potatoes in a five-pound bag. Our current mayor proposed bringing in a special team from Burley.

For what? Is it some sort of social disease to allow peaceful little small towns to exist?

Mountain Home used to BE one.

When I first came here 44 years ago, there was a sign in Railroad Park that read "Mountain Home Pop. 3410."

It was not just some old saying either. I lived here when you really COULD go on vacation, leave your house unlocked, keys in the pickup, and everything WOULD still be there when you got back.

Cars and schools weren't being broken into, we didn't have the vandalism we have now, it didn't take half the morning to get in and out of a store and you could pull out onto a boulevard without having to wait for half the county to go by.

Taxes will continue to rise, gang activity will increase as they continue to move in here, and where is all this additional WATER going to come from? The carpet baggers never mention that. Mountain Home is too crowded as it is.

Meridian is a sterling example. Once the population of our town today, they're now sitting on each other's laps, breathing exhaust smog (did I mention annual "emissions testing" for nearly everything you drive?)

Tell 'ya what. Before we talk about bringing in more industry and people to Mountain Home, go out into your backyard. Walk around a bit. Look up at the blue sky and breathe deeply.

Then, on your next trip to Boise, after you crest the hill past the rest area, gaze out across the Ada County horizon. Is THAT would you'd rather breathe?

Like ol' Gillespie with his nuclear plant proposal a few years back, most of these "experts" looking to profit, do not LIVE here. Yet they always seem to know "what's best for us."

Next thing you know, somebody'll wanna build an HOA neighborhood here, so they can dictate what color you have to paint your trash cans.

It's not a crime to be a small, peaceful little town. It really isn't.

-- Mike Bradbury,

Mountain Home