Sanders County Ledger - Your Best Source For Sanders County News

50 YEARS AGO • APRIL 16, 1970

SURVEY SAYS FACILITIES IN FALLS INADEQUATE

Residents of Thompson Falls find more of their facilities and services are inadequate and the boat dock, streets and swimming pool are the objects of the most criticism according to the community survey recently completed by the Jaycees.

The only facility the residents consider "very good" is the library.

In the survey, residents were asked to check 40 different items according to whether they thought they were "Very good, adequate, inadequate or don't know."

Facilities and services gaining an adequate rating were: Garbage collection; postal service; newspaper service; fire protection; court and medical services; street system; traffic regulations; golf facilities; parks and picnic areas; public meeting place; elementary school staff, educational program and building and equipment; junior high staff and educational program; high school staff; restaurants, hotels and motels and general appearance and attractiveness of the community.

Items rated as inadequate included: water supply; storm water drainage; law enforcement and police protection; zoning ordinances; dental service; hospital service; parking in business district; sidewalks; maintenance and cleaning of streets; recreation opportunities for all ages; public meeting place for teenage social activities; swimming facilities; playgrounds for children; cultural opportunities; junior high building and equipment; high school education program and building and equipment; service and repair facilities; shopping facilities; public rest rooms in business districts and job opportunities for all ages, and community planning and development program.

Items which a majority of residents answering the survey marked "don't know" are: Legal services, welfare services and health department services.

The survey also requested residents to name the most important things which need to be done to make this a better community. In this category the three most mentioned needs were street improvements, swimming pool improvements and a better boat dock.

The Jaycees plan to rebuild the dock and hope to improve the boat loading ramp, according to Bob Hill, Jaycee president.

The junior high building was built in 1922 as the high school building at the time, and was torn down in the late 1970s. The city swimming pool was a tiny one on the corner of Preston Avenue and Washington Street, the present swimming pool was built in 1972. At this time the library was located in City Hall. The boat dock then is where it is presently, however there was no Wild Goose Landing Park. That space was a trailer court, had small cabin rentals and was not at street level, it dipped down to water level.

BN NIXES PARK AS MUSEUM SITE

Officials of the Thompson Falls – Noxon Chamber of Commerce here are gaining the impression that the old Northern Pacific Railway Co. and now the Burlington Northern are not eager to assist them with an area museum project. The chamber has been turned down three times for help in developing a museum. The latest rejection was in response to request for permission to erect a log building to house the museum on railroad property which has been leased to the town of Thompson Falls since 1939 for use as a public park. The Rose Garden Park.

Two previous requests from the chamber to the railroad for a donation of an old, used or abandoned passenger coach to house a museum were turned down by the railroad also.

D.J. Brockway, chamber president, said a new site for the proposed museum has not been determined yet.