{"id":308,"date":"2009-01-17T08:11:02","date_gmt":"2009-01-17T15:11:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/?p=308"},"modified":"2009-01-18T17:45:52","modified_gmt":"2009-01-19T00:45:52","slug":"weve-been-had","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/?p=308","title":{"rendered":"We’ve Been Had"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"conceptual_drawing_small\"Funny how these announcements<\/a> always show up in the Saturday papers, so the outrage is muted. For those of us who have been watching this little drama with, shall we call it a “jaundiced eye”, can retreat into our “I knew he’d do that” mode.<\/p>\n

Four years ago, the Montana legislature appropriated $7.5 million to purchase property for a new History Center. All discussion centered around locating the new building at the current Capitol Hill Mall – an aging retail complex a few short blocks from the capitol campus, right on Highway 12. The mall location has practically everything going for it: size, location, lots of convenient parking, a willing seller. Everything, that is except for one key element: Governor Schweitzer’s support. For some unknowable reason, the Gov has never liked the proposal and has used his considerable political skills to insure that the project would fail, all the while making it look like he was supporting the efforts of First Lady Betty Babcock to make it happen. He even allowed his wife, Nancy to join with Mrs. Babcock in promoting the fundraising efforts over the past few months. But the conditions he placed on the project were designed to guarantee it’s failure. And lo! – today, Janet Kelly announces with a heavy heart, that the fundraising efforts fell short and – alas! – the governor will have to give the go ahead to the counter proposal to build a new building on the parking lot across from the current museum. Heavy sigh.<\/p>\n

For those of us who live in Helena, and especially those of us who live or work in or near the capitol complex, this is a serious economic and quality of life blow. For the people of Montana this is a politically motivated, short-sighted mugging that will rob us of our heritage. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Funny how these announcements always show up in the Saturday papers, so the outrage is muted. For those of us who have been watching this little drama with, shall we call it a “jaundiced eye”, can retreat into our “I … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Xq4i-4Y","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=308"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":322,"href":"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308\/revisions\/322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}