By Mike Weland

There are a number of people in Boundary County, younger folks, mainly, who complain that there's nothing to do here. Back in the day, they'd have called it a one horse town.

There is one man in this county, however, who finds plenty to do in all seasons, and those who watch can set their seasonal clock by him when he hitches up his one-horse shay and makes his first six-mile trip to town after the snow breaks.

In his one-horse shay, Wayne Nishek is as sure a harbinger of spring as the robins.

He does have one problem, though. In a town filling up with parking lots, he has no place to hitch his horse.

"The last time I came to town," he said, "my mare got upset because there wasn't a hitching post."

He said he had a promise from former city mayor Darrell Kerby to erect two posts and a crossbar at a place in town where he could safely park his horse, but since a new administration's taken over, that promise has yet to be fulfilled.

"I was thinking it would fit in the lot behind Mugsy's," Wayne said.

It seems a problem simply solved.

Boundary County maintenance supervisor Gerald Kothe and a crew of painters from the City of Bonners Ferry created markings on asphalt behind the courthouse and buckets of sand with a sign planted in them to designate reserved parking spaces for the county clerk, the treasurer, the assessor and the sheriff.

Cal Russell didn't even seek official approval when he created a reserved parking space, complete with sign and masking tape parameters,  for county mapper Tom Ulappa ... at the farthest end of the farthest lot ... and at least a 10-minute walk away on a good day. On a snow day, all that accumulates is heaped in Tom's reserved space, but that's okay!

No one parks there. Especially not Tom.

As a good reporter, I asked Bonners Ferry City Coucilman Tom Mayo about it, and he said, "huh?"

According to Nishek, city founders opposed his idea because his mare might take a poo within unregulated areas of city limits. Nishek said he'd purchased special diapers for his mare to preclude any such offense.

While this site tries to be a fair, accurate and timely arbiter of unbiased news, this situation just raises my hackles, and I'd like to hear what you think.

Does Bonners Ferry, or does Bonners Ferry does not, need and deserve at least one hitching post?

Before you answer, watch the national news. Gas prices are going up.

E-mail your thoughts, publisher@newsbf.com.