Bonners Ferry herald., 1915-09-03

Peckenpaugh's reply to an article pub
lished four weeks ago, in which this
paper expressed resentment against
the manner in which the appraisement
of Bonner and Boundary counties had
been conducted.
When Mr.. Peckenpaugh gave us his
TRADE against the editor he threat
ened the management with a thor
ough threshing if further "lies" were
published concerning him. We do not
believe that the Herald has published
anything false concerning Mr.. Peck
enpaugh. Certainly his reply did not
in any manner convict us Of any un-
truth.
However, in order to verify our for
mer statements and in view of the
fact that Mr.. Peckenpaugh's state
ments We're to a certain extent a re-
Election upon the integrity and ability
of Appraiser We'll, of Bonner county,
we publish the following interview
with Mr.. We'll:
"The equalization, appraisement and
division of the property of Bonner
county between Bonner and Boundary
counties should never have required
over six or seven days time, at the
maximum, not over ten days. Of
course Mr.. Peckenpaugh came to me
about the middle of May and wanted
to start on the work of appraisement.
told him there was nothing we could
do until after the first of July when
the county officers would have pre-
pared their quarterly statements and
have closed their books and that we
would then have eight days for our
work which surely was sufficient.
Peckenpaugh agreed to this but in a
few days came back and started to go
over the tax rolls. This was assured
ly unnecessary work. No need for
it whatever. We had the valuation of
Bonner county and all we had to do
was to agree on the proportion to be
extended to the respective counties. 1t
wouldn't have required more than a
single day to get at the assessed val
uation of both counties and we could
have done the work in a complete and
thorough manner. Peckenpaugh spent
three or more weeks presumably try
ing to get at these valuations. l can't
understand what he was doing.
Mr.. Peckenpaugh says that | took
his figures in toto. Certainly | did.
merely glanced at his totals and that
was enough. / said, I'll take your
figures And for the simple reason
that his figures favored Bonner coun-
ty. AS a matter of fact, Bonner coun-
ty could have afforded to pay me $4,000
instead of 5000 and still have been
some $4,000 to the good. And l want
to say along this line that there is not
a single statement in the article re-
Gently published by the Herald in re-
gard to the appraisement of Bonner
and Boundary counties which is moi
the truth.
Mr.. Peckenpaugh antagonized the
officers of Bonner county from the
start. He was not congenial. He was
mistrustful. He was ignorant. If ht
had been otherwise Boundary county
would have been better off by $4,000 t.
$4,000. He was not accorded the as
sistance he might have had simply be
cause of the attitude he assumed.
Mr.. Peckenpaugh was determined
| f, 10 fOh r,f x.~o..l~ tx-nf foh N
tually should not have taken but fev
days time. He prepared an elaborate
,, report showing figures of all schoo
districts and road districts il
all Bonner county which was en-
tirely unnecessary. All he was con
cerned in was the division of proper
ty in one or two road and school dis
tricts which were effected by the di
vision of Boundary and Bonner coun
% ties. A report of three or four page
would have been ample.
l say again that had Mr.. Pecken
paugh been a different kind of a ma
Boundary county would have been t
r the good $4,000 to $4,000. Here j
{ one instance Of where he lost SS59.5
. for Boundary county and | can an
viii give more if necessary to prov
D my statement above: Bonner count
had a carload of culvert pipe whic
had not been paid for on account {
/ the fact that the payment for the pip
IS was being held up by an appeal frol
h the action of the county commission
<. ers, it being claimed that too muc
d was to be paid for the pipe. The tot:
10 amount of the pipe bill was abol
h $3.50. told Peckenpaugh ] woul
agree to charge Boundary county $6S
10 for it's share of the pipe. This didn
2. suit Mr.. Pecl1enpaugh although it W;
on ratio of better than four to on