[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 53 (Wednesday, April 25, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E627]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          HONORING COMMISSIONER JACK BUELL FOR ACTS OF CARING

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                       HON. C.L. ``BUTCH'' OTTER

                                of idaho

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 25, 2001

  Mr. OTTER. Mr. Speaker, this week is National County Government Week. 
Countless counties across the country are represented in Washington, 
D.C. to honor outstanding elected officials who do so much to serve 
their communities. As a former Lieutenant Governor of Idaho for 
fourteen years, I have had the privilege of working with many fine 
officials on the county level. One of those officials is Mr. Jack 
Buell.
  For the past twenty years, Jack has ably represented the citizens of 
Benewah County, Idaho as County Commissioner. He's a Democrat. But that 
isn't what distinguishes Jack. A lifelong Idahoan, Jack was born in St. 
Maries, Idaho. He married Eleanor, his wife of 39 years, raised a 
family and built a successful trucking business. Through the years, he 
has developed affiliations that have benefited the citizens of Idaho--
including, the Idaho Department of Transportation Advisory Board, the 
Idaho State Scaling Board, and the timber industry, in which he now 
serves as President of the Associated Logging Contractors, and as 
Chairman of the Idaho Forest Products Commission. In that last 
capacity, he has passionately led the timber industry at rallies 
throughout Idaho, Montana, and Washington with caravans of diesel 
trucks.
  And even those mighty achievements do not explain why I honor Jack 
Buell today. In 1996, during heavy flooding and cleanup efforts in St. 
Maries, Jack selflessly donated the use of virtually every piece of 
heavy equipment he owned to help move homes to safety, provide escape 
for trapped victims, and help rebuild the flood-ravaged community. That 
experience, and many others, resulted in his community and peers 
awarding him the Idaho Association of Counties Sidney Duncombe Award.
  Jack is a good friend, a solid family man and businessman, and he 
deserves my thanks, and thanks from fellow county officials--and 
Congress--for his service to communities and citizens in Idaho.

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