For Treece, Nancy Boyda and Pat Roberts are knights in shining armor

You know, even in political blogging, sometimes spin isn't appropriate. Sometimes you have to be adult enough to say, "Hey, the other side just helped us do something extraordinary."

While that is a virtue I certainly don't ever expect to see from partisan bloggers anywhere in the country on either side of the political divide, today it's something I'm proud to display here with a big heaping "thank you" to both Congresswoman Nancy Boyda (D) and Senator Pat Roberts (R) for their bills to facilitate a voluntary by-out of the city of Treece in Cherokee County.

For those of you who don't know the story of Treece, the Lawrence Journal-World did a brilliant series of articles on it detailing the devastating effects coal, lead and zinc mining had on southeastern Kansas and northeastern Oklahoma.

According to articles that ran in both the Wichita Eagle and the Lawrence Journal-World, a year ago, now threatened by sinkholes and contaminated water, the city of Picher, Oklahoma was given a federal grant to relocate residents to a safer location thanks to the work of Republican Senator Jim Inhofe.

The Eagle quoted Congresswoman Boyda as saying "Treece residents have wondered whether their turn would ever come." Well, because of the efforts of state and local elected officials, and the hard work of both Boyda and Roberts, hopefully their turn is just around the corner. The bills introduced by the bipartisan pair would provide $6 million in assistance to move any resident of Treece, that wanted to go, to a safer location.

That would be on top of $680,000 requested by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius in her budget that was approved by the Republican state legislature.

From start to stop, it's a bipartisan game. The LJ-World carries this quote from Democratic State Legislator Doug Gatewood:

“My hat’s off to Congresswoman Boyda and Senator Roberts for the fight they are making on behalf of the people of southeast Kansas and Treece, in particular."

It's only too bad it couldn't have happened sooner- but the people of Treece have Nancy Boyda's dedication to her district and Pat Robert's service to the state to thank for the fact it happened now.