Open Forum

Flying into Brainerd Saturday we taxied right up to the terminal and I noticed the signs high on the windows of the waiting area of the terminal.

The signs are a Welcome Home for our young men and women serving in the military. I want to thank the Brainerd airport for recognizing our wonderful patriotic men and women with this warming thoughtful message.

They are doing their job...for us. We happen to have two young sailors in our family. We are very proud of them and pray for them daily.

Dolores Lindner

Brainerd

Council changes needed

Brainerd citizens, ask yourself the following questions.

Is it not conflict of interest when a city council member receives city taxpayer money for repair work on Brainerd Police cars? This city council member has made motions and voted on issues relating to police and fire departments. Ethically, he should have abstained.

Bevans, Cumberland and Nelson Fisher voted in favor of the budget and fee increases. Where's the accountability to taxpayers?

Your tax dollars continue to pay full health coverage for upper level staff and administration. Paying 20 percent for their health insurance is fair. The majority of the taxpayers do not have the luxury of this benefit.

Cumberland and Nelson Fisher voted city street and alley light elimination. There's been vandalism. Without street and alley lights, it is hard to identify individuals that may be involved in suspicious activity when reporting to law enforcement officers.

Eliminating the park director position would save approximately $97,000 a year. Previously, there was not a director for three years and things ran smoothly.

Brainerd doesn't need a deputy police chief adding $30,000 to expenses. Our street light numbers have been compared to Little Falls, not compare the police departments. Little Falls has 13 full-time officers and that includes the chief, one captain, two sergeants and two record technicians. Population of Little Falls is approximately 7,800. Brainerd Police Department has a chief, three sergeants, 17 full-time officers and five records technicians. Brainerd population is approximately 13,500. We don't need more employees in that department as the Baxter PD is always nearby for backup. The Brainerd PD reported that crime is down.

The city charter definitely needs to be updated!

We need new council members. Opportunity will be the November election.

Jan Burton

Brainerd

Leadership and vision

James Wallin has been an elected official in Brainerd for 32 consecutive years.

What were his accomplishments as an alderman for 20 years?

He approved providing free health insurance for department heads and council members.

He approved providing Collin Hall with approximately $1,000,000 of taxpayer's funds to build buses. Buses were never built.

He voted against fluoridation and now says rat poison is in the water.

Has had a busy 11 years as mayor, vetoing only one resolution to a coffee shop, has signed several proclamations and presented numerous Tower Awards.

The mayor is a friendly person and likes to shake hands.

He persuaded the council, on a 4-3 vote, for him to fly to Sweden to shake hands with the Swedesapproximate cost $3,000.

He has also been busy trying to promote a bridge over the river at French Rapids.

The mayor has also been involved in planting and tending the flowers at Kiwanis Park as well as being in charge of watering the plants at city hall, while the unemployment rate in Brainerd is approximately 20 percent.

The state auditor has sent two letters to the city with concerns on how the mayor has been spending the $2,500 in his contingency fund.

What is the mayor's position on shutting off the street lights and park department issue?

Is he on the same page as his mentor and confidant, council member Koep?

Mr. Wallin wants to be mayor another four years.

The mayor by Charter is the CEO of the city.

This is an S.O.S. to the Citizens of Brainerd to file for the mayor's position and provide the necessary vision and leadership, that is, and should be a requirement of the position as mayor of our great City.

The old shoes are worn out, time for new shoes.

Bob Olson

Alderman at Large

Brainerd City Council

Vote for Margaret

Margaret Anderson Kelliher's experience as speaker of the House, her perspective and her balanced approach to leadership make her the right choice for governor. She understands what average Minnesotans need and she will work with the Legislature to improve Minnesota. Vote for Margaret Anderson Kelliher on Aug. 10.

Yvonne Leiser

Senate District 12 DFL Chair

Rural Brainerd

Soothing words

I was reading the Clergy View by the Rev. Deborah Celley in Friday's Dispatch. It brought peace to my day to read her words.

After listening to all the fear and hate being spread throughout the country by political and religious pundits this was a breath of fresh air.

She said do we always have to win, what does winning have to do with the Christian faith? She talked about "balance," balancing self worth with regards to others.

She spoke of humility because God is so much larger than all of us.

In closing she said we are called on to be faithful, we feed the hungry, heal the sick and teach those who have no one to teach them, work for justice, work for peace, treat others as we would hope to be treated.

If we really want to make this country better we have to have a foundation built on these principles.

We need to remember history, we need to remember the Indian nations were almost destroyed by those believing in power and greed.

We need to be very careful when we elect people to serve and we need to be careful of who we serve.

Deborah Halsted

Brainerd

Does he represent us?

Come November, I hope that we will not return Congressman Oberstar to Washington. He has voted on legislation that he has not read. He has voted to force us into a health care plan, that he has exempted himself from. Knowing that it is very easy to spend someone else's money, I have written letters, sent e-mails, and telephoned his Brainerd office, asking for monetary restraint. The result was that he voted with his party to spend that money. Can anyone see how all of this spending, that we will have to pay back, is benefiting us?

Congressman Oberstar's tie to us is his mother's house in Chisholm. This house has the electricity and water turned off, and apparently a neighbor mows the grass. The Congressman's real home is in Maryland, and his vacation home is not up at the lake, but in France. Because we live in Minnesota, shouldn't our representative in Congress live in Minnesota also?

I believe it is time for a change!

David A. Lindman

Nisswa

Things must change

When did our government evolve from being elected representatives of the people to being an elite group of self-serving individuals who determine their own salary, benefits and retirement, who exempt themselves from the same rules they dictate to us and who can't work with each other unless they get some pork that benefits themselves or their state?

I expect our government to protect the citizens of this country, not from cupcakes or soda pop, but from terrorists, illegal immigrants, job exportation and price gouging to name a few. Are we so smug that we can't learn from others? How many other countries allow illegal immigrants to move in and provide them with food, housing, education, medical care, etc. and put their rights above their own citizens? I guess some know the meaning of "illegal."

Why do we allow so many companies to export our jobs to other countries which leaves us with high unemployment?

Why do we condone price gouging, especially in the health care business, while corporations accumulate billions of dollars in profit and reserves, while they pay their upper management millions in salaries and bonuses and still raise their rates or prices in the double digits?

Why are white collar criminals not prosecuted at the same rate as blue collar crimes? Why is it almost impossible to prosecute anyone in government?

Why is it when anyone who is not Caucasian gets stopped or accused of anything, they call "racism"?

We can do better as a country and it's about time we started.

Julie Pawlak

Hackensack

Stay with a winner

The Republican Party did not endorse Paul Koering because he votes for what is best for our district and not strictly along the party line. but apparently Gazelka will. I would rather stay with a proven winner. Please do not forget to vote on Aug. 10 for Paul Koering.

Arvin Litke

Pierz

Adjustment needed

Huge amounts of money went to bail out large financial corporations to buy up their competition and to pay for huge bonuses to their CEO's and upper staff members.

Wouldn't it have been a better placement of this bailout to give the bail-out money to various state and counties to distribute amongst the homeowners to pay down mortgages to the true market value and re-do mortgages to a fixed low interest mortgage?

1. To people who lost their jobs to pay off their house loans and when they return to work pay back the true market value for homes on a payment affordable with no interest.

2. Re-evaluate homes with mortgages and reducing the mortgage to the true house value by using some of the bail-out money to pay off the difference to the financial institution holding the mortgage.

This way the financial institutions would be receiving the help needed on the otherwise defaulted mortgages and the board members re-evaluate whether the CEO's and their upper staff deserve their huge bonuses or maybe take a huge reduction in their salaries for their inept management and possibly trigger in increase in the building industry.

Don Putz

Pequot Lakes

Legislation was needed

The one issue that Gov. Tim Pawlenty and the House and Senate DFL leadership came together on in the 2010 legislative session was the Angel Investor Tax Credit legislation. The governor and the legislative leaders stated that this needed legislation will create 10,000 new jobs in the State of Minnesota.

The legislation provided $30 million for the immediate funding of this jobs bill and $59.4 million for the legislation over five years. The funding came through repeal of the $12.50 rebate provided to low income Minnesotans from the $6 billion gas tax increase legislation passed into law in 2008. The DFL House Speaker, Rep. Margaret Kelliher, called the use of the gas tax credit for job creation "the most effective use of the funding right now."

The legislation overwhelmingly passed the House on March 29th by a vote of 112-20, and the Senate vote was 58-3.

Interestingly, DFL Rep. Al Doty of District 12B, voted against this key bi-partisan legislation. Doty stated in the April 4th Morrison County Record, "When I realized how badly we needed the gas tax increase (in 2008), I agreed to vote for it only if it included that rebate."

Doty's logic here absolutely makes no sense.

I believe that gas tax revenues should only be used for new construction and maintenance of our states roads, bridges and transportation system. Gas tax funds should NOT be used for a social service program.

The Brainerd Dispatch has listed unemployment in the past year for the Little Falls-Brainerd area anywhere from 13 to 19 percent, among the very highest rate in the state.

Doty's vote against this tax credit legislation for small businesses to spur job creation was clearly counter-productive to a strong rural economy. It was also irresponsible as well.

Steve Wenzel

Little Falls

(Steve Wenzel represented Morrison and Crow Wing Counties in the Minnesota Legislature for 29 year from 1973-2001. He served as Minnesota State Director of USDA Rural Development from 2001-2009. Wenzel's nephew, Michael LeMieur, is the Republican candidate for District 12B representative.)

And they call it justice

Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., who was convicted of brutally kidnapping, raping and killing Dru Sjodin has been given one last shot at getting his sentence overturned or altered. It's called a writ of Habeas Corpus and it's what you do when you have run out of excuses that make any sense for your actions. A district judge just appointed a new set of lawyers for him

It's been almost seven years now since that pretty and talented young woman's body turned up discarded in a snow bank like so much litter. It's been seven agonizing years since her parents first begged for justice, for their child's murder. Yes, seven years of appeal after appeal winding through the courts. But that's how our broken system works. Losing your child is only the beginning of your heartaches. Our court systems will do the rest. The best guess now is this will take until 2012. He will linger on death row for many more years if his sentence is upheld, living better than a lot of our population. The price tag for his defense will be staggering, but a carefully guarded secret. They don't want to ruffle any feathers in the public but they are too late. My feathers are already ruffled.

The winners in the end- - if there is an end to this fiasco, will not be Dru's family; it will be all of those who lined their pockets with the money appropriated to defend him to the ends of the earth - in the name of justice.

Mike Holst

Brainerd