The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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July 6, 2007

Our View: Walz will listen

Thumbs up

To freshman Congressman Tim Walz who has done nothing yet to diminish his pre-election image as a man who will listen.

Walz says it’s a priority of his to hold regular meetings open to the general public and to seek input from people generally left out of the conversation. On Thursday, he listened to seniors at the Summit Center.

The former West High School geography teacher seems not to have lost support locally despite being part of a U.S. Congress saddled with extraordinarily high negative ratings. Walz is still getting mileage from a locally run television advertisement crediting him for raising the minimum wage (as if he alone were responsible), and although his favorability rating is sure to take a hit at some point, the honeymoon remains largely intact.

Walz’s common roots, his humility in claiming not to have all the answers, we surmise is encouraging him to gain information from a wide array of sources. He seems not to take anything he’s hearing for granted.



Thumbs down

To those residents in lower North Mankato who take some of the fun out of Fun Days with their rabid rush to stake off spots on the boulevard for the annual parade.

Those staking out their spots with chairs, blankets, even steel stakes and ropes, begin ridiculously early, often Wednesday night. By Friday, much of the boulevard all along the parade route is filled with self-reserved spots.

By early Saturday morning there is nary a spot to be found for any visitors hoping to watch the event.

Hardly a neighborly feeling in the neighborhood.

The city half-heartedly attempts to limit the rush to hold down a spot on the publicly owned boulevard. They send a news release encouraging people not to place things on the boulevard until Saturday morning, but no one takes it serious.

There is a solution, if the city is serious. They can enforce the use of their public right-of-way by removing anything left out until a designated time. Or, they could move the parade to a nonresidential area, such as Commerce Drive in Upper North.



Thumbs up

To the Mankato Zonta club and St. Casimir’s parish in Wells for organizing garden tours that not only offer visitors a chance to see some of the region’s most beautiful gardens, but also raise money for good causes.

In the case of St. Casimir’s fund, garden tour tickets will go to help fund mission work in Honduras. The Zonta club tour money goes for Zonta scholarship.

These gardens are worth the time and money and include numerous varieties of plants and flowers not often seen elsewhere. The gardeners themselves also deserve recognition for all the hard work they’ve done providing the public with a glimpse of nature’s beauty.



Thumbs up

To Sentence to Service programs in area counties, including Waseca, Faribault, Le Sueur and Blue Earth, that increasingly use the skills of some of the inmates to do significant work that bolsters community projects.

A crew of prisoners from Blue Earth, Le Sueur and Waseca county jails took on the task of deconstructing an old log cabin that was rotting and restoring a historic home for the Farmamerica site in Waseca. Other crews work on setting up and tearing down temporary fencing for town festivals. Others help remodel agricultural facilities at county fairgrounds.

These kinds of programs are win-win situations. The inmates win by being able to get out of their jail cells and do some meaningful work while helping to pay off their fines and other debts. The communities benefit by getting projects done without taking money out of their already tight budgets.

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