I am writing in reference to Mr. Kehr’s letter to the editor and the Albert Lea City Council, backing City Manager Adams and his reorganization and planning efforts.   

The reorganization proposal was debated from September to December 2014.  The reorganization proposal was then defeated, when five of seven council members voted it down based on what 80 percent or more of the taxpaying constituents they represent wanted. Councilor George Marin asked numerous times publicly for anyone supporting the reorganization to contact him. Where were you then?

I would also like to ask Mr. Kehr, did you poll your member business owners and their employees before you offered your blanket support of the business community for Mr. Adams and his proposals?

I, as a small business owner and a taxpayer, am not against some version of reorganization as much as I am against the process in which it was presented. It was just going to be shoved down the taxpayers’ throats by individuals who don’t seem to respect the democratic process and the taxpayers it should protect. I as a business owner also see many possible options for instant cost savings that would make our city government run more efficiently. I believe any business owner will tell you when times are lean they are going to cut middle management before they cut their bread and butter work force.

As for the infrastructure, there is no question that it is an essential ingredient to business growth and retention. Imagine for a moment, years ago when South Broadway and East Main were highways 65 and 16 respectively and the first industrial park in the United States was being established here in Albert Lea.  These same infrastructure discussions were being had by the sitting City Council and transportation experts from the state of Minnesota and the federal government. I am sure they were looking at the big picture and created a long-term plan for the future of industry and transportation here in our community. The problem is that future never really materialized. Now we are listening to individuals who are telling us to go back to the way it used to be. A quote of Mr. Dan Burden is, “Of the 1,400 communities I have walked, I have not found one where designing for the car has made it a successful place. Indeed, the most successful villages, towns and cities in America are those designed before the car was invented, and where the least tinkering has been done since.”

That statement seems to be a contradiction when we are discussing two streets that are part of our long-term plan to bring enough industry to our community that provide livable wages to employees, to support themselves and our service and retail businesses.

A lot of us would like to live in a Norman Rockwell picture community, but that is not the real world we live in today. There must be a realistic workable middle ground that would give us the community we all desire.

 

Gary Hagen

Albert Lea