Editorial: Thumbs

To Albert Lea’s American Legion baseball team.

Hayek Field has been a busy place this week.

The Tigers who play for Post 56 beat Winona 13-7 at Hayek Field on Thursday, thanks to a stunning three-run homer in the eighth inning from Makael Lunning. The team played on Saturday after this edition went to press. If they won, they play in the district title game today.

To the Albert Lea City Council.

Creating a more detailed policy regarding use and abuse of city credit cards is sensible. Not only did city leaders need to create a new policy in the wake of the case of former City Manager Jim Norman, but it needed to be done because of all the lingering questions Norman’s case raised about other uses of the credit cards — incidences raised during the Norman case that haven’t faced judicial scrutiny but were awfully similar to his actions.

The Norman case and the questions raised indeed hurt public confidence in City Hall. The new policy helps rebuild a measure of public confidence. It also clears up many gray areas that didn’t jibe between city policy, state laws and general practices.

To how people park their cars at the movies.

This one comes via reader suggestion. Sure, there are not much for lines at the lot near the Cinema 7 at Northbridge Mall, but licensed motorists should be good enough drivers to park courteously and in a row. They should be able to leave enough space for cars to get by on the ends of the rows, and they should not trap anyone ever. The major problem comes because some drivers are afraid of walking a few more feet than they want to, so they cheat the normal parking arrangement. But a little exercise never hurt anyone. In fact, parking farther away is a suggestion of the Blue Zones folks. And parking farther away allows the lot to remain orderly and lets people who need to exit the lot after the movie get out easier.