Editorial: Thumbs

To volunteer firefighters.

The fire at three warehouses in Hollandale required at least 20 departments to respond, the overwhelming majority of which were staffed with volunteer firefighters. One of the those departments, Glenville, had to get up early the next morning to douse a garage fire that threatened to spread to a house where people were sleeping. All the firefighters put in a lot of hard work to extinguish conflagrations in our community, and we wish to extend our gratitude. Thanks a bunch.

 

To failing to yield to pedestrians.

Motorists need to remember their place. Walkers and non-motorized transportation has been around longer than they have. They especially need to slow down and watch for people crossing the street. When someone is crossing, the cars need to stop. According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, a man in a wheelchair was struck and killed by a car when crossing James Avenue in Minneapolis. In Albert Lea, we see far too often where drivers keep going when a person waits to cross or, unbelievably, they attempt to slide by even after the pedestrian begins crossing. State laws says they need to stop. Let’s be attentive drivers and obey the rules of the road.

 

To the Albert Lea Public Works Department and the Iowa, Central and Eastern Railroad.

Many of the railroad crossings in the past year or two have been improved, but one remained in much worse shape than all the others. That would be the IC&E crossing at First Avenue. Many automobiles would slow to a crawl and drive at an angle to cross the bumpy spot. The city and the railroad, which is a subsidiary of Canadian Pacific, worked together to repair the crossing. The city cut out the existing bituminous surface, the railroad reset the tracks, then the city repaved the crossing. Getting this repaired is good for local motorists making their daily commute.