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Open Forum: Check out the Brainerd library
If you haven't visited our local library for a while, I encourage you to see what you have been missing.
While you are there, get a library card if you don't have one and use the express self check-out system.
Ask someone to demonstrate the self check-out system and I think you will see it is easy to use.
Reading is a the perfect hobby and a great way to learn for all ages.
Gwen Kienholz
President
Brainerd Library Board
Lights out!
The 2010 city budget has an expenditure of $265,000 for city-wide street lights. These street light expenditures are a very small percentage of the overall 2010 expenditure budget of $12,900,000.
Council members of the Finance Committee presented a proposal to approve a pilot program to decrease street lighting in neighborhoods of north Brainerd.
Reducing the number of street lights would result in an estimated yearly savings of $3,400.
I have received several calls from citizens living in north Brainerd who oppose decreasing street lighting because of safety.
Citizens have asked if there will be a reduction in their own household electrical bills because of the reduced cost of street lighting.
I do commend the Finance Committee for their willingness to examine expenditure reductions in the 2010 budget.
I will ask my colleagues to consider and support my proposals for expenditure reductions in the 2010 budget; thereby a reduction in street lighting will not be necessary.
I am proposing health care insurance costs be reduced, personnel costs be reduced, travel and seminar expenses for elected official and city staff be reduced. Additionally, operating and miscellaneous expenses can also be decreased. There are also many other unnecessary expenditures in the proposed 2010 budget that can be reduced if there is political will and courage by the elected officials.
My proposed expenditure reductions will not affect the safety, health and welfare of our citizens.
If the council will approve the expenditure reductions that I intend proposing, a tax increase for 2010 will not be necessary to implement.
Bob Olson
Alderman at Large
Abortion hurts everyone
"When a woman destroys the life of her unborn child it is sign that by education or circumstances she has been greatly wronged." -Susan B. Anthony.
I am pro-life because I care about women. I support mothers and babies (half which are female) rather than choosing one over the other. I want women to see ultrasounds of their babies before they abort because many women have reported being misled by abortionists. I want women to be given information about the complications that can result from the "surgical procedure" of abortion, just like any other surgery. I want women to understand all alternatives to abortion so they are really being given a choice. I also want post abortive women who have regrets to know that I (and so many others) are praying for their healing.
Abortion hurts women. It also hurts men, siblings, grandparents and others. Many have courageously come forward to express their guilt and sadness after an abortion. There is no reliable way to prove that someone will never regret an abortion as women have reported experiencing trauma decades later (some in their 90s).
On Monday, Nov. 2 at 7 p.m. at St. Francis Church, Ninth and Juniper St., Brainerd, Father Peter West, the associate director for Priests for Life, will speak on "Confronting the culture of death by building a culture of life." Priests for Life is a large national organization based out of New York. Father West has preached frequently on the subject of abortion. He has assisted women in crisis pregnancies find alternatives to abortion and helped post-abortive women find healing and peace. He will address the life issues we are facing today including the health care reform debate. Come and learn how together we can build a culture of life!
Laurie Pelkey
Brainerd
What about the water we drink?
Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.
We are hearing so much about what to do to clean our lakes but nothing is said about our drinking water. This is a big part of our health care. We are worrying how to pay for all the top health care dollars spent.
Why don't we get on top of the problem as what the cause is and do something positive. You are what you eat and drink.
So much of our food is artificial and our water contaminated.
Nine hundred thousand to 1,000,000 Americans will get sick from drinking contaminated water this year -The Center of Disease Control, Atlanta, Ga.
The CDC says good old fashioned drinking water is no more.
The American Heart Association says the arsenic in our water increases the chance of heart attack and artery disease. American Medical Association stated three separate studies show fluoride in tap water weakens bones, increases likelihood of hip fractures.
Chlorine or fluoride are the two most toxic chemicals to the thyroid gland.
The thyroid helps deliver calcium to bones and tissue. Fluoride and chlorine displace iodine in your thyroid hormone making it useless.
The thyroid hormone should contain iodine, instead it contains toxic fluoride making thyroid disease, osteoporosis and/or diabetes worse.
Toxic acid, defined by the Environmental Protection Agency as an extremely hazardous waste, is added to two-thirds of our public water systems by gullible critics.
Fluoride chemical is so toxic and radioactive it can't be legally dumped into any body of water (including the ocean). The sale of this poison has made some corporations rich.
Sold unrefined, diluted and dumped into our municipal water supply with no scientific support of its safety or effectiveness in preventing tooth decay. Why? The answer is simple; follow the money.
James Strowbridge
Brainerd
Keep religion out of government
A few weeks ago two Baxter residents made some comments about religion. A clergyman said that marriage should only be between a man and a woman. Another man tried to scare us into thinking the U.S. will be damned by God if the U.S. does not back Israel in a war. Certainly they have a right to their opinion. But what is the unfortunate common thread between both their comments? They both used Biblical quotes to make their case. They feel that the Bible is absolutely true and infallible. As long as the Bible says it, it is OK to be prejudiced and beat up on someone else's lifestyle and scare people. Well rest assured, while man himself may do something stupid to harm the U.S., no supernatural nonsense is going to put curses on the U.S.
Some people will claim the Bible to be absolute truth. Others will see it as little more than a collection of fables and myths written by man as an antidote to quell his fears and answer his questions. Our founding fathers had the right idea. Allow religious freedom but keep religion out of government.
Don Hansen
Pine River
Annual fair meeting is Nov. 5
This letter is to call your attention to the annual meeting of the Crow Wing County Fair Association which is planned to be held Nov. 5 at the American Legion. The meeting is open to the general public and if you plan to attend there is a $10 membership fee which includes the dinner. It is recommended that you call Steve Hesse, the fair manager, if you plan to attend at 829-6680, fair number, or his home at (218) 537-0842.
The fair organization is a very democratic organization with most of the positions being of a volunteer nature. Officers and members of the board of directors are elected by members of the organization. The board of directors meet on a monthly basis or more often as needed.
A quote from the 2009 Fair Exhibitors Guide: "The Crow Wing County Fair is now among the five largest fairs in Minnesota, with annual exhibits numbering over 6,000 and annual attendance estimated at 100,000."
Please join today and become an active part of the fair.
Ed Fox
Publicity, Crow Wing County Fair
Rural Brainerd
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