After sitting through ORB Management’s review of the proposed community center’s progress I am left with three broad thoughts.
Over the many years of sitting too often in the commissioner’s room, the acoustics loom ever larger as a limiting factor of true transparency between government and the public it serves. The little blinking contraptions at each commissioner’s position are little more than delusion. The room’s acoustics are deplorable as well. Though the commissioners have over those 10 years been repeatedly urged to spend money on a better sound system, no progress has been made to date. If you can hear Tim Suck belt out Elvis on Karaoke night or understand Dylan from a half-mile away, you gotta wonder
why hearing our government at 50-feet is such a problem.
Secondly, Commissioner Sue Hakes was absolutely correct in urging the active participation of the entirety of our community in contributing to the community center effort. Because of the scope and expense, I agree with Commissioner Hakes. This project demands a much deeper and knowledgeable participation than the usual coffee shop griping. This is an 11 milliondollarbuildwitha1million per year operating cost, fixtures and equipment not included, of course.
No matter how bad the fur may fly beforehand, we really need to come together now, rather than being at each other’s throats ‘til hell freezes over.
Lastly, I don’t think that we can or should escape the reality that when it comes to sizable projects as this, our government performance has not been stellar. Since that history carries over many administrations, the obvious conclusion is that there must be some systematic blunder that precipitates such poor results. Consider the golf course, the pool, the industrial park, the EDA, the Arts Center, even the landfill closure.
Here we are at yet another such adventure using the same methods yet expecting that this time everything will work out hunky-dory. Should the priority not be a discovery of the other problems and correcting whatever, before we sail off into this new sunset?
Crazy is defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different result.
Vilnis Neilands
Grand Marais
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