Opinions 4 Guest Column Letter Box
Transcription
Opinions 4 Guest Column Letter Box
4 Guest Column CROSBY-IRONTON COURIER Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014 Opinions Reflections of my hometown Letter Box Plowing was appreciated Dear Editor: I can’t tell you how much it meant to me to have the nice gentleman with the New Holland tractor plow out my yard on Birch Street on Veterans Day! Without your help it would have taken hours to clear the snow in my yard. Your kindness is very much appreciated. Randi Want Crosby Recycling program needs to stay here Dear Editor: In response to the article on the front page of last week's paper, I strongly urge our city leaders to continue having recycling within our area. I know that Crow Wing County has cut over $16,000 in recycling program for the year 2015, but I do hope that we are able to come up with $7,000, if that is what is needed, to continue our local efforts. We need to be mindful of keeping our recyclable items from our landfills. It's the right thing to do. It is being good stewards of our land. So please consider all aspects of continuing recycling for all of us on our community as well as the visitors who wish to help keep our towns clean. Jill E. Mattson Deerwood Watch for buses Dear Editor: I would like to share with you what happened to me when I failed to stop properly for a school bus. I was driving in the town of Crosby when I came to a four-way stop. At the four-way stop and to the left of me was a school bus with its lights flashing and a kid getting off the bus onto the sidewalk. I hesitated for a moment, looked at the bus driver and smiled then continued on. I didn’t know at the time that I had done anything wrong until the police department called my house. The officer told me what I had done and said it was a stop arm violation and that I might have to go to court and also pay fine. Well, I did end up going to court, and had to sit in front of the Judge and explain what happened. I had to go and get fingerprinted and have my picture taken. All of this made me very scared and also made me realize just how serious this was. I was given a choice to do community service or go through the Restorative Justice Program. I chose to do the program and I am glad that I did. I got to meet with Josh from the school bus garage and tell him my side of what happened. He listened then explained how I should have handled the situation and what I needed to know and do to as a driver to keep the kids safe. Another part of my program was to go with Josh to the Driver’s Ed class in Crosby and address Tim Roth and his class about stop arm violations. The whole experience has made me more respectable to school bus drivers and to appreciate the job they do by keeping kids safe and that we as drivers need to do our part too. My hope in writing this is to make young drivers aware of what’s going on around them. Please put your phones away and keep your eyes on the road because it might not just be a stop arm violation that you get, it might a life of someone you take. Amanda Schneider Crosby The election is over Dear Editor: Well the election is over, now we see what the aims are. The leaders of both houses say they want to remove the regulations and controls on the financial industry. We did this about twenty years ago it was predicted then that the country would have another severe depression. About ten years or so later it came so they changed the name to recession to lessen the fear and panic or finger pointing? Hedge fund managers and senior executives in the financial industry donated huge sums to elect candidates that they thought were more favorable to their views. I don't think that they can be stopped so I would like to see a different approach taken. When corporations do things that cause harm to the country or people they should be held accountable not just made to provide some money. Minimum jail sentences for CEO's, Chairman of the boards, CFO's Chief Legal Councils, and Risk Managers. If the people in charge knew that they would spend jail time they wouldn't say I don't want to know how, just get it done. They play games with peoples retirement funds, their life savings, their health funds. They are all just account numbers that have no faces attached. When companies are reorganized and the funds for retirement are shifted to a company that has no employees: Employee's are shifted to a company that has neither health plan nor retirement. The stress can cause people to get sick, die, or they may have someone who is uninsurable in their family savings doesn't last long. No one is charged with murder or even manslaughter. When a new plant is opened and children or adults get sick or die from the pollution does anyone go to jail no, the insurance pays eventually sometimes after a lot of litigation. The primary question to be asked when something is being sited would the senior executives in the company, the parent company and the financial organization live there and send their children or grandchildren to school in the neighborhood if not. It shouldn't be approved no matter what the environmental impact statement says. That would just be the Christian thing to do, not the American thing there is a major difference. These people don't see themselves as doing anything wrong they probably see others as doing wrong when it happens but it is just good business. Good business is just GREED when I was young parents like mine punished us for being greedy and not looking out for others. When we went to school we read Julius Caesar Brutus killed Julius for being greedy as it was a grievous thing so it isn't new that greed is looked on as problem and the greedy don't recognize that they are doing anything wrong. Jesse Nix Emily Lions’ affordable hearing aids With a pair of hearing aids costing upwards of $5,000 to $6,000, many area residents in Deerwood, Crosby-Ironton, Garrison, Aitkin, areas on limited incomes often face a future of simply having to live with their hearing disabilities. Lions International works with a top-flight hearing manufacturer to make quality hearing aids available at a modest cost to those meeting certain income and asset qualifications. A hearing professional will test the applicant’s hearing and provide product selection, installation, and service. For more information, call any area Lions member or Steve Freese at 534-3856. Newspaper on the Cuyuna Range… By Susan Iverson The road between Crosby and training. It’s about understanding here is not too long; it takes a little what came before so we can add to over an hour to make the drive. It it instead of reinventing the wheel. is often a lovely drive. The land- It’s about appreciating beauty and scape is typical northern art to enrich our lives. It’s about a Minnesota; bright and fresh in the fundamental knowledge of literaspring, lush and green in the sum- ture and culture. It’s about knowmer, stunning colors in the fall and ing how our government works so white blue and gray in winter. The we can be responsible citizens road is often difficult in winter, instead of robots and morons folwhich leads one to be cautious lowing the latest political fashion. about the trip when the snow flies It is about being the people our ancestors hoped and sacrificed for and the winds blow. I left Crosby a long time ago. that we might become. But I I left the big house on the lake and digress. I remember Crosby beach my parents and sisters, and went off on my own to make a life for most of all, growing up in that myself. I was so anxious to be in neighborhood with the Belfiori’s; charge of my own life, so anxious always a ready playmate to find to grow up. I wanted the responsi- there. We walked and played along bilities and the rewards, and I was those roads so much I feel like I not about to go back ever. I am not still know every inch of them. I sure why now. A lot of things mel- remember winters where we had low with age and what I remem- tunnels through the ditches so we ber is good. And it is gone. I regret hardly had to go outside to go over not spending more time with the there, and oddly enough we were people I loved when I had that not killed or suffocated as we had time. Life has a way of teaching us enough sense if the thing collapsed that presence is the real gift. The to stand up. In the summer we rest no matter how well inten- caught crawdads and garter snakes, and I will never forget how tioned is simply lip service. Crosby-Ironton is an unusual angry Jean Belfiori got at Betty place. It is not like anywhere else and me for accidently releasing that I know of. It has a rich histo- one of those garter snakes in the basement at her house. Down the ry, of which I am a part. I am old enough to remember way a bit was a stand of pine that E.W. Hallett and his pink Cadillac; someone had planted for we all just got out of the way when Christmas trees long ago, but had we saw it coming. I don’t think he let get too big, and we would get should have been driving, but up in the tips of them while our everyone made allowances. He friends pulled the lower branches, was, after all, the richest man in thus we “rode pine trees”. Who town. He often would visit our knows what our parents would summer neighbor, Mrs. Grace have said about that. All I do know Middlebrook, another really rich is we had boundaries, and we were lady. She played golf and lived in to be home at six every night. Florida in the winter time. I Otherwise we were in school or remember old Grace being so turned loose for the most part. We ticked off at E.W. that she could never worried about our safety, have spit tacks because he left a every adult knew who we were $50 bill under his plate at a lunch- and where we belonged, and eon she had at her cabin. would phone our parents if we Admittedly, that was a bit rude. were doing something dangerous Summertime meant her white and they caught us. We could head sitting in the window of the knock on any door and be let in. cabin while she knitted away. For We were safe. Every yard was more than 20 years my mother explored by us, every twig known took care of Grace’s lawn all sum- and every rock examined. And no mer and opened the cabin for her one seemed to mind, mostly each spring. She always told us it because we all played together. And that wonderful old house was the right thing to do, and it wasn’t that much extra mowing I grew up in; Mom cutting pictures after doing ours anyway. Grace from “Better Homes and Gardens” gave her a generous easement of magazine that my Dad tried to the land when she sold for all she make come true for her. He loved had done, which was really nice, her so. Together they worked very though I still think Grace came out hard to make life good in that place far ahead on the deal. Mom didn’t by the lake. Dad worked all the time. I care, she said it was our duty to take care of others, and she was remember waiting up for him to right. I think we still have some of show him an agate I had found, or the oversized wool socks Grace to tell him about something we would knit for Dad. They were the were learning in history class. He would come in so dog tired I am warmest things EVER! I also remember when down- sure all he wanted to do was eat town Crosby had a hardware and sleep, but I would get his dinstore, and I remember tin robot ner for him or help him get it, and toys in the back of the dime store he would get out a book or two to that sold for a few dollars. I sure show me something that would wish I had purchased a few of add to what I was learning in them and left them in the box until school. Or in the case of Minnesota now! I remember buying a dress History class, tell me a story of and jeans at Skogmo’s those old mining days in Crosby. He had a lot of stories. I miss those Department Store. I remember my Grand-moth- stories, and him, more than I can er running the Ironton Public say. My roots in Crosby go deep. Library. We were allowed to look at the books only after we had My great-grandfather Sunde washed our hands, and oh how we homesteaded near Riverton, and loved going there. She had pro- my grandparents were both born cured library cards number 1, 2, and raised in Crosby. Grandma and 3 for me and my sisters, sav- was a teacher until she married, ing those numbers for years until and then became a librarian. we were ready to have the cards. I Grandpa worked in the mines as a remember going to girl scouts in heavy equipment operator. Dad the basement there too. And I worked in the mines too, until they remember going to grade school were shut down in the ‘60’s. I at Ironton. What a lovely building remember bringing him a lunch or that was. It seems a shame it was something like that, him wearing a razed. It had the most beautiful helmet with a light in front of it and woodwork and floors, and such coveralls completely covered in grand entrances and staircases and that red dirt. He adored the mines. gigantic windows. It would have He loved working underground. made a lovely apartment building. Ask anyone lucky enough to have I have no idea why no one did it. had one; he gave the best tours of Probably thought no one would the Croft mining exhibit ever. He want apartments there. That seems loved geology. He loved learning. funny in retrospect. It could have That was something I think both been an amazing hotel too. Now his parents gave him; and somedays that would be the busiest thing he gave to me. Now more recently, my niece hotel/motel ever, well at least for a and nephew make the fourth genfew months a year. I remember going to junior eration to graduate from C-I high high at Riverton, and when they in my family. One of the best times built the first big addition to the I have ever had was watching my old high school. How much fun nephew play basketball. And here I we had doing plays in that old the- thought I would never again have a atre! I have photos of my great reason to yell “GO C-I GO”. Now my memories are only aunt when she was in high school there participating in her junior that, memories. I share some of and senior plays. It’s such a them with those of you reading shame they don’t do them any- this, and some I share with no one. more, those kinds of things were But the truth of it is, no matter the fun part of school. And they where I go or what I do, I am still were tremendous learning oppor- part of that red earth that made me. tunities. Sometimes I think we It flows through my veins as sure have stripped the real meaning of as the blood which sustains my education from our kids by con- life. I feel it every time I come to vincing them it’s all about dollars visit, the minute I pass the Riverton and cents. To me education is and turn-off. It is, was and always will ought to be about more than job be home. Crosby variance discussion… —from page 1 Lattery advised Wilding that the issue under consideration is the variance and rezoning. Jim Grgurich, 208 1st St SE, stated that it is very obvious what the hospital is doing: they want the whole neighborhood. The property values have been negatively impacted. The council expressed concern at its last meeting about a project in northeast Crosby and the city lacks funding. When a house is allowed to be demolished, property taxes are no longer collected and funding reduced. Sova read the staff recommendations submitted by Planning and Zoning Administrator Justin Burslie, Community Growth. With regard to Appeal of Approval of Rezoning Application 14-4266 (CRMC, rezone multiple parcels from R1 Single Family Residential to B-2 Highway Business): 1. Although referenced in the findings of fact of staff report, the council's decision ultimately was not dictated by the mediated settlement agreement between the city of Crosby and CRMC. The application was reviewed independently of the mediated settlement agreement. 2. Without a future land use map, any rezoning decision made by the city of Crosby is made difficult. 3. There were multiple parcels involved with the request. The city reviewed the application as a whole, as all properties are under common ownership. One application was received for all properties involved with the request. In the staff report the properties were broken out into logical “areas” so the council could thoroughly examine each of the properties involved with the request. The council did have the ability to rezone some parcels while not rezoning others involved with the request. 4. Some of the parcels that were rezoned are non-conforming. Many of the parcels were also non-conforming to the standards of their prior zoning classification (“R-1, Single Family Residential”). Many of the parcels were included in the original plat of Crosby and do not meet the minimum width or area requirements of either or “R-1, Single Family Residential Zone” or the “B-2, Highway Business Zone.” The lots were required (per condition number one and per metes and bounds approval of prior applications) to be consolidated to be “as conforming as possible.” The city may still require a variance for the undersized lots if they desire. 5. In order to mitigate potential issues between the residential and commercial zones, the city placed conditions on the rezoning approval. 6. The CRMC property was formerly zoned “R-2, Multiple Family Residential.” Clearly, a “campus-style” hospital and its ancillary uses (parking areas, generators, helipad, etc.) are not conforming or compatible uses in that zoning classification. The city has attempted through multiple means to clearly delineate the hospital property from the adjacent residential properties. The use of fencing, curbing, vegetation and the alteration of traffic patterns have all been used (or will be used) in an attempt to delineate the commercial property from the residential neighborhood. With regard to the appeal of Approval of Variance Application 14-4267 (CRMC, exceed maximum impervious surface coverage in the B-2 Zone). 1. Although referenced in the findings of fact of staff report, the council's decision ultimately was not dictated by the mediated settlement agreement between the city of Crosby and CRMC. The application was reviewed independently of the mediated settlement agreement. 2. The public was sufficiently notified per State Statute. Staff attempted to “reasonably notify” the general public of the variance hearing. All property owners within 350 feet of the subject properties were mailed a notification regarding the public hearing. The original submittal identified an incorrect impervious surface coverage number. That number was placed on the notification. The public had access to any and all application materials (at city hall and online) prior to the meeting. The PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AT CROSBY, MN PERIODICAL POSTAGE PAID • USPS NO. 138-480 CROSBY-IRONTON COURIER, INC. POSTMASTER—Please send address change form 3579 to: C-I Courier, PO Box 67, Crosby, MN 56441-0067 P.O. BOX 67 • CROSBY, MN 56441-0067 OFFICE LOCATED 12 EAST MAIN PHONE: (218) 546-5029 • FAX: (218) 546-8352 E-MAIL: courier@crosbyironton.net ON-LINE SUBSCRIPTIONS: www.cicourierinc.com ESTABLISHED IN 1911 Continuing the Crosby Courier, Crosby Crucible, Ironton Ranger and Deerwood Enterprise Publisher’s Liability for Errors The Publishers shall not be liable for slight changes or typographical errors that do not lessen the value of an advertisement. The Publisher’s liability for other errors or omissions in connection with an advertisement is strictly limited to publication of the advertisement in any subsequent issue or the refund of any monies paid for the advertisement. council made its decision based on the “correct” impervious surface coverage percentage identified in the staff report and update plans. 3. The impervious surface coverage calculations were provided by a professional architecture firm. The professionals that provided the calculations and corresponding storm water management plans are licensed through the State of Minnesota. 4. The appealer mentioned the impervious calculations were inaccurate because they “….did not take into consideration the impact of the roadways separating various parcels.” The variance request was for the private property owned by the applicant. The impervious surface coverage located in the public right-of-way was not a part of the application, nor should it have been. 5. The variance request was to “exceed the maximum impervious surface coverage of the B2 Zone.” The application was made “contingent of approval of Rezoning Application 14-4266 (CRMC)” involving the same properties. 6. There were multiple parcels involved with the request. The city reviewed the application as a whole, as all properties are under common ownership. One application was received for all properties involved with the request. In the staff report the properties were broken out into logical “areas” so the council could thoroughly examine each of the properties involved with the request. 7. The appealers referenced language in the land use ordinance regarding criteria on which variances is decided. This language includes the “undue hardship clause” of which no longer applies as the Statute was changed in 2011 to include “practical difficulties” instead. It's commonly accepted the “practical difficulties clause” gives cities more latitude in approving variance requests. Specifically, variances shall be granted if: (1) the property owner proposes to use the property in a reasonable manner permitted by the ordinance, (2) the owner's plight is due to circumstances unique to the property not created by the owner, and (3) the variance will not alter the locality's essential character. If the variance is granted with conditions, those conditions must be directly related to, and bear a rough proportionality to the impact of the variance. Lattery called for discussion of Rezoning Application 144266 (CRMC, rezone multiple parcels from R-1 Single Family Residential to B-2 Highway Business). Paul stated that the decision was based on law. Shankle stated that although unfortunate, the council needs to follow staff recommendation. Vukelich stated that the city hired professional planning and zoning consultants to provide the guidance necessary and trusts their advice. Pearson stated that the city was not bound by the settlement agreement in making the decision on rezoning and granting the variance. The appellant's comments do not give rise for overturning the decision. Comments related more to the hospitals impact on the neighborhood and while the council acknowledges these concerns, they are not reason enough to overturn the grants. A motion was made by Paul and seconded by Vukelich to deny the appeal and uphold the planning commissions decisio of the rezoning application 144266 based on the findings presented. All members voted yes. Lattery called for discussion related to the appeal of the Approval of Variance Application 14-4267 (CRMC, exceed maximum impervious surface coverage in the B-2 Zone). Paul stated that he feels he needs to follow the advice of the professionals. Shankle stated that she understands the concerns presented by the neighborhood but feels the city needs to follow the advices of Community Growth. Vukelich agreed Vukelich motioned, seconded by Shankle, to deny the appeal and uphold the planning commissions decision of teh variance application 14-4267 based on the findings presented. Motion carried unanimously. The meeting adjorned. THOMAS M. SWENSEN and LORI J. LaBORDE, Co-Publishers LINDA PEEPLES, News Editor • KRISTA WYNN, Advertising RUTH ANN EXSTED, Bookkeeping • BARBARA LINN, Proofreading BILL SWENSEN, Contributing Sports LISA HAMILTON, DARLA SWANSON AND DOUG PEEPLES, Contributing BRENDA BOOTH, ELLY MAILHOT, AND MARIAN SEGERSTEN, Contributing Photography SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $35 per year; nine month student $30; six months $27 mailed in Minnesota all year or on-line any portion of the year. Out of state: $40 per year; nine month student; $35 six months, $27; Single copies mailed for $2 each. Postal regulations require pre-payment of subscriptions. 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