Seeking the answers from proper authority

Controversy? In regard to this place?

What a tangled web someone is weaving. I'm not assuming the librarian. The city manager? The mayor or council? Well I don't know and my instincts are those of a journalist. You might say a Watergate era of journalist. We are suspicious. We are wary about people in power. 

I grew up when the government had the power to force young men to go over to Vietnam in waves and be killed in large numbers. 

You're concerned about the 13 U.S. soldiers killed in the withdrawal from Afghanistan? Did you really think that could be done cleanly? In that part of the world? Compare the number 13 to the toll of Vietnam. 

 

Local turmoil

Getting back to the very micro situation with our library, what the heck is going on as the weeks pass? Here's an email I shot off to a friend this morning (Friday):

 

Del - Just checked my email for first time since last night, and no answer from Kevin Wohlers. My email to him was very fair and well thought out. Nothing. I saw Sharon Martin this morning at Willie's Cafe. She and I agreed that there is some aspect to what is going on with the library that is very sensitive and concerning, and something that the general public should not be apprised of yet. If ever. But the city is a public entity. We are all stakeholders in this, n'est-ce pas? Does the shoeshine guy even know anything? I can just see Leslie Nielsen sitting down to talk to him. "Well Johnny, what do you hear on the street?"

- BW

 

Kevin Wohlers (long-time friend of mine)

I am pleased to report that I have sort of "gone to the top" in exploring the library matter, lest anyone think I'm relying too much on informal, unofficial talk. Who, me? So I share below an email I sent to our esteemed mayor Kevin Wohlers yesterday at 2:20 p.m. 

It is Friday a.m. now and I have gotten no response. There must be some tightly-guarded stuff going on here? Is the public library even worth this unpleasantness? Rhetorical question. Here's the email I sent Kevin:  

 

Hello Kevin - Well we're supposed to be in the most dead time of the calendar for our Morris - midsummer - and you and I have talked about this, how the old Prairie Pioneer Days was a remedy for that. It enlivened things. I covered it for years for the paper and I really truly thought it was special. I was ambitious enough to ride my bike out to the halfway point of the 10K run to photograph the leader! After all that I made an ignominious exit from the paper. Are we seeing sort of the same thing with Anne Barber now? I am writing because I am increasingly puzzled as to how such a huge and uncomfortable matter just keeps rolling on, becoming embarrassing for the city. So I have to ask: Is there something I'm missing? One thing I refuse to do and that is to take sides with Anne just because I've known her and her family a long time, whereas I've never met the city manager. I looked up pictures of her. Do Anne's problems go back to when Blaine was here? Would he have some answering to do? Of course he's retired now.

I am writing to you because some people will say that if I'm going to blog about this, I should at some point try to get official statements or facts from people rather than to just glean what I hear "on the street" or from the (sketchy) media sources. I was surprised to see the newspaper website have a timely and decent article when the story first broke, because normally the SCT has nothing of value on its website, but a ton of UMM sports!!! What about Tiger sports? 

Someone got to the paper and told them they had to do something re. the library, for some reason related to someone's special interests. Hey I didn't come into town on a turnip truck.

My attitude of late has been that I'm surprised that top city officials haven't taken some action on this just to make the conflict go away. Do whatever it takes even if it involves a little sacrifice. Allow normal life to return. You know by now that Anne has lots of personal supporters out and around. Her whole family has been known here a long time. And I guess this should absolutely not matter. I consider myself a personal friend but I wouldn't rule out shenanigans by anyone! But I would be upset if Anne is unfairly charged. And this whole damn thing has become so PUBLIC! Has this aspect just been totally unavoidable? Are there legal reasons why it is having to go on for so long? I mean my God, to hire outside attorneys or investigators? So my sense is the charges must be pretty serious. But I'm confounded at the same time.

And we have the East Side Park subject too!! Heavens. I decided not to sign the petition. I'm a pretty strong supporter of Neil Schmidgall and Superior. I sit right by the Apostolic guys at Caribou Coffee on Sunday morning, 7 a.m. every week. I think we need to appreciate NextGen, is very healthy for an otherwise unambitious Morris MN.

I thought the NextGen proposal was good but the issue is all the residences located so tightly around the park. How many decades have gone by while the Killoran stage has gotten negligible use? And the city spends money to maintain it. At the recent concert event there with Marty Sarlette's group, we had the same old problem: nobody wants to sit on the aluminum bleachers if the sun is out. They all sit a fair distance away which seems totally stupid.

If you wish to elucidate me on anything, that would be nice. Man, people are tossing around the word "fraud" in connection to Anne. Holy balls the long knives are out. Was this unavoidable? "Fraud" is actually a prosecutable crime.

- BW