Thanks for the help

To the Editor:

I would like to acknowledge the Martin County Sentence To Serve program; its supervisors, Kyle Redenius and John McDonald; and the workers for the work they do in our community. Specifically, the crew that did a thorough job cleaning up the grounds of the Pioneer Museum when contacted for help this fall. I appreciate what they have done.

Lenny Tvedten

executive director

Martin County Historical Society

We didn’t vote on this

To the Editor:

So, the latest Fairmont rec center proposal is $20 million (down from the “Santa Claus” $41 million), plus a 6.25 percent property tax levy. I didn’t vote on any of that. The ballot to add a 1/2 percent sales tax didn’t say that … in fact it said this:

“City of Fairmont

Local Option Sales Tax

Shall the City of Fairmont be

authorized to impose a local option

sales tax of one-half of one percent

(1/2 percent) for 25 years or until

$15,000,000 in revenues have been

generated, for the purpose of

funding recreational amenities,

trails and/or a Fairmont

Community Center?”

That’s it, in black and white. Read it again, We enact a 1/2 percent sales tax for a span of 25 years with a cap of $15 million and no mention of any property tax increase. That’s the specific wording on the ballot and what we, the people, voted on. Anything else is a smoke-and-mirrors magic act, a bait-and-switch tactic more befitting a shifty used car jockey or a sleight of hand card trick than a city council.

For the non-specific portion on this ballot, “recreational amenities, trails and/or a Fairmont Community Center,” it cannot be “and/or” multiple choice. Recreation, 28 parks and trails already exist in Fairmont that we pay to maintain, whereas a community center would be new construction, I believe, in need of its own vote.

I am curious to know how our local attorneys would compare this ballot to our Minnesota State Constitution, Article 4, Section 17, which says “Laws to embrace only one subject. No law shall embrace more than one subject, which shall be expressed in its title.” … and whether or not it applies.

Councilor Hawkins: You’ve said you like to have “options” and “flexibility” in your dealings. They have no place up on that desk when you are making laws and setting precedence.

Roger Hendrickson

Fairmont