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Letters to the Editor

Readers’ Views

Close-mindedness creates division To the Editor: Opportunities for progress and moving forward could have taken place a long time ago if proponents of a recreation center would have come alongside Martin County. Instead, the Fairmont Area Community Center Foundation (FACCF), the Community Center Advisory Board (CCAB), 1590 organizers, and Mayo Clinic have stubbornly dug in their heels creating division when the majority of citizens would much rather have found a way to compromise. Consider this: City council members in favor of this huge expense were voted off, during two different ...

Readers’ Views

This is all common sense To the Editor: The Sentinel printed several letters to the editor in the last few days, some written by former residents now attending college, who are in support of the proposed community center. They have fond memories of growing up in Fairmont and are deciding whether they want to return. Fairmont is a wonderful city with its lakes, trails, organizations, and churches. The city leaders need to focus on new businesses to bring higher paying jobs and to create more housing. This will be a reason for people to return and raise their families. Fairmont also ...

Readers’ Views

Fellow citizens of Fairmont To the Editor: I had the opportunity to speak at the Fairmont City Council meeting on Monday, Nov. 14th regarding my position on the community center. I contemplated on republishing the entirety of that speech but I have decided to give highlights as I feel some of the pointed words at the city council were heard by who needed to hear them and to continue the use of disparaging words only takes me down to that level where so many people are trying to fight this project. The time to start healing is now. Here are three points made in opposition of the ...

Readers’ Views

Publicly fund child care To the Editor: The childcare system in Minnesota needs and deserves public funding and the new MN legislature has the opportunity to make this a reality. Every family deserves access to affordable childcare and childcare teachers deserve to earn wages on par with K-12 educators. Children’s brains grow to 80 percent of their adult size in the first five years of life. We need to transform how we do childcare so that we can make sure those brains are getting everything they need to grow into contributing members of our communities. We’re counting on the new ...

Readers’ Views

Smoking off the property at HRA To the Editor: If you drive around the perimeter of Friendship Village (500 Home Street) in Fairmont, day or night, you might be surprised to see people standing out in the parking lot or in the street itself. Some of these people might be in wheelchairs. Some might be with walkers or using a cane. Some are over eighty years old. The reason they stand outside, summer and winter, is because they want to smoke. Up until one year ago, residents of Friendship Village could not smoke in their apartment (a HUD rule) but were allowed to smoke on the ...

Readers’ Views

Wanting a community that puts forth the effort To the Editor: My name is Hannah Neusch, I am writing today to express my sincere feelings regarding the community center. I am not originally from here. My husband was born and raised here. We had our first child in 2018 while we were living in Sioux City, Iowa, and decided to move back to Fairmont six months after to be closer to family. As a mother of a young family and being an out-of-towner I feel I have a unique opinion. Fairmont’s lakes are truly a treasure. People work very hard to live in communities that have the natural ...