Mar 16, 2016
The Old Curmudgeon strongly urges folks to keep a journal. What we remember for a day, a week, or a year, and wonder how we could ever forget, somehow slips away as the decades go by.
Looking through a 25-year-old journal, as he was wondering what he was going to write about this week, he...
Mar 9, 2016
With St. Patrick’s Day only one week away, the Old Curmudgeon has chosen one of his favorite true stories from his adventures in the Emerald Isle to mark the occasion. He may have told it here before, but a good story never really wears out.
He was bicycling along somewhere west of Kilkenny,...
Mar 9, 2016
To the editor:Food insecurity, housing instability, homelessness, lack of reliable and affordable transportation, domestic violence, unemployment and underemployment are realities for many of our neighbors right here in our community. According to Minnesota Compass (2013), 7.4 percent of Lake City...
Mar 9, 2016
On Feb. 26, state economists revealed our state’s latest fiscal numbers. They found Minnesota has a $900 million budget surplus, down from a previous budget projection of $1.2 billion, but a significant budget surplus nonetheless.
So what should be done with your money?
Last session, we approved...
Mar 2, 2016
Remember when auto licenses were issued once a year? The first of January. Remember the lines at the license bureau in the cold....and just as cold when the rusted bolt challenge was met and mastered? Today, the renewed license is the size of a postage stamp, and the time to put it on your existing...
Mar 2, 2016
Editor’s Note: The following is an open letter dated March 1 from the board of directors of Destination Lake City to Lake City Mayor Joel Beckman.
Dear Mayor Beckman:
Destination Lake City, Inc. has been meeting now for over a year and has 51 paid members and approximately 112 people on our...
Feb 24, 2016
The snowman that the Old Curmudgeon fashioned so carefullly has disappeared into the front lawn. The bit of water that was evident at the end of the driveway has disapppeared. The temperature has remained at near the freezing/thawing point for an extended time. A few more minutes of daylight is...
Feb 24, 2016
At the end of the year, I will retire after more than 35 years in public service – first, in the U.S. Marine Corps and then in Congress. Despite this being my final year in Congress, I still have plans this year to affect positive change for our state and nation.
It won’t be easy. Washington is...
Feb 24, 2016
This week, we’re expected to learn that Minnesota has a significant budget surplus for the next two years. As the chair of the Transportation Committee, this news will make me more optimistic than ever that legislators will come together this year to pass a long-term transportation bill to finally...
Feb 24, 2016
To the editor:The Lake City Chamber of Commerce believes that our community is on the precipice of real progress. Our new city administrator, public library, the city’s plans for Hwy. 61 and a new public safety building, are all huge indicators of city government’s commitment to progress. Our...