So the people in the village who so adamantly oppose the library, will not make a fool of themselves when they try and write letters to the editor!
Goodbye Fiscal Responsibility
Destination Imagination (DI) is an excellent after-school program that provides educational programs for students.Participants learn patience, flexibility, persistence, ethics, respect for others and their ideas, and the creative problem solving process. Teams then showcase their solutions at tournaments with a Global Finals in late May. A DI team at Glacial Drumlin Middle School (GDS) and has done an outstanding job and has qualified for Global Finals in Knoxville, TN. This is a great program and a great job done by the seven young students in this group.
The GDS team now needs money to attend Global Finals, albeit an expense that was known upfront by all participants. Expenses for after-school activities and programs are something all parents and booster clubs must deal with constantly. The newly “elected” Village of Cottage Grove Trustees started off with a bang at their first meeting on Monday night.
They got out the checkbook and started throwing taxpayer money where our village government has no role. The Board voted unanimously to provide funding for the GDS DI team! Who’s next!? DECA? Skills USA? Sizzling Strings? Show Choir? Swimming? Hockey? Karate? Football? Boy Scouts? Girl Scouts? 4H? Now, in all fairness to taxpayers, all after-school organizations should have an opportunity to present to the Village Board for funding.
Funding after-school programs is a problem for everyone and is not a village government problem or agenda item. The MG High School boys swim team placed 3rd at the WIAA State meet and they need a new score board, should the Village fund this? No, and it shouldn’t. This is a problem that the school district, parents, and booster clubs must tackle. The outstanding GDS DI team needs money to go to the next level just like many organizations in our community. However, this is not the role of Village Government. The unfortunate part is our three new Trustees didn’t get elected, they ran unopposed! Say goodbye to fiscal responsibility and hello to higher property taxes.
Peter Doll
Cottage Grove
Let’s break this down.
The newly “elected” Village of Cottage Grove Trustees started off with a bang at their first meeting on Monday night.
They got out the checkbook and started throwing taxpayer money where our village government has no role. The Board voted unanimously to provide funding for the GDS DI team!
There were three newly elected board members out of seven and this was approved unanimously! The total check given to Destination Imagination? $700!
Who’s next!? DECA? Skills USA? Sizzling Strings? Show Choir? Swimming? Hockey? Karate? Football? Boy Scouts? Girl Scouts? 4H?
Who’s Next? that’s simple, whoever else so greatly contributes to our community. In the year 2012, Cyberbullying has become a major problem. Watching some young adults from our community, step up and address this serious problem with such professionalism and creativity. When you can show me the same link between swimming or strings and teen suicide, then I am all for helping out there also. Since hundreds of kids have committed suicide as a direct result of cyberbullying, I think $700 was a fair investment(and so did a unanimous board) before it happens to one of our children.
Funding after-school programs is a problem for everyone and is not a village government problem or agenda item.
I am going to ignore your blatant hypocrisy here, and not point out that i have not seen you complain about such wasteful spending as the thousands we have spent on “merger studies” or the hundreds on the blatantly partisan mass transit referendum question that we paid for but meant nothing. I wont even mention how you lost your voice when our previous president put up a stop sign without going through the proper channels and cost us thousands, or the sudden switch from a roundabout to traffic lights which also cost the taxpayers thousands….i could go on and on. While I will not point out that hypocrisy, I will point out that the safety of its people is a function of government.
Finally I saved the best for last:
The unfortunate part is our three new Trustees didn’t get elected, they ran unopposed!
Now here I will point out your unbelievably blatant hypocrisy. I will point out that three years ago in a room full of people who wanted to actually elect our Village President, you were one of three people who wanted to APPOINT for almost a full two year term. I will also point out that a year ago you were one of the ones behind unethically re-appointing trustee Severson immediately after she lost her seat. Now you signed your name on a letter in the paper where you say someone whose name was on the ballot and faced the voters was “unelected”? I will even take the time to point out that you tried to start a write- in campaign to try and knock out one of the candidates who was running. So let me wrap this up very slowly……
Running with your name on the ballot irregardless who opposes you = ELECTED
Appointed without facing the voters = UN-ELECTED.
That is why Cottage Grove needs a library, 10 minutes of research(the librarian would have helped) and you could have saved yourself the embarrassment of writing this letter. So maybe we can get together and join the “Friends of the Library”
together and start working on ways to improve and educate our Village.
PS: This is how you write a letter:
DI SideKicks Thank you
We want to give a huge community and family hug to those folks in Cottage Grove and places far beyond for their support and encouragement in sending the DI Sidekicsk to the Global Finals for Destination Imagination. We have been overwhelmed with the out-pouring of well wishers. Destination Imagination has been fully self-supported. We do not receive funds from the school district, we have no booster, and we have participated in fundraising.Raising funds for an academic team is tough, as is any fundraising in this economic climate. The parents and families of this team have not only poured out time and effort, but their money as well. We are so grateful for those who have stood behind our team in their community service project on cyberbullying.
It is because of the topic and impact to the community as a whole that folks and groups have helped send the DI Sidekicks to the Global Finals. We will be able to pass the message created by these seven teens to their peers far and wide.
The teens chose this topic to address a problem they have directly witnessed in their community. This is why the Village Board and other groups support this effort. The team won the Torchbearers Award which states: “The award is given in high honor for work that a team does that could impact a community in a very direct way and could save a life.”
This is a community service project, I think it is a great way to spend tax payers money (this whole team is from Cottage Grove). We have instilled in our team from the beginning that this is a “pay it forward” opportunity and they should take great care not care to not criticize or compete negatively.
We will have the opportunity to buddy with a team of middle school students from South Korea – The Seven Dragons. What great info we will share and bring back to Cottage Grove.
Lynn and Emma
Cottage Grove
