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Resolutions

Someone recently challenged me to come up with some New Year’s resolutions. I have a couple of problems with that particular idea. First of all, how can you resolve to become a better person when you’re already so good that there’s nearly no room for improvement? If you are, as Mary Poppins reckoned in her own self-assessment, “practically perfect in every way”? You can bet that my wife has a radically different opinion regarding this. I would normally dismiss that as mere second guessing except for, dang it, she’s almost always right. Another issue is that the future ...

We all can be targets in a mean world

Just in time for Christmas, I looked like a freak. How festive. I came home from town, and wife Pam made a face at me. “What’s wrong with your eye?” Nothing that I knew about till I looked in the mirror. My left eye was red where white was supposed to be. It was what your teenager would call “gross.” I looked like the guy in a horror movie who knifes everybody in the basement. My eye doc Jim Hutchins said it was bad, but he’s seen worse. I think that was supposed to make me feel better. It was a burst blood vessel, a big one, the mother of all blood vessels. It should ...

An off-kilter Christmas

This Yuletide season has seemed a bit peculiar for my wife and me. Our impression that this was an off-kilter Christmas was mainly due to a summer and fall that passed in a blur of chemotherapy and radiation treatments and doctor’s appointments to treat my tonsil cancer. We were in Brookings one evening and decided to take in the view of residential Christmas lighting. We were somewhat disappointed when we could find only isolated islands of cheerful lights, not the blocks-long, dazzlingly luminous holiday vistas we had hoped to see. I recently had a couple of follow-up checkups in ...

Cities in the area facing challenges, but successes too

Nationally, nearly every local area in the U.S. raises revenue through property taxes, and these taxes represent the largest tax revenue source in 94 percent of localities. Property taxes are also the dominant tax revenue source for local governments here in Minnesota, generating more than any other revenue a city collects. All cities in Minnesota on average raised their 2025 property tax preliminary levy at 8.8%. The property tax levied on real property depends on many factors, a few of the important ones are: • Level of public services: Generally, more and better services mean ...

Successful first half and looking forward to rest of 2024-25

With the completion of our audit, we are now focusing on the next steps for our revised 2025 budget and preparing for the 2026 budget. Over recent years, we have been fortunate to maintain stable enrollment, and our projections indicate a steady to slightly decreasing student count. However, we are observing an increasing level of student needs, particularly in mental health, which remains a high priority. Additionally, there is a continued high demand for special services, including special education and language supports. We are also seeing a growing interest among students in ...

Cold weather has arrived

Cold weather has arrived in our neck of the woods, the intense type of chill that hurts your face when you step outside. The mere act of going outdoors feels like being slapped. I grew up in the shadow of the Cold War wherein we worried about being turned into human French fries by Russian nukes. A more immediate concern was our War on Cold, which took place from October through April and involved worrying about becoming human Popsicles. Warm clothing is our frontline defense in the War on Cold. This means layering up, starting with undergarments. As cold weather arrived when I was ...