City needs to save more; spend less

Letter to the Editor

To the Editor,

   I am 71 years old, walk 5 miles a day and visit stores almost daily. I see no need for a longer trail. We have the school track, Berndes Center and present trail. I walked the trail five times in the last two weeks and only met two people. Part of the justification was a survey by Parks & Rec. Did the survey mention engineering alone would be $33,000? That little item would have changed some opinions. People wanting the city to buy an infield machine (or a trail) need to provide at least part of the cost via personal funds or fundraising. I received 10 fundraising letters this month. I will donate $100 for the infield machine if Parks & Rec comes up with $5,000 of the fundraising. City employees need fundraising training and need to provide partial funding for capital purchases.

   I want to thank all city employees for their work! Here are some suggestions (if you want to lower R.E. tax):

   1. Establish yard waste near a paved road (i.e. park a cart at the Berndes Center). I do not want to drive my nice vehicle in the tree dump but would dump off a container at a cart at the Berndes Center. Lower yard waste pick-up to once per month. That will promote burn barrels and composting.

   2. Riverside Gardens does a great job but has 20-yard waste containers. Could a volunteer haul those 20 containers to the tree dump?

   3. Consider less hours/day at the Berndes Center gym. Saves heat, electric and labor. During January through March, the average usage was at times three to four people/hour. That is one tenth of one percent of the population. Should the library be open during hours of minimal usage?

   4. Several times one person came to the Berndes Center gym and turned on all 36 lights. Can we block half the lights so ONLY city employees can turn on those 18 lights?

   5. The city council approved $10,000 for the chamber. Could the chamber have a booth at the car show and have a drawing each hour for a $5 gift certificate to a local business?

   6. Can we mow less of the disc golf course? Can we mow every nine days rather than every seven days? Can we get the three machinery dealers to each mow the disc golf course once/month? Can we sell the disc golf course with the understanding it remains a disc golf course?

   7. Technology. Each time we have a major event at the Berndes Center, employees need to sweep the floor. Robotic machines are less costly now and could work.

   8. The upstairs room in the Berndes Center has had lights left on with no use. Can we rig a camera (tied to an employee’s phone) to allow lights to be turned off?

   9. Ask businesses with more than 10 employees to donate a few hours per week with specific duties.

   10. The City Council approved $33,000 to engineer a “longer trail.”

   11. Can we get businesses to each edge 100 cemetery stones weekly?

   There are many people struggling to pay bills and so many other needs. I hope city council, Main Street and city employees consider this and slow spending! We all need to do a little more (unless you like paying R.E. Tax).

Mike Nodolf

Monticello, Iowa

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