For all of you Hannabelle supporters who have followed our ordeal for the past year and a half, you know what we went through to try to keep 94 convicted sex offenders from encroaching on our residential (R1 zoned) neighborhood. When I think of the hours and hours of research, the dedication, the drive, the tenacity, all of those awful meetings with all of those awful people - i.e. the Onamia city officials and the Mille Lacs county commission, (I'm rather fond of the Bradbury bunch on the township board. They may be powerless, but they are at least honest, have good intentions, and when it comes to gravel for our roads, they sincerely take it seriously.) Anyway, I don't know how we could have fought any harder than we did, considering that the Mille Lacs Messenger, (the local rag) seemed intent on aiding and abetting Nexus' bamboozlement of The People, undermining our attempts to get the Truth to We The People.
This week the Nexusville Messenger published a letter by commissioner Frank Courteau in which he has the nerve to say:
"Mille Lacs County recognizes and respects the right of property owners to restrict who and where others might encroach upon their property. This respect and recognition extends to all property owners in the County, including the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe."
FRANK COURTEAU, Mille Lacs County Commissioner
Can you believe it??? This goes under the heading of: You can fool some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but you CAN'T fool ALL of We The People ALL of the time. Except in Mille Lacs County...
Here, as Courteau well knows, you can fool MOST of the people MOST of the time. (Just look at all the Sondra Erickson signs in the yards! LOL)
Rights indeed!
When I spoke on the telephone with commissioner Frank Courteau (who DIDN'T I call?), he told me that after spending one afternoon with the infamous Jim D'Angelo at the Mille Lacs Academy, he was supportive of the program for the sex offenders. Fine. BUT, don't put it where people don't want it. Don't ENCROACH. And don't obliterate OUR rights, don't allow OUR laws to be rewritten - stripping us of OUR protection in order to benefit the corporation, don't lower OUR property values, and don't give away OUR tax dollars because YOU were impressed with D'Angelo's propaganda on your little tour on that fateful one afternoon.
Yes. Frank's afternoon undid thirty years of my life. Do you think he cared about what happened in our neighborhood? Did he care about us? Do you think he cares about YOU? Frank Courteau was instrumental in pushing the Nexus agenda. And he was UNWAVERING (stubborn and stupid) when it came to listening to the citizens who opposed his "baby". Well, maybe that's a little strong... After all, at least he didn't hang up on me like the others... Let's put it this way - when I stood up in front of the commissioners at the county board public hearing last December, I had months of research to present - facts and figures which contradicted the facts and figures on Nexus' tax abatement application. I had enough information to raise the eyebrows of even the most rigid sex offender institution supporter. However....
"YOU HAVE ONE MINUTE!" snapped a hostile commissioner Phil Peterson (also running for re-election).
A few of us (those brave enough to stand up against Peterson's agressive intimidation tactics) used our ONE MINUTE to impress upon the commissioners that not only should they examine Nexus more carefully before handing over hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax abatement - since what we discovered about the multi-million dollar private corporation was very questionable, if not highly suspicious that they provided false and misleading information in order to gain public assistance. We asked for a continuance. Denied. Public hearing closed. Voted. Tax Abatement passed.
What information? It's all public information. I'm no great sleuth. We found that Nexus claimed to spend approximately $2 million dollars in the county each year. When the county asked for a detailed account of where they might be spending that money, the figure suddenly dropped. Oh, did I say $2 MILLION? Pardon me. I meant $600,000... And of course, we found that they only actually spend about $200,000 in the county. If you were on the county board, wouldn't this send up a red flag? Wouldn't you at least look into such discrepencies before giving away the tax payers' hard earned dollars? Not in Mille Lacs County. Not these commissioners.
Frank Courteau.... how DARE you bamboozle the people by telling them that Mille Lacs County "respects the right of property owners to restrict who and where others might encroach upon their property."
When the RIGHTS of individuals are disregarded for the "good of the community", that is NOT democracy. When a man like Frank Courteau disregards the RIGHTS of individuals and then says that he RESPECTS those rights.... well, I'd say that Frank Courteau lied quite bald-facedly to the people in his letter to the Mille Lacs Messenger, wouldn't you? Maybe in order to get re-elected so he can continue to "do ya"? (Of course, he'll probably sue me for saying that, but he'll have to wait in line behind D'Angelo, Freeman, and Nexus...)
But I will stick my neck out further and say that if you trust someone like Frank Courteau representing you at the county level, if you are dumb enough, gullible enough, or bamboozled enough to vote for someone who thinks he knows what's best even while refusing to consider all sides or review evidence which might contradict his mind-set, if you haven't learned by now - then, you deserve to have Frank abusing his power to allow anybody to encroach upon your property - even 94 beloved sex offenders.
SHAME ON YOU, FRANK COURTEAU!!!!
SHAME ON YOU, PHIL PETERSON!!!
SHAME ON YOU, JACK EDMONDS!!!
SHAME ON YOU, ROGER AND DAVE TELLINGHUISEN!!!
Vote them OUT or shame on you too.
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