J.P. Cola

Back in 2009 and 2010 the Willmar City Council meetings were a popular show on WRAC 8 in Willmar. The council was split on whether to allow the Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership to build some low income housing in southwest Willmar, and every two weeks you never knew what would happen...there were vetos by Mayor Les Hietike, public works plans for the year cancelled, and you even saw a group of council members walk out in the middle of a meeting. There were protests, appeals, scoldings, even threats of lawsuits, but in the end, the partnership was allowed to build the Westwinds Estates 3 Development. Later that fall, both Mayor Les Heitke and council member Steve Gardner were defeated by Westwinds opponents Frank Yanish and Tim Johnson. It appears that since that time, the new mayor and some council members have caused some headaches for Willmar City staff by asking questions and working to defeat some new policies and ordinances. Since that time, longtime City Administrator Michael Schmit retired to be replaced by Charlene Stevens. Other lower level staff members and employees have resigned and moved on, including Public Works Director Holly Wilson, and the head of Willmar Utilities Bruce Gomm was terminated. Now long-tenured City Councilman Doug Reese plans to leave the council to fill an empty spot on the Kandiyohi County Board, and two weeks ago, publicly confirmed what some people have been saying privately...that it hasn't been a pleasant working atmosphere at city hall. Reese said the constant questioning and second-guessing of staff is "demeaning" and that is likely why many people are leaving. As a mayor and city council, they were elected by the city's residents to make the decisions critical to running the city, and it's up to them to ask questions and be educated on the various issues. City staff, on the other hand, are elected by no one and are hired by the council and mayor. Maybe in the past, mayors and council members didn't ask a lot of questions, and the change in regime has been a shock. On the other hand, city staff members have gone to college and devoted their careers to certain, specialized areas and by most accounts, know what they are doing, while the mayor and council members might be a lawyer, or a garage owner, or run a construction company. I think as residents of the city, we look for results...are we getting the most bang for our tax dollars? Are the streets safe to walk? Are there jobs? Are the potholes being filled and the snow being plowed? Maybe we should look at city government like a hot dog....we don't want to know how it's made, we just want it to be good in the end. I think it might be a hard time in the short term at least for city staff with an active mayor and council, but the voters eventually have the final decision at the polls. If we keep losing good staff or if city hall grinds to a halt, they will look to make a change. But if things still continue to function like they should, well, city staff will have to get used to someone looking over their shoulder.

Remember when the internet spurred the revolutions in Libya and Egypt, leading to "the people" deposing their evil dictators? And how the U.S. helped with airstrikes and weapons? Quite a glowing story. Now, the rest of the story...Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood moved in to fill the the power vacuum, and both countries, in my estimation, are maybe a year or two away from being new Irans, being run by hard line anti-west Muslims, clerics and Imams. Women...start getting fitted for your lovely head-to-toe burkas, cancel your college courses and throw away your drivers' licenses. You won't need them or be able to use them anymore. America continues to be in bed with the middle east because of our addiction to oil, so we must continue to be concerned about any unrest in the countries located over our fuel storage containers. And get ready for further limits to free speech in the U.S....a jewish film maker in California made an anti-Muslim movie and put it on the internet, which can also be seen in Arab countries, which promptly spurred riots in Egypt and Libya. The U.S. Ambassador to Libya and 2 others were murdered by protesters, and it won't be long until embassies in those countries as well as Yemen are torched. I did not notice any Muslims in Willmar, Minnesota or America protesting because of this tasteless movie. As a Catholic and Christian, my religion is constantly insulted and denigrated, yet I've yet to see riots and murders because of it. Some say the riots in Libya and Egypt were prompted by backers of Hosni Mubarek and Moammar Ghaddafi, hoping to goad America into some wide scale retaliation, and to President Obama's credit, it hasn't happened. I still say the best revenge is to get to the point where we no longer have to purchase oil from these backward countries and only have to see pictures of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Libya on charming travel shows showing pyramids, bedouins in tents and on camels, instead of seeing billionaire oil-shieks driving Bentleys and women kept on (figurative) leashes.

Last October 82-year-old Delbert Huber aimed an old rifle at his friend's son and pulled the trigger, ending the life of a man whom everyone should emulate. At Huber's sentencing this week he did everything he could to make the victim, Tim Larson, sound like a dangerous, angry, vengeful bully. Huber said it seemed to start when he told Tim Larson he could no longer hunt on Huber's land near Paynesville unless Larson put a furnace in Larson's father Norman's home near Belgrade. Huber said when Larson refused, he closed the land to Larson for hunting, after which he said Larson started harrasing him and his son Tim Huber. He said Larson would sabotage their tractors, threaten them and other hunters, and even stole money from Tim Huber. Huber said he knew there might be trouble when he and Tim went to Norman Larson's farm on October 8th to take care of Norman's livestock while he was out of town at a wedding, and that's why he brought the rifle. Huber, sitting in a wheelchair, wearing a hearing assist device headphone and sporting a long white beard, also forwarded some theories...that someone else on the farm may have shot and killed Larson, and that Larson stayed on his dad's farm instead of going to a family wedding out of state so he could "do in" the Hubers. I realize defendants have a right to speak before they are sentenced, but Huber's 10 minute ramble was bizarre...he said he was illiterate, even though he ran a tractor repair business for many years. And Norman Larson, who was sitting right in front of me, was shaking his head when Huber was talking about him not having a furnace. After he was done, Tim Larson's sister sarcastically shouted out "We should applaud Delbert for the story he just told!"

Huber's diatribe came after 20 minutes worth of victim's impact statements from family and co-workers of Larson, describing a man who ran marathons to raise money to dig wells in Africa and South America. A man his wife described as the "best father anyone could hope for", and whose death left their 9 and 12 year old sons "lonely, scared and fatherless." A man who taught emotionally disturbed middle schoolers in Albertville, a veteran who never raised his voice, had a strong faith in God, and would give money to poor kids for lunch and help raise money for a child whose shoes were stolen. County Attorney Jenna Fischer broke down as she read some of the many emails sent in tribute to Larson after his death, and she called his death a "tragedy of paramount proportions." She said she's never seen a case where there is such a difference in character between the suspect and the victim. I was left wishing I could have met Larson before his death, but alas, too often we only hear about true heroes after they have made the ultimate sacrifice.