Ah, there's a million stories in the naked city. I guess some of them should be kept under wraps. Discretion is the better part of community newspaper work? Or should "the press" be undeterred, the way our local publisher suggests is the way to go? The press should be a "watchdog?"
And of course that would mean updating the public on the occasional messy subjects. Sometimes I guess "conflict resolution" comes up short. And so we have the City of Morris with its closed council meetings and multiple sheriff's deputies assigned to be at meeting locations. A well-known retired Morris attorney rolling up his sleeves to fight for a particular party using an online forum.
The attorney's spouse wrote the following to me:
I'm sure the City Manager won't address the thousands of dollars in tax funds that the citizens of Morris will have to pay for attorney fees and investigator fees. She had already charged $9000 to the library budget for the first fees due!
Anyway, we'll attend the rest of the hearing in August.
Anyway, we'll attend the rest of the hearing in August.
But what about the venerated print media? Is it not supposed to be a beacon? According to lots of popular rhetoric it is. But where the rubber meets the road? Like right now with the kerfuffle based on the Morris Public Library?
The library ought to always be a benign topic, wouldn't you think? It's not as if it even provides an essential service. I can't even get my receipts printed through their computer department any more. This is a big deal. Systems are "tightening up" with ID verification.
Is the Morris paper enlightening us on the details of this quite untidy struggle involving various players with the library? The city manager is primary in this. The council has devoted considerable time in closed meetings. Deputies are deemed needed to watch over deliberations. Where would the violence come from? Is it safe for me to even be writing about it here? I'm an "unattached" journalist. Unattached to corporate interests.
The Morris paper is of course the "Stevens County Times."
Here's an email I sent to a friend this morning (Tuesday):
Del - Today is the big test for the Morris newspaper. The new issue comes out and we'll see if there's a substantial follow-up on the library matter, because of last week's meeting at the courthouse and all the intrigue. Right now I'm guessing there will be, because there has to be. I'll go downtown to library at maybe 5 p.m. and see. We'll see if there's anything to Ward's theory that there might be a "cover-up."
Kevin Wohlers never answered me!
I've been around a lot but I've never seen anything as mystifying as this. And there's Anne at the library as if nothing happened.
Why would anyone want to run for the city council now?
- BW
Think I'm isolated with my thoughts? Here's an email I got from a quite respected senior member of our community a few days ago.
Sorry to say, I am not privy to any info about the librarian mess. In fact, I learned more just by reading your blogs. I wish the newspaper would shed some light on this, but maybe they've been told not to.
"Been told not to!"
We should feel flummoxed by this comment. Are the elected city officials muzzling themselves too? As reflected in how our mayor did not respond to a most reasonable inquiry I sent him recently? No answer at all. Maybe he wouldn't want to give me the satisfaction of knowing that I at least asked valid questions. So if I had to guess, I'd guess he would say my email was too long.
Sometimes an issue like this demands such attention. I know in the Internet age people don't have much patience to read. So go ahead and call me a dinosaur. You may want to call me some other things too. I have a long pattern of being skeptical about today's Republican Party, and this makes me a real outlier here in the rural hinterlands.
Perhaps a target for visceral action?
Kevin Wohlers is in good company because Rep. Michelle Fischbach did not answer my most recent question to her either. It was about DJT commuting the prison sentence of a major defrauder of Medicare. I thought Republicans were so concerned about Medicare and Medicaid fraud.
They appear to be passing the "big beautiful bill" now. You all should be self-motivated to find out what's really going on and to not automatically follow the Republicans. Fischbach would appear to follow the lead of DJT completely. Can you dispute that?
Email to the mayor
I am most happy to share with y'all the email re. the library that I sent to Mayor Wohlers. I'm sharing it by putting a permalink here to my June 27 post on "Morris of Course." That is my companion blog. I started two different blogs a long time ago when I had more access to local sports information and I did not want any one site to get "clogged" with sports! Here is the link to the post that includes my email to Mayor Wohlers:
I'll share one last quoted passage from one of my own emails regarding the library. Here goes:
There has got to be something BIG going on with library, when you consider what the city is spending on investigation and the very sharp words by city officials/attorneys. No way is this going to turn out innocent. Can't we all assume now that Anne isn't worth the trouble any more? Good grief we're just talking about the library. If council members learn Anne is innocent or if charges are overblown, wouldn't they come down quickly on city manager?
What a PR black eye this is for Morris. And Bob Dalager was right when he was shocked at how three LE officers were needed for the closed city council meeting. As if violence might be done. Very very odd. Good grief.
Please try to nail down the shoeshine guy. Man, if this whole thing ends up being small potatoes, then our council should be tarred and feathered.
The matter has not been discussed further on "Anonymous." Dalager really used that for a time.
- BW
"The shoeshine guy"
My occasional references to "the shoeshine guy" are kind of an inside joke with a friend. You would know the background if you watched the old "Police Squad" satirical TV series that starred Leslie Nielsen. This was when Nielsen was well into the new iteration of himself as a comic actor.
Nielsen's police character would scout around for info on crimes going on. First on his list was to visit "Johnny the Snitch" who worked a shoeshine stand! And of course a "shoeshine guy" would overhear tons of stuff about the underbelly of life. Our current library matter I guess is in line with the underbelly. It is untidy.
So the community newspapers of today would find it unsavory to look into? Of course the city is funded with public funds. So I'd suggest getting all this out in the open. Can you tell me why not?
The image below shows Leslie Nielsen as "Lt. Frank Drebin" trying to get "the real story" from "Johnny the Snitch" at the shoeshine stand. Unfortunately there is no shoeshine stand in Morris. Johnny would always feign that he knew nothing at first. Then "Drebin" would peel out some cash and hand it to Johnny whereupon Johnny, after a moment of looking right and left, would "spill" what he knew!
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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