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To whom it may concern in the city of Albert Lea:

Have you ever wondered why your taxes continue to rise in our once prosperous city?

Years ago I came here to visit relatives when Albert Lea was on a scale comparable to the surrounding cities in southern Minnesota. Is it not time we should no longer elect an employee of the Mayo system to the office of mayor? In his several terms in office, we have seen the city continue to lose business. Our tax base is now on the back of homeowners rather than on businesses.

No effort has been made by our city’s leadership to bring new tax dollars that have to be spent to keep the city a vital place to attract new business. In the last several years, at least three companies have gone elsewhere in the surrounding area. Because of good leadership, Austin and Owatonna have built and enlarged their industrial areas.

I and others believe it is time for a change and bring Albert Lea out of the dark ages of what has been created here in the last terms of our present mayor.

Oh, by the way, who OK’d building condos in a filled-in swamp, as on the north side of Albert Lea Lake, where the water table is higher than the foundation of the proposed building?

Jim Jirele

Albert Lea