Last Friday’s editorial was an excellent appeal for the $7.5 million of bonding money that Albert Lea needs to complete the task of cleaning up Fountain Lake and, eventually, to restore Albert Lea Lake. Money already collected through our local-option sales tax has been spent upstream to restore shorelines, clean the water and prevent runoff that has been filling up our lakes. Unfortunately, the editorial didn’t go far enough.

Albert Lea voters who voted for the sales tax approved this measure by 83.5 percent. This overwhelming support may be unprecedented in our history. We have long known that the money raised by the sales tax would not be enough to dredge our lakes by itself. We did know that this task needed to start somewhere and levying the tax was a beginning. By this demonstration of our commitment we hoped to encourage state matching funds to complete the task. Unfortunately, only three people from Albert Lea appeared at the capital to demonstrate support for this measure. That is a pitiful demonstration of public support by our city.

If other cities on the move such as Rochester or Mankato had a project like this with this level of public support, the gallery most likely would have been filled with local citizens and buses or car caravans would have flooded St. Paul. Because this is a matter of both local and county importance, we would expect that a strong presence from the elected city, county and watershed board officials as well as a delegation of private citizens would have been invited and urged to attend.

Those of us who have petitioned the state for similar support in the past have been told by legislators that they want and expect to be solicited by their peers. This means elected officials and interested voters. City and county employees are often needed to provide technical details, but they should never take the lead in petitioning the Legislature. Let’s hope that the poor showing last week does not hurt our cause and let’s hope that a much better showing will be present if another opportunity presents itself.

 

Anthony Trow

Albert Lea