It appears the city of Albert Lea is about to spend more of our tax money on additional white elephants! Do we not have enough empty buildings? The old bank building on downtown Broadway, the spec building on south Margaretha and now they want to add to their collection by buying more empty ones on South Broadway.

Would it not be more in our interest to fill the shortage of police officers on our police force? Having spoken with several officers in the last few days, they have a problem keeping up with the number of calls, let alone the speeding on our streets. They need more patrols on Richway, East Main and South Margaretha, as well as other residential streets where speeding has become more prevalent lately.

Also, our city needs to become more aware of prevention, such as added stop signs at intersections, children at play on streets that have no sidewalks and areas where children ride bikes and scooters, etc. Our city engineer does not think these things are important, according to conversations I have had with him. I am sure parents of those kids who play on our streets would disagree with this train of thought from a city employee. Let’s get real.

 

James Jirele

Albert Lea