After listening about and reading the proposed
new legislative bills presently being batted
about in the North Dakota Legislature, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s probably a good thing for North Dakotans that the Legislature only meets every two years! Why do I say that? Take a gander at a few of the proposed bills. YOU decide how you feel about the legislators who have actually put forth their serious consideration for enactment of law – laws you, my friends and neighbors to the west, will have to live with for at least another two years before someone else amends or repeals them.
For instance: Farm truck drivers. House Bill 1349. A debate regarding whether stricter licensing requirements should be implemented for all the seasonal, part-time truck drivers hired for hauling crops from the fields to the elevators or beet plants, etc. This is a sticky wicket for legislators living in a predominantly agricultural state dependent upon farming as its main source of income. Requiring vigilant background checks on the driver’s license of each and every truck driver hired for only several weeks out of the year, or requiring CDL-licensed drivers only, is going to make it difficult for many medium- and small-sized farmers to find help, and it will probably drive the price of what it will cost to hire such drivers as well. In the long run, guess who will ultimately pay the price.
On the other hand, there is a need to make certain these drivers are capable of handling the loads and trucks they are driving in as safe a manner as possible. Certification may not be needed, but more and much better preparation and education for all the drivers certainly would be a benefit and an added safety measure for the public sharing the roads with seasonal farm truckers. Limiting how long each driver can haul each day, teaching them how long it takes to slow down a truck the size they are driving with “X” amount of weight on it – basic and fairly simple solutions can be found if tried, I’m sure.
“CLOSING THE BARN DOOR ONCE THE HORSE ESCAPES” Mandates
Olie Larson’s “Divorce Counseling/Waiting Period”… Listening to the Jack & Sandy Show, I learned of Mr. Larson’s romantic notion that if mandatory divorce counseling doesn’t do the trick and reunite a squabbling couple, then perhaps waiting a period of a year – as in 365 days – might reignite the burned-out embers of passion. IS HE KIDDING? Olie, this might work in Norway or Finland, but once the word dee-vorce becomes an offered option with neither party backing down or relenting… odds are they are past the counseling stage and well on their way to separate attorneys. WHAT would waiting 12 months accomplish for anyone? Mr. Larson, if you want to propose a bill that might alter the climbing divorce rate, mandate a year of marriage preparation and budget management counseling BEFORE the starry-eyed couple walks down the aisle.
Walk, run, skip or crawl… just do not drive!
In case you haven’t heard and plan on partying hearty during the Super Bowl weekend, pay attention! The Regional DUI Task Force program will be out in full force and waiting to pull over and incarcerate anyone driving under the influence of alcohol or anything else. According to statistics released recently, nearly 50 percent of the vehicle fatalities in the last five years were alcohol-related. The Regional DUI Task Force is composed of Cass, Ransom, Richland, Sargent, Steele and Traill county officers, plus the North Dakota Highway Patrol. Now you have been warned, and if you get caught driving while drinking over the limit, you are not only dumber than a box of rocks – you deserve to go to jail. But then, jail’s better than the morgue, isn’t it?
ON THE GREENER MINNESOTA SIDE
While it sounds oh-so-simple to whip out a sound-bite solution such as “sell the golf courses,” it hardly a) resolves anything for the citizens of Moorhead who live on the public golf courses presently or b) gives any advantage to anyone thinking of buying a home and moving to Moorhead or for the citizens now living and using Moorhead golf courses.
First Ward Councilman, Luther Stueland suggested the City should consider selling the courses as a means to rid itself of expenditures and gain revenue. Seriously, Mr. Stueland?
So, I suppose that means Moorhead should also sell its City-owned community center and hockey arenas? Or the 100 acre park – should that be rented out as well? Get a grip, Luther. Admittedly, city and state mandates and all the ordinances piled on year after year haven’t worked. But eliminating the few major benefits Moorhead has to offer to all its families and seniors is not the way to solve our economic woes.
Perhaps the best method of eliminating excess waste is to start within Moorhead’s city government itself. How? The thought of one sleepy mid-size rural community having a mayor, eight city council representatives, a full-time City Manager, a Community Services Director and a full-time Operations Director seems a little over the top for a town of only 32,000 people (and many of them are gone at least three months out of the year!). How much money could be cut from the budget if we cut out four city council representatives? Think about this, people. Moorhead has a FULL-TIME CITY MANAGER whose job is to help the heads of each department make decisions and fill in the blanks for the City Council of eight who usually spend half their time trying to figure out what they are supposed to make decisions on, while using the other half trying to persuade five other council members to vote their way. This is a tribe with waaaayyy too many “chiefs” and too few Indians.
This doesn’t even include our City Attorney, Brian Neugebauer, who not only does not live in Minnesota or have an office in Moorhead, but is also the City Attorney of record for the business-competing city of West Fargo, where Mr. Neugebauer’s office is located. It isn’t that Mr. Neugebauer isn’t a fine man and a capable lawyer. However, as a taxpayer in Moorhead, I know I’d feel better knowing my city’s best legal interest was not being looked after by the same person who is also looking after the best interest of a town only four miles west, and in a different state to boot. Obviously, I must be the only person who finds this a little more than oddly cozy, because Brian Neugebauer has been awarded the city contract for many, many, many years.
No, there are areas Moorhead can cut if necessary, but selling off the few leisure areas we have is not the place to begin. And no, I am not a duffer. I do not have the patience to chase a little white ball around in a meadow for four hours at a time nor are we hockey fans. But many in our city are one or both, and even though we have a Community Services Director who is in charge of Economic Development, we still have a mighty tough time finding businesses to locate here, let alone entertainment enterprises.
Responses email: sooasheim@aol.com