Commentary; Posted: 10/20/04

FL election a chance to reclaim hometown

Corbett Johnson
Guest Columnist

Thomas Mannís, Tonio Kroger, was the story of a young man who tried to leave his hometown for the bright lights and sophistication of Munich. As much as Tonio tried, he could not emotionally sever that connection. His hometown love was too overpowering.

If you were lucky enough to grow up and come of age in Forest Lake or in a community similar to it in the years immediately following World War II, you should very well understand those feelings.Ý

Our veterans came home, young, brash, brimming with confidence, and over a 15 year period, built their families, our schools, churches, recreation facilities and hospital.

In the early 1950s a bond issue for new schools passed with an 84 percent majority.

Our generation and the senior generation were respected and taken care of. The fabric of our community was sewn into a comforter that sheltered us all.

Recently I went to a candidate forum for mayoral and council elections. I went to look for two specific strengths in the people who will be elected, who will make some of the most far reaching decisions in our hometownís history. I wanted to find candidates who love this community, with all of its warts, as I do.

If decisions are made about our future with heart and head, I trust that most often the best decisions will be made. I also wanted to see if any of the candidates had a clear vision of what we could look like five or 25 years from now.

On the latter point I was seriously disappointed. Every candidate knew we were going to grow, that traffic was a major concern and we needed to attract commercial entities to build our tax base. None had any clear understanding of what it will take to attract new business to Forest Lake.

One thing that should be perfectly clear to all of them is what hasnít worked - keeping taxes low by not supporting our schools and recreational opportunities, not cleaning up our rusty street lamps surrounded by weeds and crumbled curbs rolling on to the highway and deteriorated sidewalks.

Keeping taxes low is not the answer to attract anyone who will care about this community.

There were some candidates whose heart and head are in a good place and we should be thankful that they are willing to give of their time and be involved in the process.

One candidate, however, stands out from the rest on the negative side. For 20 years Dick Tschida and his supporters have led a holy war against Forest Lake, ripping, tearing and defiling the precious fabric of our community under their banner of lower taxes.

Our schools have suffered immeasurably, our hospital is gone and the citizens of the former township were denied the right to vote on their future. This has been accomplished by an incessant, unending, cacophony of misstatements, insupportable arguments and last minute anonymous mailings, before critical votes, too late to be repudiated.

It is not too late to salvage and repair that comforter that once surrounded us. We can move forward and build a community that proves it loves its children, understands the need for affordable and accessible senior housing and maintains its infrastructure.

The by- product of that will be to attract a tax base that will keep Forest Lake among the lowest taxed cities in the seven county area.

On Nov. 2, look in the mirror, and tell yourself you are no longer willing to support Dick Tschida and those that align themselves with him. We can reclaim our hometown.

Writer Corbett Johnson is a lifelong Forest Lake resident. He works in real estate.

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