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Handing out some cheers and jeers

By Staff | Feb 17, 2013

Cheers to the Blue Earth Area School Board for voting to proceed with remodeling and relocating the schools offices in the middle and elementary school.

It makes perfect sense to do it at this time, since most of the school will be torn up at some time or other this year for the heating/air conditioning/ventilation multi-million dollar project.

It also makes perfect sense to get all of the buildings’ offices in one location. As it is now, they are spread out all over and are sometimes difficult for visitors to find.

Plus there is one more very important aspect to the remodeling that involves school security.

After the offices are moved to a central location, only one door to the school will remain unlocked during the school day the one on the south side of the building by the current superintendents office.

All others will be locked, limiting unsupervised access to the school during the day.

In light of what has happened in other areas of the country, that seems to be a very smart thing to do.

Cheers to the Blue Earth City Council for acting as swiftly as possible to fill an open position on the council.

After failing in the past to fill a spot that was left open for many months, it was refreshing to see swift action taken this time.

With Rick Scholtes’ spot open after he was elected mayor, the council did the proper thing opened it up to any one who wished to apply, interviewed the candidates, and made a fast decision.

Jeers to those involved in the Singleteary Foods project and are not coming forward with information to the future of this enterprise.

With millions of dollars on the line, a lot of it public money invested the public has a right to know, and a right to be concerned.

We would think that public officials, who have invested some serious cash in this project, would like to know what is happening as well.

Everyone would be very happy if a new industrial plant in the county, employing many people, is going to open as promised.

People just want to know whether that is going to happen or not. We suggest someone answer that question.

Jeers to the Blue Earth City Council for not continuing to work on the now infamous land swap of property with the Faribault County Fair Board.

While the council was unable to get an agreement in place, they just moved ahead on their own and decided to do what they wanted without consulting the fair board.

Now the proposed swap again appears to be in limbo. What should have taken a month to accomplish has now taken over a year.

And, dare we mention it? Spring is on the way and the tourist season at Giant Park and the county fair are just around the corner.

Cheers to the school bus drivers who are not putting up with any unruly behavior by the students riding on the buses. They are pulling over and stopping and calling the law enforcement authorities.

These cases are severe enough to warrant this action and that is a sad statement on our society.

But, hopefully this policy will be a future deterrent to this type of behavior.

A special note to the Faribault County District Court.

Although we can’t in all good conscience say ‘cheers’ to this, we can commend the Faribault County Attorney’s office for making the deal in the Freeman murder trial case.

We feel justice has been served. The person accused of the horrendous crime is going to prison for a long time, and the victims in the case are spared having to testify in court and thus have to go through all the emotional trauma involved in retelling the details of that awful night.

One final cheer goes out to all the outstanding students in Faribault County.

While sometimes the kids who cause trouble, or are outstanding athletes, get all the attention, we are trying to spotlight others who excel at things such as speech, Knowledge Bowl or reading and classroom excellence.

Plus, a special cheer to the kids who care and help others Peer Helpers and those who are supporting their fellow students who are battling cancer.

They deserve to be recognized in the paper as much as the great athlete. Well done!