Another project for the multimodal site in International Falls is good news for the community.
The project, headed by Larry Keep of Rainy Lake Oil, proposes to create six to nine good-paying jobs and has the potential to secure the Falls as Keep’s main distribution center.
Keep certainly has the confidence of the EDA for good reason. He’s a local business owner who has shown success in other endeavors, noted EDA Commissioner Brian Briggs.
The project calls for an expansion for Rainy Lake Oil’s bulk plant and warehouse with some work to start this fall and the remaining to be completed in the next year or two.
This project will join an aquaponics project expected to begin construction next June. That project calls for a 10,000 square feet facility. The unique, patent-pending facility would produce fish grown in tanks, with the nutrient-rich waste the fish produce flowing into troughs, where produce is grown on a floating raft system.
About seven to eight local jobs could be created and will need to be filled by skilled workers. The project has partnered with Rainy River Community College, which will offer a 22-credit aquaponic certificate.
Add those jobs to the Rainy Lake Oil’s six to eight jobs and now we’ve added possibly 14 new jobs to the community. All of the jobs are considered living-wage jobs.
We do understand concerns voiced by some EDA officials that Keep’s ideal site in the multimodal district may leave the remainder of the district with less attractive sites for future development.
But we must agree with EDA commissioners who didn’t want to risk losing the tried-and-true developer we’ve got in Keep in an effort to further consider an alternative site for the project. We can’t be sure when or if another developer will seek a site in the district.
As EDA Commissioner Pete Kalar noted Monday, developers aren’t lining up at the door to get into the district. And Commissioner Bob Anderson properly cited the old adage, “A bird in the hand is worth more than two in the bush.”
Credit should go to all involved in bringing Keep’s project to this stage. And we trust Keep will do his best to more than meet expectations.
Now, on to the construction of these projects that will add to the stability and diversity of our local economy.
Since its reintroduction on the grounds of the South Carolina Capitol in 1961 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, the Confederate flag has been the source of controversy with a regularity approaching that of a Madonna comeback album. Sadly, it has been thrust into the news once more because some kid who loved it went crazy and committed an atrocity. A racially charged atrocity. Yes. Again.
Proponents of the flag fiercely insist it is not a racist symbol of slavery but a banner illustriously heralding their culture, heritage and independence. The same way a skull and crossbones is a symbol of rebirth. And the swastika is just an emblem of Caucasian pride.
Anything can represent anything if one is familiar with the code. A red bandana sticking out of a back pocket invokes a certain meaning, yet when tied around the neck of a yellow lab is decidedly less prurient. It’s all context. Yankee Doodle stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni. That doesn’t mean restaurants will start serving feathers and cheese as a side dish to barbecue dinners anytime soon.
But it is disingenuous to the extreme to suggest that when the rebel flag is worn or brandished in the first state to secede from the Union, that it isn’t meant as a wink-wink, nudge-nudge, knowing and shared racist commentary with no need to be verbalized. The ultimate dog whistle in the key of Dixie.
Besides, it’s not really THE Confederate flag; just a Confederate flag. It’s not even one of three official flags used during the war. The original Stars and Bars looked too much like the Star Spangled Banner and confused troops on both sides. The 2nd flag had much too much white and was often mistaken for a flag of surrender. And the third was like the 2nd, only with a big red stripe at the end. And then the war was over. Except it wasn’t. And in some places still isn’t.
The recent resurgence of General Lee’s Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia gives proof that though the War of Northern Aggression has been over for 150 years, the flame of bigotry remains alive. Why? Because old times there are not forgotten. The South never quit fighting; they just took an intermission. The pause that refreshes.
And their protestations of innocence might be a tad more believable if the states that insist on flying the flag over state-sponsored Confederate monuments weren’t the same ones that defied integration way past the bitter end, using everything at their disposal including police batons, dogs and fire hoses.
“It’s about states’ rights.” Yeah, especially those rights that include owning your labor force. They may call it macaroni, but it’s really white supremacy. In Dixieland, I’ll take my stand and live and die in Dixie. And Republicans wonder why they can’t attract black voters.
Come on, you guys. It’s the sixth year of the 2nd decade of the 21st century. Pull your Confederate flags off of government lands. Let folks fly or paint or tattoo them on their own property, which as you may or may not have noticed, no longer includes people. As George W. Bush famously said, “the past is over.” Look away. Look away. Look away Dixieland.
Durst’s columns distributed by the Cagle Cartoons Inc. syndicate. He is an award- winning, nationally acclaimed comic.
The scorecard for outstate Minnesota provided by the Minnesota Legislature and Gov. Mark Dayton can be summarized as significantly under a .500 win-loss record.
That came on the hope that outstate Minnesota would for once have a winning record. The results are disappointing at best and confounding at worst. That’s because outstate Republicans who helped the party win the majority in the House touted their goals to shore up the needs of a long neglected outstate.
Wins stacked up like this: More money for nursing homes ($138 million), relief for farmers facing bird flu losses, and maybe a smattering of other things so insignificant that don’t register on anyone’s radar.
Losses that impact greater Minnesota most included: Broadband grant funding that was cut $10 million from last year’s $20 million, no tax bill that would have provided farmers property tax relief, no transportation bill that would have shored up crumbling roads in outstate Minnesota, no increase in local government aid to small towns, no funding for workforce housing tax credits.
Among the losses, the lack of transportation funding will do the most damage to outstate Minnesota. Every year, miles and miles of Minnesota roads in outstate fall into a state of disrepair where fixing them will cost twice as much. Yet, leadership in both parties delayed again.
Both the GOP and the DFL governor and Senate agreed mostly on the scope of the need. That they could not compromise to get it done is disappointing. The DFL House and Senate transportation experts came up with a compromise, ceding to some big GOP issues like big reductions in the gas tax and offsetting tax cuts elsewhere. But by that time the regular session was over, and the GOP House and governor were trying to negotiate a quick special session.
When a bipartisan Legislature during the last session approved $20 million in broadband grant funding, observers figured some kind of increase would be a no-brainer given the $20 million only served half of the $40 million in requested funding from needed broadband projects all over Minnesota. The “compromise’’ plan was a $10 million cut and would have been zero had not outstate newspapers chided their GOP lawmakers to rectify the extreme policy of one suburban Republican lawmaker.
An outstate workforce housing program did get $4 million in funding, but that pales in comparison to the need and the available funds of a $2 billion state budget surplus.
Locally, the record appears much the same. The Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota got $400,000, about $100,000 in a bonding bill to provide flood relief and $300,000 in Legacy grant funding. At the same time, a needed $7.1 million upgrade to the St. James sewer system went unfunded.
Even former GOP legislators were making the case that outstate Minnesota did not have a winning record. Brad Finstad, former Republican lawmaker from New Ulm, and now in charge of the Center for Rural Policy and Development, described the lack of a transportation bill as one of the session’s greatest failures, according to a report by Minnesota Public Radio.
Former GOP Rep. Dan Dorman, of Albert Lea, and now leader of the Greater Minnesota Partnership lobbying group, said the promise of the session being aimed at putting greater Minnesota needs first clearly fell far short.
“Everybody had these high hopes it would be the greater Minnesota session. And clearly, it can’t be called that,’’ he told Minnesota Public Radio.
While it should never be the intention of legislators to simply fill their home districts with unnecessary pork projects, they should be able to fill real needs for fixing crumbling roads and upgrading sewage treatment plants.
The win-loss record shows outstate has been relegated to the bottom of the standings. Again.
The Free Press of Mankato, June 21
