What Will It Take?

Yesterday I found myself spending time in a well occupied
waiting room in Rhinelander. After the population thinned
down a little, it became obvious that four women there were
lifelong residents of Iron River. These four were well aged
but not what I would call elderly.

Shortly before my front-&-center-to-see-to-business call
came, I involved myself in their discussion. You know, of
course, that I saw to it that we evolved immediately into
local politics. During that very short process it quickly
became obvious that none of those 4 lifelong residents
knew who John Archocosky, the city manager of the small
town they live in, is.

I have to wonder, if someone went door to door and asked
every resident of Iron River who John Archocosky is, how
many would not know as was my 4 out of 4 sample for women,
who only knew one another in pairs, would be. These women
had that same level of knowledge about the rest of the
current events in Iron County and how local government is
run.

There's the basic problem of apathy demonstrating how bad
things are in Iron County, where the majority of the
population not knowing or caring what local government
does feeds into lousy governance.

Some of our transplants are just as bad. We have Kenneth
Nelson running for the school board. In his discussion with
the Iron County Reporter (see the May 26 issue) he said,
"I was wildly happy with this district and the quality of
education our teachers are providing."

Mr. Nelson has not been paying attention to the product of
the school system that is evident surrounding us. So many
don't know how to read and write (have you listened to the
news being read on WIKB?) Bay College has instituted make-up
classes for students coming out of regional schools with
poor to non-existent math and reading skills.

If the attitude of someone running for the school board
is that 'all is well' then how can we have any hope of
improvement in the level of education our tax dollars
produce? I've never met Mr. Nelson, and the Miner's State
Bank continues to be successful under his tutelage, so
I'm not saying he's a bad guy.

I don't hold out any hope for this community if those
who are moving into the area bring laissez faire
attitudes with them, or, in the other extreme, the heavy
handed approaches brought to us by people like Bob Battye,
the author of the proposed Iron River Township blight
ordinance we reported on here recently.

In another position, running for school board, we have
Tom Angeli, a former federal jail administrator. My
problem with Angeli moving into the Iron County political
scene has to do with the worldview that law enforcement
officials (as reported to me by a another retired federal
prison official) hold. Their world is divided into three
parts. Us (that is law enforcement,) the bad guys, and
taxpayers. I think Tom Angeli needs a bit longer to
recover from being a law enforcement officer before he
moves into purely civilian political positions if, indeed,
recovery is possible.

I'm looking for a sensible overhaul of a stagnant legal,
political, and educational system here in Iron County. It
would work best if it were a combination of an influx of
new ideas from people coming in from the outside and an
awakening by those who have been living here all their
lives. I keep seeing the people with somewhat extreme
views who have been making their mark here. I'm looking
for well rounded people interested in changing the
community for the better.


Bill Vajk