Comment Response - Chapter 2 Page 2

Here are the two comments that we’ve been
discussing of late:

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8/1/2010

Just curious Bill,

If you are so unhappy with Iron County
and it's "Doings". Why do you choose to
live in this community? Your negativity
tarnishes the joy that those of us who
appreciate Iron County feel. Remember
the old adage, "If you have nothing nice
to say..... If you are not part of the
solution you are part of the problem.
I'll be looking for my opinion to be
added to your blog.


8/3/2010

You have clearly taken my comment out
of context for the purpose of this blog. I
am simply a citizen of Iron County who
appreciates the beauty of the area, and
all of the wonderful people who make
this a special place to live. I have no
political agenda. My point was, I spent
half an hour browsing this blog and
found not one positive thing said about
this community. In that half an hour, I
read derogatory posts about the Judge,
the school system, the city manager, the
hospital, and the dog catcher to name a
small few. And yes even the way this
county celebrates Christmas! I can agree
that change is needed in our county as it
is everywhere, but a negative blog such
as this is in no way proactive towards
that goal.

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And my reply:

You’ve missed the entire first part of
the story, the part where when I moved
to Iron River Township and I attempted
to work with the people who are doing
the pulling. The folks who wrote earlier
replies to you are more familiar with
those efforts at the time I was engaged
with the City of Iron River, the Chamber
of Commerce, and the Economic Development
Corporation. I’m going to provide you
with a brief highlight of the results.

I brought to town a small startup business,
and I was looking for someone to partner
with. Asking around, I landed with the
Chamber of Commerce and with the Economic
Development Corporation. Neither of them
came up with a timely answer but I found
one on my own and we started. As it is
related to the construction industry, that
business has moved to the back burner until
the US achieves some economic recovery and
major construction projects are once again
underway.

Because I was dealing with Julie Melchiori,
I joined in at a meeting of Community
Concepts discussing the first Christmas in
Lights parade. Julie had been out of town
for part of that period and wasn’t around
to quash “Christmas” in the name that first
year.

But I was there and suggestions were being
tossed about and I suggested a banner
across the highway, an idea they all liked.
I said I could provide one inexpensively
but Julie Melchiori nixed that, saying the
work should be given to a local business. I
had just run headlong into the cronyism
that represents everything you’d ever need
to know about Iron River. It was an
embarrassing moment for the community, but
nobody, other than me, even noticed because
these things are so ingrained in people who
have spent their entire lives here.

Here I was, a new businessman in town, and
I wasn’t allowed, by the director of the
Economic Development Corporation, to
compete with the established businesses in
town. In the end there was a postage stamp
sized banner put up on the highway that
year, but never again. And by the following
year the name had been changed to remove
“Christmas” from the celebration.

You wrote that I complained, “And yes even
the way this county celebrates Christmas!”
Yes, I complained about the fact that the
very word that you used, “Christmas” is
not permitted. I publicly offered to
privately replace the first hundred dollars
of DDA (government) money and that letter
as published in the Iron County Reporter.
Where were you, pulling your part? Did you
even read the newspaper to know what was
happening in your community? Did you offer
to fund part of the celebration in order to
be able to retain the word Christmas?

Typically the total amount that the DDA has
provided has been less than $1000 each year.
I didn’t think, in a community like ours,
that was a too big price to pay to keep
“Christmas” in Christmas. But nine other
people didn’t step up to make similar
offers so I guess I was wrong.

My take on the situation is that the
interleaving of personnel among various
government agencies needed DDA money to
be spent on something for the community
and the Christmas celebration was a good
place to spend part of it, so “Christmas”
was quashed in the name for the sake of
political expedience. Yes I am critical of
that. And that’s not, as you colored it,
“the way this county celebrates Christmas.”
Tell me, please, did you hurt your back
doing that contortion? We have three
chiropractic practices in Iron River and
from what I understand they’re all very
good. There, I said something positive!

But the story of my experiences with
Community Concepts isn’t finished yet.
I was getting involved with the next
celebration, Rum Rebellion Days. Let’s not
even get involved in a discussion about the
community thinking that violation of the
law is something to celebrate!

I had some ideas and went to Bill Leonoff
at the Chamber of Commerce to discuss them.
The upshot, at my second brainstorming
session was that Bill complained, “Every
time I see you I end up having more work
to do.” I only need one invitation to leave
and not bother a person any further. I
suppose the Chamber of Commerce wasn't
paying Bill enough for working on Community
Concepts? Perhaps he’s lazy? I don’t know,
but once was quite enough and that finished
any work I offered to do with Community
Concepts.

When the federal lawsuit in which I am
presently engaged with the City of Iron River
and members of the city council as some of the
defendants is finished, I’ll be able to address
some of my experiences with the city.

The upshot is that I tried to work within “the
system” that exists here in Iron County. That
system has failed you, and all of us, in so
many ways that any reasonable person quickly
loses count. Every criticism noted in this
publication is, in my opinion, fair and
represents how things really are in Iron
County. All of them are correctable if you,
and the other residents, took an active
interest. So why is it that there’s so much
apathy in the community? Perhaps citizenship
and responsibility weren’t part of the
curriculum when and where you went to school?
Do people really need to be taught those
things?

Next example, do you actually think that a
hospital expansion with a 23.15 million
dollar municipal bond is appropriate for a
community where services were adequate and
the population is collapsing? And in the
first quarter of this year that hospital
lost in the range of $400,000, so how do
you feel about that? Should I have made
up something wonderful to say about it?

Have there been any layoffs at the hospital?
Has anything changed that might give us
some indication that there’s a fiscal
recovery program underway? No, of course
not.

Yes, this publication I have put together
focuses on the problems this community
experiences. There’s an occasional blip
about this being a beautiful place to live,
but that’s the entire thrust of the local
newspaper and radio station with only an
occasional inkling of the problems faced
by all of us, and even then the other
local news outlets don’t provide the
necessary depth of coverage for citizens
to understand what’s going on.

Instead of complaining as you have, you
should be reading what’s here and trying
to make improvements to the community so
this publication could lose its purpose.
Here I call attention to the difficulties
that aren’t being discussed anywhere else.
Head in the sand won’t achieve anything
at all (maybe get some sand in your
nose....)

I grew up at Princeton, New Jersey. I
remember Albert Einstein wandering through
town on his personal errands when I was a
child. I was only 15 when he died. He was,
in the 1950’s, elderly and living mostly
alone. He looked, and most of the time
smelled, like a street person. He seemed
to enjoy stopping by the Woolworth’s
store and haggling with the clerks over
the prices of small items he purchased
there. So it took some time for me, with
that personal experience, to come to
appreciate the wisdom of the man in his
better days. A friend who reads my
scribblings here sent me one of Einstein’s
admonitions because it applies beautifully
to conditions in our community:

The world is a dangerous place to live, not
because of the people who are evil, but
because of the people who don't do anything
about it.
-Albert Einstein

So please tell me what you have done for
your community in the past five years or so.
Anything? Have you attended any of the public
body meetings? Or is your criticism limited
to the people who are actually trying to
improve the situation? I urge you to read
the Iron County Reporter for feel-good stories.
That paper is full of them. But keep reading
here to understand what’s really going on in
your community.

If you have anything to offer that could
improve conditions in our community, please
feel free to submit them to me in email. I’ll
want to talk to you to verify your identity,
and even if I disagree with what you say, I’ll
publish your submittal, just as I have your
comments so long as the goal is to improve
the community. On the other hand, you could
submit them to the Iron County Reporter.
Although I’ve mostly worn out my welcome there,
they’re always looking for well thought out and
well written input from the community.

Let me finish with this thought. Dammit, quit
complaining at me and DO SOMETHING for
your community. It is sorely needed!

Bill Vajk