Hutchinson Leader - Opinion - Comments

nonames I was stalked for 3

justlisahere — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 23:38:18 -0600

nonames I was stalked for 3 yrs. My stalker was from kuwait. I had dated his nephew for a few weeks and when he proposed to me and I said no,his uncle became mad. I went to a support group for people dealing with stalking and believe me when I say I was mortified when another woman finally owned up that she enjoyed keeping her stalker going.. that is what I meant by warrant.There are those who get off on it and it is sickening.

To the comment above

nonames — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 22:19:12 -0600

To the comment above stalking is terrible, it happens to women, men, and even children. This happens more than you know, and even in our own community. There is just one thing that puzzles me about your comment, "warrant it". I hope that you don't think that there is any circumstance where an individual would deserve to be stalked.

Really, my favorite part was

chemguy — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 10:57:31 -0600

Really, my favorite part was lecturing both parties how they should work together better. Then, following with the very next sentence reminding the Democrats that "We have the largest majority in decades; we need to make some change."
I don't know... Sounds pretty contradictory to me.

I turned it off after that.

Did someone say the

star-ann — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:16:08 -0600

Did someone say the president delivered the SOTU with intellect rather than emotion? He looked like he was lecturing a bunch of deliquent teenagers! His ranting about a sureme court decision was unimpressive and his talk about cutting minor spending for 3 years and then contradicting that statement by going on to say we need to "spend more". And why do we need a Debt Commission? Surely there must be a czar for that?!

Really?!? You watched that

darwinball — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 06:51:06 -0600

Really?!? You watched that session and thought the President had nothing to say? I thought he was extremely knowledgeable, cogent, and full of reasonable, non-ideological ideas. I love having a leader who appeals to intellect rather than emotion.

Hey Darwinball Funny he did

Chacha — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 16:19:11 -0600

Hey Darwinball Funny he did not have one resolution for the republicans. All's he had to say was we need to work together to get things done. Nice try though. He must have a tough time with 6th graders because he used on with them. Must be because he really does not have a clue......

Watch the president at the

darwinball — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 15:53:28 -0600

Watch the president at the Republican congressional retreat on Youtube. He's actually even better without a teleprompter!

Rep Peterson - I cut and

mj — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 21:31:11 -0600

Rep Peterson - I cut and paste this to demonstrate how good of a job Congress is doing - Is 44,000 pages of tax code necessary - I doubt anybody including you has a clue - quit going thru the motions and go do your job!

U.S. Representative Jim DeMint (R-SC)

"The federal tax code with its 44,000 pages, 5.5 million words, and 721 different forms is a patchwork maze of complexity and a testament to confusion over common sense."

obama is getting

tms — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 15:32:27 -0600

obama is getting better....at reading the teleprompter!!!

Actually, it's Congress (

mj — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 14:37:12 -0600

Actually, it's Congress ( YOU ) that's not getting the job done in a bi-partisan way. Bush did nothing for 8 years, Obama gave it an inexperienced run with no outcome and Congress instills the blaming statements for slef serving political reasons. You have a job to do -go represent us the people and get this done, Medicare and Medicaid are going broke. All this rambling about both parties want to do something so let's blame the Pres is bogus and you know it.

Mr. Clasen, I was at the

Terry Davis — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 11:31:00 -0600

Mr. Clasen, I was at the council meeting and didn't hear Mr. Exner say stop signs would be removed from Washington/Adams intersection. He did say traffic counts did not warrant a roundabout. In an interview for a story a few days before the meeting, he did say traffic counts were so low that stop signs "could" be removed from Washington/Adams, but added that would not happen.

The roundabout at Montana/Fifth Avenue Northwest was built somewhat as an experiment and also for the future. When the area north of the intersection is developed, a fourth leg (street) of the intersection will be added. That would probably increase traffic through there. The roundabout on Highway 15/North High Drive does seem to be doing its job of reducing crashes and the severity of the crashes that do happen, while keeping traffic moving.

People forget that putting in signals and turn lanes there would have cost almost as much, would have caused traffic to stop completely much of the time, and would not have eliminated crashes. The worse crashes in Hutchinson today take place at signaled intersections such 15/Bluff, 15/7, 15/South Grade Road, 15/Century, 15/Denver. The reason? People run red lights and make left turns without yielding at those intersections, causing dangerous T-bone collisions because at least one car is going 40 mph when the collision happens.

I, too, have sometimes been frustrated by city engineering's insistence on 10-foot asphalt trails when 4- or 6-foot sidewalks will do. They seem to feel people can't move over when meeting each other on a narrow path.

However, the on-street lanes you are referencing have fallen out of favor. For one thing, they aren't all that safe since children riders can be right out in trafic. The city has tended to now narrow up streets so as to gain right of way on one side to fit in off-street trails. That happened on Jefferson south of Century when that area was annexed. That trail is very busy, even in the winter months.

The real sad part would be to say "no thanks" to MnDOT's up to $7 million and have to rebuild those two streets in the future entirely on local taxpayers' dime. Assessments would likely at least double.

Residents along Adams will generally be paying only about 7 percent of the project, or roughly $6,800 each. They could have been paying closer to $9,000 if the state wasn't chipping in the lion's share. Most street rebuilding projects are assessed at about 40 percent or 50 percent.

And just for some perspective, it could be worse. I live along Jefferson in the area annexed several years ago. Our assessments totaled about $14,500! Plus we paid about $5,500 to dig in and install our own service lines from the street and for some added driveway work not covered in the project. That's a total $20,000! And it could have been worse if the county hadn't chipped in some money to the project since that was once a county highway.

(Terry Davis is a Hutchinson Leader staff writer. E-mail him at davis@hutchinsonleader.com.)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but

MamaBearof2 — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 11:09:19 -0600

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Adams Street is a county maintained road. The county is heading the project.

To our comment posters, A

Doug Hanneman — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:56:51 -0600

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(Doug Hanneman is editor of the Hutchinson Leader. He may be reached at hanneman@hutchinsonleader.com)

I am starting to understand

mj — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 07:26:01 -0600

I am starting to understand - no bailouts= depression, 4400 pages of tax code = entrepreneurs, eliminate welfare and immigration = rely on non-profit churches to feed the needy during the depression, elimnate pork barrel projects = a politician that accomplishes nothing
We are in agreement,we are in deep financial trouble. We are in agreement "b the people etc" I worry about the Supreme Counrt ruling on corp political rulings -since when can they vote?. Immigration requires turning your back on the Haiti's of the world - I can't do that! As long as we all recognize Govt cannot follow a business model because they have obligations not to cast humans onto the street - our thought processes are similar. I don't care to see people rewared for not working, I don't like all these govt subsidies, I desire a smaller less regulated govt, I prefer no wars and controlled immigration, I desire a 4% unemployment etc. Now, how do you do that without Govt programs and subsidies! WCCO's Don SHelby calls it "the race to the bottom"

Epitamy of Trough lies

anderson.rick — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 23:53:22 -0600

Epitamy of Trough lies within the ability of our Government to overlook social programs. I blame this on poor oversight and the lack of accountability within the system. Not all of Big Govt is bad, but the books that they keep do not add up. My 26-yrs in Govt Service proved to myself that the word "Budget" was not something that you wanted to rebute, yet if you did you were on the side of a sinking ship.

1st Case in Point: I know a womman that is openly admited to being a lesbian, yet receives enough money from the Govt to pay her rent while getting govt assistance to have more children. She started out with two children and found out that she could get quite a bit more of assistance if she produced more children. She now lives in a very nice 5-Bedroom Home and still does not work for a living.

2nd Case in Point: My girlfriend is a teacher for the Head Start Program which is Federaly Funded. 98% or more of the recipients of the program are illeagals from Mexico and the program tells them that they are not allowed to ask the parents for documentation.
The progam has become free Day-Care for Non-Tax Paying residents.

Join the Governor (T-Paw) in his campaign to Balance the Budget on a Federal level and maybe your taxes can be reduced like mine were in the State of North Dakota. Governor Hoven has become my latest hero since he reduced my property taxes and is working on a budget that now shows a surplus.

Rick Anderson