Savage Pacer - Opinions - Comments

Very well put Keighla. This

Deena — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 13:25:13 -0500

Very well put Keighla. This is a subject and area that "people" just do not get or have a clear understanding of and just do not want to address or understand. It is easy to ignore or blame or point fingers when you have children who do well!

I didn't like the idea of

Savage Guy — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 08:16:35 -0500

I didn't like the idea of the roundabout when it was first discussed but I have driven through this intersection for 17 years and have witnessed a lot of near crashes. With the townhomes nearby, and with the crashes in recent years, something needs to be done to improve the safety of the intersection. I'm not sure if the roundabout design is the right answer but it will slow down traffic through the intersection.

The roundabout is a bad

beagle44 — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 10:28:02 -0500

The roundabout is a bad idea.
I totally agree with Tori in regard to the roundabout. While it MAY be more cost effective and MAY be able to handle the traffic more effectively, and reduce the number of serious accidents and fatalities, it WILL cause a lot of headaches. Why? Because people don't know how they work and there is NO WAY the county can EDUCATE people on how to use them CORRECTLY. There will be a lot of fender benders, as Tori pointed out, but I suppose the body shops will welcome the business.
I'm sure that the street I live on will become the DETOUR in order to avoid it and then I suppose those of us who live on my street will have to request speed bumps or some other means to keep traffic out of our neighborhood, but I guess no one in the county or city cares about that element of their design.

Wow! What a great piece.

SavageResident — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 11:40:52 -0500

Wow! What a great piece.

This letter is in response

savagemickey — Tue, 27 May 2008 15:12:37 -0500

This letter is in response to Elio Guidarelli's call for strong leaders in 2008. I couldn't agree more with his sentiments, however I do need to take issue with one of the statements that he made about illegal immigrants. He made the claim that they have contributed nothing to our economy and are being paid more than our legal Social Security recipients.

I'm not sure where he is getting his information from, but illegal immigrants are not eligible for social security. In fact, even though they pay into FICA to the tune of billions of dollars per year through their W-2 wages, they will never get any benefits from it. I'm sure that there are some who receive Medicaid and other medical assistance as well as welfare, but not social security.

He also made the claim that illegal immigrants cost the country $338 billion and the cost to deport all of them is $230 billion. Wow. I guess I'm amazed that anyone would quote such figures without any references as to their source. Even the most rabid anti-illegal immigrant people don't think mass deportation would be feasible at any cost.

The truth is that there are 10-20 million illegal immigrants in this country at any one time by some estimates. Most of these aliens are currently working 1-2 jobs. Since the US currently has an unemployment rate of 5% it is obvious that the illegal immigrant community is contributing mightily to our economy and not substantially reducing the opportunities available to the US citizenry.

Whether our economy and the US consumer is a net winner or loser in the equation can be argued both ways depending on what you include on each side of the equation.

The real question is whether it is wise for our economy to be so dependent on illegal workers and what we should, or can, do about it?

I don't think think the

SavageResident — Thu, 15 May 2008 10:26:06 -0500

I don't think think the criticism of Tom Westerhaus' comments is fair. If the resident's of the district are unwilling to vote for the levy, they must face the concequences. What I find unfair is that a small number of families need to pay the price for the voters decision to not fund the schools. This issue needs to be in all parents minds and to do that, the school board needs to make all parents feel the pain... but, that would then hurt their re-election bid...

Glad Chris Lind decided to stop the bleeding.

I think the mature trees in the Savage area destinguish it from other communities in the area. We should look to keep our strengths and improve or weaknesses, cutting down trees seems the wrong direction to go.

Thanks Nancy for your comments and keeping the discussion going.

You really hit the nail on

adsalesgal4swpub — Thu, 15 May 2008 09:46:06 -0500

You really hit the nail on the head. I absolutely agree with you, as do others in the community I have had conversations with. I appreciate your knowledge and ability to "say it how it is", no sugarcoating.

I thought this editorial

Nancy Huddleston — Thu, 15 May 2008 08:19:00 -0500

I thought this editorial would garner some chatter on the web site. We've heard its generating a lot of discussion in the community, but nothing's been posted here about this topic. What are your thoughts about the current state of the Prior Lake-Savage Area School District? About Chris Lind? About Tom Westerhaus? About the boundary changes?

Pastor Bill, my family and I

mebhardt — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 00:00:45 -0500

Pastor Bill, my family and I are now looking for a new church. Though I am not a theologian or a Biblical scholar, I know that during time of war the church's role is to pray for peace, the safety of our soldiers and clarity of thought for our leaders. To state your opinion in such an uncompromising way is unacceptable.

I have not served in Iraq or the military and though I have family members in the military, none have served extended tours Iraq. But I understand that one of the ONLY reasons to still be there is that it is "The Christian Thing To Do". The Iraqi people did not choose their leader and are not responsible for his actions. His actions however were inhumane, unchristian and evil. The only "Christian" thing to do was and is to defend the American way of life and lead the lambs from the slaughter.

Mike Ebhardt
Savage, MN

And...if you want a free

Joanna Miller — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 12:11:27 -0600

And...if you want a free reusable bag, you can take a survey at the MN Pollution Control Agency Web site about shopping.
If you complete the survey and enter in the code "reduce", they will send you a free, reusable cloth grocery bag and tips. Go to www.reduce.org/bags.

I think the delicate little

Savage Conservative — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 15:01:35 -0600

I think the delicate little minds of some students won't be permanently scared because of what Chris did. Get over it.

The latest thing? Being a

Joanna Miller — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 12:54:39 -0600

The latest thing? Being a BYOB lady - bring-your-own-bag shopping seems to be picking up steam in the metro area. It's hard to do this on big shopping sprees to the market, but what a great way to save resources if you get in the habit.

The walking and bicycle

Ruth Anne Maddox — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 12:24:06 -0600

The walking and bicycle trails are wonderful -- it's easy to get to the park and access the trails. Everything is well marked so people know which trails do and do not allow dogs. I haven't ventured onto the cross country trails, but it does sound tempting.

The pet exercise area is one of my favorites -- and they even supply bags to clean up after your pet so there should be no excuse for the dozens of land mines I have encountered recently. I agree that your pet should be well socialized but I also stress the need for responsible pet ownership.

We have two dogs and, often, they go more than once during an outing so we grab extra bags at the outset (you can always put them back if you don't use them -- or be a good egg and use the extra bag to pick up that pile that everyone's been dancing around).

I totally agree with your

dfm4613 — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 17:26:21 -0600

I totally agree with your comments and would add that the Cleary Lake pet exercise area is also wonderful. There are two well-maintained paths and many of the people walking their dogs there are friendly and don't mind having you join them for a walk and chat while the dogs play. Remember, though, that your dog must be friendly and well socialized to other dogs to participate.

I think this is a wonderful

dfm4613 — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 12:57:21 -0600

I think this is a wonderful article and my prayers are with your family as you care for Maggie. We lost one of our cats last year and it is still difficult to think that I'll never see Max again, even with two other cats and a dog to care for.

I wish you would elaborate on ways you think we could help our elderly die with dignity. Are you advocating euthanasia?

Thank you for the article.