Editorial by Matt Marquardt –
Brent Trout found some “excess receipts” in our hotel/motel tax fund and sure enough, he found a way to blow it.
At this Tuesday night’s regular meeting, Trout will be asking the City Council to OK the spending of $25,000 and up to $15,000 later on statues in the Cultural Crescent, all in an effort to please Chamber of Commerce Director Robin Anderson (pictured), a woman who many say secretly pulls many of the strings in City Hall.
I guess the Mayor wants something prettier than crappy falling down houses to look at when he pulls out of his driveway, and Anderson is obliging.
It clearly does not matter to Trout, Anderson nor our City Council that our city’s budget is so tight that at at this year’s Christmas party, the only thing the employees can exchange are glances. After all, it was reported by the Chamber’s puppet media outlet that the council already “endorsed” the deal during a work session this week. That’s quick approval, and might mean that the vote this Tuesday is nothing but a formality.
Mason City democracy at its finest, folks.
I mean, seriously, wasting my tax dollars on another one of Robin Anderson’s ridiculous schemes that benefit no one but herself and the privileged class is one thing. But have you seen these statues yet?
Seriously, this is a picture of one of them. I call it “C-3P0 doing yoga.”
Here’s another one. They are really bringing these to Mason City. I call this one “Creepy ‘roid abuser in tightie whities.”
Here’s another one coming to town. I call this one “Deer turd splashing into the Winnebago River on a crisp autumn morn.”
The real question is, will this absurd waste of public money pass the council 6-0 … or will one or more council members stand up and show some fortitude and just say “no.”
NIT will have the answer.
She is retarded a bunch of dudes come on, I hope some kids break these stupid statues
If Robin wanted these so badly why doesnt she forgive a years salary and buy them, then she can right it off as a donation> Maybe turkey trout will pitch in also. Our council is a JOKE, I cant wait till election time. Lee you promised to try to make changes and I see some no vote but get more vocal.
Peter L residence can be found simply by googling his name. If you would like to tell him off in person.
Instead of ranting on here, everyone needs to go to: http://www.masoncity.net/pview.aspx?id=17942&catid=481 click on the link and voice your concerns to their council person!!!
I think these statues are representative of a dying town. A skeleton, a muscle man perhaps getting ready to start a fight, and a body diving or being forced to dive underwater. Creepy.
Such a clueless woman. Hard to see some of the citys real issues from your $500,000 home on the country club golf course. I bet she has no idea where the community kitchen or homeless shelter are even located. She is such a phony, add her little statue project to the ongoing failures here in mason shitty. Southbridge, Cerro Gordo County Fair, Park Inn, Music Man, Library,etc. Band fest is becoming a joke in east park. You want art visit Weavers park cost to tax payers zilch!! She probably has no idea where that is either. Hey its only $40,000, It will be vandalized with in weeks
Yes Weaver’s garden is easily the biggest attraction in the city. The bus tours are finding that out in a hurry. Robin and Eric are furious about it too. As for these statues, if they go in, lets pull em up and plant em in Robin’s yard and see if she likes a pile of junk there.
Another “DONE DEAL”… Sad.
I e-mailed all of the council members except Solberg and Marinos both of whom I consider a total waste. So far the only one that answered me was Kuhn. My council member Hickey didn’t even bother even though I put down my real name and address.
Another attempt by NIT to promote dissension in MC. Can’t say I’m for or against it but obviously the whole story was not told here on NIT. Print all the details and then let people decide if they want to support it or not. These ridiculous 1-sided stories with comments following full of profanity & name calling do no good for anyone. But I guess that seems to be the point.
This is nothing but mere window dressing. It’s an issue I addressed a long time ago. Statues do nothing to improve what is happening in Mason City!
As an aside, Mrs. Anderson was quoted elsewhere (Mr. Skipper) as saying while Mankato has this kind of project on-going, it originated in her home of Sioux Falls. I beg to differ.
The concept of commissioning art, displaying it in an open air venue, then selling them off after was originated in Zurich. In 1999, the celibrated Cows on Parade was opened in Chicago. It was a smash success with 300 full sized bovines created by mostly local artists scattered through the City. I got many photos of them, including……. “Cowch potato”, “Muddy Holly” (on piano), “Incowgnito” (in Zebra stripes), and, in honor of Harry Carey, “Holy Cow” (glasses and all).
Following the display, they sold to the higest bidder and the proceeds went to charity.
Herein lies the problem. Places like Mankato (35,000), Sioux Falls (159,000), and Chicago (2,170,000) are all larger places than Mason City (27,000). And let’s not open the per capita incomes (tax revenues or personal income). Larger places always have more patrons of the Arts that can absorb costs easier.
We have far more opportunities to bring up the quality of life in Mason City than to be looking at project like this, which in a city our size, should be 100% privately anyway. Yet, that begs the question for Mr. Skipper and Mrs. Anderson, really are the priorities here? When your population is struggling, food and shelter is more important than Art.
I felt like crying when I heard about Robin Andersons dream of using our tax money for statues. Do these people not know what is going on in River City? The Community Kitchen and the food Bank are now feeding more people than ever. The crime rate is out of control. When you get your hands on some extra money, use it to help peopla and make our community safe! Set up a curfew and hire some extra part time police to man it. Put the criminals that are in jail to work doing clean up and repairs around the city. Spend a few bucks and buy the insurance to cover them. I was told that was the reason criminals weren’t put to work was because of the insurance. Make them pay for their keep. Tough times make for tough decisions. Earlier they wanted to spend thousands to move a few desks at city hall. What other surprises await us? I emailed the city councel members of my thoughts on these issues. I hope they remember why they were elected. Of course we already know Solberg won’t respond so no surprises there.
So, apparently Mason City has quite a few problems going on that need to be addressed… 110 responses to this article, 180 some responses to the YMCA article, and if I remember correctly over 100 responses to the Alley Katz article. SAD THING IS…. How many people do you think we will see at the next city council meeting? If I were to guess right now, I bet we’ll be lucky if five people show up to address these issues, and they will be the ones over age 65 who always show up and say how great this town used to be way back when, blah blah blah…have to be cut off at the five minute limit, etc., etc. which will make the councilmen view these issues as frivolous. How many people have written the city council, County meeting, talked to the police department, mayor, chamber, or anyone else who might listen. It’s way too easy to complain and not take action. They work for us, let’s start making them work for us!
I wrote to the City Council members and the Mayor. I heard back from Kuhn & Lee. I had to tell them I do not vote in MC, but I pay a good sum of real estate taxes there, so I respect those two for taking the time to back to me.
Come on council members we’ve got so much crap going on in this city with drugs, killings,rapes ect I would rather hire a extra body for the police dept.
EVERY time I see Robin Andersons face in the news it cost me money! She is for EVERY type tax there is. Please keep your hands out of our pockets.
I want to see the paper mache sculpture of a grown man doing jumping jacks in the nude in front of his Ice Cream Palace!!
We have a very nice museum to display art and also Plenty of room in the mall to display such sculptures. They idea is a JOKE! But this picture shows Robin’s face when she doen’t get her way, so our whimpy council will probably let here have her way, ON OUR DIME!
Talk about a stark contrast.
The other day while reading about the shut-down of Comair at the end of September, the North Kentucky Chamber spoke to news sources in the area. One of the main actions to help citizens in the area effected, was to work with other employers in the area, and network with other aviation carriers to help find new employment for the soon to be displaced 1700 people.
Such a difference, because our own Chamber does not seem to do much to help displaced workers here (other than to let them leave town). Instead it’s main focus seems to be spending other peoples money. Sure they network with officials in D.C. and schmooz with staff. But what has that really yielded? How many jobs? What good has it done for the common citizen of Mason City?
At best, it appears our Chamber is self-serving.
I agree. A Chamber can either work for the people and be pro-active, while serving business, or it can be a self-serving club for a few who think they are better than the rest of us. What is MC’s Chamber, the former or the latter?
I like art it has it’s place what I don’t like is 3 or 4 people deciding what I have to look at every trip downtown. You could give half that amount of money to MacNider. http://www.macniderart.org/
These are the same type of people who think we all need a $25,000 rock at every entrance to every town in the God fearing country.
They pound it into our heads every week “shop local!” then turn around and piss away 40k on some pre-cast shit from Uganda or wherever.
If I’m not mistaken, MacNider Museum will be asking for thousands of dollars from the city to repair or replace a sign on their property. Wouldn’t this money be better served on that expense? The city has to support MacNider due to an agreement, half from the city, half from a fund set aside privately.
Way to many other things needed in Mason City besides these statues. I’m hoping several people will show up at the council meeting to voice concerns on this. I do not know this woman personallhy wo I will refrain from any character attacks but from her reputation she does seem to be someone that does not like to be told no. Come on Mason City lets tell her no on this.
If Robin and the chamber want these statues they should pay for them. The chamber of commerce does not represent me and I dont want them setting city policy or telling our elected officials what to vote for.
They are crap.
Nor should the chamber be able to so quickly have an item like this on a city council agenda, an item that will allocate tax dollars to their cause. One must wonder how the wheels at city hall turned so fast here. I don’t think this is common. Something is wrong.