MASON CITY – A public forum was held at the Mason City council meeting Tuesday night.
All three speakers ripped the council and Mayor Eric Bookmeyer for allowing Robin Anderson to destroy a flower bed to install red dice in Central Park.
Matt Marquardt criticized the council and mayor for congratulating themselves and the North Iowa Corridor for moving businesses around inside Mason City and calling it economic development. Marquardt asked Mayor Eric Bookmeyer if he could live on a $9.50 per hour job. Marquardt also pointed out that there are at least 13 vacant storefronts in Southbridge Mall and nearly that many in the immediate downtown area.
I went and took a close look at the dice the other day. They really are that bad. They are simply sheets of metal butted together. Real dice have soft edges and a radius on the corners, and recessed dots for the numbers. These “dice” have none of those features.
Worse, looks like the sheets of metal shrunk and bowed when they were welded, so the faces are unevenly concave. In short, it’s some of the worst “sculpture” I’ve ever seen. Some of the statutes places around town are actually quite nice, fond of the little boy playing doctor with his dog by Brick Furniture, and the little girl on the scooter by the Footbridge is brilliant. The dice are crap, and need to go.
Those dice are just an eye-sore. They really do need to be put somewhere else. Having them that close to the veterans monumnets (Civil War Stature, Veterans of Mason City Monument) is a distraction of what I have always thought Central Park was all about. It’s in the central of town and houses the monuments that reflect our appreciation for our military veterans, living and dead. Do you think any of them would be appreciative of these ugly things being so close to where their family members can come and reflect? Could you imagine the outrage if these dice, or anything like them, were to be placed anywhere near the Vietnam Wall, the Washington Monumnet, the Lincoln Statue, or anywhere in Washinton DC? Then it would be demeed a waste of tax-payer money and would be shut down in a matter of minutes. It just doesn’t sit well with me and it won’t. I hope that someone, somewhere, be it a veteran, a family member, or an out-of-towner says something, does something, to try and save the dignity of those monuments. And to all those Vietnam Vets out there, I want to apologize for these idiots. There showing you no more respect than that of which you came home to. I truely am sorry and I WILL try to ammend this for you. I appreciate all you have done and will continue to do to keep America what it is. A land of the free because of the brave.
Mark, I never heard you speak before. Wow, struggle a bit with the delvery and the facts, don’t you think? I.C. and WSLive are not related in any way shape or form yet you are trying to link them together somehow? What do you hope to accomplish by that? $9.50 may not be $20, but it’s better than a lot of retail, server, cook, hotel and service jobs in town, especially if they pay benefits. Not everyone wants to work blue collar so it fits a niche, Rather than bitch about call center work, appreciate it for what it is. We could use another one or two such firms while looking for more jobs. Appreciate something for a change. One step at a time, man.
ANYONE FOR A GAME OF CRAPS IN FRONT OF THE DICE?????
Matt, you come up with some really funny stuff. This is by far my favorite paper parody sight, and I am guessing you don’t even have to compensate your comedy writing team. Smooth & calculating, like a true politician.
I was in Canada recently and things are no better there. The workers where we stayed all had to take 27% pay cuts this year. They are looking for better jobs, but there aren’t any. And one of the former workers we knew pretty well who was around 40, with several kids. wasn’t feeling well, went to the hospital, where they found several heart blockages. The wonderful Canadian healthcare (can you say Obamacare) system sent him home and told him to come back the next day and they would fix put in stents. He died that night. Look out folks. Here comes the same thing here where they won’t keep you in the hospital overnight to monitor you even if you have heart blockages!
Janice…. Yo are a heck of a good citizen steward.
Bless you much, bobby
Great job NIT on keeping us informed. Bringing in a phone center for jobs and calling it a success is pittiful, these are the sme people who closed the doors to Target distribution center years back…They start out at 16.00 an hour but went to cedar falls because nobody from mcity would give them a chance. Mcity needs solid paying jobs, the location of I35 and Avenue of the Saints gives a huge advantage to draw great companies. Not fly by night phone centers.
hey don’t forget the dollar store, Huber supply, the auto repair, Roberts furnace, mason city lumber the big and tall store, are all located north of the liquer store on n federal. most of these are family owned business, also butchers
you can get a government job sweeping floors at the school and make 40.000 with bebefits.
Thats the difference between the public sector and the real world (and by the way, they will be revealing the next school system pay hike very soon) You peopole who are going to be making 9.50 a hour, are going to have to dig a little deeper to give a nice pay raise to those making 25.00 a hour.
Im not sure about the money but have you drove up there in the past few months? From the liquar store north what is there maybe 1 bar, 1 resturant, a body shop, auto repair business and a WHOLE LOT OF EMPTY BUILDINGS. Someone got money to fix up those buildings on north fed as to who, who cares. I just wish Tim and his northend partnership good luck. Its not just the northend thats dying its the whole damn town…
I listen to you rip into a job that pays $9.40 an hour as if it is nothing. At 40 hours a week, it is nearly $20,000 a year. I know that isn’t a fortune in today’s society but with all the people who are out of work, it is something. And, although it isn’t enough to raise a family, I wish my wife could make that kind of money in her job. It certainly help out our situation. For families with only one earner this type of job would certainly help out making ends meet.
I am not a fan of MC’s council or mayor. I think Bookmeyer is a boob. And, for the most part, the council follows him like he is the pied piper.
But, jobs are jobs. This certainly shouldn’t be a grand celebration but it does bring needed jobs to the area.
3 speakers rip Bookmeyer, 29,000 others silently give him thumbs up!
Very well said Matt. From everyone I have talked to they agree with you 9.50 an hour job is not a wage a person can raise a family on. And everyone questions what value we are getting from the north Iowa corridor if this is all they can bring into Mason City. I wish the people of Mason City could take this money away without going through the elected officials who seem only to want to boost their egos.
The money that was spent on worthless statues could have been used a number of different ways…as one poster said, The North End Partnership, there’s also the Dog Park that are trying to raise needed funds. Why on earth is our council wasting money on blue zones, statues, remodeling? It’s time for these people to go. Our council should hang their heads in shame everytime they walk into the meetings.
When I see kids giving fist bumps after winning an election it’s over…
it is not just the mayor,it is all the council people that lick his muddy shoes
And how much money has the city given to the North End partnership that Tim Latham runs? What a bunch of wasted money this town has pissed away. Wish my wife was a doctor I could care less if every thing in town colsed as long as Mercy was here.
Matt was exactly correct in his statements. $9.30 p/hour=$380.00 p/week gross pay. After taxes they would be around $300.00 p/week take home pay that is $1,260 p/ month to pay all of their bills, buy food and pay rent. That is pretty damn hard to do. All they are doing is subsidizing substandard wages with our tax money. The people that work there would either have to have another source of income or depend on government assistance to live. The downtown area and the mall that our city government is just depressive. Look at all the empty businesses. If it wasn’t for the people who work at the mall there wouldn’t be anyone there at all. And if you really want to get depressed look at the Sears Shopping Center. These people better wake up and drive around town. Don’t come to the North End on Federal, you will break down and cry.
I will clarify my remarks.
WS Live is not associated with IC Systems.
However, another company that reportedly showed interest in the former IC Systems location – CBE Group, out of Waterloo, another debt-collection agency – has had in its employment Scott Bultje as Vice President Government Services. This is the same Scott Bultje who was in charge of IC Systems here in Mason City, who infamously (and very rightfully so) was forced to pay back the citizens of Mason City when IC could not live up to its obligations in an economic deal and was not employing enough people at the call center. The same Scott Bultje whose son worked for Eric Bookmeyer’s mayoral campaign in 2009. Bookmeyer used the IC System call center to make campaign calls in 2009. IC System had a number of complaints before the MC Human Rights Commission at the time. Bookmeyer immediately upon taking office zeroed in on the MC Human Rights agency; it will now be mostly defunded and diminished to forwarding complaints to Des Moines.
“BRYON HOULGRAVE/The Globe Gazette – Newly elected Mason City Mayor Eric Bookmeyer, left, celebrates a win with co-campaign manager Cohl Bultje as Jean Marinos writes results on Tuesday at Lorado’s. Bookmeyer won over John Jaszewski.”