Take your complaints to City Hall

I personally believe that if a person has a complaint or wish to voice their opinion they should back it up with their name. By allowing anonymous comments you enable individuals to unleash their wrath in a manner that they would probably never do in public. The internet has created the opportunities for forums that previously were never possible and has influenced public policy. However, the internet forums have also lowered the amount of civility in public conversation mostly because of the anonymous comments. Everyone knows that politeness and manners have degraded over the years. The internet is partly to blame for that.

Some people have indicated that the negative comments on this website gives Minonk an unfavorable image. That may be true to an extent but you have to weigh that against the publicity and exposure that Minonk receives from this website. Every community has its problems similar to Minonk's and every community has its complainers. The difference is that in other communities the complaints take place in coffee shops while in Minonk the complaints take place in coffee shops and on this website. In effect, Minonk's issues are being displayed for everyone to see. But Minonk also has a forum to help resolve its problems which puts it far ahead of other communities which have no community internet.

Mayor Koos said that the council will react to all complaints or issues brought to them. However, he added that people just don't want to come council meetings. He stated that a very important council meeting was held last month when a plan was presented for upgrading the storm sewer system. Most of the complaints against the storm sewer were from the area of Fourth and Locust where flooding happens quite often. Yet not one person from that neighborhood attended the city council meeting according to the Mayor.

The Mayor added that some of the comments on the website are based on inaccurate information or false assumptions. Comments from the last city council meeting suggested that the vacated ambulance room at City Hall be used for expansion of the Food Pantry. However, the Food Pantry needs to be expanded by 50% which is more space than what is available in the vacated ambulance room. Furthermore, he stated that the Minonk Township Board is responsible for the Food Pantry, not the City of Minonk. Food Pantry issues should be directed to them. These are facts that people should be aware of before they start slinging comments.

Many comments were directed towards the termination of some ambulance squad members last month. The Mayor said that the city cannot legally comment on personnel matters. What happens is you get a one-sided picture which distorts the public image of what is happening.

Mayor Koos said that this website is generating interest from potential developers and is very important to the growth of the city. He feels that more people will be turning to the internet for their news and it is important that a community like Minonk have a website to disseminate the news and to give its citizens a forum for discussing issues.

My only concern is that city council members and the Mayor do not take these unfavorable comments personally. You need a thick skin to be involved in politics. I don't want this to discourage others from running for office. We need good people to run the city and I commend those who are willing to serve their community.

So keep the comments coming but try to keep them civil and informative. If you have complaints, take them to City Hall. The City will listen to your complaints at their meetings but don't expect them to respond on this website, that would start a give and take that would never end.

Comments on this website are glowing reviews compared to those on Pantagraph.com.

like it or not unsigned comments are here to stay at all news web sites, why?..because they serve several purposes. 1.they allow people to express themselfs who otherwise would not or cannot express themselfs 2.they provide another check and balance on gov't and we can never have enough of those. 3.they entertain us (and we all need that)!..do they show minonk in a unfavorable light?...no more than the pjstar or the pantagraph comments show peoria or bloomington in a bad light! its just another form of communication and its unamerican not to have them......the only possible drawback you mentioned is if the comments would discourage people from running for office, but, that has not been the case, we seem to have plenty of people running for school board every year as well as for city council!....i have yet to see anyone post a comment with the expectation of a response from anyone?.....are we so afraid of criticism that we are willing to stifle speech? im proud that our mayor is not!

Nicely said Dave. I agree with you it is nice to have a place to go and voice our opinions without having to put our name on it. Yes and we should be civil with the comments, get our point across without being disrespectful. People must get their facts straight and not believe everything they hear on the street. People do not realize it takes time to get issues solved and a lot of people working together for the common good of the community. If people do have issues they need to call city hall or the mayor or their alderman. I would not expect the mayor or alderman to use this format to discuss issues. It is just not professional. They need to be brought up at council meetings. If people have issues contact your mayor/alderman ahead of time before the meetings so they can be prepared and have answers to your questions at the meeting. Thanks for all your hard work on the website.

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