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Emails for June 2009
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Looking for small cucumbers | 4th of July Updates | State Income tax Increase | Feelings About Tax Hike | Tax Increase | Stop Sign | Nick McCully | Softball for kids |

Looking for small cucumbers

I am looking for small cucumbers to use to make Lime Pickles. They need to be young cucumbers about the size of a quarter or half dollar in diameter. I would like to make a double batch so I would need at least 15 pounds. If anyone will have extras that they are willing to sell, please call me at 432-2168
Betty Barth


State Income tax Increase

Dave:

I don't agree with your logic on this one. The politicians in Springfield are playing games again!! If you or I ran a business like this we would not be able to continue to operate without making serious reductions in payroll. Why should the state be any different? They have made no attempts to create real reductions in anything!! There solution is to just raise our taxes and leave everything status quo. Neither political party has the stomach to make the tough decisions that are required. I personally believe that there is plenty of fat to be cut out of the state budget before they start crying wolf and raise taxes. With people losing there jobs almost daily in the current economy it just doesn't make sense to attempt this ridiculous increase. A recession is not the time to ask for a tax increase from the people. Obviously, the people in Springfield are not even aware that there is recession! The gimme gimme attitude of these guys needs to stop.

One thing about taxes, once they are implemented, they never go away and they never get reduced. It's always a one way street!

Dave Stokowski


Tax Increase

Dave: I think you hit the Tax Increase right on the head, just till we get caught up, then cut the tax. Thanks Fred Baker

Fred Baker


Nick McCully

Grandson of Donald McCully and son of Gary McCully,

Nick McCully has been drafted in the MLB draft of 2009 by the St. Louis Cardinals. His first assignment is to report to their minor league team the Batavia (NY) Muckdogs.
We'll keep you posted.

Lucas McCully


4th of July Updates

4th of July Chicken Dinner


The 4th of July Committee and St. Paul's UCC will be co-hosting this year's chicken dinner from 11:30 - 1:30 at West Side Park following the parade. Tickets are $7.00 a person and can be purchased at Pop's Sweet Shoppe or from Sue Park. Dinners include chicken, baked beans, cole slaw, drink and dessert. Carryouts will be available. There are only 400 tickets, so it is recommended that you purchase your tickets in advance.

American Girl Give Away


You can purchase raffle tickets to win an American Girl Doll. Tickets are $1 a piece or 6 for $5. Tickets can be purchased at Pop's Sweet Shoppe or A Stylish Affair. Proceeds go to support our great fireworks display.

4th of July Schedule of Events


We have many, many events this year and hope that the community enjoys them. The 4th of July Committee appreciates all of your support.

Thanks
Cathy McKay


Feelings About Tax Hike

A slightly elevated tax rate along with major cuts in state run programs put together to correct a state budget deficit. That sounds so completely logical that it surprises me we haven't already done it. Oh wait, we have. Over and over in our state, in other states and nationally we have trusted those who represent us to correct these budget failures. As soon as they have more money to work with they seem to find new programs or they find out they estimated poorly and now need even more money. We continue to trust the same people that got us here to also get us out? What are we thinking? We have grown to this level of debt locally and nationally because we the people have allowed it. We allow ourselves to believe things that know from our own experience cannot actually happen. A great manipulator may work with this and call it "Hope and Change". No, we would never let that happen.

There is a point at which we will have to buckle down and get rid of the problem. I am told that 60% of Americans receive more funds from the federal government than they put in. It has not always been this way. It got that way slowly over time. How long can it continue? I would rather stop it ourselves than to run with it until it snaps.

Why do we seem to want to let the state run all these programs? It used to be that families took care of their own and churches took care of their own and local communities took care of their own. When a program is kept local it is controlled closely and personally supervised. People are kept accountable by their peers. One has to look into the eyes of the people that they are getting assistance from. Peer pressure itself will push a person receiving aid to work harder and learn more in order to remove their need for assistance sooner. The waste alone incurred by our present big government run systems would run some entire countries of the world today. Or maybe pay some of our current debt?

The United States of America is the greatest country in the world today. This is not because we fought for the right to be free, but more specifically because we had the character traits and were willing to do what it takes to be free and to stay free. Are we still willing? Each of us needs to be able to answer that question for ourselves and answer the call when it will be required.

Over the years we as a nation have allowed ourselves to become disconnected. We are more willing to give a couple more dollars to the government in order that we won't have to become involved on a personal level. There is a generation or two, primarily in the major urban areas, that have not known it any other way. They look at things very differently that we do. They think they are owed freedom, that we are free just because we are Americans and that socialism is quite a good way to go. We have allowed the public school system to water down our history. We are so busy working to support our families that we have no time to spend with them, teaching them, helping them become better citizens. We have relegated too much authority to others. Most urban dwelling "twenty somethings" would not understand the benefits that have been conducted in the Minonk area for local people. When they say "We need government mandated healthcare" they think they are being thoughtful and caring. To a major part of those "twenty somethings" having a face book page, a twitter account or texting is being personal and in touch.

It is obvious to me that any change will have to start with us from the bottom up. Our representation in state and federal governments is filled with career politicians. I honestly believe that they mean well, but are trapped in a world of bureaucracy and they don't even know it. One of the brilliant moves by our founders was to have a representation of the people, by the people and for the people. We would have a trusted community member represent us for a short time and then they would return and another would go. It was never meant to be a career field. The staff of each of these politicians is enormous. The expenses involved in each individual politician are horrendously wasteful. We have allowed this to happen little by little but we can stop it much faster. We must stop it faster. We must not let the tax rate go up. We must eliminate the waste. We must make sure they know they can't have any more money. We must find honest people that are willing to represent us without becoming career politicians. We need to vote for them and empty the halls of the staffers and bureaucrats that are sucking the very life out of us.

What will we have left if we don't?

David Barth


Stop Sign

Thank's to some one for the Stop Sign at the exit of Millennium Park on to 251, long over due. Thank's .

Fred Baker


Softball for kids

Dave, you have probably heard me brag a hundred times about my own daughter and a couple of my granddaughters being involved with fast pitch softball. The benefits are very worth the time, energy and small costs to encourage parents to check it out. Our granddaughter Ashley had a free "ride" to Univ Of California Davis for 4 years playing fastpitch softball. Her younger sister Kailyn has been recruited to play 1st base at Penn State on a "free" ride for 4 years. It is not an easy road to success but with parents aid and travel time, plus lots of batting cage work and proper diet and exercise, our daughters and grand daughters can achieve what only athletic boys could obtain in my school days. I will never forget when granddaughter Ashley hit a grand slam homer at a tourney in Palm Springs, California to help defeat a very good soft ball team from U of Illinois. Good luck, Albie Johnson

Albin Johnson