A reader in rural Blue Earth County alerted us this morning about a striking contrast in copy about North Mankato in Thursday's online version of the Mankato Free Press.
There's this in Brian Arola news story, Kicking up compassion: Kato Towns charter project kicks off Monday:
After years of work behind the scenes, organizers say Monday will mark a big step toward putting the Mankato area on the map as a center of compassion.
A pilot project known as NicBluCares began bringing a group of municipal, health care, public safety, nonprofit and education organizations together in 2019. Organizations developed a collection of best practices detailing how to help more residents feel like they belong and are cared for during difficult times.
Their work is detailed in a compassionate towns charter for Mankato and North Mankato, which can be updated as more organizations get involved.
Launching the charter is one part of the project’s public unveiling Monday. Organizers asked the Mankato and North Mankato mayors to meet on the Veterans Memorial Bridge at 10:30 a.m. for a symbolic kickoff coinciding with World Compassionate Communities Day.
Bells of “Kato Towns,” as the project refers to the two cities, will then ring for one minute at 10:45 a.m. The bells will be part acknowledgement of the losses everyone has experienced, said NicBluCares Executive Director Mary Ann Boe, and part a reminder that no one is alone.
“This is a call for us to really own our responsibility in caring for one another, to reach out to people who are suffering,” she said. “It’s a pause to say that we all have lost and we don’t have to face hardships alone.” . . .
The seven organizations include Mankato’s First Presbyterian and North Mankato’s Messiah Lutheran churches, Minnesota River Area Agency on Aging, Mankato Area Public Schools and Minnesota State University. The city of North Mankato and Mankato Department of Public Safety took part as well. . . .
But perhaps charity should begin at home for the City of North Mankato. Over in the op-ed section of the paper, there's this letter from North Mankato resident Tom Hagen, who has spoken up for natural lawn owner Ed Borchardt--as well as helping to clear buckthorn sprouts from his lawn.
You know, neighborly behavior.
Hagen writes in North Mankato government is 'darn' mean:
North Mankato’s [DNA]— “Darn Nice Area” — promotion touting kindness, happiness, togetherness and progress must be some kind of joke.
A three-judge Minnesota Court of Appeals panel determined Ed Borchardt’s yard does not constitute a public nuisance. Yet, the North Mankato city administrator states that the yard is still a nuisance, and the city may pursue Borchardt through a new natural yards ordinance that appears to have been created to particularly target Borchardt.
Harassing an 80-year-old in a walker hardly qualifies as kindness.
It gets worse. After questioning the city’s use of a brush hog to remove buckthorn in Spring Lake Park, challenging the land deal that gave a local realtor over $100,000 of taxpayer money, and requesting a workshop to discuss an Historic Preservation Committee for North Mankato, Councilman Jim Whitlock labeled me in an e-mail “sophomoric, delusional, a sniveler, a character assassin, alley cat and chronic complainer” and other unpleasantries simply for questioning city actions.
No wonder so few citizens participate in city governance. Kindness? Togetherness? “Darn nice area?” (Whitlock refused my polite invitation to meet and discuss his concerns.)
With the Borchardt verdict and the inappropriate e-mails, the council has also moved public comments so they occur after the council adjourns.
Then, in a move reminiscent of several years ago, when for eight months citizens were not allowed to make any public comment without advanced mayoral approval, the council has declined to have any meeting in the entire month of October, perhaps to avoid public criticism and again silence citizens.
A little too much kindness and togetherness, I guess. Real progress might just be tossing out as many incumbents as we can in next year’s election.
In early October we noted other Free Press coverage of the Borchardt lawn in North Mankato lawn wars: Free Press publishes moving portrait of post-victory Ed Borchardt. Jordan Smith reported in the paper:
When Edward Borchardt stepped outside of his North Mankato home and into his embattled front yard Thursday morning, it was the first time he had done so in five months.
Using a walker he stepped gingerly down the front stairs of his Allan Avenue home. Several steps later the 80-year-old man stood among the plants, bushes and trees that cover his haven for insects, pollinators and birds. He watched quietly as a bumblebee’s head disappeared into a purple flower.
To him, the unruly plants and animals create a beautiful, natural habitat. To the city and a select few neighborhood residents, they make for an unsightly public nuisance that ought to be tamed.
His need for a walker Thursday is only one piece of a confluence of misfortune.
Starting with a back surgery last November, Borchardt has endured five operations in the past 12 months. Nearly two months ago he had surgery to repair a broken suture following hip surgery, and he won’t be recovered for at least another four weeks.
On top of his own ailments, his wife has health problems that have put her in a nursing home.
And although a state court ruled in Borchardt’s favor this week, saying a December City Council resolution for him to remove vegetation was wrong because it cited sparse evidence, he still doesn’t feel like he has won the battle for his yard. . . .
Yup, let's give the mayor of North Mankato compassion points for Monday's pseudo-event on Veterans Memorial Bridge for World Compassionate Communities Day.
Photo: Edward Borchardt said he hadn’t walked around his embattled yard for five months because of various surgeries he has needed the last year. In 12 months, he had five operations to repair his back and a broken hip. Photo by Jordan Smith, Mankato Free Press. See more photos in the article.
Related posts:
- North Mankato lawn wars: Free Press publishes moving portrait of post-victory Ed Borchard
- City of North Mankato takes care of its buckthorn problem in the worst possible way
- North Mankato lawn wars: MN Court of Appeals opinion reverses city resolution against natural lawn as unsupported by the record
- North Mankato lawn wars: resident maps buckthorn in Bluff Park, citizens badger council
- Another dispatch from North Mankato lawn wars: City removes buckthorn in Spring Lake Park
- North Mankato lawn wars: local man cuts lawn buckthorn suckers, sees buckthorn in city park
- Mankato Free Press: Borchardts' North Mankato lawn war case heard in Minnesota appeals court
- North Mankato lawn wars: City Council passes natural yards ordinance limiting pollinator habitat
- North Mankato natural lawn fight update: Borchardt sues city for public nuisance order
- Buzz kill: North Mankato Planning Commission not so much into lawns to legumes
- North Mankato declares “Monarch Wayfair” lawn a public nuisance from “infestation of the premises by plants, animals, and birds”
- Strib picks up North Mankato lawn police story
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