Very, very, very, very very interesting

The total police budget for the city Brooten in calendar year 2006 was approximately $76,000. Of that amount, approximately $28,000 was budgeted for a contract for police coverage with officers of the Belgrade police department.

In 2006, the scheduled cost of the Brooten police department was approximately $46,000. That was busted up in October, however, as the powers-that-be chewed up former Chief Calvin Hanson during the month of September 2006.

At the same time, the city was attempting to find savings in the budget, use reserves and mix in tax increases to cover what was about a $118,000 deficit for the proposed 2007 budget.

By cutting the Brooten police department in the fall of 2006, the city was estimating they would save $18,000 on the local property tax levy.

The city of Brooten has gone over eight years now without its own police force.

##historymatters

Every day

Every day my list of citizens of Brooten who have had one-on-one conversations with me about the town's need for our own police officer grows. Every week I am surprised at the steady drum beat and the steady chorus of similar opinions.

That list of citizens is private and confidential. Eventually I'll ask those same folks if they are willing to be on a list that is turned into the Brooten city council. For the immediate future, that list is private.

If I wasn't hearing that steady drum beat, the issue would have been dropped long, long ago.

While I greatly wish to hear that type of input, I also welcome dissent. I want citizens of Brooten to be willing to share the "other side" of the coin with me and know that I will keep the conversation private. Maybe there's another perspective I'm missing. Do some in Brooten prefer we went with Stearns County coverage? That's our only other option. I have yet to meet one person who thinks that long-term we should stay connected to Belgrade for police coverage. Not one single person. By all means, share your thoughts (private, public) through the e-mail provided on page two of every week's Bonanza Valley Voice.

What do I want others to do every day? Please remember how important it is for our towns to support one another financially. Church dinners, steak frys, fish frys or just supporting one another's downtown businesses. We can do that without sharing a police department, or without Brooten depending on Belgrade for police coverage. To put the issues of Main Street commerce and the police department together is silly.

What else do I do every day? I try to be prepared. I try to be prepared every moment of the day for an angry member of the Belgrade power structure to corner me in my office or on the street or at a game and take me out to the woodshed. Don't kid yourself: I am not afraid of that, although I would certainly prefer if that never happened.

To read about what went down at the Monday, February 2 city council meeting in Belgrade, read this week's Belgrade Observer. I doubt I'll have much space to mention what's printed in their city council story.