West End News: February 4
Last week I mentioned a university study that is looking at what economic and social changes are coming to the North Shore due to climate change. The two-year study is ready to report its initial findings at a meeting in Lutsen on Tuesday, March 15th. You must RSVP to attend. Contact Karen Katz at [email protected] or 651-246-0974. You can find Karen’s contact information on the WTIP website, or by calling WTIP.
I know that many people in Cook County are very concerned about the impact of climate change on our economy and life style, so the study results should be very interesting.
By the way, there is a Cook County Chapter of the Citizen’s Climate Lobby. You can sign up to be a local member by searching for Citizen’s Climate Lobby online.
The next West End visit of the Bloodmobile is scheduled for Tuesday, March 1st at Zoar Lutheran Church in Tofte from 2:30 through 6 pm. Call Carla at 663-0179 to schedule your appointment to donate blood. All blood types are needed, but they are particularly interested in type O negative. If you haven’t donated blood before, it is easy, almost pain-free and a fun social event.
The Finland area 2016 Community Conversation was held on January 9th at the Clair Nelson Community Center with a contra-dance afterward.
More than 50 people attended the Conversation and enjoyed a lasagna dinner with ice cream dessert and a lively discussion on topics ranging from food and farming to housing, the economy and the arts. Each table recorded their discussion on paper and shared their findings with the larger group. Afterwards, everyone present marked community priorities with sticky dots.
Some of the priorities identified included the Finland Community Mural, which is currently in the works, a coffee/tea cafe, a wild rice processing facility, a community barter book and better onsite camping at the Clair Nelson Center.
Many other topics were raised and will continue to be worked on by those that are interested. You can find the details by searching for “Friends of Finland” online.
Now that the Iowa caucuses are in the record book, it’s time to start thinking about our own Minnesota precinct caucuses. Here in Cook County the Republican and Democratic, Farmer, Labor Party precinct caucuses will all be on Tuesday, March 1st, starting at 7 pm.
The Republicans will hold all of their precinct caucuses at the same time at the Log 4H Building at the Cook County Community Center in Grand Marais.
The DFL precinct caucuses will be held in four locations this year. Schroeder, Tofte and Lutsen will be at the Birch Grove Community Center in Tofte, while the Grand Marais area precincts will meet at the Cook County Community Center in Grand Marais. Hovland and Grand Portage will meet at the Hovland Town Hall and the Gunflint Trail precinct will meet at Trail Center.
You can go to the Minnesota Secretary of State website to discover which precinct you live in, if you aren’t sure. You can also call the always-helpful Cook County Auditor’s office and they can tell you too.
Both parties will be conducting straw polls on presidential candidate preference. With lively contests for president in both parties, the caucuses should be a lot of fun. You can throw your hat in the ring to become a delegate to the county-wide party conventions and on up the line to a state senate district conventions, congressional district conventions, state conventions and even the national conventions. Participation can be very meaningful, especially in a big election year like this one.
You can also present resolutions at your caucus, requesting that your party take a certain position on an issue that is important to you. The resolutions flow through the process right up to the state and federal level where, if they have enough grassroots support they become the official goals of the party.
I started participating in my precinct caucus when I was in high school. I’ve been a delegate to the state convention many times. It has given me the honor of meeting many of Minnesota’s most famous and well-loved political figures. It was my participation that caused Senator Paul Wellstone to ask me to run for the legislature in 2002. Although I never made it to the legislature, having the Senator’s trust and support is still one of the highlights of my life.
It’s truly a case of doing as much, or as little, as you like so the process is very user friendly. It’s also the basis of our democracy so, you know…, important.
For WTIP, this is Bill Hansen with the West End News.
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