Editor, Times-Union: The Warsaw Times-Union, the Paper and then, Sunday (4-4-99), the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette have given the Lakeland Art Association much appreciated publicity about losing our center as of June 1, 1999.
I hope their efforts have not created something of a feud between Ron Robinson, county administrator, and myself.
We went into our ideal location almost six years ago knowing there would be a jail expansion someday. Rather than stand empty after Computerland vacated prior, Eddie Creighton, County Commissioner, Don Taylor, County Maintenance, and I, as a representative of the Association, agreed to our usage of the facility rent-free. We have maintained all other expenses including monthly utilities thanks to our private and business patronage.
These have been the facts.
Now that it's almost time to vacate, there are some considerations I think about:
1. The crime rate has lowered significantly.
2. Some kinds of work release, educational programs and monitored probations could be in place, perhaps being more rehabilitating than just time spent in our taxpayer-supported jail. (I haven't done a feasibility study but maybe these would be less expensive than significant expansion. Has anybody done this?)
3. Housing out of county prisoners could be eliminated almost entirely.
4. Plans for the expansion have just begun. We certainly do not want another "library expansion delay situation at much higher cost later." It will be interesting to learn what kind of amenities are being proposed for the inmates.
5. Concerning this planning, why not expand due south from the present jail site? Just how much space is required?
6. The portion of the area that the Center uses seems to be in sound condition. Directly behind (to the west) is in a bad state. Could not our part be salvaged for the cultural good of the community, eliminating our move?
Assuming that none of the above six points are feasible, all of these disregarded and we definitely must vacate, what might you offer?
There is one place I have in mind to purchase, but many dollars are involved, like $160,000 plus.
If a philanthropist were to contribute the whole amount, we would be happy to name the Center in honor of them. We are a not-for-profit 501(c) 3 corporation.
Please call in your pledge by April 15 at 269-5491.
Lila O'Connell, Director Lakeland Art Center, Warsaw
Winona Candidates
Editor, Times-Union: One of the goals of the Winona Lake Concerned Citizens is to keep the residents of the Town of Winona Lake informed. This is the purpose for our sponsoring a "Meet the Candidate Social," April 17 from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Winona Lake Town Hall. This is your opportunity as a Winona Lake resident to meet and personally talk to each candidate.
Please show your interest in our town by being at this social. This is a non-partisan social.
Jim Smelser, chairman Barb Oakley, treasurer Winona Lake Concerned Citizens
Learn From History
Editor, Times-Union: Before there was CNN, there were newsreels at the Art Deco movie houses. The year was 1938. A child was watching the reel in which Neville Chamberlain was leaving the Munich Conference with Hitler, picked up his very-British black umbrella and announced in his very British accent, "Peace in our times." I was that little kid and even then I felt something was not quite right about that mind-set. There was no peace and that statement epitomized the failure of appeasement. Hitler had walked into the Sudetenland. I think at one time in history it had been part of Germany. Later he proceeded to seize all of Czechoslovakia and still later marched into Poland. England finally said "whoa." Chamberlain had resigned in disgrace. Thereafter came that tiny island's "finest hour."
Who would have envisioned this obscure Austrian house painter would come to cause such suffering and havoc as he began to gobble up much of central Europe, not to even mention the wholesale slaughter of his own people, the German Jew.
Sixty years hence, we are confronted with an astute, calculating, already-powerful dictator who is repeating the scenario. Having been through the horrors of WWII, who would have thought nations would have allowed the Balkan turmoil ever to escalate to the point of genocide. It is dja vu all over again.
Perhaps we have a distorted view of modern warfare; that we can go in and massively pound with air power and in a couple of weeks it is over and done with. That is unlikely. Our armed forces are not in place to sit around and polish up armament, shuffle papers, play tiddly-winks and the like. They are what they are in order to fight.
It is compelling to come to the aid of a beleaguered people. This is to civil war what Hitler's cleansing on non-Germanic people in his own country and in the occupied countries was to civil war. It most assuredly is not one. Beyond that, the credibility and therefore the viability of NATO is on the line here. Envision a non-NATO Europe 50 years hence. Our grandchildren may have to deal with any and every power-hungry despot with a killer instinct. We cannot allow ourselves the luxury of thinking it is only Europe at stake. Like it or not, technology and economics have created a global village of this planet.
The consequences of not heeding the lessons of history is that we are condemned to repeat them over and over and over.
Tam Vogel, Winona Lake
U.S. 30
Editor, Times-Union: My letter is a response to all the letters you've received about the accidents on U.S. 30 at CR 150W. Especially Sally Goon's letter published on 4-5-99.
We all can agree that these deaths are a tragedy, however, I do not see how you can classify it as police negligence. These accidents are occurring because motorists choose to not obey the signals.
It's time to quit blaming the police departments, state highway department, the fog and the sun, and put the blame where it belongs ... on the drivers. If a motorist cannot see all the traffic warnings before the intersection, the other cars stopped in the lane beside him or the two marked police cars with lights on and officers directing traffic, then how in the world did he get a license from the State of Illinois? Do they have any testing there?
Finally, I do not understand how it could possibly make anything better to take out the traffic light. We had as many accidents before the light, as we've had with the light. Are we conveying to truck drivers that in our county, if they choose to not obey our traffic laws and signals that we'll just remove them? I would also like to let the citizens of this county know that our officers do the best they can to handle all the calls they get. That includes everything from the simplest animal complaints to serious injury accidents. So please, let's all keep this in mind next time we choose to write a letter to the local paper.
Heather Irwin, Warsaw
Vote
Editor, Times-Union: My last reminder to be sure to go to your voting booth next month. The booth is opened from morning and afternoons. Be sure you know the character and record of whom you are voting. Yes, it is a civic duty for all to vote. This is a privilege and a right that most people give up by not voting. If we all don't vote, it gives the wrong people more power to govern you. So vote to be a good citizen. This is how this great country is run.
