Editor, Times-Union: Each Winona Lake Town Council needs to mesh as a team and should have personalities on it who can work together. Several letters to the editor have suggested pre-prepared teams they feel would be best for Winona Lake. I am an individual who believes in fairness for individuals. Building a productive team should occur after election, not beforehand. Then, councilmen should work to meld together and produce. Personally, I feel representatives should demonstrate involved interest in the area he or she represents. Candidates can claim to have lived a lifetime in Winona Lake, but if they are not actively participating in the goings-on around their neighborhood, they really do not have understanding of important issues in your own ward. My commitment to addressing issues as a concerned resident of my ward is what separates me from Bruce Shaffner. My involvement has required attending council meetings for six years and led to my appointment to the Plan Commission and Housing Authority Committee. The first time the island was closed to traffic, on a Sunday, from 7 until 3 for the Bike Festival, I shared with the council how many island residents were confused and frustrated. I worked as a volunteer intermediary until we gained an informed island who now can more easily enjoy and support the races each year. In 2005, I was asked by a group of 26 to help direct efforts to have their canal locations vacated to them as it was to the Village At Winona and residents at both ends of the canal. The judge determined the town had an irrevocable trust. The town realized they had not had the right to vacate what they already had and the citizens knew unfair vacating along the canal could not happen again. When the old council passed a one-hour parking ordinance for boat trailers to satisfy one loyal supporter’s complaint about a trailer parked way too long, I involved myself for months until the council realized their mistake, changing it to a two-day ordinance. When the old island motel area, now called Lawn of the Courts, was divided into lots, I was there for the residents who had no legal involvement, forcing easements to be upheld, boundaries to be observed, and a center alley to be placed for those who lost their public alley due to vacating of land. I believe my steady requests for explanation of constantly increasing wastewater fees led to the lowering of the fees (in a process evolving since 2008) and the revelation of the $1.6 million sewer surplus fund for a sewer plant that had never been approved. When I questioned vacating public lakefront land near Park Avenue without further study, it was discovered the town needed this land for an easement and it would have been a big mistake to vacate. Never underestimate the impact you can have as a citizen who attends council meetings. Please vote for Jerry Nelson for councilman of Winona Lake’s Ward 3. Jerry Nelson Winona Lake, via e-mail
