You’d have to live under that proverbial rock to not know the state’s fire financial situation, and how it’s playing a large role in the budget struggles in the Crookston School District and in the City of Crookston.
Making cuts in order to trim the budget is never fun, especially, in the school district’s case, when children and their education are involved. Over the years, it’s led to the “budget forum” type of meetings where people, often students, line up at a microphone and stand at the podium and plead that their favorite program that means the world to them doesn’t get chopped. It can get emotional.
Not so much in the city’s case, though. While city council members and various officials sit around a table and offer their opinions, which are sometimes passionate, one could suppose, there are no tears and no emotional pleas to spare something from the budget axe.
In a nutshell, it’s a little more matter of fact on the city’s part, but more emotional on the school district’s part. After all, who wants to say no to kids? They’re the future, you know.
But we can say no to a drive-up window, can we not? There’s no emotion in that, is there?
City hall has a drive-up window, because the building used to be a bank. Citizens can drive through and pay their water bills. The city announced earlier this year that the window would close this summer because a retiring clerical worker in the clerk/treasurer’s office wouldn’t be replaced and, as a result of remaining staff absorbing those duties, some services would be sacrificed. The most visible lost service would be the drive-up window. The attrition would have saved $50,000.
But now it’s not going to happen. Thanks to a 5-2 city council vote Monday night, the retiring employee will be replaced and the drive-up window will likely remain open. The remaining staff at city hall that would have been most affected were able to convince city council members that the changes would be too drastic, and too many services would be lost.
But it’s not exactly a student crying over potentially not being able to play violin in the school orchestra, is it?
Budgets are tight; everyone, it seems, is cross-trained. Want more job security? Then learn to do more duties on the job. That’s the law of the land today. Are people going to storm city hall with torches in hand because they have to actually get out of their car to pay their water bill, or buy a stamp to mail it? Or if the city hall phone rings four times now and then before someone picks it up? No, they won’t. They’ll understand that the city is struggling with decreased state funding, and that losing a drive-up window is no big deal.
