Public x 2
Missoula and UM are joining together at the hip.
On the drawing board (or chopping block) are the following:
- The grounds crew
- UM police
- UM parking
- UM library
“Does it really make sense for the university to have a greens crew and the city to have a greens crew?” Engen asked.
“Why don’t we merge resources? We're in budget constraints, why don’t we merge libraries, why don’t we merge police departments?” a faculty member added.
I’m sorry...but this is a terrible idea.
You can tell from the Missoulian article that Engen is salivating over turning the Adams Center parking lot into ‘affordable housing,’ which will be large riverfront condos that go for $400,000 to $600,000...at least.
I wouldn’t trust Engen or Bodner or their lackey pictured there with them, Dave Strohmeir.
I have a strong feeling that there will be immense pushback from UM faculty as well as the community, starting on Facebook and culminating in letter writing campaigns and perhaps even some kind of fundraising for an actual public relations campaign.
This isn’t just adjuncts and associates on the chopping block this time like we’ve seen with previous rounds of budget cuts.
No, this is the whole university on the line.
I mean...no library? What happens to the library building on campus...it gets bulldozed...and what gets put in its place?
Yeah, there’s going to be immense blowback on this.
At the same time, I’m incredibly happy to see this story.
Why?
Because it shows us nobodies just how desperate the city and the university are. It shows us how weak their leaders are. It shows us that change is coming...and it’s coming fast.
Engen, Bodner?
Two men that have no idea what to do.
This is gonna be fun to watch.
On the Way?
I got my ballot in the mail on Saturday, filled it out, put it in the mailbox...where it sat until late Tuesday evening when it was picked up (I forgot Monday was Columbus Day).
I checked it a few times over the weekend, but it seems no one was interested in tampering with it.
I’d hoped that someone would tamper with my wife’s (she voted for Biden), but alas...they did not.
I can only assume that it reached the elections office safe and sound. Of course, I can do more than just that - I can check its status.
Want to check the status of your ballot? Go head.
Happy Cities
I got an email from someone that works at Zippia to tell me that Billings is the happiest city in Montana.
Zippia is a California-based company that tries to help people find jobs, and they often put up interesting blog articles about various cities, like this month’s “The State’s that Grow the Most Pumpkins” (Illinois tops the list).
The company “analyzed income, marriage rates, education, and other metrics to determine which cities have the most to smile about.”
I haven’t been to Billings in 20 years. Perhaps it’s time I give the magic city another look.
Gettin’ Chili?
It’s ‘bean’ a heard year for North Dakota.
Upwards of 50% of their dry bean crop was wiped out in the early-September frosts.
That’s a big deal - the state is the largest bean grower in the country, with 650,000 acres worth planned for this year (MN is second with 215,000 acres).
While crop insurance might help growers break even, and some might be able to sell some of the ruined crop back to the seed company to use as see next year, most growers are shit out of luck.
Northern AG Network gave one caveat:
“Above all those solutions though, the best one could quite possibly lay in the general public’s hands. It simply requires a small increase in consumption from every household whether it be trying new recipes or helping their neighbors discover the positive protein source.”
I suggest you cook a bit more chili as it gets colder out. It’s an easy way to show your support for farmers.
Sending Help
It’s been awhile since we heard about the post office in the news, isn’t it?
It’s been nearly two months, actually. The hubbub was back near the end of August, when we questioned funding and overtime and whatnot.
Now we’ve completely forgotten about that.
Well, I haven’t.
I decided to help the post office in my small way, which is buying a shit-ton of stamps...and putting them to good use.
After a 2-year break, I decided to start-up on PostCrossing again, which is a site that allows you to send postcards to people all over the world, and get them from all over the world too.
I’ve sent out 167 since I started back in 2017, and I typically put 3 stamps on each card.
It cost $1.20 to mail a postcard internationally, and stamp prices are $0.55 right now.
Depending if the recipient likes stamps or not, I’ll put two regular stamps and a 10 cent stamp on there, or as many as five or six stamps if they fit.
This is a small way to help the post office. And boy, getting a postcard from Belgium or Taiwan or Poland or Singapore or Finland - or wherever! - is so much better than getting all that political junk mail.
It’s nice to open the mailbox and smile. Many days I’m lucky enough to do that.
You can too - give it a try, put a smile on your face, and do your small part to help our post office.