4A
ETC.
As a professional opinionmonger, I am
required to have answers. They may not
be the right answers, and they may not be
answers you agree with, but consider that Steve Prestegard
for subscribers in Grant, Lafayette and
plattevillejournaleditor@
Iowa counties, this column costs you, by
gmail.com
my estimation this week, 0.7867 cents.
Q: What can be done about tragedies
like the Orlando shooting?
A: The only answer I have is what should not be done,
and that is abridging peoples constitutional rights, like the
First (freedom of religion), Second (freedom to bear arms),
Fourth (unreasonable search and seizure and probable
cause), Fifth (due process of law), Sixth (rights in court) and
Seventh (trial by jury) Amendments, all of which have been
proposed to be abridged in the past two weeks as the result
of the shootings. There is a sandwich sign west of my office that quotes my favorite Founding Father, Ben Franklin:
Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a
little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
Q: Well, shouldnt something be done?
A: Your definition of something (or anyone elses, or mine)
is not necessarily the right answer. I think it is better to do
nothing than the wrong thing. Newspaperman H.L. Mencken
(who I may be becoming) said, For every complex problem
there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.
Q: Are you allowed to make controversial statements?
A: Franklin also said, If all printers were determined not
to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody,
there would be very little printed.
Q: Why was Ashley Javon Toney, who is on the Indiana
sex offender registry, released on $1,000 signature bond after
he was arrested last week?
A: This (paraphrased) question was asked on our Facebook page last week. Im not a lawyer, I wasnt present at
Toneys first court appearance, and to quote Cops, all suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. But
it seems to me (and Ive said this before in this space) that
such questions deserve an answer for us taxpayers, whose
taxes pay for our criminal justice system.
Q: Why is the speed limit 55 mph at the U.S. 151/County
XX interchange?
A: I was asked this a couple years ago. I would guess
its because the Platteville city limits end west of the interchange. So youd have to inquire of Grant County, not
the city, the wisdom of traffic going 55 mph through that
interchange with two left turns without stop signs. (The
speed limit through the 151/Wisconsin 80/81 and 151/Grant
County D interchanges is 45 mph.)
Q: Why is the city redoing Furnace Street this year when
Southwest Health EMS is moving from Furnace Street later
this year?
A: I assume its because the city is also redoing Bonson
Street. But redoing Furnace this year instead of next year
required the construction of a temporary driveway so the
ambulances could get out. Neither the driveway nor the
building will be needed after that.
Q: What are the citys plans to upgrade Greenwood Avenue
and Bradford Street if the St. Augustine housing project is
approved?
A: Thats a very good question. That subject hasnt come
up in the discussions about the project, and it would be good
to know the answer before the vote to pass it takes place,
because those two streets will get considerably more traffic
once construction is completed.
Q: Is that a prediction that it will get approved?
A: Yes. Thats because the citys first priority is more property
tax revenue, both because of big-ticket capital items (streets,
the fire station, streets, the Municipal Building, streets, possibly
water and sewer on Enterprise Drive and streets) and because
of, as Ive argued in this space before, failure to develop the city
to generate more tax revenue in past years and decades.
Q: Why are you typing this standing at your desk?
A: For the same reason I walk a lot. Supposedly sitting is
the new smoking. Im not sure I buy that (I am not breathing in cancer-causing materials when sitting), but I am
aware that I sit a lot, though as anyone who watches me at
one of my childrens games knows I also pace a lot. If anything this saves me a step as I pace around the office while
writing, to the annoyance of my coworkers.
Q: You think you have all the answers. Why dont you run
for office?
A: Believe it or not I was asked that a couple months into
starting work here. My answer then and now is: Who would
vote for me?
The Platteville
journal
www.swnews4u.com
Editor
Steve Prestegard
plattevillejournaleditor@gmail.com
Sports Editor
Jason Nihles
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WA S H I N G T O N J O U R N A L
LETTERS
The Platteville Journal, P.O. Box 266, Platteville, WI 53818-0266 plattevillejournaleditor@gmail.com
Payment to whom?
I attended the Town of Kendall annual meeting April 19. During the
meeting, the amount of money being
spent on lawyer fees by the town board
was presented. One of the amounts
presented was $5,054.00 for lawyer
fees against Ray McDonald. This is the
amount spent in 2014 and 2015; no
amount was shown for 2016. According
to the copy of the tape of the annual
meeting, Town Sup. Don Christianson issued a statement saying that the
township had received a check from
the townships insurance company to
offset the lawyer fees against Ray McDonald. It was also stated that no taxpayer dollars were spent for these lawyer fees. He asked Mary Leahy, boardappointed treasurer/clerk, to verify
this, and Mary Leahy stated that was
true, that the township received an insurance check for those fees.
On April 20 I made an Open Records
request for the documentation to support Mary and Dons statements. On
May 25 (five weeks after my initial request) I received documentation showing what the insurance company paid.
Blood needed
Every person may freely speak, write and publish his sentiments on all subjects, being
responsible for the abuse of that right, and no laws shall be passed to restrain or abridge
the liberty of speech or of the press. In all criminal prosecutions or indictments for libel, the
truth may be given in evidence, and if it shall appear to the jury that the matter charged
as libelous be true, and was published with good motives and for justifiable ends, the party
shall be acquitted; and the jury shall have the right to determine the law and the fact.
Wisconsin Constitution, Article I, section 3