To the Editor:
This Houston County shop project is out of hand. Let me start by saying I sat on commissioner Steve Schuldt’s “public committee” the last time they met. There were some very rational and well thought out conversations. Would you know that from what Steve presented to the county board? I don’t think it was even mentioned by him. Steve’s mind is made up. At that meeting we gathered at Caledonia Haulers. Haulers just built a new shop with a beautiful conference room, parts dept., office space plus room to service a couple hundred semi-trucks and semi-trailers. All of that plus other buildings on five acres of ground. Chuck Schulte was there. He built a new shop for his John Deere dealership on 5.5 acres of ground. The State of MN shop sits on 6 acres. Caledonia Implement Company sits on five acres. Joe Rud Trucking sits on three acres. Sno Pac Foods sits on five acres. Caledonia Ready Mix 2.8 acres. Comstock Trucking 1.2 acres. Kruckow Rock Products 5.5 acres. Do you see a trend here? Picture the size of these local businesses, the lots they sit on and what they do with that space. Now understand this. Houston County has six acres at the current shop location. They are requesting to build a shop on 22 acres out by the High School. 22 acres of prime tax generating land. Located between 2 residential subdivisions and the new high school. Does this make sense to anyone? At that “public committee” meeting we showed a number of ways to build the shop on the current site. We all know that we need a new county shop. Let’s do it the right way though. Steve Schuldt told me on the record that this building will end up costing upward of 8 million dollars. He then proceeded to tell me that they don’t need an actual road off of State highway 76, just a driveway because “there won’t be that much traffic. We only have 6 trucks.” Said a mouthful there didn’t you Steve. 6 trucks for an 8 million dollar building. I then asked Steve how many people have spoken to him in favor of the location. He said “less than 6” I then asked how many were against and he said “more than 50”. Yet he still votes in favor of this?? Judy Storlie, who represents La Crescent, made the argument that the new shop needed to go out by the school because she believes the “footings are already poured”. This is the lady that also told me that building this monstrosity out by the school would be doing Caledonia a favor by “turning development inward”. Yes that is what she said. She thinks that someday homes will be built where the current county shop is. Does that sound feasible? She also made a comment that in my mind should get a person removed from public office. When talking of the projected cost, Judy Storlie said, it gets spread out through the whole county, nobody will know the difference. Perfect attitude for someone holding the public’s checkbook… So let’s spend 8 million dollars on a shop and let’s put it on 22 acres of prime real estate. What are we waiting for??
Matt Klug
Caledonia, Minnesota