I was reminded this past week there are two sides to every issue.

I received a call from a rural Marion farmer who sees the park donation and renaming of the park as an opportunity.

From his point of view, the City of Marion should take the money and use it for the park. It wasn’t a big deal to him to have the park renamed. From his perspective, the additional $50,000 the city would receive would be $50,000 less taken from the general fund for park improvements, leaving money in the budget for other city projects.

I appreciated the phone call because it served as a reminder to me that there is more than one way to see an issue.

I encourage other readers to call in and share their views about this and other issues. I may not agree with you and you may not agree with me but I always appreciate hearing a different perspective.

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Later this past week, I visited with other people about the park situation. Another perspective mentioned by a resident was if and when someone else makes an even larger donation to Central Park. Do we then change the name of the park again to accommodate that donor?

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It was brought to my attention this past week that my name, well, my former name, appears with Brooker Trust documents which could insinuate that somehow I may have been privy to information about the park being renamed, etc., etc.

Yes, there was a period of several months where I was the acting city clerk of the city and during that time, letters were sent between the city administrator and the Brooker family regarding the Brooker Springs project. I did as I was told, filing the information as city clerk.

My only involvement in the springs project or the Brooker Trust was as a liaison between the city and the Brooker family, primarily to organize a ribbon-cutting ceremony and have the family ride in the Old Settlers’ Day parade.

This issue is not about me. It is not about city administrator. And it certainly is not about the Brookers.

It’s about city policy and how the city should look at donations.

It boils down to whether city property is for sale and if it is, at what price.

— susan berg