Letters to the editor
Talk to your commissioner
To the Editor:
As a Marion County taxpayer and a person actively engaged in making improvements to my Marion County land, I strongly urge readers to support the carefully thought-out changes to the zoning regulations as recommended by the planning commission. These recommendations retain the rule that you can have one house for each 40 acres you own, and you can sell off five or in some cases three acres for a house.
I am very much opposed to the county commissioners' proposal to apply a "16 houses per section" rule to any area of the county other than the town of Goessel's "growth area." I believe applying "16 houses per section" countywide would:
1. Circumvent the land use protections provided to both present and future landowners in "A" zoned areas;
2. Unfairly limit how some people can utilize their land because all 16 houses could be on one 80-acre ownership, and all the other landowners in the section could not have a house;
3. Result in little clusters of several three-acre tracts throughout the county, putting additional financial strain on the county government to provide services and infrastructure, and causing land use conflicts with adjacent agricultural interests.
The Marion County Commission will act Monday on this very important issue. I urge you to inform yourself on this issue and express your opinion to your county commissioners before the meeting.
Steve Schmidt
McPherson
Lunch is a success
To the Editor:
Marion Manor staff would like to thank everyone in Marion for making this year's heart lunch such a huge success.
Michelle Geering of the American Heart Association was here Friday to pick up the donation. After expenses, we were able to give her a grand total of $1,174. This is $491 more than last year.
We had several people asking how many cookies we made and how long it took to bake them. I put together a few fun facts.
We sold 188 sack lunches, up from 148 last year and 68 dozen cookies (18 dozen last year).
Our cookie-making extravaganza included a total of 2,160 sugar cookies which took 58 pounds of powdered sugar, 90 pounds of flour, a little more than 50 pounds of sugar, 47 pounds of butter, 20 pounds of cream cheese, dozens of eggs (I lost count), and a whole lot of humor.
It took about 12 hours to bake them and 9 hours to frost.
A big thanks to all the staff who helped make the cookies, put sandwiches and sacks together, and got them where they needed to go on time — all with very little confusion.
Our residents had a lot of fun making the sacks so festive for us this year. They did an awesome job.
We're looking forward to next year.
Autumn Hanson
Marion Manor
Protect agriculture
To The Editor:
Dare I speak and expose my ignorance? Donna Bernhardt was right when she said Marion County is an agricultural county. The basis of its wealth is agriculture. The natural phenomenon would be for growth to take place from the bottom up.
Instead of local governments and other taxing entities protecting and promoting agriculture, they exploit that resource for their own interests. The result is a decline in the local economy. And we all are suffering for it. Rather than admit that, they are trying to cover for that by attempting to bring in outside wealth.
The issue is the right for people to be responsible and accountable to themselves versus government dominance and intrusion. It's not about zoning or economic development, but it's about protecting agriculture. That's our wealth because that provides for all.
Jerry Plett
Lincolnville
