Thanks to Duluth's Responsible City Councilors Yvonne Stewart DPPA member Letters to the Editor - Duluth News Tribune - July 27 2000 I jumped for joy when I went to my front door the morning after the Duluth City Council's vote on McQuade and saw that six councilors had the integrity to vote down the request to lease city land to the project. I want to thank those councilors for doing something that's always tough: putting a stop to an idea that has gained momentum and dollars but is nonetheless not a good idea. We have so many pressing needs in our city; spending $8 million or more on this boat launch would have been a shame. And it would have been a shame, as well, to toss aside the agreement our city made with the Congdon family back in 1915 to retain this land ``in perpetuity.'' I also want to thank the councilors for putting up with the ``sour-grapes'' press coverage that's occurred since their vote. Theirs was a democratic process in the best sense and as such should have been respected. Instead, on the pages of the local papers, the six councilors who voted against the lease (Gilbert, Stewart, Stover, Hogg, Fena, and Eckenberg) were treated with disrespect by Senator Sam Solon and Mayor Doty and branded with the old, tired label of ``anti-progress.'' If the supporters of the McQuade harbor and Mayor Doty didn't have the sense to pursue the lease of the land first, which would have been the logical thing to do before spending time and money, that is not the fault of the council or the citizens. Someone has got to hold the line, and those six councilors stepped up to the job. I thank you, councilors, for representing me so well--and what I believe is a majority of Duluthians. I'll remember you at the ballot box in November of 2001. Grateful thanks Yvonne Stewart DPPA member Letters to the Editor - Budgeteer - July 27 2000 I extend grateful thanks to the six Duluth City Councilors who had the fortitude to reject the request to lease the Congdon Trust land to the McQuade boat launch project. Since the night these councilors took this brave and responsible stand, they have had to put up with ``sour-grapes'' criticism in the newspapers from Mayor Doty and Senator Sam Solon, who have once more hauled out that tired old label ``anti-progress'' and tried to hang it on these councilors. They were democratically elected by the citizens of Duluth, and Doty and Solon insult us all when they claim that the councilors were merely listening to a ``vocal minority.'' They are doing what they are supposed to be doing: listening to the citizens of Duluth. Unfortunately, Mayor Doty and the McQuade supporters left until last securing the lease of the Congdon land, and that backwards approach has blown up in their faces. That is not the fault of the Duluth City Council. As I look around Duluth, I see many parts of our city that need our attention and could use some tax dollars. We did not need to spend $8 million or more on this boat launch and leave ourselves open for potential financial responsibility for it far into the future. Nor did we need to dishonor the agreement Duluth signed in 1915 with Chester Congdon. And the responsible vote by the six city councilors (Gilbert, Stewart, Stover, Hogg, and Fena) has paved the way for making sure we do not do either of those things. No matter how many times it's dealt a blow, however, the McQuade launch project seems to somehow come limping back again. We citizens had better keep our eyes peeled and our powder dry. Congdon Trust Juanita Kammerman DPPA member Letter To Editor - DNT? I watched the recent coverage on PAC-TV of the Duluth City Council meeting at which Councilors voted down the leasing of the Congdon Trust land for the McQuade boat launch. I was impressed with the thoughtful consideration councilors gave this topic and the well-informed remarks of public speakers. It was a marvelous example, I thought at the time, of democracy in action. Some attendees that night accused Council members who would not be backing the McQuade project of changing their minds. It didn't appear to me that the Councilors did change their minds, since it was not until this vote that the City Council was ever asked to give a formal go-ahead to McQuade. But even if they had changed their minds, why would that be a failing? Learning to change one's mind when circumstances and information dictate is a mark of maturity. Sticking stubbornly to a position even when proven imprudent is not. I was greatly disappointed in the recent editorial by the News Tribune's publisher, Ms. Jacobus, about this McQuade vote. Ms. Jacobus disparages the judgment of the City Councilors, dismisses the interested citizens who spoke at the Council against McQuade, and treats Emily Van Evera - Chester Congdon's great-granddaughter - as an irrelevancy. In addition, Mary Jacobus's claims in her editorial that the City Council votes solely based on who happens to fill the Council Chambers is not worthy of her, and City Councilors should call for an apology. I extend my thanks to those six city councilors who did the right thing by refusing to break the Congdon Trust and lease that North Shore land for an unneeded and costly boat launch: Hogg, Gilbert, Stover, Fena, Eckenberg, and Stewart. I believe you have spoken for the citizens of Duluth - both today and in the future. These articles are retained on the web for historical interest and do not necessarily reflect the views or goals of DPPA today.