Jim Soltis, Minot

It has been a long time since I wrote a letter to the paper. But what is happening in our city forced me to speak my piece.

I am looking for volunteers to go with me on a search for the hidden bucket of money that the city big spenders are using to fund the exorbitant buildings and projects within the city.

I have one thing to say….STOP SPENDING MONEY WE CANNOT AFFORD! We are already the highest priced city in North Dakota to live in.

– Two ramps costing millions of dollars and keeping us in court for years.

– New wall around the OLD city hall and police department costing 5 million dollars.

– New courthouse costing MILLIONS of dollars and only partially used.

– Remodeling the OLD courthouse for another several million dollars.

– Remodeling and new building for the Sheriff’s Department – several more million.

– New City Hall at a cost of another exorbitant millions of dollars. It should be noted that in the past the City Hall, police department and a fire station were all in the one building.

– Now they want to remodel that building for a new Police Department for several more million.

– New Airport that is completely out of control and an expensive waste of taxpayer money.

– New High School on North Hill. I challenge everyone who has not seen this monstrosity to just go up and take a look. It will blow your mind. Nobody knows how many MILLIONS of dollars are being spent on this monstrosity.

– So now they are remodeling the downtown school to be used as a middle school for another multi-million-dollar project. IT SHOULD BE NOTED — I graduated in 1963 and we all attended this downtown school building from the 7th grade through the 12th grade and no other school buildings. We graduated more than 300 students.

– So, then they built the new Minot High School. Not sure if they ever graduated more than 400 students or if even that many.

– Leading to the new North High School, it will be interesting how many students graduate in the combined two high schools. A total overkill.

So now we hear that a group wants the citizens of Minot to vote YES for a ½% sales tax that they say will generate 6 million dollars per year used for the Park Board. So, I thought one year would be OK but Shazam…it is a perpetual tax meaning it NEVER ends. AND NOT TO BE UNDONE. The City Manager wants to get on board and have another ½% sales tax be added for Public Safety, making it a total of 1% total sales tax and that too would be a perpetual tax. This group used the old BS teaser telling us dumb property owners that it would save us on property taxes for 5 years. I really do think they believe we are dumb enough to buy that pile of you know what….NOT IN A MILLION YEARS WILL THIS EVER PASS.

In closing, speaking about the City Manager, the council spent another $120,000.00 per year to fund an ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER. Are you serious? Never has there ever been two City Managers. Wondering what that says about the current City Manager.

It is very important that EVERYONE contact our city council members and express your views. Their email addresses can be found at www.minotnd.gov.