SHOULD MINNETRISTA PUBLIC FUNDS BE USED TO SUBSIDIZE THE SALE OF TREES TO RESIDENTS FOR PERSONAL USE? Let me think about that. NO! This was discussed Monday night and will be the subject of an upcoming city council work session. Post your comments below. I’m interested in what residents think. Here’s what I think: There are three legitimate roles for local city governments: 1) Infrastructure, 2) Public safety, and 3) Planning/Zoning (which includes public parks & recreation). Helping residents buy trees for their own personal use is not one of them.
When a city begins to stray from it’s core mission we begin to see the neglect of those critical services. There is no end to the things people want for their own personal use. Using public funds for anything other than our core mission invites higher taxes, entitlement, and is not good governance…in my humble opinion.
Minnetrista Governance Blog 
Actually – yes, I am in strong support of public funds to help subsidize tree replacement and should be heavily encouraged – especially in places where the Developing organization has wiped out acres of very large old growth trees that WAS APPROVED by the CITY OF MINNETRISTA!
What really upsets me (and many of my neighbors), is when the city forwards me to the Developer who confided that the City administrator who approved of the cutting of significant trees along what is to be called ironically – “BIG WOODS’ in the Cove for large custom build homes. The original plans from March 30, 2010, specifically stated preserving 45 acres and 45% of the tree cover. Those “preliminary plans” have been proven to be fictitious because the city was negligent in preserving the original plans and protecting neighboring lots from tree deforestation.
If you want more thoughts on wasteful public spending on roads – who was the Engineer / Government official who approved the island in the roadway on Lotus Drive outside of Trillium Bay – only to have it dug up and filled in a year later? Where is the wasteful spending on that road project?
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Minnetrista doesn’t currently use taxpayer collected (levied) dollars from the tree fund to replace trees in Minnetrista. The funds in our tree fund are collected from developers. Those funds could still be collected without having the special fund, if deemed appropriate by the planning commission and city council, put into our fund reserves and budgeted for expenditure on trees if and when appropriate.
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I feel a better use of my tax dollars would be better spend on better road repair, winter plowing, and de-icing that works. Minnetrista can do better than what I have seen in the last 60 days.
Get you priorities straight!
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