A groundbreaking for a project that has taken several years to be developed. The first distributions from the Mount Vernon Community Betterment Funds. The Riniker Daycare continuing to break records with its summer lemonade stand. School beginning at Cornell College, Mount Vernon and Lisbon Schools.
It’s been a hectic week for the editor, bouncing from all these stories to the next. As Mount Vernon mayor Tom Wieseler said at the community betterment fund distribution, “it’s good to be us in these communities.”
Yes, we have housing needs that reflect a need for more lower-to-moderate-income housing. That’s not just a Mount Vernon or Lisbon issue, however. That’s a nationwide issue, as noted in reporting on National Public Radio recently. Not just large cities, but rural communities are facing the same issues. And with it on Mount Vernon’s radar, more work can be done to start addressing the issue in the future for other developments. The housing that will be constructed on Glenn Street will benefit new and others to move into these apartments in the future.
We’ve spoken about the importance of the community betterment funds in the past. The editor has previously lived in Kossuth County, whose own countywide distributions to many non-profits in the year help tackle many projects. This first distribution from the community betterment fund will help our area schools help more students in need this school year. As the mayor noted, it is exciting to see this happen, and we agree with Les Garner that it gives other communities in Linn County an example for setting up their own funds in the future.
As new superintendent Matt Leeman noted, many of us take for granted how generous this community is to the causes they believe in. The Riniker Daycare Lemonade stand is evidence of that. For the past several years, the stand con- tinues to grow in the funds it receives and finds a cause to benefit each year.
Another school year is starting for Cornell College, Mount Vernon and Lisbon. At Lisbon, there’s some minor headaches of construction going a little bit longer than expected in some areas, but as John Baker said at the meeting “it’s short-term pain for long-term gain.” Yes, the lobby space wasn’t finished on time, but the open floor space is going to yield a better flow to that gymnasium in the future for community discus- sions. Classroom spaces not being completed was a known possibility, and again will require flexibility between now and October. But when it is completed, students are going to benefit from so much in that building as well.