Letter: Liked column in newspaper

Dear Editor

This letter is being written in response to Randy Hanson’s factual column about the St. Croix County Nursing Home in New Richmond. It was printed in last Thursday’s Hudson Star-Observer.

When I first came onto our county board in April 2002, I consistently got the impression that all 31 members — like the distinct fibers in baling twine — more often than not pulled together in the same direction. Whereas individually we were weak, collectively we were strong.

Sadly, that cooperative spirit seems to have vanished when the county board was downsized to just 19 members, some of whom have lost sight of the fact that our first responsibility is to the constituents who elected us, and not to our individual — sometimes selfish — special agendas.

A good analogy, I think, is present in the wonderful memories I have of growing up on my parents’ dairy farm, where working together was an absolute necessity, not just for the members of my own family, but for all the farm families who cooperated at harvest time.

Among the most vivid of those lasting memories is the annual threshing ring in which our family participated. There were about 8-10 neighboring farm families which helped each other — one farm at a time — pitching bundles of oats, wheat and sometimes barley onto horse-drawn hay wagons, hauling those to each respective barnyard, threshing the grain, shaping the straw pile and having a wonderful, wholesome sit-down meal at noon, preceded by a collective prayer, led by a member of the family whose grain we were threshing.

The beliefs of some current county board members notwithstanding, who are unwilling to continue the county’s support of our county nursing home, that same cooperative, unselfish spirit described in my brief memoir, above, is present among those who staff our well run, five-star facility in New Richmond. Randy, your well-written, factual column did a wonderful job of portraying this. 

Buzz Marzolf, Town of Troy

District 12 County Supervisor

Tags: opinion, letters, health