A second foot ball stadium?

This was is the paper a few days ago and I agree with it 100%. Do we really need a second place to play football? I don't think so when we are in a budget crisis. Yes we should focus our efforts on teachers and class rooms. Do you believe we need a second stadium yes or no, and why?

Published December 27 2008

We need good teachers, not another stadiumSomething stinks. The nation’s economy is crumbling. The city of Duluth is under water. Never mind all that. Superintendent Keith Dixon’s pliant School Board can afford a surprise $6 million stadium.


Something stinks. The nation’s economy is crumbling. The city of Duluth is under water. Minnesota is so broke our schools’ superintendent warned that the state probably won’t give Independent School District 709 all the revenue it was promised.
Never mind all that. Superintendent Keith Dixon’s pliant School Board can afford a surprise $6 million stadium. And what a surprise it is! There was no stadium in the red plan that I could recall. It was in the blue plan. What gives?


For as long as I can remember, Central, Denfeld and East have shared Public Schools Stadium amicably. During the football season, there will often be only a single game scheduled at Public Schools Stadium on Friday nights.


Our schools should stick to giving our children a good education. That requires good teachers — not Minnesota’s most expensive school building project of all time. It certainly doesn’t require a
$6 million stadium.


And taking homes by eminent domain leaves a smaller population to pay off the red plan. Some families whose homes have become parking lots now live in Hermantown. If the School Board thinks Duluth’s voters were impressed with its display of raw power in authorizing eminent domain to take Ordean-area homes, it was mistaken. Most of us are still bitter we didn’t get to vote on the red plan. This brutal decision was not the voters’ fault. We have nothing but sympathy for these bullied homeowners. The board smugly told us we can’t stop this. That kind of arrogance begs Duluth to rise up and prove them wrong.



Sheri Pihlaja

Duluth