Nancy Bommelman, Minot

I ran into a gentleman the other day at the grocery store. I never met the man before, but we got to talking and he asked me “when does all the spending stop?”

I told him that I didn’t know, and shook my head. He is an older gentleman that said he was taking care of his mother and it’s getting harder and harder for him to take care of her.

They want to sell their home and leave.

As we all know the market is not good for selling right now in Minot. Poor man, I felt so sorry for him.

Which leads me to this topic:

Why are we building Blu on Broadway for the homeless people? There are over 750 apartments for rent in Minot right now. Why can’t one of the owners of the apartment buildings step up and say they will house these people? Put the homeless up in different buildings.

You know why, because they don’t want to be “bothered” by homeless people. Let me tell the readers something, I knew of three homeless teenagers that go to school and were homeless. Yes, high school students. Don’t think it happens just to other people.

Those students are in an apartment right now, and are being helped by individuals like myself. Now we have to build a brand new building for people that probably aren’t even from here, that come here and think they are going to get a job in the oil field.

A lot of them can’t handle the winter. I see so many people that are “homeless” on Broadway and all over town asking for money on the street corner. Then I drive around the corner and see them get into a nice car, drive down to a bar and spend the money that is given to them.

I gave a meal to two of them once and they said they would rather have the money. I stopped right there.

So now we have to build a brand new building with garages underneath.

Why does this sound familiar? THE PARKING RAMPS DOWNTOWN. Another colossal waste of time and money.

Why would we do this? You know why? I do check out who owns the land underneath. It’s all public record, pull the tax records, go to the register of deeds office. Look on line. It took me less than three minutes to find out. It’s who you know in this town.

Why build it on Broadway, why turn commercial property into an apartment building? People ask why should we help the homeless, I somewhat agree. It’s sad they come to our “welfare” city, where everything is handed to them. The city council has to get a back bone at sometime and say enough is enough. I know it’s government money, but who do you think has to maintain all of these apartments? We do, the taxpayers, the people that work for a living.

Snow removal, grass cutting, cleaning of the building. Who’s going to pay their electric bill, heat, and water? WE ARE, the taxpayers. Who is going to maintain everything if something breaks, WE ARE, the taxpayers. We need to stop spending and help people that need the help. Again, I say it’s who you know and who you get in bed with.