Mankato City Council Meeting

This Monday I attended the Mankato City Council Meeting and I can say that I was glad I did and will be attending more. There was a great feeling of involvement seeing the newspaper talk about what I saw Monday night. I was very impressed with City Manager Pat Hentges professionalism and his knowledge of the administration of our city. He and others are tasked with finding ways to reduce costs and I saw some very impressive things in his proposals of reaching out for ways to do so.

One other thing I was very impressed with was Councilman Mark Frost's reference to the residents of his Ward. I could be wrong but I believe he was the only to do so and that impressed me a lot. There were many students in the audience and I hope they had a chance to witness Mr. Frost's great example of Representative Leadership. Also Mr. Frost was the only one to mention anything about Budget Cuts during a meeting of spending asking for a reduction of $5000 to the arts.

We had the pleasure of talking with both Mr. Hentges and Mr. Laven after the meeting and I found it very beneficial to meet and get to know our local officials better. Both were very courteous and gracious and I look forward to getting to know them more throughout the months and years.

I must say I was also very impressed with the turnout of the meeting. I met a very nice gentleman named Paul that came there to discuss concerns that he had with a new sewer project in his area off of Belle Ave. Kudos to Paul on showing up at the meeting and voicing his concerns to the council.

My hope for the future is that more local citizens will join VooGov.Com and discuss the local issues and comments on the city council meetings that they attended and not just voice concerns from behind the keyboard. :-)

Patrick