Wednesday, March 25, 2009

March 25, 2009 - Wednesday

Todays Gazette is dedicated to the 100's of thousands of volunteers,
across the country, working diligently to minimize the pain and
suffering of their friends and neighbors.
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The current temperature is 19 degrees.
Yesterdays H/L temperature was 40/27
Normal H/L temp for this date is 39/21
We have "unofficially" received .76 inches of rain and 2½ inches of
snow since Sunday afternoon.
We could receive another couple inches of snow today.
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"Profanity makes ignorance audible."
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L O C A L news & stuff,.. mostly stuff.
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VOLUNTEER: Webster describes a volunteer as; one who choses freely to
do something.
I sometimes wonder, during times like these, if Websters definition
doesn't fall a bit short of the actual fact. For instance I would
suggest that Webster describe volunteers as; those people who choose to
do, for free, wonderful things that some folks are unable to do by
themselves.
++++++
Speaking of wonderful people, volunteers and spring flooding. Mayor
Todd Burianek sent the latest update in that regard. >>>> ~~~ Subject:
Flood Update 3/25 ~~~
Last night Mother Nature threw her best at the people of Grafton and the
people responded in resounding fashion.
One of the things about Floods is that the NWS can tell you what the
flood level is in general, but with ice jams, certain areas may be much
higher/lower than that. North of Doug and Ann McCann's the river was at
a level that was likely higher than in 1997. After a team of sandbaggers
secured the area around John Klava's we moved over to McCann's to add
sandbags there.
Last night over 150 people gave their time to Grafton. Old, young,
City residents and non-residents alike stood side-by-side to fight the
good fight. When it was all finished after midnight, a lot of tired
people finally were able to go home but even then, in bitter winds, I
heard not one complaint. I especially thank the young people who gave
their time to help their community. It gives give me great pride to be
the Mayor of a town that has so many good people.
Today, our Street Dept workers, who only a few hours ago
were fighting water, are now cleaning snow. I give Mother Nature
credit, she doesn't give up, but neither do we and I'm confident we
will continue to give our best to this battle. The river rose to
14.83 feet last night and is now at 14.56 as of 7:30 this morning.
I wish to pay special thanks to Doug and Ann McCann. Last night posed a
significant threat to a large part of the east side and the ONLY way to
fix it was to place sandbags on Doug and Ann's property. If you've seen
their house you know they have it built up to a level that places them
outside the 100 year floodplain. In other words, all the work we were
doing had no real benefit to them as they would remain dry regardless of
what happened in that area. Nonetheless they gave us permission to place
the sandbags on their yard and accepted the possibility of some damage
to their property that would not have been caused by the flooding river.
I thank them for their kindness to your community.
As always, I'll update you when I have new information.
TB <<<<<
Thanks a million for caring and sharing Todd. I might add that at the
time of this writing the river level has dropped to 14.17. That
certainly sounds wonderful although I personally believe the lower river
level is caused by the freezing temperatures and might well rise again
as warmer temperatures return.
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Being thankful for volunteers, wonderful people and small town
Subject: A Huge Thanks!
Hi Dad. I write tonight being very proud to say I'm from a small
town and a loving family.
Here's how my day went: This morning started out by having Cory,
from Waynes Heating & Cooling, come out to tell me the most outrageous
sound coming from my washing machine meant that the transmission was
going out. Not exactly what I wanted to hear. Now wait - he said
"do you have a warranty card or any idea how old the washer
is?" (Knowing how time flies and not having the warranty, I thought
"o.k. Susie, we'll be in this afternoon for a new washer.") Not the
case. You see - small town service and Waynes being the business that
it is, we got a call from Susie telling us she had looked up the sale
(which was 8 years ago) and it was still under warranty. Yes, all we
are paying for is the labor to install the transmission. How many
businesses do you think would have tried to sell us a new washer instead
of repairing it?
Then,...... tonight, as most people were settling down for the night,
we received a call that the sandbagging operation should begin around
B&D Flooring and the Smokehouse. As we approached the Smokehouse to
begin sandbagging, the outpouring of people was unbelievable. My
brothers, sisters-in-law, Dilan, Jake, sister, Jen, Jaime, Chris, Dave,
Nick, fellow employees, friends and several members of the volunteer
fire department helping us keep the Country Smokehouse dry. And
yes,... even Kent DeSautel was there once again.
I can't say enough about the benefits of living in a small town but I
sure would like to say THANKS to all who helped us tonight. We are so
fortunate to have such a fantastic group of Family, Firemen and Friends.
Kelly <<<
Thanks a million Kelly. Like I've always said. "The only thing better
than having a fantastic gene pool is to have it, it in a community full
of fabulous friends."
Or so it seems to me.
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Speaking of friends. The next note comes from Marjie in Florida.
Good morning Gary,
Keeping you and all of Grafton, all the communities along the Red River
in my thoughts and prayers that the dikes keep you safe and dry.
When I was in Grand Forks in June of 2007, I saw some flooding between
the first part of my bike trip and the end. Our final destination had to
be changed to the "right side of the dikes" and that was in June. I
recall you all being in the news in '97 with the major flooding.
Good luck and God bless.
Marjie <<< Thanks a million for caring and sharing Marjie. "If the
good Lord's willing and the creek don't rise" (pardon the pun) We are
going to win this one.
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GOTTA GO WORK ON MY DASH
===========================
"Life is to short for long answers."


Write if you can, call if you can't, and, tell your loved ones they
are,..... before it's too late.

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