The City of Duluth’s Parks Maintenance Division will place clean, discarded wood chips for public use and pick up in bulk at the U-shaped driveway by Tony Emanuel Field at Woodland Park beginning Saturday.
The wood chips, which are an urban forestry byproduct and are untreated, are available on a first-come, first-served basis to anyone wishing to use them. If the pile depletes, parks maintenance staff will continue to refill them until the spring.
The City of Duluth administration cannot warn taxpayers about a projected $5.5 million deficit while refusing to explain a recurring $4.5 million funding stream redirected from general operations. The account now has nearly $9 million.
Duluth residents should not accept a budget narrative built only around the bad news. Transparency requires more than explaining the size of the shortfall. It requires identifying every option, every revenue decision and every pool of existing or reasonably anticipated financial capacity.
Early-term labor agreements, sluggish revenue growth and familiar levy politics have left City Hall confronting a projected $5.5 million deficit.
Plante has already given UMD a great season, another Hobey and a place back among the country’s serious programs. What he has not yet delivered is the one thing that would separate his Bulldogs career from nearly every other individual masterpiece.
The Bulldogs’ championship window is open because they have Max Plante, high-end talent and unusual roster continuity. It is believable because Sandelin is still standing behind the bench.
Championship opportunities are temporary, particularly now. Max Plante will not remain at UMD forever. Neither will Zam Plante, Shaugabay or Hanson. Professional hockey will come calling, and the roster eventually will be pulled apart by the realities of the sport.
Through his first two varsity seasons, Swanson has amassed 49 goals, 68 assists and 117 points. He will enter his junior season as a centerpiece of a Bluejackets program expected to contend for another deep postseason run.
