The Meeting / Clarification

I cannot express in words how proud I am of our community. You guys all were there, facts in hand, and handled the meeting with grace and dignity. I believe that our efforts made a big difference, and I was very pleased that it became official tonight that Walgreens is indeed the proposed business that would be placed in the middle of our historic residential district.

Standing up for what you believe in can certainly be a tough row to hoe, but all of you have really made a difference! You volunteered to do the legwork, drew up the petition, spoke with the media about our viewpoints and pretty much forced this issue to the spotlight for all around to see. For that you should be commended.

So what's next? I would like to officially call for tomorrow to be our day of rest... I have slept an average of 4 hours a night for the last 6 days, so I'm a little bit tired. Being the Mommy of two boys, ages 1 1/2 and 5, is demanding even when I'm not trying to save our historic district. :)

I just want you all to know that we have much to do concerning this issue. Even if this deal falls through- and may I reiterate that we're certainly not out of the woods yet- we need to take action now to prevent this from happening again. We as a historic district need to band together and decide how we would like to approach the encroachment of our residential property from a legal standpoint.

The fact of the matter is that big money is too tempting. We cannot trust ourselves to refuse large cash payouts for giving away our pieces of the historic residential district. When a developer is knocking on your door, offering you way more that market value for your home, what will you do? If there's one thing that we've learned during all of this, it's that an issue this divisive can rip apart the finely woven threads of our community. We need to look out for one another and remove the option from the table... to save our historic homes, our land values, and our friendships. We definitely sent the message tonight that we will not stand back and watch our historic district fall by the wayside. The practice of replacing nationally registered historic homes with cookie-cutter drugstores may be allowed in other towns, but we're not going to stand for it here! I think that everyone made that point undeniably clear tonight!

There is one other subject that I would like to broach this evening. I have been contacted by several members of our organization that have heard rumors that claim our cause is receiving media attention because I work for the Minden Press-Herald. I would like to publicly announce that I do not work for The Press-Herald, as I resigned the position of graphic designer for their organization last January. I can assure you that the position that I held for six months at The Minden Press-Herald in no way gave us an advantage concerning media coverage.

Once again, I want to thank you all for your support. We began this crusade to "help save Minden" only 6 days ago. I am absolutely amazed at all that we have accomplished. We have a long road to travel, but it will certainly feel great to stop here for the night.

With sincere admiration for you all,



Jackie