Piepkorn letter; we need to work together
Good letter Dave!
I agree, it is vital that we work together with our neighbors to protect our environment and find common ground solutions.
Adding a FM diversion alone is not enough, we also need to establish more retention, mitigation, and compensation for storing water along the Red River Basin. By concurrently developing comprehensive strategies and projects for improved basin-wide water management, we will protect our homes and property upstream and downstream, while conserving our precious resource of water.
Here's Dave's letter to the editor:
Published February 09 2010
North Dakotans pull together to help every part of our state
By: Dave Piepkorn, Fargo
The year 2009 was significant for Fargo and the Red River Valley. The floods of last spring were of historic proportions. But, it was not just a Fargo or a Red River Valley flood; it was a North Dakota flood. As everyone knows, flooding played havoc across our state. In many ways, it was an epic struggle that encompassed the whole of North Dakota.
When Gov. John Hoeven called out the National Guard, he said they would be active across the state. The men and women of our National Guard were everywhere. Their heroic effort made the difference. In fact, I heard from many who said that seeing a National Guard truck pull into their community or neighborhood gave them hope and told them that North Dakota cared about their corner of the world.
I know that the Guard, our students and volunteers made all the difference in Fargo and Cass County. As a lifelong resident of Fargo, a small-business owner, and a Fargo city commissioner, I have more reasons than most to praise them. They helped save the day.
The point is that the floods were a North Dakota problem. Under the leadership of Gov. Hoeven, Mayor Dennis Walaker and others, we approached them as North Dakotans, not just as citizens of Fargo or Lisbon or Enderlin. Our governor has always said that North Dakota is a community, not just an address; 2009 proved his statement to be true.
We are now talking about permanent flood protection for Fargo, Cass County and surrounding areas. The federal government, counties, cities and the state are joining together to reach a workable and affordable level of permanent flood protection. It is a long, tedious and sometimes contentious undertaking. But, it is vital. Nobody doubts that it will be expensive and drawn out.
Fargo has started the process of raising money for this project. The citizens of Fargo, by an overwhelming majority, voted in a half-cent sales tax for flood control. The counties, other cities and municipalities will also need to commit to raising the revenues needed. And, North Dakota has a significant role to play.
I know that some will say that Fargo should pay its own way, even though the state has played a role in financing flood protection for other endangered communities over the years. And, some will say, the state should also play a role in solving the infrastructure problems caused by the oil and gas boom in western counties. I think they are correct. But, that does not negate the need for permanent flood protection along the Red River.
Fargo is a major contributor to the North Dakota economy. If we had not been successful in last year’s flood, imagine the economic hit our state would have sustained. Fargo competes with the rest of the world in medical research, high-tech development and nanotechnology, competition that benefits our entire state. It is an economic engine for the rest of the state.
Fargo, along with the rest of the state, benefits from the growth and development of the God-given resources in western North Dakota. And, the rest of the state benefits from Fargo’s growing importance in commerce and industry throughout the country. We are one state; one community. It is critical for all of us, throughout North Dakota, to work as one to meet the challenges that face us. When one area or sector is in trouble, our entire state is in trouble. We need to face that trouble together.
Piepkorn is in a first-term Fargo city commissioner.
~ End Article~
These two were a lot of fun to work with last year, always smiling and working hard.
You can sign up for emergency code red alerts on your landline, cell, and now twitter here
The Fargo website has a page with flood information available here: http://www.cityoffargo.com/CityInfo/Departments/Engineering/FloodInfoCenter/
Posted by: Michael Williams on 2/09/2010 at 8:13 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Tags: code red, fargo, north dakota, safety, water management, working together
Kudos to Newman Signs
Thanks to Newman Signs for helping to try to restore Roger Maris as the legitimate single season HR record holder. 1961: Roger Maris is the first and last major leaguer to hit 61 home runs in a season without the aid of performance enhancing drugs.
Published February 04 2010
Newman touts Maris’ 61 homers on billboard
Steroids have been a major sign of the times in baseball, so a local Fargo advertising company is going with a different sign.
By: Kerry Collins, INFORUM
Steroids have been a major sign of the times in baseball, so a local Fargo advertising company is going with a different sign.
Newman Outdoor Advertising is putting up a pair of billboards in Fargo touting favorite son Roger Maris as baseball’s “Legitimate Home Run King.”
“The whole issue of him not being in the Hall of Fame is a bungled-up mess, in my opinion,” said Harold Newman, owner of Newman Outdoor Advertising. “The only legitimate player to break Babe Ruth’s (single-season) home run record was Roger Maris.
“Hopefully this will draw some attention to it.”
The billboards sport a headshot of Maris from his playing days with the New York Yankees on the right side, and a large number 61 on the left. In between, it reads “Fargo’s Roger Maris ‘Legitimate’ Home Run King.”
Both signs are going up in Fargo. One sign is up on the corner of Main Avenue and 18th Street, and the other will go on 45th Street, just north of Interstate 94.
The idea for the signs came from Harold’s son, Russ Newman, who also designed the signs.
Russ Newman decided to run with his idea after Mark McGwire’s recent admission of steroid use, including during the 1998 season when McGwire surpassed Maris’ record by clubbing 70 home runs.
“I believe he should be in the Hall of Fame, and we’re doing this just like an editorial in the newspaper,” Russ Newman said. “McGwire, (Barry) Bonds, (Sammy) Sosa – take your pick. Maris played by the rules.”
Editorializing on billboards isn’t anything new for Newman. In the 1970s, when Jimmy Carter took away the farmers’ ability to sell wheat to Russia and China, Newman’s billboards that read “North Dakota farmers can’t live on peanuts” became nationally known.
Russ Newman said he hopes these most recent billboards will also garner national attention.
Newman Outdoor Advertising is paying for the billboards out of its own pocket, and Harold Newman said he might not be done honoring Maris just yet.
“We’re doing it gratis, and to us, it’s well worthwhile,” Harold said. “I’d also like to see a statue of Roger Maris built here in Fargo, and a great place would be in the southwest corner of Newman Outdoor Field.”
~End article~
Thanks to Newman Signs for helping to try to restore Roger Maris as the single season HR record holder. Join the online group effort now over 6,000 members and growing fast here: Restore Roger Maris HR record
Posted by: Michael Williams on 2/04/2010 at 3:27 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Tags: fairness, fargo, home run, integrity, legitimate, newman signs, roger maris
Rollie Fingers says restore Maris HR record
Hall of Fame reliever tries to set the single season home run record straight, Roger Maris is the legitimate record holder.
Thanks to Rollie for sharing his perspectives on how and why it's important to remove the records set by ballplayers that used illegal performance enhancing drugs. Hopefully his comments can help restore Rogers record as well as some much needed integrity back to Major League Baseball.
You can join an online group formed to help restore Rogers record now over 5,750 strong and invite others here: Give MLB Home Run record back to ROGER MARIS
Here's the Forum article:
Published February 02 2010
Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers says take away records of steroid users
Hall of Fame relief pitcher Rollie Fingers has his theory on how to deal with professional baseball players who have admitted to using steroids.
By: Eric Peterson, INFORUM
Major League Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers, left, chats with Dick Jonckowski before the start of the fifth annual Red River Diamond Classic Baseball Banquet on Monday at the Fargo Holiday Inn.
Hall of Fame relief pitcher Rollie Fingers has his theory on how to deal with professional baseball players who have admitted to using steroids.
“What I think is if a guy is going to admit to using steroids, take the years that he was using steroids and just wipe the slate that year,” Fingers said. “Every home run he hit, every strikeout he had, every double play he hit into, every RBI, just wipe the slate clean.”
Fingers was in Fargo on Monday for Fargo Post 2’s Red River Diamond Classic Baseball Banquet.
The right-hander – with the signature flared moustache – amassed 341 saves in 17 seasons in the major leagues playing for the Oakland Athletics, San Diego Padres and Milwaukee Brewers.
Mark McGwire’s recent admission that he used steroids was one of the topics Fingers was asked about Monday at a news conference. McGwire – the former St. Louis Cardinals and Oakland A’s slugger – broke Roger Maris’ longstanding single-season home run record in 1998.
McGwire hit 70 home runs in 1998 and that mark was broke in 2001 when San Francisco Giants outfielder Barry Bonds hit 73 home runs. Bonds has been linked to performance-enhancing drugs, but has denied allegations.
“As far as I’m concerned, Roger Maris’ 61 home runs in 1961 is still the record,” said Fingers, which were also his finals words to the filled banquet hall. “He did it strictly on his ability.”
While Fingers was happy to see McGwire confess, he didn’t think McGwire came completely clean.
“One thing I didn’t buy is it didn’t make any difference whether he was on the steroids, he was still going to hit 70 home runs … and I don’t buy that,” Fingers said. “He said he did it to begin with to heal an injury. If you to heal an injury, why did you stay on it when your injury was done? You stayed on it. Why? Because he was hitting home runs.
“I think he got addicted to steroids and the expectations of the fans and what he was supposed to do. That’s why he kept taking them.”
Former Post 2 pitcher Mike McNair (1960-63), who was inducted into the Post 2 Hall of Fame on Monday night, said the recent steroids admissions only amplify what Maris achieved.
Outfielder Kent Jacobson (1967-69), outfielder Dave Glass (1985-87) and the 1992 Post 2 World Series team were also honored. In the induction speeches, there were multiple references to Maris’ 61 home runs being to “true” single-season home run mark.
“Of course McGwire’s confession, so to speak, throws light back on Roger’s accomplishment,” McNair said. “The man still has the American League home run record, but no one seems to remember that.”
Maris played for Post 2 from 1950-51 and was inducted into the Post 2 Hall of Fame in 2006. Maris supporters believe Maris should also be in the National Baseball Hall of Fame for his professional accomplishments.
“That’s kind of hard. If you get into the Hall of Fame, it is usually the accumulation of a whole career. Roger had some great years in New York … and he had some great years in St. Louis,” Fingers said. “I think he should certainly be given a close look. The 61 home runs and all the stuff he went through those years.”
~End article~
You can learn more about Roger and some fans as well as join an online group formed to help restore Rogers record now over 5,750 strong and invite others here: Give MLB Home Run record back to ROGER MARIS
Posted by: Michael Williams on 2/02/2010 at 5:36 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Tags: baseball, fargo, hall of fame, history, home run record, integrity, roger maris, rollie fingers
Vikes didn't make the Super Bowl, so........
let's start the 2010 baseball season out right by restoring Roger Maris as the legitimate single season record holder, the Twins and other PED clean players need a legitimate HR record to strive for.
Maris first and last player to hit 61 HR's without illegal PEDs
This article is even more timely now than when it was written in 2004.
Here's the full article:
Sports of The Times; Maris Did Not Need Performance Enhanced
By SELENA ROBERTS
Published: March 7, 2004
WAS it all 'Bulk Fiction'? That delirious moment when Mark McGwire wrapped his 19-inch biceps around No. 62 and almost hopscotched to first base on his joy ride to history in 1998.
That sepia-toned montage when the ripplin' redhead scooped up his son at home plate and climbed the seat railing to embrace the Maris family.
Remember? There was the Busch Stadium hug from Cubbie Sammy Sosa, and emotion in McGwire's indigo eyes, and baseball's giddy revival, and the chicken-soup warmth of a record broken nobly.
'You look back at it all now and say, 'Was that real?' ' Dick Savageau pondered in a telephone conversation on Friday. He was a classmate of Roger Maris's, his lifelong card-game foil and a pallbearer at his funeral on an ice-covered day in 1985.
He was also a humble adviser to Fargo's folk hero on the days Maris strolled the streets of the town he loved. When Maris would walk past the storefronts on the main drag and a familiar face approached in the distance, he would lean into Savageau's ear and ask for a name so as not to appear haughty to his, well, homeys.
'That's Tom,' Savageau would whisper.
'Hi, Tom, how are you?' Maris would chime as they passed on the sidewalk.
Score a save for friendly defense. If Savageau could have saved Maris's home run record, he would have done that, too. But even his close pal knew that, one day, Maris's journey to No. 61 through the tempest of 1961 would be eclipsed by another player.
Unloved by the Mickey Mantle faithful and diminished by Babe Ruth's unabashed protectors, Maris swung beyond the Babe's hallowed single-season mark as a loner in Yankee pinstripes.
Ushered along by Bud Selig's blind ambitions and a players union in denial, McGwire topped Maris with a steroid precursor called andro, and Bonds topped McGwire with wonder zinc from a company called Balco.
Apparently, there is no loneliness at the top anymore, not for those who would be the King of Swat. Trailing many of the league's big lugs, there are performance-enhancing gurus conjuring seaweed potions and mineral rubs for the likes of Yankee Jason Giambi and Met Mike Piazza. All shakes and supplements are as clean as city tap water, of course.
These mystery sidekicks also dispense deep-tissue massages to the egos of their meal tickets. They prop up their wealthy client's insecurities, and whisper fortune-cookie inspiration into their ears when the pressure feels like a piano on their puffy chests.
In 1961, Maris's hair fell out without anyone picking up the pieces.
'Most of the time, when Roger had problems with all the pressure, he didn't have anybody,' Savageau said. 'There was no one to talk it out with.'
Now, there is group therapy for the single star. With his personal trainer, Bob Alejo, stopped at the Yankees' clubhouse door, it's no wonder Giambi is searching for a blankie.
He is grumpy about Major League Baseball's newly imposed posse-restraining order in an effort to keep the clubhouse congestion (i.e., suspicion) down. The directive was issued last month after a federal grand jury indicted Bonds's personal trainer, Greg Anderson, on charges of illegally distributing performance-enhancing drugs.
It's impossible to say if the urine of Bonds or McGwire was murky from 1998 to 2001. There was no drug testing. So, Donald Fehr & Company made it impossible to measure the integrity of their efforts.
The union's lead counsel, Gene Orza, once asked why players were the only Americans who had to prove their innocence on a regular basis. Violation of privacy, he declared. Apparently, Orza had never been through a metal detector at an airport.
It is baseball's unconditional love of the long ball that has cast suspicion over all displays of power.
The figurative asterisk that accompanied Maris's home run record for nearly three decades -- before Fay Vincent mercifully stepped in to remove it -- seems ludicrous now.
'That's all anyone talked about for the longest time,' Bruce Furness, mayor of Fargo, N.D., said by phone. 'Maris had the asterisks.'
The ruckus over the validity of a record achieved over 154 games or 162 had nothing to do with the purity of Maris's roundhouse swing. And at 6 feet, 197 pounds, his physique never raised an eyebrow, either.
'He never worked out,' Savageau said. 'Players do a lot more lifting now, and are so much bigger. You don't want to take anything away from them, particularly a good guy like Mark McGwire, but you wonder if some of them are getting an extra edge. With everything that you read and see, I sometimes think, 'My goodness, did anyone really break Roger's record?' '
Not irrefutably, not yet. For this reason alone -- and add his back-to-back M.V.P. titles in 1960 and '61 as a bonus -- Maris should be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Given the current rage over 'roids, what Maris accomplished is even more amazing in 2004 than it was three decades ago. As uplifting and tear-jerking as it might be, Cooperstown is no place for feel-good fiction.
Photo: Roger Maris's home run record, set in 1961, stood until 1998. (Photo by Associated Press)
~ End article~
Join our group to restore Rogers legitimate record. This group now has grown to over 4,800 folks, you can join the effort and invite others here:http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=284644356257&ref=mf
Posted by: Michael Williams on 1/25/2010 at 1:54 PM | Comments (1) | Permalink
St. Louis beer mogul wants to restore integrity to baseball
Budweiser beer scion Adolphus Busch slams St Louis Cardinals coach Mark McGwire over steroids
Here's the full unedited text of Busch's statement: Read full article online
The highly orchestrated apology by and on behalf of Mark McGwire has reached a point that tests one's tolerance. I suspect I am not alone in my disappointment at McGwire's recent "clarification" on his use of illegal steroids.
But, has no one noticed? McGwire is not apologizing for his deceit, only for the embarrassment that came from his admission of having previously lied. The timing of his announcement at the start of a new baseball season has allowed him to hide behind the frenzy of a new Cardinal season and the blinding faith of Cardinal loyalists.
Mark McGuire chose to take performance-enhancing drugs 9 of his 18 years in professional baseball. He was paid millions while perpetrating a fraud. So how is it MLB Commissioner Bud Selig gives him a pass and welcomes McGwire back to the very game he betrayed? Christine Brennan of USA Today was accurate in describing Mark McGwire as professional baseball's infamous "Good Cheater." What can we now expect from Major League Baseball for Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosa?
Bottom-line...Mark McGwire made a "personal" decision to use illegal drugs. He deliberately cheated the game and stole its most coveted records along the way. He stonewalled Congress. He even lied to the Cardinal fans and the media by his now infamous quote of February 2005, "Once and for all, I did not take steroids or any other illegal substances".
McGuire has chosen to come out of the closet at the perfect time -- Alongside a manager who also refuses to be honest, to the fans or to the game itself. After all, why would Tony La Russa hire a hitting coach whose lifetime batting average was only .263?
Bill McClellan of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch probably stated it best in his recent assessment of McGwire's remarks. "I took steroids for my health, never to enhance my performance," stated McGwire. But according to McClellan, "That's like apologizing for eating vegetables."
McClellan further points to McGwire's playing himself as the "victim." He even wishes there had been drug testing when he started playing. Maybe someone would have stopped him. Huh? "Isn't' that sort of like Bernie Madoff lamenting the lack of government regulation to justify his swindling investors," points out McClellan.
Will the time ever arrive when professional baseball recognizes the severity of McGwire's actions? When will Bud Selig realize that former Players' Association president, Donald Fehr, manipulated him and baseball by keeping drug monitoring off the table during years of negotiations? Fehr and Selig made a mockery of their responsibilities to protect the integrity of the game.
Adolphus A. Busch, IV.
St. Louis, MO
Read full article online
You can join this effort to restore Roger Maris HR record
1961: Roger Maris is the first and last major leaguer to hit 61 home runs in a season without the aid of performance enhancing drugs.
Join our group to restore Rogers legitimate record. This group has grown to over 4,600 folks, you can join the effort and invite others here: Give MLB Home Run record back to ROGER MARIS
Posted by: Michael Williams on 1/23/2010 at 7:07 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Tags: adolphus busch, baseball, bud selig, fargo, integrity, justice, mark mcgwire, roger maris, st louis cardinals
