A mobile decontamination unit?
This relic of the cold war, with it's hot showers, had finally found a purpose... The Grand Forks Main Post Office was high and dry, but the city's water system was flooded out. For weeks to come that "mobile contamination unit" provided hot showers in a city without potable water. In time of need, fortunately somebody remembered it was on the back lot and put that cold war investment too good use.
Unfortunately some of our elected officials aren't so aware of what all assets they control. Witness the Park Board's blowing millions on a new building without even an inventory of their current digs, never mind what other public bodies had surplus. This myopia extends to the council and mayor too, who seem quite oblivious to the fact that we Minneapolitans own a railroad, a towboat, and a port. While that old locomotive and the towboat might not bring much at auction, they give us something much more powerful when wrestling with backward railroads, governors, etc.... Federal Pre-emption!
Our School Board seems afflicted with this municipal myopia too- are they even aware that they own a radio station that blankets the metro area and beyond with it's signal? Do they realize that they have the perfect PR tool to improve Minneapolis' schools troubled image? From there bunker on Broadway, does our school board realize they have the perfect adult education delivery device? Have they even considered the synergies of using KBEM's stronger signal to carry KFAI's programming to a wider audience?
I doubt it.
In their scramble for solvency our School Board will probably put KBEM up for auction. The high bidder will probably not be KFAI or even MPR, but a fundamentalist religious broadcaster spewing hate from a transmitter we citizens paid for... somehow that's not the values Minneapolis citizens voted for.
enjoying the strong voice of KBEM from Hawthorne and beyond,
Dyna Sluyter
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