There Ya Go
Many fingers were pointed at last week’s public hearing about the future of the Balaton Municipal Liquor Store. And they were all pointed at five people: Balaton Mayor Lonnie Lambertus, and councilmembers Greg Erickson, Dylan Fricke, Curtis Paradis and Tracy McCloud.
It was, in simple terms, a blame game. Public hearings carry an important purpose. They exist to give the people an opportunity to ask questions and, hopefully, get answers. If all goes right, the masses will walk away with a sense of satisfaction and optimism.
Instead, some walked away with the same anger and consternation with which they arrived. A few chose to leave early, swearing on their way out; the finger they were pointing was their middle one. I’m sure a number of personal conversations took place after where people quietly vented even more against these public servants outside of public earshot. They likely didn’t leave the hearing with optimism because they were pissed off before order was even called.
What I saw last Friday in Balaton was a room full of passionate people who want to keep a struggling business open. But more than that, I saw a room full of sharks circling public officials, waiting to bite.
The passion was commendable, and I get it. Balaton residents — current and former — have every right to be nervous. I don’t blame them. Tracy experienced similar a circumstances when its liquor store closed. All the beer and spirits were removed in 2020, and the iconic building was razed four years later, leaving a hole in Tracy’s downtown and its history.
No one wants the same fate in Balaton, but how productive is it to point fingers? How is that going to inspire a happy ending?
One of the main themes of last week’s hearing was how the liquor store serves as a gathering place that fosters friendships and relationships. And that’s spot on. Without the restaurant on 3rd St., there is no such place in town, save perhaps Balaton One Stop. But that’s not comparable to the atmosphere the bar provides.
And there’s the community center, but that’s more of a place for events like wedding receptions, public meals and banquets. Yes, Balaton desperately needs its bar. This is not news. However, residents last week crossed the line between “let’s keep this open” and “this is all your fault!”
The spirit of community is defined as a collective feeling of belonging, shared purpose, mutual support and emotional connection within a group or place, encouraging members to contribute to the common good. Those members contributed last week alright, but aside from some scattered ideas offered up to keep the place open, it was mostly torches and pitchforks.
What good is a community if so many of its members jump at the chance to shoot at sitting ducks? Pointing fingers does nothing more than satisfy a person’s thirst for blame; consider that thirst quenched.
The Balaton City Council is fallible, all councils are. And, in some ways, the public was right in holding their feet to the fire. The council should’ve been more proactive and more aggressive in addressing this issue years ago, so it’s OK to say they dropped the ball.
But they owned that. There was no need to beat this dead horse, over and over again last Friday. Balaton residents stomped on the proverbial grave. I knew going in that there would be some of that — and councilmembers probably did, too — but it never ended, and the natives grew more restless as the night went on.
And that served no purpose, other than to make people feel bad.
Contept breeds contept. Friday night’s slander-soaked hearing proved to be little more than an exercise in counterproductivity and bordered on political rhetoric. Politicians, as we know, are the poster boys (or girls) for blame. They are fingerpointing Olympians. You only have to look back to earlier this week when gleeful Rebpublicans dragged Gov. Tim Walz back under the bus after he announced he would’t seek another term. Don’t brag, Lefites, you’d have done the same thing if our governor was a Republican.
Balaton residents don’t need to hold hands and hug each other around a campfire, but they do need to be civil. They do need to put personal feelings aside and help the council help the town. What happened in Balaton last week is our society in a nutshell. More and more these days, vitriol impedes progress and angst trumps headway. Venom has replaced virtue. It is, after all, easier to be mean than to be nice.
I hope the ill feelings so evident in Balaton last week subside, at least to the point where the town and its people can move on. Maybe they can soon even share a drink and toast a new beginning for one of the town’s most important businesses.
