Kolsrud: Where we were trying to ‘add value’ we actually devalued the community

 
To the Editor:
It was 20 years ago this August, on a hot summer day, that a handful of farmers ventured to city hall to discuss the idea of forming a cooperative to “add value” to crops grown in the Luverne area. I remember it being a very eerie day due to birds dying from insecticide put on top of many downtown buildings coupled with many residents sick which turned out to be an epidemic of Legionnaires’ disease.
So what happened in those 20 years? Farmers, developers, builders, city-county-state officials, bankers, businessmen and etc. all worked together to make “value added” a reality. The financial results far exceeded even our best-case scenario. From a money or financial standpoint no one could have predicted this high level of success.
Where are we today? 
In my opinion, where we were trying to “add value” we actually devalued the community. We now live in a community where:        
1. We used to have neighbors — now we have competitors.
2. We used to give our neighbors a hand — now we hand them subpoenas.
3. Family get-togethers that used to be fun and festive — are now arguments about “who gets what and when.”
My, how things have changed in 20 years.
David Kolsrud
Beaver Creek