A Lesson For Caledonia (Camping World, con't)

I know that some people are unhappy when I talk about Caledonia's recent "black eye" known as Camping World, but it is an important issue.

Had I been a Board Member at that time, I would have made a special effort to attend meetings dealing with the proposal to try and welcome them to our community. I would have asked our Board to reexamine the policies in place that lead some on our Planning Commission to give Camping World the impression they were not welcome; and I would have made an extra effort to work out any differences we may have had with Camping World's building design.

Had I been a Board Member at that time, I would not have wasted my time trying to impose Caledonia's standards on Raymond, making it more difficult for Camping World to develop there; rather, I would have tried everything within my power to get Camping World to give Caledonia a second look (to my knowledge that didn't happen).

Unfortunately, the Camping World proposal came and went so quickly, it never even made it to the Village Board, but as a Village Trustee, when you have a $50,000,000 a year business looking to bring taxbase to your community, you can't afford to sit on the sidelines and wait for a proposal to come to you - you need to be proactive to find out what it will take to bring that business here. If I am elected Village Trustee, I will do everything within my power to try to prevent this type of mistake from happening again.

I know that we cannot go back in time, but we can learn from our mistakes. Camping World should be a very important lesson... a lesson that we will need to carry with us as Caledonia moves into the future.