I honestly feel I cannot serve the city to the best of my ability at this time. Therefore, an e-mail was sent to Mr. Billing informing him of my intention, as per his request, after phoning him a couple weeks ago.
I deeply apologize to all those who voted for me, and I aim to make amends. There are plenty of things I can do do help the community from my current position, and I intend to follow through on everything - once I get completely back and on track.
That's what I look forward to the most, a return to normalcy. I look forward to working again on a regular basis, though the doctors and nurses have told me I must scale it back a bit. OK, not a bit. A lot. I need, they say, to step back and examine my schedule and shave about 20 hours of work per week off of it. It won't be easy. I'm used to working - a lot - and this will be a drastic change for me, but one that needs to be made for my sake and the newspaper's sake. Including a City Council seat in the schedule was simply not an option, at least at this time. As the future unfolds it may be, but not for now.
I'm mostly sorry that I won't be able to serve a town that I love - New Richland - as I had hoped. I can't say it was a lifelong dream to hold public office, because it wasn't. I just wanted the town to have options. Two people running for two seats just won't cut it, I don't think, and so I somewhat reluctantly filed for the position last August, of course with no idea what the future held.
What it holds now is a lot of promise. I believe some qualified people will step forward to express interest in the post, and Mayor Christine Gislason will make the right decision and choose a worthwhile candidate. In the meantime, I'll be pulling for New Richland, as always, and truly intend to do everything I can to help the community in the long run, starting with something for Farm & City Days and going forward from there.
I'm telling you all this now to quell any rumors that may circulate and may still circulate as they have a tendency to do in small towns such as ours. Lord knows, we have enough of them already. We don't need one or two more.
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Speaking of turning a negative into a positive, you've got to like what Carlie Wagner has done for the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers women's basketball team, leading it to rank among the nation's Top 25 following upsets of Nebraska and Wisconsin in Big Ten play. At the start of the season we knew Carlie would be a good player, we just didn't know how good.
Now, with senior and 2,000-point career scorer Rachel Banham sidelined with an injury, our own Golden Girl has stepped it up and is really making a name for herself and our communities of New Richland, Hartland, Ellendale and Geneva - just as we figured while leading the Panthers to three consecutive state tournaments and two state championships in a row. The Golden Girl's future is a bright one, as is the Gophers' thanks to her and a lot of other talented players.
She talked to Mark Rosen on Channel 4 News the other night and represented herself well, as I could tell by only catching the last few seconds of the interview. I wasn't surprised. She is truly one of a kind, and we were fortunate to enjoy her as long as we did.
