Art Johnston, a critic of the Duluth School District Red Plan, a major capital investment, wrote a lengthy critique of the Red Plan in the March 19, 2009, Reader Weekly. In it, he wrote that board member Nancy Nilsen said, "The existing buildings have flat roofs and we have to get rid of buildings, like Central, with flat roofs because they always leak."
If she actually said this, it would be a great opening for an ornery person like me. I had visions of taking a picture of downtown Duluth showing all the flat roofs, submitting it to the Reader Weekly, and including a caption about the Ruby Plan to replace all the buildings with flat roofs.
My orneriness is sometimes tempered by a bit of caution. I should check this quote out.
The article had no email address for Art Johnston, and so I asked a friend who knows him for his email address. My friend didn't give it to me but promised to forward my email to Art Johnston.
I found Nancy Nilsen's email address on the School District site and sent her the purported quote.
I haven't heard from Art Johnston yet, but Nancy Nilsen called me this evening. She had not seen the article and said she would have to get a copy of the Reader. She said she had made a remark about a leaky roof at one school and said it had been fixed. She also said that she owns buildings with flat roofs.
I sought but I'm not sure I found. Yes, I did find, but I knew what I found already. There are a lot of very nice people who can hold strongly opposing views, each view supported both by strong facts and by weak assumptions. I also know I would rather stay out of the middle.
