By Anne Thom

Lent Town Board Supervisor Gene Olson had a question at the Sept. 25 council meeting. "Your friendly neighbors to the north, east, west and south of you want to know, does Lent owe Stacy money for police protection?" Stacy Mayor John Daher responded. "No, the city of Stacy is not paying for Lent's police protection," Daher said. "..So, other than that we're still friendly neighbors?" Olson said. Daher confirmed this is true and then recognized Lent Town Board Supervisor Lyle Johnson. Johnson wanted to know why a city councilor had made this statement and said he had read it in the paper. Daher turned to his colleagues and asked if the councilor who had made the comment, Bud Wilson, would like to comment. Wilson remained silent and Daher said to Johnson, "apparently there is no comment on that."

Daher asked the council if there was anything else to discuss as long as the guests were here. Councilor Tony Olivolo wanted to know if Stacy was still participating in the construction and proprietorship of a training tower for the fire department to use to for practice burns.

Olson recounted that a meeting had been scheduled for planning and discussion on May 7, the same date as the Stacy Special Election. "Lent was there, with firemen." said Olson. The tower has been constructed from the charitable gambling proceeds. Lent is managing the funds and the construction which is being done by volunteers. No taxpayer dollars have been spent to finance the project.

Mayor Daher, a volunteer firefighter said, "It's looking good by the way." The tower will be used primarily by the Stacy-Lent Fire Department but will be rented out to other local agencies as well. The fire department has already received numerous inquiries on its use from surrounding communities.

As it had been mentioned earlier in the meeting that the press never prints anything positive about Stacy, it prompted resident Esther Ashley to exclaim, "There's something positive!" She asked the reporter to please print that.

Comment from Lyle Johnson, 10/3/07

I was incorrectly identified as a Lent Town Board Supervisor. I was previously on the board, but am now active on the Lent Planning commission. I pay close attention to what Stacy does as some of their actions may have repercussions in Lent Township.

I may return to the Town Board at some future time, if the voters will agree to it.

Lyle Johnson
Lent Township