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Public Notices

44 Comments

One of my favorite sections of the newspaper (besides the section in the Sunday edition that lists District Court proceedings for who got convicted of what and what their sentences were) is the Public Notices.  I don’t know if the big papers like the Strib or the New York Times print public notices, but our paper does. We have to vote every general election if we want the notices published in the local paper.  It always passes. As a local district judge told me, it is the best place to find out what your friends and neighbors are up to.

By public notices I mean foreclosure announcements, city and county  commission proceedings, school board minutes, bids for government contracts, summonses for parents to attend juvenile hearings, divorce related interim property rulings, and name changes.

One of my friends was surprised to read that her sister’s house was in foreclosure.  “I’ve been sending her money for the mortgage for months! What has she been spending it on instead?”

Public notices provide access to unanswered community questions. ” How can they keep that new restaurant open when hardly anyone goes there and the prices are so high?” That is answered by seeing the notice that So and So construction company is placing a lien on the restaurant in question for not paying the construction bill.

Our local paper prints the following:

WHAT IF AMERICA DIDN’T NOTICE?

Public notices help expose:

Fraud in Government!

Dishonest businesses!

Unfair competitive practices!

PARTICIPATE  IN DEMOCRACY.  READ YOUR PUBLIC NOTICES.

 

How do you participate in Democracy?

 

44 thoughts on “Public Notices”

  3. thanks renee for finding a topic for today

    i never ever read this section, it is for you. i used to haves neighbor who read all this stuff and kept up with everything happening in our neighbor hood and as many other neighborhoods as he wanted to keep track of
    it is like hanging out the laundry for all to see and you who pay attention to it get to realize what’s going on. it reminds me s bir often crabapple cove paper in mash from hawkeyes hometown
    how do i participate in democracy?
    when obsmagot elected i got involved in local dfl politics at a district level and found the local leaders and roberts rules of order to be more than i could stand
    i will be working on chosen candidates campaigns and will do what’s right for me

    so many just have a job jar and want to get it checked off. the list
    i am not a good fit for those folks but i can help in my own way

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    1. The regulatory board of which I am a member doesn’t use Robert’s Rules of Order. We use somebody else’s (the name escapes me) so we don’t have to have seconds on every motion.

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    2. Oh man, you’ve outdone yourself, tim, and this baboon is stumped! Can you furnish an English translation for this: ” it reminds me s bir often crabapple cove paper in mash from hawkeyes hometown”? Maybe another cup of coffee will help?

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        1. Thanks, Ben, I got M*A*S*H and Hawkeye, it’s the “s bir often crabapple cove paper” that I can’t decode.

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    3. im guessing i wrote it reminds me a bit of the crabapple cove newspaper … who knows what the goblins do when they get a hold of it and transpose it to become a post

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  4. Rise and Shine Baboons,

    I do not read public notices. When I went to a large university, I discovered the joys of anonymity. It was such a relief. I only return to the small town where I grew up occasionally. Although I care for many of the people there, I find the atmosphere of small towns to be difficult to tolerate.

    Growing up in a small town, where democracy and op-eds are available via the local grapevine on how anyone leads their personal and professional life, I found living in the fishbowl oppressive. People were constantly voting on the value of others in the community in the democracy of gossip and loose lips.

    Living in a anonymous urban area is a pleasure for me. I feel I can be myself without the constant evaluation I experienced as part of small town life. And, of course, I never measured up to those small town standards. So I have checked out of that kind of democracy in exchange for my own contentment.

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. I understand how you feel, Jacque. Anonymity is precious at times. I must admit, though, that it is strangely fun to read today, for example, that they have replaced the door knob on the Sentinel Butte City Shop after getting a quote from a lock shop that was way too high so they had a city alderman buy one privately and install it himself. Alderman Cheech Holznagal seconded the motion. I just love that name!

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  5. I can relate to this! I am supposed to read the legals more often than I do… since I’m on the townboard, there are required legal publishings that I should pay more attention too than I do.
    There is a lot of chaff in there…

    ‘Participating in Democracy’? First off, I vote. I vote for Everything I can vote for; co-op boards, school board referendums, primary and general elections. ‘If you don’t vote you can’t complain’. Some body said that.
    I’ve been on boards. First time was because I asked a question. Ha! That’ll teach ya! Then I was appointed to fill a vacancy on the townboard. That was about 19 years ago. And now I’m the senior member of the board: which only means I should remember stuff. “should” being the key word there…
    What year did we pave that subdivision? When was that culvert replaced?

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  6. I like to think we participate in democracy every time we post here, presenting our ideas, respectful of other Baboons’ opinions, eager to hear what others’ think.

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  7. Started early as class president during junior and senior in high school. As an aside, we tried as seniors to get a class trip to see the movie M.A.S.H. It’s “R” rated but enquiring of The Fargo Theatre revealed that we could attend with written permission from parents or guardians. Democracy failed. The principal vetoed the plan. I cannot remember what movie we went to instead. Probably The Sound Of Music which played for years at the Moorhead Theatre. I did get a leader of SDS, Students for a Democratic Society to speak at a civics class but even that was a battle as those folks were deemed radical subversive. Various protests and elections later, here I am, sorely disappointed with what Democracy has become with the election of Tr&&p. But I’m not giving up. 25ththe45th would also be Democracy in action. I hope to live to see it done.

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      1. As a lifelong Democrat, I have been beaten by Nixon, Reagan and the Bushs but never has a defeat stung more than being beaten by a total idiot. I cannot even type his name without swearing hence it will always be “Tr#$p” as a self-censorship.

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        1. I also have a moratorium going on a certain “T” word, Wes. I’m going with “45” most of the time.

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        3. We don’t use his name in our house.
          At this point we use the term ‘President what’s-his-face’.

          (Btw, couple weeks ago, the Lyft driver we had drove past his hotel in DC)

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  8. I once did some calling for the democratic party (2008?), but decided once was enough of that. I have leafleted… I’m afraid I don’t do anything that gets remotely uncomfortable, but I have been a board member a couple of times.

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  9. I’ve done some door to door canvassing, passing out voter registration information, and generally encouraging people to get out and vote. In some of the poorest enclaves of the West Side, that was a very sobering and discouraging experience. In one six hour shift, found only two households who were in fact registered voters, and the rest had no idea and/or couldn’t have cared less; didn’t even want our information.

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  10. I did more of the active political things when I was younger. In fact a lot of them before even voting age. My folks were very active especially with local elections and I did get involved in those. Now I just send a lot of letters and emails and of course complain a lot. My right as a voter.

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        1. Hair? Really? Don’t they have that scene at the end that would be considered inappropriate for children?

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  12. Does trying to convince your folks to vote in a more liberal way count?

    I remember I did a stint as an election judge – maybe that was in 2008… Was going for “poll worker”, but this is what they needed. Was a bit edgy, but no real altercations… Maybe I’ll check into poll worker here in Winona.

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  13. I’ve been an election judge for about 15 years. Most recently a registration judge, making every effort to get people registered on election day. Would like to bop 45 over the head with his silly voter fraud investigation; only those who are ignorant of the process believe there is a real problem with in-person voter fraud. There is a much greater problem with people not voting because it is too difficult to get registered. And voter apathy in general.

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