Gomers What’s going wrong

BARNYARD BRAWL: Chicks, hogs and now chickens again. A casual observer could be forgiven for confusing the state's U.S. Senate race - the first open race for the seat in three decades - with a contest for county board.

Last week, Republicans tried to kick up more barnyard dirt by 'exposing” complaints made by Democratic candidate Bruce Braley and his wife about a neighbor's freely roaming chickens at their second home at Holiday Lake.

Enough.

Both camps need to stop slinging mud and start talking about issues that matter.

lll

GOOD NEIGHBORS: Some Mound View residents are concerned about the impact Mission of Hope will have on their neighborhood. According to Gazette reports, some of their comments about those concerns, voiced at a neighborhood meeting last week, were less than kind. Despite police data the assurances of City Council member Scott Olson, a commercial Realtor, that a properly run mission would not lower property values, some neighborhood residents complained they were 'sick and tired” of panhandlers and needy congregating in the area - one stooping so far as to call them 'animals.”

Rather than name-calling, neighborhood residents should welcome and work with the mission - supported by about 300 Eastern Iowa churches and which will be able to double the number of free lunches it serves at the new location - to make sure safety and property value concerns are addressed.

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