Communicaton from Kenneth SpearsMay 25, 2007
TO: OFFICE OF THE MAYOR p
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TOWN HALL c.._ ~
DuBuque, IA. ~ ~ ~ ~-~
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FROM: KENNETH J. Spears #88927 ~ G
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PDCI, P.O. BOX 9900 ~
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500 EAST PARRISH ST.
PRAIRIE DU CHIEN, WISC.
53821
re: USING AVAILABLE RESOURCES
Dear Mayor:
I am writing because I have an idea that
could do a great deal of good for veterans and others on the fringes
of society, and help keep the costs of running a city, county or
state within reason. I feel so strongly that this idea is worthwhile
that I am "giving" it to you and I hope that your "people" can make
it work on a national leval.
The idea of "project crews" are not new, using them to decompress the
returning combat veterans is, using them to give homeless and under-
employed persons some extra income and earn "vouchers" is also new.
Using them as a mobile "set or eyes" for police is new and using them
to bring people together is also new. Using them to take people from
the cities and putting them in contact with rural farmers whom need
workers and whom can offer that work to people on the crews as they
work in the ditches and wood lots of the area. Using them to help pay
school costs is new and using them to raise funds for other programs
or chairities is also new and while convict labor is as old or older
then prisons, using convicts to visably "pay" a debt to society will
be new.
Because you can pay people is several different kinds of "coin" you
are in a perfect position to put such a program to work in a big way
and show people that it is neither as costly or dangerous as it may
seem.You will need your staff to make a list of every little thing
that your city needs done, from painting to clearing ditches to tree
removal and waterway clean-up. Then you get ex-cons on parole whom
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are having a hard time finding work and deal with them to "double"
the speed at which ttier parole runs or some other adjustment to the
sentences they are serving. Screen them for drug and sex crimes as
both those classes have little or no control and put them with one
of your retired people with a cell phone and give them the tools
they need for the jobs.
I worked on a project crew for the Wisconsin DOC and found that these
"street" kids would be surprized at how well people would treat us
as we worked for them, even knowing we were convicts. It was a matter
of misconceptions and revelation and they would work all the harder
when they found that people did not automatically hate or fear us.
We did everything from strip and wax churchand school floors to drop
danger trees at Devils Lake State Park to put up stages for concerts
in Fond du Lac and Manitowoc. We earned $1.25 per hour for most of
the jobs but a church or school would get us $x.42 and a real meal!!
Sometimes the real "good" jobs were those where we got to eat good
like the fair at Manitowoc where we had corn on the cob, for me it
was the first such corn I had eaten in two decades.
The start-up costs can be shared out to the businesses in and out
of the city as there will be a great deal of work that the county
will need done and the basic set up is a twelve passenger van, the
trailer for the tools and every tool that you can think of as well
as enough weed whackers for every member of the crew and any special
tools or equipment that you can think of. We had several large grass
and brush cutting machines for those ditches where "plugs" of debris
would cause "flash" floods. There is so much that a crew like this
can accomplish that goes beyond the visable.
If you are interested I could call collect or talk to some of your
staff. I am hoping to get as many communities involved in this as
it meets several needs our society has and it is a way for me to
give back a little of what I have been responsible for.
SINGER LY
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