To the Editor:
As you sort through clutter and tidy your home this spring, consider donating to Arc's Village Thrift Stores and Dona-tion Centers.  Arc accepts clean clothing, accessories, housewares and small appli-ances, linens and crafts, kids clothing and toys, books, magazines, music and movies, home decor and accessories, art and collectibles, and vehicles too. 
It takes just a few minutes to drop off items at our locations in Richfield, New Hope, and Brooklyn Center.  Of, if you would prefer, Arc's used goods pickup services is in your neighborhood every four to six weeks, making nearly 250,000 stops per year to collect donations throughout the Twin Cities areas.
For more information, your readers can call us at 952-920-0855 or visit www.arcgreatertwincities.org.
Pam Carlson, Director of Community Relations
Minneapolis, Minnesota

To the Editor:
For the past several years, local gov-ernment officials in this area have been meeting and discussing ways to improve the capacity and safety of Trunk Hwy 5.
We believe that improvements need to be made from Hwy 41 west to Hwy 212 in Norwood Young America.  With the rapid growth we're experiencing and the increase in trips in the corridor, we need to act now or the problem will only grow more deadly and more costly to fix.
The cities of Chanhassen, Victoria, Waconia, and Norwood Young America, along with Carver County and the South-west Corridor Transportation Coalition, have dedicated funds to begin the process of conducting the necessary environmen-tal and future alignment studies to map and preserve land in the corridor for future expansion.
This was a deliberate decision to ex-pedite essential mapping of this corridor rather than wait for MnDOT or Congress to allocate funds.
Preserving future right of way now will save millions of dollars for taxpayers in the future and will identify needed up-grades and safety improvements all along the corridor.
The ultimate fix is expanding Hwy 5 from two lanes to four lanes.  We are pleased that MnDOT has identified this expansion as needed in the 2008-2014 timeframe.  Unfortunately, with current and projected transportation dollars, no funding is available to make that expan-sion happen prior to 2014.  We think this needs to change.
An overused, undersized Hwy 5 will not only mean more congestion and more safety concerns for drivers, it is also a major inhibitor to economic development.
The safety and mobility problems and a lack of reliable transit make it difficult to attract employers who worry about the ability of employees and customers to reach their establishments.
Furthermore, the Metropolitan Coun-cil is requiring that residential land being developed should include three units (e.g., household units) per acre.  This makes it even more important for Hwy 5 to be im-proved and widened in the very near future.
We would like to partner with our state and federal representatives to in-crease transportation funding and acceler-ate the expansion of Trunk Hwy 5. 
Those of us who live along this corridor are painfully aware that waiting until sometime beyond 2014 to address this problem is unacceptable and will burden area residents with an unaccept-able cost in tax dollars and additional safety issues.
We encourage residents to contact our state and federal representatives to support funding to improve Hwy 5:  Senator Julianne Ortman, 651-296-4837, sen.julianne.ortman@senate.mn.  Repre-esentative Paul Kohls, 651-296-4282, rep.paul.kohls@house.mn.  Representa-tive Joe Hoppe, 651-296-5066, rep.joe.hoppe@house.mn.
Mary Hersberger Thun, Mayor, City of Victoria
Mark Schiffman, Mayor, City of Waconia

To the Editor:
Enclosed is my yearly subscription for your wonderful paper.  I learn so much about Victoria even if I've been here all my life!
You are quite a traveler but I'm following your example.  I had the pleasure of spending Christmas 2006 in Brussels, Belgium, with my son Marty and wife Jodie who live there and oversee the Donaldson Research Company of Bloomington, MN, located there.
My two daughters Carol and Susan with husbands Mike and Chuck plus grandchildren Heidi, Sam, and Becky plus their friends flew over with me.  Twelve people at the dinner table for Christmas.
We traveled by rail into downtown Brussels and Bruges to see their down-town plazas.  What architecture!  I saw the your maiden name Claeys on a store-front and passed by the City of Ghent, thinking of you both times.  What a wonderful trip.
I've been to Arizona, Florida, New York, and Seattle, or, the four corners of the United States, and many areas interior plus Hawaii, Alaska, Australia, and Europe.
I have an outdoor oasis, too, where I have snapped a picture of a white squirrel also.  I have fed the birds and squirrels also plus deer who would steal the suet tied high up in a tree.
I never have any luck finding the fishhook.
Bernice Barris, Chaska, Minnesota

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