To the Editor:
The Carver County Chapter of the American Red Cross thanks all of our volunteers who so generously give their time, energy, and spirit, and to our finan-cial donors who enable us to effectively carry out our mission to provide relief to victims of disasters and help people pre-vent, prepare for, and respond to emergen-cies.
Hundreds of volunteers and members of our community have given their ener-gy, talent, and generosity over the past year to help those in need.  As a result, your Carver County Chapter was able to provide disaster relief to the families in Carver County who experienced a fire.
With your donated time, we taught over 1,800 members of our community life-saving skills such as CPR, First Aid, and Automated External Defibrillator training.  We also taught children how to swim, educated your neighbors about dis-aster preparedness, and provided world-wide emergency communications for local military personnel and their families.
Whether the disaster is a family fire or a highly publicized hurricane, a flood or act of terrorism, we thank our volun-teers and donors. 
LaVonne Kroells
Carver County Chapter, MN

To the Editor:
Hi, Mom.  In case you get a chance to take a peek, the St. Paul Pioneer Press is running a story on our Septic Heater Company on Sunday, November 18^th.  It will be on the back page of the Business Section.  I think it will be online too.  Have fun!
Love, Jenny
Gully, Minnesota

To the Editor:
I nominated the City of Waconia for the honor of Capitol for a Day.  Go to www.Mn150years.org to vote for Waconia.  Thanks.
Carol York, Waconia, Minnesota

To the Editor:
Would you please put us on your list of advertisers for every issue of the Gazette until we ask you to stop.  And please bill us monthly.  We loved our ad in the November issue and loved where it was in the paper.  Thank you.
Jessy Halverson, Clinic Manager, Victoria Veterinary Care
Victoria, Minnesota

To the Editor:
I wrote the following letter to Senator Julianne Ortman, Representative Paul Kohl, and Representative Joe Hoppe ...
"The City of Victoria is very suppor-tive and thankful for your ongoing con-cerns and assistance with the tremendous transportation congestion that we continue to face.  As I believe you all know, the City of Victoria has contributed $50,000 to ensure that the corridor study is completed for Trunk Highway 5.   
"In addition, Victoria has been very supportive of the ongoing construction of U.S. Hwy 212 and supports the continu-ation of this project to Norwood Young America.  The completion of this current segment of the U.S. Hwy 212 will poten-tially help relieve congestion as Victoria continues to develop the land south of our city down to the intersection of County Roads #10 and #11.
"The Regional Transportation Meet-ing hosted by the Southwest Corridor Transportation Coalition was held on Thursday, November 29^th.  Purpose of the meeting was to encourage a dialogue re-garding transportation funding, particular-ly for Hwy 5 and Hwy 212, with local legislators."
Mary Hershberger Thun, Mayor
Victoria, Minnesota

Open Letter to Senator Julianne Ortman, Representative Paul Kohls, and Representative Joe Hoppe
The City of Victoria is very suppor-tive and thankful for your ongoing con-cerns and assistance with the tremendous transportation congestion that we continue to face.
As I believe you all know, the City of Victoria has contributed $50,000 to ensure that the corridor study is completed for Trunk Highway 5.  This is a significant amount of money for a city our size.
The purpose of the study is to scope, analyze, do a preliminary design, and con-duct the environmental screening for the eventual re-design of Highway 5.  An im-mense amount of work needs to be done by a number of agencies, and millions of dollars need to be allocated for further re-quired studies and actual construction of a "new" Highway 5.
In addition, Victoria has been very supportive of the ongoing construction of U.S. Hwy 212 and supports the continu-ation of this project to Norwood Young America.  The completion of the current segment of U.S. Hwy 212 will potentially help relieve congestion as Victoria contin-ues to develop the land south of our city down to the intersection of Highways 11 and 10.
I encourage you to attend the Region-al Transportation meeting hosted by the Southwest Corridor Transportation Coali-tion on Thursday, November 29^th, at the Chaska Community Center.  The meeting is a means to encourage dialogue regard-ing transportation funding, particularly for Hwy 5 and Hwy 212, with local legislators. 
Mary Hershberger Thun, Mayor
Victoria, Minnesota

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