His Fire Department, Redux

Back when this blog began, I was really inspired by Erik Hjelle. You might remember such classic lines of his as "No! It's not the city's fire station. It's my fire station. The City technically owns it, but it's my fire station and my fire truck."

Maybe you thought he was kidding. A reasonable person might suppose he was just trying to weasel out of punishment for campaign misdeeds.

But last week Erik decided to take this sense of pride and ownership in "his" Fire Department to a new level. Check out the Secretary of State's website, where you can see that he (or someone else who lives in his house) filed on September 18th to reserve the name "Maplewood Fire." He also claimed "Maplewood Fire" as a trademark owned by Erik Hjelle & Associates, his insurance business.

So what I'm wondering is, . . . will Erik now demand that the city pay him royalties to license the use of the "Maplewood Fire" trademark on their fire trucks, badges, and buildings? Will he sue to force them to add "Department" to all of those things, to avoid confusion? And, if he fails to do any or all of the above, will he run the risk of trademark dilution by not defending this newly claimed intellectual property?

Or is it all just an effort to weasel out of punishment for a new campaign season's misdeeds?

First Name Test

In case you get tired of spelling, some positive campaigner sent this handy First Name Test to Will Rossbach. See if you can get all six!

Spelling Test

Can someone show me how to spell referendum? No, not with letters. Lets try it with numbers.

I think it is spelled this way...

2340 and 2222 vs 941 and 793.

Rebecca & Delray, you need to study harder!

A Helpful Link for First-Time Visitors

If you're coming to What's Left of Maplewood for the first time, you may be wondering what this is all about, and you may not have time to go back to the beginning.

For a shorter introduction, follow this link to a posting I made way back in February, when I had decided that things were so wrong in Maplewood that it wasn't enough to talk about it -- it was time to step forward and do something.

Misrepresentations Of Fact

I wonder if our city manager also spends a lot of time writing letters to the lottery telling them that their Powerball billboards are wrong, because those big jackpots represent total payouts over time by annuities rather than a lump sum or net present cash value?

Parks

Becky:

You say you care?

Do you really?

Do you really care about our city parks?

If you really did, you would find your way down to Lions park to survey it's state of existence. It is not the park that is closest to me (that would be Vista Hills). So, I do not have any sort of vested interest in it's repair other than the fact that the people in that neighborhood deserve better.

Unfortunately, had you lived in the neighborhood served by Lions park, it might get the same attention as a park down the street from you, that being your beloved Wakefield.

When I drive by Lions park, it reminds me of the park that I played in in North Saint Paul when I was growing up. That was more than 30 years ago. Seriously, that's what the equipment looks like. Something from the mid-70s.

So, rebecca, if you really do care, get the map out, and drive south of Larpenter Avenue (no, you don't need a passport to go that far south) down to Lions Park. Take a look and see what you and your fabulous city manager have done to the residents in that neighborhood by taking their previously approved park improvements off of the table in favor of the park in your neighborhood.

Let's see really how much you care about parks...All of our parks!