An open letter to Your Worship Mayor Konrad and members of council
I believe that Grand Forks City Council should give their full support to the MAAP project on Riverside Drive.
I have been involved with Whispers of Hope for many years. For the past three years, I have worked in close collaboration with BETHS and Habitat for Humanity under the MAAP banner.
The MAAP members work to promote the quality of life for Grand Forks residents: seniors, women, people with disabilities, the homeless, and low-income families.
This co-operation is becoming more and more essential to our community as we have seen a drastic increase in the needs of the services that MAAP provides.
Some of the benefits to the community are:
• An attractive building with a neatly-fenced back yard, housing a commercial enterprise and three families verses an empty lot.
• Many items are sold that otherwise might have been taken to the landfill.
• There are many out-of-town donors and shoppers that spend money at other businesses while in town. This will increase once the ReStore is built beside Whispers. This will be a real benefit to other businesses in Grand Forks.
I hope that council will also see the benefits to our community of having one location for the three organizations.
I will end this by saying that council needs to act in good faith and listen to the overwhelming majority of citizens who support this project. There is too much at stake because delaying a decision will mean that the funding will be lost and the project cancelled. Supporting the MAAP project and the building of the ReStore with transitional housing should be given the highest priority by this council.
Jake Raven, Grand Forks