REDUCE NEED FOR JAIL, DON’T BUILD A NEW ONE
In my opinion, Eau Claire is a great place to live. We are continuously growing in many more ways than just one. Businesses are expanding all the time, people of different races are coming to stay, making this city more diverse, and homes for our down-to-earth families are getting built every day. The thought of having to take down people’s homes and possibly stores because we need to build a new jail is outrageous!

    People break laws, people get tickets, and people get arrested. Those people choose to do so, and they should pay the price. But not all of them need to be behind the bars; they could be doing volunteer work too. Instead of ripping away houses that were here when Eau Claire was first around, we should take steps to better this community.

    If we could find more volunteers and use those volunteers to clean up highways, plant flowers, and such, this place could really improve. By doing this, I would hope that people would feel a need to pay more attention to the laws to protect our community and the residents in it. Checking the speed limit, making sure you are not drinking too much and then stepping behind the wheel, and doing something as simple as wearing a seat belt are just a few laws that should be more carefully abided by.

    Those little changes could dramatically transform this already wonderful place and decrease the number of people filling up the jail we have. I truly, honestly believe we should not build another one.
– Lexie Deignan

CLARIFICATION
The sidebar titled “Confluence Influence” in the visual arts section of Sept. 25 issue failed to specify which piece of art the image depicted. The image is of the third place winner, Carissa Brudos, for her fabric work Majestic. The first place work, by Anders Shafer, can be seen at VolumeOne.org. [Here.]