08/29/2026
THINGS THAT GRIND MY GEARS
You know what grinds my gears?
Bragging about bringing in a food truck from out of town and parking it across the street from an established, locally owned business.
That local business stays here. They spend their money here. They hire people here. They pay taxes here. They donate here. They support local organizations, schools, benefits, fundraisers, and community events. The list goes on.
That out-of-town food truck? At the end of the day, it takes the money it made in our community and drives down the road.
You cannot run ads telling people to “SUPPORT LOCAL” and then turn around and do the exact opposite. That is talking out of both sides of your mouth.
Then I read in the paper that the City of Devils Lake is considering an application process to open a business in Devils Lake.
Seriously?
We want to make opening a business MORE difficult?
There isn't exactly a line of people beating down the door to open businesses here. Getting financing is difficult. Navigating licensing, regulations, zoning, insurance, taxes, and everything else that comes with opening a business is already difficult.
I recently filled out a roughly 20-page application just to add something to an already established license. Trust me, it was no walk in the park.
Please, for the love of God, STOP MAKING IT HARDER.
I realize there are people who will sit in front of officials and say everything is fine, then walk through my doors and tell me every frustration they have. I hear it weekly. I've experienced plenty of it myself.
"Frustrated" is an understatement.
So here is my advice to municipalities:
Stop making it harder for the private sector to grow.
Government has a role. We have zoning laws, health and safety regulations, building codes, licensing requirements, and plenty of other rules already on the books. Enforce the rules that actually protect the public and then give entrepreneurs room to do what entrepreneurs do.
Let people invest. Let them build. Let them take risks. Let them create jobs. Let the free market work.
If you want more money flowing into government budgets, you need a healthy private sector generating economic activity.
It really is that simple.
Meeting after meeting, year after year, we hear complaints about budgets. Yet where is the serious conversation about expanding the tax base by growing the private sector?
Residents don't want property taxes continually going up to fill every budget gap.
So how do we change that?
GROW THE ECONOMY.
Establish factories. Encourage smaller manufacturers and businesses that can support larger industries. Encourage entrepreneurs. Support the mom-and-pop shops already here. Make it attractive for someone to take an empty building and turn it into something productive.
I can't give you the entire economic-development playbook in one Facebook post, but I can tell you this:
Making it harder to open a business isn't in it.
The bigger point is simple.
The residents and business owners of this community deserve better.
We need elected officials who are willing to go toe-to-toe over bad ideas. People who aren't afraid to say “Absolutely not” when something doesn't make sense instead of sitting silently and following along.
Blindly following the same thinking hasn't moved our economy forward. At some point, somebody has to be willing to challenge it.
I know there are people who don't like me. Some will twist what I say. Some will make up stories. Some especially don't like when I start asking uncomfortable questions about how government operates and how taxpayer money is being spent.
That's okay.
Because government decisions cost citizens money, and citizens have every right to question those decisions.
And now that a few people are probably clutching their pearls, let me make one final thing very clear:
Growth is uncomfortable.
Progress requires challenging old ideas.
It requires asking why.
It requires saying something when everyone else is afraid to.
It requires admitting when something hasn't worked and being willing to try something different.
We cannot keep doing the same things we've done for 30 years and then act surprised when we keep getting the same results.
If we genuinely want this community to grow, then we're going to have to start having some uncomfortable conversations.
I'm ready to get uncomfortable for growth.
Are you?
