Recently, the Senate Capital Investment committee embarked on their biennial Northeast Minnesota Bonding Tour. I was happy to join them for a day, as we toured multiple projects within the district. These tours are designed to give stakeholders an opportunity to share the scope and need for funding, and gives senators the opportunity to see the sites, meet locals, and understand the projects.
We started off at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Rush City. As many folks may already know, this facility has been instrumental in providing education and programming necessary to get inmates integrated back into life. They have a long history of providing proven rehabilitative services to inmates. The facility is currently experiencing a shortage of space in both cells and programming space. Statistics show that 95% of those currently incarcerated will at some point be back in their communities and the goal of this project is to expand available space so they may continue preparing inmates to safely re-enter society.
Our next stop was the Pine City Wastewater Treatment Center, where we heard about the need for the repair and protection of pond berms, as well as updates needed for the failing aeration pumps. Pine City currently provides wastewater treatment to multiple locations outside of Pine City and does so through one of the largest pond systems in the state. The current wastewater treatment ponds were constructed in 1961, with minor updates in 1972 and nothing since. This project is long overdue. We also stopped by Pine Tech to see the campus and discuss future updates and program expansions around the campus.
We then traveled up to Sandstone to visit the old school building, “The Rock.” Sandstone is looking to turn the building into a History and Art Center, and it felt like the whole town came out to welcome the bonding committee! Sandstone officials want the building to be the site of workforce housing and are also hoping to relocate the current Sandstone History and Art Center to the historic auditorium.
We also traveled up the road to Sturgeon Lake, where we toured the City Hall and Fire Department. Currently, one building houses both facilities, and it is over 100 years old. They are hoping to replace the building and build a proper connection between the City Hall and Fire Department areas. Right now there is a hole in the wall that serves as a connector between the two parts of the building. Due to the age of the building, it is also not ADA compliant. The city is hoping to make needed updates to make the building safer and more accessible for the community.
Our last stop was in Moose Lake, where we discussed the inflow and infiltration reduction project. Pond expansion would be near-impossible for Moose Lake, due to size limitations, and with numerous development opportunities on the horizon, it’s important for the city to update its sewer system by funding sewer main lining, manhole lining, and reducing the inflow and infiltration.
There are numerous infrastructure and wastewater bonding requests throughout the district—the needs are high. In fact, these were just a handful of requests from our area, with many others surely in the works. While we may not have gotten to tour the site of every request, I’m glad the bonding committee came out to Senate District 11 to get a better idea of the needs of our communities. I look forward to advocating for these projects, as well as other local endeavors, as we head into our next legislative session.