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Legislative News and Views - Rep. Connie Bernardy (DFL)

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Legislative Update - July 13, 2018

Friday, July 13, 2018

Dear Neighbors,

I hope you had a lovely Fourth of July last week. Independence Day is one of those great American holidays that brings us all together. It is a time I like to pause and give thanks to everyone who has served and serves our county and contributes to strengthening our communities.

Local parks and trails to receive funding

This year I worked to secure funding for two of our local parks, Long Lake Regional Park and Manomin Park, as well as, other parks throughout the metropolitan area and state. We passed a public infrastructure bill, known as bonding, to repair, maintain and expand public infrastructure all over Minnesota. In the metropolitan area we secured $10 million for parks through the Met Council. In the initial proposal for $15 million of funding to metro parks two local parks were included - Long Lake Regional Park and Manomin Park. While we didn’t get the full $15 million, it’s likely we’ll see improvements in both parks including a native prairie area with picnicking opportunities and a new restroom at Long Lake and a new restroom created at Manomin Park. This is important for park users and people biking and walking on the Rice Creek Regional Trail. I’ll keep you updated as these projects progress.

Connected and Automated Vehicle Taskforce meets

I was honored to recently be appointed to Governor Dayton’s Advisory Council for Connected and Automated Vehicles.  As part of our work, last month we participated in a two-day workshop on Strategic Visioning for Autonomous Vehicles in Minnesota. The workshop was hosted in conjunction with the University of Minnesota’s Center for Transportation Studies.

Connected and automated vehicles present a lot of potential benefits and challenges for Minnesota. Having served as the DFL Transportation policy lead, it’s a great opportunity to lend insight and experience to an area where we have a lot of learning and planning to do. It is important we focus on the needs of people.

You can read more about the Advisory Council here.

As always, please contact me with any questions, comments, and ideas or if you think I can provide assistance to you. I love to help.

Sincerely,

Connie Bernardy
State Representative