Friends,
2018 is here! I hope you had a wonderful time over the holidays with your loved ones and rang in the new year with family and friends. The 2018 Legislative Session kicks off on February 20th and I look forward to continuing to work on behalf of our community at the Capitol.
Also this month, I will be attending and speaking at the Maple Grove City Council meeting on January 16th. I will be giving a legislative session preview as well as hearing from city leaders about their priorities for the 2018 Session.
January Town Hall
Stay tuned for details on my January Town Hall. The last few have been well attended and led to some great discussions. Hope to see you there!
Clean Up of Hilger Transfer Site
Maple Grove was awarded $1 million in cleanup funding by Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) for the 13-acre Hilger Transfer Site that was contaminated with petroleum and other pollutants. Formerly used for unregulated disposal and waste transfer, this site will be redeveloped with a 192,700-square-foot office/warehouse building. The project will create 115 new jobs, retain 225 jobs, and increase the tax base by $438,195. Matching costs will be paid by the developer, the city, and other grant sources. This is great news for Maple Grove and our whole community!
New 2018 Laws in effect January 1
While much of the great work we did during the 2017 Session went into effect later in 2017, a few laws went into effect on January 1st, 2018. Among the new laws that went into effect were uniform election dates, more specialty license plates, and two health-related reforms -- one will make it easier for patients to refill their prescription eye drops and another will allow home health care workers to count training for those who are hard of hearing towards their annual training requirements.
The full list of new laws from the 2017 Session is available here.
Please continue to share your thoughts with me about our state government; bill ideas and concerns are welcomed! I am honored to serve you at the Capitol. My email address is Rep.Dennis.Smith@house.mn, phone number 651-296-5502, and by mail: 375 State Office Building, 100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55155.
Happy New Year!
Dennis