Also Includes $3.75 Million For St. David's Center For Children And Family Development
ST. PAUL, MN – The DFL House bonding legislation unveiled this week includes significant funding for projects in the Minnetonka-Plymouth area. The bill includes $50 million for the Transit Capital Improvement Fund. MnDOT has described the Southwest Corridor Light Rail Transit project, which is eligible for the funds, as a top priority. The bill also appropriates $3.75 million for the expansion and renovation of St. David’s Center for Children and Family Development.
The Southwest Corridor project will connect downtown Minneapolis to Eden Prairie with two stops in Minnetonka. The funding the rail project is likely to receive would be used by the Metropolitan Council for environmental studies and preliminary engineering, acquiring property, and designing the Southwest Corridor light rail transit line.
“These projects will strengthen Minnetonka. Improving transportation in the southwest metro will help ensure our community’s long-term economic vitality,” said Rep. John Benson (DFL—Minnetonka).
St. David's Center serves nearly 2,000 children, adults and families throughout the west metro each year providing a variety of services including early childhood education, pediatric care, mental health services, special need services, and support and resources for in-need families. $3.75 million in state bonding will be matched by $8 million in private funds to renovate and expand the Minnetonka-based center allowing them to better serve at-risk children and their families. The St. David’s Center project is a great example of a public/private partnership.
“I am pleased to be chief author of the St. David’s Center expansion funding,” said Rep. Benson. “St. David’s provides a number of unique services that help children and their families across the west metro.”
A list of all projects is online: www.house.leg.state.mn.us/comm/docs/2013Bonding4-8-136PM_4.pdf
Other recent developments at the legislature:
Legislation to allow the private property owners along Shavers Lake to remove invasive species from lakes has advanced in the Minnesota House. The bill (HF 461), authored by Rep. Benson, specifically is designed to allow homeowners along Shaver Lake in Wayzata to remove an invasive cattail species and to begin the process of returning the lake to its original sand bottom state at no cost to the State of Minnesota.
Rep. Benson believes property owners ought to be able to freely develop or enhance their own property, especially those who are good stewards of their property.
-30-