Friends,
Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful time celebrating the holidays with your family and have found a way to stay warm these last few weeks.
With the new year here, the 2018 Session is right around the corner. We will gavel into session on February 20th and must be finished by May 21st. I look forward to continuing to serve our community in Saint Paul and hope you will continue to reach out with any ideas you have for the upcoming session.
Clean Up of Valley Ridge Site
The Dakota County Community Development Agency (CDA) was awarded $50,000 from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) in investigation funding for the Valley Ridge 6.65-acre site. Past uses include a gas station, shopping center, and two dry cleaners. This site will be redeveloped with a gas station and 27 owner-occupied townhomes. The project is expected to create 20 new jobs and increase the tax base by $153,908. Matching costs will be paid by Dakota County and the Dakota County CDA.
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 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.
As always, please continue to stay in touch to share your thoughts and ideas. You can schedule a time to meet with me in my office anytime by calling my office at (651) 296-9463 or share your thoughts via email by emailing me at rep.drew.christensen@house.mn.
Happy New Year!
Drew