Dear Neighbors,
This past week, the federal government announced that Carver County had been awarded $7 million in Federal funding through the Metropolitan Council’s Transportation Advisory Board (TAB) for planned upgrades to U.S. Highway 212.
This funding has been years in the making and is something that I have spent a great deal of time working on since becoming a legislator.
The most recent round of funding supports phase one of the two-phase project, nearly completing the funding for 4 lanes from Chaska to Cologne. Phase two covers the five-mile stretch from Cologne to Norwood Young America.
Anyone living in our area has certainly driven on Highway 212 sometime in the past week. Highway 212 is one of the most important economic and freight corridors linking our area to the Twin Cities metro area; and the metro area to points west. It serves as a critical gateway for businesses and farms throughout Minnesota, and notably in the southwestern metro area.
MNDOT has scheduled the 212 phase one upgrade for 2022 according to the Minnesota Transportation Alliance. I will continue to work on the final $5 million needed to complete 4 lanes between Chaska and Cologne.
On a more serious note, there has been a great deal of news this past week regarding abortion bills in both New York state and Virginia. New York signed into a law a bill that makes abortion legal, even after the unborn child is viable, so long as the doctor makes a “reasonable and good-faith judgment” that abortion will protect the pregnant woman’s health.
In Virginia, state legislator Kathy Tran has introduced legislation that would, she has explained, make abortion legal even at term and in the middle of birth. Their Governor, Ralph Northam, made comments in support of the legislation that was dangerously close to advocating for infanticide.
Please pray for our nation and for the millions of babies we lose every year to abortion. As your state representative, I will always stand for the unborn and in defense of life.
That’s all for this week’s update. I urge you to contact me if you have any legislative questions, concerns, or ideas. I can be reached by phone at 651-296-4229 or via email at rep.glenn.gruenhagen@house.mn.
Thanks and have a good weekend,
Glenn