Dear Neighbor,
It was 34 degrees this morning at our house! We dodged an early frost, the garden still looks OK.
It was a short but busy week. Tuesday and Wednesday I participated in another Capital Investment Committee hearing that took us south from Cottage Grove to Hastings, Wabasha, Lake City, then a visit and overnight in Rochester, followed by stops at Chatfield, Lanesboro, Preston, Harmony, Austin, Medford, and a final stop in South St. Paul before we finished back at the capital on Wednesday evening.
We looked at a wide range of proposed public infrastructure capital investment projects. The House Capital Investment Committee has two more trips left this fall to examine additional capital investment project proposals throughout the state.
Looking ahead to next week there is an important public hearing scheduled for 1 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 12 at the Senate Office building in St. Paul, Room 1150. The Senate Environmental and Natural Resources Finance Committee will be looking at a wide range of Deptartment of Natural Resources, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and Board of Water and Soil Resources programs.
The committee will be taking status reports on the many programs that are in operation today. Topics include: Mille Lacs Lake fishery management, aquatic invasive species, fish stocking, chronic wasting disease in deer, closed landfill program, the state buffer program and numerous other items under the jurisdiction of the committee.
Of particular interest to our area is Mille Lacs Lake fishery management, aquatic invasive species work and progress on dealing with chronic wasting disease in the deer.
On Wednesday, Sept. 13 will be the grand opening of the Crow Wing County Milford Mine Memorial Park from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. For those not familiar with this underground mine, we lost 41 men in the mine when it suddenly flooded with water from nearby Foley Lake.
That tragic accident occurred in 1924. Over the past few years Crow Wing County has made the long abandoned mine site accessible, providing the general public the opportunity to step back in time and learn about Minnesota’s most deadly mining accident. For more info visit this link.
After a lot of hard work by the entire community this new park is now an important part of our mining heritage. I hope to see you at the Milford Mine Park grand opening on Wednesday.
Sincerely,
Dale