October 2009 Update

October turned out to be as busy as September, plus I had flu-like symptoms twice that knocked me out for a couple of days. Wash those hands!

Conservation Minnesota Award: On October 26th, I received a conservation leader award from Conservation Minnesota for my work on water conservation and solid waste. I am very honored to be in the company of Will Steger as well as my constituent Dr. Michael Kilgore for his work on the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council.

Endocrine disruptors in Lake Owasso: The MPCA just issued a study that measured chemical compounds in our rivers and lakes that disrupt the endocrine systems of fish. Lake Owasso in Shoreview/Roseville was among those tested. The good news: Lakes where houses are connected to the city sewer have fewer endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) in them. The bad news is that the EDCs go to sewage treatment plants where we can't get rid of the EDCs either. Lake Owasso has high level of organic wastewater compounds in it including DEET and high level of caffeine compared to other lakes tested.

Mental Health: Representative McFarlane and I attended a meeting hosted by NAMI-MN (National Association for Mental Illness), Health Partners, the Archdiocese Office of Social Justice, and the MN Psychiatric Society. The purpose was to discuss the Governor's unallotment and line-item veto of General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC), a program that covers the health care costs of 30,000 people who have virtually no assets and are often chemically dependent and mentally ill. I voted to override the Governor's veto and Rep. McFarlane did not. My assertion in the meeting was that people with private health care coverage end up paying for people without health coverage who show up at the emergency room, and that saving GAMC is cheaper for those with insurance.

Later in the month, I met with an assistant commissioner for the Department of Human Services and his staff about their proposed re-design of State Operated Services (SOS), which are the state's treatment facilities for mental health.

On October 14th, several House committees held an informational hearing about mental health costs in the criminal justice system. We could save a lot of taxpayer dollars by better integrating information about mental health into law enforcement and corrections training.

Phone books: I had a good meeting with members of the Yellow Pages Association and Dex to hear about their efforts to allow consumers to opt-out of yellow pages delivery. State rules still require delivery of a white pages, and we might work on legislation to get rid of that rule.

Water: The MN Rural Water Association invited me to their training class on October 27th in St. Cloud about how to set water/sewer rates that create enough reserves to fund future upgrades. Not enough cities do this and they are often stuck going to the state for funding. They also talked about the conservation rate structure legislation that I authored last year.

Arsenals and race tracks: One proposal made to the City of Arden Hills for the use of the Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant (TCAAP) is for a NASCAR track. I happen to be a NASCAR fan, but I am not a fan of this proposal. The 35W corridor between 694 and U.S. Hwy 10 is one of the most congested spots in the north metro because several corridors converge there. In addition, 694 is only two lanes wide from 35E to 35W. So this would be a congestion nightmare. Finally, the noise would likely carry for many miles.

Bioplastics/yard waste: KARE-11 did a story about my legislation on yard waste bags and the Star Tribune did an article as well. On October 19th I spoke about the topic to a national conference focused on using organic waste as an energy source. The MN Pollution Control Agency hosted a great panel discussion on-line on October 16th about biopolymers and their potential in Minnesota.

Campaign finance: A recent New York Times column outlines the many ways in which state campaign finance law there hinders democracy. The State Legislature has ceased to be an effective organization in recent months. I am pleased to say that many of the proposed reforms in the column are already law in Minnesota!

Reporting unsafe drivers: The MN Department of Public Safety has a web page where you can report unsafe drivers. The driver gets a letter notifying that somebody noticed them driving unsafely, and your contact information is not divulged.

Visited these folks or attended these meetings: Product Stewardship meeting in Eagan and Minneapolis about innovative ways to cut taxpayer costs for waste managment; gathering of north metro MN Utility Investors members in Shoreview; waste haulers in Prior Lake; White Bear Lake Area senior transportation meeting; Turtle Lake Elementary School kindergartners; water expert; Qwest area office in Shoreview; Capitol Beverage in Fridley; CTV15 cable TV station for interview on bike commuting; visit with Express Scripts in Bloomington about HF1217; boy scouts in Shoreview; Golden Lake PTA in Circle Pines; RAM/SWANA Conference on recycling, composting, etc.; Sierra Club members in Shoreview; Senator Rummel on issues of mutual interest; UPS Freight tour in Blaine

Visitors: Healthy Legacy lobbyist about state purchasing/bonding ideas that promote less toxic products; Chamber of Commerce representatives about product stewardship; group of about 20 members of the MN Council of Nonprofits learning about the legislature; lobbyists for syringe manufacturer and pharmaceutical products about my legislation; member of League of MN Cities regarding product stewardship proposals; General Accountability Office (GAO) researchers from Washington, D.C. following up on MN's e-waste recycling law; industry representatives from biopolymer sector

September 2009 update

Here's an update of my September 2009 activities and other information.

District happenings

Domestic violence: I was very troubled to hear of the second case of fatal domestic violence in district 53A in as many months. The murder-suicide was covered in two articles in the Star Tribune here and here. I'm talking to a few legislators to see if any changes in legislation would help avoid this situation in the future. Alexandra House, the only women's shelter of its kind in Anoka County, was mentioned several times.

Constituent suffering from PTSD: Minnesota Public Radio recently covered the case of a Circle Pines Marine who is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from his service in Iraq. I've spoken to a few people involved and it is clear that we have a big job ahead of us in treating the large number of returning servicemen and women with PTSD. Some officials at Fort Snelling are doing their best to avoid the worst case scenario of suicide among veterans. [10/11/09 update: The Pioneer Press reported on 10/08/09 that the Marines are calling into question the story of the Circle Pines Marine. It's a little hard to tell what the truth is on this case but I would still point out that PTSD is a major problem.]

Scrap tires on Highway 14: Anoka County rebuilt Highway 14 through Centerville and Lino Lakes recently. Because the section that crosses the Rice Creek Chain of Lakes does not have a very stable base underneath, the county used 2.6 million shredded scrap tires to shore up the road. I know the tire recycling folks and the U.S. produces about one scrap tire per person per year, which means that this project used about half of all scrap tires collected in MN in one year.

Energy savings in Mounds Views SD: Congratulations to the Mounds View School District for the first year of results from its Schools for Energy Efficiency (SEE) program. The district saved $400,000 by reducing energy use by 12%! Well done.

Mounds View SD requests lottery funding: The Mounds View School District, which owns the Laurentian Environmental Learning Center (ELC) in Britt, MN, and several other ELCs have proposed a project to the commission recommending uses for lottery proceeds. The Legislative Citizens Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR) is hearing proposals this fall for possible recommendations next session. The ELC proposal would request funding for energy efficiency upgrades as well as educational programs on energy.

Centennial levy: The Centennial School District is putting a levy referendum on the ballot this fall. There will be two questions. The first will be asking to renew the existing five-year levy and the second questions would ask for some additional funding. There is more info at the Vote Yes site for the referendum.

Anoka County inmates going to Sherburne: Part of Anoka County's budget cutting includes transferring some inmates from Lino Lakes to Sherburne County in Elk River.

Local business and Gopher Stadium: The new Gopher football stadium includes a novel stormwater treatment system developed by a local company. Rehbein Environmental Solutions in Blaine created a system that can store 132,000 gallons of water at a time instead of releasing it immediately into the stormwater runoff system. WCCO did a story on the stadium's green components.

Sewer charges and Blaine interceptor: The Met Council is considering changes to sewer rates. Revenue for sewage capacity from new development in the outer suburbs has slowed because of the lack of new construction, so the MC may charge people in developed areas (that's us) more.

Health care

Insurance for those rejected from other plans: The Health Care & Human Services Policy Committee that I serve on had a recent hearing on several topics including MCHA--the Minnesota Comprehensive Health Association. MCHA (pronounced EM-cha) is a program run by the insurance industry to offer coverage to people who, among other things, have been rejected by health insurers because of a pre-existing condition. It's not a state government program but it was created by the legislature. Premiums make up about half the revenue of the program and the rest comes from the insurers through an assessment on their regular customers' policies of about three percent. However, self-insured plans (like those created through large employers) do not get charged the assessment, leaving the cost to small businesses and individual policy holders.

Hidden health care tax: A group called Families USA has updated information about how much consumers with private insurance are paying as a "hidden tax" to cover the cost of the uninsured. In Minnesota we have almost half the number of uninsured as the national average so hospitals and clinics have to write off fewer losses, but the average family policy pays $650 more a year in this state in the "hidden tax."

Transportation

Bike commuting: During the first few weeks of September I've been commuting on my bike to the Capitol and using the bus as part of that once in a while. I'm not the first in our area to do this by any means but it's been a good way to get in shape. The Met Council has a Bike2Benefits program on-line where you can log in your miles and see how many gallons of gas you are not using and how much in greenhouse gas emissions you are not creating. You can also track the location and arrival times of your buses in real-time using a PDA on the Metro Transit web site.

694 & 35W: MnDOT plans to update one of the exit ramps at 694 and 35W.

Transit: One of the most used forms of transit in the northern suburbs is paratransit or dial-a-ride. Seniors and the disabled use this service regularly. I'm following the work of the Interagency Committee on Transportation Coordination (ICTC, or "Ick-tick") to find out how to encourage more coordination among our state and local agencies so that we can maximize the use of all our transportation assets. The Met Council is also consolidating its dial-a-ride program in a way that will bring this service to Shoreview for the first time.

Environment

New technology for treating garbage: I visited a company's R&D facility in Blaine recently that can pre-treat garbage in what is called a thermal vessel. The garbage is heated up to 280 degrees or so and the resulting organic material can be put in an anerobic digester to create energy, and recyclables can be separated out also. The company is Visiam and its main office is in White Bear Township. Their web site has a video of the process. I also had the chance in September to visit a new landfill site in Lynd, Minnesota in Lyon County where I met with county commissioners from seven southwestern MN counties.

My bills

Scrap law working: In 2007, I got legislation passed that required scrap metal recyclers to keep records on the people selling them scrap because of a rampant metal theft problem. This recent article highlights one scrap yard that is successfully working with police on the issue.

Product stewardship: Several of my bills for 2009-2010 relate to a concept of product stewardship (PS). PS would assist taxpayers by asking for industries that create products that are difficult to dispose of safely to take some financial responsibility for the waste material. Senator Doll, Rep. McNamara, and I recently spoke to a gathering of local government officials about legislative ideas on PS. I also attended a recent panel discussion at the MPCA on sustainable packaging. Presenters included NatureWorks LLC, Aveda (based in Blaine), and General Mills. Aveda has a very successful plastic bottle cap program that you can get involved with at local schools.

Compostable bag legislation media: WCCO recently gave some coverage about my legislation requiring compostable plastic yard waste bags if you use a plastic bag.

Pharmaceuticals in our water: Blog readers may be familiar with my bill that would create a secure "take-back" system for unused medications that are often flushed. Many of these medications end up in our rivers and streams because wastewater treatment cannot remove certain endocrine-disrupting compounds. The U.S. Geological Survey has just reported that of nine rivers tested nationwide, Lake Pepin on the Mississippi has the highest number of fish that have both male and female sex characteristics! During October and November, I'm meeting with various stakeholders to get their input on my bill, HF1217, for next year to work out technical issues.

Taxes

Cuts to county program aid: One of the least-known programs at the state level to help reduce your property taxes is county program aid. This MinnPost article (albeit with a partisan bent) describes the effects of the Governor's recent unallotment to county program aid. Non-partisan House Research also has this info on the program.

Cuts to market value homestead credit (MVHC): One of the way that the state lowers your property taxes is to give you a market value homestead credit via your city. Lino Lakes along with Shoreview lost all its MVHC from the Governor's unallotment. Due to the loss of MVHC and declining property values, Lino Lakes is making some significant budget cuts.

Meetings: I had the chance to visit Second Harvest Heartland in Maplewood, which has a very sophisticated operation in supplying our community food shelves. Senator Rummel and I hosted a meeting with Shoreview residents who live around Kerry Pond to hear from the DNR about changes in aquatic plant management permits. I also visited Lifetrack Resources in St. Paul, which provides child care and other services for children who are under court protection. I enjoyed greeting 4th graders from Rice Lake Elementary School in Lino Lakes at the Capitol.

August 2009 Update

Einhausen group: Shoreview has a sister city relationship with Einhausen, Germany, and this year a group of Einhausen residents came to visit Minnesota. Senator Rummel and I met with them in early August for a tour of the state capitol. Find out more about the sister city organization here.

Business visit: I visited Old Dominion Freight Co in my district in Blaine, where they are celebrating 75 years. It included a very cool traveling trailer with exhibits, including a Wii truckdriving game (I crashed) and a radio-controlled 18 wheeler that I successfully backed up after 10 minutes. Argh.

Group house: Senator Rummel and I received a lot of e-mail from irate Lino Lakes residents about a proposed group house in Centerville that would house the developmentally disabled. After the house was vandalized and after a crowded public meeting, the organization proposing the facility, Zumbro House, cancelled the project. KSTP did a story on the controversy. I still don't have all the facts about what type of residents were to live there, other than that they were teenaged and disabled. Some of the information I received but couldn't confirm was that the residents were to be either low-level sex offenders or had serious behavioral issues.

Recent criminal activity: A murder recently took place in 53A, where a Circle Pines man killed a Blaine resident over what appears to be a drug case. A Star-Tribune article has the details. There was another murder in Circle Pines earlier this month in a case of domestic violence.

LEED certified building: I recently visited a house in Lexington that is LEED certified--meaning it has many green components to its design. A husband and wife team designed it and operate their business there. You can visit their web site and see how it was built!

Meeting with Senator Franken about pharmaceutical waste: On August 13th, I attended a great meeting in North Branch for Sen. Franken on Chisago County's successful take-back program for unused pharmaceutical waste. My bill HF1217 would help expand this statewide--look for it in 2010. A description of the problem we are seeking to solve comes from the Product Stewardship Institute. Chisago County worked on this because they originally had a big meth problem, and now teens have moved from meth (which is harder to make now) to "pharm" parties where they swipe drugs like painkillers from adults and mix it with alcohol. When certain pharmaceuticals are flushed down the toilet, our wastewater treatment plants cannot break down some endocrine-disrupting compounds and that can change the genetic structure of fish and also end up in someone's drinking water.

Rice Creek Trail: The Rice Creek Trail that I tried to get state funding for in 2008 will be partially completed by next spring. John VonDeLinde, Director of Parks and Recreation for Anoka County sent me this update:

"...Lino Lakes Town Center to Rice Lake Elementary Trail

"At this point, all of the cultural resources review is complete, and we have found a way to construct the trail through the park, while avoiding any buried artifacts, etc. As you may know, the Rice Creek Chain of Lakes area is rich in Native American history and we are taking the
normal protocols in avoiding disturbance.

"Wetland assessment is also complete. Our engineer, SRF Consulting, has been working with the Rice Creek Watershed District on wetland impacts and floodplain mitigation. We do have enough credits from previous wetland creation projects in the park, so all appears to be good in that regard.

"Construction documents are complete for the trail from the Lino Lakes Town Center to Rice Lake Elementary. Our consultant has also completed the Project Memorandum for this section, which is a federal project requirement.

"In designing the project, we have determined that the old snowmobile bridge over the Rice Creek will need to be removed and replaced. It does not meet federal standards. The new bridge will provide more clearance over the creek and will be shared with the snowmobile trail.

"So, the project design for the main trail is now nearing completion.

"Hodgson Road to Baldwin Lake Trail

"Given the good bids the county has been receiving this year, we have also decided to move forward with construction documents on the section from Birch Street and Hodgson Road to Baldwin Lake Park. Originally, we did not think that this would be financially feasible - it may be now.

"This additional section will require similar planning and construction documents. We expect those to be completed within a month. Once those are in-hand, we can submit the entire design package to MnDOT for review and approval.

"In summary, my expectation is that we will be out for bids in July or August. Construction should be underway by September or October. The project will no doubt carryover to June of next year for completion...."

More information on the project was published in the Quad Communities Press.

Till next time: I hope everyone is enjoying their summer. My family and I spent two weeks in June and July visiting Glacier National Park, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Yellowstone National Park, and the Black Hills.