Here is an excerpt:
Mayors push to get road projects completed
"It doesn't seem like [legislators] recognize the need for transit improvements in the north metro," said the Brooklyn Park mayor.
By LORA PABST, Star Tribune
Last update: January 30, 2008 - 11:19 PM"
A gathering of the North Metro Mayors Association this week looked more like a grief support group than a meeting of city leaders discussing transportation problems.
After watching major projects in the north metro get delayed, the mayors reaffirmed their displeasure with the transportation funding problem they say has hit projects in the north metro particularly hard.
Ramsey, my home town, has had less problem. The County pitched in funding for road work around the troubled Town Center, and mapping and RALF buy-out money came from Met. Council. But then Ramsey has hired cracker-jack consultants to advance their effort - and -
The story continues [as above, italics emphasis added]:
They are intensifying their efforts to remind legislators of the unfinished Hwy. 610 extension and the delayed devil's triangle junction of Hwy. 169, Hennepin County Road 81 and 85th Avenue N. Two of the intersections in the junction rank as the third and sixth worst for crashes in the state, but the 2007 construction start was delayed.
"It doesn't seem like they recognize the need for transit improvements in the north metro," Brooklyn Park Mayor Steve Lampi said in an interview after the Monday meeting. "They don't recognize how fast we're growing."
Many north metro officials have seen money for projects in their area get rerouted to other projects -- such as the decision to take $35 million from the $50 million devil's triangle and use it for the Crosstown project in December 2006. And if it wasn't bad enough seeing construction postponed, cities and counties are being asked to pay for projects until the state can pay them back.
[...] Many of the mayors echoed each other's frustrations when they explained the costs their cities have incurred and ultimately had to pass along to their residents.
"Cities and counties are having to spend their money to provide roads," said Ramsey Mayor Tom Gamec. "It's time for the state to step up."
Huh? Town Center Tom said that? If, in actuality, Ramsey is suffering a dearth of funding, Tom, you are a big, big, big, ultra-big booster of the consultancy being retained.
Rethink the Tink, perhaps, sir. Back to the story:
Rep. Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, said she has worked with the League of Minnesota Cities to start compiling a list of how much money cities have lent to the Minnesota Department of Transportation for road projects. Even though the money will eventually be repaid, Hortman said she is concerned that the interest on the payments won't be returned to the cities.
[...] "With the [35W] bridge falling down, that changes the state's emphasis, but it doesn't change the underlying problem," Lampi said. "We have a transportation system that is probably in crisis and there needs to be a plan to fix it."
[...] Rep. Michael Nelson, DFL-Brooklyn Park, said he understands the mayors' frustrations, especially when there is a history of delayed north metro projects. He recalled that portions of Hwy. 100 south of Interstate 394 were completed long before the section in the north metro, and Hwy. 212 in the south metro is nearing completion while the extension of Hwy. 610 is still a grassy field.
There's an impression from the mayors and northwestern suburbs that our projects always take second banana to projects elsewhere around the metro," Nelson said, adding that he knows projects around the state are also getting delayed.
Both the devil's triangle and Hwy. 610 completion projects are priorities for Nelson, but after talking with MnDOT officials recently, he thinks the projects will again get pushed to the bottom of the list. The time frame for the Hwy. 610 project is now set between 2015 and 2025, Nelson said.
"When our turn comes up, our projects go away," he said. "That's the frustration of the mayors."
"The demand just keeps growing exponentially for what we need to do for roads and brides," Nelson said. "But the dollars we've got are falling farther behind."
Lora Pabst • 612-673-4628
Lots of highways. Except for Town Center Tom with his crying-towel out, I do not see the Elk River or East Bethel or Albertville folks quoted. I wonder.
And are those dangerous intersections being ignored, while effort aimed at building new interchanges in the Hassan Township - Dayton - Rogers area takes a priority while geographically near to where others claim to suffer?
Are all the animals on Animal Farm equal, or are some more equal than others?
Who is to say? Always, there are many factors at play. Complications.
Possibilities.