The campaign to rebuild KAXE’s broadcast plant and tower got a big boost from the Minnesota Legislature on May 21. At the very end of the 2018 session, the House and Senate passed a bonding bill that included $514,000 for our project. Governor Dayton signed the bill on May 30th.
We have many people to thank, but especially Senator Justin Eichorn and Representative Sandy Layman who brought our request for funding to their respective bodies and supported us among their colleagues. We also thank Itasca County, which will serve as fiscal agent.
With the Blandin Foundation grant ($250,000) and community support ($208,000), this brings the total raised for the project to $972,000! Our latest (equipment only) budget puts costs at $947,649 (this doesn’t include any staff time, fundraising costs, or in-kind).
The key to our success at the legislature was community support! That, paired with the grant from the Blandin Foundation (which also was based on community support), showed legislators that the community cares a lot about this project.
Next steps are to secure final environmental and regulatory clearances for the project, make down payments on the tower and transmitter building, and be ready to start building next spring.
Congratulations to all of us, and THANK YOU!!
