Lawmakers tour Bemidji State, hear bonding requests from across region

BEMIDJI — The Minnesota House Capital Investment Committee is touring the state to hear more about bonding requests ahead of the upcoming session, making a few stops in Bemidji on Tuesday, Sept. 23.

As part of the Minnesota State college and university system, Bemidji State University is frequently included in state bonding requests, recently receiving funds to upgrade the roof of its science building, Sattgast Hall.

Committee members toured the campus grounds, hearing a request to upgrade parts of the university’s heating plant before sitting down at the American Indian Resource Center for other regional requests.

Larissa Donovan

/

KAXE

The Area Special Education Cooperative pitched a special education center to serve rural school districts.

“This is not about just a school — it's a lifeline,” said Tiffany Litman, executive director of the cooperative. “A wrap-around, whole child system of support for students, families and our staff.”

Litman said with $6.5 million in state funding, the Crookston-based facility could serve 11 districts in northwest Minnesota for special education students with high needs. These students would otherwise be placed out of their homes, out-of-district, which can cost up to $100,000 per pupil.

Larissa Donovan

/

KAXE

Northern Township pitched a request for the second phase of its planned wastewater treatment facility. Township Administrator Chris Lahn said with additional funds for the $8 million second phase, the township could feasibly complete the long-term goal of installing sewer around Lake Bemidji within a few years.

"We have already gotten help on the federal level, we're kicking in money from the local community, too,” Lahn said. “Hopefully we can find a way just to get this project across the finish line and realize that 50-plus-year goal.”

Northern Township is in the midst of an administrative trial for incorporation as a new city as nearby Bemidji is petitioning to absorb property into city limits around the wastewater project area.

Larissa Donovan

/

KAXE

Lake of the Woods County Commissioner Edward Arneson pitched a $6 million request for a new jail. The 40-year-old correctional building was downgraded by the state’s Department of Corrections from a 90-day to a 72-hour holding facility in 2022.

Arneson said without any long-term holding capacity for inmates, the county is using staff time of one of its seven deputies for lengthy transports.

“Our county is large. We only have a population ... of 3,800 people, but from one end of the county to the other, it's over 100 miles, and part of that is lake,” Arneson said.

Lake of the Woods County’s seat is in Baudette, and it includes Minnesota’s Northwest Angle, which is only accessible from domestic soil by water across Lake of the Woods.

Larissa Donovan

/

KAXE

The Bemidji stops also included a tour of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension facility and a look at storm damage from the June 21 derecho that struck the Bemidji area.

House committee members asked a few questions of each presenter before loading back onto the tour bus.

In addition to Bemidji, lawmakers on the committee were slated to see Brainerd, Mahnomen, Thief River Falls, Red Lake Falls, Crookston and other communities in northwestern Minnesota before the tour ended Thursday.