Lawmakers to author bill to aid county highways

$110 million

sought for road

improvements

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- When the 2002 State Legislature convenes next week, one of the first pieces of legislation to be introduced will be a $110 million county highway improvement measure authored by Sen. Dennis Frederickson, R-New Ulm.

The bill will cover single projects from each of 23 west-central Minnesota counties, stretching from Nicollet County north to Becker County.

Three area lawmakers -- Rep. James Clark (R-New Ulm), Rep. Howard Swenson (R-Nicollet) and Rep. Ruth Johnson (DFL-St. Peter) -- are working on the House version.

"This is an attempt to bring attention to the problems counties have in rebuilding aging highways," Frederickson said. "These are projects that are absolutely vital to the rural economy."

Moving agricultural equipment on these rural highways has contributed a disproportionate amount of wear, Frederickson said.

"Agricultural equipment that is being moved on these highways has gotten much larger, but the condition of the highways is gauged by car-truck traffic," he noted.

Despite the state's budget woes, Frederickson is confident the bill has a chance.

"I think we have a good chance of getting additional help for counties for roads and bridges," Frederickson explained. "This will be an add-on to the funds they would get from the gas tax and highway funds."

Although it's being introduced as a separate bill, Frederickson said it would eventually find its way into the omnibus bonding bill which normally doesn't contain highway construction projects.

While the combining of county highway projects into a single bill is considered unique, it's patterned after a common approach of combining bike trail projects, for instance. It's this approach that Frederickson believes will highlight the importance of these rural roads.

While an array of counties designated a project for the bill, the Brown County Board decided not to participate.

Nicollet County started the ball rolling on this mega-county highway legislation, Frederickson said. The county had contacted Frederickson seeking additional state aid for improving County State Aid Highway 5, also known as Historic Fort Road because it connects St. Peter and Fort Ridgely at the west end of the county.

"Frederickson told us that if we could get more counties to join in designating one project from each county, he could support it and sponsor the legislation," Nicollet County Engineer Michael Wagner said.

Within a short time, 22 counties had signed on with a designated project for the bill, Wagner said.

Wagner said the bottomline is that counties in greater Minnesota just don't get the aid needed to improve roads the way they should be.

"We still take more counties up until the start of the Legislature next week," Frederickson said, "but I want to get this important piece of legislation introduced during the first week of the session."