Caterpillar,

trucking,

CREP get Kennedy's

attention

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- In his second visit to the city in less than a month, U.S. Rep. Mark Kennedy, R-Minn., saw the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program in action, got a trucking company's slant on needed highway rehabilitation and learned how components for paving machines are made.

During his congressional recess visit, Kennedy first went to the regional office of Minnesota Department of Natural Resources where he was taken to a 113-acre CREP site on the Marcus Bode farm near Nicollet.

"We showed him how tree plantings and mixed height native prairie grasses are used in enhancing the flood plain," Cheryl Heidi, DNR regional administrator said.

"We're interested in letting the flood plains function as they should to retard and stabilize the flow of flood waters," she explained. The tree plantings on the Bode farm include lowland hardwoods such as silver maples which tend to be more "flood tolerant."

From there, the DNR tour took the congressman to the Nicollet Conservation Club where Kennedy spoke about his interest in programs such as CREP which are a part of the farm bill his committee is working on in Washington.

Also discussed on the tour, Heidi said, was the Conservation and Reinvestment Act (H.R. 701) which would increase Minnesota's ability to develop and implement a comprehensive, long-term approach to addressing conservation and outdoor recreation needs by establishing a stable, dependable source of funding.

"We told the congressman that there is growing interest in tourism along the Minnesota River and a need for diversification in income and recreation development," Heidi said. "As he comes from Pequot Lakes, a tourism area, he was very much in tune with what we're attempting to do."

Kennedy continued his "look and learn" visit with a stop at J&R Schugel Trucking Inc. In what was described by the firm's president, Jerry Schugel, as an "informal" meeting that lasted 1 1/2 hours, Kennedy was shown "a little bit of our operations."

The firm is a coast-to-coast hauler of dairy products and "just about anything in groceries," Schugel said. The firm's flatbed division hauls various types of building materials.

"We told him that we're very interested in trying to improve on highway systems in rural areas," Schugel said. "In particular, the future of a four-lane highway from New Ulm to Rochester."

Kennedy brought Schugel good news in that the Department of Transportation's proposals for three to four different types of rules is at an apparent standstill in Congress. Schugel said Kennedy "had fought hard against those rule changes."

The state of fuel prices also was discussed, Schugel said. "We wondered why there's such a shortage and told him that it's having a real serious impact on our business."

Schugel said that with diesel at $1.70 a gallon, fuel costs are now one of his biggest operating costs because it now costs 28 cents a mile just in fuel to drive a truck.

The congressman's last stop was at Caterpillar Paving Products where component parts for Caterpillar paving and compaction machines are made. These machined parts are then shipped to Caterpillar's Brooklyn Park facility for assembly, Bob Hunter, general manager, told Kennedy.

"The congressman was here to get an understanding of our business and to talk with our employees," Hunter said. "We provided lunch, and the congressman joined in a roundtable discussion with a selected group of 14 employees."