In order to grow its economy, Southern Minnesota needs to upgrade its infrastructure. One piece of the puzzle is air travel. The Walz congressional office released this press release about federal grants to area airports late this afternoon:
Today, Representative Tim Walz announced over $4.28 million in federal grants to southern Minnesota airports.
"These grants will improve the quality and the safety of the airports in southern Minnesota," Walz said. "This funding will help our regional airports attract business and keep their operations as safe and efficient as possible."
* Albert Lea received $1,257,345 to relocate a road due to the coming construction of the runway.
* Quentin Aanenson Field in Luverne received $736,435 to construct phase 3 of the runway which will increase safety.
* Springfield Municipal received $363,117 to construct a parallel taxiway to the runway which will enhance safety by eliminating back taxiing. This funding will also help construct a building to store snow removal equipment.
* Owatonna Degner Regional received $1,707,787 to construct a crosswind runway which will increase safety.
* Mankato Regional received $217,103 to update the airport master plan and help acquire new land to increase safety on runway approaches.
I highlighted your post because you wrote about federal grants and the reason they were given. The grants themselves don't have anything to do with Sunlight's mission of transparency but the fact that you know about them and took the time to share this information with others, shows that citizens do, in fact, want more information from Congress. Local Sunlight is about local bloggers sharing information about Congress in a way that helps citizens stay informed. And that is what you did.
Keep up the good work.
Posted by: NIsha Thompson | April 28, 2008 at 10:49 AM