Mid-day digest: roads edition

In Blue Earth, the Faribault County Register reports in Legislators do some explaining:

City and county officials from Faribault and Martin Counties had a chance to vent their frustrations to their legislators in Blue Earth Wednesday night.

“We realize our Local Government Aid (LGA) is going to be cut,” one official told the lawmakers. “But it would be nice to know by how much.”

Representatives Tony Cornish and Bob Gunther and Senator Julie Rosen explained the state’s situation to the full house at Hamilton Hall. . . .

. . .Rosen did have some good news for local officials. She reported that local counties will be seeing some major influx of federal funds for transportation projects.

“We met with Congressman Tim Walz today, and he says $85 billion of the $700 billion federal stimulus money is for transportation,” she said. “Of that amount, Minnesota will be getting $875 million, and we will be working on how to disperse those funds around the state.” . . .

Read the whole thing at the Register.

Via an article in the Mankato Free Press, we been reading the Dakota 38 blog, written by a participant on the Dakota Reconciliation Ride that works to remember the largest mass execution in U.S. history and heal  its painful consequences. December 26 will mark the 146th anniversary of the mass hanging in Mankato; the Free Press notes:

On Dec. 26, the riders will gather at the hanging site where the existing library is to hold a ceremony. Later, the riders will eat dinner at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Mankato. Mayor John Brady is writing a proclamation to be read by him or Councilman Jack Considine.

A group of Dakota Indians also makes an annual run from Fort Snelling in St. Paul to Mankato, leaving midnight Dec. 25 and arriving in Mankato at about noon. At the time of departure a vigil fire is started at Land of Memories Park. The run has been held since 1987.

Stay warm on this winter day.