How disruptive will the renovation of the state capitol be in the coming session?
Disruptive enough to cause Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk to stop talking about mining and instead grow concerned about finding a "frickin' chair" for the public.
That's the conclusion Bluestem draws--and it's a dire situation indeed--after reading two items in far-flung newspapers. In Capitol renovation complicates Minnesota session, Forum Communications veteran political reporter Don Davis writes:
Minnesota senators must help write a state budget topping $40 billion and deal with all kinds of significant issues their constituents find important.
But that will be affected [by] a five-year, $270 million renovation project that has closed two-thirds of the state Capitol building.
“It is a bigger problem than actual (budget) negotiations,” Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk, D-Cook, said.
Meeting with groups, a frequent senatorial duty, “is going to be seriously challenged,” Bakk said.
There is not even a conference room available in the 110-year-old Capitol building, which thanks to plywood and drywall in places now looks more like a temporary structure than a building widely recognized as one of the most elegant state capitols. . . .
The public will have a tough time even sitting down with their senators, who now are housed in crowded suites.
Bakk told of his visit to one suite: “There is no frickin chair for the public to sit on.”
Bluestem recommends bringing a folding camp chair if Senator Bakk is unable to locate frickin' chairs.
Up in Ely, the problem of renovation continued to vex the Majority leader to the point where he declined to spar with opponents of copper mining. Nick Wognum of the Ely Echo reported in Talking mining not on Bakk’s list:
. . .In attendance were a number of outspoken critics of mining but the conversation never veered into PolyMet, Twin Metals or sulfides.
Whether this was due to it being Christmas week or Bakk’s oratory skills, the hour long talk was more of an inside look at St. Paul from one of Minnesota’s political leaders. . . .
. . .Bakk and the rest of state senate weren’t on the ballot in November but they are well aware of the results. The Republicans took control of the House, creating a situation that led to disaster in the 1980s.
Bakk said there’s already a state of confusion in St. Paul due to the massive renovation project going on at the Capital.
The $272 million project will bring the capital building back to “look as much like it did when it opened in 1905.”
If it's bad enough to turn the pugnacious Bakk's attention away from mining to interior design and frickin' chairs, it's a CF of epic proportions.
Bluestem urges our readers to plan accordingly.
Photo: Senator Majority Leader Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook.
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