Looking over the Winona Daily News this morning, we read this item in Rep. Gene Pelowski, Jr.: Minnesota’s Disaster Assistance delivers for Minnesotans during summer storm emergencies:
Each year as the summer storm season sweeps across Minnesota, we see the need for emergency assistance from state government. In the last two years alone, we’ve seen nearly 50 counties, communities, and several tribal nations receive emergency assistance from Governor Dayton.
This year alone numerous counties including Winona, Freeborn, Kittson, and many others have and will receive aid. It’s worth noting that the governor was only recently empowered with the ability to declare an emergency bringing immediate relief to those devastated by natural disasters. Until a few years ago, the Minnesota House and Senate had to return to Saint Paul in a costly special session to approve relief for each and every disaster.
In a show of how government can and should operate, in 2014 I worked with Gov. Dayton to establish the Disaster Assistance Contingency Account. By creating the account and giving the governor the authority to act on his own, we ensured that when a disaster struck, our state would respond by quickly distributing funds without the need to call a special session, and it worked. For the last two years our state has responded to numerous disasters without wasting time and money on special sessions. . . .
What does that mean for Bluestem's stretch of the prairie? The Star Tribune's Mark Brunswick reported on July 22 in a news brief, Big Stone, Stevens counties get state disaster relief:
Two counties to get state disaster relief after storms
Gov. Mark Dayton last week authorized almost $25,000 in relief for Big Stone County and more than $20,000 for Stevens County to help address public property damage caused by severe thunderstorms, high winds and tornadoes on June 13.
Aid from the State Disaster Assistance Contingency Account will reimburse counties for public infrastructure repairs and cleanup costs.
Under Minnesota law, the state reimburses 75 percent of eligible costs for public infrastructure repairs and cleanup, with localities responsible for covering the remaining 25 percent.
A few hours after Big Stone and Stevens counties were hit, storms packing high winds and heavy rains swept across the Twin Cities metro area, downing trees and power lines and knocking out electricity for thousands of households. Some streets also flooded.
While those aid dollar numbers for Big Stone County may not seem big to readers in the big city, we remind our "Evil" Metro friends that with only slightly more than 5000 residents, Big Stone County leaders have already picked the loose change from our communal couch, and a little walking around money to fix storm damage to public property is a big help.
It's nice that DFL leadership in the legislature and governor's office came up with this common sense means to quickly address natural disasters without having to bring lawmakers back to the state capitol. Special session can now be reserved for shenanigans and poison pills in omnibus bills.
Photo: The National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center's map of Storm Reports for June 13, 2017. Look at those livid dots in Western Minnesota!
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