Wrapping up the Trip

Tuesday I attended the Opening Session which featured four speakers but I only had time to hear Karen Mills, Administrator of the Small Business Administration and then we had to head up to Capitol Hill for our scheduled meetings.

We spent time during the day meeting with the staff of Senator Klobuchar and Franken and with Betty McCollum and staff. Neither Senator was available for the meeting but we did get a chance to speak to them briefly later on in the trip. We did have about an hour to spend with Betty McCollum. We presented the same information to all three offices which highlighted a surface water project at Gervais Pond, phase two of the Fire Fighter Training Center, and a energy proposal at the City Hall campus.

The Gervais Pond project is tied to the replacement of the stop light at English and Highway 36. The pond has seasonal flooding and impairment issues which need to be resolved before the actual intersection project can proceed.

We were a little handicapped on Phase two of the fire Training Facility due to the fact that Governor Pawlenty had line item vetoed the final funding of Phase one on Monday. But we introduced the concept and told them we would be back.

The city campus energy project is a concept of photovoltaic, wind power, and geothermal energy. We want to explore all of these options but first need to do some engineering studies to determine which form of energy generation or what combination of systems would work best for our situation. No matter what the results of the study indicate, a project that could provide for all of the city campus energy and possibly more would be expensive, and we would need every grant or earmark we can get.

There was a reception for everyone back at the convention that evening which was capped off with a performance of The Capitol Steps. If you ever get the chance I would certainly recommend them. They pick on everyone and were extremely funny.

On Wednesday we attended Senator Franken's weekly breakfast and went to a gathering of the MN delegates from the convention and all of Minnesota's nationally elected officials. The officials who showed up spoke for five to ten minutes and answered some questions. After that we headed for the airport and home. It was an interesting trip and we learned some things that we will have to improve on for the lobbying side of the trip. The convention was worthwhile both from the learning opportunities and the networking side. I would guess that we will go again next year but for now it is nice to be back in Maplewood.