By Brent Schacherer
Members of the Capital Investment Committee of the Minnesota House of Representatives are scheduled to visit Litchfield Friday to hear about the city’s request to have its proposed wastewater system upgrades included in the 2008 bonding bill.
Litchfield is considering a $14 million upgrade that would help the wastewater system better handle an anticipated increase in volume from First District Association’s dairy processing plant and to meet increasingly stringent requirements from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
Of course, Litchfield is not alone in its quest for state money. It is one of 251 wastewater projects currently on the Capital Investment Committee’s docket, according to Rep. Dean Urdahl, R-Grove City, a member of the panel.
Urdahl said he expects about 20 people — legislators and staff members — to attend Friday’s meeting, scheduled for 4:45 p.m. at City Hall, 126 Marshall Ave. N. Litchfield is the last stop of the day for the committee, which will spend three days this week touring the state to hear requests for state financial assistance for capital projects from various governmental units.
Friday’s meeting will be the second of three that Litchfield officials have with state leaders in an effort to explain their project and why it deserves to rise to the top of the list among municipal wastewater funding proposals. Another key meeting is scheduled for Nov. 9, when the Senate Capital Investment Committee, including Sen. Steve Dille, R-Dassel, visits the city.
Minnesota Finance Commissioner Tom Hanson visited Litchfield in September to discuss the project with Wastewater Superintendent David Cziok, City Administrator Bruce Miller and other city leaders.
Miller called that meeting “exceptional” and said he thought Hanson listened well to the city’s needs. But Miller also said the city effort was a “fairly bold stroke” and said the city would take nothing for granted in their effort.
The same may be said about Friday’s meeting. It’s a positive step to earn a visit from the Capital Investment Committee, but even Urdahl is making no assumptions.
“I think, for various reasons, (the committee) will have to look favorably on this,” Urdahl said. “But nothing is certain.”
Litchfield’s request could earn higher ranking among legislators because of its regional impact. Though it is a city wastewater system, Litchfield Wastewater Department processes the waste from a significant regional economic force in First District Association.
The dairy cooperative receives and processes milk from about 1,150 farms in 30 counties, according to CEO Clint Fall. The region reaches from St. Cloud in the north to northern Iowa in the south.
The city would like legislators and Gov. Tim Pawlenty to see Litchfield’s request for approximately half the cost of the upgrade as an economic development package, as it would be a boost to the state’s dairy industry.
“Spending a few million dollars here will bring back a significant return, not only for Litchfield but for farmers, implement dealers, grocery stores ... all around the area,” Miller said last month.
Another Urdahl in the House
Speaking of Rep. Urdahl (sort of), there’s a new Republican voice at the state Capitol these days that will sound very similar to that of the Grove City legislator.
Chad Urdahl, a 1999 Litchfield High School graduate, recently was hired as a communications specialist for House Republicans. Urdahl, a former sports writer for the Hutchinson Leader and Owatonna Free Press, had spent the past two years in mortgage banking before losing his job when the bottom fell out of that industry.
He called his new job more a result of timing than an entrance into the political arena.
“For now, it’s a return to writing,” Urdahl said. “Let’s just say that I have a deep appreciation for what my dad does, but when you see the challenges it presents him ... I’ll let him do what he does, and I’ll let people know what he’s doing.”
Urdahl, 35, is one of four communications specialists for the Republican caucus. He is in charge of issuing press releases and other communications for representatives from Hutchinson (Ron Shimanski) to Fergus Falls (Bud Norness) and beyond, including his father.
“I’ll just be making sure that what goes on down here gets reported back to hometowns and be that conduit (between House Republicans and the media),” Urdahl said.
The halls of the capital are getting crowded with Urdahls. Along with Rep. Dean, and now communications specialist/son Chad, there’s a third family member making his living in St. Paul. Brent Urdahl is a lobbyist for the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association.
Nation’s capital had feel of home
It truly is a small world.
During the Education Minnesota break last week, my family and I traveled to Washington, D.C., to visit family and tour the nation’s capital.
One of our last stops was the White House, which was drawing quite a crowd for an early Sunday morning. As we lined up photos through the fence at the south lawn of the White House, a friend who lives in the D.C. area and has seen the White House many times, struck up a conversation with a uniformed Secret Service officer. Moments later, he told me, “He’s from Minnesota.”
I walked over to meet the young man, who informed me his name was Scott Biel, from Browerville, Minn. When I told him we were from Litchfield, he offered a slight smile.
“I was born in the Litchfield hospital,” he said, as my jaw dropped in disbelief. He went on to tell us that he still has some family in the area.
Our conversation ended a short time later, as he (obviously) had important work to tend to, and we had more sights to see.
But it was an interesting reminder that no matter how far from home you think you are, there’s always something — or someone — to make you feel like home isn’t so far away after all.
Brent Schacherer can be reached at editor@independentreview.net.