About

MOWA has been extremely active in the public policy arena in 2018. Perhaps the most interesting effort was to put the road restrictions into law, thus avoiding the need to each year petition the Governor’s Office.

Thanks to the efforts of many MOWA supporters, but most noticeably Lori Ende and Brian Koski, MOWA was able to get a hearing on a bill that would have solved the problem and permit MOWA trucks to service the public before road restrictions came off. Authors were obtained in both the House and Senate, and the lobby firm of Capitol Connections was retained.

Several individuals testified at the House hearing, and Board member Cindy Tiemann added a particular professionalism due to her background as a registered nurse. She and others noted the emergency aspect of the situation in winter when a system has to be repaired or cleaned out, and cited a petition process in the municipalities that was sometimes delayed and thus the cause of public health concerns.

By the time the effort was done, negotiations were underway with the Minnesota Department of Transportation and the MPCA. A compromise was reached and the bill proceeded. We appreciated the attention and support of both agencies.

The bill passed in the House, and the Conference Committee of the Senate and House included it in the Omnibus Bill. Unfortunately, as is widely known, the Governor vetoed that bill with its hundreds of provisions, including ours, failing to become law.

MOWA wants to thanks all the parties involved with passing the bill, and appreciates the authorship of Representative Lucero and Senator Bruce Anderson from the Buffalo, MN area, and Representative Lucero from the Dayton, MN area.

Link to determine Legislative District using home address: http://www.gis.leg.mn/OpenLayers/districts/