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For Washington County, Legislature had ups, downs

Washington County appears to have won funding for a key trail bridge and gained power to develop bus transit. But some projects were left out of the bonding bill.

By Jim Anderson

May 25, 2013 at 4:45AM

The Minnesota Zephyr dinner train sits on rails that will removed this summer when construction begins on Browns Creek State Trail. The train is parked at the north end of downtown Stillwater where customers boarded for 23 years. ORG XMIT: MIN2013052210443137 (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

The Legislature came to its usual jumbled and frenetic conclusion last week and, like many constituencies, Washington County had its own wish list. Some issues did not go its way, but others did.

Brown's Creek Trail crossing: The county requested $1.5 million to design and build a bridge for hikers and bicyclists on Brown's Creek Trail where it crosses Manning Avenue (County Road 15) on the border of Stillwater and Grant. John Kaul, who lobbies for the county at the Capitol, said he has been assured by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR), which has some leeway in how funds in the bill are spent, that the project will be funded when the final list is compiled by the agency.

The funding is included in the hard-fought Legacy Bill that determines where the money raised through a three-eighths of 1 percent sales tax created by the Legacy Amendment is spent.

The trail, built on the right-of-way of the former Minnesota Zephyr rail line, connects downtown Stillwater and the Gateway Trail, the most heavily used recreational trail in the state.

Point Douglas Trail: Another hard-fought piece of legislation, the on-again, off-again bonding bill, ultimately left out a $2 million request from the county to complete a trail link between Washington and Dakota counties. Many other projects across the state were stripped out of the final bill as well.

The county owns the corridor for a trail being developed along Hwy. 61 from Point Douglas Park at the confluence of the St. Croix and Mississippi rivers west to the new Hastings Bridge. But there is a quarter-mile gap between that planned trail and those being developed across the river in Dakota County.

With construction of the new $120 million Hastings Bridge, the county made the case that it's a good time and use of tax dollars to close that gap and link the trail systems. The funding request — to build bridges, retaining walls and paving — also was supported by Dakota County and the National Park Service.

Gateway Corridor development: Also left out of the bonding bill was a $1 million request to pay for preliminary engineering work on the Gateway Corridor, a transit pathway along Interstate 94 between downtown St. Paul and the St. Croix. "I'm very disappointed about that, obviously," said state Sen. Susan Kent, DFL-Woodbury.

Last fall, the Gateway Corridor Commission, the panel overseeing development of the corridor, identified bus-rapid transit as the preferred transit mode after a lengthy study, although light rail is still under consideration as well. The next step, a draft environmental impact statement, is to be completed in 2014, followed by the preliminary engineering. That, in turn, is expected to take two years.

As with the Point Douglas Trail link, Kaul said, there will be another chance in the 2014 Legislature to get those projects back in a bonding bill.

Transit governance: The legal powers of the Washington County Regional Rail Authority (which comprises the County Board) were expanded under a bill authored in the Senate by Kent and Sen. Karin Housley, R-Stillwater.

The new law was needed because, as the name implies, the rail authority only had the power to develop rail transit, Kent said. With bus-rapid transit emerging as a stronger option in both the Gateway Corridor and Red Rock Corridor along the county's southwest edge from Hastings to St. Paul, and the Rush Line already connecting St. Paul and Forest Lake, the agency needed to be able to oversee that mode of transit as well.

Redistricting: The county won a technical correction to change Senate District 39 in Stillwater Township that affects only 12 voters, but was a costly administrative nightmare for both the township and the county, Kaul said.

The 2011 state redistricting plan divided the township into two House districts, 39A and 39B, with 12 people in 39B and the rest in 39A. The legislation adjusts the boundary to follow the line dividing the city of Stillwater and the township, allowing the township to become a single election precinct.

Local government aid: The tax bill changed the formula for distributing local government aid, lowering the number of variables from 17 to seven, giving Twin Cities suburbs a larger slice of the total pie. Three cities in Washington County that haven't gotten local government aid in years — Oakdale ($106,148), Cottage Grove ($56,690) and Forest Lake ($56,064) — will be getting money from the state, figures from the Legislature show.

Other cities, including Newport, Lakeland, Willernie and Lake St. Croix Beach, will see modest increases in aid. Three others will see significant increases: Stillwater ($394,432 more), St. Paul Park ($316,589) and Bayport ($148,193). Others, including Woodbury, Afton, Scandia and Grant, are still left out.

Jim Anderson • 651-925-5039

Lobbyist John Kaul said he has been assured by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources that the Brown’s Creek Trail project will be on the agency’s funding list. The project on the former Minnesota Zephyr rail line (right) has been started with the removal of the rails (left). (The Minnesota Star Tribune)