By Mike Kaszuba

The man whose legislative panel brought a halt to the drive for a new Minnesota Vikings stadium earlier this year was not all that concerned with the impact of the Metrodome's roof collapse. "When you have storms of this type of magnitude, things happen," said Rep. Gene Pelowski, DFL-Winona, the outgoing chair of the House State and Local Government Reform, Technology and Elections Committee. Pelowski headed up the panel last May when it voted 10 to 9 to against a stadium plan that would have used taxes now being collected to help pay for Minneapolis' convention center to help pay for the stadium. The vote, coming just days after the proposal was introduced, killed the stadium's chances in the last legislative session. At the hearing, Pelowski said he had only agreed to give the plan a hearing because he had been asked by DFL leaders, and he gave the Vikings an icy reception during the meeting. The Vikings, he said, came before the panel with a plan "that wasn't ready." So now, with the collapse of the roof at the Metrodome on Sunday, did Pelowski think there might be a surge for a new stadium? [The Vikings have played in the Metrodome for the past 28 years]. "I don't know if it exacerbates it or not," said Pelowski, who is losing his chairmanship now that Republicans have gained a majority in the House. The roof collapse, he said, "doesn't make a difference as to what happened in either the last legislation session or I think what may or may not happen in this one. "I don't think the roof changes it one way or the other," he added.