Capital Investment Committee hears dozens of bonding requests; adopts maintenance-plan amendment

The Minnesota House Capital Investment Committee convened for a multi-hour hearing that featured presentations from college presidents, city officials and industry partners seeking state bonding for campus renovations, public works and local infrastructure projects.

Committee members heard requests that ranged from a $34.8 million renovation at Saint Paul College to smaller municipal projects such as a $300,000 heated public-works garage in Rainier, and regional infrastructure proposals including a $7 million wastewater upgrade for Pine City and an $8 million ask for St. Louis County’s Progress Parkway in Eveleth.

The presentations aimed to explain scope, need and local contributions. Dee Dee Peasley, president of Saint Paul College, asked support for $34,800,000 in bonding to fund a campus-wide Academic Excellence Project, saying the funding would "transform over 150,000 square feet of our campus" and address long-delayed deferred maintenance. Peasley described Saint Paul College as a long-standing workforce pipeline with "over 11,000 credit and non-credit students," and said the project would create a centralized student-services “Main Street” and modernize space built in the 1960s.

Alexandria Technical and Community College President Michael Seymour outlined a transportation-technology project aimed at replacing a 1960s-era building that supports the college’s diesel technology and transportation programs. Industry partner Anne LaPorte, vice president of human…