State bonding bill’s local impact

MANKATO, Minn. (KEYC) - The passing of the state’s bonding bill means good news for various projects across the state.

After months of negotiation and stalemate, Minnesota’s bonding bill has finally passed through the state legislature.

That gives the green light to multiple local projects, which have been waiting on state funding for years.

One such project is the replacement of MSU Mankato’s Armstrong Hall, which saw a visit from Governor Tim Walz last month to view and discuss the project.

The university says it’s a relief to finally see the funding pass through, and that the process to replace the old building has been moving for over a decade.

“We have had two previous asks for the planning money, and so we’re very excited and quite delighted that the legislature is funding the planning money and moving us forward in this project.”

MSU was allocated nearly eight and a half million dollars to go through the planning process, and the college plans on asking for development money once the plans are complete in a few years.

The city of Mankato is also receiving money for preparing and upgrading the city’s Regional Water Resource Recovery Facility, upgrades that the city says are long overdue.

“Right now the facility is in such a state that some of our staff are very ingenuitive, and they’ve taken broken pieces of the plant to local fabricators and have said ‘can you make us one of these? It doesn’t have to last forever but we need it to last for a bit.”

The plant is responsible for the treatment of waste water from across the southern Minnesota region.

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