One month into the legislative session, a deadline for bills to be heard in committee so they can move toward consideration or be incorporated into an omnibus bill is looming. Representative Kristi Pursell (D-Northfield) of District 58A said she has been working over the past week to get confirmation from committee chairs that three bills she has authored or signed on to will be heard.
Pursell said she will present a bill before the House of Representatives Housing Committee this week that looks to protect those who are not able to live in their rented home due to radon gas.
Pursell said the bill stems from a specific case involving a student in Moorehead, who became ill from the effects of radon but could not break their lease.
“There’s a case of this happening up in Moorehead, so Senator Rob Kupec is carrying this over on the Senate side. There’s a student who basically suffered radon poisoning and is still in his lease. He could not get out of his lease, [even though his apartment was not inhabitable.] So that’s a bill I’ll have before the housing committee.”
Because she has two colleges in her district, and student housing is especially vulnerable to these situations, Pursell was a good fit to carry the bill through the House. The original version of the bill included penalties to landlords who do not act in good faith after radon is discovered in their rental units. However, she said, they have run out of time to present to the Judiciary or Health and Human Services committees, so the penalties have been removed from the bill in order to keep it moving through the legislature.
Another bill she has chief authored would establish better funding to incentivize farmers to practice more healthy soil and environmentally friendly farming techniques. Currently there are incentives for no till farming and for many different types of cover crops, and this bill would add $1 million to the fund. Pursell said the combination of techniques is what must be encouraged.
“There are lots of grants for that but we’re trying to set up maybe a little bit of a different system to get more farmers and growers to employ both the practices. It’s the no till and cover crop combination that’s really the 1-2 punch to sequester carbon and have clean water benefits.”
Pursell said this will be a busy week in the legislature leading up to the deadline, but things will calm down next week just before the Easter break.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Representative Kristi Pursell can be heard here
Need for NH+C Birth Center ‘writing was on the wall’
Amid some very gloomy news about the state of health care facilities in Minnesota, the Northfield Hospital Birth Center is going against the grain and has become a regional destination for women who are having a baby.
According to a report in the Minneapolis StarTribune, twenty-two Minnesota hospitals closed their Obstetrics Units between 2011 and 2021, which was the most of any state in the country. And since then, more birth centers, including those in Hastings and New Prague have closed as well. Northfield Hospital + Clinics President and CEO Steve Underdahl said the closings are happening because of declining birth rates and, for many communities, aging populations.
“Lots of smaller towns and smaller medical centers are needing to consolidate or in some cases eliminate their birth and delivery services for a variety of reasons. It’s hard to get staff. It’s hard to get enough births to meet some minimum levels for demographic shift reasons.”
During that same 2011-2021 time period, Northfield Hospital decided to invest both time and resources into its own birth center by updating its rooms and amenities. Underdahl said the updates included adding a water birth suite, larger more comfortable rooms to accommodate families and en suite surgery, and adding a midwife program, which now offers service 24-hours a day.
With renovations completed in 2020, and the challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic behind them, more than 600 babies were born at the birth center in 2023.
The changing times have forced the way people approach planning the birth of their child as well. In years past it was very unusual for a woman to have a baby at a facility that wasn’t close to their home, but Underdahl said that is no longer the case.
“We have patients that travel up to 50 miles to come here to have their baby. When you and I were at that stage of life, hardly anybody went out of their hometown unless they lived in a really tiny town to have their baby. So this is a a relatively new phenomenon.”
Underdahl said NH+C personnel saw the trend coming and were strategic in making the decision to expand. That decision was indeed the correct one. The number of births at the hospital is expected to grow in the coming years. There are 70 anticipated births in May, and he said they could eventually accommodate as many as 1000 births a year.
Highway 19 project will run April to October
Editor’s Note: Please note the location of this open house has been moved to the Bridgewater Town Hall in Bridgewater Township. With just over a month until construction is set to begin on the six-legged roundabout at the Highway 19 and I-35 interchange, Rice County will hold an informational open house tomorrow (Tuesday) afternoon for county residents to learn the details of the project.
There will not be any formal presentations made at the meeting. Instead, attendees will be encouraged to look over the project and ask questions. As this is an open house format, attendees will be free to arrive or to leave at any time.
In October, the Board of Commissioners unanimously approved construction of the roundabout on the east side of Highway 19 at I-35. The project will connect the northbound I-35 on and off ramps with the highway. County Roads 46 and 59 will connect on either side of the highway as well. Work is set to start in late April and is expected to be complete by fall 2024.
While roundabouts can be unpopular with many people, as more have been built on state roadways, an understanding and acceptance of their usefulness has become more common. According to County Engineer Dennis Luebbe, roundabouts help maintain good traffic flow, and diminish the likelihood of side-impact collisions. In fact, MnDot estimates that roundabouts bring an 86% decrease in fatal crashes, an 83% decrease in life-altering injury crashes and a 42% overall decrease in the injury crash rate at an intersection.
The open house will run tomorrow from 4-6pm at the Bridgewater Townhall in Bridgewater Township. There will also be a virtual option for those unable to attend in person. ( Use Meeting ID 342 117 0614 and 1234 as the passcode.)
KYMN News 3/18/24
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
