Please view this video from a recent hearing at the State Capital on a proposal to pave the river bottoms that has made its way into the Bonding Bill that will be taken up at the Special Session. Some representations are made to legislators and the public about the proposal. Here are the FACTS: This is NOT a "clarification" of the 2013 bonding bill, which simply awarded about $2M to the river trail project without any specific requirements about the nature of that project. This IS a substantive change to Minnesota law, namely Minn. Stat. 85.015, which to date has not required that ANY section of the Minnesota River Valley State Trail be paved. Several sections are in fact UNPAVED. No one is "confused" about what is going on here. It is obvious that Rep. Lenczewski is simply trying to force through a paved trail without having a public debate about the merits of such a project, which would be built in a floodplain that has seen major flooding six of the past ten years. Over 3100 people have signed a petition requesting that this one section of the trail be UNPAVED. There is no significant public support for a paved trail through Bloomington. Rep. Tom Hackbarth introduced a bill (HF 1168) to require that the section of the trail between Bloomington Ferry Bridge and the Cedar Avenue Bridge be UNPAVED. The bill was heard and approved by two committees, but stalled due to the actions of Rep. Lenczewski. Instead of hearing that bill or trying to amend it, Rep. Lenczewski tried at the very end of the legislative session to tack her same "paved trail" language onto a tax bill, again with no public hearing. All that Rep. Lenczewski did was take HF 1168 and change the language from "unpaved" to "paved." This effort failed because the bill obviously has nothing to do with taxes. Contrary to Rep. Lenczewski's representations, there is no existing legislation requiring a "two trail" system with both paved and natural surface trails, and the language now proposed by Rep. Lenczewski in the bonding bill DOES NOT create that requirement. It easily could have incorporated that requirement if that were truly the intent of Rep. Lenczewski, the Legislature or the DNR, but it does not. The bill just requires a paved trail, period. There has never been a public hearing at the state capital on the issue of whether or not the Bloomington section of this State recreational trail should be paved or not. Rep. Lenczewski in fact does not want a public hearing because she knows that far more people are opposed to a paved trail than are supporters. This is not a "no money" bill because a paved trail will require far more money to construct than the $2M already awarded. Government estimates say that a paved trail will cost $500,000 per mile. Preliminary plans show upwards of 20 miles of paved trails. Do the math. The section of trail from the Bloomington Ferry Bridge to Cedar Avenue alone is about seven miles. Rep. Lenczewski has not told you that she will be back asking for more millions to finish this ill-advised paving project. The project cost will also include construction of a major concrete bridge at Nine Mile Creek that according to the DNR will have to be able to carry heavy construction and paving equipment to the west to build the trail. The bridge alone will cost in the neighborhood of $1M. Meanwhile, existing bridges throughout the state that are used by thousands of citizens daily stand in need of repair or replacement. Instead, Rep. Lenczewski proposes that we build a new bridge and paved trail that will be under water at least every other year. http://youtu.be/RFnuxXJRMVQ