Dear Neighbors,
I hope you’re having an enjoyable summer. I recently had the opportunity to participate in the ribbon cutting for the Hilltop at Signal Hills and Legacy Commons in West St. Paul. In total, these projects include 400 units of housing for low-income Minnesotans, including veterans, families, seniors, and those with disabilities. The significant investments in each of these projects represent the continued revitalization of Robert Street while creating much-needed housing capacity in our community.
Air Quality Grants
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is offering grants to small businesses, governmental agencies, educational institutions, and non-governmental organizations to reduce air pollution. $89,000 is available for projects that will reduce air emissions. Projects to acquire different equipment, update processes, or switch to cleaner products can save organizations money and protect the health of their employees and neighbors.
The maximum grant award is $25,000 per applicant. Applicants proposing projects at their own organization must match at least 25% of the total project cost. Applicants applying for funding to work with outside businesses do not have a match requirement.
Learn more here from the MPCA.
Reminder: Frontline Worker Pay Deadline
This session, lawmakers invested $500 million worth of bonus pay to frontline workers who faced an increased exposure to COVID-19 during some of the darkest days of the pandemic. Many of these workers in fields such as health care, child care, first response, food, retail, and others didn’t have the opportunity to work from home. The deadline for eligible workers to apply for this bonus pay is this Friday at 5 p.m.
The state has also issued preliminary guidance regarding the appeals process. Any denials will be communicated by email, anticipated to be sent on August 16. Workers denied will have 15 days to appeal and further information will be available at the Department of Labor and Industry’s Frontline Worker Pay Toolkit.
New Report on CWD Testing
Earlier this week, Nature.com published a peer-reviewed report regarding diagnostic tools for the visual detection of amplified misfolded prion proteins from tissues of wild white-tailed deer infected with chronic wasting disease (CWD). From the abstract:
"We hypothesize that electrostatic forces help govern the AuNP/prion interactions and conclude that MN-QuIC has great potential for sensitive, field-deployable diagnostics for CWD, with future potential diagnostic applications for a variety of proteopathies."
Read the entire report here.
Last Update
Due to state law, incumbent legislators aren’t allowed to send information through the postal mail or email from the Capitol after a certain time in an election year. Unfortunately, this applies to my email updates, and as a result, this will be my last one this summer. I hope you’ve found these updates valuable and informative, and I hope you look forward to receiving them again later this year.
While I’m prohibited from sending these newsletters, I still want to hear from you directly. If you have any questions or feedback for me, please feel free to email me at rep.rick.hansen@house.mn or call (651) 296-6828. I look forward to seeing you in the community including at events like National Night Out/Night to Unite.
Have a great summer.
Sincerely,
Rick Hansen
State Representative