Dear Friends,
Next week I'm looking forward to having my good friend Rep. Bob Gunther and my colleagues from the House Greater Minnesota Economic and Workforce Development Committee here in Willmar. We are meeting at 10AM on Tuesday, November 3rd at the MinnWest Campus (The WORK UP building 1601 Technology Drive NE).
I wanted to share two things with the committee: 1. How big Nova-tech, Life Sciences and Willmar Poultry campus has been for our region and 2. The locally funded KCEO program for high school juniors and seniors from three local school districts.
This program allows students to create their own businesses, talk to owners and operators and the impact and life style being an entrepreneur can be like. Tyler Gehrking will be giving us an overview of the program. I think this is a great economic development program for future years in rural MN as we look to address workforce issues and ensuring strong rural economies.
MARRCH award
Earlier this week I was truly honored to receive a "Legislator of the Year" award along with Sen. Melisa Franzen from the Minnesota Association of Resources for Recovery & Chemical Health. I'm so darn proud of the bipartisan work the legislature was able to do this year on chemical dependency; we increased the reimbursement rate for chemical dependency treatment which will hopefully make it more widely available, made sure that first responders have access to narcan, a live-saving overdose-prevention drug, and more. This is an issue that it deeply personal for me and I'm willing to work with anyone and everyone, DFL or GOP to make progress on this.
Our work is never done. There's always more progress to be made and please know I am working hard on broadband in our area, mental health discussions and transportation. I will report on the progress and what I’m doing in a future e-mail.
Have a great weekend! And to the many trick-or-treaters….may your pumpkin pails be over-flowing! Be safe!
Call or email anytime. Thanks again for the privilege of serving as your Rep!
Dave
Dave Baker
State Representative, District 17B
651-296-6206
rep.dave.baker@house.mn
www.facebook.com/RepDaveBaker
www.twitter.com/DaveBakerMN