coming up on oakdale update we'll chat with senator chuck waiter about the recent legislative session we'll take a look at a unique parks and rec program and we'll talk about that or eat way toward or stay tuned oakdale update is straight yet there's been different plan submitted and it's likely that the judge judges will decide and submit their final recommendation and sometime in early two thousand and twelve  so we certainly hope that oakdale will be a part of that a couple of the plans to have that's all will proceed that it's a part of the district so i'm doing oakdale maplewood north st paul is a district right now and  product of the local school district six twenty two and then i intially went to hamlin and i'm a lawyer i work in addition to my work at the state legislature i work at security and financial in the  of partment in the financial services area five kids that are grown a couple of grandchildren and i love to camp then travel with i get some spare time and particularly up north in minnesota which i'm sure isn't very mission one accomplished the balanced budget so it would get a low rating in incomplete and the special session which was called in mid july after the shutdown which were where of  to close a one point four billion gap i believe it one of the one of them was increasing school funding shift by seven hundred million and the other seven hundred million and barnes are the future tobacco settlement can you explain that and what does it mean to the communities that players get the we have to have a balanced budget first of all and saw in order to do that the republicans who are in charge of the the senate in terms of the number of people in organization you know they have the majority and they said very clearly there won't be any tax increases that said and with various program cuts that were being made there was the negotiations primarily between governor dayton and the republican leadership as to how we can get this deal done the republicans recommended the shift you know two main things the shift in school funding and that means the amount of money that is due to the school district is going to be still owed but they're only going to give sixty cents on the so they call it the shift it's a fur payment it's a promise to help cushion that they gave school districts some additional money to help pay any interest costs it's a bit ironic i voted against it i think i'd rather be direct and up front about the needs to pay for them having we have had shifts before ninety percent payment has been responsible because then we settle up the accounts at the end of the year because based on number of students that me left the district or moved and there's we base it on factors like that so they would adjust the books but sixty percent way too far that was the largest part of the close that gap payne school district less front sixty cents on the dollar with the promise to pay later in statute in  law the other was on the tobacco proceeds that we received in the settlement several years ago through the attorney general's leadership and there had been the settlement with the tobacco money  the program calls for you know millions of dollars that come to the state that part of it goes and tobacco suspicion programs there's others you know various grant programs but you  use that money to address the objective of the hazards of smoking and that's what it was how we received that money and the concern that it was doing to the public health the proposal that the republicans offered and what governor dayton reluctantly agreed to which i voted against will say hey we're going to now borrow or issue bonds and the money that we get from the states so money that the debacle companies pledged to us and there was some six to seven hundred million dollars a pocket of money that we want to get now  and that would be bonded in the process of working that out but we're going to have to repay those bonds and so to me it's a gimmick it's very poor public policy a number of people have and i have a number constituents i don't think the majority feel this way you know that my way or no wade but they would wear pennies on their look tell very proudly and say not a penny more but frank that what would happen then people would come from their are getting some assistance from the state we're not talking about the irresponsible cheating sometimes that we might read about you know stamp that out but there's real programs people that  many public employees as well that work in an old dale that live in oakdale that are very proud to be state workers and there were significant cuts being proposed there  close down to see people that you know provide services for people in our you know veterans homes or providing assistance to them in drivers  day that we needed to end it and so the compromise was ugly but necessary to get the state back back to work ok were you involved with the compromise behind the scenes and if you were would you tell us what was what it was like yes yes i was involved i attended meetings nearly every day and i was involved primarily on state government issues i'm the lead democrat for state agencies and also earlier and some of the bills were not controversial but the budget bills had a number of policy provisions as well because usually the money is tied to some type of policy and so we would go through all of these provisions and in the hundreds of pages of the agreements are different bills proposals that did become law and you can see see these by going to the state web site or to my web site and and we would negotiate different provisions as a part of the whole deal and i sat next to governor dayton maybe four or five times when and they would call a sin ok next education error come back again on this and then we would work on details and then we also knew that it's going to settle at some point and everyone wanted to get it over though there was a faction that said keep it going but we did know too about a bonding bill that  for projects in various districts and so we're working on that too and you know knowing that that would probably follow so working on nafta and now yes i was involved and i did enjoy it you know some people said you know hang in there you do your best and i think now that we've gotten through the shutdown and further exponent explanation of what happened and opportunities like this people understand well i think goodness it's over but they also understand it's something that's happening around the country and and you know we as we get through you know the frustration of the recession and just getting through it and it was twenty they're century so looking very forward to that and so there was some good news from the one i know you guys worked on that for a long chalk we are so a lot of time it's a four here so thank you for joining us and we'll do a supplemental show another time recreation department has found a unique way to offer kids a free activity during the summer here is the story throughout the summer a vehicle that looks an awful lot like an ambulance has been spotted at various parks in oakdale don't worry though no one is hurt the vehicle in question is the it's small below this is the first summer the us program has used this vehicle during their programming we inherited this truck from the fire department and it's an old ambulance and we have our recreation guy there he's at discover a that's our mascot so we thought it would be nice to put him on there and when we got the truck we just decided it needed a change at oakdale recreation coordinator mike anderson tells us more about and we have four locations right now monday through thursday and just office people free recreation audi one of the most popular parts of the its program is the video games kids can play at the back of the truck but there are also plenty of chances to get exercise during the sessions each week we have a different theme this week stalled race to the finish so our instructor is have what we have set up over here just different races an obstacle course that the ki mid august for a list of times and locations visit the city of oakdale website it's time for a short break but first here's this month's trivia question the city recently revised its adopt a wetland program it's an environmental stewardship program where community groups homeowners associations businesses school groups or other interested individuals can volunteer to help with the improvement and upkeep of a particular wetland  pond lake or waterway in the city our trivia question is how many wetlands are located in the city are there seventy three one hundred seventy three or two hundred seventy three we'll have the answer later in the show we'll be right back with more of oakdale update in just a minute well i was elected to the washing county board of commissioners representing district five in a special election in two thousand and eight i have i represent most of woodbury and i've lived in one very for about fourteen years i'm proud of the twin cities i was born in minneapolis and i do enjoy my duties as an elected official my private sector background includes medical device regulatory affairs and compliance experience for some of the major corporations in  it's certainly a major committee assignment i do enjoy the work it's very invigorating to talk with other individuals and elected officials community leaders who are dedicated to improving quality of life in our auclair so it is a ninety mile long corridor and to manage the study we've divided the corner into segments and so segment two begins with union depot in st paul and extends to hudson in wisconsin could you give us some statistics on the usage of the ninety four corridor in this point that's a great question because i ninety four is one of the most congested corners in the twin cities it has ninety thousand vehicles i that's why they could take transit and then not have to worry about parking ok now minneapolis and clear is included in that we're going to talk about the alternative elsa's nobody let's talk about that first what exactly is that and that is a study that will determine the best route and mode of transit if fixed transit improvements are deemed to be compatible with the corridor or some i know there's something like eat options are they any alternatives analysis correct or there's something like parts of wisconsin are included so that we can accurately determine ridership numbers because there are major business and academic institutions in wisconsin then to determine our writer ship into the twin cities our speak that's that's part of it and actually we are following the f t s guidelines and meeting their criteria for the study because ultimately we would like to receive federal grants you know if we do determine that we need capital to in wisconsin be included in the study and so we're very responsive to the f d a as him put ok we have to ask you about the water bridge yes how does that figure into your calculations it does impact i in that actually just released results of a study showing that the i ninety four st croix river crossing would reach be at or over capacity then within the next and one thousand years well i'm going to bet one hundred dollars that you were definitely bridge construction i do feel that right now i think everyone is in support of the new bridge i think the only issue is the style or size of the bridge and so on personally i think  elected officials from all of the municipalities along the corridor are ramsey county and washington county are in a joint powers agreement and we are the two funding partners and in the future depending on what the t for the study for the segment two in particular if we do have fixed transit extending into hudson wisconsin then wisconsin would be brought in as a possible funding partner that's what i want to ask you who's is a partner with us right now actually wisconsin has formed their own wisconsin gateway corner commission dan federally is the chair what he's in involved with ours is over here that is a separate group that was dancing gateway corner commission extends from auclair to hudson wisconsin however we do have a member of the wisconsin gateway commission is a partner and i and sits on the gateway commission in minnesota and  we will be working in the future to see if there's going to be fixed transit that would cross the bridge into hudson wisconsin and at that time we went be looking at whether or not wisconsin be an actual funding partner but we are also including federal appropriations for funding the washington county is a funding partner that counties transit improvement board sales tax revenue ramsey county regional rail authority as a funding partner along with the med coun total cost to construct a fixed transit line but we also are looking at just in past lanes or just additional bus capacity in dedicated lines as well are you frustrated  lot of work you know i'm actually not frustrated i'm very energized by this as the other transit corners are developed in the twin cities it's extremely important that the metropolitan area to consider and plan for regional equity and regional balance the east metro does not want to be left out of the transit ways relief factor heavily into economic development so we want our businesses in would be would be very oakdale and the thanks for watching