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LOCAL BRIEFS Bridges Career Academy likely eligible for money
ST. PAUL - Bridges Career Academy, the school-business partnership being promoted by the Brainerd Lakes Area Chambers of Commerce, likely would be eligible for money included in the House DFL education bill unveiled this week.
No money is specifically pegged for the pilot project.
Rep. John Ward, DFL-Brainerd, said the pilot project would examine academic and career-related opportunities available to rural high school students. It would be a three-year project involving the Brainerd, Crosby-Ironton, Staples-Motley, Pillager and Pequot Lakes school districts, Central Lakes College and participating business partners.
Ward said lawmakers were receptive to the idea of high schools, colleges and businesses working together to help students find good-paying jobs in outstate Minnesota.
Other components of the bill proposed by Ward included calling for a half-credit of physical education or health as a graduation requirement. He also proposed a request for a fund transfer for the Brainerd School District.
Ward said the total DFL House bill calls for $920 million for Minnesota schools, providing a 3 percent increase in each of the next two years. Special education funding also would be increased, he said.
Lawmakers eye Cass County ER hospital
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Minnesota's two U.S. senators and Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., are working together to clear obstacles for the establishment of a critical access hospital in Walker.
Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., has introduced a bill that would allow the Ah-Gwah-Ching medical campus to be designated as a critical access hospital. Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., attached an amendment to the 2007 supplemental appropriations bill that would exempt the Walker hospital from a minimum distance rule.
The House bill is designed to remedy the fact that people living in north-central Cass County haven't had a hospital emergency room nearby since 1975 when the hospital in Walker closed. Oberstar said in a statement that those seeking emergency hospital care have had to travel up to an hour or more to hospitals in Park Rapids, Bemidji, Deer River, Crosby, Staples or Brainerd.
Last year state legislation was passed to transform the Ah-Gwah-Ching long-term care facility into a medical campus, anchored by a 25-bed hospital. Current federal law, however, states that a critical access hospital must be located at least 35 miles from the nearest hospital and the Ah-Gwah-Ching center is 31.9 miles from the Park Rapids Hospital.
"The law does not take into account the difficulty of traveling in a northeast Minnesota winter," Oberstar said.
The congressman expects the bill to win passage in the House this year.
According to Coleman's news release, Cass County is one of only three counties in Minnesota without a hospital within its borders.
Ward to vote no on wine in grocery stores bill
Rep. John Ward, DFL-Brainerd, said Thursday he expects to vote no on a bill that would allow the sale of wine in grocery stores. Previously Ward said he was undecided.
Among the reasons he cited were the increased exposure of alcohol to young people and recovering alcoholics.
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