This transcript features Mayor Myron Bailey hosting a press conference regarding federal funding for the 80th Street project, featuring Representative Angie Craig and Washington County Commissioner Karla Bigham. [0:00] **[Music/Intro]** [0:34] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** This is another one of these exciting moments where we get to talk about some great funding that's going back to the citizens of Cottage Grove and the state of Minnesota. And so before we get started with some of the remarks and then turning it over to Representative Angie Craig, I just wanted to introduce a few people that are joining me behind. I will also mention right behind me is one of our council members, and then we have Senator Judy Seeberger right behind me on this side. We have—or actually Rick isn't here at the moment—we have Washington County Commissioner Karla Bigham right here. We have Representative Shane Hudella on my other side here. And then also obviously our guest here is Representative Angie Craig. We are excited to be here today to discuss the important contributions that will make driving around Cottage Grove a great experience. I want to start by thanking Representative Angie Craig for her instrumental work on different projects within the city. This is one of many, actually, that you've been working with on us. This particular—the project that was before this, you did help secure three million dollars to help fund some of the infrastructure at the shops at Cottage View. And then today we are gathered here in part to recognize the five million dollars in federal funding that she secured for the last portion of the ongoing 80th Street projects. Segments of 80th Street have been identified for improvements since 2012. Two of these three segments were completed in 2016 and 2020, which brings us to this final segment of the road from Highway 61 to Ideal Avenue near Park High School. We are so appreciative of Representative Craig's support on what is a key transportation route through the heart of Cottage Grove. 80th Street connects 24,000 vehicles per day along with hundreds of pedestrians and bicyclists who use the sidewalks and the trails to access both homes, businesses, and schools. There's over 600 multi-family housing units in this area along with 300 senior housing units and, as I mentioned, the schools, the library, the ice arena, and of course access to Highway 61. And this is the city's largest and busiest commercial area within Cottage Grove. The funding we're recognizing today will be used for pavement replacement and signal improvements to enhance the condition and the safety of the roadway as well as adding ADA improvements for all pedestrian facilities along the corridor. Improving the stretch of road would lead to new business and development in the city, which will in turn lead to creating more jobs and allowing for more opportunity to shop local. The actual project itself creates construction jobs and obviously boosts our local economy. Considering that federal funding means financial savings for our residents and businesses, this is a situation where everybody wins. Completing this project is critical to support ongoing development and redevelopment of commercial businesses and high-density housing in this thriving area of our community. It is easy to draw a line that connects this road project to the economic vitality for the city. And I will just mention before I turn it over to Representative Craig, this particular area—since we've been talking about doing 80th Street and finishing off the reconstruction of 80th—we have had numerous commercial and housing developers that are looking at coming to Cottage Grove. They want to be in that area, so it is also going to increase our tax base which obviously is going to benefit everybody too. So, without further ado, I do want to once again just personally thank Representative Angie Craig and I'm going to let her make some comments. So here you go. [4:09] **Representative Angie Craig:** Thank you. Well first of all, Mayor, has everyone, anyone, whatever, told you you sort of have a voice that should be on the radio or on TV or something? I think I never realized it until I heard you speak here today. It's great to be with everyone here this afternoon and I am so proud to represent Cottage Grove in the United States Congress. I'm excited to be here today of course with Mayor Bailey, with Commissioner Bigham, with City Administrator Levitt, with members of the city council, and of course our representative—excuse me, not Representative, Senator Judy Seeberger behind me here. I am so pleased to be representing this district and fighting to bring our tax dollars home, and that's exactly how I think about the dollars that we are putting right here in Cottage Grove. Cottage Grove, as Mayor Bailey said, will be receiving five million dollars in federal funding to provide critical traffic safety upgrades across the city. My office receives a number of requests from city councils and mayors, from county commissions, from a number of organizations around the second district of Minnesota every single appropriations or budget cycle in the U.S. Congress. And my belief is that our local communities—elected leaders in our local communities—should be the determinant factor of what projects the Congress supports, the federal government supports. I've worked closely with Mayor Bailey, with the Council, the County Commission, to advocate and secure these funds, and I'm so proud that our hard work paid off. We'll be bringing these federal dollars home right where they belong, and that is with the people and the communities of Minnesota's second district. We know that investing in our infrastructure helps us build safer, more resilient communities. And my experience as someone who worked in the private sector for more than 20 years before I came to Congress is that when we have public sector investment, especially in infrastructure, it brings private sector investment as well—those businesses that we talked about, the local neighborhoods that will be evolving and developing as we build new homes right here in this community. I'd be willing to bet that everybody here today has driven down the 80th Street corridor right here in Cottage Grove recently, and maybe even today. So we all know that this corridor is such an important retail, commercial, and transportation hub. And as Myron said, 24,000 drivers a day. This 5 million in funding will help improve the safety and efficiency and accessibility. It also allows the city to upgrade traffic signals at major intersections. And if you know anything about my congressional office, if you can put a plan in front of me that improves safety in our communities from an infrastructure investment perspective, it zooms way up the list in terms of priorities at these major intersections in Cottage Grove, including Hardwood Avenue, East Point Douglas Road, Hinton Avenue, Hyde Avenue as well. Additionally, the city will now be able to replace that ailing infrastructure and make improvements along the corridor to ensure that it meets ADA standards as well. I'm so proud to work with Mayor Bailey and I just want to say to the community in Cottage Grove: you have such a great advocate for your priorities. You know, as a member of Congress, Mayor Bailey, he texts me, "Where are we on our funding?" I invite it. I welcome it. He's dogged in his advocacy for you. I could call it lobbying for your projects, but I'll just call it advocacy for you. And I can tell you that Senator Seeberger as well as Commissioner Bigham is such a great and dogged advocate for our communities as well. So I'd like to just mention one more thing before I turn things back over—I think I'm turning it over to Mayor Bailey again so that he can introduce our next speaker—but I also have been named in this Congress, the 118th Congress, as one of 12 House Democrats who will represent my region on something called the House Regional Leadership Council. This is a new arm of leadership that is going to work with the White House to help ensure that the major bills we've passed during the last Congress, like the bipartisan infrastructure law, are implemented effectively. And when they put me on this council, they knew that I'm going to tell the truth. And what that means is if the current administration is doing a great job with implementation, I'll tell them that and I'll tell you that. If there are improvements in implementation that we need to make, my local communities will be telling me that, and you better bet I'm going to communicate that to the White House as well. So in this new role, I'll serve as the regional leader for Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, and North and South Dakota. We've got to get this right. This is a major investment in our communities, the first in many decades in infrastructure funding. And so again, thank you all for allowing me to be here today just to celebrate this work. And with that, I'll pass things back to Mayor Bailey. And then I'll just end with: I told you once that I was off to Shakopee, I think I did it on TV; I told you the second time that I was off to Cottage Grove, and I have definitely delivered on that. And I will be here a number of times. So we'll just keep being here and doing the work. Thank you. **[Applause]** [8:37] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Again, I can't thank you, Representative Angie Craig. You know, one of the things that I think makes what's been going on these last few years specifically so special here in Cottage Grove is there's a real team atmosphere with working both our federal, state, and local level. And that has made all the difference in the world when we can share with the public, and with our elected officials, what's important to our community and how can we bring money back or do things that are going to benefit the lives of individual citizens. And so, as you heard a little bit of a fun mistake there, next to me here on my right is a former Senator, Karla Bigham, who has moved from the Senate and she is now a County Commissioner here in Washington County. So she is still kind of hanging out close to home, which is awesome. And so I just also want to say thank you for all of your support over the years and continued support at the county level. And again, really do appreciate everybody that's behind me here for all of the support that you've been giving to the citizens of Cottage Grove to make projects happen. So without further ado, I'll turn it over to our Washington County Commissioner, Karla Bigham. [9:47] **Commissioner Karla Bigham:** That's—I get over the mic. Thank you, Mayor. Congresswoman Angie Craig, you're 100% right: Minnesota is a net giver to D.C. and federal funds, and with the help of Congresswoman Craig, she is delivering back and making sure that our residents in the second congressional district are getting a return of their money. So we appreciate that. We appreciate your advocacy for this and we're lucky to have you up there. To Senator Seeberger and Representative Hudella, thank you for being here today. It's a very busy time for the legislature and I think it's good they're here today to see the need, right? The need for additional funding for infrastructure. And I know they're both working very hard at getting that bonding bill through and maybe some additional funding for roads and bridges. So we really appreciate your efforts. I grew up and my parents still live right off of 80th Street. Now while it's not a county road, it is a major road for our library, Park Grove Library—which stay tuned, we're going to be having some major renovations in the coming years for that—and also a major arterial road to Ravine Park down here. So it just goes to the partnership with the federal government and the state government that we all need to work together to deliver services for our shared constituency. And what you see here today is a strong partnership. Really appreciate the opportunity to be here today to provide some comments and just to say: let's keep this going. Let's keep this going and building this wonderful community. So thank you, Congresswoman Craig, and thank you, Mayor. [11:05] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Fantastic. Thank you. All right. **[Applause]** So with that, that in essence concludes the comments and suggestions and such within the 80th Street 5 million dollar project, at least the start of it. I will mention just so the public is aware, the five million dollars is not the total cost of the project, but that there is a cost share that the city is obviously doing and our citizens are paying for. But we truly do appreciate—the 5 million is going to go a long way to lessen the tax impact on our citizens. So with that, I guess what I'll do is see if there's any questions from the audience, whether it is for Representative Craig or anybody else up here. [11:34] **Unidentified Audience Member:** What is the cost share part of the city? [11:37] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** I think it's 12 million? Yeah, I was going to say it's—well, it'll depend when the bid comes in. So I think the total with the 5 million was around 17 or 18 million, I believe. Yeah, it is a big number. So, yep. Good question. Any other questions at all or for Representative Craig? [11:51] **Unidentified Audience Member:** What's the time frame? When are you looking to have [it done]? [11:55] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** I believe, as I'm looking somewhat over to my Public Works Director [Ryan Burfeind], I believe it's this next spring? [12:00] **Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** Well, we bid in '24 and then into '25. [12:04] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Correct. Okay. There you go. Yeah, it's—if you look at that road, it is interesting. I've had a lot of citizens bring comments. We didn't talk about potholes, and our Public Works group does a really good job of keeping that road in shape, but it definitely is going to be very, very nice to have better intersections and turn lanes and such, especially in that busy intersection there that goes onto East Point Douglas Road. All right. So maybe what we'll do is some pictures, right? Are we good for that? All right. If anybody has any questions afterwards, they can meet us up here. Awesome. Thank you. You want to do it in front of here? Yeah, let's do it so we have the flags here. **[Laughter]**