NW Minnesota News

Two House bills dealing with Kittson County issues were heard recently by the Capital Investment Division Committee at the State Capitol. 

Rep. Dan Fabian (R-Roseau) introduced the bills, which are a $20 million project to replace the dam at Lake Bronson and a $12 million project for a new airport at Karlstad.

Testimony from Eric Christensen, Kittson County administrator, said that the dam is the top priority of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resource's (DNR) dam safety program. 

Since the early 2000s, the dam was classified as high-hazard since a break in the dam could cause lives to be lost. If the dam were to break, lives could be taken in the City of Lake Bronson and impact businesses, schools and nursing homes in Hallock. 

“It’s been 13 years after the dam was declared deficient and it went from $9 million to fix to $20 million,” Christensen told the Kittson County Enterprise. “I can only guarantee two things if you wait – the dam will get older and less safe, and the cost will only get more expensive to repair it.”

At a separate committee meeting, Fabian introduced the new airport to Karlstad Airport Commission Chair Al Lundeen. The current airport isn't suited to accommodate larger airplanes. Building a new airport could help commerce, health care and emergency services. 

The bonding needs $12 million for land acquisition, pre-engineering, engineering and construction. All of this would be at a different location than the present airport. Lundeen said the project is expected to cost $18 million total. 

“In a community this size, you don’t have a lot of tax capacity or opportunity to raise a lot of capital,” Fabian said.

Rep. Tony Jurgens asked about the impact of a new airport on Karlstad during the meeting. 

Within the first year, the impact the airport would have on Karlstad would be $1.7 million, according to the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), Lundeen said. 

Only 30% of Minnesota airports aren't eligible for federal funding and Karlstad falls within that percentage, Aeronautics Director for MnDOT Cassandra Issacson said. 

When this is the case, MnDOT will try to help smaller airports. It has given Karlstad grant funding for the engineering and studies. Issacson said if Karlstad does build the new airport, it could apply for federal funding eligibility. 

No decisions have been made by the committee on either House bills.