Mark Wermerksirchen has invited the Chair of the Metropolitan Council, Adam Duininck (WHS graduate), to speak about the Met Council and specifically the Southwest light rail project. As many of know, the regular session of the legislature (called the "Do-nothing session" in an article appearing in the October 3 2016 West Central Tribune) ended with several major bills not being agreed upon by all and a common factor according to many was the disagreement over funding of the Southwest light rail project. Opinions regarding the Southwest light rail were discussed at the forum for state Senate District 17 this month where the West Central Tribune quoted candidate Andrew Lang as saying  that Minnesota " is not one of those states" where light rail can be effective and the other candidate Lyle Koenen as saying that light rail offers no benefit to his district but supported its funding allocation in the bonding bill in order to get the support of urban legislators for the bonding bill and what it offered Greater Minnesota.  However, a Mankato Free Press editorial argued that objections to the funding of the Southwest light rail project should be dropped so that the state can get on to doing its business once again  and pointed out how light rail does benefit outstate Minnesota taxpayers who use metro area roads that will be less congested, that without more light rail, metro highways will need further expansions with a single metro highway bypass costing approximately $200 million, and as metro road needs increase, outstate road demands will be pushed lower down the priority list. Chamber of Commences in Minneapolis, St. Paul, TwinWest, along with CEO's of U.S. Bank, Best Buy, Ecolab and Target, to name a few, are all on record of supporting the Southwest light rail project.
 
Come to the meeting and learn more and be informed on the issue that is at the heart of the unfinished legislative agenda.