This is my own thoughts regarding that lunatic Bachmann’s idea’s for Stillwater, MN. The article can be viewed here: http://www.twincities.com/washington/ci_14682637
Bachmann is a complete and utter joke. Moving the bridge a mere few miles down the road is not going to help alleviate traffic on highway 95. Anyone who has driven in this part of Stillwater knows the roads are not much wider than a toothpick, and parking can be a nightmare. She calls this area a “transportation corridor”, but Stillwater’s lift bridge doesn’t go to a city, it goes to a forest. The same will be true for a bridge to extend highway 36 before it curves north. If traffic were really so terrible in this area, commuters would drive the extra handful of miles to the Interstate 94 bridge, and pass over the river in multiple lanes at high speeds. Not more than a handful of days ago, Bachmann had been telling American taxpayers to not pay their taxes due to the unrelated health care reform (theweek.com). She is in support of citizens not paying taxes, but she wants a $668.5 million dollar bridge built the next day? Leave our St. Croix River alone! I agree that the lift bridge is out of date and needs updating, but I would support to keep the bridge where it is. If this is an argument for the greatest good for the greatest number of people, we need to remember that these commuters choose to live out of state to travel to their jobs. Jobs they may not have for more than 30 years. The St. Croix River has, and will continue to be with us for centuries. Hetch Hetchy was dammed for the citizens of a city who lived on a major fault line, who didn’t have much access to water. They chose to have their city there, and we have lost a beautiful valley in a National Park. The greater good is not for a few commuters, but for the generations of humans, citizen and foreign, who enjoy the St. Croix River as just that, a river. If they want to experience water in a tunnel, I strongly suggest the Mall of America.
