30 Seconds at State Legislature Stopped Promised 5.7 M
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Thank you to Kaylee Miron and Maddie Young for last month’s excellent article about air quality in Phillips Neighborhood. However, although as stated in the last paragraph, EPNI and the City of Minneapolis did agree in Sept. 2024 to a one year extension to the purchase agreement for the Roof Depot site, the need for the extension was not that activists failed to raise their $3.7 million portion of the agreement. It was the $5.7 million that the state legislature had agreed to provide that failed to pass when the vote on the bill containing our funding went 30 seconds beyond the constitutionally mandated midnight deadline at the chaotic end of the 2024 State Legislative session. That is what necessitated the extension. EPNI is working with the Minneapolis delegation to secure the necessary funding in the upcoming 2025 session.
Thank you to the alley and journalists for covering these issues for our community!
Steve Sandberg
Phillips resident and EPNI board member.