Coalition for the St. Croix River Crossing: Statement regarding funding support from the city of Stillwater

Contact: Mike Zipko

651-269-8756

mike@goffpublic.com

The Coalition for the St. Croix River Crossing today announced that they will return the recent donations received from the City of Stillwater.

Issues related to the city’s financial support of the coalition have taken the focus off of what we believe is critically important to our region: building the bridge. We are committed to making sure Congress takes action to allow the St. Croix River Crossing project to move forward as soon as possible. We urge Congress to pass legislation that would put an end to a decades-long effort to solve a growing transportation problem in the Twin Cities metropolitan region.

Our coalition is modeled after previous partnerships between the public and private sectors that have supported regionally significant transportation projects, including the Central Corridor Light Rail Transit Project and the Wakota Bridge. We are pleased to have the support of local governments, civic leaders, businesses, and labor unions. We want the St. Croix River Crossing to be another example of a public-private partnership that produces results that benefit the entire region.

We will continue to work with the City of Stillwater and anyone else who wants to find a way to replace the 80-year-old, fracture-critical structure with a new bridge that will address our traffic issues, better protect the river, and preserve our area’s history.

We encourage everyone who wants a new bridge to join our coalition at http://www.stcroixcrossing.org.

From John Soderberg, co-chair of the Coalition for the St. Croix River Crossing