Abby Nadeau
Staff Writer

Although there were four others, Senator Ray Vandeveer got the brunt of strong citizen opinion at a recent political question and answer session.

Early Friday morning the Forest Lake Chamber of Commerce sponsored a public question and answer session for area representatives.

Roughly 40 residents, business owners and local councils attended the early morning breakfast to hear 17B Representative Jeremy Kalin, Vandeveer, 52A Representative Bob Dettmer, Michele Bachmann’s representative Sean Nienow and Senator Rick Olseen speak.

Many of the topics discussed surrounded transportation, energy and education, but it was the topic of gambling at the North Metro Harness Track that seemed to spark interest.

Columbus Mayor Mel Mettler, sitting with other Columbus community members, asked Vandeveer if he supported a bill that was currently running through the House that eliminated an initial delay on card club gambling in a harness track.

Vandeveer said that he supported the current state law that only allowed card club gambling after 50 racing days.

“The current law is meant to ensure these facilities are built for that reason,” Vandeveer said.

Then conversation briefly turned to education, but was brought back to the harness track when an audience member called out Vandeveer and started talking about Columbus’ commercial business.

She said that the city fought hard against Forest Lake annexation to be a city and now that they are they are looking for commercial business.

“The harness track is going to be our money maker,” she said. “I don’t know why that (current) law got passed.”

Vandeveer returned to his first statement that he supported Minnesota Statute Chapter 240.30 and that “a class A license will still make money.”

Q & A

Each representative had five minutes to introduce themselves and the topics they are most concerned with at the moment.

Nienow, who was representing Bachmann, said she was currently trying to put small business on par with corporate businesses when it comes to health care.

He also spoke to the group about Bachmann’s schedule in Washington saying she is not “unhappy with her schedule.”

He said that the new schedule does not allow her to return to her district often enough.

“She is not feeling stressed about a five day work week,” Nienow said.

As Dettmer spoke about the work being done on his K-12 education finance committee, audience member Rob Raphael questioned his funding methods, considering much of it would be below the cost of inflation.

Dettmer, who beat out Raphael in the district 52A race, said that he was currently working on a bill that gives additional funds to students.

The purpose would be to give the money to the district and let them decide how they want to spend their money.

Kalin and Olseen mainly spoke about energy and transportation bills that they felt were important to the area.

When the conversation turned to health care all five were in agreement that something needed to change.

“Having the best health care in the world doesn’t do much if you cannot access it,” Vandeveer said.

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