Aren’t they lucky: St. Cloud gets its bonding projects and a new bridge

Twin Cities residents feeling burned by Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s veto pen may now feel the sting of salt in their wounds as the community and victims of the bridge collapse continue to heal. Mixing politics and bridges is something the Pawlenty administration has condemned since the moment accusatory fingers were pointed in the aftermath of the 35W bridge collapse. But Wednesday, while Pawlenty was in St. Cloud for a ceremonial signing of the latest bonding bill, bridges and politics were fair play.

Pawlenty played up the fact that the area was spared by his veto pen, including $6.5 million to renovate the National Hockey Center at St. Cloud State. He even brought a prop to drive home the point, according to Lawrence Schumacher of the St. Cloud Times.

In the auditorium, Pawlenty held aloft a broom he said he’d bought minutes earlier at a local store, and said it was a gift for [St. Cloud Mayor Dave] Kleis.

“I meant to say that St. Cloud got a clean sweep in the bonding bill,” he joked. “I don’t know what they’re going to do to top this.”

The governor may have had something in mind to top St. Cloud’s good fortune as he teased the audience of a few hundred about the state’s impending decision on repairing or replacing the recently closed DeSoto bridge. Pawlenty coyly hinted, “I think you’ll like the announcement.” Today that announcement revealed construction on the bridge’s replacement will begin immediately.

Besides St. Cloud, Pawlenty held signing ceremonies for the bonding bill in Bemidji, Austin and Albert Lee. No such ceremony was scheduled for St. Paul, where all 11 bonding projects included in the bill were cut.