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After years of claiming that their road design for the
55/62 interchange will cause no harm to Coldwater Springs, MnDOT is presented
with evidence from a dye test proving the connection between the spring
and construction site.
Instead of working with the watershed districts to achieve a design that would indeed cause no harm to the Coldwater spring, MnDOT cancels the project, spends a million dollars in penalties for stopping work, lets out an additional $818,000 worth of work for a temporary bypass without contract or bidding process. Then an internal whistleblower who notices things aren't right and says something about it, gets fired for doing so, and the Star Tribune writes a series of reports outlining the situation. In response to that, Gerald Labau writes a letter printed in the March 19th, 2002 edition of the Star Tribune complaining that the Star Tribune has fallen for an election year political game, and presents MnDOT working 24/7 like it comes from the goodness of their hearts. What Gerald doesn't say, is that MnDOT is hired and paid billions to
do that job, and his wife Margo, is Chief of Staff at MnDOT who on 8-9-99
after dealing with protests over the Hwy 55 road design sends a letter
saying; |