{"id":31048,"date":"2018-02-15T12:32:10","date_gmt":"2018-02-15T18:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/?p=31048"},"modified":"2018-02-15T12:32:10","modified_gmt":"2018-02-15T18:32:10","slug":"bemidji-pioneer-pogemiller-bliss-check-out-projects-at-bsu-that-await-state-financing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/2018\/02\/15\/bemidji-pioneer-pogemiller-bliss-check-out-projects-at-bsu-that-await-state-financing\/","title":{"rendered":"Bemidji Pioneer: Pogemiller, Bliss check out projects at BSU that await state financing"},"content":{"rendered":"
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BEMIDJI — As Minnesota lawmakers get ready to work on a large-scale bonding bill this spring, leaders at Bemidji State University and Northwest Technical College on Tuesday presented their hoped-for projects to a Bemidji-area legislator and one of the state’s top higher education officials.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Larry Pogemiller, commissioner of the state’s Office of Higher Education, toured the university’s Hagg-Sauer Hall, which BSU administrators want to tear down as early as November 2018 and replace with a smaller “academic learning center” by fall 2020. They plan to pay for that project with money from a bonding bill proposed by Gov. Mark Dayton earlier this year, which would borrow $1.5 billion to pay for the Hagg-Sauer replacement and an array of similar projects across the state.<\/p>\n

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But Pogemiller doesn’t have jurisdiction over the hoped-for funding for those projects — state legislators do. Pogemiller, then, visited as a representative of the governor, staff at his office said, and his appearance at BSU was a show of support for the multi-million dollar projects there.<\/p>\n

A tour attendee who will have a say over the bonding bill is Rep. Matt Bliss, R-Pennington.  He said he’d like to see the state borrow a little less than $1 billion.<\/p>\n

Similar proposals from the DFL governor’s office have been whittled down as they work through a GOP-controlled legislature. This year’s proposal is larger than what house and senate Republicans indicated they’d be comfortable with. Borrowing for higher education makes up about a third of the governor’s bonding plan.<\/p>\n

Bonding bills are typically approved in even-year legislative sessions, but lawmakers couldn’t agree on one in 2016. BSU’s funding requests didn’t make it into a relatively small bonding measure last year.<\/p>\n

The Hagg-Sauer project is a top priority in the governor’s proposal this year, which means it’s likely to still get funded even if legislators send a scaled-down bonding agreement to the governor this spring.<\/p>\n

Pogemiller said he thinks the project seems “pretty doable” this legislative session. Bliss echoed that sentiment.<\/p>\n

“I think Bemidji State is really a jewel of the area, and we really need to maintain it,” Bliss said. “I think this year will be the year that we get the bonding coverage for this project.”<\/p>\n

The project would cost about $22.5 million and would replace the building with a brand-new “academic learning center” that would be about one third the size. BSU staff say the new building would save about $44,000 in annual maintenance and $22,000 in utilities. It would also render moot millions of dollars worth of maintenance the existing building needs.<\/p>\n

Also on the agenda for Pogemiller and Bliss’ visit was a quick tour of BSU’s new Department of Integrated Media. Finishing that project freed up space for the 50-60 faculty who’ll be displaced if and when Hagg-Sauer gets replaced, school staff said. The pair also visited Memorial Hall, which university leaders renovated extensively with $13.5 million from a 2014 bonding bill.<\/p>\n

BSU and NTC are also in line for bonding money to pay for smaller-scale projects there. School administrators hope to receive $6.5 million in “Higher Education Asset Preservation” money from this year’s bonding measure. That money would pay for upgraded energy management controls, an improved power distribution system, and a new roof for Sattgast Hall at BSU; and new air handling units and a new door-locking system at NTC.<\/p>\n

Legislators are scheduled to convene Feb. 20 in St. Paul.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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BEMIDJI — As Minnesota lawmakers get ready to work on a large-scale bonding bill this spring, leaders at Bemidji State University and Northwest Technical College on Tuesday presented their hoped-for projects to a Bemidji-area legislator and one of the state’s top higher education officials. Larry Pogemiller, commissioner of the state’s Office of Higher Education, toured […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":188,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-uncategorized","post_format-post-format-link"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/188"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31048"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31049,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31048\/revisions\/31049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}