League of Women Voters of St Paul has focused on water issues this year. including this recording of the June program. "The 'State' of MN Water" will featured two guest speakers: Ellen Considine, Hydrologist Supervisor, DNR Avonna Starck, Minnesota State Director, Clean Water Action Ellen Considine will discuss the ground water issues in greater Minnesota, how the changing climate affects ground water, and how it will impact Saint Paul water and the water infrastructure. Avonna Starck from Clean Water Action will walk through issues related to old lead pipes replacement.

Recording link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbCefX6x21s

Resources from the program: 

Clean Water Action: Minnesota

Clean Water Action: Lead and Drinking Water

Healthy Legacy

Minnesota DNR Water Availability and Assessment Report: Appendix C, 9/15/2020

SPRWS - Drinking Water, where it comes from and how it's treated (3:52 video)

Metropolitan Council: Wastewater Treatment

Saint Paul: Water Conservation

Saint Paul: Food Waste

Saint Paul: Household Hazardous Waste

For the May Learn with the League Program, we had a conversation with Metropolitan Council member for district 14 Toni Carter and Ramsey County Commissioner for district 4 Rena Moran. We discussed what they have learned, the transition from campaigning to holding office, and other reflections on their first few months in these positions.

Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTHp7gJ2ggY

Resources from program: 

Metropolitan Council

Ramsey County

In this program we learned how the very earliest months and years of brain development are critical to a child’s success and well-being, plus discovered barriers and solutions to making high quality childcare more attainable. We heard details about bills aimed at advancing early childhood education in the current legislative session. Guest speakers at the program were Dr. Megan Gunnar, Regents Professor of Child Development at the University of Minnesota and Ami Wazlawik, Principal Assistant to Ramsey County Commissioner Nicole Frethem and a former District 38B State Representative.

Some resources mentioned during the presentation: 

- Great Start for All Minnesota Children Task Force: https://mn.gov/mmb/childrens-cabinet/great-start-childrens-task-force/

The recording of the Tuesday, March 28 Learn with the League Program - "Holy Buckets: Novel Water Management at Highland Bridge. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoArGH7J5es

After a decade of planning the old Ford assembly plant, the City of St. Paul and many partners began development. Now in the site improvement stage, the community is getting a glimpse of how it will look and what features it will have, including an innovative use of water. The Highland Bridge development's scenic water feature rejuvenates what used to be Hidden Falls Creek and provides storm water management for the 122-acre development, which remains under construction. This program is presentations and conversation with Bob Fossum, Monitoring & Research Division Manager at Capitol Region Watershed District (CRWD), and Ellen Stewart, Senior Landscape Architect, Parks and Recreation Design and Construction Division of the City of St. Paul.

Read the February CMAL Newsletter  and mark your calendars for the March 18 Quarterly Meeting where audience members will be able to quiz Metro Transit staff on the issues of crime, safety and ridership on the metro transit system. The Zoom link will be available on the LWVMN calendar.  

Watch the recording from the January 24, 2023 program. The "Welcoming The Dear Neighbor?" project started in 2017 as a partnership with St. Catherine University's Center for Community Work and Learning and Mapping Prejudice. The vision is to explore housing inequality, segregation, and racism in the past and present and its impacts today. In this program, we welcomed Dr. Rachel Neiwert and student researchers Sohpie Gibson, Maya Villafuerte, and Tessa Shoenecker to share about the project. The students have been researching topics such as women and housing inequality, housing complaints, and the impact of housing covenants on education and school districts.

Some resources mentioned during the presentation: 

• Mapping Prejudice: https://mappingprejudice.umn.edu/
• MNHS Gale Family Library: https://www.mnhs.org/library
• Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub: https://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/hub
• Chronicling America: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/
• Nellie Francis: https://www.mnopedia.org/person/francis-nellie-1874-1969
• The Just Deeds Project: https://justdeeds.org/

The November 2022 League of Women Voters St. Paul (LWVSP) Learn with the League Program, Gen Z to the Rescue: The 2022 Youth Vote Projects, featured projects created by LWVSP Student Leaders related to Voter Registration and Voter Education. Introduced by Youth Vote co-chairs Grace Reardon and Lia Pak, St. Paul Student Leaders for fall 2022 shared information about their projects to educate and register voters.

The LWV Upper Mississippi River Region Newsletter for November 2022 is now available.

Hosted by CMAL, this event features Paul Linnell from the Secretary of State's office. Paul  talks about how our elections work and why they are safe and secure. With all the misinformation out there, this program is timely and enlightening! 

Watch by clicking the link and entering the passcode: OuFzK=YG

Organized by League of Women Voters Woodbury Cottage Grove Area, this program provides an overview of the role, responsibilities and authority of the County Board and County Commissioners; where counties fit between, and work with, the state legislature, cities and city councils; and the range of functions and policy issues where they have responsibility. Recorded on Monday, October 17, 2022.

Watch County Board 101