Lawmaker wants tornado damage addressed in flood relief session

A northern Minnesota lawmaker wants legislative leaders to consider help for tornado damage during next week's legislative special session.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty has tentatively set the session for Monday to address flood relief for southern Minnesota.

DFL state Sen. Dan Skogen, from Hewitt, wants the session to provide money to help rebuild public facilities destroyed by the tornado.

"If not for the floods, everything would have been on that timeline to do it in January or February, but when the floods and special session came up, we just decided it might be okay to have our feet under that table as well," Skogen said. "Certainly we don't want to detract from what's happening in southern Minnesota, so we're just proceeding slowly."

The tornado destroyed hundreds of homes, as well as a community center, hockey arena, high school and fairgrounds. Skogen said he told senate leaders the cost for rebuilding will be about $24 million.

Skogen said a team of architects is working on plans to rebuild public facilities using a mix of federal, state and private funds. He said designers are working to combine some public facilities to make them more functional.