ABOVE: From left: County Commissioner Joe Loughmiller, Senator Amy Klobuchar, Government Director Lenny Tvedten and Curator James Marushin take a look at a specifically commissioned .30-30 Winchester Rifle within the data room on Wednesday. The rifle is engraved with scenes from Martin County.
FAIRMONT – With the Martin County Historic Society Board, Senator Amy Klobuchar toured the Martin County Museum in Fairmont on Wednesday.
The primary cease was the archives, the place newspapers are pressed in massive books. Curator James Marushin confirmed Klobuchar the digital data, with a newspaper clipping from her first Senate win in a 2006 situation of the Sentinel queued up on the display.
Going again to her pre-Senate days, Klobuchar mentioned she used a room similar to it when she wrote her first e book.
“After I was in school, I wrote a e book of the [construction] of the Minneapolis Metrodome,” she mentioned. “I regarded again by way of all of the outdated newspaper clippings. You’d lookup stadium, they usually had them every in an envelope for the month.”
With funding a sizzling matter at present, Klobuchar requested Government Director Lenny Tvedten how they get their funding. Tvedten mentioned they get funding by way of the county, donations and fundraisers they maintain.
The tour snaked its manner by way of the interactive and navy rooms as nicely. A characteristic of the interactive room was a desk within the middle, displaying the Fairmont chain of lakes. Within the navy room, Marushin and Tvedten remarked upon the German POW camp in Fairmont throughout WWII.
“Some needed to remain [after the war],” Marushin mentioned. “Farmers might lease them to do the fieldwork as a result of they wanted many palms to get that carried out.”
Within the basement, Klobuchar was drawn to the iron lung on show. She talked about fellow Senator Mitch McConnell and his wrestle with polio as a toddler. Klobuchar touched on how necessary vaccines have been in combating ailments and eliminating some like polio altogether.
It was additionally right here the place Klobuchar heard from board members about neighborhood initiatives. Board Member Jeff Rouse introduced up the Fairmont Opera Home, which is the oldest one within the state of Minnesota. Klobuchar mentioned initiatives like these will take extra time to approve as a result of 130 earmarked initiatives for funding have been reduce from the latest spending invoice.
“We now have to redo these after which perhaps simply add just a few extra, until we double the cash for 2026,” Klobuchar mentioned.
The undertaking has been despatched to sub-committee prior to now, however has not been chosenMoving ahead, Klobuchar mentioned she’s going to write a letter of advice for funding if a proposal is shipped prefer it has been.
After the tour, Klobuchar mentioned she got here as a result of she believes within the uniting spirit of historical past.
“Our nation’s in a number of turmoil,” she mentioned. “I believe it’s necessary to recollect the place we got here from. Our shared historical past by way of instances of Civil Struggle, the Nice Despair, every little thing. We got here out the opposite facet. I’m as involved as lots of people are about what’s happening, and never everybody agrees in regards to the resolution, however we’ve to recollect what unites us as a rustic is greater than what divides us.”
From her continued excursions of all 87 counties, Klobuchar mentioned she is continuous to find out about what’s necessary to rural Minnesota.
“It’s not one measurement matches all,” she mentioned. “We need to preserve our small cities robust. One of many causes I do these excursions of all 87 counties is I decide up a lot stuff that you simply don’t get should you’re simply sitting in Washington or the metro. I used to be simply on the ethanol plant in Lake Heron. Their largest buying and selling companion for ethanol outdoors the U.S. is Canada. That’s like a brand new issue I didn’t know as I checked out these commerce obstacles with Canada being erected.”
Klobuchar additionally touched on the Farm Invoice because the main Democrat on the Agriculture Committee. She mentioned they badly need to get a invoice gone throughout the aisle. What’s bringing pause at present is reconciliation talks on the price range and taxes, which Klobuchar mentioned might hamper Farm Invoice talks shifting ahead.
“If [funding] is about low for agriculture and Farm Invoice applications, it’ll be a lot more durable to get a Farm Invoice as a result of we gained’t be capable of attain an settlement,” she mentioned. “We now have to get to some extent the place I can get the votes. However proper now, Senator Boozman [and other committee Republican senators] are working arduous to verify there’s sufficient funding for agriculture within the price range.”
As her go to got here on the finish of the day, Klobuchar mentioned she was staying in Fairmont for the night time. On advice from an attendee, she mentioned she was excited to strive Silo 67.
