To the Editor:

For more than a century, citizens from across Minnesota have traveled to St. Paul to visit our State Capitol.  More than 210,000 visitors frequent the Capitol each year.  The building has never undergone comprehensive modernization and consequently shows significant deterioration and life-safety problems.

The problems are many: security concerns brought to our attention by Homeland Security; severe water damage, much of which is visible to any visitor to the building’s third floor; no effective ventilation system – the air in the building is stale; compromised electrical systems.  People in ground floor offices smell the exhaust of trucks idling for as little as 30 seconds outside the intake ducts.  Too much of the building is held together by duct tape.  One glaring deficiency is the hardship imposed on those who are disabled, to whom much of the Capitol is inaccessible.  This failure is simply unacceptable and must be corrected.

Visit www.PreserveTheCapitol.com for a virtual tour of damaged and unsafe sections of the State Capitol.  Join me in supporting the Capitol restoration.  Be a part of history.  Let us act now to save Cass Gilbert’s vision of a magnificent, living building, truly the people's house.  Contact Gov. Pawlenty (tim.pawlenty@state.mn.us or 651-296-1089); Senate Majority Leader Pogemiller (sen.larry.pogemiller@senate.mn or 651-296-7809); and Speaker Anderson Kelliher (rep.margaret.kelliher@house.mn or 651-296-0171). 

Preserve the Capitol.  It's about time.  Literally.

Sincerely,

Ann H. Rest

State Senator

District 45