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By Mark Zdechlik

Gov. Tim Walz promoted hundreds of millions of dollars in one-time funding for local public safety upgrades during a meeting Thursday with local public safety officials at a fire station Lino Lakes.

He heard from local public safety officials how they plan to spend their share of the funding that was approved this spring by the Legislature.

“It’s always good for me to be able to say this time the checks are in the mail,” Walz said. “Next week, each of these municipalities and counties an additional $300 million in the last legislative session was appropriated to public safety.”

Walz and local public safety officials talked about the value of allowing local governments to make local decisions about how to spend their share of the influx of money.

Centennial Lakes Police Chief James Mork told Walz he’s using the money to add an police officer to his relatively small police force.

“It’s something that I think we’ve been planning and hoping for — for a number of years now,” Mork said. “But this is just the financial push that gets the ball moving so that we can get it going now when the need is there. If our call load was the same and the population was the same as 15-20 years ago, there wouldn’t be a need for it. But the demand on officers is increasing every day.”

Walz said the funding structure recognizes that areas of need might not be the same everywhere.

“That gives them flexibility to do things whether that is retention and hiring of new folks whether that is a new piece of equipment or whether it’s trying something new,” Walz said.

Walz said the funds to every Minnesota county, city, large township and tribe will begin flowing next week.