St. Sen. Win Stoller is behind legislation to create a connecting trail between the Hennepin Canal Trail and the Illinois and Michigan Canal Trail. With further connections already existing elsewhere, people could hike or bike all the way from the Chicago area to the Quad Cities.
The trail would be about six miles long. Stoller says if it gets completed, someone could bike or hike all the way from the Chicago area to the Quad Cities on a trail. Some of the trails used to be railroads. In this area, the I and M Canal Trail used to be the towpath along the canal.
A bill signed into law in January gives the state authority to decide what rules solar and wind farms have to abide by. Local governments can’t be stricter than the state. St. Sen. Win Stoller worries that wind and solar power developers will short circuit project siting to industrial parks. He says $70 million has been spent in the Rochelle area on such a park with the intent to create lots of continual jobs.
Stoller hopes to update the legislation to keep solar and wind farms out of industrial parks.
St. Sen. Win Stoller says more about these topics in this interview: