 Bringing communities together to discuss the benefit of the Paul Bunyan Expressway. Josh Peterson shares with us how an early planning effort is getting area communities to work together to create a master plan. Which path to choose and how to move traffic from the Twin Cities Metro to Central and Northern Minnesota has been an ongoing conversation for decades. And today brought all parties together in one room. In an effort to bring key communities the Bemidji and Leech Lake Area Chambers work together to help move the conversation in the right direction. The idea of this meeting is to get everybody talking and kind of get a working group together to move forward. This is probably going to be a 20-year to 25-year discussion. And we need to do it now. We need to sit down. We need to work as a group and get everybody talking so that we have a plan to move forward. Over 50 people attended the discussion from communities all over the region. Some of the most vocal were from Hackensack and Walker who could feel either a positive or negative impact from the expansion of the highway. Well I'd like to see our area come together with a plan. One that's good for all economies. Bemidji has specific interests. Rozo has interests. City of Walker has interests as does Hackensack and the communities to the south. Whatever the final decision is not only impacts the communities of Walker and Bemidji. It's communities farther north and their local economies. For the community development coordinator for the city of Rozo not having quality roads to their city has been hard on their local economy. Any transportation connectivity is going to help you be a better business destination, be a better place for people to visit. So that's our concern. We want connectivity to the state of Minnesota. By getting an early start on planning the hope is that when the project becomes reality everyone will be ready and have a plan in place. So we need to do it right. We need to properly plan this and we'd need to get in it early. In Bemidji, Josh Peterson, Lakeland News. This morning's discussion led to a newly formed group that will look at the expansion of four-lane highways in northern Minnesota. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.