By Alex Chhith
A bipartisan bill in the Legislature would have allocated $17.8 million toward replacing the hatchery, but the measure did not make it into the 2025 bonding bill. That price falls in line with projected construction costs of approved new hatcheries in southern Minnesota in Waterville and Altura, at $18 million and $15 million respectively, according to the Minnesota Department of Administration’s website.
“Bonding bills have been harder and harder to do,” said Rep. Erin Koegel, DFL-Spring Lake Park, who is one of the authors on the bill. Legislators ran out of time to work something out this year, she said, but efforts to allocate money will likely arise again later. “I’m hoping we can take a deep breath and realize that some of the stuff isn’t so political.”
Koegel got on board with efforts to replace the facility when she took a tour of the St. Paul hatchery last year, she said.
“They’re raising fingerlings in 2 liter bottles,” Koegel said, adding that she was surprised at how old, dark and leaky the building was. “I could not imagine working eight hours in an environment like that.”
Furtner has learned how to handle the inevitable curveballs in raising fish there. When the power cuts out at the hatchery, for instance, she goes in to work to make sure that old oxygenators and fish food dispensers kick in along with the building’s generators. If muskies get too hungry, she said, they will start eating each other.
As for walleyes: Over her three-year tenure as hatchery manager, Furtner’s record is 40 million in one season. That’s enough to stock about 150 lakes, said Brad Parsons, DNR fisheries section manager.