Highway 610 renamed in honor of late Rep. Melissa Hortman

Thanks for joining us here at six. I'm Kelsey Carlson and I'm Randy Meyer. The drive between Coon Rapids and Maple Grove is a lot easier these days than it was, say, a decade ago because of Highway 610. Today, the state renamed a section of the road in honor of Mark and Melissa Hortman, who were assassinated just last year. Fox 9's Corinne Hoggard is out there live tonight. And that highway was important to the former speaker. Yeah, Kelsey and Randy, absolutely. Melissa Hortman was instrumental in getting funding for this connection between US 10 and I-94. And so the people who knew her best say this is a fitting tribute. Pretty emotional day. It's the memorial part of the Hortman Memorial Highway that makes this dedication a tough one to swallow for Melissa Hortman's friends. But Highway 610 was a passion project. One of her first questions she asked me in 2012 when I wanted to run was, so what do you think about finishing Highway 610? Physically, the road split Hortman's district in half. Getting it built was not at the top of most lawmakers' agendas, but it was the type of legislation she prioritized. This kind of stuff is the hard work that makes life better for people, and nobody knew that better than Melissa Hortman. Hortman was there when the state broke ground on the highway, and her son Colin took a photo. It may be the same one she kept on her desk for years. And as Colin and his sister Sophie stood on the highway again, they saw a chance for Minnesotans to have a long memory of their parents. I think someone said it before that Melissa and Mark weren't necessarily spotlight people and so I think they would very much appreciate that we're out here today and not tucked away in an office and we're on their highway remembering them forever. Some other places that have been named in tribute to the Hortmans include the park at the Capitol Complex in honor of both of them. There's also the community solar garden program named in honor of Melissa. And then there's a bike trail up in Lake County that Mark Hortman loved to ride on. It's now named in his honor. Live along 610, Corin Hoggard, Fox 9. Emotional day for everybody there. Very fitting. She worked hard for that. Thank you, Corin.