New Weights and Measures website launched at State Fair

New Weights and Measures website launched at State Fair

 
For Immediate Release: August 28, 2009
Contact: Bill Walsh (651) 296-7531, (651) 247-6549 (Cell)

Retro giveaways help one of the oldest state agencies celebrate new "dot gov" website

(St. Paul, MN…) The Minnesota Department of Commerce is celebrating the 2009 State Fair by launching a new website for the Weights and Measures Division at www.weightsandmeasures.mn.gov .  The Department's booth at the fair, located in the Education Building on Cosgrove Street, will focus on the work of one of the oldest state agencies in Minnesota, founded in 1885. The display will include antique scales, a prover used to check gas pumps, and a modern scale used to weigh meat and produce at the grocery store.

"The Weights and Measures Division protects consumers in the marketplace everyday and we are proud to feature them at the State Fair this year," said Glenn Wilson, Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Commerce. "The new website will provide information to consumers and industry about the work they do - from gas pumps to grain elevators to grocery scales."

The new website is easy to navigate depending on what type of user you are -consumer or industry and government. The consumer section includes information on:

• Consumer Complaints
  

• Measurement Conversion Tool
  

• Gasoline Octane Facts
  

• Petroleum Issues
  

• Water & Ethanol blends
  

• Gasoline Pricing Facts
  

• Buying Firewood
  

• Grocery shopper's manual
  

• Propane
  

The Industry and Government section includes information on:

• Petroleum & Fuels
  

• Weights & Scales
  

• Metrology Lab
  

• Registration
  

• Fee Schedules
  

• Below Cost Gas Pricing
  

• Recycling
  

To help celebrate the history of the Weights and Measures Division, the department is giving away thousands of items found in storage that were handed out at previous state fairs including rulers and metric conversion cards.

Another State Fair favorite will also return to the Commerce booth - the ability to check your weight on a perfectly calibrated scale from the Division of Weights and Measures. Every year, thousands of Minnesotans weigh themselves at the beginning of the day and then return to see how much weight they've added (or lost) after a day of eating and walking.

In addition to the Weights and Measures display, folks visiting the Department of Commerce booth will also be able to search for unclaimed property in the state's database. The Department currently has over one million property records in its computer database that may include abandoned checking and savings accounts, uncashed payroll checks, or stocks and bonds.