Gov. Mark Dayton signed a bill Friday to help a small city southwest of Mankato recover after a fire.

Just over a year ago, the city of Madelia was hit with a massive fire – you can watch a video here. It tore through nine businesses on the city's main street.

Madelia is still recovering from disaster. So Dayton signed a bipartisan bill to give the city and Watonwan County $1.7 million in disaster aid.

"When I visited Madelia last February, I pledged to the community that we were not going to walk away and disappear," Dayton said in a statement. "This bill will help Madelia rebuild into the strong, enduring community it has always been."

Of the money, $1.4 million will go to Madelia and $296,000 to Watonwan County. It'll be used to offset property taxes for businesses that have been rebuilt, among other things.

Dayton is also providing a sales tax exemption for construction repairs.

Money to replace wetlands

The same bill also provides $5 million in funding to replace wetlands as communities throughout the state build roads – sometimes wetlands are affected or destroyed to make way for roads.

Funding for this wetlands replacement effort had previously run out, and that put local road and bridge projects on hold.

The Board of Soil and Water Resources is administering this funding, which will allow local transportation projects to move forward.