Star Tribune
Public outcry saves Winona recreation center
Faced with mounting infrastructure concerns, the city of Winona thought the East End Recreation Center would be the answer to its problems.
City officials earlier this year made a plan to potentially demolish the recreation center and build a large-scale community complex on the site, featuring community space, recreation space, and space for the city’s police and fire department.
An outsized outcry from residents put an end to that plan after the Winona City Council recently voted 6-0 to abandon the idea.
For many people, the East End center is “one of the most important resources in town, and everybody knows that,” said Katie Mueller-Freitag of the Winona chapter of Community Not Cages, a progressive collective aimed at changing public safety to focus less on jail time and punitive measures and more on human services and outreach.
The group helped spearhead a campaign against the planned complex as members were concerned the community center’s space would have shrunk to make more room for police resources.
A public hearing in July drew more than 200 people and 69 speakers, almost all of whom spoke against putting police and firefighters at the center.
Speakers touted the farmers market and the youth and family programs at the center, which they didn’t want affected by police or firefighter equipment and training.
“It felt so amazing that the community came together and that many people showed up to tell their representatives how much the rec center meant to them,” Mueller-Freitag said.
Winona Mayor Scott Sherman said it wasn’t the city’s plan to shortchange the community center. Rather, the city had hoped to address ongoing issues for several city-related programs with the complex.
The East End Recreation Center building is decades old and faces maintenance issues with its roof and heating and cooling systems, among other infrastructure. At the same time, Winona’s senior center, known as the Friendship Center, has long outgrown its space.
Winona’s Police Department shares space with Winona County, but the county’s new $28 million jail is set to finish construction next year, which shifts some of the county’s resources out of its current location. Sherman said city and county officials have discussed continuing to share resources, but it appears the city’s costs will grow larger than what city officials hope to spend.
The city’s central fire station building is out of compliance with current fire codes and may not be large enough to house equipment and vehicles in the future. In addition, the station doesn’t have a good decontamination process for firefighters coming back from a fire.
“There’s no way to really mitigate or really separate areas in terms of being able to keep those carcinogens away from the sleeping quarters for the firefighters,” Sherman said.
A study released in January outlined eight potential locations for a public safety building housing police and firefighters. Of those locations, the East End Recreation Center site appeared to be the best option, particularly concerning Fire Department response times. Combining four departments and programs into a large-scale complex would have allowed the city to apply for state bonding to pay for most of the $20 million construction.
Winona staff is exploring other options for a public safety building. The city bought land near the central fire station in recent years.
Yet Sherman fears separating the projects may make it more difficult to fund for the city of 26,000 residents.
“I would love to see all four done — whether they’re going to happen or not in the near future,” he said.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation closed part of a state highway Wednesday evening near Austin because of a “major hazardous materials release” in the area.
Hwy. 56 from Hayfield to Waltham, a stretch covering about five miles, was closed in both directions and drivers were directed to follow a detour to Blooming Prairie on U.S. Hwy. 218.
No information on the hazardous materials released was immediately available.
A federal judge dismissed a civil lawsuit against Minnesota state trooper Ryan Londregan in the shooting death of Ricky Cobb II during a 2023 traffic stop.
The decision is the latest development in a case that has drawn heated debate over excessive use of force by law enforcement. Criminal charges against Londregan were dismissed by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty in June, saying the prosecution didn’t have the evidence to proceed with a case.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Nancy E. Brasel granted Londregan’s motion to dismiss the civil suit, arguing he acted reasonably when he opened fire as Cobb’s vehicle lurched forward with another state trooper partly inside.
Londregan’s attorney Chris Madelsaid Wednesday that it’s been a “long, grueling journey to justice. Ryan Londregan has finally arrived.”
On July 31, 2023, the two troopers pulled over Cobb, 33, on Interstate 94 in north Minneapolis for driving without taillights and later learned he was wanted for violating a felony domestic no-contact order. Cobb refused commands to exit the car.
With Seide partly inside the car while trying to unbuckle Cobb’s seatbelt, the car moved forward. Londregan then opened fire, hitting Cobb twice.
In her decision, Brasel said the troopers were mandated by state law to make an arrest given Cobb’s domestic no-contact order violation. She said it was objectively reasonable for Londregan to believe Seide was in immediate danger as the car moved forward on a busy highway, which would make his use of force reasonable.
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Donald Trump walked down the steps of the Boeing 757 that bears his name, walked across a rain-soaked tarmac and, after twice missing the handle, climbed into the passenger seat of a white garbage truck that also carried his name.
The former president, once a reality TV star known for his showmanship, wanted to draw attention to a remark made a day earlier by his successor, Democratic President Joe Biden, that suggested Trump’s supporters were garbage. Trump has used the remark as a cudgel against his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
”How do you like my garbage truck?” Trump said, wearing an orange and yellow safety vest over his white dress shirt and red tie. ”This is in honor of Kamala and Joe Biden.”
Trump and other Republicans were facing pushback of their own for comments by a comedian at a weekend Trump rally who disparaged Puerto Rico as a ”floating island of garbage.” Trump then seized on a comment Biden made on a late Wednesday call that “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”
The president tried to clarify the comment afterward, saying he had intended to say Trump’s demonization of Latinos was unconscionable. But it was too late.
On Thursday, after arriving in Green Bay, Wisconsin, for an evening rally, Trump climbed into the garbage truck, carrying on a brief discussion with reporters while looking out the window — similar to what he did earlier this month during a photo opportunity he staged at a Pennsylvania McDonalds.
He again tried to distance himself from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, whose joke had set off the firestorm, but Trump did not denounce it. He also said he did not need to apologize to Puerto Ricans.
”I don’t know anything about the comedian,” Trump said. ”I don’t know who he is. I’ve never seen him. I heard he made a statement, but it was a statement that he made. He’s a comedian, what can I tell you. I know nothing about him.”
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