Star Tribune
St. Cloud bar owner sentenced to nearly 6 years for insurance arson scheme
A former St. Cloud bar owner will serve nearly six years in prison for burning down his business more than two years ago and then trying to collect more than $1.4 million in insurance.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Eric C. Tostrud sentenced Andrew C. Welsh, 43, of St. Joseph, to 71 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release; Tostrud also ordered Welsh to pay $3.1 million in restitution.
In May, Welsh pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of arson for setting a basement desk on fire with gasoline in February 2020. After the fire, he filed an insurance claim for $1.43 million.
According to the county’s charges, Welsh bought the bar in 2016 with his wife for $850,000. At the time of the fire, he still owed $550,000 and faced several lawsuits from contractors who claimed he never paid them for their work.
In Welsh’s divorce a year before the fire, a judge ordered him to sell the bar and split the earnings with his wife; however, he never put the bar on the market.
An employee told investigators Welsh was alone in the bar just after 2 a.m. Feb. 17, 2020. Within the hour, police called to say the building was on fire, according to court documents. By the end of the week, a national team of specialty arson investigators were on scene and found chemical accelerants atop the basement desk.
A document signed by U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger asked the court to impose a sentence of 71 months due to Welsh causing “immense destruction and [putting] lives at risk by starting a catastrophic fire in the basement of his bar.”
In a court document submitted ahead of sentencing, Luger said the crime was motivated by greed.
“Although [Welsh] had financial troubles, he had legitimate means of dealing with them. He could have sold his bar and broken even. He could have surrendered the property back to the sellers on the contract for deed. He could have worked to renegotiate his debts. Failing all else, he could have declared bankruptcy,” Luger stated.
The fire was particularly dangerous, Luger said, because employees of neighboring businesses were still in the process of closing their establishments and at least two residents were present in apartments in the adjoining building at the time of the fire.
“Firefighters risked their lives, businesses lost millions, and a community was scarred due solely to [Welsh’s] greed,” Luger stated.
The lot where the bar once stood — a prominent corner along Fifth Avenue and St. Germain Street near the River’s Edge Convention Center — has been vacant since the fire. The city cleaned up the building’s remnants but a fenced-off lot with a charred wall from the adjacent building is still visible.
In June, the city’s Economic Development Authority authorized an agreement allowing the owners of the neighboring bar, Cowboy Jack’s, to apply for tax-increment financing to cover the costs of demolition and eventual reconstruction. The two buildings Cowboy’s Jacks inhabited, which date back to 1907 and 1910, were damaged by water and smoke. The owners of Cowboy Jack’s also purchased the former Press Bar site and plan to use the space in their redevelopment.
The Minnesota State Patrol has identified the motorist whose SUV hit a school bus taking kids to their Iron Range school.
The patrol said 19-year-old Svea Lynn Snickers, of Alborn, Minn., ran a stop sign at the intersection and hit the bus as it headed north on Hwy. 5. She was last reported to be in critical condition.
The collision occurred just east of Hibbing about 7:50 a.m. Thursday at the intersection of Hwy. 5 and Town Line Road, according to the State Patrol.
All 21 children heading to Cherry School suffered minor injuries when the bus flipped over about 7 miles southwest of its destination, the patrol said. The school serves about 600 students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, and students of all ages were on the bus, said St. Louis County Schools Superintendent Reggie Engebritson.
A witness told Hibbing police that students were able to crawl out of the bus on their own.
Snickers suffered critical injuries, was extricated from the wreckage by emergency responders and taken by air ambulance to Essentia Hospital in nearby Virginia, according to police.
The bus driver, 52-year-old Shawn Allen Lindula, of Iron, Minn., was expected to survive his injuries.
Star Tribune staff writer Jana Hollingsworth contributed to this report.
St. Louis Park will soon require landlords to give renters more notice before they file for evictions over late payments.
The city currently requires landlords to give tenants notice seven days before they file for eviction. Starting in November, landlords will have to give 30 days notice and use a form prepared by the city.
“This is a tough ordinance,” Council Member Lynette Dumalag, the only person to vote against the change, said during a meeting this week. “At least for me, personally, I felt that it pit those that care about affordable housing against one another.”
In public hearings and other forums, city leaders heard from renters who said the current requirements didn’t give them enough time to scrape together payments if they face a sudden hardship, such as losing a job. They also heard from at least one landlord who said he might have to increase deposits because he already struggles to make ends meet when renters fall behind on payments.
The change passed 4 to 1. Council Member Tim Brausen and Mayor Nadia Mohamed were absent.
PARK RAPIDS, Minn. — Ryan Leckner has resigned as Mayor of Park Rapids and the city council has officially declared a vacancy.
City Administrator Angel Weasner said councilmembers will hold a workshop on Sept. 24 to determine how to proceed. They can fill the vacancy by appointment or hold a special election, which Leckner said seems unlikely given that the November general election is just around the corner.
Until then, Leckner said “we’re thinking that we’ll just be able to get by with just one less council member.”
He added that Councilmember Liz Stone would likely serve as acting mayor until voters hit the polls.
Former Park Rapids Mayor Pat Mikesh is running uncontested for Leckner’s now-vacant seat.
In 2018, Mikesh stepped down a month before the election and Leckner successfully ran as a write-in candidate.
Leckner first joined the council in 2015 and is ending his third, two-year term as mayor early because his family built a home outside city limits. Construction of the home in Henrietta Township, and the sale of his existing home in Park Rapids, all happened faster than expected, he said.
“My term was up in November anyways,” he said, “so I was kind of planning on just not running.”
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