Star Tribune
With slow fire response times, St. Cloud will ask voters to fund new fire station
ST. CLOUD — Voters here could see a question on the ballot this fall asking them to approve a tax increase for a new fire station on the city’s south side.
St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis on Tuesday announced plans for a referendum during his 19th annual State of the City address.
“Our firefighters go to fires, natural disasters, medical calls, dangerous rescues,” he said to a crowd of a few hundred people gathered at City Hall. “They need a little help in that response — they need another fire station.”
The city has five fire stations, one of which is at the airport and is only used to support airport operations.
St. Cloud Fire Chief Matt Love said Tuesday the city is working with a firm to design a new station and training facility on the south side of the city near the intersection of Minnesota Highway 15 and 33rd Street S — an area that’s seen recent growth with the new Tech High School, charter schools and growing neighborhoods of houses and apartments.
Once costs are finalized, city leaders will ask the City Council to approve adding the question to the ballot this fall. It would likely be similar to a public safety referendum in 2006 that asked voters to allow the city to rebuild a fire station on the west side by the Municipal Athletic Complex and build a new fire station on the south side just north of I-94. The question passed with 57% voting yes to the tax increase.
The new station would not only improve response times to the south side of the city, it would improve response times across the entire city, Love said.
A 2020 study of the city’s fire department showed its response time exceeds nationally recommended standards for fires, emergency medical calls and other calls. The national benchmark is about six minutes, whereas St. Cloud’s average response time to a fire was 10 minutes, the study showed.
“Response time is important,” Kleis said. “It’s been more than 15 years since we’ve asked you, the voters, to build a couple fire stations. We’re going to ask you again this fall. It’s necessary not only to save your life — your friends’ and family’s lives — and property.”
Kleis also announced Tuesday the city is launching a residential cooking oil recycling program, where residents can drop of used food-grade cooking oil and grease at four sites in the city. Next year, the city will start accepting food scraps, as well. The city’s wastewater treatment facility will turn the oils and scraps into renewable biogas, which is then used to power the facility.
This summer, the city will launch a new round of the Healthy Neighborhood Partnership Program in partnership with the Initiative Foundation. The program helps residents determine their neighborhood’s unique assets, needs and goals.
The city first sponsored the program in 2007 with a focus on the city’s older core neighborhoods, which was the impetus behind the creation of the nonprofit St. Cloud Neighborhood Coalition. This summer’s program will focus on all neighborhoods, Kleis said.
Kleis also highlighted his engagement efforts since taking office in 2005, including 100 dinners with residents at his home, 980 town halls — including his recent 24-hour town hall — 1,000 video messages posted online and 2,000 appearances on local radio shows. He hasn’t yet said if he plans to run for re-election this fall.
Kleis also thanked the 121 people who volunteer to serve on the city’s 21 boards and commissions, as well as others who work in public service or volunteer to make the community a better place, many of whom were in attendance Tuesday.
“The state of the city,” he said, “is the sum of all of you.”
A jury found a longtime farmhand in southern Minnesota guilty in the killing of his boss, a man whose death prosecutors argued would bring the debt-ridden worker a “significant financial benefit.”
Travis Joel Bauer, 48, of Winthrop, was found guilty of second-degree murder by a jury in Sibley County District Court on Friday. The jury, after deliberating until 9 p.m., also found him not guilty of first-degree murder with premeditation.
Bauer was arrested last year in connection with the 2022 shooting of his boss, Dennis D. Weitzenkamp, 79.
Winthrop police found Weitzenkamp in his machine shed, slumped over to the left side of his body, with a bloody gunshot wound in the back of his head and no weapon within reach, court filings said. Weitzenkamp appeared to have been about to shuck an ear of corn, police said.
Bauer had helped Weitzenkamp “farm his land for many years and was considered part of the family,” a complaint against him read. Weitzenkamp was an Army veteran who served during the Vietnam War and moved to the Winthrop area in 1998, his online obituary said. He was survived by his wife of 37 years, five stepchildren, and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and enjoyed “watching sports, playing cards, bowling, traveling with family, driving trucks and wintering in Florida,” the obituary added.
Bauer told police that he never saw Weitzenkamp at the farm property after they left for separate lunch breaks. But law enforcement analysis of Bauer’s and Weitzenkamp’s cellphones showed they were both at the farm at the time of the killing. The cap and pants Bauer had on that day had gunshot residue on them, police said.
Law enforcement’s argued Bauer’s finances “had significant debt and was behind on bills,” and that he received calls that he could lose his home if he didn’t pay his debts an hour before Weitzenkamp was found dead. Trust documents disclosed to investigators that Bauer “would receive significant financial benefit” from Weitzenkamp’s death, prosecutors said.
Sibley County Attorney, Don Lannoye, said prosecutors were pleased at the verdict.
Roseville has joined the ranks of Minnesota cities with ordinances aimed at reducing the amount of Styrofoam and single-use plastic takeout containers in the trash.
On Monday, Roseville’s City Council unanimously passed a “Green To Go” ordinance, which requires takeout containers to be compostable, recyclable or reusable. Diners will likely see some changes when they pick up dinner.
“Any takeout food that they bring home from a restaurant, either if they’re getting takeout or if they’re bringing home leftovers from dining in, should be in something that they can put in the recycling bin, or it’s compostable,” said Noelle Bakken, the city’s sustainability specialist.
The city joins neighbors, including Minneapolis, St. Paul, St. Louis Park and Edina in enacting ordinances designed to make takeout containers more environmentally friendly.
The ordinance affects restaurants and food trucks, gas stations and convenience stores, grocery stores and schools. It does not affect hospitals and nursing homes, businesses with no retail food or beverage sales or caterers.
The ordinance includes utensils, though single-use straws may be available in dispensers or given to customers on request.
To-go container materials allowed under the ordinance include recyclable plastics (#1, #2, #5), metal and compostable plastic, paper or fiber products. No longer allowed are black plastic (including #5), Styrofoam and other plastics, including #4 and #6. Prepackaged foods and plastic films are exempt.
Bakken said the vote on the ordinance followed outreach with residents and businesses. Some businesses have been early adopters, and the city will help connect others to more sustainable packaging resources.
Star Tribune
Bloomington offers hopeful model for reducing police clashes with people in mental distress
For more than a quarter-century, James Ayers met with some of the most vulnerable residents in Minneapolis. As the former director of Walk-In Counseling Center, a free and anonymous counseling center on Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis that is staffed by volunteers, he witnessed the value of accessible mental health services.
“The tendency is to take a policing approach, to correct it without getting into what the hell is going on,” he told me.
It’s also why he and other counselors have praised a Bloomington police pilot program that aims to help residents gain access to counseling services when they call 911 during an emergency. The department has been nationally recognized after hiring two marriage and family therapists to help people address life challenges that may demand a mental health professional rather than a police officer.
“The whole idea is that people generally don’t deal with mental health issues until there is blood on the floor,” Ayers said. “And you can get ahead of the game by providing services as soon as possible when people are asking for it. The whole rationale for a walk-in counseling center is that you’ve gotta make it easy for people to talk. And that’s done by privacy, professionalism, timeliness. What’s going on in Bloomington is a good start.”
When I was a child, a relative of mine endured a mental health crisis outside our church. I was too young to understand the totality of mental health then, but I remember the moment when police arrived. One by one, they surrounded him. I was afraid. He wasn’t harmed but the possibility seemed real.
Every police department — and many have partnered with mental health organizations in recent years — should employ resources to address individuals facing mental health crises, as those situations can quickly deteriorate. Counselors and therapists, Bloomington’s program has shown, may help residents find solutions and avoid those encounters with police. They may also help families and individuals process their collective challenges before they matriculate and lead to violence and damage in their homes and communities.
The complexities and problems in policing here and elsewhere are well-documented. The model in Bloomington is one that could work throughout the Twin Cities, but only if patients’ privacy is protected and not improperly used by police. There is value in independent counseling services, but those services are not always attainable for those who need them most.
In Bloomington, more than 4,000 people are uninsured, according to the department, and the service gives those people access to therapists whom they might not see otherwise because of that barrier. To many, 911 is the universal number to call when there is a serious situation they can’t resolve on their own. That’s a habit we’ve all developed over time. Yet, a call to that number should not always start with a police response. If anything, the presence of counselors allows for nuance and patience in these scenarios, says the Minnesota Counseling Association, the local chapter of the American Counseling Association.
