Star Tribune
On election’s eve, housing is the big issue in fast-growing Rochester
ROCHESTER, MINN. — Olmsted County commissioners this summer took the extraordinary step of acting as their own developer for 10 smaller-than-usual houses, aiming to prove buyers would snag them in a city where housing demand is red hot.
They gave their contractor a tight timeline to finish the first two 1,100-square-foot homes; from final construction permit to an open house event yesterday took 84 days. They were also built on smaller lots to hold down costs.
“We specified that two of them had to be finished this fall and the remainder of them have to be finished next spring,” said Gregory Wright, who is up for re-election next week after eight years as an Olmsted County commissioner. “The payoff is that we can show the community, builders, developers and the zoning commissions that this can work.”
Gregory Wright, who is running for re-election to the Olmsted County Commission, in front of two small-footprint houses the county built to demonstrate market demand for an alternative type of single-family home. (Evan Ramstad)
More housing is needed across Minnesota, but the issue dominates the scene in Rochester and surrounding Olmsted County.
“We had some forums with local business leaders,” said April Sutor, a longtime human services executive who is challenging Wright for a seat on the board of commissioners. “And when we asked them what could local government do to help you, they didn’t say, ‘Lower my taxes.’ They said, ‘We need housing.’”
The reason is no surprise: Rochester is the second fastest-growing city in Minnesota since the 2020 census. It was outpaced on a percentage basis only by Mankato, which is less than half the size. I visited last week to get a sense of the political scene. I also visited the fastest-shrinking place in Minnesota and will write about it in my next column.
Across the country, a trend has been visible for several election cycles: Democrats prevail in growing places and Republicans in shrinking ones. Nationally, 53% of all counties lost population in the 2010s. In the 2020 election, Republican former President Donald Trump won 90% of them.
Voter sentiment in 81 of Minnesota’s 87 counties shifted to the right in the 2022 election as more of the state’s counties and towns tumbled from slow growth into decline. That shift had little effect on state policies, though, since DFLers in that election picked up a trifecta through the re-election of Gov. Tim Walz, a one-seat margin in the Senate and a six-seat majority in the House.
Star Tribune
Richfield nursing home staff suspected of slow response to resident dying, forging DNR form
Staff members at a Richfield nursing home are accused of forging a do-not-resuscitate directive after responding slowly to a patient dying, according to police.
In a search warrant affidavit filed Tuesday in Hennepin County District Court, police asked for a judge’s permission to seize from The Villas at Richfield all relevant medical records, video surveillance and identities of any medical staff involved in the care of 55-year-old Candace Columbus, who died on Oct. 2.
The affidavit said police began investigating Columbus’ death on Oct. 7, when they received a state Department of Human Services (DHS) report detailing various suspicions of first responders who were called to the nursing home to aid Columbus.
According to the affidavit:
A report from the DHS’s Minnesota Adult Abuse Reporting Center said paramedics were called to The Villas after nursing home staff “suspected [Columbus] was dying but did not check on her or call 911 promptly.”
The Villas staff claimed that Columbus had a do-not-resuscitate (DNR) directive on file, but they did not provide it when asked by police officers, firefighters and paramedics on scene.
First responders then saw staff “filling out a DNR form, and they are suspected of forging documents. No physician was present to sign the form.”
Police reviewed officer body-worn camera video, which showed staff on the phone “with someone who claims to be the facility manager, who appears to be giving the staff instructions on how to fill out the DNR form.”
Footage from Voyageurs National Park recently caught a large cougar on camera.
The male cougar was seen on Oct. 25 in the Marion/Franklin Lake area of the national park, according to a post on the Voyageurs Wolf Project’s social media pages.
“Most cougars traveling through Minnesota and the Great Lakes region are thought to be young dispersing males. This one appears to be a hunk,” the caption read.
There have been just six observations of cougars within the national park in the past 3 years, all seemingly solitary individuals not spotted again, the park said. They have yet to see evidence that there is a breeding population of cougars in the area.
Q: What was your business experience before buying the coffee shop?
A: I wanted to [be a chef]. But I did theater. I trained at the Guthrie. Then I went to L.A. I moved to L.A. on a Thursday, auditioned on a Friday. I got in on a Monday, I did a bunch of indie films. I made a little money. You know when a movie isn’t so great, it goes to video? Yeah [laughs], but I still got paid. Then I realized, after five years, I hated it. Halle Berry’s manager, Vincent [Cirrincione], goes, “I’ll take you on.” But they want me to take these classes. Helen Hunt’s mother, I would wait on her. She said, “Oh, you’re gonna be famous.” I said, “Oh, everyone always says that.” But then I put on my clothes and go home and nothing happens. Everyone had this angle. It was exhausting. And [points to himself] this personality works great in the Midwest. It didn’t really work in Los Angeles.
A: I think you need that in L.A., where you don’t care about anybody. And the sad thing is, I’ve got this golden retriever personality. It did really well at work, and I would meet people. But it didn’t do really well in that acting thing. Then I got hit by a car at a crosswalk, and I couldn’t work for about three, four weeks. So I was gonna go back to school … do the 4+1 program at the U of M in architecture. I took the classes, and I realized the program was too theoretical. So I switched to engineering and construction management. So I have a B.S. in construction management, and then I threw in a B.A. in Spanish language and literature. And then I have a minor in East Asian studies with Chinese lingual emphasis.
Q: None of which is a prerequisite for opening a coffee shop.
A: No. But the whole thing is, I was in construction, and I worked for two companies that had a habit of not paying me. God bless them. And I was always teaching and making desserts and doing wedding cakes. And then eight years ago, I had $37 in the bank, and I was working 80 hours a week. But I had a paid-for house, and a paid-for car. So, I just kind of went full force into catering, and then wedding cakes happened. And then I got a good reputation, did a lot of charity work, events, home shows.
