Star Tribune
What would Goodhue County do? Pick up trash along the Mississippi River. And so can you.
Our story begins with one citizen and 92 photos of garbage.
Bottles. Cans. Food wrappers. Discarded tires. Soggy plastic bags. Used diapers.
Once the snow melts, there’s nothing to block Minnesota’s view of all the junk that piled up over the winter. One Goodhue County resident, good and mad about the drifts of garbage along the Mississippi River, headed to a township meeting a few years ago with photo proof and a plea. Could the responsible jurisdiction please clean up the mess?
But the mess covered a tangle of jurisdictions. There was garbage on township land, on county land, on state land. There was litter strewn across the city of Red Wing’s waterfront and onto the property of the nearby nuclear power plant and into the sovereign territory of the Prairie Island Indian Community.
Watching the trash talk that day was Goodhue County Commissioner Linda Flanders.
“There were so many jurisdictions that I realized, we’re never going to get anywhere,” she said. “Everyone was throwing up their hands. ‘I could do this, but it’s not going to solve the problem.’ ‘I could do that, but it’s not going to solve the problem.'”
If no community could solve the problem alone, maybe they could work on it together.
The Mississippi River has been called one of America’s most endangered rivers; choked by garbage, urban pollution, agricultural runoff, mercury, bacteria, nitrogen, PFAS and microplastics. A problem so huge, it feels like someone else’s problem.
Goodhue County, it turns out, is home to problem solvers.
At Prairie Island, the story begins with one woman, one very large dog and a bright ribbon dress.
Nicky Buck, a traditional ecological Dakota knowledge-keeper, had watched with dismay as visitors came down from the Twin Cities to fish in Sturgeon Lake by the river. They took their fish home, but they left their garbage behind — in her home.
“I was getting upset, because I had just pulled a tire out [of the river] near Maiden Rock,” she said. Sifting through the mess, she found discarded bills with names and addresses. She was tempted, she told her uncle, to drive north and return that tire to sender. Her uncle had a better idea.
“He said, ‘My girl, nobody wants to learn from anybody who’s angry,'” she said. “‘So you just need to be the example you wish to see.'”
She put on bright clothes and her ribbon skirt and started collecting trash by the roadside, accompanied by her eye-catching Great Dane.
“I started picking up trash in town,” she said. “I would do it when school busses went by, because I know children are pretty influential in their families.”
On a warm summer day in 2021, 30 volunteers set out to clean up the mess someone else had made. They called the event Wakpa Awayankapi, from the Dakota term for those who watch over and protect the river. They collected 119 pounds of trash in one day.
The next year, Flanders launched the Mighty Mississippi Cleanup Challenge, teaming up with Prairie Island and the city of Red Wing. There were cleanup events, there were signs in multiple languages there was a very persuasive pollution video, narrated by a credible Morgan Freeman impersonator.
The cleanup went so well, Flanders extended the challenge to neighboring counties in 2023. To the county that collected the most trash would go the bragging rights.
Last year, bragging rights went to Dakota County, where 178 volunteers spent 334 hours picking up 2,475.5 pounds of trash at seven different events. But the real winner was the river. And Goodhue County, which just won an award from the National Association of Counties for the initiative.
This year’s Mighty Mississippi Cleanup Challenge runs from April 15 to May 15. Organizers are hoping many more counties join in and add their weirdest finds to the annual Wall of Shame. Car mufflers. Bicycles. Furniture. Fluffy pink house insulation. None of these things belong in the river. And none of them are in the river. Not anymore.
Red Wing City Council Member Becky Norton, a science teacher, sees a lesson in the litter. She sees the tragedy of the commons. A public resource — a commons — being destroyed by the people who share it. Fishermen who toss away garbage that poisons the fish. Neighbors who won’t pick up the trash at their feet, because it’s not their trash.
“That’s the thing about the river cleanup,” Norton said. “It is a group of people who recognize that we all live here, we all take out of this commons. When can we take a moment to put it back?”
If you’re up to the challenge, visit: goodhuecountymn.gov/1485/Mighty-Mississippi-Cleanup
About 50 Ukrainian refugees have signed up to donate blood on Saturday in Minneapolis as a way to give thanks to Americans for welcoming them to this country and for support in the face of Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine.
The donated blood will then be given to the Children’s Hospital of Minnesota.
The Ukrainian American Community Center, located at 301 NE Main St. in Minneapolis, has organized the event. The blood drive will run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, said Iryna Petrus, community outreach manager at the center.
“It’s a sign of gratitude to Americans for supporting Ukraine and saving children’s lives in Ukraine,” said Yosyf Sabir, speaking on behalf of the blood drive.
It’s also a way to say “thank you to the United States for welcoming us so warmly,” said Petrus. She said there will be a program at 10 a.m. Saturday when several leaders of the Ukrainian American Community Center will speak. She said the center is hopeful that Ukrainian groups in other parts of North America will do similar blood drives.
Those who are unable to give blood have been asked to donate cash, which will be used to purchase tourniquets that will sent to Ukraine to be used by persons who have been injured in the war. Every $50 raised will purchase one hemostatic tourniquet, the Ukrainian Center said in a news release.
If approved, that approach would drop the district’s fund balance to 6% of general fund expenditures. The current board policy is to maintain a fund balance of at least 10% of general fund expenditures.
Anoka-Hennepin’s current operating referendum brings in about $1,154 per student, but the state-allowed cap is about $2,200 per student. If increased to the cap amount, a referendum would bring in another $40 million, McIntyre said.
According to community feedback collected through surveys and community meetings over the last month, nearly 90% of respondents said they supported a referendum. Parents and families also expressed concern about growing class sizes as a result of cuts.
The two options have already been revised based on board members’ requests to reduce cuts that would mean fewer teachers at schools, McIntyre said.
At one point in the discussion, the district floated changes to middle and high school class schedules to save money, but that was removed after board member feedback. At the board’s meeting last month, several board members thanked district staff for transparency about potential cuts and responsiveness to board and community feedback.
“I would encourage people to keep asking questions,” Board Member Michelle Langenfeld said at the September board meeting, “because as we unfold more information, the opportunity becomes greater for us to make the most informed decision under these very, very difficult circumstances.”
On Monday morning, contract workers began snipping razor wire and removing it from fencing that was propped atop concrete barriers along the perimeter of the former Third Precinct police station, which was set ablaze during the uprising over George Floyd’s police killing.
Finally, the concrete barricades will come down, after 4.5 years. As private security guards looked on, contractors began removing the security measures put in place to secure the building at 3000 Minnehaha Av. after it became a focal point of protests.
For the past three years, Third Precinct police officers have been based out of a city building in downtown Minneapolis, with plans to eventually bring them back to a south Minneapolis Community Safety Center just down the street at 2633 Minnehaha Av.
What to do with the former police station – home to what has been called a “playground” for renegade cops – has been the subject of heated debate, with the Minneapolis City Council and Mayor Jacob Frey at odds.
While the city debated its future, some conservatives jumped at the chance to use the charred building as a backdrop to hold press conferences and news reports in which they blasted the city and its leaders. Most recently, vice presidential nominee JD Vance made a campaign stop in front of the building earlier this month to blast his opponent, Gov. Tim Walz, for his handling of the 2020 riots and portray Minneapolis as a city overrun with crime.
GOP vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance speaks outside the former Minneapolis Police 3rd Precinct building in Minneapolis on Oct. 14. (Leila Navidi)
After that, several council members expressed frustration at the city’s failure to clean up the site. Despite signs saying “cleanup efforts are underway,” concrete barriers, fencing and razor wire remained all summer.
Council Member Aurin Chowdhury said earlier this month that the blight makes people feel uncared for and gives opportunists a backdrop to manipulate the scene for political gain.
Council Member Linea Palmisano blamed some of her council colleagues for the delays, accusing some members of being “desperate for any objection” to Frey’s proposal. The council passed a resolution saying that the building should not be used for any law enforcement functions again. Palmisano called it disgraceful that the building remains, scarred and secured, over four years later.
