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 Lynx are in the hot seat.
The team lost Game 3 of the WNBA Finals series against the New York Liberty on Wednesday night 77-80, setting the stage for a decisive match at Target Center on Friday night. Fans in the arena reacted with resounding disappointment after Sabrina Ionescu sunk a three-pointer to break away from the tie game and dashed the Lynx’s chance at forcing overtime.
Before we get to the reactions, first things first: The Lynx set an attendance record, filling Target Center with 19,521 spectators for the first time in franchise history. That’s nearly 500 more than when Caitlin Clark was in town with the Indiana Fever earlier this year.
Despite leading by double digits for much of the game, the Lynx began the fourth quarter with a one-point lead over the Liberty and struggled to stay more than two or three points ahead throughout.
The Liberty took the lead with minutes to go in the fourth quarter and folks were practically despondent.
Of course, there were people who were in it solely for the spectacle. Nothing more.
The Lynx took a commanding lead early in the first quarter and ended the first half in winning position, setting a particularly jovial mood among the fanbase to start the game.
Inside Target Center, arena announcers spent a few minutes before the game harassing Lynx fans — and Liberty fans — who had not yet donned the complementary T-shirts draped over every seat.
DULUTH – The Minnesota and Wisconsin transportation departments will make upgrades to the Richard I. Bong Memorial Bridge in the summer of 2025, in preparation for the structure to become the premiere route between this city and Superior during reconstruction of the Blatnik Bridge.
Built in 1961, the Blatnik Bridge carries 33,000 vehicles per day along Interstate 535 and Hwy. 53. It will be entirely rebuilt, starting in 2027, with the help of $1 billion in federal funding announced earlier this year. MnDOT and WisDOT are splitting the remaining costs of the project, about $4 million each.
According to MnDOT, projects on the Bong Bridge will include spot painting, concrete surface repairs to the bridge abutments, concrete sealer on the deck, replacing rubber strip seal membranes on the main span’s joints and replacing light poles on the bridge and its points of entry. It’s expected to take two months, transportation officials said during a recent meeting at the Superior Public Library.
During this time there will be occasional lane closures, detours at the off-ramps, and for about three weeks the sidewalk path alongside the bridge will be closed.
The Bong Bridge, which crosses the St. Louis River, opened to traffic in 1985 and is the lesser-used of the two bridges. Officials said they want to keep maintenance to a minimum on the span during the Blatnik project, which is expected to take four years.
Red Wing will celebrate the grand opening of its first permanent set of pickleball courts next week with an “inaugural play” on the six courts at Colvill Park on the banks of the Mississippi, between a couple of marinas and next to the aquatic center.
Among the first to get to play on the new courts will be David Anderson, who brought pickleball to the local YMCA in 2008, before the nationwide pickleball craze took hold, and Denny Yecke, at 92 the oldest pickleball player in Red Wing.
The inaugural play begins at 11 a.m. Tuesday, with a rain date of the next day. Afterward will be food and celebration at the Colvill Park Courtyard building.
Tim Sletten, the city’s former police chief, discovered America’s fastest-growing sport a decade ago after he retired. With fellow members of the Red Wing Pickleball Group, he’d play indoors at the local YMCA or outdoors at a local school, on courts made for other sports. But they didn’t have a permanent place, so they approached the city about building one.
When a city feasibility study came up with a high cost, about $350,000, Sletten’s group got together to raise money.
The courts are even opening ahead of schedule, originally set for 2025.
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