Star Tribune
Want to pick up vehicle tabs with less hassle? Try a kiosk
For an extra $5, you can renew your vehicle tabs at a kiosk instead of waiting in line at a license bureau.
State leaders and deputy registrars are rolling out a new way for people to register vehicles, first at Cub Foods locations in the metro and Rochester, then hopefully across Minnesota.
“We’re trying to make sure we take the state government to them,” Gov. Tim Walz said at a demonstration of a DMV Now kiosk Tuesday afternoon inside a Rochester Cub.
Eight kiosks are now open in Minnesota. Another seven will open over the next few months, with more planned in populous areas. They won’t always be inside Cub Foods, but registrars say they’ll likely install kiosks in high-traffic places for convenience.
Some of the kiosks have been in place since June, though registrar offices piloted them for up to a year prior. The kiosks have done about 1,600 transactions in total – up from about 300 in July – but state officials say they expect more people will use them as marketing efforts ramp up.
The kiosks are built and run by a separate contractor, without the use of state dollars. They come with step-by-step instructions that appear on a screen in English or Spanish, though state officials say more languages such as Somali and Hmong can be programmed in the future.
Drivers can scan their renewal notice or enter their home address, license plate number or vehicle identification number, then follow the on-screen prompts. Drivers also must enter insurance information.
Kiosks will calculate the total due and add a $4.95 convenience fee. Drivers swiping a credit or debit card will also pay a 2.49% surcharge, the same fee imposed when using a credit card when renewing in-person at a DVS or deputy registrar’s office, online or by mail. The machines don’t accept cash.
When payment is complete, the kiosk spits out a receipt and prints new tabs.
Part of the fee is split up between nearby registrar offices to offset lost business to online services. Registrars came up with the idea in the wake of the economic hit caused by the failed Minnesota Licensing and Registration System (MNLARS) launch in 2017. The new computer system had years of technical delays and launch troubles, with over $100 million in public funding spent before state officials scrapped the project.
Mike Hintz, a deputy registrar at Crossroads License Bureau in Rochester, said kiosks in the metro area are doing much better compared to the one or two customers a day at the Rochester location. Yet he said the funding will hopefully supplement registrar offices once people realize they can buy groceries and get their tabs done at the same time.
“It’s never going to change the way we do business, but it should help,” Hintz said.
Star Tribune
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, on the campaign trial, gives a pep talk to the Mankato West High School Scarlets, a team he once coached.
MANKATO – The football players in their pads jogged out to face their rivals Friday night as Gov. Tim Walz, back home briefly as he campaigns across the country as vice presidential nominee, cheered them on.
“Don’t forget to have fun, enjoy,” Walz told players on the football team at Mankato West High School, where he worked as a geography teacher and assistant football coach before launching a political career that carried him to the Democratic Party’s national ticket.
Since choosing Walz as her running mate, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has touted his background as a football coach, hunter and gun owner, as Democrats reach out to Midwestern voters and look for inroads with men.
Walz’s stop in Mankato is one of a series of media stops in the battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, where the governor is talking high school football and hunting.
“This is the best of America,” Walz told reporters after greeting the players of Mankato West ahead of their rivalry game with Mankato East. He said he would visit his old classroom, before heading to watch the game.
A quarter center ago, Walz was the assistant defensive football coach for the 1999 Mankato West football team that won the state championship. That year’s crosstown rivalry game was a spark for Mankato West as it headed toward its state championship, said John Considine, a Mankato West alum and right tackle on that 1999 Class 4A championship team.
“It’s good to have him back,” Considine said Friday.
Local Republicans called Walz’s appearance a stunt. “They’re getting desperate to get the word out,” said Yvonne Simon, chair of the Blue Earth County GOP, adding she’s doesn’t think the governor’s “coach” branding is catching on.
“There’s a fair amount of stuff we’ve digested over the years,” Kerfoot told the Star Tribune at the time of the sale. “It’ll take a while to pick all of it out of me.”
In recent years, he and Sue have spent summers in Minnesota and then traveled back to Missouri to be close to family for the rest of the year.
Visitors love to drop in and talk about Justine Kerfoot or Bruce Kerfoot or the years they spent working at the lodge, Fredrikson said. He’s found that Bruce’s energy seemingly matched that of his mother, who died in 2001 when she was 94.
“He was one of those people that was able to get stuff done more easily or better than other people,” Fredrikson said. “Maybe because of who he was, or maybe because the stars align for this kind of person.”
In a social media post, Kerfoot’s family said they had peace knowing he and his mother “were paddling together to their shore lunch spot.”
Mark Hennessy knew Kerfoot for 40 years, but has had a closer view for the past three years. He said without Kerfoot, the Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center, located near the end of the Gunflint Trail, wouldn’t exist. Whenever there was a work project, the executive director said, Kerfoot would show up.
A teenage motorcyclist was killed in a collision with an SUV at a Burnsville intersection, officials said Friday.
The crash occurred shortly after 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Burnsville Parkway and Interstate 35W, police said.
The motorcyclist was identified by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office as Peter Vsevolod Genis, 17, of Burnsville.
An SUV driver was turning left from westbound Burnsville Parkway to northbound 35W when Genis went through a red light while heading east and struck the SUV.
The SUV driver and a woman with him, both from Burnsville, were not hurt.
The other vehicle was a Mercedes SUV. The driver was a 30-year-old male from Burnsville, with a 29-year-old female passenger from Burnsville. Neither of them was injured.
