Star Tribune
Minneapolis’ new Third Precinct police station could open in early 2025
A new Minneapolis Third Precinct police station — and adjoining “community safety center” — could open before the end of March 2025, city officials said Wednesday.
“It is aggressive,” Community Safety Commissioner Todd Barnette said of the timeline in a media briefing Wednesday.
The task of finding a new, permanent home for police officers serving the southeast portion of the city dates back to the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder in 2020, when demonstrators and rioters stormed the previous station and set it ablaze.
After a contentious process, the City Council and Mayor Jacob Frey in November agreed to buy an existing building at 2633 Minnehaha Av., blocks away from the previous site, and renovate it to accommodate a police station.
Additionally, Frey and the council committed to creating a new type of facility — a “community safety center” — as a resource for the public. Council members and others have speculated that housing, addiction or mental health services might be offered there.
Many details of what will actually be done to the building remain unclear, but Wednesday’s timeline provided by Barnette and Amanda Harrington, director of design and implementation for the Office of Community Safety, offered the most concrete details yet. Among them:
Now: The city signed a purchase agreement last week with the seller of the privately owned parcel. A due diligence period, including city inspections of the building, will be completed by April 15.
June 1: The sale is scheduled to close.
Between Jan. 1 and March 31, 2025: Both the police precinct station and the community safety center will open.
The delicate process of community involvement — previous efforts have met with a range of responses, with some feeling left out — will continue through this winter and summer, but Barnette and Harrington offered no details Wednesday.
Barnette and Harrington said they didn’t have the final purchase price for the property.
City officials have previously estimated that the cost to buy the property — an existing building and parking lot — and turn it into a police station will be $14 million. The expanded services of the community safety center are estimated to cost an additional $7 million to $8.5 million.
Rain and potentially heavy snow are on tap Thursday around the Twin Cities, just before families set out for Halloween trick-or-treating.
Temperatures were expected to drop throughout the day, creating conditions for flurries. A winter weather advisory is in effect from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. covering the Twin Cities metro area and parts of south-central Minnesota. Steady rain drenched the Twin Cities on Thursday, making for a soggy morning commute.
“As colder air begins to move in this morning, the rain will transition to heavy snow from west to east with snowfall rates of an inch per hour at times into early afternoon,” the National Weather Service in Chanhassen said in a weather advisory.
The Twin Cities and surrounding areas could get between 2 and 4 inches of snow, according to the weather service. The winter weather advisory is expected to affect Anoka, Chisago, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, Washington and Le Sueur counties.
It’s unclear how much of the snow will actually stick, with warm surface temperatures likely leading to melting on contact in many areas.
“Exact totals will depend on snowfall rate, surface temperatures, and melting — which increases uncertainty with the snow forecast,” the weather service said in an early Thursday briefing.
“Thundersnow possible!” the weather service emphasized.
The good news for Halloween revelers is that the snow and rain are expected to wrap up in time for trick-or-treating, though temperatures will remain in the 30s with a sharp windchill.
An off-duty Washington County sheriff’s deputy caused a head-on crash while under the influence of alcohol and injured a couple in the other vehicle, officials said.
The crash occurred about 10:40 a.m. Sunday in Afton on Hwy. 95 at Scenic Lane, the Minnesota State Patrol said.
Campbell Johnston Blair, 58, of Hastings, was heading north in his Subaru Crosstrek, crossed into the opposite lane and collided with a southbound Ford Expedition, the patrol said.
Blair and the other vehicle’s occupants, 38-year-old Erik Robert Sward and 36-year-old Heather Lynn Sward, both of Lake Elmo, were taken to Regions Hospital with non-critical injuries, according to the patrol.
The patrol noted the alcohol use by Blair was involved in the crash.
Blair, who was driving a private vehicle at the time of the crash while off-duty, has been a deputy with the Sheriff’s Office since 2020 and is currently assigned to our Court Security Unit.
The Sheriff’s Office has been asked for reaction to the crash involving one of its deputies.
ST. CLOUD – On Tuesday, St. Cloud voters will be asked to make decisions on a new fire station and moving city elections to odd years, and — for those who live in Stearns County — how to fund a new county jail.
Here’s a look at the three referendum questions that are on St. Cloud-area ballots this year.
Ballot question: “Shall Stearns County be authorized to impose a sales tax & use tax of three-eighths of one percent to finance up to $325 million, plus associated bonding costs, for the construction of a justice center facility, consisting of law enforcement, judicial center and jail? The sales tax would be used solely to finance construction, upgrades and financing costs for the justice center and remain in effect for 30 years or until the project is paid for, whichever comes first. These services and facilities are mandated by the state of Minnesota to be provided by counties.”
Stearns County officials are planning to build a new $325 million justice center complex that includes a 270-bed jail, a judicial center with courtrooms, and a law enforcement center that houses the Sheriff’s Office. In the summer, Stearns County board members voted to move those facilities out of downtown and to a new location with more space. That site has yet to be determined.
The question before voters is how to fund that center.
County Administrator Mike Williams said a common misconception he’s heard at recent town halls is residents think voting “yes” gives permission to the county to build the facility, and if they vote “no,” the county won’t spend the money to build it.
“People [think they] are voting on the project — and they’re not. They’re voting on how we are going to fund it,” Williams said.
If voters approve the ballot question, the county will impose a sales tax to fund the project. If they vote it down, the county can instead pay for the project with property taxes.