Star Tribune
Osseo ponders opening city-run cannabis store
Officials in Osseo want to open a city-run dispensary when recreation cannabis sales start in Minnesota next year.
“Our goal is to be the first facility to open in the Twin Cities, municipal or otherwise,” City Council Member Mark Schulz said at a council work session in late January. “We are way further along than anybody else, which is a really good thing.”
An ad-hoc committee has been exploring the idea for months. In January, the council passed a resolution paving the way to join the Minnesota Marijuana Association. Tougher decisions loom as the council starts assembling a plan for how such a store would operate, and where it would be located.
Multiple Minnesota cities run retail outlets for liquor, though Osseo is not among them. Still, said City Administrator Riley Grams, “We want to be ready when the state opens the application window. We want to submit.”
The state’s newly formed Office of Cannabis Management, which will oversee licenses, is still working to finalize rules and regulations for the state’s fledgling cannabis industry. Part of that will be presenting a path for cities to obtain a municipal dispensary license, Grams said.
Wedged between the much larger cities of Brooklyn Park and Maple Grove, Osseo had a population of just over 2,500 people in the last census.
Among the bigger decisions city leaders would face by opening a cannabis store is where to put it. One idea is incorporating it into the building that houses City Hall and the police department, but Riley said that could be tricky because customers might shy away from an establishment in proximity to law enforcement even though the product will be legal to buy.
A second option would be to house it in the former Osseo Press building. It’s spacious enough, but “it needs a lot of love,” Grams said. An unidentified building in the city’s industrial area is also under consideration.
Any site would need to be heavily fortified with security features, including a multitude of cameras, alarms, and possibly license plate readers. Any site would also need a special entry for trucks delivering product and armored vehicles picking up cash receipts.
“We want to make it as safe as possible,” Schulz said. A new city department would oversee operations, Grams said.
“Having a detailed business plan and well thought out security plan, we think that will be the key to getting a successful municipal license,” Grams said.
Schulz said he studied how Missouri oversees cannabis operations after legalizing it two years ago. He suggested council members take a field trip there to see how municipal outlets operate there.
City officials said they don’t yet know how much would be needed in startup costs, nor what kind of revenue they might eventually expect. Some cities use profits from liquor stores to cover things like park maintenance or street repairs
But the idea of extra revenue at a time when city services are getting more expensive to deliver — and having control that cities wouldn’t get with private dispensaries — would be a “win-win for the city,” Grams said.
Schulz said that’s why he’s on board.
“Taking the burden of the city budget off the backs of the taxpayers; if that was not a huge priority, I don’t know that I’d be as excited and adamant about this moving ahead,” Schulz said.
Star Tribune
Long Prairie, MN school board dismisses its superintendent, the latest controversy in this small town
LONG PRAIRIE, MINN. — The school district superintendent dressed up as the school mascot, Thor, on football nights. He read the graduation address in both English and Spanish. He even set up office hours in the cafeteria, granting easier approachability to students.
But now, two months into the school year, Daniel Ludvigson is gone. Or, rather, “on special assignment,” according to the terminology of the Long Prairie-Grey Eagle School Board, which voted 4-3 earlier this month to remove him as superintendent. The move came weeks after voting to not renew his contract, which expires at the end of the school year in June.
Four board members — two of whom voted to oust Ludvigson, including Board Chair Kelly Lemke — are up for re-election next week.
The dismissal is the latest blow in this central Minnesota community on the edge of the prairie. Over the last nine months, the town of 3,400 residents and seat of Todd County has lost its mayor, a city manager, two school board members, and now its superintendent.
Students walked out earlier this month in support of Ludvigson. Signs in support of Ludvigson can be seen across town on the lawns of apparent Democrats and Republicans alike. And last week, hundreds packed the American Legion off Hwy. 71 to eat beef sandwiches and sign support letters for Ludvigson, who only swung by to pick up his child for hockey practice.
In a time of great divide in America, this fight has nothing to do with politics.
“You’ve got Harris buttons and Trump hats side-by-side, arm-in-arm,” said Amanda Hinson, a former local newspaper reporter who is concerned the board is not being upfront about why they placed Ludvigson on special assignment. “We want transparency in our government.”
Lawn signs around Long Prairie, Minn., now include people weighing in on the dismissal of Superintendent Daniel Ludvigson by the school board. (Christopher Vondracek)
School board members say Ludvigson has repeatedly shown he is not ready for the prime time of a school district bigger than the one in central North Dakota he arrived from two years ago. They have twice disciplined Ludvigson, but did not state the reason for placing him on “special assignment,” beyond insinuating that staff are fearful to raise official complaints.
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.
