Star Tribune
Duluth firefighter, badly injured by suspected hit-and-run while running, is given big rehab sendoff
A Duluth firefighter who was critically injured in a hit-and-run crash while out running received a robust sendoff from his colleagues Monday, as he headed to Colorado for extensive physical therapy.
Ray Skoglund, 24, was out for a late-afternoon run on Jan. 25 when he was struck by a minivan. The impact left him with fractures to his limbs, ribs and vertebrae, along with brain and facial injuries, according to the Duluth Fire Department.
Skoglund was moved Monday morning by a medical transportation service from the Essentia Health hospital in Duluth for the trip to Craig Hospital in suburban Denver, where he will undergo inpatient advanced neurological rehabilitative care at the neurorehabilitation center for an undetermined period of time.
Members of the Duluth and Hermantown fire departments, the Duluth Police Department and the Minnesota Air National Guard’s 148th Fighter Wing staged a large U.S. flag at Monaco Air at the Duluth International Airport as part of the sendoff. Skoglund previously was a firefighter with the Guard wing and for Hermantown.
Skoglund was sitting up while being transferred from an ambulance and into the waiting airplane.
“We are honored to support the Skoglund family through their darkest hours and look forward to standing by Ray during his continued recovery,” said Duluth Fire Chief Shawn Krizaj. “We can’t wait to welcome Ray and his family back when he can walk into headquarters and hopefully take his place on 1 Engine.”
Mayor Roger Reinert said, “We know the road ahead for him may be long, but if anyone can tackle this marathon, it is Raymond.”
The hit-and-run driver, 88-year-old Ronald Myrdahl, of Duluth, was booked into jail, and is now charged in St. Louis County District Court with criminal vehicular operation. Court records do not list a defense attorney.
Myrdahl has since been moved to St. Luke’s Hospital, where an exam found him to be suffering from “profound dementia” and other ailments, court records disclosed.
Police sent to the 9500 block of Grand Avenue about 5:45 p.m. on Jan. 25 found the critically injured Skoglund, who was hit while running along the shoulder. He was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital.
A motorist told investigators he saw a minivan behind him on nearby Commonwealth Avenue with no headlights on. The motorist said he tried several times to signal to the van driver that its lights were off.
The van’s driver twice strayed onto the shoulder, hit Skoglund and “did not stop, tap the brakes or speed up,” the criminal complaint read. The crash occurred after sunset under dark conditions with no ambient light.
A police officer who just finished his shift heard on emergency dispatch about the crash and a description of the vehicle. The officer spotted the van in the parking lot of a grocery store more than 4 miles north of where the crash occurred. The vehicle had extensive front-end damage.
Myrdahl left the store, told the officer that the van was his and “admitted to striking something” while his headlights were off, the complaint said.
Anti-police brutality activists interrupted a Minneapolis City Council meeting Thursday to call for Police Chief Brian O’Hara’s firing, saying his department failed a Black man who begged police for help for months, to no avail, before he was finally shot in the neck by his white neighbor.
John Sawchak, 54, is charged with shooting Davis Moturi, 34, even though three warrants had been issued for his arrest in connection with threats to Moturi and other neighbors.
Activists showed up at the council meeting and asked for time to talk about the case. Instead, the council recessed and activists took the podium and castigated the city for failing Black people, even as state and federal officials are forcing the police department into court-sanctioned monitoring because of past civil rights violations.
Nekima Levy Armstrong, founder of the Racial Justice Network, said O’Hara needs to be held accountable.
“This is not the first time instance where the community has raised concerns about his poor judgment, poor leadership, blaming the community and excuses. It’s completely unacceptable for him to get away with it,” she said. “How many Black people’s doors have they kicked in for less?”
On Thursday the council voted to request the city auditor review the city’s involvement in and response to the matters between Moturi and Sawchak.
Mayor Jacob Frey released a statement in response saying he supports the council’s call for an independent review of the case, but O’Hara “will continue to be the Minneapolis police chief.”
Protesters also questioned why the public hadn’t heard from Community Safety Commissioner Toddrick Barnette, who called a news conference within hours to say he’s not going to fire O’Hara and the city leadership supports him.
A Girl Scout from Troop 58068 told the Woodbury City Council recently that they should allow backyard chickens in the city: They cheer people up, she said.
It turned out that chickens were on an upcoming agenda and, perhaps pushed a bit by the scout’s lobbying, the Woodbury City Council at their next meeting passed a new ordinance allowing for backyard hens.
The new ordinance went into effect on Oct. 23, the night of the council meeting, and will allow people who live on property zoned R-2, a “rural estate” district, to have backyard chickens. A typical city lot is zoned R-4 and those areas still cannot have chickens, the council said.
The city has received requests “here and there” for the last several years about backyard chickens, City Council Member Andrea Date said.
Backyard chickens come have home to roost — and never leave — in a host of other Minnesota cities that allow them, from Hopkins to Thief River Falls. It’s long been allowed in both St. Paul and Minneapolis, and new cities started approving backyard coops during the pandemic, when interest spiked.
In Woodbury, it wasn’t until the question was included on the city’s biannual survey that city staff knew how people felt. The survey found less support for chickens on a typical city lot — just 13% of respondents said they strongly approve of the idea while 43% percent strongly disapproved — but a majority approved of backyard chickens on lots of 1 acre or more.
The city’s rules until recently only allowed chickens on “rural estate” properties of five or more acres.
The new ordinance allows up to six hens, but no roosters, on property less than four acres that meets the zoning requirements. Larger properties can have an additional two chickens per acre above four acres. The ordinance also sets a height limit for chicken coops of 7 feet. No license or permit is required in Woodbury for backyard chickens.
Star Tribune
Anonymous donor pays overdue bill for Fergus Falls home where town’s first Black resident lived
A $10,000 overdue special assessment bill threatening tax forfeiture of a historic Fergus Falls home was paid off this week thanks to an anonymous donor.
Prince Albert Honeycutt lived at 612 Summit Avenue East, renamed Honeycutt Memorial Drive in 2021. Not only was Honeycutt the town’s first Black resident — settling there in 1872 from Tennessee — he was the state’s first Black professional baseball player, first Black firefighter and first Black mayoral candidate.
He was an early pioneer and prominent businessman who owned a barbershop in town. Missy Hermes, with the Otter Tail County Historical Society, said Honeycutt and his wife were likely the first Black people in Minnesota to testify in a capital murder trial of a man who was convicted and hanged in Fergus Falls.
“In other places, you would never have a Black person testifying against a white person, especially a woman, too, before women could vote even,” Hermes said. “Obviously he was respected enough.”
Nancy Ann and Prince Albert Honeycutt with their children inside the now-historic Honeycutt house in 1914. Photo from the collections of the Otter Tail County Historical Society.
When dozens of people from Kentucky moved to Fergus Falls in April 1898, known as “the first 85,” Honeycutt helped integrate them into the community.
He died in 1924 at age 71 and is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Fergus Falls.
Up until 2016, several owners lived in the Honeycutt home. But the city bought and sold the house to nonprofit Flowingbrook Ministry for $1 to take over the tax-exempt property and operate the ministry.
Ministry founder Lynette Higgins-Orr, who previously lived in Fergus Falls, moved to Florida several years ago and little activity has been going on in the historic home since. But she said there are plans to make it into a museum.
