Star Tribune
Former MnDOT official Timothy Sexton approved as Minneapolis public works director
The Minneapolis City Council on Thursday approved a longtime transportation official to be the city’s new public works director.
Timothy Sexton, who previously served as an assistant commissioner with the Minnesota Department of Public Transportation, was nominated by Mayor Jacob Frey last month. On Thursday, the council unanimously ratified the nomination.
Sexton replaces MnDOT Commissioner Margaret Anderson Kelliher, who was ratified as city operations officer in December.
Sexton most recently served as the assistant commissioner for sustainability, planning and program management for MnDOT, overseeing a staff of 350. He worked at the agency since 2014. Before that, he worked for the Washington State Department of Transportation since 2006, and prior to that, he designed and constructed green roofing projects in Germany.
The city’s public works department spends some $440 million annually and has more than 1,100 employees whose duties include street repair, plowing, garbage and recycling collection, water and emergency sewer repairs.
Star Tribune
Authorities search for a man who might be linked to the Kentucky highway shootings that wounded five
LONDON, Ky. — Authorities were searching Sunday for a man who may have been linked to the shooting of nine vehicles and wounding of five people on a highway in rural southeastern Kentucky.
Although they said they could not yet name him a suspect in Saturday’s shootings along busy Interstate 75, authorities said they consider 32-year-old Joseph A. Couch a ”person of interest” and were searching for him in a remote area of rugged and hilly terrain north of London, a community of about 8,000 people roughly 75 miles (120 kilometers) south of Lexington.
”We’re going to go in and we’re going to find this guy,” Deputy Gilbert Acciardo, a spokesperson for the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office, told reporters Sunday.
Authorities consider Couch, who is white, to be armed and dangerous, and they cautioned members of the public who might spot him not to approach him.
Acciardo said authorities were notified at about 5:30 p.m. Saturday about gunshots along the highway near exit 49. An individual who was ”off that exit” fired multiple rounds into the northbound and southbound lanes, striking nine vehicles and wounding five people, he said.
”When our first two units got to the scene there, they said it was a madhouse: people on the sides of the road, emergency flashers going, bullet holes, windows shot out, nine vehicles shot. Can you imagine that? Just chaotic,” Acciardo said during a news conference.
The wounded were hospitalized in stable condition early Sunday. Some had ”very serious” injuries, including one person who was shot in the face, Acciardo said.
Residents of Laurel County were on edge as authorities searched on foot Sunday in a remote wooded area near the highway that has only one business and a few houses nearby. London Laurel Rescue squad sent a drone to assist. State lawmakers from Laurel County urged residents in the area to stay home during the search.
Star Tribune
Suburban school districts say busing is off to a smooth start. Except in two districts.
“My family is making it work but I know of other families who are really struggling and reaching out to strangers on Facebook to help get their kid to school,” Nelson said. “I keep hearing from families who say this has never been an issue before.”
The district is continuing to process the requests, and those who registered earlier will be processed first, according to a district letter that went to families. “Our goal is to ensure that every family who requests bus service receives it,” Goldade said, adding that Hopkins isn’t facing a bus driver shortage or routing changes that would cause major disruptions.
Having enough drivers at the start of the year is a welcome change, said Troy Schreifels, the director of transportation, security and emergency management for Osseo schools. He estimates that more than half of the 25 years in his career were marked by driver shortages, which became acute in the wake of the pandemic.
“But this year, we had a full bank of drivers for the first day of school, and it’s been going really well,” Schreifels said.
Without the staffing issues of the past, several districts said their transportation departments’ main challenge this year is adjusting routes around road closures, slowdowns and orange cones.
“There’s just a lot of construction,” said David Hanson, transportation coordinator for St. Louis Park schools. “That seems to be the biggest hurdle our buses are facing this year.”
A man fleeing West St. Paul Police officers responding to a domestic disturbance call died early Sunday after crashing and being ejected from the vehicle he was driving, police said.
Before 2 a.m., a woman reported a 35-year-old man had threatened people and caused damage at a West St. Paul home, according to a West. St. Paul Police news release. She reported the man had been drinking heavily and was on drugs. A dispatcher heard the man yelling and possibly throwing objects.
Officers saw a vehicle they believed the suspect was in driving east on Moreland Avenue, the news release said. They attempted to stop it and arrest the driver on suspicion of domestic assault and other charges.
The suspect did not stop the vehicle and instead crossed Robert Street and lost control, striking a power pole and two parked vehicles in a driveway at Moreland Avenue and Kruse Street, police said. The driver was ejected from the vehicle and medics pronounced him dead at the scene.
Mendota Heights Police and the Minnesota State Patrol are investigating the incident at the request of West St. Paul Police.
