Star Tribune
As copper wire thefts continue, Twin Cities’ officials scrounge for solutions
Through silent alarms, welding, retail screws and even duct tape, Twin Cities officials have tried more than a dozen solutions to prevent copper wire thefts his year. Some fixes shuttered criminal rings while others fell short, and as residents bear darkened streets ahead of a new law aimed at curbing the destructive and expensive schemes, the search continues for a foolproof fix.
Copper wire thefts first surged across the nation in around 2020. The value of copper skyrocketed to new highs that year, increasing to an average of $4.13 per troy ounce by this March, according to St. Paul officials. Thieves often strip wire from light poles along park trails and quiet streets, darkening miles of pathway before selling the metal to recyclers and scrapyards. Authorities have arrested and charged many thieves in response, often with recycling professionals’ help, but the problem continued.
“Streetlight wire theft has [brought] another problematic year. 2023 was also quite a challenge for us,” Minneapolis Project Manager Joe Laurin said. “We think the challenge with wire theft aligns closely with the value of recycled copper.”
Thieves stole copper wire from streetlights, homes, A/C units and electronic vehicle charging stations. Twin Cities men caused more than $10,000 in damage this year after posing as employees to steal copper wire from a tower outside Little Falls. Eagan authorities charged a former employee with stealing at least $4,000 in copper wire from the city. And residents in St. Paul believe wire theft led to the death of 64-year-old Steven Wirtz, who was struck by a vehicle while walking his dog Gunther along a path darkened by copper thieves.
Such damages cost Saint Paul $250,000 in 2019. That cost ballooned to $1.2 million last year, and the city’s Department of Public Works has received around 1,600 online reports of streetlights damaged by wire theft this year. Officials believe that’s an undercount because residents can also report wire theft through multiple departments across the city.
So far, Minneapolis thieves have stripped copper wire at a rate similar to last year. City officials spent at least $200,000 repairing broken lights this year, often near the lakes and West River Parkway. Between the cities, money spent repairing copper wire damage funded both short and long-term solutions.
Some lights poles are welded shut and electrified during the day to deter theft. Others feature silent alarms, and are being considered for solar energy or overhead wires. Less-thorough solutions include light pole panels that are secured by commercial screws and duct tape. Despite trying more than a dozen of such solutions, a permanent solution is elusive. .
“We have, within about the last nine months, reinstalled about 10 miles of underground wiring to the street lighting system,” Laurin said, adding that the city must replace more wire before the year ends. “There are some areas [where] the wire’s been stolen, we’ve restored the wire, and it’s been stolen again almost immediately. That’s happened in multiple locations, and sometimes as many as three times in the last year.”
Mahtomedi’s volleyball team started the 2023 season 3-7. But still, the Zephyrs peaked at the right time and made it to state for a second year in a row.
This go-around, undefeated Mahtomedi (10-0) hasn’t taken long at all to start clicking.
On Tuesday night, 14 kills each from senior outside hitter Kaili Malvey and senior middle blocker Silvie Graetzer helped the Zephyrs sweep visiting South St. Paul 25-17, 25-18, 25-10.
After the program’s first trip to state in 2022, then returning in 2023, the team is thriving. With seven seniors and five juniors on the roster and all its starters returning, Mahtomedi “started at such a higher point this season,” Graetzer said. “And now our end goal is so much higher. We’re not there to get to state. We’re there to do damage at state.”
Against South St. Paul (14-4), the Zephyrs dealt with injuries to two sidelined starters heading into the match and faced the Packers’ high-swinging outside hitter, senior Alaina Panagiotopoulos.
“[Our injured players, Sahar Ramaley and Katie Hergenrader] pushed us to play for each other, and I think we really executed,” Malvey said.
Nine digs and 14 service receptions by junior libero Claire Crothers, plus six blocks by Graetzer, helped numb the swinging sting of Panagiotopoulos’ eight kills. They prepped for her in practice, focusing on eye work in blocking drills and taking up space on the court.
Another offseason key for the Zephyrs took place 10 minutes down the road in Lake Elmo. While not all of last year’s starters played club, all of them participated in club training this year, with a big Zephyrs contingent at Kokoro Volleyball. Even if the Zephyrs weren’t on the same team at Kokoro, they saw each other in the weight room, learned similar schemes.
St. Paul is among the cities that have tried sending money to very low-income residents, studying the results. When Springboard launched its project in 2021, it was one of the nation’s first guaranteed income programs aimed at artists.
“It’s not because we think artists are more deserving or more worthy than anyone else,” said Laura Zabel, Springboard’s executive director. Creative work is one form of labor that, like caregiving, “our economy doesn’t value” but that communities need — now more than ever, she said.
“I love thinking about guaranteed income as a way of honoring that we all have contributions to make to our community, and we need a little bit of time and space and breathing room to make those contributions,” Zabel said.
A similar experiment also started in 2021 in San Francisco, run by the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, has ended. In 2022, the Creatives Rebuild New York program began providing some 2,400 artists in New York with $1,000 per month for 18 months. That same year, Ireland’s government began providing 2,000 artists about $350 a week, or about $18,200 a year, as part of a three-year pilot program.
Every 18 months, Springboard has extended its program’s funding. Now, it’s guaranteeing artists five years of income. The first 25 participants, who have received income since 2021, will see that money continue for two more years. Those who started receiving it 18 months ago, including 25 artists in Otter Tail County, will continue. And the 25 new recipients there will begin the program knowing they’ll get money for five years.
“So, from a research perspective, that’s very exciting — to be able to research and understand some of the difference between folks who know from the beginning the longer time horizon,” Zabel said, “and what that allows them to do in terms of planning and commitment to their community.”
DULUTH — A Duluth man who said he doesn’t remember killing his girlfriend pleaded guilty to second-degree murder without intent Tuesday in St. Louis County court — a plea deal that could land him in prison longer than sentencing guidelines would dictate.
Dale John Howard, 25, told Judge Theresa Neo that he doesn’t remember it but believes he caused the death of his girlfriend, Allisa Marie Vollan, 27, on March 22. Vollan, described on a fundraising site as a “bright young lady” with “an abundance of friends,” had a no-contact order against Howard at the time of her death. Howard could be sentenced to 20 years in prison — more than seven years longer than Minnesota’s presumptive guideline for the murder. According to the county attorney’s office, the longer sentence is legal because of the active domestic abuse no-contact order against him.
Howard’s sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 14.
According to court documents, officers responded to a morning call at Howard’s Central Hillside apartment and found him beneath a blanket with Vollan, who was dead. He told officers that he had hung out with Vollan late the previous night, then left to meet friends at a bar, and Vollan went to sleep in a guest room. When he tried to move her into his bedroom the next morning, she wasn’t breathing. He called his father, who was at the apartment when Duluth police arrived.
Neighbors in the upper level of the duplex told officers that, in the time before Howard would have left for the bar, they heard a woman crying and an angry male voice. They heard muffled moaning, thuds and the sound of something being dragged. They recorded it.
A preliminary autopsy by the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office found that Vollan had likely been smothered.
Earlier the same month, Howard had been arrested after neighbors saw him repeatedly slam Vollan’s head into a door. The no-contact was issued by a St. Louis County judge.
