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After COVID, students again share quarters at Winona senior home
This fall, eight Winona State University students moved into the Watkins Manor senior living community.
WINONA, Minn — Editor’s note: This story originally aired in November of 2019. Four months later, COVID-19 threw the Watkins Manor gang for a loop. The students had to be separated from the seniors. Though they tried communicating on screens, it wasn’t the same.
So, we were pleased to learn the “senior dorm” is back together. This fall, eight Winona State students are sharing housing with Watkins’ senior citizens.
Student rents have gone up a bit. They now stand at $550 a month, which includes meals with the seniors in the dining room. Students still agree to spend time engaged in activities with their senior neighbors.
All prospective students are interviewed by the Watkins’ staff to make sure they’re a good fit. And in case you are wondering, there’s a waiting list to get in.
The Watkins assisted living home has stood for years in contrast to Winona State University. Young and old separated by a few blocks and lots of decades.
Until this fall, when skateboards and backpacks bridged the Geritol gap.
“It was just something very surreal,” Joel Olson, a Winona State freshman, says. “Whenever people ask me, ‘Where are you living off campus?’ and I’m like, ‘In a nursing home,’ and they’re like, ‘What?’”
Senior Living at Watkins, as it’s officially known, is not actually a nursing home. The residence, operated by Winona Health, offers assisted living in modern housing attached to a century-old mansion.
Yet, within those walls, old and new, seniors (the white-haired variety) now share space with seniors (the college variety.)
“Welcome in,” invites Hanna Rottier as she opens the door to her room. “This is home,” the nursing student from Stevens Point, Wisconsin, says.
Rottier lives next door to Olson, in a space shared with four other students and 45 senior citizens.
Cheryl Krage is the Winona Health assisted living director who first broached the idea of placing students in eight empty rooms above the common areas of the Watkins mansion.
The first student moved in this fall under a program called “Students in Residence.”
Krage saw an opportunity not just for students and seniors to live together, but to share social time and activities.
“I hear residents wondering how the students are doing with their studies. ‘Are you eating enough, are you getting enough fruits and vegetable?’” Krage says.
As the students moved into Watkins at the start of the current school year, Krage encouraged them to share their gifts with their new neighbors.
Thus, on a recent weekday, nursing student Ashley McGaw held a bible study with 89-year-old Allen Thompson.
“It’s a revelation, literally” Thompson said, his bible still open on the table in front of him. “It’s refreshing, it’s a breath of fresh air.”
A few feet away in the parlor, grad student Laura Jensen hosts one of her weekly crocheting sessions.
“They all mother me, they take care of me,” Jensen says of the women hooking yarn and chatting around her.
“Helps us stay young – ger,” Diane Sheldon says, looking up only briefly from her needlework.
Nancy Neumann sits in the same circle getting pointers from Jensen. “Even though I was never married, they are like my little grandchildren,” Neumann says.
Students’ posters offering free manicures and tech support are posted on Watkins’ bulletin boards.
“This Friday at 1:00 we’ll be doing nails,” Rottier says cheerfully.
“I didn’t know exactly how we would interact with one another, but it’s really worked out super-well,” she says.
For ten volunteer hours a month, students get a spacious room in a mansion for $400.
Twenty volunteer hours drops the monthly rent to $200.
Olson remembers his first visit to Watkins with his parents. For the Winona State freshman from Hastings, the arrangements seemed almost too good to true. “And all you have to do is spend some time with some really nice people? Of course!” Olson recalls thinking.
All meals are included with the rent. Dining with Watkins’ senior residents is encouraged.
“I’ll skateboard in and they’ll wave to me out the window – those little things that make it feel like home,” McGaw says.
Five of the Watkins’ students attend Winona State. The sixth is a student at St. Mary’s University.
Based on the success of the first six students, next year, the assisted living home will welcome ten student residents.
Regardless of age, “It works because I think we are all connected,” Krage says.
A few days before Halloween, seniors and students carved pumpkins together in a Watkins activity room, sharing stories of family and childhood.
It’s exactly as Krage envisioned it.
“Just watching them laugh and have banter back and forth,” she says, “our hope of the program was there would be those connections.
Who says generations have to be miles – or even block 5 blocks – apart?
Not when there’s so much to gain sharing a big roof, and a little bit of each other.
“Honestly, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else,” Rottier says.
Note: click here for more information on the Senior Living at Watkins Students in Residence program.
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The National Weather Service issued the warning for 27 counties from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday.
CHANHASSEN, Minn. — A significant part of southwestern and west central Minnesota will be under a Red Flag Warning Wednesday afternoon into evening due to conditions creating extreme danger for wildfires.
The National Weather Service (NWS) made the Red Flag declaration for 27 counties beginning at 1 p.m. and ending at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 16. A Red Flag Warning means fires can spread quickly and easily progress out of control under the predicted weather conditions, including gusty winds and low relative humidity.
KARE 11’s John Zeigler said southwest winds will continue to strengthen in western Minnesota as high-pressure slides east out of the region. Winds will gust up to 30 mph at times. Moisture levels are expected to be very low, with dew points in the teens and relative humidity as low as 20%.
Here are the counties that are impacted by the warning.
Big Stone, Brown, Chippewa, Clay, Cottonwood, Douglas, Grant, Jackson, Kandiyohi, Lac Qui Parle, Lincoln, Lyon, Martin, Murray, Nobles, Otter Tail, Pipestone, Pope, Redwood, Renville, Rock, Stevens, Swift, Traverse, Watonwan, Wilkin and Yellow Medicine.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) warns residents in the designated counties to not conduct burns, and to check any recent burning to ensure the fire is completely out. The DNR will not issue or activate open burning permits for large vegetative debris burning during the Red Flag Warning, and campfires are discouraged.
“Embers can be carried for over a mile in high winds like this. People should use extreme caution until conditions improve,” said Karen Harrison, DNR wildfire prevention specialist.
Red Flag Warnings are evolving situations that can change quickly. For updates, check out the NWS website, or visit the Minnesota DNR site for daily updates on fire risk and burning restrictions across the state.
The president of the Hindu Society of Minnesota said they lost over $70,000 worth of items.
MAPLE GROVE, Minn. — A Maple Grove-based Hindu Society is still processing a June burglary that has shattered their community.
“This summer we had a very unfortunate burglary incident that affected our temple, among a dozen others in the Twin Cities area. Our temple we lost a little over $70,000 worth in precious metals, cash and jewelry,” said Hindu Society of Minnesota President Shajive Jeganathan.
Jeganathan said some homes of congregation members were burglarized as well.
Maple Grove police confirmed that one of the burglaries happened in July at a home on Vagabond Lane. Commander Jon Wetternach said two men they suspect of committing this crime are currently in custody.
Stefan Buzoianu, 37, is being held in Freeborn County, Minn., under an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer, Wetternach said. Arthur Crudu, 27, is in custody in Orange County, Calif. on burglary charges.
Wetternach said both of them will be extradited to Hennepin County when appropriate. The two men are also wanted in Ramsey County for a July burglary at a Buddhist Temple in St. Paul where they damaged doors, cabinets, and took $200, according to the complaint.
At the Hindu Society, Jeganathan said the only area affected was the priest’s quarters, though families are still dealing with the aftermath.
“One of the priests who lived in the quarters, his son to this day complains of having nightmares of living there. He keeps waking up in the night saying ‘monster, monster’ because he assumes there is a home intruder,” Jeganathan said.
He said he believes the burglars targeted his community.
“They knew very well that our priests were not in their quarters, families were not in their quarters, so the townhomes were empty. They knew that was a service hour. They knew the priests would be in our temple and the families would not be there. It was very well planned,” Jeganathan said.
Jeganathan said they are raising money to help replace the monetary value of the items that were stolen, but it will not be the same.
“Some of these priests have items that are of spiritual value that have been passed on from generation to generation so you can’t really put a price one those things,” he said.
Authorities recovered some of the stolen items, and Jeganathan is hopeful more items will be recovered.
Since the break-in, he said they have increased security.
“We have done a tremendous amount of work to put in different security measures, both proactive and reactive measures that we can put in place,” he said.
Senate District 45 encompasses part of Edina and most of the towns around Lake Minnetonka.
MINNEAPOLIS — If you’ve been anywhere near Lake Minnetonka lately, you’ve seen the ubiquitous yard signs for the two women vying for a newly vacated seat in the Minnesota Senate.
But the stakes are higher than just a trip to the State Capitol for Democrat Ann Johnson Stewart and Republican Kathleen Fowke. The outcome of special election in Senate District 45 will decide control of the Minnesota Legislature’s upper body.
The other 66 districts won’t be in play until 2026, because senators currently serving were elected to four-year terms back in 2022. But DFL Sen. Kelly Morrison resigned her seat to run for Congress, prompting a special election to replace Morrison in SD45 the same day as November 5 General Election.
Morrison’s departure left the chamber deadlocked at 33 Democrats and 33 Republicans, which is academic at this point because the Legislature won’t be back in session until January.
But when lawmakers do come back for the 2025 Session one party will have a one-seat advantage. Democrats have enjoyed a “trifecta” the past two sessions, with control of both the House and Senate and the governor’s office.
The Candidates
Fowke is a realtor who ran unsuccessfully for the same seat in 2022. She said she’s aiming to restore balance and moderation to the Senate.
“Inflation is high already, and in the past two sessions they’ve raised taxes on hard-working Minnesotans,” Fowke told KARE Tuesday. “And this is not the time to be raising taxes on our families. I love this state, and I believe you need to fight for what you love.”
Fowke said if she’s elected, she’ll work on reducing state government mandates on local school boards and businesses. She also wants the legislature to focus on lowering local property taxes.
“We need to find ways to make sure the families can afford their life here, and hopefully their grandparents stay here too, and they don’t move to another state.”
Johnson Stewart is a civil engineer who served a two-year term in 2021-2022 Legislature. As a result of redistricting in 2022, she ended up in the same district as Morrison, who won the DFL endorsement in SD45.
“Having served in the Senate, I realized how to be effective. And I worked with some other colleagues to form the Infrastructure Alliance,” Johnson Stewart told KARE Monday.
She said her experience as an environmental engineer gives her special insight into how to solve the water supply and wastewater treatment issues in District 45, which wraps around Lake Minnetonka.
“I think it’s really important that somebody who understands water systems be their representative, and I just think it’s a really good fit for me and my skills.”
Bills to guarantee reproductive rights for women passed the legislature in 2023 and 2024 without attracting a single Republican vote. That’s why abortion rights advocates are watching the race in District 45 closely.
“I want to make sure that women know I trust them to make these decisions,” Johnson Stewart told KARE.
“And they can trust me to make sure their rights are protected, not just around abortion, but around birth control and fertility treatments and personal health care.”
Fowke told KARE she wouldn’t vote for an abortion ban or restrictions if such a bill comes up for consideration in the Minnesota Senate.
“What I want to do is find ways to help support women, and then perhaps they would choose to keep their child.”
Scenarios for balance of power
If Vice President Harris wins the presidential election, Gov. Walz will resign his post and move to Washington to become the new vice president. That will trigger an order of succession wherein Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan becomes governor and Senate President Bobby Joe Champion becomes the new lieutenant governor.
If that series of events unfolds the Senate will be reduced to 66 members again until a special election can be held in Sen. Champion’s north Minneapolis district. It’s a reliably DFL district, but laws pertaining to absentee ballots require at least 45 days’ advance notice of the special primary election plus 45 days’ notice of the main special election.
The other big unknown is what will happen to DFL Sen. Nicole Mitchell of Woodbury. She will be tried in January on felony burglary charges for allegedly breaking into her stepmother’s home to retrieve some of her deceased father’s belongings.
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