Star Tribune
DMC plans to spend $40M this year, adding to its $200M total spent on downtown Rochester
ROCHESTER — Destination Medical Center, the state-funded initiative to turn this community into an international medical hub, has spent or designated close to $220 million to improve the downtown area over the past eight years.
Most of that money — about $135 million — has come from state general infrastructure funding or transit aid according to an annual legislative report DMC officials reviewed Thursday with the agency’s corporate board of directors.
The remaining money comes mostly from Rochester, while Olmsted County has kicked in close to $20 million.
DMC is on track to receive even more money from the state this year, thanks to significant private investments made in the area. The agency is set to receive another $30 million in general funding from the state this year, the max annual amount designated by the Minnesota Legislature when it created DMC in 2013.
DMC is also on track to meet its goal of $5.6 billion in private development by 2033, mainly due to Mayo Clinic’s downtown Rochester expansion over the next few years. DMC has already garnered $1.5 billion as of 2023.
DMC Executive Director Patrick Seeb pointed to Mayo’s expansion — the biggest hospital development in state history — as the result of years of work DMC has done to attract biomedical businesses to Rochester.
“That’s what we were established for, is to create the environment where Mayo Clinic could see this would be a place to grow,” Seeb said.
Mayo was the driving factor behind DMC’s creation, encouraging lawmakers in 2013 to fund its $585 million request to transform Rochester and threatening to look elsewhere to grow if Minnesota didn’t step in.
Help for downtown district
DMC is set to spend about $40 million in 2024, a quarter of which is set aside from projects that crop up during the year — such as a request from the city of Rochester to provide financial support for building owners in a new downtown historic commercial district.
The Rochester City Council approved the district earlier this month, largely on the promise DMC officials would offer financial aid to property owners affected by the extra costs and projected tax increases as part of the new district.
“This district is providing a community benefit and they are disproportionately burdened,” Council President Brooke Carlson said.
Seeb said DMC officials will present a funding plan before the corporate board at its May meeting.
A chance to boost housing?
At the same time, DMC could present plans for expanding housing help as board members and city officials worried over Rochester’s lack of housing.
Former Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, a DMC corporate board member, said was in favor of using DMC and larger city tools such as tax-increment financing to incentivize more development as Mayo looks to attract thousands of employees over the next five years.
“I have not advocated using public money to support market rate housing. This may actually be a moment to do that,” Rybak said.
DMC officials also outlined the agency’s role in the campaign for federal grant dollars to make Minnesota a medical technology hub. DMC will oversee sharing Mayo Clinic research data with members of the Minnesota MedTech 3.0 consortium as it competes for tens of millions of dollars this year with other states looking to create tech centers of their own.
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.
