Nicollet County Ledger December 3, 2023

December 3, 2023 | South Central News & Media

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Mammoth Tusk Dug Up in New Ulm Revealed by Science Museum of Minnesota Lab

A recently discovered mammoth tusk was discovered in New Ulm and was revealed at a presentation by the Science Museum of Minnesota, presented by Paleontology Lab Manager Nicole Dzenowski for the museum (right).

By Robert Lawson Publisher info@nicolletcountyledger.com

on extinct animals from the past: specifically mammoths.

The presentation “Mammoths, Mastodons & More: Mammoth The Brown County Historical Tusk Age Reveal” brought a rare Society hosted a presentation specimen back to New Ulm - a

mammoth tusk. The presentation was held Saturday, December 2 at the Brown County Historical Museum and Annex.

Nicole Dzenowski started off the presentation. She is the

Paleontology Lab Manager at the Science Museum of Minnesota located in the Twin Cities. The talk took place for about an hour and that included a question and answer period. Scientists

studied the tusks with carbon dating. According to the New Ulm Journal, a mammoth tusk was discovered in New Ulm and unveiled at the Riverside History & Nature Learning Center for

inspection by Minnesota Science Museum experts for fossil identification. The tusk was found on Sept. 25 by Dalton Demarais, according to the Journal, at a

Continued on page 5

Developing Story: State of Housing in Nicollet County - Stats and Resources

Samuel Martinez was recognized during the St. Peter School Board student spotlight (left). Martinez was nominated by his 5th-grade class at Ruver Middle School for Student of the Month in October.

St. Peter School Board Preps for Upcoming Truth Building construction in Lower North Mankato near US Hwy 169. Photo by Robert Lawson.

Robert Lawson the upper Midwest, beating out price. in Taxation Meeting, Spotlights River 5th-Grader By Publisher the Twin Cities for highest home According to the United States

By Robert Lawson Publisher info@nicolletcountyledger.com

The student spotlight included Samuel Martinez, a River Middle student whose favorite subject is math. Martinez was the 5th The Saint Peter School Board grade nominee by his classmates (ISD 508) held its regular for Student of the Month in monthly meeting on Monday, October 2023. His teachers and November 20. students wrote about him for his

nomination and this was read during the spotlight portion of the meeting: “Samuel is a great example of Saints pride. He is a really hard worker in class. He is very polite, always remembers to say

Continued on page 5

St. Peter Council Holds Two Public Hearings

Assessment of Unpaid Utility Charges and Unpaid Miscellaneous Charges

By Robert Lawson Publisher info@nicolletcountyledger.com

Project; One Watershed One Plan Project; Personnel Policy Changes; Pickleball Donation Acceptance; Closed Sessions Outlot F N. Industrial Park Sale; 107 W. Nassau Sale.

Unpaid Utility Charges The city sent property owners in St. Peter notices about their delinquent utility charges

The City of Saint Peter, Minnesota, City Council Meeting was held on Monday, November 27.

Agenda items included Hearings and Assessment of Unpaid Utility and Miscellaneous Charges; 2024 Pine Street

Continued on page 6

info@nicolletcountyledger.com 612-460-5851

In 2020, home prices in America exploded and Minnesota was not immune to the bubble in home values. In 2022, Re/ Max, a real estate firm, produced a report showing that the Greater Mankato area has some of the highest home values in

values in the state, according to the Re/Max report data. Nicollet County is within the Greater Mankato metropolitan statistical area (MSA) and the increases have impacted housing in the county relative to the area. By contrast, home values in the Austin-Albert Lea area (Mower/ Freeborn Counties) in Southeast Minnesota are nearly half the

Census Bureau, Nicollet County had approximately 13,603 housing units as of July 1, 2022.

The owner-occupied housing unit rate between 2017-2021 was 74.8 percent. The median value of owner-occupied housing units, 2017-2021, was $216,200.

Median selected monthly owner costs with a mortgage, 2017-

Continued on page 6

Don’t mix shall with cannabis Why are we still using this ancient legalese?

By Ian Lewenstein Minnesota Reformer OCTOBER 2 When the governor successfully hires a new director for the state’s Office of Cannabis Management, let’s wish that person luck with the

massive undertaking of establishing a high-profile agency and also writing a half-dozen or so new rule chapters needed to implement the office’s regulatory scheme.

One simple yet effective way to ease this task would be to excise the

word shall from the office’s rule chapters and public-facing documents.

The arguments against using shall in legal writing are overwhelming: Courts interpret the word several different ways;

Continued on page 6

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Page 2

Nicollet County Ledger

Ad From the Past

Sunday, December 3, 2023

News from the Archives Saturday and Sunday with their father, W. C. Milliman, in Bernadotte.

They came here to observe Mr. 100 Years Ago – Feb. 14, 1920 Milliman’s birthday anniversary, Miss Anna Ebert is employed which was on Saturday. as domestic at the Reuben Lund 50 Years Ago – Feb. 19, 1970 home.

Those who spent the weekRobert Isenberg, H. E. Hedren and Henry Johnson attended the end at the Ambassador Motel in Oldsmobile dealers’ convention at Minneapolis as guests of Land O the Radisson hotel at Minneapolis Lakes were Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Berdan, Mr. and Mrs. Sheldon last week.

John Satterman will erect his Swenson, Mr. and Mrs. Richard saw mill at the John Lund farm Portner, Mr. and Mrs. Roger Isaacson two miles northeast from Lafayette. and Mr. and Mrs. Leo Marti.

Lois Wellnitz of Princeton spent Those who desire to have lumber sawed may haul the logs over there the weekend here with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Kurt Wellnitz. now at any time.

Those who gathered at the Gerald Buttermaker Sjostrom of Klossner Forst home Sunday to honor Robert transacted business here Monday.

Aug. A. Johnson has bought the Hamann who is home on furlough, former J. P. Sjogren residence on were, Mr. and Mrs. Earl Schroeder Church Street and will reside there and family of New Ulm, Mr. and Mrs. Harold Meyer and boys, Mr. after March 1st.

Alvin Fjell is installing booths and Mrs. Delton Hamann and famin the H. F. Anderson restaurant. ily, Mr. and Mrs. Greg Bieraugel This makes a great improvement and Mrs. Rose Hamann.

Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Maidl to Anderson’s ice cream parlor.

There will be a greater demand for and family went to the airport in ice cream hereafter, by the young Minneapolis Wednesday to get their daughter, Diane and Deanna folks.

Mrs. C. O. Gustafson of St. Schmitz, who returned that day Peter arrived here Thursday and from a five day visit at the Tony will stay at the Anton Malmberg Cranford home at Metairie, La. home for a while. With her came They also attended the Mardi Gras Curtis Malmberg who has been vis- at New Orleans while there.

Narve Nelson and Otis Muller iting with grandma Gustafson since returned Monday evening from a Christmas.

Pete and Albert Peterson of week’s fishing at Leech Lake with Alfsborg have rented the Freeman Mr. and Mrs. Harold Woods of Gibbon.

Anderson farm in New Sweden.

Forester members from this area Decorator Fjell is painting John who attended the C.O.F. Bowling Peterson’s Ford.

The local W.C.T.U. will meet with Tournament at St. Peter Sunday Mrs. T. F. Bergquist next Tuesday were Gerald, Richard and Ronald Seitz, Alphonse Goblirsch, Jerome afternoon, Feb. 17.

E. O. Abrahamson and family Weisensel, Leo Maidl, Marion and Henry Abrahamson visited Bushard and Clarence Maidl.

Mr. and Mrs. Michael Hatch of at the Rudell home at Winthrop Rochester spent the weekend at the Sunday.

Miss Claudia Swenson of Otis Muller home.

Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Eckberg Minneapolis visited here over visited at the Carl Lund home in St. Sunday.

John Johnson of Parshall, N. D., Peter Friday evening. was a visitor with his bro-in-law C. NICOLLET LEADER H. Nelson over Sunday.

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Focus on Ag

USDA Issues a Surprising WASDE Report

By Kent Thiesse

Farm management analyst kent.thiesse@minnstarbank.com

The monthly USDA World Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) Report that was released on November 9 was a bit of a surprise to grain traders and may impact corn and soybean markets in the coming weeks. The WASDE Report raised 2023 corn and soybean production estimates, based on increases in the expected final U.S. crop yields for 2023. However, the report made smaller adjustments to projected 2023-24 carryover estimates at the end of the current marketing year on August 31, 2024, due to some projected increases in grain usage during the current marketing year. The biggest surprise to the grain markets was the rather large increase in the estimated 2023 U.S. average corn yield in in the November USDA report compared to the October estimate and the

corresponding increase in the total production level.

There was an immediate negative grain market reaction for both corn and soybeans following the release of the November WASDE Report. Most grain marketing analysts viewed the latest report as “quite bearish” for future corn prices and “neutral” to “somewhat bearish” for soybean prices. December corn futures closed at $4.68 per bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) following the November 9 report, which compares to a price of $4.76 per bushel following the WASDE report on September 12 and to $6.64 per bushel and $5.55 per bushel, respectively, following the November WASDE reports in 2022 and 2021.

November soybean futures closed at $13.43 per bushel following the latest WASDE report, which was above the $12.90 per bushel price following the September report and

See FOCUS ON AG, page 5

75 Years Ago – Feb. 16, 1945 W. H. Krohn and family visited at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Swartz in St. Paul, Sunday.

Mrs. Justine Jacobson entertained a group of ladies at her home Saturday afternoon in observance of her birthday anniversary.

Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Nelson of Winthrop, Mrs. Theo. Ostrom and Grace, of New Sweden, visited Sunday afternoon at the Arthur Flygare home in Bernadotte.

Mr. and Mrs. Delphin Anderson and children, Duane and Gladys, were entertained at dinner Sunday at the Gerald Wise home in New Sweden. The afternoon was spent at the Orville Quist home near St. Peter.

Miss Elaine Isenberg, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Delphin Isenberg of Cornish, has completed a course in beauty culture, and also passed the state board examinations, thereby receiving the license for such work.

Raymond Quandt, Hugo Albrecht and Arthur Schaeffler, members of the board of Lafayette township, went to St. Peter, Monday, and attended the annual weed conference, which was held in the court room of the court house.

Mrs. Martha Carlson and Mrs. LeRoy Anderson spent last weekend in the twin cities.

Carl Youngblom of St. Paul and his roommate, Tom Kostuch, returned to St. Paul Monday evening, after a few days visit with the former’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Youngblom.

Misses Betty and Bonnie Milliman, students of the Hamline University, Minneapolis, spent

115 Years Ago – Feb. 18, 1905 The personal property taxes are due March 1st, and unless paid by that time a penalty of 10 percent will be added.

The fifth of its series of club dances was given by the Nicollet Dancing Club at Blank’s hall Tuesday evening. The Nicollet orchestra furnished the music.

Do not forget the special school meeting to be held on Saturday evening, February 25th. It is important that all interested in school matters should attend this meeting.

The school rooms at present are so overcrowded that early provision needs to be made for an extra room and teacher for same.

The farmers of Brighton township will build a co-operative creamery near the place of Adam Jutz, on the southwest corner of section 3, and are busy hauling material for the same now. They will commence with the erection soon as the weather permits and will hold a meeting on Saturday, March 4th, for the purpose of organizing.

A Judson correspondent says a party from Nicollet, who has been cutting ice, had the misfortune of journeying to the river bottom, rather a disagreeable experience, though the distance traveled was only twelve feet. He then drove home six miles, in his wet clothes, which were certainly stiff upon him by the time he arrived. Do you know him?

The blizzard we had Tuesday worked havoc with the train service. No trains went either way until the following morning when the snowplow cleared the tracks.

Except for telephonic communica- the Chester Nelson home Saturday tion, this village was cut off by the evening. drifting snow and extreme cold LAFAYETTE NICOLLET weather.

LEDGER

100 Years Ago – Feb. 14, 1920 Mrs. Henry Netzke visited her daughter at New Ulm the first of the week who has been ill.

George and William Lange of Oshawa township have gone to Sioux City, Iowa, to attend an automobile school.

Show your loyalty to the fire company by purchasing tickets for their annual ball to be given in the Nicollet opera house tonight.

The ladies of the Progressive Banner will give an apron sale for the benefit of the auxiliary in the local auxiliary parlors Saturday afternoon, Feb. 21.

Henry Epper and family are getting comfortably settled in their new, large and modern residence on West Fourth Street, having moved in during the week.

Three auctions are booked for this vicinity in the near future. The sale of Louis Wenholz will occur on February 20. August Schroeder will conduct a sale on February 27th, and H. C. Fricke will close out his personal property on March 4th.

Mr. and Mrs. Chas. Johnson of Langdon, N. D., the latter a sister of J. H. Meurer, arrived here last Friday for an extended visit with relatives in Nicollet and vicinity.

Mr. Johnson was an old time resident of Nicollet and in his early days drove a stage between New Ulm and St. Peter.

Dr. E. F. Vogelpohl, Nicollet’s resident dentist, opened up for business in the former Dr. Meilicke’s office this week. His office is modernly equipped in every respect for his dental practice. Dr. Vogelpohl was called out of town today but will be on deck again Monday morning.

25 Years Ago – Feb. 16, 1995 Congratulations to Peter Anthony, son of Willis and Rachel Anthony, for being named to the Dean’s List at Bethany College. Also to Michael Gunderson, son of Darwin and Brenda Gunderson, who also made the Dean’s List at the University of Minnesota, Morris.

Sharon Gaalswyk, Karen Gaalswyk, Cheryl Epper and Joyce, manager of the Budgetel Motel went to dinner at Charley’s and saw the play at the University in Mankato, “Stepping Out.” Kevin and Jeanette Hewitt of Cleveland entertained Sunday afternoon in honor of their daughter, Heather’s 4th birthday. Among those present were Earl and Evie Nelson of Norseland, Bob and Donna Hewitt of St. Peter, Darren and Corrinne Ely, and Angie Seitzer of Cleveland.

Darryl and Barbara Stevensen and Mr. and Mrs. Wade Zieske of rural New Ulm flew to Florida last week to spend time with Barbara’s parents, Herb and Jolene.

Good winter weather has allowed all aspects of construction for the new InLaws Restaurant at Nicollet to proceed. The business, located at the corner of Highways 14 and 111 in Nicollet, is slated to open in early spring.

Herring Trucking of Lafayette put up a new building on the old railroad right-of-way property over the winter. It’s behind the city disposal plant. The 40 X 75 foot building has space for two trucks and will give the Herrings a place to wash their trailers when they return from trips. Final details are being completed and the building should be ready for use in a few weeks.

85 Years Ago – Feb. 16, 1935 About 7:30 Monday morning, the fire department was called to the farm home of Henry Ott where a bad chimney fire was raging.

There was no damage.

Emil Starke has been busy for the past two weeks cutting logs and sawing lumber for a new barn which he will have erected on his farm this spring.

Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Wyngarden and children, who spent several months with Mr. and Mrs. Carl Netzke returned to their home at Tappen, N.D., Wednesday.

Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Kettner, Mrs. L. W. Kettner, Mrs. E. A. Zimmermann and Mrs. Aug. Thom, Jr. visited relatives at Truman on Monday. The latter two remained for a week’s stay.

Aug. Koetting of Courtland township was seriously injured, Wednesday morning, when a shed, which he was tearing down, suddenly collapsed, pinning him underneath. His right hip and his right leg were broken.

A social evening was spent at the home of Miss Norma and Gordon Ott Wednesday evening. The time was spent in playing “bunco” with high honors going to Miss Viola Bode and Harvey Enter and Miss Elvira Enter and Harold Heidemann, low. At midnight a delicious lunch was served.

Peter Jutz came down Monday from Pierz with a truck load of potatoes which he is selling very cheap.

Mrs. Martin Zins and daughters spent Thursday at Nicollet with her sister, Mrs. R. J. Dauffenbach.

Joyce and Allen Erickson, Henry Maritz, Margie Monson and Mrs. Ella Johnson were entertained at

10 Years Ago – Feb. 18, 2010 Nicollet senior Jordan Rudenick surpassed the 1,000 point career mark in a make-up game with St. Clair Saturday afternoon. Rudenick, a four-year player for the Nicollet High School, has been a consistent scorer for the Raiders and is a good all-around player.

Congratulations to Steve and Barb Hulke of Courtland on becoming grandparents for the first time.

Little Hannah Hulke was born to their son and daughter-in-law, Brent and Andria, February 7.

The fourth annual Polar Plunge at Lake Hallett in St. Peter Sunday was even bigger and better than the first three. A total of 313 “human plungers” raised more than $44,000 for Special Olympics. Those numbers are up from 110, 165, and 196 plungers and $21,000, $28,500, and $30,000 in the first three. Nicollet County Sheriff Dave Lange and his group opened the plunge. Nicollet American Legion Post 510 was represented by Del Vulcan and Bruce Connelly. The gals went first and the guys followed when the Courtland Fire Department jumped. Group members were Pam Meyer, Mary Luepke, Jenna Krueger, Danielle Bode, Dave Ubel, Leon Luepke, Jon Rewitzer, Brandon Matter, Adam Marti, and Pat Stadick. Lafayette Ambulance “Team McFreezies” included Kim Schwab, Daryl Trautmiller, Kevin Reinhart, Jay Carlson, Jessi Gieseke, Collin Gieseke, and Marti Uhde.

Andrew and Lisa Quist of Norseland were among nearly 90 Minnesota Farm Bureau members who attended the Minnesota Farm Bureau Federation Promotion and Education Conference January 29-30 in Bloomington.

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Sunday, Decemer 3, 2023

Page 3

Nicollet County Ledger

Editorial

Local Law Enforcement Activities

Things I’ve Learned From First Half November 2023 Saint Peter Police Logs Studying Wealthy People: They Buy Assets

By Robert Lawson Publisher info@nicolletcountyledger.com

I rarely agree with anyone on anything 100 percent of the time. In fact, I would say that’s a bit dangerous, maybe even creepy if you think about it hard enough. Anyway, the same holds true for any one of the wealthy people I began studying religiously since about 2008. Previous to that, I read an informative book written in 2006, only two years prior to the Great Recession and financial meltdown in America. The book was called “Wall Street Versus America: The Rampant Greed and Dishonesty That Imperil Your Investments” by Gary Weiss.

Weiss was an author that had written about financial crimes on Wall Street, including a book on mafia takeovers of brokerage houses and a 2012 book about Ayn Rand, who Weiss viewed as an extremist. I was also in parallel reading books like Jared Diamond’s “Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies” and essays from Mark Danner, who once visited Minnesota State University for a talk that I attended as a student there. He wrote an essay on Iraq featured in a book of essays published by Reader’s Digest I bought from Barnes and Noble in Mankato. I’ve since consumed books and other forms of content from Napoleon Hill, 50 Cent, Robert Kyosaki, Ray Dalio, Max Kaiser, Gerald Celente, Jamie Dimon, Steve Jobs, Patrick Bet David, the early Bitcoin supporters, KITCO News, Stansberry Research, Epic Economist, Meet Kevin and all the financial/business press, precious metals media and crypto/blockchain news outlets and the people and events they analyze. I watched biographies, documentaries, movies based on founders of companies, you name it.

There are recurring principles among the very wealthy but sometimes very different outlooks and strategies. From Warren Buffet to Ray Crock, Elon Musk to Michael Burry and so many others to mention between, including Grant Cardone among the more notable. They can all mostly agree on one thing: Buy assets. But what is an asset?

Most of us were taught by our parents, teachers and other peers (and of course those friendly financial advisors hungry for a client commission) that our house is an asset. We are taught to work hard, save money, pay taxes and invest in stocks via 401K with a reputable advisor (many of us weren’t even taught that last part). In school, we are taught to be a good American, memorize repeatable tasks and facts so we can get a job and specialize in a career. With only those tools to create a successful financial plan, you are doomed to failure and will likely die broke. The reality has only gotten worse with the rise of fiat money and Federal Reserve’s economic policies that result in a false sense of wealth before the cycle that brought it up brings it back down and insecurity sets in. The repeatable cycles are getting shorter, so Americans are working twice as hard to afford less. Living standards are plummeting for many. So-called middle class

On November 2 around 11 a.m.

Saint Peter police responded to the 1100 block of South Minnesota Avenue for a report of fraud at CCF Bank after someone on October consumerism has been disrupted. We 26 came in and cashed a check for work hard and we buy products and himself but didn’t have an account services to keep the economy going there. strong, all the experts say. But what On November 2 around 1 p.m. are we really buying?

Saint Peter police responded to the During a recent hardship of my own in my family, I sold some gold and silver to help cover bills. Because the gold and silver values have been reaching such highs, with gold recently shooting past $2050, I was able to profit from those purchases. A couple grams of gold and 10 ounces of silver satisfied my rainy day fund need. Money that appreciates. That is an asset. I profited from crypto and stocks in 2020 like everybody, of course. But I had been buying Bitcoin since 2012 and Ethereum and Ripple’s XRP not long after so my profits on those were extraordinary for such small investment amounts. By Emily Hopkins and Jeremy Understanding the cycles helps in Kohler the long-term. Real estate boomed April 3 in 2020 so many people were able to Originally Published in get record sale prices for their homes. ProPublica So you might think in terms of the Co-published with Minnesota sale that the home is an asset. It is not Public Radio and KARE-TV though. Did the buyer really buy an ProPublica is a nonprofit newsasset when home prices were over- room that investigates abuses of valued? Will the house put money power. Sign up for Dispatches, a into the pocket of the homeowner in newsletter that spotlights wrongdothe form of cash flow or profit on a ing around the country, to receive continuous basis? The home is ac- our stories in your inbox every tually the bank’s asset if you have a week. This story was co-published mortgage, it’s not your asset. A home with Minnesota Public Radio and is a liability because it takes money KARE-TV. out of your pocket. A home is a place Amy Morris started working to live. at Hilltop Health Care Center in Assets pay you, not the reverse. Watkins, Minnesota, in June 2021 Liabilities take money from you. with a clean nursing license that The wealthy continue to buy assets. belied her looming troubles.

They view taxes as liabilities. They Morris, a licensed practical also view jobs as liabilities and pre- nurse, had been fired from a nearby fer entrepreneurship and seek passive nursing home seven months earlier income as well as multiple income for stealing narcotics from elderly streams. They also understand cash residents. The state of Minnesota’s flow from assets. More often than not, health department investigated and those assets are either businesses or found that the accusation was subreal estate. They are either landlords stantiated, and then notified the like Donald Trump, Robert Kyosaki Board of Nursing, the state agency or Barbara Corcoran or focused inresponsible for licensing and monidustry tycoons like Bill Gates, Elon toring nurses.

Musk, Mark Cuban, Kim Kardashian But even though state law requires or Jeff Bezos. They all invest actively the board to immediately suspend a in assets and they either buy them, nurse who presents an imminent build them or both. So when you hear risk of harm, it allowed Morris to someone’s net worth listed in Forbes keep practicing. as $100 billion, it does not mean they In September 2021, supervisors have a bank account loaded with 100 at Hilltop discovered that pain pills billion actual dollars. It means after liabilities they have an estimated sum were disappearing during Morris’ of $100 billion worth of assets. Those shifts and called the sheriff. Only are most often in the form of prop- then did Hilltop learn of allegations erty and stock value. They typically of narcotic theft that had been made reinvest their capital gains too. They nearly a year earlier at the other don’t have 401K accounts either. So nursing home.

“I thought, ‘How is she practicwhat do they live on? Cash flow. Assets that generate enough cash flow ing now?’” Meeker County Sheriff can provide enough to live on if ex- Brian Cruze recalled.

In an excerpt from an October ecuted and planned properly.

2021 Minnesota Department of Much of money is really just psychology and the economics of debt Health report, a manager for Hilltop and credit. Learn the basics and study Health Care Center said the facility those that create wealth. It couldn’t didn’t know about a previous incihurt, no matter where you are in life. dent in which nurse Amy Morris It’s never too late to learn or to start. was found to be involved in drug Many wealthy people have made “diversion,” or theft.

The answer, ProPublica found, is fortunes, lost it all and made it all back, sometimes multiple times in a that the nursing board’s investigalifetime. Of course, everyone can’t be tions frequently drag on for months as rich as Mark Zuckerberg, but that or even years. As a result, nurses are doesn’t mean you can’t learn how to sometimes allowed to keep practicbe richer than you were previously ing despite allegations of serious misconduct. and you don’t have to die broke.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. In the face of intense criticism eight years ago, the nursing board announced changes to improve its performance. But that progress was short-lived, ProPublica found.

Since 2018, the average time taken to resolve a complaint has

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1900 block of Sunrise Drive for a report of criminal damage and graffiti, where a man said someone hit the Gault Park Shelter with paint balls.

On November 2 around 7:45 p.m.

Saint Peter police responded to the 1100 block of North 5th Street for a report of theft of yard decorations.

On November 6 around 4:20 p.m. Saint Peter police responded to the 1900 block of Rock Ridge Lane for a report of fraud on Facebook.

On November 10 around 10:10 p.m. Saint Peter police responded to the Flame Bar where people were trying to start a fight.

On November 12 around 10:50

a.m. Saint Peter police responded to the 200 block of Martin Street for a report of a probation violation, where a man was in the parking lot of Viking jr. yelling and jumping around.

On November 13 around 1:30 p.m. Saint Peter police responded to the 1400 block of Sunrise Drive for a report of mail theft.

Minnesota Lets Nurses Practice While Disciplinary Investigations Drag On. Patients Keep Getting Hurt.

A 2015 state audit found the Minnesota Board of Nursing was slow to act on complaints about nurses, putting the public at risk. The board ramped up its discipline for a few years, but now cases are backing up again. more than doubled to 11 months, while hundreds of complaints have been left open for more than a year; state law generally requires complaints to be resolved in a year.

Some nurses, like Morris, have gone on to jeopardize the health of more patients as the board failed to act on earlier complaints.

Some of the board’s problems stem from vexingly bureaucratic issues, ProPublica found. For example, the board had started meeting every month to resolve cases more quickly. But, for the past few years, it has gone back to meeting every other month.

Some complaints get caught in a general email inbox, where they sometimes sit for weeks or months before being forwarded to staff for investigation, according to current and former staffers.

And the board, which oversees licensing and discipline for more than 150,000 nurses, has been perennially shorthanded. By state law, the board is supposed to have 12 nurses and four members of the public. But at times, it has operated with barely enough members to make up a quorum. In March, Gov. Tim Walz made five appointments to the board, leaving one vacancy.

Other problems stem from the board’s professional staff, who investigate complaints and prepare the materials the board uses to make disciplinary decisions. Several former employees told ProPublica that the lag time in resolving discipline cases could be attributed to a dysfunctional office environment and a wave of resignations, many of them since the board’s August 2021 selection of veteran staffer Kimberly Miller as executive director.

David Jiang, who resigned from the board in August because he moved out of the state, told Walz in a letter that the board’s problems “arise because of a general lack of confidence from the staff, lack of communications to the board, and, most importantly, a general lack of oversight by the Board.”

Walz’s office did not respond to ProPublica’s requests for comment about Jiang’s concerns.

David Jiang resigned from the Minnesota Board of Nursing in August, telling Gov. Tim Walz in a letter that mismanagement by Executive Director Kimberly Miller had contributed to dysfunction at the agency.

William Hager, a former legal analyst for the board, vented his frustrations about Miller’s leadership in an email to another employee in February 2022. “I am very

concerned the Director seems to have been unaware of this ‘backlog,’” Hager, who left the board a few months later, said in the email.

Miller “has chosen to not learn how to work” the case management system “or engage with software and staff to oversee our work.”

Miller, who worked for the board for more than two decades before becoming executive director, acknowledged the case backlog in an interview but said she was working to “right the boat,” including by hiring a consultant to improve board performance. Although the number of pending complaints is higher now than it was after a critical 2015 state audit, the backlog has been reduced by about a quarter since peaking last summer, according to state data.

“I think that we are on a good course at this point, and we’re making the changes that we need to, and learning to work as a team, and working out our system that I think is going to be really wonderful at some point,” Miller said in an interview. She did not respond to questions about criticism of her job performance.

Miller blamed the backlog on the transition to remote work during the height of the pandemic and on a new case management system that she said board members found difficult to use. She said some cases simply take longer than others. When a nurse won’t agree to discipline as part of a settlement, she said, the board must file the case in the state’s administrative court, where Miller said scheduling a hearing can take “at least a year.”

But a spokesperson for the administrative court said that the court was not the source of delays, and nurse discipline cases are concluded on average in four months from the time they are filed.

The state’s own data, in part, counters Miller’s assertions of progress. The board closed more complaints in fiscal years 2020 and 2021, respectively, than it did in 2022, when vaccines were widely available and many industries were returning to in-person work.

It was not clear why the board did not move quickly to suspend Morris after the substantiated report of pill theft. Miller declined to discuss individual discipline cases, citing confidentiality rules.

ProPublica contacted 10 current and seven former members of the board. None responded to requests for comment.

The nursing board finally issued a temporary suspension of Morris’

license in November 2021 — a month after prosecutors filed charges in the Hilltop case. She is facing felony theft charges for both incidents and has failed to show up in court. She has not entered a plea because she has not appeared to face the charges, and authorities have issued warrants for her arrest.

She did not return messages left on her cellphone and sent by email.

Administrators for both facilities declined to comment. Records show that one Hilltop manager was frustrated by a lack of warning about Morris. The manager complained to a state inspector that there was “nothing flagged on the background study or license verification,” according to the facility’s inspection report.

“This is not a facility system problem but a state system problem,” the manager said.

Investigations Drag On When Christy Iverson started working for the board last year on investigations of nurse misconduct, she was surprised by the backlog of cases. Some she took on were around five years old. It was embarrassing, she said, to put her name on cases that had been on hold for so long.

Then, about four months into her tenure, she said, she was instructed to help the licensing staff with an influx of applications ahead of an anticipated nursing strike at several hospitals in the Twin Cities and Duluth areas. Iverson, who had spent over a decade working in leadership positions at an area hospital, said she largely spent her days folding letters and sorting paperwork. So she quit.

The problems she observed weren’t new. A Minneapolis Star Tribune investigation in 2013 had sparked the state audit that found serious delays at the board and led to improvements for a time.

With auditors scrutinizing it in 2014, the board began to dispose of complaints more quickly. The average age of closed cases was reduced from six months to four. But delays then climbed, eventually reaching the current average of 11 months, according to state data.

And despite a state mandate to resolve complaints within a year, the percentage of cases that go beyond that mark has soared from less than 5% in 2016 to 30% now, the state data shows.

Miller said the board is mindful of the backlog and puts a priority on “all of our more egregious cases.”

Minnesota’s Nursing Board

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Focus on Ag Continued MnDOT Highway 14 Project Completion Continued From Page 5 From Page 2 2022.

The 2023 national average corn yield is now estimated at the record level of 174.9 bushels per acre, which was increased from 173 bushels per acre in October. The 2023 harvested corn acreage in the U.S. was maintained 87.1 million acres, resulting in an estimated record total U.S. corn production of 15.234 billion bushels for 2023. This compares to total U.S. corn production levels of just over 13.7 billion bushels in 2022, near 15.1 billion bushels in 2021, and 14.1 billion bushels in 2020. Total corn usage for the 2023-24 marketing year is now estimated at just over 14.46 billion bushels, which would be up from nearly13.77 billion bushels in the 2022-23 marketing year. The amount of corn used for feed and ethanol production, as well as for exports, are all expected to increase during the current marketing year that ends on August 31, 2024, as compared to a year earlier.

USDA is now estimating 2023-2024 U.S. corn ending stocks at just over 2.15 billion bushels, which was 26 million bushels above the October estimate.

This compares to previous carryout levels of just over 1.36 billion bushels in 2022-23, nearly 1.34 billion bushels in 2021-22, and 1.24 billion bushels in 2020-21. Based on current estimates, the U.S. corn carryout to use ratio would be at 14.9 percent for 2023-24, which compares to previous levels of 9.9 percent for 2022-23, 9.2 percent for 2021-22, and 8.3 percent in 202021. The increased level of corn supply could limit the potential for substantial rallies in the cash corn market in the coming months.

Total U.S. soybean production for 2023 was estimated at just under 4.13 billion bushels in the November report, which was increased by 26 million bushels from the October estimate and was slightly higher than the average grain trade projection. Total soybean demand for 2023-24 is projected at just over 4.18 billion bushels, which is down from 4.3 billion bushels in 2022-23, primarily due to a decrease in the expected soybean export level. The 2022-23 U.S. soybean ending stocks in the recent WASDE Report were estimated at 245 million bushels, which was an increase of 25 million bushels compared to the October USDA report. The projected soybean ending stocks compare to 268 million bushels in 2022-23, 274 million bushels in 2021-22 and 256 million bushels in 2020-21. The projected 202324 carryout level is still well below the very high ending stocks of 523 million bushels in 2019-20 and 913 million bushels in 2018-19. The soybean stocksto-use ratio for 2023-24 is estimated at 5.9 percent, which is down from down from 6.2 percent on 2022-23 and is far lower than the levels of 11.5 percent in 2019-20 and 23 percent for 2018-19.

Based on the November WASDE report, USDA is currently estimating the U.S average on-farm cash corn price for the 2023-2024 marketing year at $4.85 per bushel, which was down $.10 per bushel from the October report. The USDA marketing year price estimates are the expected average farm-level prices for the 2023 crop year from September 1, 2023, to August 31, 2024; however, they do not represent estimated prices for either the 2023 or 2024 calendar year. The projected USDA average corn price of $4.85 per bushel would be lower than the average prices of $6.54 per bushel in 2022-23 and $6.00 per bushel in 2021-22 and would compare to recent national average corn prices of $4.53 per bushel for 2020-21, and $3.56 per bushel for 2019-20.

USDA maintained the projected U.S. average farm-level soybean price for the 2023-24 marketing year at $12.90 per bushel, which was the same as the October estimate. The 202324 projected national average soybean

price compares to prices of $14.20 per bushel in 2022-23, $13.30 per bushel in 2021-22, $10.80 per bushel for 202021, and $8.57 per bushel for 2019-20. The fact that soybean ending stocks remain fairly tight may offer some opportunities for short-term rallies for farm-level soybean prices in the coming months, especially if there are any weatherrelated production issues in South America.

USDA Increases 2023 Corn and Soybean Yield Projections Based on the USDA Crop Production Report released on November 9, the projected U.S. average corn yield for 2023 will be 174.9 bushels per acre, which would be an increase from the final 2022 average yield of 173.4 bushels per acre but would still trail the record U.S. corn yield of 177 bushels per acre in 2021. This compares to other recent U.S. corn yields of 171.4 bushels per acre in 2020, 167.5 bushels per acre in 2019, and 176.4 bushels per acre in 2018. The projected 2023 U.S. harvested corn acreage is 87.1 million acres, representing an increase of 10.1 percent from 79.1 million acres that were harvested last year, which is quite significant.

The November USDA Report increased the estimated 2023 corn yields from the October report by 7 bushels per acre in North Dakota, by 6 bushels per acre in Wisconsin, by 5 bushels per acre in South Dakota, by 3 bushels per acre in Illinois and Indiana, by 2 bushels per acre in Minnesota, and 1 bushel per acre in Iowa. The latest report left the projected corn yield unchanged from a month earlier in Ohio and reduced the estimated yield in Nebraska by 1 bushel per acre.

Minnesota is projected at an average corn yield of 181 bushels per acre in 2023, compared to 195 bushels per acre in 2022, with Iowa the same as last year at 200 bushels per acre in 2023. Other projected state average corn yields for 2023 are Illinois at 203 bushels per acre, Indiana at 200 bushels per acre, Ohio at 195 bushels per acre, Nebraska at 173 bushels per acre, Wisconsin at 171 bushels per acre, South Dakota at 152 bushels per acre, and North Dakota at 143 bushels per acre.

USDA is estimating the 2023 U.S. soybean yield at 49.9 bushels per acre, which is an increase of 0.3 bushels from the October estimate. The projected 2023 national average soybean yield compares to 49.6 bushels per acre in 2022, 51.7 bushels per acre in 2021, 51 bushels per acre in 2020, 47.4 bushels per acre in 2019, and the record U.S. soybean yield of 52.0 bushels per acre in 2016. The 2023 harvested soybean acreage is projected at just under 82.8 million acres, which is down from the 2022 U.S. soybean harvested acreage of just over 86.2 million acres. This compares to harvested soybean acreage of 86.3 million acres in 2021 and 82.6 million acres in 2020.

USDA is estimating the 2023 Minnesota soybean yield at 48 bushels per acre, which is down from 50 bushels per acre in 2022, while Iowa is projected at 58 bushels per acre in 2023, which is down slightly from 58.5 bushels per acre last year and compares to the record yield of 63 bushels per acre in 2021. Estimated 2023 soybean yields in other states include Illinois and Indiana at 61 bushels per acre, Ohio at 58 bushels per acre, Nebraska at 51 bushels per acre, Wisconsin at 49 bushels per acre, South Dakota at 41 bushels per acre, and North Dakota at 34 bushels per acre.

Note — For additional information contact Kent Thiesse, Farm Management Analyst and Sr. Vice President, MinnStar Bank, Lake Crystal, MN. (Phone — (507) 381-7960) E-mail — kent.thiesse@minnstarbank.com) Web Site — http://www. minnstarbank.com/

LEGAL NOTICES

Resolved Complaints Faster After a 2015 State Audit, But Progress Has Reversed Note: Years are the board’s fiscal year, which runs from July to June, and the chart shows complaints according to the fiscal year in which they were closed. The 2023 value is the average as of March 2023.

An internal email provided to ProPublica described how complaints can sit for weeks or even months simply because they weren’t forwarded in a timely manner. Those delays, the employee wrote, were “unprofessional” and “inefficient.”

For example, a complaint about a nurse stealing medication sat in the main inbox for more than two months before it was forwarded to the discipline staff, according to that internal email. It was the fourth complaint the board had received about that nurse. The employee’s email describing these delays was sent to several other employees and the board’s executive director in December.

Miller did not answer ProPublica’s questions about the employee’s allegations.

Some delays begin in the earliest stages of processing a complaint, according to former employees and lawyers who represent nurses in front of the board. Eric Ray, a former discipline program assistant from January 2020 until fall of 2021, said in an interview that the board didn’t always meet statutory requirements to notify nurses of a complaint within 60 days of receiving it.

Ray said he saw complaints “sitting for months or a year” before the board sent a notice to the nurse.

Miller said the board “did take seriously the 60-day issue” and recently made changes to the management software so that it would remind caseworkers that a letter needed to be sent out.

The notification delays can also hurt a nurse’s ability to mount a defense, according to lawyers who defend nurses in front of the board. As complaints age, they become more difficult to investigate, evidence becomes harder to locate, nurses move on to other jobs and witnesses forget key details.

“This is your professional career on the line,” said attorney Marit Sivertson.

“It makes it incredibly difficult for someone to be able to fairly defend themselves.”

The state law that requires the board to resolve complaints within a year also gives the board sweeping discretion to take longer if it determines the case can’t be resolved in that time. Still, Sivertson said that does not explain why so many cases take more than a year to resolve. She and eight other lawyers have met several times to raise these issues with Miller and assistant attorney general Hans Anderson, legal counsel to the board. In October, they presented their concerns at a board meeting. They said they are still waiting for a response.

Del Shea Perry is also still waiting. It’s been nearly five years since the death of her son, Hardel Sherrell, in the Beltrami County Jail in northern Minnesota. The incident sparked public outrage and led to reforms and consequences for some of the officials connected to his care. Sherrell died on the floor of his cell after guards and

medical staff refused his pleas for help. cerned about being held accountable by A pathologist hired by Perry as part of the attending physician.”

Five years later, Skroch still has a wrongful death lawsuit later ruled that he died of Guillain-Barré syndrome, a an unblemished license and her online professional profile identifies her as the treatable neurological disorder.

Del Shea Perry, mother of Hardel nursing director of Leonard’s medical Sherrell, who died in jail in 2018, found- firm. She declined to comment.

Another nurse who provided care ed Be Their Voices, an organization that advocates for incarcerated people and to Sherrell at the jail filed an official complaint about Skroch with the nurstheir families.

State legislators passed a law named ing board. But she said that after an after Sherrell that aims to improve interview with a board representative access to health care for jail inmates. about a year after the death, she has not Todd Leonard, the jail doctor who mon- heard an update. The board is required itored Sherell’s condition via telephone, to provide updates every 120 days on had his medical license indefinitely sus- the status of a case.

“I have no idea what the board is pended in early 2022. And this month, Beltrami County and Leonard’s com- doing, and it sure as hell shouldn’t take pany agreed to settle Perry’s lawsuit by 4 years to investigate,” Perry wrote in a paying Sherrell’s family $2.6 million.

But there have been no consequences for Michelle Skroch, a nurse who worked for Leonard and was directly in charge of Sherrell’s care in the last two days of his life. According to a state administrative judge who ruled in the doctor’s licensing case, Skroch failed to provide care to Sherrell or even check his vital signs as he lay nearly lifeless on the floor of his cell wearing adult diapers soaked in his own urine.

An emergency room doctor had released Sherrell to the jail with instructions to bring him back if his symptoms worsened. Instead, Skroch instructed jail staff not to assist him because she said there was nothing medically wrong with him, according to the judge’s report.

The judge wrote that it could appear from Skroch’s notes that she had “provided some type of care or assessment” Credit: of Sherrell. “She, in Source: Minnesota Board of Nursing fact, did not,” the judge wrote.

Video later showed she had only text message.

“A Clear Message” briefly peered into his cell twice and When a nurse is accused of mishad missed that he was in distress: Sherrell was unconscious on the floor conduct, the board can seek discipline with a white substance coming out of ranging from a reprimand, which is essentially a public slap on the wrist, to his mouth.

In response to Perry’s lawsuit, Skroch a license revocation, which means the testified that she was able to sufficient- nurse can no longer work in the field. ly assess Sherrell’s condition without Typically, the board allows a nurse to touching him and that she believed continue working while it tries to reach his condition was improving. She also an agreement or takes the complaint to noted that emergency room doctors the state’s administrative court.

But in cases when the nurse poses had diagnosed him with weakness and “malingering,” a medical term for fak- an immediate risk to patients, the board can use its power to issue a temporary ing illness.

In ruling that the medical board had suspension and remove the nurse from cause to discipline Leonard, the judge practice while it investigates.

The board rarely used that power also called for the nursing board to investigate Skroch’s “dereliction of duty until the state legislature changed the and shocking indifference.” Noting that law in 2014. Under the revised rules, the doctor was both Skroch’s supervi- the board wasn’t just authorized to use sor and her romantic partner, the judge the emergency suspension — it was wrote it appeared “she was uncon- required to do so in cases where there

was “imminent risk of serious harm.”

As a result, the board ramped up its use of temporary suspensions, issuing 55 of them from 2014 to 2017, more than twice as many as it had in the preceding four years, according to data reported to a national database of actions taken against medical professionals.

In 2018, this increase was touted by Daphne Ponds, then a board employee.

Speaking at a national seminar on nurse regulation, Ponds, who helped investigate complaints against nurses, told her peers that the Star Tribune’s stories had “made us look bad, made us look ineffective.”

She added, “The legislature had really sent the board a clear message that you have this tool of temporary suspension — you need to use it.”

But about that time, the board had reverted to its pre-audit practices. In 2018, it issued only three temporary suspensions, according to a national discipline database. And it issued only 11 over the next three years.

Miller said the board is now inclined to protect the public by pursuing a voluntary agreement to stop practicing with nurses who’ve been the subject of a complaint. She said this is because there are “more hoops” to jump through to issue a temporary suspension, while the voluntary agreements can be drafted and signed by the nurse in days.

Asked how she reconciles this with a state law requiring a temporary suspension when there is an imminent risk of serious harm, Miller said Minnesota’s attorney general had signed off on the strategy.

Hager, the former legal analyst for the board, said that while a stipulation to cease practicing may work in some cases, it doesn’t work in all of them, especially when nurses don’t want to cooperate. In one case reviewed by ProPublica, a nurse kept her license for more than a year because she refused to sign a stipulation. The board suspended her only after she was convicted of financial exploitation.

Sometimes, the delays hurt patients.

In early 2018, the board received complaints about a nurse named La Vang that accused him of stealing narcotics from patients — including one allegation that was validated by the state health department.

But the board didn’t issue a temporary suspension, and Vang got a new job later that year. He stole pain medicines from another patient, LaVonne Borsheim, according to a lawsuit that Borsheim and her husband brought against Vang and the home care company that employed him.

We Don’t Talk About Leonard In that lawsuit, Borsheim described pain so severe that she didn’t want to go on living. (Attempts to reach Vang for comment were unsuccessful.)

By the time the nursing board got Vang to sign an agreement to cease practicing in August 2018, the police had already arrested him on charges that he had stolen Borsheim’s drugs.

Vang pleaded guilty in federal court to obtaining controlled substances by fraud. At his sentencing, Vang’s attorney said he was in treatment for drug addiction and was embarrassed that he had violated Borsheim’s trust. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

gravel site near the New Ulm High School. The tusk was about 5 feet in length and weighed 50 lbs. the report noted.

Dzenowski had specific requests for preserving the integrity of the find when transporting the mammoth tusk.

“Please keep it wet,” she said.

“It was found very far under-

ground, under the water table so it had lived its entire life, its 22,000 years basically underwater.”

They delivered the item wrapped in wet shirts in a custom container. Tusks are similar to teeth and contain dentine and enamel, hard surfaces like bone.

The remains came from a Columbian mammoth, a species that lived throughout North America and went extinct at the end of the last ice age, according to information from the science museum posted on the City of New Ulm website.

“Since then, Joyce Dauer donated a partial hip bone from

an American mastodon, found in the same gravel pit in New Ulm as the mammoth remains.”

New Ulm Cable Access Television filmed the entire presentation and it is available on YouTube. Several people from the community and elsewhere showed up to learn about the phenomenal find.

thank you to everyone around him. He is very kind to his classmates and he is responsible and organized,” the statement read.

The board considered approval of an MoU with the Office Support Unit-(Kautt/Dixon,

unanimous), a Cooperative with Minnesota Valley Lutheran for Wrestling-(Stuewe/Leonard, unanimous) and policies with legislative Requirements for Approval with One Reading(Martens/Dixon, unanimous).

The board provided information during the meeting about the Community and Family Education Report and Profile-Tami Skinner, Director of Community and Family Education reviewed and highlighted the services her programs provide for the Saint Peter Community. They also discussed Native American Parent Advisory Council Update-This update will be provided at an upcoming meeting. The Middle School HVAC & Academic Space Project Discussion was also discussed. A Study Session was held earlier that evening to review plans and recommendations for plans at the middle school.

Staff provided reports to the board.

Building principals discussed

early childhood, the fact that conferences have started and a bit about the Guest Literacy Program. Gina Evenson’s memorial bench has been placed in the Early Childhood playground.

Saint Peter Middle School 6th grades were slated to go to Biz Town in Minneapolis the following day on November 21. Fine Arts music students have concerts coming up in December.

Emily Kracht’s memorial bench will be placed on Lincoln Drive when it is delivered.

At the Saint Peter High School, Humanities Council visited the prior week. Into the Woods was fantastic the previous weekend before the meeting.

The board discussed alternative programs such as the fact that Rock Bend students attended Indiginous Joy Day at the high school the previous Friday before the meeting. Mid-quarter is coming up and night school is starting.

The Superintendent of Schools noted the Humanities Council member that visited Indiginous

Joy Day was impressed and would like to see more events in the future.

The annual Truth in Taxation meeting will be held December 18th at 6:30 p.m.

Upcoming Meetings of the School Board: Policy Committee Wednesday, November 29, 2022 4:00 PM HR Committee Thursday, November 30, 2023 4:00 PM SPMS-Conference Room A/B Study Session Monday, December 4, 2023 6:30 PM SPMS-Media Center Education Committee Friday, December 8, 2023 8:30 AM Business Committee Wednesday, December 13, 2023 4:00 PM Regular Board Meeting Monday, December 18, 2023 6:30 PM SPCC-Governor’s Room

Mammoth Tusk Revealed by Museum Lab Continued From Page 1

School Board Prepares for Next Truth in Taxation Meeting From 1

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Page 6

Nicollet County Ledger

Brown County Board Holds Public Meeting for Proposed Budget and Levy at November 28 Board Meeting in NU

By Robert Lawson Publisher info@nicolletcountyledger.com

The Brown County Board of Commissioners met on Tuesday, November 28 to discuss the following.

Human Services Director Barb Dietz and Transit Manager Pat LaCourse presented the 2024 Armer Radio Upgrade for Heartland Express Heartland/

Hermann Express Building Rental Agreement and 2024 Bus Application.

Human Services Director Barb Dietz and Social Service Supervisor Julie Hogen presented information about the Public Health Nursing Medication Management Contract. Human Services Director Barb Dietz and Social Service Supervisor Annie Braun discussed 2024-2025 Guardianship Contracts and Mankato Rehabilitation Center Inc. Contract for Extended Employment. Dietz also talked about

Enterprise North Contract and Claim Payments. Auditor/Treasurer Kelly Hotovec presented the 2023 Audit Engagement Contract, Legal Services Agreement for Drainage and VOTER Account County-Municipality Agreement. Hotovec and Assistant Engineer Andrew Lang brought forth the Drainage Ditch Repair Requests.

Highway Engineer Wayne Stevens presented the board Resolution – TH 71 Detour Agreement for CSAH 2 and CSAH 21 roadways. Public

Brown County Board of Commissioners.

Brown County Board of Commissioners at Truth in Taxation Hearing.

Sunday, December 3, 2023

Cannabis Legalese Continued From Page 1

Health Director Jaimee Brand talked about Families First Collaborative Coordinator Agreement and IT Director Cassandra Reasor brought forth a proposal for CrowdStrike Software Purchase.

At 6:00 p.m. the board convened (The first instance is a requireOther countries have stopped using a public meeting on the third floor it completely; ment, not a duty, and the last two are District Courtroom 21 for the 2024 declarations that are true by operation It’s legalese; Proposed Budget and Levy Public of law.)

People abhor legalese; and, Meeting. The board came back to The report shall must contain sumIt enables more legalese. adjourn their regular meeting afterWe can also add that in the lim- mary data and must include… ward.

(Report isn’t a human being or legal ited instance in which shall is deemed acceptable —imposing a duty or pro- entity, and why change from shall to hibition — the word is still neverthe- must in the same sentence?)

The employment status and job less used incorrectly.

For example, Minnesota’s Revisor’s classification of a transferred employOffice — the state’s drafting and pub- ee shall not cannot be altered as a lishing agency for statutes and admin- result of the transfer (This doesn’t meet any element of istrative rules — explains the lone exception to using shall in the office’s the three-part test.)

Notice sent pursuant according to bill-drafting manual: Either shall or must may be used this paragraph shall must inform the if all of the following conditions are person that . . .

(Not a human being or duty.) satisfied: The article shall must be destroyed (1) The statement imposes a duty or at the claimant’s expense of the claimprohibition.

(2) The subject of the sentence is a ant thereof (Enables more legalese.) human being or legal entity.

The possession or transport of can(3) The duty or prohibition is nabis flower or cannabis products for imposed in the active voice.

If all conditions are not met, use such purpose by a Tribal cannabis must to impose a duty, prohibition, business shall is not constitute a crimiobligation, requirement, status, or con- nal or civil offense under state law (Declaration that is true by operadition.

Otherwise, shall shouldn’t be used tion of law.)

All board meetings shall be are in statutory drafting. A sentence meeting this checklist would read some- open to the public and subject to chapthing like this one from HF100, the ter 13D (Declaration that is true by operacannabis-legalization bill: “The governor shall appoint a director of the tion of law.)

For an employee in a temporary office with the advice and consent of unclassified position transferred to the senate.”

Does the example pass the three- the Office of Cannabis Management office, the total length of time that the part test? Let’s check: (1) the governor has a duty to employee has served in the appointment shall include includes all time appoint the director ☒ served in (1) the appointment and (2) the governor is a human ☒ (3) the duty is in the active voice ☒ the transferring agency, and the time Although shall is correctly used served in (2) the appointment at the here, this three-part test is routinely Office of Cannabis Management flouted, only undermining the sole office (Enables poor drafting.) credible argument for this limited use And on and on it goes. The reviof shall. For example, in HF100, shall is used in new text 312 times, and 85 of sor’s office lists 10 specific instances these instances don’t meet the revisor’s in which shall shouldn’t be used. Add three-part test. This 27% error rate these 10 instances together with the further proves what has been apparent ignored three-part test, and we have for decades — that legal drafters can’t an obligation to ask: Why use shall in the first place? be trusted to correctly use shall.

And, according to its rule-drafting I’ve edited some examples from • Adding Juneteenth as an additional holiday which would be in keeping HF100 that show how legal drafters manual, the revisor’s office is even incorrectly use shall according to the stricter in its advice against using shall with Federal and State Law. • Columbus Day to Indigenous revisor’s three-part test. My fixes are in agency administrative rules. The revisor’s office recommends using Peoples Day. This is a change that underlined: The following protections shall must, not shall, to impose duties. Most Councilmembers have asked for.

• Modification to holidays that pro- apply to employees who are transferred speakers of English stopped using vide greater opportunities for celebra- from the Department of Health to the shall to mean “is ordered to” in the seventeenth century. Dictionaries show Office of Cannabis Management. tions of a more diverse workforce.

(Protections isn’t a human being that we generally use shall as a formal • Educational allowance increases because the amount has not changed or legal entity, and a duty isn’t being form of will; so to most readers the lawyer’s shall is an obsolete legalism. in more than a decade. This change imposed.)

The manual then diplomatically The office shall require the payreiterates the council’s goals to encourage additional ways to serve the com- ment of Application fees, initial gives the one exception to those who licensing fees, and renewal licensing refuse to face the bleak realities of munity.

• New hire vacation and sick fees must be paid as provided in this shall: “Use shall only when you are increase to keep pace in the changing section. The initial license fee shall imposing a duty on a person or body.”

But as we’ve seen, the recalcitrant include includes the fee for initial issuemployment marketplace.

• Longevity Pay the city hopes ance of the license and the first annual defenders of shall can’t even grasp will encourage newer employees to renewal. The renewal fee shall be onto this fading life raft.

This article originally appeared in stay employed with the city for the is charged at the time of the second renewal and each subsequent annual Minnesota Reformer. Support their long-term. journalism efforts.

• Comp time accrual change which renewal thereafter is in keeping with and providing for more standardization across city employee groups.

• Vacation accrual changes to reduce the gap in accrual amounts that now is present between 15 and 25 years.

• The addition of Crown Act language within the city’s Discrimination and Harassment section in Article IV. • Additions to the Bereavement provision that expand use, not time off, for challenges related to childbirth challenges including adoption and fertility.

Potential Land Sale Closed Session The council also held a closed session be convened with the City Attorney to further discuss the potential sale of City-owned properties at North Industrial Park Outlet F and 107 West Nassau Street.

Road work is being done in Lower North Mankato on Range Street.

Saint Peter City Council Meeting Continued From Page 1 as of May 31, 2023 and notices were published in the St. Peter Herald on November 16 and 23, according to city staff. The total amount of the past due delinquent accounts is $$5,626.47, of which $2,2401.07 is able to be assessed to property owners. There were previous sessions in the council about the delinquent accounts earlier in the month. There were no public comments so the hearing promptly closed and the council opened the hearing for miscellaneous charges.

Unpaid Misc. Charges The council also approved this public hearing at their November 13 meeting. Notices were published in the Herald for this as well. The miscellaneous charges listed were for unpaid mowing, snow removal, driveway patching and projects with property agreements. Just under $5,500 of these unpaid charges were included in the public hearing.

Pine Street Improvements Project Peter Moulton, St. Peter’s Public Works Director, urged the council to approve plans and specifications and order advertisement for bids for the 2024 Pine Street Improvements (S. Minnesota Avenue to S. Washington) Avenue Project.

On July 24, 2023, the City Council reviewed and accepted the feasibility report for the improvement of the 2024 Pine Street Improvements Project, which will be between South Minnesota Avenue and South Washington Avenue. The feasibility report identified the improvement as being necessary, cost-effective, and feasible.

A public hearing was conducted by

the City Council on August 14, 2023.

At that time, all those who wished to be heard were given an opportunity.

Several property owners addressed the Council at that time during the hearing. After the hearing, the City Council ordered the improvement and preparation of plans and specifications. Plans and specifications have been prepared and were available at the November 27 meeting. It was recommended that the resolution approving the documents and ordering advertisement for bids for the project be adopted. Adoption of the resolution will not award the bids, but it is the next step in this assessment project. Expected costs for the advertisement of the bid will range from $500-$1,000, Moulton noted.

One Watershed Project Staff also sought for the council to authorize city participation in the watershed-scale planning efforts known as One Watershed, One Plan.

The Minnesota Board of Soil and Water Resources has developed policies for coordination and development of comprehensive watershed management plans, which is known as One Watershed, One Plan. The directive is to comply with Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 103B.801, and its connection to a State funded Comprehensive Watershed Management Planning Program. The intent of the statute is to allow counties and municipalities to develop and implement a local water management plan, the agenda noted. Planning is completed in each watershed area through partnerships with Minnesota Soil and Water Conservation Districts. Each watershed is defined by the State and funded in part through a cooperative effort watershed wide. In St. Peter,

the watershed is the Minnesota River - Mankato Watershed, as delineated in the attached One Watershed, One Plan Planning Boundary Map, the agenda noted. The purpose of One Watershed, One Plan is to align local water planning purposes and procedures to create a systematic, watershedwide, science-based approach to watershed management; acknowledge and build off existing local government structure, water plan services, and local capacity; incorporate and make use of data and information, including watershed restoration and protection strategies; solicit input and engage experts from agencies, citizens, and stakeholder groups as well as focus on implementation of prioritized and targeted actions capable of achieving measurable progress; and serve as a substitute for a comprehensive water plan, local water management plan, or watershed management plan.

“The Saint Peter community has continued to show an interest in protecting our drinking water supply and to assist with future growth to the west of Saint Peter. Our goal is to collaborate with counties, soil and water conservation districts and other government entities to work toward completing a watershed plan.”

Progressive Personnel Changes The city also approved some progressive personnel changes, which it claimed has no immediate fiscal impact on the city: • Life Insurance from $12,500 to $20,000. The goal has been to make sure employees have enough to cover funeral expenses and those costs have changed since the last update of this amount.

Developing Story: State of Housing in Nicollet County - Stats and Resources CONTINUED FROM THE FRONT PAGE

2021, were $1,519 per census data.

Population Estimates for July 1, 2022 were 34,441. Population estimates base for April 1, 2020 were 34,464. Population, percent change, between April 1, 2020 (estimates base) to July 1, 2022 were 0.1 percent.

Population, Census, April 1, 2020: 34,454.

Population, Census, April 1, 2010: 32,727.

The median selected monthly owner costs without a mortgage, 2017-2021, was $579. Median gross rent between 2017-2021 was $862. In 2022, there were only 195 building permits.

There were a total of 12,733 households, 2017-2021 with 2.45 people per household.

Median household income (in 2021 dollars), 2017-2021, was $74,317. Per capita income in the past 12 months (in 2021 dollars), 2017-2021, was $39,188. About 9.8% of residents in Nicollet County live in poverty, according to the federal government.

On Trulia, there are currently 19 homes for sale. There are 24 listings on Apartments.com and 141 homes for sale in Nicollet County (including land/lots for sale) with a median listing home price of $239,900. Zillow has 95 properties listed for sale.

South Central Multi-County HRA helps people in South Central Minnesota find affordable housing programs and vouchers for housing. Nicollet County is within its service area.

Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Section 8 waiting list is now open, according to their website.

Applications must be submitted online only at: waitlistcheck. com/MN178. Anyone may apply to the waitlist who is over the age of 18. Applicants who qualify for a preference will be placed before applicants on the waiting list who do not qualify for a preference. To qualify for a preference, you must live, work or

be enrolled in college in Martin, housing or data that you would us a tip at the email address Nicollet, Sibley, Watonwan, and like to share with the Nicollet below: Waseca Counties. Their website County Ledger newspaper? Send info@nicolletcountyledger.com. is https://www.scmmchra.org/.

More apartments are being constructed, along with commercial spaces for mixed use, at locations in Saint Peter, Mankato COMMUNITY INSURANCE AGENCY and North Mankato. There Community Insurance Agency still aren’t many single family of Lafayette, Inc. homes being constructed in the area, however. Housing remains Melissa Schultz a key priority for local govern761 Main Ave. • P.O. Box 306 ments in all three communities as city managers, city councils Lafayette, MN 56054 and county boards grapple with Office: 507-228-8201• 1-800-481-8201 inflation and changing demoFax: 507-228-8248 • Cell: 507-276-9639 Agent License graphics. #1011072 melissa@cialafayette.com • www.cialafayette.com Do you have a story about

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