Power outages and snapped trees as storm moves through
As storms moved through the area, thousands lost power last night and high winds snapped trees and knocked branches down. While power was restored for many early this morning, there were still spotted outages reported in Northfield, Waterford and Nerstrand. Xcel says they should be back online soon. Northfield police received calls for road hazards and utility issues. eputy Chief Mark Dukatz said the street department is cleaning up over 30 fallen trees. Streets and Parks department’s TJ Heinricy said the east side of Northfield seems to have been hit harder. Six trees were downed by the NCRC.
Jefferson Pkwy was completely blocked for a time. Streets and Parks Manager Jasper Kruggel said Street Operators, in collaboration with Water and Wastewater Operators, are clearing streets and removing debris. It will continue throughout the week. For more information, contact Kruggel at 507-645-3027 or jasper.kruggel@ci.northfield.mn.us. Pictures are posted on kymn.net.
It pays to fight City Hall
Before the storms blew out power at Northfield City hall, the council heard from Edgewood Townhome owners who disputed their assessment for reconstruction of Woodley Street. They had already been fully assessed last year for the Winona side of the property. The City had a licensed certified general real property appraiser conduct a benefit appraisal and identified a benefit to the properties of $14,200.00. The City had assessed it at $12,670.09. Still, Councilor Pownell moved to assess the property at $8570 saying,”it seems like there’s been a precedent where we have done this where we’ve (seen) an abnormality and we’ve given the short footage in a similar situation”. DeLong agreed “wholeheartedly”. The vote was 6 to 1 with Ludescher saying it was unfair. Included in their conversation was another call to assess how the assess properties or consider utility fees to pay for infrastructure.
Faribault prisoner escapee back inside
A Faribault man is in custody after escaping from the Correctional Facility in Faribault over the weekend. According to the criminal complaint, 54 year old Christian Murrell Klockeman cut off his monitoring device before noon on Saturday and walked away from the minimum security facility. An alert was sent out to the community via Everbridge and around 6:30 that evening a citizen called police to say Klockeman just asked him for a cigarette outside the Signature Bar in Faribault. When approached, he gave Faribault officers a false name, but they identified him from his photo and a tattoo. He then burst out that he’d done 10 months and only had 2 years left. Not anymore. If convicted he could spend another 5 years inside. His court appearance is July 14th. He has an extensive criminal history mostly in Hennepin county. Media Relations Sarah Lateseck could not comment on how Klockeman was able to cut his monitor but added that he is back at the correctional facility now behind the “secure” perimeter and the incident is still under investigation.
Click below to listen to the 7-6-16 NEWS podcast:
Listen for news updates on-air at 6, 7, 8, Noon, 3 and 5
