Police are on alert after an older man tried to lure a 10-year-old girl into his truck on Monday. Bring Me the News reports that a man approached the girl at the intersection of Berring Avenue and 225th Street West in Castle Rock Township. The Dakota County Sheriff’s office said he was in a black pickup truck offered her $100 and candy if she would get in his truck “to help him find his ‘lost’ puppy.” Police say the man is white and around 60 years old. Investigators are looking for help from locals in identifying the man or his vehicle. Anyone with information should call police 651-438-4700.
Rice Co. man gets 21 years for sexual assaults
24 year old, Carlos Antoine Smith, pled guilty yesterday to two counts of Criminal Sexual Conduct in the 2nd Degree. Smith admitted that in June of 2016 he had sexual contact with two girls and used force or coercion causing personal injury to at least one of them. Because of the serious nature of the offense and Smith’s prior criminal history, he’ll serve 21 years in prison. In addition, Smith will be subject to lifetime registration as a predatory offender and lifetime supervised release. The case was prosecuted by Assistant Rice County Attorney Kristine Word. Rice County Attorney John Fossum said,“Smith is a dangerous and violent offender. Thanks to the strength of these victims and the excellent investigation of the Rice County Sheriff’s Office, the public will be safe from his predatory conduct.” Smith is currently in prison for offenses committed in Olmsted County. Formal sentencing on this file is scheduled for September 25th.
NAFRS budget jumps with building and new fire truck/cost allocations change
The NAFRS joint powers board met last week. Budget was on the agenda. Past Chair Glen Castore is also on the Finance committee, he said they’ll have a jump this year. The operating budget has been $525,000. Castore said, “this next several years we’ll see the first installment of the payment for the building, so that’s going to add about $300,000”. Castore said the 2019 and 2020 budget will sit at around $800,000, adding that some operating costs will be less due to energy efficiency changes in the new facility. Included in the budget next year will be a new fire truck at $600,000. Castore said, “that replaces the City Pumper that was purchased in 1987”. A cost allocation change between the 3 entities, Northfield, Dundas and Rural, that pay for NAFRS, was approved. Castore was instrumental in the changes. He said, “we used a population and estimated market value of the area being protected. The changes have been, we still use population. We now include a 3 year average of fire calls and we include building structures but not the land itself”. The change lowers Rural’s share by about 3{b5761be34e80a16b6d0e4dabc1869c131a263f96a745c82bebdd3b8a4330bfa9} less while Northfield will increase 3{b5761be34e80a16b6d0e4dabc1869c131a263f96a745c82bebdd3b8a4330bfa9}. The allocations are 75.29{b5761be34e80a16b6d0e4dabc1869c131a263f96a745c82bebdd3b8a4330bfa9} for Northfield, 19.54{b5761be34e80a16b6d0e4dabc1869c131a263f96a745c82bebdd3b8a4330bfa9} for Rural and Dundas is at 5.17{b5761be34e80a16b6d0e4dabc1869c131a263f96a745c82bebdd3b8a4330bfa9}.
Bench stolen from Lions Park
Within the last 2 weeks, someone stole a concrete bench near the Northfield Cannon Valley Lions Park shelter. Ray Ozmun reports that the Lions had restored the bench and placed it last summer with the intention of adding a concrete base. It had to take two people to lift it. Ozmun said it’s one of their projects, “that they wanted to do to help people walking down the sidewalk, they could stop and rest for a little while”. He added, “if you see a gold concrete bench in somebody’s yard, they can call me, Ray Ozmun at 645-7777. We’d love to have it back”. They have a plaque they were going to place.
