By Teri Knight, News Director
Late Friday night, a snowmobiler on Cannon Lake ran into a pedestrian. Rice County Sheriff Troy Dunn reports that just before 9pm, emergency responders were called to a personal injury crash on the lake in Warsaw Township. On arrival rescue personnel were directed to the male victim out on the lake, identified as 23 year old Coy Allen Kreger of Faribault. He appeared to be in critical condition. Kreger was loaded onto a rescue sled and taken by ground ambulance to HCMC as Aircare was unable to fly due to the fog and freezing precipitation. The driver, 20 year old Dennis D. Krenz of Faribault was transported to District One hospital for treatment and later arrested on suspicion of Criminal Vehicular Operation and Underage Drink and Drive. According to Kreger’s CaringBridge page, he was launched into the air and landed head first on the ice, suffering
two broken legs, facial fractures and a traumatic brain injury. He remains in critical condition and the crash remains under investigation by the Rice County Sheriff’s Office. Krenz has officially been charged with 7 felonies. According to the complaint, witnesses on the scene stated Krenz had left the area where a group was fishing, in the middle of the lake after 8:00 p.m. on December 13. Krenz came back in at high speed without a headlight on and was traveling at approximately 50-60 mph. A blood draw put his alcohol content at .032. The drinking age is 21.
Premier Bank robber gets 7 years
On January 15th this year, 33 year old DeAndre McGowan and an accomplice robbed Premier Bank in Northfield. He was sentenced last week to 7 years in federal prison. More than a week before the robbery, McGowan searched the internet for firearms and banks in small cities. While his accomplice brandished a firearm, McGowen zip-tied a victim and then ordered another to fill his backpack with cash. The men stole $11,526 and a victim teller’s purse before fleeing the bank out the side door. The day after the robbery, law enforcement searched his apartment and found the money, the backpack, the tellers purse and firearms. In addition to the 7 years, he’ll serve three years on parole after his release and is ordered to pay $36,303 in restitution for two other robberies. Although he did not plead to the robberies of Premier Bank in Northfield on October 27, 2018, and the New Market Bank in Lakeville on December 22, 2018, he agreed as part of the plea to pay restitution for those robberies. McGowan Sentencing Memo AUSA
NHS will launch “Choice Ready Exam” this year – alternatives to ACT
While Northfield High School Principal Joel Leer has been traveling. He was able to go on a St. Olaf Global Semester, said Superintendent Dr. Matt Hillmann, adding, “helping about 20 college students look at education practices across three different continents and so he’ll come back with information and great thoughts about how education is done throughout the world”. Dr. Laura Kay Allen has been the Interim Principal in his absence. Hillmann called Allen a “Townie” and said they were thrilled to have her. She provided an update on the High School to the School Board last week. She talked about the “Acceptance” component that has been added into their goals and appreciating the differences of others and using that to their advantage. Allen included Flex Time in her presentation adding that they recently did a Flex Expectation update as to why they do it and what’s expected of the students. Hillmann added, “she’s pleased with how that’s going and also talks about how intense the supervision and making sure that all of the adults are helping to make sure that that time is something valuable for students”. Another highlight is that, for the first time, the Northfield School District will be having a “Choice Ready Exam” that allows 11th grade students to choose from the ACT test, designed for 4 year colleges, an Acuplace exam designed more for community and technical colleges and the third is military preparedness test. Leer will be back in a week.
