Trejean Derrell Curry, the man who was driving the vehicle that struck and killed Father Dennis Dempsey on Monday afternoon, has been
released from the Dakota County Jail, pending further investigation.
On Monday at approximately 3:20 afternoon, Dempsey was riding his bicycle westbound in the wide shoulder of Dakota County Road 42. Curry was driving west as well when his car swerved into the shoulder and struck Dempsey’s bicycle. Dempsey was pronounced dead at the scene, and Curry was taken into custody.
Curry was driving with a revoked driver’s license and has been convicted of driving with a revoked license ten times since 2017. According to the office of Dakota County Attorney Kathy Keena, the further investigation will include crash reconstruction by the Minnesota State Patrol, among other things. Once those results are submitted to Keena’s office, Curry’s case will be reviewed for potential charges.
Meanwhile, the Church of St. Dominic announced funeral arrangements for Father Dempsey, who led the congregation from 2004-2019.
On Friday St. Dominic will host a visitation from 4-8pm, and a vigil liturgy service will be held at 7pm. On Saturday, there will be a visitation at the Church of the Risen Savior in Burnsville from 9-10:30am, followed by a funeral mass at 10:30.
Father Dempsey will be interred at Resurrection Cemetery in Mendota Heights on Saturday at 1pm.
City looking for further school traffic solutions
The City of Northfield has been evaluating the traffic situations outside of some of the schools during drop-off and pick-up times. The city engineering department has been working with the Northfield School District, MnDOT and the police department to find solutions that will both ease the traffic congestion and improve the safety in those areas.
On Monday traffic flow was reversed at Bridgewater Elementary School to at least double and possibly triple the number of vehicles that can be accommodated on school property, opening up what had become a sever congestion problem on Jefferson Parkway. Days into the new program, city and school officials say that, so far, they are seeing the desired results.
Lincoln Parkway outside of the new Greenvale Park Elementary School is an area that has seen more traffic than was anticipated after the new elementary school was built and the old school was converted to the Community Education Center. Bennett said there are problems with speed on Lincoln Parkway, outside of the school. There have also been crossing guard violations as motorists are not yielding to pedestrians, mostly students, moving across the cross walk. And he said there is confusion on the shoulder of Eastbound Lincoln Parkway about whether the area is for parking or is a right turn lane.
A parking study for the area is planned in late 2022, which should help the city find solutions to the issues. Until then, Bennett said, the city is taking some precautions and putting measures in place that will help in the short-term.
Mayor Rhonda Pownell said these are difficult problems, and she asked that people in the area find some tolerance for a tough situation.
“This is not an easy puzzle to fix. I’m just really grateful that we have good working relationships with our school district, with MnDOT. Our city is really working hard putting together long-range plans, really looking at these different issues holistically of how when can improve things. We just really appreciate people’s patience.”
Bennett said the city will continue to work with the district and the police department to further help mitigate the immediate issues.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Mayor Rhonda Pownell and City Engineer Dave Bennett can be heard here
School Covid numbers slow but persistent
And Northfield Superintendent Dr. Matt Hillmann has provided a report on the Covid-19 situation in the schools. 
The district currently has 22 active cases of Covid-19, for a total of 78 since August 31. The High School has seven active cases, Bridgewater Elementary has six, and each of the other schools has less than five. The numbers do seem to be slowing down, he said, but the virus continues to be an issue, and because of that the safety precautions put in place will continue.
General complaints about the mask mandate have not subsided, but the district is now fielding more concerns about the quarantine protocol. With the masking rules in place, there have been fewer students forced to go into quarantine after being exposed to someone who tests positive, but it is still a hardship on the families whose children are put in quarantine. Dr. Hillmann said he empathizes with the families in that position, but the protocols are in place for the greater good.
“We’ve talked with a few parents in the last week or so that are just tired of this, and our staff is tired of it as well. Remember that our goal is to do the best that we can to keep kids in school, and when we talk about that, we’re talking about keeping all kids in school. Sometimes that quarantine is something that assists us to make sure that we don’t have any further spread.”
Any student in quarantine is allowed to come back to school with a negative test result. Beginning next week, Hillmann said, they will offer a new testing program at the district offices to make getting tested more convenient.
Finally, he pointed to the progress being made in approving vaccinations for children ages five to eleven. Dr. Hillmann said he is optimistic that providing another level of mitigation to a significant number of students who right now do not have that protection will slow down the number of cases even more.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Superintendent of Northfield Schools Dr. Matt Hillmann can be heard here
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
[recent_post_carousel slides_to_show=”1″ limit=”5″ slides_to_scroll=”1″ category=”10″ media_size=”medium” dots=”false” show_read_more=”false”]
