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County Board OKs jail design (4/14/2021)
The County Board on Tuesday voted 3-2 to approve designs for an 80-bed jail. Commissioners Marie Kovesci, Greg Olson and Chris Meyer voted in favor, while Commissioners Marcia Ward and Steve Jacob voted against.
After a presentation of the schematic plans by the architectural firm Klein McCarthy, Jail Administrator Steve Buswell addressed the board. He said an active goal of his during the process had been to avoid a repeat of 1977, when the county opened the jail that exists today, but it almost immediately was out of compliance with regulations by the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC). Buswell said he had been working closely with the DOC in order to anticipate future changes to DOC rules.
Citizens challenge county to rethink juvenile justice (3/26/2021)
A community discussion on the Winona County justice system Wednesday gave a concerned public the chance to weigh in on the county’s consideration of building a facility to house juvenile offenders.
Those community members who attended the webcam-based talks hosted by nonprofit Engage Winona largely were of the opinion that the county should not invest in a juvenile detention or holding facility, but instead invest in social programs with the intent of preventing kids from committing crimes in the first place by improving their quality of life. At one point, activists were challenged by county officials claiming it wasn’t that simple.
(3/17/2021)
Two letters of reprimand alleging violations of county policy, one each from the Winona County Attorney to a different member of the County Board, brought a longstanding dividing line in county government more sharply into focus. One commissioner, Steve Jacob, responded to the allegations with his own allegations that county officials were trying to silence him and his constituents.
The conflict’s backstory is that of the Daley Farm case, where the county’s denial of the farm’s expansion request resulted in a lawsuit. Leading up to the denial, three Winona County Commissioners Chris Meyer, Marie Kovesci and Greg Olson coordinated with the environmental group Land Stewardship Project to appoint decision-makers that, a judge ruled, the commissioners knew in advance would oppose the Daley Farm expansion. “The rules were clearly broken,” Olmsted County District Court Judge Kevin Mark declared. Marcia Ward and Jacob, conversely, backed Daley Fa
County delays deer culling decision, again (3/10/2021)
Opponents and proponents locked antlers Tuesday over a possible Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) deer culling at the former landfill at Stone Point Park.
In February, the Winona County Board had voted to table until its meeting Tuesday the issue of whether to allow DNR deer culling at the county-owned land there to combat chronic wasting disease (CWD). DNR culling proceeded on private land elsewhere in the county.
On Tuesday, a vote to deny the DNR access failed 2-3, and the County Board tabled the issue a second time until the next meeting March 23. However, Erik Hildebrand of the DNR said the agency plans to end its statewide deer-culling program three days later, on March 26. Hildebrand’s predecessor, Todd Froberg, said in an earlier interview the DNR cuts off the cull before the spring in part because they want to avoid shooting does while the deer are pregnant with fawns