×
×
homepage logo

The Top 10 stories in Faribault County

By Staff | Jan 1, 2017

Blue Earth’s 2016 summer – and quite a bit of time before and after it – was dedicated to recrafting Main Street. Two big construction projects led to a makeover of downtown and parts of North Main Street, including the bridge there, spiffing up Blue Earth for 2017.

No. 1 Blue Earth’s Main Street construction projects

Our choice for the top story in Faribault County for 2016 is the not one, but two, major Main Street reconstruction projects in Blue Earth last summer.

The downtown Main Street project was our No. 3 top story in 2015, when there was quite a bit of controversy surrounding plans for the street, and whether there should be parallel or diagonal parking and how the width of the sidewalks could be affected.

In February of 2016, the Register announced that the plans had been finalized and there would be diagonal parking on both sides of the street, as well as the use of bump-outs, colored concrete and paver bricks.

In March, the story was that the two projects combined (both downtown Mains Street and the North Main Street bridge) would cost $4 million, with the North Main bridge coming in at $1.8 million.

From our No. 4 pick, County Ditch project and ordinances stir local controversy.

Construction actually started in May, but before it did, there was a story that the disruption to downtown businesses may not be as bad as had been anticipated.

Constructed started on Sixth Street first, then on to Main Street. Crews had sidewalks open to some degree most of the summer. In June, Sixth Street was done and crews moved on to Main Street.

The Main Street bridge construction started in July, causing two closures at the same time, and quite a bit of detouring.

The city and downtown businesses celebrated the opening of Main Street on Oct. 15, but it actually opened to traffic a week later. The North Main Street bridge opened up in late November before its Dec. 1 deadline.

Consensus seemed to be the project’s toll on the town was not as bad as it could have been, and the ending result was quite nice, too.

At No. 6, the continuation of the Three Sisters buildings saga. Now, the buildings are finally in the hands of the county.

No. 2 Prairie Lakes bus service operation goes back to transit board

The Prairie Lakes Transit Board, made up of representatives of both Faribault and Martin counties, was in the news a lot in 2016.

First, they were dealing with a lot of complaints over the new system that no longer operated as sort of a “taxi service,” but instead had started using actual bus routes.

However, it was in the July 25 edition of the Register that we reported the bus service had hit a pothole.

Fairlakes Transportation, of Fairmont, had been hired by the board on Jan. 1 to operate the transit system as per a bid and a contract.

From our No. 5 story, Veteran's Services, extension office, and other offices move to the Ag Center.

By July, they wanted to get out of their two-year contract, saying they had bid too low to actually operate the bus service.

By Aug. 29, the transit board had decided to keep the operation going by bringing it “in house” and running it themselves.

On Oct. 1, they did just exactly that and kept the buses running.

No. 3 Wells’ Brakebush plant, Elmore Assisted Living facility

There were two big investments made into two Faribault County towns last year, and they tie for our No. 3 top-10 story of the year.

In March, the new Elmore Assisted Living announced it had finished remodeling the former Elmore Academy and was now accepting clients.

They held an open house and gave tours of the new facility. Then, in May, they held their official ribbon cutting and grand opening.

Also in May, it was announced that a company from Wisconsin, Brakebush, had purchased the Wells Food Processing plant from North Central Equity LLC, which had owned it for less than a year.

Brakebush Brothers, Inc., is located in Westfield, Wisconsin, and has been in the poultry processing business for 91 years.

They have made improvements to the plant, added a second line, and are up to around 70 employees.

No. 4 Controversial ordinance and ditch project

There were two hot topics in Faribault County last year, and they combine for No. 4 in our top-10 list.

It is not often that a township meeting has any members of the public present, but such is not the case in Verona Township, where for the second year in a row, dozens of residents crammed into the meeting room.

They hotly contested a plan by the town board to do away with a zoning ordinance and instead adopt the county ordinance. Residents wanted to keep the current one, which was more restrictive for things such as hog facilities.

They even brought their concerns to the County Board in August.

But, in October, after yet another hotly controversial meeting, the Verona Township Board did vote to do away with the ordinance.

Another controversy swirled around a repair and construction project on County Ditch 24.

Two weeks after a group of residents were at a County Board meeting to express their concerns, there were reports of threats of physical harm and of damage to a vehicle belonging to a construction company.

The County Board even considered having a sheriff deputy be on the scene of the ditch work.

No. 5 County offices move to Ag Center, old jail

Our No. 5 story in 2015 centered on the county’s plans for a $4.4-million remodeling project at the courthouse.

That project ended up including moving several county offices the vehicle/drivers license bureau, 4-H/Extension office and Veterans Services Office out of the courthouse annex building and into the Ag Center.

The Ag Center is owned by the city of Blue Earth’s Economic Development Authority and the county is leasing the office space there.

In addition, the county attorney’s office also moved out of the annex and into the former Faribault County Jail building, near the courthouse.

The annex was remodeled to have more room for the health and human services department. The courthouse itself also was remodeled and had new security systems installed.

No. 6 The Saga of the Three Sisters

There were numerous stories in the Register last year about the three buildings in downtown Blue Earth known as the Three Sisters.

It all started in February with one story about the city doing an inspection inside the buildings, and a response from the owner of the buildings, Robert Johnson, of the Hot Springs Citizens for Progress, a South Dakota nonprofit organization.

Then in July came the surprise announcement that the county now owned the Three Sisters, taking ownership for non-payment of fees and other charges.

In September and October, both the city of Blue Earth and its economic development authority began making plans of what to do with the buildings. They said while they did not necessarily want to own them, they wanted to be able to have a say in who does.

But, in November, the city agreed to buy them for the nominal price of $3 and started to clean out the buildings, make necessary repairs, and made plans to sell the items inside in early 2017.

The future of the Three Sisters is still uncertain.

No. 7 New superintendent at USC

With the retirement of Dr. Jerry Jensen, the United South Central School Board had to start looking for his replacement.

After deciding they wanted a full-time superintendent, and hiring South Central Service Cooperative in January, the USC Board wasted little time in getting the job done.

In February, the Register was reporting the board would have a new superintendent hired by mid-March. In the March 7 edition, the list was already down to two candidates Keith Fleming and Barry Schmidt.

Then in mid-March, the board voted, after several tie votes, to hire Fleming.

Fleming, who had been at Southland Middle and High School in Adams, Minnesota, began his official duties this past September with the start of the school year.

No. 8 Winnebago loses several businesses

It was a bad year for the city of Winnebago when it comes to businesses in town.

The city lost several retail and restaurant businesses during the year, including the Winnebago Grill and Bittersweet Mercantile.

But, the biggest blow was learning a major manufacturer, Zierke Built Manufacturing, was moving to Fairmont.

The city had to sign off on the move in order for ZBM to qualify for state funds for the move, something the Winnebago City Council eventually did.

The City Council also started looking at purchasing the Kaduce Plumbing and Heating buildings, another Winnebago business that left and moved to Mankato. The two Kaduce properties would be at a cost of $290,000 to the city.

A February closing is anticipated.

No. 9 Supreme Court confirms USC student case

This just happens to have been our No. 9 story in 2015 also. It was also our No. 6 story in 2014.

Last year, the story was that the 2014 case of a student at United South Central being expelled for bringing a knife to school was continuing and being appealed.

Indeed, it did continue.

The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled in August they affirmed a lower-court ruling that former USC student Alyssa Dresher should have the expulsion removed from her record.

Drescher had been expelled in April of 2014 when the three-inch folding pocket knife had been found in her purse in her locker during a drug search. Drescher said she accidently brought the knife to school after having used it to help do farm chores and forgot it was in her purse.

The USC School Board’s ruling for expulsion was first upheld by the Department of Education before being overturned in a court case, which was appealed and then confirmed by the Supreme Court.

No. 10 Hot time at the Faribault County Fair

It seemed to be a rainy summer, but during the week of the Faribault County Fair, it became excessively hot and humid.

Attendance was obviously way down at the fair, a mister was set up to spray fairgoers, and animals were released and sent home as soon as possible.

Several grandstand events had very low turnouts.

In late October, at the fair board’s annual meeting, the actual results of the hot weather was confirmed, when it was learned the fair lost $56,335.

While the Faribault County Agricultural Society, the group that operates the fair, had other income to cover the loss, there were still outstanding loans that also needed to be covered.

The fair board discussed making several changes to next year’s fair, including going from a five-day fair down to just four days, which they did.