Ashley R. Brueske, who never missed a year at the Minnesota State Fair, died Friday at the age of 17, one day before her 18^{th birthday.}

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Money Shortage Causes Stir

"We never had problems until we began letting migrants come to this country to work. We need to protect local residents from them," Commissioner Anita Shenuski stated.

Sherburne County commissioner and the sheriff’s department are at odds because of the shortage in money for Sherburne County this year. Shenuski argued with Commission President Anne Chenn about migrant workers. She said, "They are a problem for our law enforcement, our schools, and our healthcare system." Migrant workers will work for a lower salary, they take jobs from the locals, and any of the migrants not working are more likely to raise crime in town.

Sheriff Gus DiCesari said his department needs to replace eight police cruisers and hire five new deputies, yet the county cut police budget. $580 thousand dollars would be needed to meet these demands. He stated that migrant workers are to blame for the needed increase in police and the diminishing of county funds.
Chenn argued that the migrants helped the community because they worked the jobs local residents didn’t want. These people were a benefit to the community, not a nuisance. The county commissioners said they had to use this years budget, $127 million dollars, for increased cost in healthcare for employees, and higher fuel costs. Plus, a new $30 million dollar prison had to be built to alleviate overcrowding. The budget was not to be used as a convenience for the police, but to better the community.

Chann told DeCesari the sheriff’s department would have to make do this year because Sherburne county didn’t have the additional money needed. Commissioners voted 5-2 against the additional $580 thousand for the sheriffs department.

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18 vehicle crash on Interstate 790

                                                    By Ashley Brueske

Interstate 790 was closed going both north and south this morning, and Sgt. Albert Wei of the police department had no idea when it would be open again. Two tractor-trailers crashed at 6:45 a.m., but the police are not done with their investigation yet.

After the crash of the two vehicles, two more tractor-trailers and 14 other cars piled-up on the major road during rush hour. One of the first tractor-trailers was a tanker hauling diesel fuel, however, it did not roll-over, spill any fuel, or catch fire; the truck part was damaged, but the driver managed to stop it along the side of the road, and wasn’t injured.
The incident, however, did cause two deaths of car drivers, and 20 others to be injured. The “Life Flight” helicopter arrived to transport two of the seriously injured to the trauma center in Statesville, 50 miles away. The scene became such a mess that the officers had trouble figuring out what vehicles belonged to what victim and who had been driving the vehicle Wei commented.
All five ambulances from the fire department flew to the scene, along with ambulances from four near-by cities’ fire departments. Firefighters had to cut off the roof of three cars in order to reach the driver and/or passengers. Fire chief Tony Sullivan said he had never seen anything so bad in the 18 and a half years he had been with the department.
Because of the mess, all traffic that would have normally used 790 was diverted to Interstate 690, which caused a three hour traffic back up during rush hour.

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