WABASHA, Minn. — Wabasha County Sheriff Rodney Bartsch is retiring ‚—again. Bartsch made a similar announcement in 2022 but changed his mind and never filed the documents to go on the ballot. Bartsch, now age 58, has been in law enforcement almost 40 years. He lives near Elgin on the extreme western edge io the county. He commutes 24 miles to Wabasha, the county seat, on the Mississippi River. The county has 21,00 people in 550 square miles. The nearest major population centers are Rochester to the west, Red Wing to the north, and Winona to the south.
Bartsch. Among longest-serving Minnnesota sheriffs.