UTICA, Minn. –A Utica driver was found lying outside his wrecked car on a remote rural road northwest of Utica. Thomas Alvin Mueller, 66, was taken 30 miles to a Rochester hospital. Deputies suspected alcohol impairment.  There was a bottle of vodka in the vehicle, deputies said. Tire tracks indicated that Mueller hd lost control. overcorrected twice, went into a ditch, and struck a tree at Township Road 115 and Summit Drive. Apparently, deputies said, he had tried to drive out but was stuck. Mueller got up at one point after deputies arrived,  but they said he was unstable. They placed him on a flat-board and called an ambulance. At the hospital he refused to comply with a judge’s warrant for blood and urine samples to check for impairment. Earlier at the accident scene, he had refused to blow a breath test, deputies said. Because of two previous drunken-driving convictions, deputies recommended an elevated second-degree DWI charge. They cited his blood-shot and watery eyes, body odor, slurred and short verbal responses an inability to stand without assistance.

UTICA, Minn. – Deputies found an overturned car that had left County Road 33 south of Utica and struck a tree and been abandoned. This was about 5:30 a.m. in the 30000 block. No driver was around Deputies impounded the the vehicle and began a search for the registered owner. Apparently the wreck occurred overnight.

Anemic tasseling. A Winona County corn crop, parched and lagging. Image: Steve Lunde

Drought stranglehold stays tightly with us

WINONA, Minn. – The overnight thunderstorms that farmers had hoped for, gardeners too, were disappointing. The precip was scattered and immeasurable most places in Winona County. To the west, beyond Rochester in even drier Olmsted County, the rainfall ranged from one-half to 1/1.2 inches but still way short to replenish soil from two months of drought. Federal weather-trackers have declared a drought in all southeast Minnesota – parts a Category 2 severe drought and other parts a Category 3 extreme drought.

Earlier: Will new weekend rain reverse worsening drought?

Remnant of yesteryear. It’s easy to imagine horses and wagons and maybe an occasional Model T on this old stream crossing along State Highway 74 south of the Troy junction in Winona County. The delicate metal railing, connecting locally quarried, survives and not even much crowned with rust. Image: Steve Lunde.

WINONA, Minn. – Among residential property sales logged by Bob Bambenek, county recorder, in July:

> 22571 Briarcombe Lane: Meyerson/Soroko to Woodworth family, $875,000.

> 30874 Highway76: Morgan to Radsek, $725,000.

> 32074 Old Homer Road: Tucker to Brinkman, $576,000.

> 1366 Summit Drive: Drazkowski to Gorman, $475,000.

> 209 Barbara Court: Alsum to Reyes, $410,000.

> 1328 Ridgewood Drive: Harris to Buchheit, $379,900.

> 251 Valley Oaks Drive: Mayo Estate to Kramer, $327,000.

> 92 Whitewater Court: Carlson to Aufderhar, $310,000.

> 1596 Circle Drive: McNally to Parker/Williams, $305,000.

> 318 West Eighth Street:  Johnson to Reker/Lofdahl, $300,000.

> 406 East Ninth Street: Proudfoot/Beche to Kaneshiro/Ellis-Tingle, $300,000.

Earlier: Winona home sales in June

WINONA, Minn. – Among residential property sales outside Winona logged by Bob Bambenek, county recorder, in June:

> Lewiston: 45 North Benson Drive, Kutscheid to Vix/Beherano, $328,000.

> Minnesota City: 209 Birch Echo Road, Olson  to Schreiber, $345,000.

> Minnesota City: 129 Iowa Street, Clark to Schneider, $345,000.

> Stockton: 8640 Scenic Ridge Drive, $579,900. $579,900.

Earlier: Winona County home sales in June

Powell Falls. One of a half dozen dams at old water-powered mills from the 1800s. The mills are gone. Some dams are have been converted to producing hydroelectricity but at a cost to native trout and other other aquatic life.

A sense of the public good shifts over 1-1/2 centuries

RIVER FALLS, Wis. – The Army Corps of Engineers wants to take out one if not two dams on the Kinnickinnic River but wants public input first. The Corps has scheduled a hearing August 15 at the River Falls library, 140 Union Street, at 6 p.m. The Corps said the dams have degraded the Kinnickinnic’s once-bountiful trout habitat with sediment accumulation. At issue:

> Powell Falls Dam. Built in 1909 at the site of an old timber dam that backed up a millpond. The am was restored in 1940 to generate hydroelectricity. The design is a concrete gravity dam, 110 feet long and 22 feet high. The reservoir, Lake Louise, is 15.4 acres.

> Junction Falls Dam. Built in 1920 at the site of an older dam at a mill. It’s half a mile upstream from the Power Falls Dam. It also was restored in 1940 for hydroelectricity. It’s a 140-foot concrete gravity dam. The reservoir, Lake George, is 16 acres.

The Corps said that removing the dams could help protect aquatic resources. Under the federal Clean Water Act, the Corps works with state agencies on sustainability projects. The Corps said its own feasibility studies are at an early stage. Costs and benefits have yet to be calculated.

Before the mills. Before the damming.

DAKOTA, Minn. – A train crew reported highway construction barricade barrels being dropped in the path of their locomotive on the fast double-track mainline. The engine plowed easily through the plastic barrels. There was no derailment nor any injury. It must have been a spectacle for the perpetrators even though perverse and potentially dangerous. Deputies responding to the call from the Canadian Pacific train crew found a large party bonfire. The partiers scattered on foot in all directions as the deputies arrived, leaving beer cans all around. Deputies knocked at the door of a nearby house. A man, age 40, acknowledged that his 20-year-old son had had friends over. Deputies took down the license plate numbers of cars parked all around, probably as the partiers looked on hidden in the night shadows. Authorities planned to check the automobile registrations the next day. Meanwhile, deputies chose not to ticket the 20-year-old party host, at least not immediately. Although underage for boozing, he was in the presence of his adult father, at least kind of. That’s allowed by law.

WINONA, Minn. – Police responded to a complaint of loud partying near the stub of Hamilton Street at the river but found no one around. A small tent at the site was empty. Poloice checked around the neighborhood, just south of the East End marina, but found nobody with any idea who pitched the tent or why — or who called in the noise complaint.

WINONA, Minn. – A Byron driver who admitted to beer and shots was arrested for drunken driving on Prairie Island Road. Andrew Gregg Gerhardt, 36, blew 0.14% in a portable breath device. That’s close to twice the state’s allowable maximum for driving.  The arrest was about 8:35 p.m. a mile or so down the road at Riverview Drive and Theurer Boulevard.

WINONA, Minn. – Sheriff’s deputies on river patrol helped a swimmer in trouble into their boat at the downtown Levee. The Levee isn’t a usual swimming spot — no lifeguards and unpredictable currents. But, well, the day was hot. This was about 2:20 p.m. The swimmer was taken to shore and all right.

WINONA, Minn. – Faculty at MinnState universities, including Winona State, have been encouraged by their union leadership to stand in solidarity with mid-level campus managers whose own union, a separate entity, has approved a strike. But there are llmits, said Jenna Chernega, the state Inter-Faculty Organization president. Chernega cautioned that state law forbids profs from striking in sympathy. Chernega ,said profs may make signs and oicket-line placards, organize rallies, join picket lines on their own time, and submit letters to the editor. She said that if administrators ask profs to “fill in” or perform duties of striking managers: Don’t. “Every faculty member has the authority under our contract to deny a request to work more than their 24-credit workload,” she said.

Earlier: Profs’ pending back-to-back pay hikes – 5% and 5.3%

Earlier: Strike by managers looms at WSU, other campuses

Status update

Campus managers, including 111 at Winona State, are represented by the State University Administrative and Service Faculty union, which has served notice that it’s prepared to strike August 21.  Meanwhile, the faculty union, the IFO, has called on MinnState Chancellor Scott Olson to reconsider the system’s position in contact negotiations with the campus managers’ ASF union.

Northern Lightning. Goal with 60 aircraft total: To integrate fourth-generation and fifth-generation aircraft for combat.

Annual military exercise in Wisconsin skies

CAMP DOUGLAS, Wis. – War planes from military exercises are expected in the air above southern Wisconsin starting Monday, including  as far west as Trempealeau County on the Mississippi Tuver. The annual Northern Lightning exercises run two weeks with 1,000 participants and 60 Air Force, Marine and National Guard aircraft. These include Minnesota Air Guard units. The base of operations is Volk Field at Camp Douglas with its 9,000-foot air strip. The airspace training corridor is 5 by 200 miles and nine miles up.

LEWISTON, Minn. – A deputy caught up with a speeder on U.S. Highway 14 at Lewiston’s east end and discovered, he said, that it was no mere speeding issue. The driver, Caroline Marie Adams, 28, of Winona, was drunk, the deputy said. Also there was an existing warrant for her arrest. An on-scene breath test found Adams’ blood-alcohol at 0.10%, the deputy said. Later at the jailhouse in Winona the level was down to 0.09%. Both readings exceeded the state’s definition for impaired driving. At the traffic stop, the deputy said, Adams first gave a false name and a birth date that would have put her in her 60s. But, he said, she sure didn’t look 60. Amid her “very excited chatter,” as the deputy described it, Adams changed her name to her real identity and age but denied drinking.  She then failed field sobriety tests on the spot, the deputy said.  Her speed, which led to the stop, had been 69 mph through the 60 zone at the Arches.

LAFARGE, Wis. –  A 17-year-old LaFarge youth was killed when a wagon that he and two buddies were riding downhill hit a tree. All tumbled down a steep embankment. Marvin L. Miller, 17, was dead at the scene, said Vernon County Coroner Betty Nigh. The accident was about 10 p.m. on Indian Creek Road near LaFarge. Although injured, Ervin Miller, 20, crawled his way for help. A 12-year-old boy was taken 16 miles to the Viroqua hospital, then transferred to a Madison hospital.

COOK, Minn. – A 6-year-old girl was injured critically when she fell off a four-wheeler and into a brush-mower being toward behind. The girl was airlifted 220 miles south to Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis. St. Louis County Sheriff Gordon Ramsay said the girl was riding behind the ATV driver, whose name was not released immediately. The sheriff released only that the driver was an adult male. They were clearing brush on a trail. The accident was about 1:50 p.m.

ARKANSAW, Wis.  – Two young people died in a fiery automobile crash on U.S. Highway 10 between Durand and Plum City. A 12-year-old Minnesota girl riding in her family’s pickup died when she was trapped inside the burning wreckage. The other driver, age 18, from nearby Durand, also died. Passersby, some with medical training, pulled four people from the burning pickup, but it was too late for Joeclynn Passon, age 12. It also was too late for Ethan Whitwam, 18, of Durand, who was in the other car. The rescuers provided medical aid as best they could until first-responders arrived, police said. In the pickup was a famiy of four from Waseca in Minnesota. An 8-year-old, Drake Passon, was airlifted 25 miles to an Eau Claire hospital in critical condition. The parents also were taken to the hospital. The father, Steven Passon, 40, was in critical condition. The mother, Jessica Psson, 36, was treated and released. The Passons were in a 2016 Chevrolet Silverado pick-up. The collision was about 2:40 p.m. at the U.S. 10 intersection with Sylvester Road. The collision was head-on. Deputies said a 2007 Pontiac Grand Prix, driven by Whitwam, 18, was beaded east toward Dyrannd and crossed the center  and struck the Passon pickup.

WINONA, Minn. – The extreme drought in southeast Minnesota has spread outward from Olmsted County in the past week, according to the federal drought monitor. Except for a tip of Saratoga Township south St. Charles, Winona County has been spared from the “extreme drought.” category, although the county is rated in “severe draught. Things could be worse — the dreaded “exceptional drought” category, five on the monitor’s five-point scale, remains a possibility. The storm system that dropped one-half to 2-1/2 inches of rain last week was not enough to improve conditions. A good chance of thunderstorms this coming weekend, capable heavy rain Saturday night, perhaps one to two inches, has been forecast. Enough? Unsure. Most the region has experienced the eighth driest June and July on record. The rainfall deficit is six inches below normal.

Drought monitor. As of August 3.

Color key

WINONA Minn. – A man reported a theft from his unlocked car overnight on the West Side. The major loss: A collection of baseball caps and sunglasses, which he valued at $550. The theft, in the 250 block of Lafayette Street, was reported about 6 a.m.