DULUTH, Minn. – The Winona County emergency magement director, Ben Klinger, was named the best of the best for 2023 by the Association of Minnesota Emergency Managers. Klinger was cited for his work as the organizer and point person for the search for Madeline Kingsbury of Winona, who disappeared in March and who was found murdered six weeks later. The search involved hundreds of volunteers in a three-county area of 2,100 square miles. Klinger was nominated by Winona Police Tom Williams, who was the lead officer n the Kingsbury case. Klinger was also cited for helping organize multilayered efforts during the CoVid crisis – everything from getting vaccinations out to people in descending order of need to issues like whether the county had enough syringes. Klinger has been the county’s emergency management chief since 2018.
Klinger. Also a Winona County jailer and a volunteer police officer, firefighter and emergency medical technician.