Obituary

Nicole M. Willms, a 25 year-old full time student, employee and mother, died unexpectedly in her home on Tuesday around 6:00pm. The cause of the death is yet to be determined. An autopsy will be conducted.

            Nicole was an outgoing person who loved to explore the outdoors. She was an avid sports player and loved watching her home town teams’ play. Nicole love spending time with family and friends. “She was a family person and always put her daughter before anything, she was the most important person in Nicole’s life,” said Mary a close friend of Nicole.

            Nicole is survived by her parents Terry and Julie, Brothers Dustin (Julie) and CJ and her Daughter Olivia. Funeral Arrangements are being made through Sandberg Funeral Home In North St Paul, MN

Story #2

Story #2

A heated meeting between the county sheriff and several commissioners occurred on Thursday afternoon to come to terms over money issues the county is facing. With the county having a budget of $127 million dollars, commissioners had to be smart with spending.  The county had already paid $30 million for a new prison to help alleviate overcrowding. Commissioner Anne Chenn along with Valerie Dawkins, Faith Ellis, Jose Gardoz and Roland Grauman, did not feel it is necessary to buy new vehicles or to hire new sheriff deputies. However, Sheriff Gus Dicesari along with commissioners Anita Shenuski and Raymond Laybourne did not agree with them. Dicesari felt more money should be spent on the department and law enforcement rather than programs for migrant workers who have come to this county for work. The sheriff’s department was asking for money to help pay for eight new vehicles to replace eight old ones that have over 150,000 miles on them and to help pay for the hiring of five new sheriff deputies. Chenn offered ways to help in preventing miles from being put onto those vehicles so they can last longer such as not allowing the deputies to drive their cars home. DiCesari told Chenn that the deputies driving the cars home helps keep the crime levels down in the neighborhoods so that was not going to happen. He feared that something serious could happen to his deputies driving the older vehicles. Chenn told the department she did not have an extra $580,000 and would have to make do with what they had for this year. Shenuski stated “We never used to have a problem with money until we began letting migrants come here to this county to work, taking away jobs from decent people. They are a problem for our schools, law enforcement and healthcare.” Chenn did not agree with Shenuski and fired back stating, “Those people who have come here are decent, hardworking people being employed at jobs residents did

not want any part of. They add a great deal to the economy and pay their taxes. You are being a hypocrite trying to blame everything on them.” County commissioner estimates there are 5000 migrant families now in the county working in agriculture, construction and service industry. Commissioner Gardez said many migrant workers will become permanent members of the community and eventually becoming a citizen. With a vote of 5-2, the county’s sheriff’s department will have to make do with the equipment and personnel they have this year.

            DiCesari has been in office for 27 years and this is going to be the first year that the county has not set money aside for the department to spend on new personnel or vehicles.

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Traffic was anything but ordinary this morning due to an apparent collision between two tractor trailers. The collision started a chain reaction with the other vehicles traveling on Interstate 790. The north and south bound lanes remain closed while police continue their investigation as to what caused the crash. According to Sgt. Albert Wie of the police department, there were a total of four tractor trailers and 14 cars in today’s crash. Extensive damage was done, but more could have been caused had a tanker, carrying fuel, tipped over.


Rescue vehicles were on the scene to aid injured motorists. Firefighters were cutting the roofs off cars to extract those who had become trapped in their vehicles. Unfortunately, after today’s events, the death toll stands at two while four motorists sustained life threatening injuries and numerous others only minor injuries. Those with life threatening injuries were airlifted to the closest trauma center nearly 50 miles away. Fire Chief Tony Sullivan, along with Wie, said the scene was horrifying. They had never seen anything like this before. With bodies lying all over, the hardest part for the police was figuring out who belonged to which car and whether or not they had passengers riding with them. Traffic is being detoured to the eastern part of the city on Interstate 690. The detour is causing major traffic delays, possibly lasting up to three hours