An Inver Grove Heights man was sentenced to more than four years in prison for an October crash that killed a Roseville nurse.

Nicholas Anthony Indehar, 22, pleaded guilty Friday to a count of criminal vehicular homicide in Dakota County District Court. A second count was dropped. District Judge Patrice Sutherland sentenced Indehar to 50 months in prison.

Prosecutors said he smelled of alcohol after running through an Inver Grove Heights stop sign and hitting a vehicle driven by Kim Marie Caswell. The 42-year-old woman died at the scene.

“We are pleased to have brought this man to justice for this senseless crime on our roads,” Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom said in a prepared statement.

Witnesses told investigators that Indehar’s car was speeding northbound on Dawn Avenue about 3 p.m. Oct. 24 when he ran the stop sign at 70th Street and hit Caswell’s minivan, according to a criminal complaint. The minivan was pushed into a utility pole that cracked in half and fell on the vehicle.

Xcel Energy had to shut off power to the lines on the vehicle’s roof before Caswell could be reached, investigators said. She died before rescue workers could remove her.

Officers found Indehar wandering around the vehicles with bloodshot and watery eyes, according to the complaint. His forehead was cut, his speech was slurred, and he smelled of alcohol. An open, mostly empty bottle of rum was found in his car. 

Married and the mother of three children, Caswell was a University of Minnesota graduate who worked as a nurse at the school’s Masonic Children’s Hospital.

Indehar’s previous convictions include fourth-degree driving while intoxicated in September 2011 and felony drug possession and driving after revocation in June 2013.

On Christmas night, when 8-year-old Yael Rodriguez was struck by a car in Inver Grove Heights, his mother thought she might lose him.

He had a skull fracture and brain injury. If he made it through the trauma and surgery, doctors told her, he still might not walk or talk again.

But Friday, five weeks after the accident, Yael left the hospital able to walk and talk and well on his way to recovery. He can’t ride a bike for now, and he’ll never play football with a doctor’s blessing. But he was on his way home to his brother and sisters in Inver Grove Heights.

“He’s very happy, and I’m super, super happy,” said his mother, Taisha Rios, 30. “We’ll be able to go home, and I get to cook him a home meal, which he’ll love.”

Yael, now 9, was injured about 8:15 p.m. Dec. 25 as he and his 11-year-old brother returned from a trip to the SuperAmerica across from their home in Skyline Village. The intersection where he was hit, at Concord Boulevard and 75th Street, has no traffic lights, and Yael was wearing dark clothing and holding a scooter, according to Inver Grove Heights police.

Witnesses said the boy dodged a couple of cars in the first lane of Concord but didn’t appear to see one coming the other direction in the second lane. He ran into its path and was struck. The driver, who wasn’t speeding or impaired and was not charged, stopped and took care of Yael until police arrived, while a bystander took his brother home to tell their mother what happened.

Paramedics had so much work to do on Yael at the scene that his mother said she was already waiting for him when the ambulance arrived at Gillette Children’s Hospital in St. Paul. Doctors went to work stabilizing him and determining the extent of his injuries.

“At first they didn’t know. Then, about 3 o’clock in the morning on the 26th, his heart rate went down,” Rios said. “He was almost about to leave.”

Doctors pulled Yael through that first crisis, but days passed before he was stable enough for surgery. He had a broken arm. He had fractures in his face and skull. His brain was bleeding, and there was an unstable space between his skull and spine, according to Gillette staff.

“Surgery was one of the scariest things,” Rios said. “He could have just been gone, because it was the neck. He hurt the lowest part of the brain that controls moving, breathing, everything.”

“He could have died,” said Dr. Sakshi Kaul, resident physician at Gillette’s. “He lost the ability to breathe independently. His blood pressure was doing all kinds of things. He was very sick right after the injury.”

Kaul said Yael has bounced back impressively in a short time. She said the first few months are the most important period of healing after a brain injury.

“Yael has done very well in this early period,” she said.

Yael’s progress has been fueled in part by his desire to get and stay out of the hospital. The boy spent a lot of time in hospitals as a toddler after he was diagnosed with leukemia at 14 months. He endured chemo treatments until he was 3.

He’s been cancer free for six years, but Rios already knew the answer when she asked him Friday how he feels about hospitals.

“He don’t like them,” she said. “He’s ready to go home.”

Rios said Yael will have to wear a stabilizing collar on his neck for another couple of months. He might not get the OK to ride a scooter again for a year or two. And he should never participate in contact sports such as football or hockey.

“If he ever gets hit again in the head, it could be fatal,” Rios said.

Karla Rydberg, a registered nurse who has been caring for Yael since he arrived at Gillette’s, said his progress from wheelchair to walker to walking independently has been remarkable.

“It was a really serious injury, and it’s amazing to see the kind of progress he’s made,” Rydberg said. “After the first week he was here I could just tell by his improvement and his attitude and the things he was trying to do, he was going to do really well.”

As they were getting ready to leave the hospital, Yael and his mother talked about making a stop on the way home. He had spent his birthday in the hospital, and the staff gave him a gift card to spend at Target.

He was excited to pick out a new toy. What kind of toy did he think he’d pick?

“Any kind of toy,” Yael said.

Inver Grove Heights Police Chief Larry Stanger is under investigation after “serious” criminal allegations against him surfaced during a case that his own detectives had been working on with another agency.

Citing data privacy laws, City Administrator Joe Lynch said he could not disclose the alleged crime.

“We’re taking it seriously. And (the allegations) are serious,” he said.

In a closed meeting Monday night, the Inver Grove Heights City Council discussed the allegations and agreed to put Stanger on paid leave.

In February, Inver Grove Heights detectives and another agency were working together on a criminal investigation when “information came back to us that people involved in that investigation specified the chief,” Lynch said. “And so then the other agency involved had to stop and say, ‘We need to do an investigation of this.’ ”

The case is currently with the Dakota County attorney’s office, which will forward it to another county to avoid any conflict of interest, Lynch said.

Monica Jensen, a spokeswoman for the county attorney’s office, said the case remains under investigation. She declined to comment further.

Stanger has been with the department since 1989. He was named the city’s top cop in January 2012, replacing former chief Chuck Kleckner, who retired after a three-decade police career with the city.

Stanger’s salary this year is $128,000.

Meanwhile, Lt. Sean Folmar has been named the department’s acting police chief.

“The department is in good hands and is going to be well-run,” Lynch said. “There isn’t a whole lot that’s going to change in terms of delivery of that service to our community.”

The department includes 26 full-time patrol officers, five sergeants and two lieutenants.

Mayor George Tourville called the allegations “unfortunate.”

“It’s sad to ever have this happen, but it happened, and so we have this process that’s playing out,” he said.

The criminal allegations against Inver Grove Heights Police Chief Larry Stanger will be investigated by Scott County.

Monica Jensen, spokeswoman for the Dakota County attorney’s office, said Tuesday the case against Stanger has been referred to Scott County to avoid any conflict of interest.

Scott County Attorney Ron Hocevar said his agency will consider charges following an investigation by the Scott County sheriff’s office. He did not put a time frame on its completion.

Citing data privacy laws, city officials are not disclosing the allegations.

Stanger was put on paid leave last week after criminal allegations against him surfaced in February while his own detectives were working on a case with another agency.

Stanger has been with the department since 1989. He was named the city’s top cop in January 2012, replacing former chief Chuck Kleckner, who retired after a three-decade police career with the city.

Bill Groth is antsy.

Foot surgery has put the veteran Inver Grove Heights firefighter on light duty, which means he can’t go on calls.

“That’s been tough,” he said.

Consider that last year, Groth responded to 706 of the department’s 1,229 fire, medical and rescue calls.

“When you’re a paid on-call firefighter, you want to help people,” said Groth, a 57-year-old retired postal worker, when asked to explain his call total, which was tops in the department. “You want to make as many of the calls as you can.”

Bum foot or not, Groth’s call volume would have dropped this year either way — and he’s OK with that.

In January, the fire department switched to a “duty crew” service model, which means that three paid on-call firefighters are at the station in shifts, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

It replaces the traditional system in which the firefighters came to the station after their pagers went off.

“I think this should have come a long time ago,” Groth said at the end of a shift on a recent weekday. “It’s just a win-win for the community.”

Fire chiefs who are using the duty-crew approach say it reduces response times and helps recruit and retain firefighters — all things that many departments have struggled with in recent years. And it can be done without significant increases to the budget.

Duty crews are not new. Roseville was among the first cities to try them, in the 1970s with an overnight crew. It added daytime crews in 2001 and went to a full 24 hours three years later.

Although more and more departments in Minnesota and nationwide are heading in this direction, it still is not the norm, said Judy Thill, fire chief in Inver Grove Heights.

Thill requested an extra $72,000 in this year’s payroll budget for anticipated costs — mainly for staffing the firefighters at the $12.50 hourly rate. So far, the cost has been about $5,000 a month.

“We have 65 firefighters and not everybody was excited at first,” she said. “But now they seem to embrace it.”

HOW IT WORKS

Having three firefighters at one of Inver Grove Heights’ two stations at all hours of the day means quicker response times, Thill said.

“Right now we can be on scene helping the citizen where before we wouldn’t have even been to the station yet,” said firefighter Groth. “Fires double every minute, so if we can shave off seven, eight, nine minutes, we can save property.”

While three firefighters on duty is not enough for every emergency, chief Thill said, they can handle most calls — routine things like smoke alarms or carbon monoxide detectors going off, and some medical calls.

Now, extra firefighters are paged only for large calls. During the first three months of duty crews, only about 30 percent of the department’s calls required paging additional firefighters.

Another advantage to the duty-crew system is that firefighters can train, perform station duties, and take fire and medical certification exams in their spare time during their shifts, Thill said.

And while firefighters work about the same number of hours a month as they did with the pager model, they now can schedule their four-hour shifts ahead of time.

Not knowing when he would be called to duty was a big reason Dennis Suchy decided to wait until 2011 to join the fire department. He wanted his two kids to be older.

“It would have been too much running away from the dinner table,” he said.

Suchy and fellow firefighter Mark Simmonds said they prefer duty-crew shifts. Simmonds, who joined the department after the switchover, is also a full-time Minneapolis firefighter and needs to know when he can sign up to work for Inver Grove.

“I was never a part of the strictly on-call thing, but I was never a fan of it,” he said. “I have a couple of buddies who are volunteers other places and they don’t like how they’re tied to their pagers, because their pager is going off all the time. Here it goes off 12 times a month, at best.”

OTHER CITIES

Lakeville is another metro-area city that recently switched to paid duty crews during weekdays — a time when typically it is harder to find help. It is already paying off, Fire Chief Mike Meyer said.

“We’re at about three and a half minutes during the duty crew shift,” Meyer said. “Prior to that, we were looking at eight minute response times, which are typical for paid on-call fire departments.”

Meanwhile, the daytime crew has been able to handle most of the calls themselves. From October through March, extra firefighters were called for just 34 of the 179 calls.

The Lake Johanna Fire Department, which covers Arden Hills, North Oaks and Shoreview, has had duty crews in one form or another for six years — first during the day, then also weekend evenings. In July, the department went to duty crews 24/7 at two of its stations.

“It was less than ideal doing it over six years, but it was paced because we didn’t want to break the budget all at once,” Fire Chief Tim Boehlke said. “We started it during tough economic times.”

The change has meant quicker response times, and nearly all the firefighters have stayed with the department.

“I honestly think this provides a much superior service delivery, and makes better use of our firefighters’ time,” he said.

Groth, the retired postal worker with the bum foot, is enjoying the camaraderie around the fire station — something that was missing with the pager model.

“You get to know these guys now because you’re with them for four hours, where before it was hit or miss,” he said.

Dan Bernardy, who like Groth has been an Inver Grove firefighter for 29 years, has noticed attitudes have changed for the better.

“What chief Thill has created with this is a group of people who want to do more,” he said.

Authorities recovered a decomposed human leg from the Mississippi River in Inver Grove Heights on Wednesday and are investigating whether it belonged to a boater missing since late last month.

A group of kids discovered the leg floating in the water along the shoreline just south of the Rock Island Swing Bridge recreational pier, said Dan Bianconi, a captain with the Dakota County sheriff’s office.

Water units from Dakota and Ramsey counties searched for additional remains Wednesday and Thursday and will continue doing so each day through the weekend, Bianconi said.

“We’ve pulled out all the tricks and really haven’t had any luck,” he said.

Bianconi said the leg “most likely” is remains from the man who fell overboard as he and a friend were boating near Shepard Road in St. Paul on April 30.

“But until we can get confirmation from the medical examiner’s office, we won’t know for certain,” Bianconi said.

An Inver Grove Heights garbage hauler has been cited by the Better Business Bureau for generating a high number of customer complaints.

Troje’s Trash and Recycling Services has not responded to 17 complaints, according to the Better Business Bureau of Minnesota and North Dakota. On Thursday the group issued a news release saying that Troje’s has been given an “F” rating — the lowest possible.

“There’s an established pattern of problems and the company has thus far failed to address the underlying issues leading to customer complaints,” said bureau CEO Dana Badgerow.

Most of the complaints involved charges that scheduled garbage pickups were delayed up to several days.

The bureau has received 68 complaints about Troje’s in the past three years. Troje’s has responded to some of the complaints, promising to improve service.

But the BBB has listed 17 filed complaints as “unanswered,” with another nine “unresolved.” The group has also received nine customer reviews rated as “negative.”

Troje’s did not respond to a phone message left Thursday.

A large swath of land in Inver Grove Heights made up of rolling woodlands and an 18-acre lake is one step closer to being off-limits to developers for good.

A $3.9 million deal struck this month between Dakota County and Grannis family members puts nearly 109 acres owned by the Grannis family into the county’s Farmland and Natural Areas Program.

On Tuesday, the county board voted 5-2 to spend $2.9 million in state Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage funds and no more than $1,015,000 in county funds to acquire the conservation easement. Commissioners Mary Liz Holberg and Liz Workman voted no after raising concerns about cost and public accessibility.

The easement agreement allows county residents to use the property through programs and classes offered by Darvan Acres Outdoor Skills and Environmental Center, a nonprofit established by property owner Vance Grannis Jr.

For eight years, the Grannis family has been working with county officials to protect the land, which is south of Minnesota 55 and stretches from South Robert Trail on the west to Barnes Avenue on the east.

Talks heated up late last year after an appraisal to determine a fair market value, and continued in private negotiations and public testimony that led to a series of offers and counter-offers.

“This is a step forward,” Grannis said after Tuesday’s commissioner meeting, which he did not attend.

Grannis, an Eagan lawyer who was the first mayor of Inver Grove Heights from 1965 to 1968, noted how the deal is contingent on the Outdoor Heritage Council reallocating $1.3 million already appropriated to the county by the state Legislature in 2012. The council is scheduled to take up the county’s request at its June 29 meeting.

The Department of Natural Resources also must review and validate the county’s appraisal, said Al Singer, the county’s land-conservation manager.

If approved, this will be the most the county has paid for a conservation easement in its Farmland and Natural Areas Program, which began in 2002 after voters approved spending $20 million to preserve select land from willing sellers.

The Grannis property includes the largest lake within the Marcott chain of lakes, as well as high-quality woodlands, wetlands, grasslands and agricultural land.

The Marcott chain and associated upland were identified as important natural areas in a farmland and natural areas protection plan adopted by the county board in 2002.

The county acquired a 16.8-acre easement on the Grannis family property in 2011 and a 103-acre easement on the adjacent Lindberg family property in 2012.

The latest Grannis easement agreement includes a 1,500-square foot educational building with a designated area for building and educational facility, but not the seven-acre homestead property that includes Vance and Darlene’s home, two barns and 200 feet of shoreline.

It also gives the county the exclusive option to purchase the nearly 126 acres of Grannis land under the two easements within eight years at no cost except the cost of the educational buildings, as well as the homestead property by 2076.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is accepting public comment on environmental effects of a proposed landfill expansion in Inver Grove Heights.

BFI Waste Systems of North America would like to increase the capacity of its Pine Bend Landfill, which receives mixed municipal solid waste. The company will not increase the landfill’s footprint, but is asking permission to develop cover slopes, according to the MPCA.

The slopes would allow an additional 4.1 million cubic yards of waste to be piled atop the existing landfill. Based on the current volume of waste, this would add about eight years of capacity to the landfill.

The MPCA offers a worksheet detailing the site location, nearby bodies of water and groundwater, soil types, air and odor emissions, noise concerns and more.

Comments must be in writing and submitted by 4:30 p.m. July 27 to Charles Peterson, 651-757-2856, at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, 520 Lafayette Road N., St. Paul, MN 55155-4194.

Inver Grove Heights residents who exchange items bought or sold online now have a public location to make transactions.

Inver Grove Heights City Council Member Paul Hark proposed the idea of the “swap spot” exchange zone after hearing from several residents about the idea. He worked with city staff to make it a reality.

The swap spot is in the customer parking lot at the Inver Grove Heights Public Safety building. It’s within view of the police department and also features security-camera coverage.

“Most people do not feel comfortable meeting strangers at a private residence or at a McDonald’s parking lot to complete their online transaction,” Hark said. While not a guarantee of safety, swap spots may act as a deterrent to fraudulent exchanges — and “essentially cost(s) the taxpayer nothing,” he said.

Swap spots are popping up elsewhere in the Twin Cities. West St. Paul and Forest Lake police have set them up, as have the Dakota County and Hennepin County sheriff departments.

Criminal charges will not be brought against Inver Grove Heights Police Chief Larry Stanger, who was accused of tipping off a theft suspect before a search warrant of his property.

Scott County Attorney Ron Hocevar said his office decided Thursday not to charge Stanger, who was investigated for possible public corruption and violation of data privacy laws.

“After reviewing a thorough investigation that was done, we weren’t able to connect the dots between what was alleged and the police chief to prove in court beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said.

The case was referred to Scott County to avoid any conflict of interest.

Stanger was put on paid leave April 11 after the allegations surfaced during a case that his own detectives had been working on with another agency.

Citing data privacy laws, Inver Grove Heights city officials said they could not disclose the alleged crime.

On Thursday, Hocevar shed some light on the accusations.

In February, Inver Grove Heights detectives and Prescott, Wis., police were working together on a theft of a Bobcat and trailer. After a search warrant was executed at a Prescott building, the suspected thief — Steven Hirman — told investigators that Stanger informed him the search was coming, Hocevar said.

Stanger’s son and Hirman’s son are friends, Hocevar said.

Stanger provided a statement to investigators, denying that he provided any information concerning the search warrant, Hocevar said.

Hirman later changed his story, Hocevar said.

“Originally, it was the police chief and then his son,” Hocevar said. “Then it was, ‘Well, I’m not sure where I heard it from or what I heard.’ ”

The search did not turn up stolen property, but drugs were found in the building, Hocevar said.

A redacted investigative report of the Stanger case could be released Friday, he said.

City Administrator Joe Lynch said Stanger remains on paid leave and that the city council will discuss at its Aug. 22 meeting what steps should be taken next.

“I don’t know what the outcome will be,” he said. “But it could lead to further investigation and an internal investigation or it could be completion based on the fact that there are no charges being brought forward.”

Stanger has been with the department since 1989. He was named the city’s top cop in January 2012, replacing former chief Chuck Kleckner, who retired after a three-decade police career with the city.

Stanger’s salary this year is $128,000.

In his absence, Lt. Sean Folmar has been the department’s acting police chief.

When Inver Grove Heights Police Chief Larry Stanger realized the father of one of his son’s friends was the target of a theft investigation, he went to Jacob Stanger as a dad and started asking questions.

The chief told an investigator in June that his questions were “very pointed,” such as, “Do you know (Steve Hirman)? How? Have you ever been at his shop in Prescott? … Have your ever bought any parts, auto parts?”

According to Hirman’s statement to investigators, the conversation got back to him through his own son, Anthony, before his Prescott, Wis., auto-detailing business was searched in February for stolen construction vehicles. Anthony Hirman and Jacob Stanger went to high school together.

“I knew this was coming,” Steve Hirman told a Prescott police officer shortly after the warrant search, which turned up no stolen goods. He said he was tipped off to the raid by Stanger. When later pressed by an investigator, he said the information came from his son, who had talked to Stanger’s son, who had spoken with his dad.

The chain of events is described in a 518-page case file compiled by Scott County as it investigated whether the Inver Grove Heights chief violated data-privacy laws or was guilty of public corruption. The county attorney’s office this month declined to pursue charges against Stanger, who was put on paid leave from his job April 11.

Whether Stanger violated any city policies, procedures or codes is now the focus of an internal investigation the city council authorized this past week. The investigation will be conducted by a law firm expected to be hired at the city council’s Sept. 12 meeting, city administrator Joe Lynch said.

The Inver Grove Heights and Prescott police were working together on the theft case after surveillance and GPS tracking of the stolen vehicles led them to Prescott.

When Hirman said he’d been tipped off to the search, the allegation was referred to Scott County for investigation and possible charges.

In explaining his office’s decision, Scott County Attorney Ron Hocevar said his staff was unable to “connect the dots between what was alleged and the police chief to prove in court beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Stanger has been with the Inver Grove Heights police department since 1989 and its top cop since January 2012. His salary this year is $128,000.

SONS’ CONNECTION

Scott County’s investigation included interviews with three Inver Grove Heights detectives, all of whom said the police chief regularly asked them for updates in the theft case — and that it is was unusual for him to do that.

“Generally the chief doesn’t ask questions,” Detective Brandon Kelting said. “He generally talks about the weather … the Vikings game if it’s a Monday, or something like that.”

Detective Eric Bohrer said he asked Stanger if he knew Hirman because the chief “knows a lot of people in Prescott.” Stanger, who lives in Cottage Grove, leases a boat slip at a Prescott marina.

“He told me he doesn’t know him,” Bohrer said. But the same day or a day later, Stanger came back and said he might know Hirman, after all, because their sons had gone to Park High School in Cottage Grove together.

“Well, you don’t think he’s involved, do ya’?” Stanger said, referring to Hirman.

The next day, Bohrer said, Stanger approached him and said, “Funny thing, my kid ran into (Hirman’s) kid last night, and he’s got his phone number.” He then suggested that his detectives could have it if they wanted it.

Bohrer and Kelting said Stanger later suggested his son could go to the Prescott shop and “look around and see what’s going on in there.”

Kelting said he told Stanger that was a “horrible idea,” while Bohrer said, “No way” and “Absolutely not.”

During the search, officers found methamphetamine, marijuana and drug paraphernalia in Hirman’s truck, and Hirman was arrested on suspicion of drug possession.

Hirman told the Pioneer Press this week that the only reason the investigation led to a search of his shop was that his former business partner, who rented half the building, associated with two theft suspects whom police were tracking.

He said the drug charges against him should be thrown out because his truck was parked on the street off the property and was not part of the search warrant.

“I shouldn’t have been involved in this, whatsoever,” he said. “My name has been tarnished. I have a daughter who won’t talk to me anymore because of this.”

PRESCOTT CONNECTIONS

According to police reports included in the Scott County case file, Stanger and his wife, Lisa, both had run-ins with Prescott police in separate incidents in 2015.

In May 2015, about eight months before the warrant search, officers rolled up on a 2 a.m. “out of control” crowd outside No Name Saloon. Two men were face to face, yelling and swearing, while friends of both urged them on.

At one point, a Prescott officer ordered one of the bystanders, later identified as Larry Stanger, “to walk away or go to jail,” a report read. “(Stanger) continued trying to instigate more trouble.”

As one man was being put into handcuffs, Stanger was “trying to stir things up again,” Officer Jesse Neely wrote in his report. Sgt. Mark Schultz wrote in his report that Stanger yelled and swore at him and Neely throughout the incident.

Stanger eventually complied with an order to go across the street, according to Schultz.

The officers arrested three men — not Stanger — and a woman for resisting or obstructing an officer.

A little more then three months later, an intoxicated Lisa Stanger was cited for disorderly conduct after a bouncer asked her to leave the No Name Saloon and she refused. The officer who cited her was the same Jesse Neely who had filed the report the night Larry Stanger was present.

Fast-forward to late 2015, when Inver Grove Heights and Prescott detectives began working together on the alleged construction vehicle thefts.

Bohrer, the Inver Grove detective, recalls Stanger asking him who was working the theft case from Prescott. He told Stanger it was Neely.

“Oh, what did he say about me?” Bohrer recalled Stanger saying.

“Nothing. Nothing,” Bohrer told Stanger.

Bohrer told the Scott County investigator that the chief then went into this “weird conversation” about how people think he was arrested for disorderly conduct and how it was not true.

As the theft investigation progressed, Neely and Bohrer met one day at the Inver Grove Heights police station to discuss the case. Stanger popped his head into Bohrer’s office and after some small talk mentioned his son knew Hirman’s son. The chief suggested he was willing to do some digging.

Neely and Bohrer recalled the conversation as odd. Neely recalled Bohrer saying, “He’s never walked by here … and all of a sudden you’re here today and he pops in.”

Before he went on vacation, Stanger wanted to know when the search of the Prescott building would happen and was told sometime next week when he’d be gone, his detectives recalled.

CHIEF DENIES

In the June interview with a Scott County detective, Stanger denied asking his detectives when the search would take place.

Stanger said he didn’t realize who Hirman was at first, but later realized their sons had gone to school together and that about 10 years ago he got a quote from Hirman to detail his motorcycle.

Stanger said he did not share any information about the theft case with his son.

He added, “Again, he’s a smart kid. He’s gonna know that, why would my dad ask me this stuff? But he can draw his own conclusions. He’s an adult.”

When asked if he talked to his investigators about his son looking around Hirman’s shop, Stanger said, “No, not in those words.” He said it was only an option. “I didn’t volunteer him,” he said. “I didn’t say he will do this.”

When asked if in hindsight he felt having his son go to Hirman’s shop would conflict with the criminal investigation his department was undertaking, Stanger replied, “In hindsight now, probably yeah.”

Stanger’s attorney, Robert Fowler, said this week that his client has denied the allegations against him from the beginning and that there is “no credible evidence to believe there is anything he did wrong.”

“I also don’t think the city has any special policies addressing this,” he said. “I think at the end of the day he just wants to get back to work.”

An Inver Grove Heights pilot had engine trouble Wednesday and crash-landed near Jordan, according to the Scott County sheriff’s office.

Raymond Phillips, 60, took off from Fleming Field in South St. Paul. About 9:30 a.m., he experienced engine trouble a few miles east of Jordan and put the plane down in a field near Xanadu Avenue and 200th Street West, according to the sheriff’s office.

Phillips wasn’t injured, but his plane, a 1944 Stinson V77, flipped over on landing.

The sheriff’s office is investigating along with the Federal Aviation Administration.

City-owned Inver Wood Golf Course in Inver Grove Heights was among seven liquor-license holders recently fined for failing an underage alcohol sting.

The $750 fines were approved by the city council last week, and yes, the city’s golf course has to pay.

“I know that seems a little silly — the city paying the city — but that’s the requirement,” City Administrator Joe Lynch said this week, adding that the fine will come from Inver Wood’s budget.

To Lynch’s knowledge, it was the first offense for Inver Wood, which opened in 1992.

“It wasn’t our best moment,” he said.

An Inver Wood clubhouse employee served a police decoy a beer without checking identification during the July 20 sting. The city employee was cited for misdemeanor selling to a minor and given a court date, Lynch said.

Within a week of the offense, the city retrained golf course staff on alcohol education and awareness, Lynch said.

“It was a learning opportunity,” he said, “and we’ve taken it as such and we’ve doubled-down our efforts on education and training and reinforced the need to check everybody for an ID, regardless of how old they look.”

According to the Sept. 12 city council agenda, the others that failed were Applebee’s; Arbor Pointe Golf Course, which is privately owned; Drkula’s 32 Bowl; Market Liquor; Mississippi Pub; and Outback Steakhouse.

Scott Bell, a Pittsburgh Penguins scout who starred with Simley High School in the late 1980s, is bringing the Stanley Cup to his hometown of Inver Grove Heights for a public viewing Wednesday.

People will be able to take pictures with the storied trophy from 5 to 7 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Community Center, 8055 Barbara Ave.

Arena staff and volunteers expect a big crowd. 

“We’ll try to get as many people through as possible,” said Eric Carlson, the city’s parks and recreation director. No one will be able to touch the Cup, he added.

Bell and the Penguins hoisted the trophy June 12 after beating the San Jose Sharks in the sixth game of the Stanley Cup Finals.

Bell played at the University of Minnesota from 1990 to 1995 and was head coach at Hamline University from 2005 to 2011.

Troje’s Trash & Recycling has been recycled.

The 47-year-old Inver Grove Heights company has been purchased by Republic Services, a national trash-hauling company.

There will be no change in the cost, pick-up schedule or services, said Republic spokeswoman Jennifer Eldridge. She said that eventually, Republic will swap its own trash bins for the older Troje’s bins.

Some Troje’s customers were notified about the change last week. Troje’s did not respond to recent phone messages or emails asking for comment.

Troje’s served Woodbury, Apple Valley, Newport, Rosemount, South St. Paul, Mendota Heights and Inver Grove Heights.

In May, Troje’s was cited by the Better Business Bureau of Minnesota and North Dakota for not responding to 17 complaints. The Bureau has received 68 complaints about Troje’s in the past three years.

Republic spokeswoman Eldridge said Republic operates in the Twin cities metro area. and that it has extended employment offers to Troje’s employees.

She said all Troje’s customers should expect to get a final bill from Troje’s soon. Bills for service after Oct. 1 will be mailed by Republic.

Republic has set up a customer hotline to handle questions: 651-455-8634. Information is also available at the company website, RepublicServices.com.

Jim Mueller and Tony Scales won’t be on the Nov. 8 ballot for the Inver Grove Heights City Council.

In fact, they didn’t even make the city’s primary ballot.

Both candidates were deemed ineligible because they inadvertently failed to put their telephone numbers on their affidavits of candidacy when they filed them with the city clerk in May.

“I screwed up,” said Mueller, who is now relying on a write-in campaign to keep his council seat.

Missing information on the forms, mostly telephone numbers, happens from time to time, according to county elections managers. But in most cases, the omissions are caught either at the clerk’s counter before the candidate walks away, or when they’re sent to the county for submission to the state.

“It’s the first thing I look at, because it’s something people trip up on the most,” said Andy Lokken, Dakota County’s elections manager.

His office noticed the missing phone numbers on Mueller’s and Scales’ forms, but by then it was too late to correct them before the state’s filing deadline.

In the small rural Dakota County community of Coates, three hopeful city council candidates will not be on the ballot. Jesse Doerfler and Shanna Doerfler forgot their telephone numbers; Christopher Gores’ affidavit was not notarized.

WHO SHOULD HAVE NOTICED?

Although Mueller and Scales admitted the snafu started with them, they also asked why City Clerk Michelle Tesser did not know the telephone numbers were required by state statute and why she waited until the afternoon of May 31 — the filing deadline — before submitting them to the county. Both candidates filed May 17.

“They sat on her desk for two weeks,” said Scales, a member of the city’s planning commission. “If they hadn’t, there would’ve been time to correct them. That would have been nice.”

Lokken said the city clerks were made aware — in a meeting and in an email — that the forms should be sent to his office on the day they come in, not on the deadline day.

Tesser said this week that when she joined the city in July 2015, no one remained on staff who had worked on elections and could have guided her in her new duties. The previous city clerk was gone, as were the human resources assistant and the assistant city administrator.

In her previous job, she was an assistant to the city administrator in Falcon Heights, which contracted out its elections to Ramsey County.

“I was not trained as a city clerk during my employment with that city,” she said. “So there were a series of things that happened … and it was unfortunate, but it happened. I just don’t think you can blame one person, in my opinion.”

COURT: NOT THEIR JOB

One thing is certain: City and county officials do not have to help candidates fill out the form.

In August 2012, potential state Senate District 61 candidate Jesse Pfliger took his inadvertent omission of his telephone number and the resulting rejection of his affidavit of candidacy to the state Supreme Court.

Pfliger contended that the error was not his alone — that the secretary of state’s office should identify “critical and obvious omissions on affidavits of candidacy” and give prospective candidates the opportunity to correct them before the affidavits are filed.

The justices disagreed, pointing out that the duties of elections officials with respect to affidavits of candidacy are provided by state statute. They include numbering the affidavits in the order received, for instance, but not requiring an elections official to review an affidavit for completeness.

The decision also was used in 2014 to reject the affidavit of candidacy of Mankato school board chair Ann Hendricks, who forgot her telephone number on the form, according to the Mankato Free Press.

City Administrator Joe Lynch said he believes Mueller and Scales are the first Inver Grove Heights candidates to be rejected in this way. He does not blame Tesser, instead pointing a finger at the form and the candidates.

“When you look at the form, I think you’ll be able to see that number one, it’s confusing,” he said. “And number two, it’s not clear what’s required information without reading it carefully and what isn’t required information.”

Lynch said his city might join other cities to lobby the Legislature to change the form.

“Frankly, I don’t know why (the telephone number) is specifically required,” he said.

Candidates also have to be aware of the requirements, he added.

WHY PHONE NUMBER IS NEEDED

Ryan Furlong, a spokesman for the secretary of state’s office, said he thinks the telephone number is required so voters have a way to contact a campaign if they have questions.

He said his office has not heard of city or school candidates who have concerns about the form.

The office does not compile a list of candidates who have been rejected because of missing information on an affidavit, he said.

State Rep. Joe Atkins, DFL-Inver Grove Heights, also forgot to put his telephone number on his affidavit when he filed for a Dakota County commissioner seat in May.

But he noticed the next day that his name had not appeared on the secretary of state’s website, and also got a quick call from the county’s elections staff.

“My issue was I was talking to people while I was filling out the paperwork,” he recalled this week. “And when I realized it wasn’t on the website, then I drove back down there and put my phone number on it.”

As far as Scales is concerned, he has moved on — and chooses to be light-hearted about it.

“For me, it was comedy of errors,” he said. “And you gotta laugh or you cry. I prefer to laugh.”

Lynnea Petersen thought she was in trouble.

When she got home from work on Monday, she read a note that Eagan animal-control officer Bob Kent had taped to her window asking her to call. She thought her dog Kayzee had somehow gotten out and was picked up.

“I feared the worst,” she said.

But it was just the opposite. Kent wanted to share news that they both consider remarkable: He had snared her other dog, Terra June, who disappeared six months ago and apparently had been living in a wooded area about three miles from her Inver Grove Heights home.

Within the hour, Terra June and Petersen were reunited at Pilot Knob Animal Clinic, where Kent had taken the 3-year-old Keeshond to get checked.

“I really didn’t think this was all true until I actually saw her,” Petersen said.

But she couldn’t embrace Terra June because the dog’s fur was matted with lots of burrs, and she didn’t want to hurt her.

It took the dog a second or two to remember Petersen’s scent. Then, it was kissing time.

“She was licking me in the face, which I normally don’t allow,” she said.

Terra June got spooked by a loud noise March 29 and took off from her home near Cliff Road and South Robert Trail.

“My husband tried to catch her and there was no way,” Petersen said. “She was gone.”

Petersen spent a week walking the area, calling the dog’s name and putting up posters. Terra June has a microchip, so Petersen called the company and reported the dog missing.

But as the days passed, Petersen’s hopes of finding Terra June waned. “Maybe someone took her in,” she told herself several times.

Petersen found herself looking out her window at her yard, hoping she’d see the dog.

“I didn’t want to think of her being dead,” she said.

Thanks to Kent, she never had to. In early April, he started receiving reports of a loose dog near Diffley Road and South Robert Trail. Some homeowners were unsure what they had seen, thinking the animal could be one of the raccoons or coyotes that have been populating the area in increasing numbers.

A few weeks ago, some homeowners reported a small dog running in and out of a wooded area. One resident said he had been throwing food to the dog once in a while; construction workers apparently had been feeding it, too.

On Monday afternoon, Kent set a live trap with dog food in the back yard of a home. He didn’t have to wait long: Terra June was caught within two hours.

“I knew right away this was the ghost I’ve been chasing,” Kent said.

Before picking up her dog, Petersen stopped at Eagan City Hall and paid a $40 fine for stray dog and no collar.

“Small price to pay,” she said.

Other than contracting stomach worms, weighing 18 pounds less and getting a shaved haircut, Terra June is back to her old self, Petersen said.

The dog also seems tougher — she doesn’t get startled and run as easily — and is friendlier to strangers, letting them pet her, Petersen said.

“It’s all just hard to believe,” she said. “I still have to look and say, ‘She’s home.’ ”

An Inver Grove Heights trash-hauling company has been dumped into bankruptcy by an unlikely villain — defective truck engines, says its former owner.

Denny Troje of Troje’s Trash & Recycling said his 47-year-old business was killed by service delays caused by the natural-gas engines in his trucks.

“I lost my whole damn retirement,” Troje said. He also lost his Woodbury home, trying to keep the business afloat. At age 70, he has been forced into a new line of work — pouring concrete driveways.

“I gotta eat,” said Troje, who has moved to Walker, Minn.

Last month national trash hauler Republic Services announced it bought the remnants of Troje’s business and plans to continue service to customers.

Troje said that in 2013 he fell in love with the idea of clean-burning natural-gas engines for his trucks. “I wanted to have the greenest company in Minnesota,” he said.

He bought seven trucks, which can cost up to $300,000 each when equipped for recycling and trash hauling.

The trucks proved an instant hit. Troje said they were the reason he landed a lucrative contract with White Bear Lake. “The city council wanted a clean, environmentally responsible company,” he said.

Then the engines began to fail.

The website for engine maker Cummins Inc. reported that a Pennsylvania company filed suit in 2015 because a new natural-gas engine caused a fire after being driven 3,000 miles.

According to media reports, Cummins recalled 25,000 of the natural-gas engines in 2014, citing a cold-weather problem that resulted in flames shooting out of the exhaust. Cummins did not respond to phone messages and emails.

Troje said he eventually had to replace 13 engines in seven trucks. He said the manufacturer honored its warranties and replaced the engines, but the process often took months. At one point, six of his seven trucks were idled.

“Those engines were pushing rods and pistons right through the side,” said Troje. “You would put in an engine, and two weeks later you would do it again.”

Other haulers, however, like the natural-gas trucks. “We are going to continue buying them,” said Dave Wiggins, division vice-president of Ace Solid Waste in Ramsey, Minn., which serves many metro suburbs.

He bought several trucks a year, starting in 2012, until he had 21 natural-gas trucks out of a fleet of 80. The trucks are roughly as reliable as his diesels, he said, and they are quieter and cleaner. Troje, he speculated, may have bought new trucks before the glitches were worked out.

Troje’s Trash declared bankruptcy in January. But the company continued to serve customers with a shrinking number of trucks.

“We started missing pick-up days,” said Troje. “The drivers got so mad, not even knowing if their trucks were going to make it through the day.”

Complaints rolled in.

Troje’s was cited in May by the Better Business Bureau of Minnesota and North Dakota for not responding to 17 complaints. The bureau had received 68 complaints in about three years; Troje said he never contacted them to explain why the complaints were made.

Finally, last month, Troje gave up.

“It’s totally my fault. I ordered those trucks. I thought they’d be great,” he said.

A spokeswoman for the new owner, Republic, said former Troje’s customers will weather the change in ownership. The company said there would be no change in the service schedule or the trash containers and no increase in bills.

But Troje himself isn’t doing quite as well.

He reminisced about how he started the company in 1969 with a single truck.

He would not divulge the sale price but said it does not cover his losses. “I don’t have enough money to break even,” he said.

Troje said he will be visiting a lawyer to settle his own personal bankruptcy.

“I ran out of money,” he said. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

An intoxicated Larry Stanger, the police chief of Inver Grove Heights on paid leave as the city investigates his role in a property search tip-off, was cited last month for having an open beer outside a downtown Prescott, Wis., bar, according to a police report.

Stanger was given a ticket for an open container off a licensed premises — a violation of a city ordinance — after walking outside out of Scab’s Place with a Busch Light just after 2 a.m. Sept. 25, according to a Prescott police report obtained by the Pioneer Press.

Stanger was not given a preliminary breath test “due to his extremely high level of intoxication” and “based on his inability to speak clearly or in any kind of sentences,” the report read.

In April, Stanger was put on paid leave from his job after allegations surfaced that he alerted the owner of a Prescott auto-detailing business that the business was going to be searched for stolen construction vehicles. Stanger’s and the business owners’ sons are friends.

The Inver Grove Heights and Prescott police departments were working together on the theft case after surveillance and GPS tracking of the stolen vehicles led them to Prescott.

In August, Scott County attorney Ron Hocevar declined to charge Stanger with public corruption and violating data privacy laws, saying at the time that his office was not able to “connect the dots between what was alleged and the police chief to prove in court beyond a reasonable doubt.”

But whether Stanger violated any city of Inver Grove Heights policies, procedures or codes is the focus of an internal investigation by Quinlivan & Hughes, a law firm the city council hired Sept. 12 at a cost not to exceed $8,000. The investigation should be complete by mid-November, city administrator Joe Lynch said this week.

When asked Monday about Stanger’s open-container ticket, Lynch said he was unaware of the allegation. He declined to comment.

“I’ll have to find out what that’s about,” he said.

Meanwhile, Stanger’s attorney, Robert Fowler, called the police report “false” and said his client would fight the $110 ticket.

“The first time he knew there was any incident was when a ticket showed up to his house,” Fowler said. “I can tell you on the night in question he was never stopped by Prescott police. He was never interviewed by Prescott police. They never collected any evidence, so it’s curious to know how they can conclude that he was in possession of an open intoxicant without ever talking to him or (identifying) him.”

He called the allegation a “coordinated effort by Prescott police to cloud the waters and ruin his career.”

Stanger, who lives in Cottage Grove and leases a boat slip at a Prescott marina, has been with the Inver Grove Heights police department since 1989 and has been its chief since January 2012. His salary this year is $128,000.

BAR INCIDENT

The Prescott police report gives the following account:

While investigating a fight at Scab’s Place, an officer saw Stanger with the beer in his hand and told him to get back inside the bar. Stanger did not acknowledge the officer, but Stanger’s wife, Lisa, came outside and brought him inside.

“During the conversation with Mr. Stanger and his wife, I was able to hear Mr. Stanger speaking but I was unable to discern the words he was attempting to speak due to his level of intoxication,” the officer wrote.

Later on, Stanger’s wife called dispatchers several times to speak with the officer, who met with her outside another bar. She told the officer that Stanger did not have a beer outside, and the officer said he would review cameras.

The officer asked Stanger’s wife if she was able to watch him and she said he would be “fine” and that he “just had a lot to drink,” the report read.