At the age of 12, Grace LaVigne developed a long-lasting friendship with a St. Paul doctor over an unlikely bonding experience — a thyroid tumor that caused frequent ear infections and could have done far worse.

The LaVigne family of Woodbury credits Dr. Inell Rosario, who runs the Andros Ear Nose and Throat Clinic and Sleep Center in Inver Grove Heights, with saving Grace’s life, and doing so with empathy and humor. “We just really love her,” said Lori LaVigne, Grace’s mother. “It’s like she’s a member of the family.”

So when Grace, now a sophomore at the Hill-Murray Catholic School in Maplewood, learned that Hurricane Dorian had destroyed two island communities in Rosario’s home country of the Bahamas, she knew she had to pay back her favorite doctor.

So began an unexpected journey of discovery for the LaVigne family, and a fundraising effort that has roped in people of Caribbean descent from across Minnesota.

DORIAN’S DEVASTATING IMPACT

At least 70,000 people were left homeless by the hurricane, which on Sept. 1 planted itself in the northern Bahamanian islands and stormed in place for at least 24 hours. As measured by sustained winds, Dorian ties with the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 as the most intense hurricane to ever make landfall off the Atlantic Ocean.

Working with a fellow student, Grace last month designed the fundraising website bahama-mn.org, which aims to get the word out about the devastation in the northern island communities of Abaco and Grand Bahama.

Grace, who sits on the Hill-Murray student council, convinced school leaders to host a dodgeball tournament, which raised $800. She’s also volunteered to organize donations of clothing and non-perishables at a warehouse Rosario is renting for the effort.

Grace’s friend Gabrielle Garcia, a sophomore at St. Paul Central High School who once had her tonsils removed by Rosario, is selling $2 “Bahamas MN” stickers to her classmates.

On Oct. 12, the LaVigne and Garcia families joined Minnesotan leaders of Caribbean descent at the St. Paul home of Rosario and her husband, Ramsey County Assessor Luis Rosario, for a “Feed Your Heart” dinner fundraiser, where Grace sold T-shirts to promote the cause.

At 12, Grace Lavigne went to Dr. Inell Rosario of St. Paul (Andros ENT+Sleep Center of Inver Grove Heights) with bad ear infections. Rosario removed a benign tumor — and became like a member of the family. When Hurricane Dorian hit the Bahamas, Grace had to pay it forward. pic.twitter.com/yfO2MqlmSz

— Frederick Melo, Reporter (@FrederickMelo) October 13, 2019

BAHAMAS-TO-MINNESOTA SINCE 1890s

With plates loaded with ceviche, fried plantains, rum cake and pernil, or slow-cooked pork, members recalled the many paths that brought residents of the Bahamas to Minnesota beginning with farm families in the 1890s.

St. John’s University and the College of St. Benedict both have long-standing relationships with the Bahamas, and this year have enrolled nearly 70 students from the island nation between them. That’s a record number, and presidents of both colleges routinely visit the island to keep the relationship alive.

The colleges and study body rallied after Hurricane Dorian to raise more than $44,000 as of Oct. 4.

Rosario, for her part, was born in Nassau, Bahamas, and came to the U.S. to attend Macalester College in 1983 on a scholarship that was supplemented by the Bahamas government. She runs Andros ENT and Sleep Center, Andros Audiology in Inver Grove Heights and Andros MedSpa in Mendota Heights.

Rosario left Oct. 17 to accompany the items down to the Bahamas herself and see that they’re distributed to those who need them.

BAHAMAS FUNDRAISER

For information on how to help, go online to https://bahama-mn.org.

Donald Steele, one of the donor-organizers who attended Rosario’s fundraising dinner, said his family is Jamaican, but Dorian left an impact well beyond the Bahamas, both physically and emotionally. The Jamaica Minnesota Organization is one of several St. Paul-area groups with Caribbean ties that have stepped up.

“With a little shift in direction, it could be Jamaica, it could be the Bahamas, it could be Antigua,” said Steele, who lives in St. Paul. “We’re all so close.”

“We had people all over the state helping out,” said Jerry Steele, of Brooklyn Park. “We filled armories. (Gov.) Rudy Perpich, he stepped up to the plate.”

After a 22-year-old spotted a man from an opposing gang in St. Paul earlier this month, he walked up to his car — gun in hand — and started firing into his Jeep, authorities say.

Jeriko Boykin Sr., 23, was fatally shot in the back and head on the city’s West Side. Boykin’s 4-year-old son, who was also in the vehicle at the time, was struck in the foot and survived.

Prosecutors charged Jeremy Carpenter on Thursday with second-degree murder in Boykin’s death and attempted murder for the boy’s injuries, according to a criminal complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court.

One of Boykin’s sisters, Jaralyn Roberts, said she doesn’t believe his killing was gang related. She said she’s thankful for the arrest and expects justice to be served.

“No one deserves to die the way my brother died,” Roberts said. “He was a good man and a loving father. I am praying for and seeking justice for my brother and for my nephew.”

Boykin’s son is “doing as good as he can be, considering everything that happened,” Roberts said Thursday.

Police arrested Carpenter, of Inver Grove Heights, after witnesses provided a description of the vehicle he was a passenger in that night, and two of the men he was driving around with identified him as the shooter, the complaint said.

DISTINCTIVE SUSPECT VEHICLE

Officers responded to the shooting on South Wasbasha Street near Congress Street about 5 p.m. on Oct. 6 and found a Jeep that had flipped upside down. Boykin, who was buckled into the driver’s seat, was bleeding from his head.

Both he and his son were taken to Regions Hospital, where Boykin died soon afterward.

Witnesses told police they saw a distinctive vehicle with three people inside it approach Boykin’s vehicle that night. The blue or black four-door was missing a front tire hubcap, had a dent in the seam of the driver’s door and a yellow design on the gas tank cover, they reported.

St. Paul police sent out the description to nearby law enforcement agencies, and Minneapolis police alerted them that they stopped a vehicle that appeared to match the description Oct. 7, and provided the names of the occupants.

Police tracked down one of them Oct. 15, and he admitted he was driving the vehicle the night of the shooting. He said Carpenter, who goes by the nickname “Insane,” was the shooter, according to the complaint.

He explained that he, Carpenter and another man were driving around that night and, at some point, Carpenter spotted Boykin in another vehicle, charges say.

Carpenter got out of the car and the man thought he was going to buy marijuana from Boykin, the complaint said.

Instead, he said he heard shots and watched as Carpenter ran back to his vehicle and hopped into the passenger seat, charges say.

The man said he dropped Carpenter off a short time later.

He added that he believed the shooting was motivated by conflict between gangs affiliated with St. Paul’s East Side and the western portion of the city.

Roberts, Boykin’s sister, said she does not think gangs were “the motive behind his death because that’s not who he was and not what he was working towards. That wasn’t his identity or his focus.”

SUSPECT CALLED MAN HIS OPPOSITION

Police tracked down the other passenger from that evening, and he also said Carpenter was the shooter. He said Carpenter saw Boykin at a red light and the men exchanged words, charges say.

Carpenter said he was previously in prison with Boykin, and that Boykin was his “op,” which is gang language for opposition, the complaint said. The man reported that Carpenter instructed the driver to pull over.

The man said he heard gunshots and saw Carpenter run back to their car, instructing them to “go, go” because “I shot his (expletive) up,” charges say.

On Tuesday, officers spotted Carpenter riding in another vehicle. A loaded handgun was found under the seat in front of him, and police arrested him, according to the complaint.

Carpenter, who remains jailed, told an investigator he had no involvement in the killing. His attorney could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Carpenter was convicted in 2015 of being an ineligible person in possession of a firearm. As a juvenile, he was adjudicated delinquent of robbery in 2013.

Mara H. Gottfried contributed to this report.

People can get rid of unwanted medications — and, in a new move, vaping devices — at various drop off sites in the Twin Cities on Saturday.

Vaping devices and e-cigarettes with their batteries removed will be accepted for the first time as part of the nationwide U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency initiative. The move comes as public health concerns surrounding vaping continue to increase, according to Jeremy Zoss, Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office director of communications.

There have been three vaping-related deaths, and more than 80 confirmed or probable cases of vaping-associated lung injuries in Minnesota, according to the Minnesota Department of Health.

The DEA has National Drug Take Back Day twice each year, with various police departments and counties participating throughout the U.S. in an effort to combat drug abuse. Officials say properly disposing prescription medication, such as opioids, can significantly decrease the likelihood of individuals having access to the addictive drugs.

Many people are confused about how to properly get rid of medication, Zoss said. He said the idea is for people to get anything they deem harmful out of their house with no questions asked.

“A lot of people just throw it away, a lot of people flush it down their drains or in the toilet,” he said. “This is a way for them to dispose of those medications in a way that’s very safe and environmentally friendly and can keep these materials out of the wrong hands.”

The drop offs will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. Information about locations can be found at the DEA’s National Drug Take Back Day website.

Among the local sites are the St. Paul Police Department’s Western District at 389 N. Hamline Ave., the South St. Paul Police Department at 125 3rd Ave. N., the Mendota Heights Police Department at 1101 Victoria Curve, the Inver Grove Heights Police Department at 8150 Barbara Ave., and Cub Foods at 1540 New Brighton Blvd. in Minneapolis.

The former owner of an Inver Grove Heights massage business has been sentenced to five years and five months in prison for promoting prostitution.

Xueyan Wang, 41, of Inver Grove Heights, was sentenced Thursday by Dakota County District Judge Ann Offermann. In September, Wang pleaded guilty to two counts of promoting prostitution through Herb Spa, which was in the Arbor Pointe strip mall off Concord Boulevard and northeast of Minnesota 55.

The city granted Wang a therapeutic massage license for the business in May 2017 and again in 2018 and this year.

It had minimal signage, the front door was locked at all times and shades covered the windows, criminal charges state. Customers were required to ring a doorbell to enter.

Inver Grove Heights police began an investigation into Herb Spa after officers learned of customer reviews on a website that gives information about sexual services at massage businesses. The reviews for Herb Spa began in 2017 and described sexual acts that were performed, the masseuse that performed them and the cost, according to a criminal complaint in the case.

During the investigation, officers stopped two men on two separate occasions after they left Herb Spa. Both said they had paid women working at the business to perform sexual acts on them, the court records said. Neither of the women were Wang, the men told investigators.

Through surveillance, police determined that Wang and women working at the business appeared to be living there. Wang made multiple runs to and from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, and paid airfare for women to fly from San Francisco and Chicago.

A review of Wang’s bank account showed that she issued checks to buy several plane tickets, pay for advertising on a website (formerly Backpage.com) and wire money to an account in China, the court records said.

During a July 18 search of the business, officers found two women inside who were living in the back of the business. There were no traditional massage tables, and beds were on wood crates on the floor.

Officers also found more than $55,000 — mostly made up of $20 bills — and a notepad that listed different sexual services along with corresponding prices, court records said.

As part of her sentence, Wang was also ordered to pay $2,000 in penalty assessments and register as a predatory offender.

The bulldozers, graders and backhoes rolled into the Tyne Lane neighborhood of Inver Grove Heights right after Memorial Day.

Within a week, residents say, land behind their homes was cleared of 146 more trees than what should have been, leaving behind what resident Grant Robbins described as “an enormous mess.” It has also left the neighborhood in a standoff with city officials on who is at fault and what is the solution.

Robbins and neighbors learned through their own digging at City Hall that the plans for a self-storage business on industrial-zoned land behind them had been revised between January, when they were approved by the city council as part of a conditional use permit, and May, when a development agreement was green-lighted.

What’s more, residents say, city staff signed off on the developer’s changes — and that they are in “dramatic conflict” with the conditional use permit.

As a result, they say, 146 more trees, as estimated by the developer, were removed from the property than what was allowed in the conditional use permit.

The developer also excavated and graded a possible future industrial location that is in “full unobstructed view from residential properties on Tyne Lane” and changed a storm-water system to accommodate it, resident Andrea Poppinga said at a recent city council meeting.

“This unspeakable harm was allowed to begin by plan changes that — at the city’s own admission — should never have been approved,” Poppinga said.

Neither the city nor the developer followed the process required by state law to re-notify residents and return to the planning commission and city council to request the changes in an amendment to the conditional use permit, Robbins said.

City Administrator Joe Lynch said city staff reviewed the plans again and determined that they are “substantially similar” to those from January — except as it relates to screening for residents because of the extra tree loss.

“Plans evolve, change and are passed back and forth between our staff and developers during the planning and approval process,” he said. “Staff is given the discretion to approve changes to any plans after they are initially submitted by a developer and approved by council, if the plan remains substantially similar to the original.”

City staff followed “standard practice” during the planning process, he said.

The city has been working with the developer to come up with a solution, which includes planting new trees, Lynch said.

ONCE ‘NOTHING BUT WOODS’

The 54,000-square-foot building at 9725 South Robert Trail was built in the 1970s on the 19-acre site. In the 1990s, the Tyne Lane neighborhood went up directly north, as did homes to the west in Eagan.

Up until about 15 years ago, the building was occupied by MedicalCV Inc., which manufactured and marketed cardiac mechanical valves. Since the company left, the only activity there has been from trespassers and vandals, residents say.

“We all bought our houses with this one building back there,” Robbins said. “The area behind my house was nothing but woods. Now my house is ground zero for everything that has gone wrong with this project. It’s centered on my property.”

Late last year, Valley Homestead Properties stepped forward with project plans to convert the building into a climate-controlled self-storage facility, add several other cold-storage buildings and an office for the business.

When the developer went before the planning commission and the city council, the neighborhood was “generally supportive of the plans as presented,” Robbins said. Likewise, so was the city council, which moved them along in January.

Brian and Shawn Briggs, a father and son team who make up Valley Homestead Properties, then closed on the purchase of the roughly $1.9 million sale of the property.

But the plans changed, according to city staff, when the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency notified the developer that an old septic system, where a stormwater pond was supposed go, was contaminated from the previous industrial use. The soil was bad and usable dirt would have needed to be trucked in.

As such, the developer changed the layout of the stormwater ponds, which then “basically resulted in additional trees that were cleared,” Heather Rand, the city’s community development director, said at a recent city council meeting.

At the meeting, Robbins responded to Rand’s comment by saying the stormwater pond should not be blamed, the developer should.

At the same, Robbins said, to make room for a future 20,000-square-foot industrial site, which was not part of the initial plans, they moved a stormwater pond closer to the homes and also made it deeper.

AN AMENDMENT IS PROPOSED

According to Lynch, Inver Grove Heights staff approved the revised plans not knowing how much it would affect the screening. That’s because the new plans from the developer did not have an updated percentage of the tree cover that would be removed, Lynch said.

When asked if city staff made a mistake by not catching that, Lynch said, “I’m not going to say that the city made a mistake. I’m not. We are looking at the things that were changed in the plan.”

Robbins said last week that city staff should have caught that “mistake.”

“(The developer) left the same percentage in the document after almost 150 more trees were removed,” he said. “How did city staff not notice that?”

Contacted Monday, Shawn Briggs said he would not comment on the specifics of the tree cover percentage listed in the revised plan given to the city.

“What I can comment on is that guidelines for that site allow for 60 percent removal of the tree canopy,” he said. “I believe (the residents) are worried about 63 percent. That’s not unusual for those types of things to happen with development, and usually there’s a way to deal with that, which is you go ahead and plant more trees.”

But Robbins noted Monday that the conditional use permit Briggs was issued required “substantial conformance” with the landscape plan the company gave the city in November. The plan allowed that only up to 37 percent of the tree canopy could be removed, not 60 percent, Robbins said.

On Tuesday night, the city council will consider an amendment to the development agreement that includes a new screening plan that was hashed out in meetings between the developer and city staff. It includes a grouping of 25 conifers by the entry road and 10 conifers and slats in a fence at the southern edge of a drainage pond.

Robbins said the Tyne Lane neighborhood opposes the plan, which “will be totally ineffective and does not address the main problems with the conditional use permit.”

Said Briggs, “I can certainly understand the neighbors — they’ve had this big old tree canopy there for a really long time — and having that go away is a humongous change, but the property was for sale for a long time and that’s useful land there.”

An Inver Grove Heights woman was killed early Tuesday after driving through a stop sign in Waseca County.

According to the Minnesota State Patrol, the 43-year-old woman, identified as Angela Ann Anderson, was traveling west on 430th Avenue in Blooming Grove Township about 6:15 a.m. in a 2018 Chevrolet Malibu.

The Malibu failed to stop at a stop sign and collided with a 2005 Chevrolet Trailblazer traveling north on Minnesota 13. The Trailblazer was driven by Keaton Nikoley, 26, of Lonsdale. He was taken to the Mankato hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Anderson was not wearing a seat belt. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Road conditions were dry at the time.

Joe Lynch, Inver Grove Heights’ city administrator suspended three days without pay last year for twice violating the city’s respectful workplace policy, has been given a “meets expectations” job performance review by the city council and a 2 percent bump in salary.

The city council met behind closed doors Sept. 3 and Oct. 14 to evaluate Lynch for 2018, an annual review that was delayed earlier this year because of an investigation into allegations levied against him by a now former co-worker. His pay increase will be retroactive.

According to a summary of the review, Lynch fell in the “meets expectations” range after council members filled out a new scoring sheet the city started using this year for all full-time employees.

The council only evaluates the city administrator. The review, which includes a one to five rating scale, is closed to the public because of employee confidentiality, so details of how they reached the conclusion are not released.

Mayor George Tourville, when asked Thursday how Lynch scored what he did, considering the three-day suspension, he said “there is more to it” than just the discipline and that “it wasn’t the only thing he did in the entire year.”

Tourville listed a few of Lynch’s accomplishments: supervised a city of about 35,000 residents, worked on a “liveable and good” budget, helped complete numerous road projects. “The whole year is not wrapped up in three days off, and taking a look that the 2 percent … it’s categorized as cost of living.”

COMPLAINTS PROMPT INVESTIGATION

A Rosemount law firm hired by the city last year concluded that Lynch told his then-co-worker on two days in April 2018 that she was acting “like a child” and a “teenager” and to “grow up.”

Three months later, Lynch made a sexually suggestive remark toward her about the dress she was wearing, the law firm concluded.

The co-worker’s name was redacted in the law firm’s investigative report. However, current and former city employees have since identified her as Michelle Tesser, who was the city clerk since July 2015.

On July 22, the city council unanimously approved a separation agreement with Tesser, who agreed to withdraw a discrimination complaint she filed with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights over how she was treated by Lynch.

As part of the agreement, Tesser was given $89,600 for “non wages.”

At an Aug. 26 city council meeting, about a week before members met for his job review, Lynch took heat from four residents — two parks commissioners, a school board member and a former state legislator — who expressed their discontent with him and their concerns over the cost of an investigation into his workplace behavior and the negative publicity it brought the city.

COUNCIL AGREES TO PAY RAISE

On Tuesday, a pay increase for Lynch — who made a little more than $153,000 last year — went before the city council.

The recommended salary adjustment was 2.75 percent, a cost-of-living hike that non-union employees received in 2019. But before the vote, Council Member Tom Bartholemew suggested the 2 percent increase and it was approved on a 4-1 vote; Brenda Dietrich voted against it.

Lynch did not immediately return a call Thursday seeking comment about his review and pay increase.

During the Oct. 28 council meeting, Dietrich spoke publicly about how her scoring of Lynch’s 2018 performance was not included in the overall rating. She joined the council in January 2019; other members felt it would not be fair if she reviewed Lynch’s performance before she was on the council, Tourville explained at the meeting.

Tourville said Thursday that the issue could be resolved next month, when the council considers amending the contract with Lynch to move his annual review to December, not in the first quarter like what has been done in the past. The change would ensure that all council members would have worked with the administrator, he said.

The Inver Grove Heights City Council tabled a vote this week on a screening proposal meant to appease neighbors who say a developer cut down 146 more trees behind their homes than what city-approved plans allowed.

Residents told the council that the plan, which the city and developer crafted, would not be effective in screening their Tyne Lane homes from the self-storage buildings proposed to be built on the land off South Robert Trail.

Meanwhile, the developer, Brian Briggs, said the plan, which includes spending an additional $75,000 for trees and fencing, is “reasonable.”

Mayor George Tourville suggested that the neighbors and Briggs meet to try and come up with a compromise. Both parties agreed to do so, and that they’d return to the council’s Dec. 9 meeting with an update.

Time has not been kind to two of the most historic buildings still standing in Inver Grove Heights.

The former village hall, located along River Road south of 66th Street, and a one-room schoolhouse at Rich Valley Park are boarded up, neglected remnants of the 1930s. They haven’t been used or maintained in several decades.

“Both buildings are run down just through a lack of attention,” said Eric Carlson, the city’s parks and recreation director.

But now they are on the minds of city officials and residents as they think of ways to integrate historical information, artifacts and possibly the buildings into Heritage Village Park — a 70-acre mostly undeveloped passive park that partially lies on a former polluted railroad yard bordered by Concord Boulevard and the Mississippi River.

Now that the city earlier this year assembled the final pieces of land needed for Heritage Village and opened an off-leash dog park, the historical aspect is among the next steps in the planning process, Carlson said.

The idea of moving and repairing the two buildings to the park was part of an initial 2004 master plan and remains in the discussion, despite what is believed to be a price tag in the “hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Carlson said.

Although the panel toured the buildings last month and concluded they might not be worth the effort and money, Carlson said, the group wanted to run it by the public before making recommendations.

That process begins with a public open house at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the city council chambers for the community to weigh in, Carlson said.

A COMMUNITY’S HISTORY

The village hall was built in 1934 with the assistance of the Depression-era federal Works Progress Administration, local historian Lois Glewwe wrote in her book, “The History of Inver Grove Heights: Minnesota’s Treasure 1858-1990.”

Before it fell into disuse in the 1990s, the brick building served many purposes. It was a meeting place for the Village of Inver Grove, which was incorporated in 1909 and was a one-square-mile plat on the riverfront that elected its own mayor and council, completely apart from Inver Grove Township, according to Glewwe.

“That is important history,” Glewwe said. “And the little village hall was right in the middle of it.”

The village hall was used as a temporary schoolroom, a civic hall and art exhibition space. The village existed until it merged with the township in March 1965 as the new Inver Grove Heights.

Meanwhile, the first town hall was built in 1878 on Barnes Avenue and was replaced with a new town hall in 1936 on Barnes Avenue and Highway 55. Neither of those buildings is still standing.

‘CITY’S EDUCATIONAL HERITAGE’

The schoolhouse, Glewwe wrote in her book, stands as a “quiet memorial to the city’s educational heritage.” It served District #9 farm children of the Rich Valley Boulevard neighborhood until the 1950s, when the area joined the Rosemount school district. It is located along 105th Street East at Rich Valley Boulevard.

Glewwe said she wrote to the city this week suggesting that both buildings be preserved. She said the suburb doesn’t have many other historically significant landmarks left, noting Union Cemetery, the Rock Island Swing Bridge (now a recreational pier) and the Reuben Freeman “House of Eight Gables” are among them.

If possible, she said, the village hall should be moved from its current spot — just south of the King of Diamonds strip club — and north to Heritage Village Park.

“It’s not in the best location,” she said. “What else can I say?”

She envisions the hall being a little interpretive center at the park with self-guided history panels inside telling the story of the village and township.

CREATING HERITAGE VILLAGE PARK

Dakota County Commissioner Joe Atkins, who serves on the city’s subcommittee, said the two buildings are less about the structures themselves and more about how they remind people how earlier generations built up the area.

“I don’t know if it’s cost-effective or not to move the buildings entirely or just have pieces of them incorporated within Heritage Village Park, which in and of itself is a great recycling and reuse of land,” Atkins said.

The city acquired the polluted Rock Island Railroad land and more than 25 other properties during the past two decades in an effort to help protect the area from flooding and build the park into a regional draw, Carlson said.

Paralleling those would be exhibits that allow children to play out that history, he said.

“I believe that people from other cities who will go to the dog park or the accessible playground — when it’s built — will find our history very interesting and educational,” said Parker, who serves on the subcommittee.

A Guatemalan woman who was deported in 2016 after serving eight years in a Minnesota prison for causing a school bus crash that killed four children was arrested Tuesday evening by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials for re-entering the United States illegally.

Acting on a tip, ICE agents arrested 36-year-old Olga Franco del Cid at a residence in Inver Grove Heights, according to agency spokesman Shawn Neudauer. She will remain in custody while ICE awaits a charging decision from the U.S. attorney’s office, Neudauer said.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney Erica MacDonald did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Franco was reported missing Monday by a family member, according to Inver Grove Heights Police Chief Melissa Chiodo.

Inver Grove Heights police were not involved in her arrest, but the department was notified by ICE after the fact, Chiodo said.

Franco was driving a minivan near rural Cottonwood, Minn., in February 2008, when she drove through a stop sign and crashed into a school bus full of children, killing four and injuring 17 more.

After the crash, Franco gave police a false name and claimed to be a Puerto Rican citizen, but investigators determined that she was a Guatemalan national and in the country illegally.

During her trial the following August, Franco told jurors that her boyfriend had been driving the van at the time of the crash, but she said the impact of the crash ejected him from the vehicle and and threw her partially into the driver’s seat.

She was convicted on 24 separate charges, including four counts of criminal vehicular homicide, and sentenced to more than 12 years in prison. Franco served eight years at the women’s prison in Shakopee before being released and deported.

While she was in prison, Franco began corresponding with Jerome Harvieux, now 36 and living in Maple Grove. The couple married in 2009, and they have a child together, but Harvieux filed for divorce in October, according to court documents.

As M Health Fairview moves forward with layoffs and other changes within its network of hospitals and clinics, political leaders in Dakota County are making a play to keep St. Joseph’s Hospital open in the east metro — even if it means relocation from St. Paul to the southeast suburbs.

On Dec. 12, Dakota County Board member Joe Atkins sent a letter to M Health Fairview CEO James Hereford urging “every option to keep St. Joseph’s Hospital operating in its current location.”

It goes on to say: “If the conclusion is reached that St. Joseph’s will not continue operations in its current location in downtown St. Paul, we urge its relocation rather than its closure. … We would be happy to organize the efforts and approvals necessary to welcome St. Joseph’s to its new home in Dakota County.”

The letter is co-signed by the three mayors in Atkins’ district — Eagan Mayor Mike Maguire, Inver Grove Heights Mayor George Tourville and Rosemount Mayor William Droste.

Atkins published the letter to social media on Wednesday, taking his hospital campaign public.

Mayors in my district and I support the doctors, nurses, and patients seeking to keep St. Joseph's Hospital open in St. Paul.

St. Joe's has served east metro families since 1853, and we want to see this continue.#StJoesServesStPaul (and the whole east metro) pic.twitter.com/81vAPJTTkU

— Joe Atkins (@commishatkins) December 18, 2019

Hereford this month said that downtown St. Paul’s iconic 400-bed hospital is losing money, and by early 2020, the health network is expected to begin community discussions on its future. St. Joe’s has served St. Paul since 1853.

A closure has not been announced, but physicians say they have no illusions about the health network’s intent. They have already taken to social media with a campaign to save the venerated institution using the hashtag #StJoesServesStPaul.

Cuts are already planned at Bethesda Rehabilitation Hospital, where the number of patient beds will drop by half.

A Fairview spokeswoman released the following statement Wednesday: “No decision regarding St. Joseph’s Hospital has been made and our commitment to serving St. Paul remains unchanged. We are aware of the concern from the community, and the desire for collaboration. We are partnering with community organizations as we move forward through our transformation.”

It goes on to say: “In light of the healthcare affordability crisis in our country, we are choosing to lead toward a solution that is more affordable, easy to navigate and rooted in the latest research and advances in medicine. We believe that our responsibility to provide care goes beyond our organization and are working thoughtfully with our employees, the community, government leaders, industry leaders, and our patients to develop new ways to provide quality, affordable healthcare to our patients. We are rethinking everything we do and remain committed to doing what is in the best interest of our patients.”

MARCH ON THURSDAY

To raise awareness, nurses and other health workers affiliated with the Minnesota Nurses Association and SEIU Healthcare Minnesota plan a “Shine a Light” march at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday through Mears Park in St. Paul’s Lowertown neighborhood.

M Health Fairview, a nonprofit health network, acquired St. Joe’s parent company, HealthEast, in 2017 and eliminated the hospital’s maternity ward soon after.

The hospital, which is located near shelters and low-income housing, continues to maintain a large mental health crisis center, addiction services, a Cyberknife cancer center and a busy emergency room, among other specialties.

St. Joe’s operating expenses last year were $304 million. That compares to $260.5 million in operating revenues, a difference of nearly $44 million.

Last week, M Health Fairview announced it would cut beds and staffing at the Bethesda Rehabilitation Hospital in half, reducing services from as many 114 beds down to 50.

What was a country Christmas in Minnesota in the 1800s like? Simpler, quieter and lacking in electricity or central heating.

Caretakers of the Old Salem Shrine of the United Methodist Church in Inver Grove Heights will open the doors of the Dakota County landmark at 4:30 p.m. Jan. 5 and invite the public in for a service that doubles as a fundraiser for the 146-year-old building.

The annual Candlelight Epiphany Service will include candles, lanterns, a potbelly wood-burning stove, a message by Rev. Harold Lang and Christmas carols sung to an antique pump organ.

Although the church is owned by the Minnesota Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, the building and adjoining cemetery grounds are maintained solely by donations given at this service and another held in June.

“We depend upon attendance to receive donations for the upkeep,” said Jill Lewis, chair of the church’s trustees committee. She urges residents to make the service a family tradition.

The church was in the news in 2013 after vandals broke in and smashed ceiling lanterns, destroyed or stole all 13 kerosene lanterns, damaged the vestibule and the old pump organ. The public responded with donations and it was restored.

When formed in 1857 as Salem Evangelical Church, it was the state’s first congregation of the Evangelical Association of North America. The current building at 1477 Upper 55th St. E., was built in 1874. It is used now primarily for weddings, tours, and other special events.

Even as Dennis Jensen rose through the ranks of the St. Paul Police Department to become an assistant chief, he never stopped patrolling the city’s streets.

He loved being an officer on patrol, his family said.

Jensen, who was a St. Paul police officer for 24 years and then worked for the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office, died Wednesday at home in Inver Grove Heights. He was 63 and had battled early onset Alzheimer’s for five years.

He fought through a heart attack at age 38 to return to the police department, but had to retire after a second one at 48. He recovered for a year and went to work for the sheriff’s office, taking the lead on homeland security and counter-terrorism matters until his career was ended again by health problems.

“He wasn’t afraid to take on additional work, even though his health had been jeopardized, but he also carried grace with him through those challenging periods,” said Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher, who also worked with Jensen at the St. Paul Police Department.

A sergeant told Amy Jensen, Dennis’ wife, that even as he achieved high-ranking positions, he never lost the appreciation for what it was like to be a street cop.

Jensen was born on Oct. 22, 1956, in Minneapolis. He grew up in Eagan and became interested in law enforcement because his father was a volunteer firefighter.

He spent years working in narcotics enforcement, became commander of special investigations and narcotics, and was Police Chief William Finney’s chief of staff for two and a half years.

When he was senior commander of the Eastern District in 2004, he was a finalist to become St. Paul police chief. He was appointed assistant chief, a position he held until his 2006 retirement.

Jensen earned his master’s degree in security studies from the Naval Postgraduate School in 2006 and, as an outgrowth of his master’s thesis, the St. Paul Police Department received a grant for an outreach program with the Muslim and Somali community. The work that Jensen initiated still continues, said Police Chief Todd Axtell.

“He always had a way of making people laugh and lightening the work environment through well-timed jokes,” Axtell remembered. “His contributions to the St. Paul Police Department will be felt for years to come and he will be greatly missed.”

In addition to his wife, Jensen is survived by daughter, Danielle Baumann, and siblings, Doug Jensen, Suzanne Edstrom and Jay Jensen.

Visitation will be from 4 to 7 p.m. Monday, and 10 to 11 a.m. Tuesday with service to follow, all at O’Halloran & Murphy Funeral Home, 575 S. Snelling Ave. in St. Paul.

A Guatemalan woman deported in 2016 after serving eight years in a Minnesota prison for causing a school bus crash that killed four children, has pleaded guilty to re-entering the United States illegally, the U.S. attorney’s office announced Monday.

Olga Marina Franco del Cid, 36, entered the guilty plea Monday before Judge Susan Richard Nelson, while also admitting to a charge of falsely using a Social Security number on a Form I-9, which is meant to verify employment eligibility in the United States.

A sentencing date has been set for June 11.

Acting on a tip, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Franco del Cid on Nov. 26 at a residence in Inver Grove Heights. A day earlier, a family member had reported her missing.

In February 2008, Franco del Cid was driving a minivan near rural Cottonwood in southwestern Minnesota when she drove through a stop sign and crashed into a school bus full of children, killing four and injuring 17 more.

After the crash, Franco del Cid gave police a false name and claimed to be a Puerto Rican citizen, but investigators determined that she was a Guatemalan national and in the U.S. illegally.

During her trial the following August, Franco del Cid told jurors that her boyfriend had been driving the van at the time of the crash, but she said the impact of the crash ejected him from the vehicle and threw her partially into the driver’s seat.

While she was in prison, Franco del Cid began corresponding with a Minnesota man. The couple married in 2009 and they have a child together, but Harvieux filed for divorce in October, according to a court document.

Larry Koland parks his cars in a place that looks more like a finished-off suburban basement than a garage.

On a recent weekday afternoon, Koland opened the overhead door to one of his two storage units at the Eagan Car Club, revealing a ’53 Mercury M-100 and a ’98 Porsche 911 in a sparkling space with couches, area rugs, a large TV screen and other comforts of home. There’s even a vintage Coke machine and a popcorn popper.

“We’ll watch movies, have club meetings,” said Koland, a 53-year-old former U.S. Air Force flight engineer who now works for Delta Airlines. “We have our family Christmas party here in the clubhouse.”

Private garage condominiums are not new — AutoMotorPlex started the craze locally in 2008 in Chanhassen, and the first of four buildings at Eagan Car Club went up about five years ago.

But the demand for car condos is rising — AutoMotorPlex recently added a second location in Medina — as the storage industry evolves and downsizing baby boomers seek somewhere to store their prized possessions, Koland said.

“I bought this one for $80,000 before the first building here was even built,” he said. “The unit next to me is going for $175,000. That says something.”

For Koland, who owns two self-storage businesses, it says now is a good time to expand his portfolio. He plans to start construction in Rosemount this spring on the first of three buildings that will offer nearly 80 “luxury” private garage condos in a business park located off South Robert Trail, just south of County Road 42.

MORE THAN A ‘MAN CAVE’

They won’t come cheap. A standard 1,000-square-foot unit — 25-feet wide by 40-feet deep — will go for $195,000 to $205,000. It will come finished with a gas-fired boiler, in-floor heat, electrical, drywall and fire suppression, and be roughed-in for a bathroom. A loft is also an option.

“They’ll leave a lot to the person’s imagination — they can do whatever they want to it, depending on what they collect and what they’re into,” Koland said.

A community clubhouse will have a kitchen, fireplace, deck and restrooms. A plaza will have outdoor seating for barbecues and car shows.

“We’re trying to make it community-centric,” he said.

Each condo unit will be individually owned, with the overall site falling under an association and managed by a professional management company.

Call the car condo concept what you want — a novelty or excessive — just not a man cave, Koland said.

“There are the man caves out there, but I don’t want that image in people’s minds, because we don’t want to build that,” he said. “We want something where the spouse is happy to come out to and where families can get together and hang out.”

STORAGE INDUSTRY

Koland believes car condos are the next phase in the storage industry.

“It’s about downsizing without the hassles of renting,” he said.

In the early years of self-storage, operators were a mom-and-pop business, he said. Now, large companies, many of which are real-estate investment trusts, own and manage millions of square feet of self-storage.

“Look at Public Storage, they’re huge, everywhere,” said Koland, noting how many cities locally and nationally have placed moratoriums on new self-storage businesses until they fully understand the industry.

All of this makes growth in the traditional self-storage business tough for the little guy, said Koland, who owns Inver Grove Heights Storage and More Space Self Storage in West St. Paul.

“Which leads me to this,” he said, referring to car condos. “It’s still kind of a niche, still storage, but more fun and all about lifestyle.”

But is it enough to make people shell out $200K and for Koland to make a return on his Rosemount project, which he estimates will cost $9 million? “I sure hope so,” the Inver Grove Heights’ resident said.

A MIXED BAG

Rosemount community development director Kim Lindquist said the project would bring a unique use to a business park that has been slow to develop.

“People are doing churches, breweries, that sort of thing, so it’s a little more of a mixed bag of uses nowadays,” she said.

The car condo project is scheduled to go before the planning commission for review this month and the city council in March.

A woman hit by a car while trying to cross a road in Inver Grove Heights on Saturday night remains hospitalized in critical condition, according to police.

On Wednesday, police identified the pedestrian as Marissa Susan Nelson, 40, of St. Paul.

Police said late Saturday that officers and firefighters responded to the 8900 block of Broderick Boulevard, just west of Concord Boulevard and north of Minnesota 55, around 9 p.m. A woman who tried to cross Broderick Boulevard was found with serious injuries and taken to Regions Hospital in St. Paul.

The driver of the car that struck Nelson was not impaired and is cooperating with the investigation, police Cmdr. Sean Folmar said Wednesday.

Nelson was walking from the Holiday gas station near the corner of Broderick and Concord boulevards and tried to cross Broderick in an area without a crosswalk, Folmar said.

Inver Grove Heights police and the State Patrol continue to investigate.

A pedestrian who was hit by a car in Inver Grove Heights Saturday night has died, according to police.

Marissa Susan Nelson, 40, of St. Paul, died Wednesday night after being taken off life support at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, police Cmdr. Sean Folmar said.

Officers and firefighters responded to the 8900 block of Broderick Boulevard, just west of Concord Boulevard and north of Minnesota 55, around 9 p.m. Saturday. Nelson, who tried crossing Broderick Boulevard in an area without a crosswalk, was found with serious injuries and taken to Regions Hospital, Folmar said.

The driver of the car that struck Nelson was not impaired and is cooperating with the investigation, Folmar said.

Inver Grove Heights police and the State Patrol continue to investigate.

A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the Nelson family with expenses. Nelson leaves behind two daughters, Cheyenne and Angel, according to the GoFundMe page.

A 15-year-old boy hit by a car Saturday night while trying to cross the street in Inver Grove Heights has died of his injuries, police said Monday.

The teen, whose name has not been released, was struck in the 7500 block of Cahill Avenue just before 9 p.m., Inver Grove Heights police said. He was taken to Regions Hospital in St. Paul.

The teen was with a 16-year-old boy, who was not injured, Cmdr. Dennis Haugland said Monday. Haugland added that he could not say whether the accident happened at a crosswalk or in another area of the road.

Haugland said the driver showed no signs of impairment and is cooperating with the investigation, which remains ongoing.

The Minnesota State Patrol is assisting police in the investigation.

The 15-year-old boy who died after being hit by a car this past weekend in Inver Grove Heights was described by family as someone with a big heart who loved making people laugh.

Caleb J. “Buddy” Herrera-Shanley, a Simley High School sophomore who recently moved to Inver Grove Heights from Isanti, Minn., died of his injuries Sunday at Children’s Hospital in St. Paul.

Caleb was hit in the 7500 block of Cahill Avenue just before 9 p.m. Saturday while trying to cross the street. Caleb’s friend, a 16-year-old boy, was with him, but not injured.

Benjamin Shanley, Caleb’s father, said Wednesday the two teens were walking to another friend’s house for a birthday party when the incident happened.

“I always trusted his judgement — driving, things like that — because he had such good character,” his father said. “It was just a real shock to me because he was my boy, my only boy. I called him ‘Budster.’ ”

In early 2019, Caleb moved from his mother’s house in Isanti and to Inver Grove Heights to live with his father. He fit in as a new freshman at Simley, making a number of friends right away, his father said.

“Most everyone knew him as ‘Buddy,’ ” his father said. “Every since he was a little kid he fit in and was the friendliest kid to everyone, always talking to people, even those he had never met before.”

Earlier this week, Caleb’s friends placed flowers, balloons and a message board near the crash site at the corner of 75th Street and Cahill Avenue. On Monday night, they gathered for a candlelight vigil at the makeshift memorial.

“It was very emotional,” his mother, Cindy Charles, said Wednesday. “It was so nice to hear about what everybody had to say about him and how he impacted their lives. He had a big heart, never judged anybody.”

Caleb enjoyed the outdoors, hunting, swimming, rock climbing, gaming, working out and modeling. He aspired to be a model, like his uncle.

“He was a really good kid, super happy and always joking,” said his aunt, Amber Shanley. She added that Caleb was an organ donor “and made a difference upon his passing to help save others.”

The driver who struck Caleb showed no signs of impairment and is cooperating with the investigation, which remains ongoing, police said.

In addition to his mother and father, survivors include a sister; a half-brother and a step-brother; two grandmothers; and a grandfather.

A Visitation is from 2 to 7 p.m. Friday at Bradshaw Celebration of Life Center, 4600 Greenhaven Drive, in White Bear Lake. A Mass will be held at a later date.

Firefighters rescued a man who was trapped in his burning apartment Thursday night in Inver Grove Heights, but he died of his injuries at a hospital, the city’s fire chief said.

Firefighters that were called to Bridgewood Apartments in the 3100 block of 65th Street East around 10:43 p.m. saw heavy black smoke and flames pouring from a balcony of a unit. They were told someone may be trapped inside, said Judy Thill, fire chief.

Firefighters entered the apartment building and made their way through smoke-filled hallways to reach the unit with the fire, Thill said. They forced open a door to the unit and found 60-year-old William Matara.

Matara was transported by ambulance to Regions Hospital in St. Paul, where he was pronounced dead.

Firefighters from the South Metro, Eagan and Mendota Heights fire departments also responded to battle the blaze.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known Friday. Officials with the State Fire Marshal’s Office and Inver Grove Heights Fire Department continue to investigate.

Inver Grove Heights Fire Marshal Jeff Schadegg said two of the building’s 24 units caught fire and that the remaining units are also uninhabitable because of smoke damage.

The American Red Cross said its volunteers were helping families displaced from the fire find lodging.