National Guard moves to assist with flooding

St. Clair became the latest south-central Minnesota town to warn of rising waters and put out a call for help Sunday morning, even as the National Guard was being mobilized to assist Waterville.

“Residents: The river is anticipated to keep rising for around 24-48 hours,” city staff posted on the St. Clair Facebook page at about 8 a.m. “And there is ALOT of water to flow through still.”

That followed a call for volunteers earlier in the morning, targeted at assisting sandbagging efforts by owners of flood-vulnerable homes near the Le Sueur River. It was just Saturday night that the city, with a less ominous post, announced it had placed a pile of sand at the end of Fitzloff Avenue for any residents hoping to protect their home with sand bags.

An even larger sandbagging effort was continuing in Waterville, prompting the Le Sueur County sheriff to request logistics and operations support from the National Guard.

Gov. Tim Walz declared a peacetime state of emergency Saturday night and authorized the assistance.

Guard members were prepared to mobilize as early as Sunday. According to the announcement from the governor’s office: “In Le Sueur County, the City of Waterville and surrounding community have experienced approximately 14-18 inches of rainfall. In lakes Tetonka and Sakatah, and the Cannon River, water has reached uncontrollable levels. Residents have been evacuated and the flood has already caused significant damage.”

— The Free Press (Mankato)

Motorcyclist killed in crash with USPS van

A motorcycle driver was killed in a collision with a U.S. Postal Service van, the Becker County Sheriff’s Office said.

The crash happened on County Highway 40, approximately three miles east of Wolf Lake on Saturday around 2:51 pm.

The sheriff’s office received a report of a crash involving a motorcycle and a vehicle near Wolf Lake, about 30 miles east of Detroit Lakes.

Emergency personnel who responded found the adult male motorcycle driver deceased, the Becker County Sheriff’s Office said.

The Becker County Sheriff’s Office identified the people involved in the crash. The motorcycle driver who died was Travis Michael Hanks, 39, from nearby Menahga, and the driver of the U.S. Postal Service van was Carissa Lynn Havemeier, 26, also of Menahga. She was not hurt in the crash.

An initial investigation indicates the eastbound motorcycle, a 2024 Honda Rebel, and the U.S. Postal Service van collided as the van crossed the eastbound lane to enter a driveway, the sheriff’s office said.

— Forum News Services

County aims for unified emergency response

Olmsted County officials want to restructure how mobile mental health crisis response is handled in the county next year, no matter if the original call for help was placed to 911 or 988, the national suicide prevention hotline.

Currently, when an Olmsted County resident contacts the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, their call, text or online chat will most likely be answered by a crisis counselor at First Call for Help of Itasca County in Grand Rapids.

However, James Johnson, administrator for Olmsted County’s Health, Housing and Human Services, said if the call for help for a mental or behavioral health crisis comes through 911, the county’s community outreach team responds alongside police officers.

The goal is to streamline the local mental health crisis response system by having the Olmsted County team respond to calls for service through 988 and 911.

— Rochester Post Bulletin

Man pleads guilty for crime spree assaults

A Madison man who went on a crime spree after he was released from jail on cash bail posted by his mother pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of first-degree sexual assault, for two separate assaults that happened within days of his release from jail.

Rondino Fleming Jr., 32, pleaded guilty to first-degree sexual assault for an assault on Sept. 4, 2021, at a Maple Bluff spa, and a second assault, on Sept. 11, 2021, at the Aloha Inn, where a 67-year-old woman told police that a man later identified as Fleming got into her room by pretending he came to fix the cable TV. She told police Fleming threatened her with a knife, tied her up and raped her, a criminal complaint states.

On Thursday, Fleming pleaded guilty to false imprisonment for attacking a sheriff’s deputy at the Dane County Jail on July 7 and holding her with a sharpened comb against her neck.

— Wisconsin State Journal