Losing the Interstate Bridge becomes a reality
By Jim Galewski | Just Jim

It’s good we are getting a taste of how important the Highway 43 Interstate Bridge is to Winona. It’s unnerving — and one local businessman brought it up — that the urgency of shutting down the bridge was so immediate that many people didn’t find out about the closure until they needed to cross the bridge.

From the Spur gas station in Wisconsin, the southern detour route takes 60 minutes and is 62 miles long. The northern detour route through Wabasha is 75 minutes and is three miles longer.
The cost to the community and to individuals is enormous. With the price of gas nearing $4 a gallon, some employers are helping employees with the extra cost of a 60-mile trip and two hours in the car each day.

Minnesota Department of Transportation officials, community leaders and business representatives gathered at Winona City Hall on Wednesday morning — the day after the bridge was closed. Tempers were in check, but the tension was thick. The room was packed and the temperature was uncomfortably warm.

It was obvious the situation was starving for communication, coordination and simple answers. Clear answers were in short supply. “In the name of safety, MnDOT has closed the bridge,” Winona Major Jerry Miller announced. It was the same message we had heard the night before.

MnDOT is inspecting the bridge this week and then engineers will analyze the findings over the next few weeks. No one wants to see a repeat of the

I-35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis. It’s hard to be critical when officials are trying to keep us from harm, but what happened to make this decision so urgent?

Why did all traffic have to stop? Why couldn’t light traffic be allowed to use the bridge? Why were bicyclists and pedestrians turned away?

Even a one-week warning would have given this community, its residents and the thousands of people who use the bridge a chance to make plans. Instead, MnDOT pulled the plug and left us scrambling to find solutions. When MnDOT repairs or schedules a project, it is weeks, months, even years into the future.

This decision was nearly instantaneous, but MnDOT fell back to its painfully slow timeline when it schedules itself to solve the problem. I don’t want to have a tragic accident because of an unsafe bridge. I would expect MnDOT’s inspections to be thorough enough that the disrepair of our bridge doesn’t surprise inspectors and we wake up to find our bridge out of commission.

I went to the meeting, asked and pleaded that MnDOT work into the night to solve our problem. The mayor assured me he has MnDOT’s assurances the job will be a top priority.

But alas, when I drove by after 5 p.m., the MnDOT inspection machinery was parked. I imagine the workers were driving home. I’ll bet their drive home was much shorter than those who have to detour around our closed bridge.

A million dollars doesn’t buy much any more

That is if you are buying building lots. I wasn’t pleased that the mayor would like to buy five lots on top of the bluff overlooking Winona for $500,000. Winona Radio owner Jerry Papenfuss owns some land above the city that he acquired when he purchased the KWNO Radio station. The land is where the radio station’s tower sits. The city would like to protect its bluff-line from houses jutting out of the tree line.

The five lots along the bluff side would be the most valuable, and some lots on Garvin Heights ridge have already sold for $150,000. Papenfuss isn’t the first Winona businessman who has backed into a pretty sweet deal. I don’t begrudge the profit he will make. I thought the city could zone homes away from the tree line, but Papenfuss notified the city before it planned a bluffland protection ordinance of his intention of developing the property. That gives Pappenfuss recourse if the city were to devalue his property through zoning. The property is adjacent to city sewer and water.

Once the radio tower is removed — and if the city buys the first five lots — Papenfuss will still have most of his land to develop.

It’s nice Papenfuss is offering to give the city first dibs on the property. Another businessman — who owns much more land on the bluff — is donating his property. That may be too much to hope for.

Sofa season

Discarded furniture rests on boulevards around Winona as landlords and garbage haulers negotiate the removal. City councilmember Deb Salyards told the city inspection department to promptly remove the unsightly messes.

It usually takes one to two weeks for the refuse to be removed. If a council member steps in on the issue, the furniture is gone in 10 days or so.

Galewski is the retired editor and opinion page editor of the Winona Daily News. His views don’t necessarily reflect the views of the newspaper. If you have an idea or tip about a Winona issue, call Jim at (507) 452-3960. His email is editor@luminet.net.

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