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No New Funding for Sheriff’s Department


Anoka County Commissioners voted 5-2 on Thursday against funding the replacement of eight Sheriff’s Department vehicles, and the hiring of five new sheriffs deputies. County Sheriff Gus Dicesari conveyed his needs to the board of county commissioners stating, “It is getting too costly to maintain the older vehicles and they spend too much time in the repair shop.” The vehicles that Dicesari wishes to have replaced have exceeded 150, 000 miles, and he reports that this is the first time in 27 years that the county has not provided funding to the sheriff’s department for new equipment. Commissioners Anita Shenuski and Raymond Laybourne supported Dicesari’s request stating that more county money should be spent on the law enforcement and less on programs for migrant workers.


Commission President Anne Chenn denies that migrant workers have impacted the funding problem. Chenn said the county’s lack of resources is due instead to rises in healthcare costs and increased fuel prices. The county also spent 30 million dollars of its 127 million dollar budget to build a new prison to alleviate overcrowding. Commissioners Valerie Dawkins, Faith Ellis, Jose Gardoz, and Roland Grauman supported Chenn’s position that the county simply did not have the 580 thousand dollars necessary to fund the Sheriffs request. Chenn suggested instead that deputies refrain from driving their cruisers home to avoid putting greater miles on the vehicles, and to increase the availability of vehicles to on duty officers.

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Angela Leibel

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A catastrophic pile up occurred this morning around 6:45am in the northbound lanes of interstate 790 leaving two people dead and 20 more injured. The unfortunate accident began when two tractor trailers, one of which carried diesel fuel, collided. According to police Sergeant Albert Wei, the interstate will be closed indefinitely while emergency crews work to clear the wreckage of the 14 cars and four tractor trailers involved in the incident.

Wei said the two victims killed drove cars involved in the pile up, and four of the 20 victims did have serious injuries. Fire Chief Tony Sullivan stated one ambulance driver on the scene classified those injuries as life threatening.  Two of the most severely injured have been taken in Memorial Hospitals “Life Flight” helicopter to the trauma center in Statesville.  Wei and Sullivan described a chaotic scene with a lot of confusion. Interstate 790 was still closed in both directions as of 10 am this morning. Traffic is being rerouted to interstate 690, causing major delays for rush hour commuters.