BATTLING CITY HALL

Lynne and Loel Holthus have one simple request for city leaders in Owatonna: don’t cut down the trees at West Hills and leave the campus alone.

The campus, which once housed thousands of children in the state-run orphanage, is the prime location being considered for the new police station in Owatonna. Among those who lived at the orphanage in 1927 were Lynne’s father, Harold Hofmeister and three of her aunts.

“If they start digging into the hill, how do they know if they won’t start finding little kid skeletons,” said Lynne, noting they likely didn’t have caskets or vaults a century ago. “I don’t want them defacing that place, and I don’t want it knocked off the (national) registry,” she said.

The Minnesota State Public School for Dependent and Neglected Children was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010. Records indicate that 10,635 children had been placed at the orphanage. After sickness swept through the orphanage, many children died. Cemetery records show 198 children were buried at West Hills, all with markers. But Lynne is certain there are many more buried there.

Both Lynne and Loel concede that the orphanage is part of what could be considered Owatonna’s dark history. “But it’s the heritage of our town,” Loel said. “All of history should be preserved. Why do people want to bury history.”

Lynne’s father was only 3 years old when he ended up at the orphanage following the death of his mother. One day her dad’s father found him next to the Turtle River. Realizing he couldn’t take care of his family by himself, her dad’s father became worried that he would drown in the river and decided an orphanage would be the only solution. At the time, Owatonna offered the only orphanage in the Upper Midwest.

About two months after being placed in the orphanage, Lynne’s father was adopted by a man from Morristown. Her father died in 1983.

“Building a police facility on the grounds in front of those historical buildings and the cemetery is ridiculous, preposterous and absurd,” said Lynne, who is retired after working at Federated Insurance for 46 years.

Lynne has taken her battle to the National Historical Registry with the Minnesota Department of Administration (MDA) in St. Paul. She said residents in Owatonna have been led to believe local officials have been working with the registry officials for “quite some time.” However, she discovered Owatonna officials did not reach out until March 19, more than two weeks after the March 3 council meeting where the council decided to move ahead with the project and after several people made issue about the national registry.

“They seem to be on the fast track of not asking for permission and later asking for forgiveness,” Lynne said of the city. She noted the state only became involved after she and others reached out expressing their concerns.

City officials maintain no existing buildings will be disturbed with the construction of the police station. But Lynne points out that the entire campus of West Hills is on the historic registry, not just buildings. “The entire property is within a historic district,” she argues.

MDA officials have forwarded Lynne’s concerns to their environmental review staff. Once their assessment is completed, a report will be issued to the city and West Hills Commission.

For the Holthuses, frustration with the city has been growing, especially with the recent developments with the police station project. “It’s say as I do and not as I do. That's how the city operates,” Loel said.

In recent months Lynne has become vocal on social media about her displeasure with the city’s proposal to build the police station at West Hills. “I’ve had nasty messages telling me to leave it alone,” she says.

But she’s not about to stop in her quest to keep the city from destroying West Hills. “People are afraid to say anything against the city because there will be backlash,” Lynne said. “We try to stand up for what we believe in, and I believe in this.”

Added Loel, “People don’t know the history and don’t care. People are not educated on the history of this town.”

In addition to the historical concerns with West Hills, the Holthuses are worried about the tax implications of new public safety buildings. “We don’t have the extra money as we live on social security,” Lynne said. “We are being overtaxed like crazy.”

Loel said, “People don’t want to move here because of the taxes.”

The Holthuses want the city to find a different location “that’s better suited to what they want” for the police station.

At least Lynne is ready for a fight that won’t end well.

“I’m going to chain myself to a tree at West Hills,” she said. “At this point in my life, I’m not afraid.”+