Commissioners counterclaim preservation lawsuit
By Michael Johnson, Editor
The McLean County Heritage Preservation Foundation filed a legal complaint in South Central District Court on Oct. 11 against the McLean County Commissioners. The group asked for an injunction to stop demolition of the McLean County Courthouse in Washburn. Following the complaint states attorney Ladd Erickson met with an attorney with the North Dakota Insurance Reserve and gathered that it was important to have a special meeting to talk about steps moving forward. The commissioners spoke via conference call on Monday afternoon. Commissioners Ron Krebsbach, Julie Hudson-Schenfisch and Steve Lee were on the phone, along with Les Korgel and Ladd Erickson. The county’s presiding judge in past courthouse cases has been Gail Haggerty. For those reasons, she may need to be a witness of the steps taken in the process of shutting down the courthouse, Erickson said. That meant that another judge, Lawrence Jahnke of Grand Forks, would be brought in for the case.
