Fed up with controversy, residents want to get rid of this Minnesota town entirely

TWIN LAKES, Minn. - The shouting, threats and sarcastic barbs have been flying for months at city meetings in this town of 130 near the Iowa border. There are complaints about tap water running black, fights over city hiring and multiple allegations of misdeeds.

Now a group of residents wants to get rid of all of it. The whole city.

In a small-town smackdown, 34 residents have signed a petition to take Twin Lakes off the map by dissolving the city government.

“It’s been going on for way too long,” said Pat Gavle, who served as city clerk years ago and has signed the petition. “And every time you think something can’t get any stupider, it has.”

The proposed dissolution would put the city’s assets, debts and services under nearby Nunda Township, or with Freeborn County should the township board refuse.

At Twin Lakes’ Truth in Taxation hearing early this month, it took less than four minutes for the discussion to turn raucous. While monthly City Council meetings in years past would have ended in a half hour, that meeting stretched to almost three hours.

Residents and even some out-of-towners came to grill interim City Clerk Keith Haskell about the community’s budget, including how the local fire department was funded.

Things have gotten so bad, petitioners and officials say, that some previous city officials refuse to help current ones figure out city operations, while current council members and staff are often reluctant to share information with their critics.

The one thing people can agree on is that the fight in Twin Lakes started when city officials and volunteer firefighters agreed to disband the fire department in 2022. City officials cited costs and the fact that nearby Glenville, Emmons and Albert Lea could pick up firefighting duties at much less expense.

The current city officials said at the time the department’s pension fund was illegally being split among too many bank accounts and money was shifting around in suspicious ways. Former officials argue the pension had long been administered properly.

Two of the critics, husband and wife David and Lynda Vis, ran for the council, securing seats in 2022. Lynda’s brother David Prestholt, a former trucker nicknamed “Baretrap” for his radio CB handle, ran for mayor and won in 2024.

All three said they were spurred to run because they thought “something wasn’t right in this city,” Prestholt said. “Things were not being done legally.”

The Vises befriended him, seeking advice on city affairs. Haskell said he’s attended city council and school board meetings across the state as sort of a municipal government hawk. He moved to Twin Lakes a few years ago in part for his vehicle-detailing business but has since moved closer to Mankato.

Some residents are wary of Haskell’s criminal record. Among other offenses, he was charged and convicted in Minnesota for impersonating a police officer. He also faced an extradition order to South Dakota in 2007 for grand theft charges. He said he’s been open and often speaks to others about his past, which included substance abuse.

Haskell also has a history of filing lawsuits against cities over data practices issues, including one with Twin Lakes over financial information he and David Vis sought in 2024.

That suit was thrown out on a technicality. Haskell had sought up to $90,000, a number he said he needed to specify in the suit, but he said all he really wanted was $500 to donate to the fire department, as well as a request that Twin Lakes adopt a data practices policy and train officials on the issue.

“I want to be part of the solution,” he said. “I want to help this city.”

Haskell is Twin Lakes’ fourth city clerk since August, when the council terminated a longtime city clerk and accused her of mismanaging the city’s budget and hiding financial information. Two other clerks quickly left, and Haskell was hired as interim clerk in October. Petitioners say the previous city clerk was unfairly targeted and did her job well.

Haskell told residents at the meeting last week that the State Auditor’s Office and other agencies were investigating that clerk’s time in the city. He declined to name the other agencies during an interview.

A spokesperson for the State Auditor’s Office declined to confirm whether investigators were conducting an audit, citing state law.

Haskell, the Vises and Prestholt say they’ve encountered extreme pushback and obstacles while trying to learn how to run the city.

The city’s longtime water technician quit in January, and David Vis took up a handful of his duties. In spring, the city ran out of chlorine to treat the drinking water in its water tower, sending foul water to many homes for several days.

Residents received another boil-water notice last month, and the city recently picked up new violations for having too much radium in its water system.

The council blames the problems on lack of maintenance and an unwillingness to spend money to replace water, sewer and storm pipes. Critics argue the council didn’t want to listen to advice from previous city staff.

“They think they know everything, but they don’t know anything,” said Council Member Sandy Sletten, whose husband, Larry, is a former city maintenance worker.

Sletten, often the lone dissenting voice on the council, has served as an elected official for almost 30 years. She said the council has alienated much of the community, and she worries no one will take city jobs because of the drama.

Other issues add to the tension, too: A council seat came up in May, and petitioners said they pressed Prestholt to call a special election. Instead, he appointed his sister, who had lost her seat last fall.

Freeborn County sheriff’s deputies have been called to meetings several times, though they haven’t yet forcibly removed anyone.

Jean Epland, a former council member, spearheaded the petition calling for a special election on the city’s fate.

An administrative judge will hold a hearing in early January which may determine what would happen to Twin Lakes if residents eventually vote to dissolve the city. Petitioners needed at least 22 votes, or a third of the 65 residents who voted in the last election, to get the issue on the ballot. It’s unclear when a special election could be called.

Scott Marpe, board chair of nearby Nunda Township, said recently it was too early to say whether the township could absorb the city.

If residents vote to dissolve, it could take up to six months to settle the city’s affairs.

“This is our last resort,” Epland said. “We don’t want to have to burden the township, but we feel like we’ve run out of options.”

Haskell told residents at the council meeting earlier this month that he planned to move back to Twin Lakes “whether people like it or not.”

“How are you going to stop me?” he asked.

A man murmured in the back of the room, “Any way possible.”