The Anoka County Sheriff's Office is investigating whether an apparent death threat on a city employee and two elected officials stemmed from a dispute over the city of Nowthen's baseball park.
On Tuesday morning, while checking the city's mailbox, City Clerk Corrie LaDoucer found an envelope scrawled with the words, "No Joe, No Laurie, No Dan, No Dan Plan."
Inside the envelope: three shotgun shells.
"Dan Plan" gets its name from Park and Recreation Committee Chairman Dan Williams, who introduced a proposal to broaden the scope of the city's baseball park, the onetime home of the Nowthen Pioneers town baseball team. The Pioneers left Nowthen abruptly after the 2007 season, citing a contentious relationship with the previous town board.
Laurie Olmon is the City Council's parks liaison; Joe Glaze is the city's road and bridge supervisor, who also is in charge of park maintenance. Olmon has supported Williams' plan, and Glaze was accused of being unsupportive of the team's needs at the ballpark before it moved to Elk River last year.
The City Council and the Park and Recreation Committee have been split over the question of how to bring the town team back to Nowthen and over who should have access to the facility.
The team wants a "priority field," with use restricted to league events for players 14 and older. Williams' plan, introduced at the June 2 Park and Rec meeting, would open the outfield area for flea markets, car shows, carnivals, concerts and more, to make the ballpark a place that could draw more people, and possibly create revenue for the city of less than 4,300. There is no cost-benefit analysis for the plan yet. Under the current system, the teams that use the ballpark from East Bethel and Ham Lake take care of field maintenance; the city is responsible for keeping the outfield mowed.
Mayor Bill Schulz dismissed the role of the ballpark issue in the incident.
"Baseball, as far as I'm concerned, is an insignificant issue here," he said. "The issue in this community that we're dealing with is this death threat. We have to deal with that and see how the Sheriff's Department is going to handle that."
But the Anoka County Sheriff's Office is taking the underlying issue into account.
"We're not saying it's the baseball team, but we'd be remiss if we didn't look at the timing of the announcement [Dan's Plan] and people being upset," said Lt. Paul Sommer, spokesman for the Sheriff's Office.
Olmon, who has received half a dozen harassing notes in the past related to her gender, said she hopes the threat was unrelated to the ballfield, but that it doesn't seem likely.
"The only tie between the three of us is the baseball field and the team," she said.
The issue of the baseball field spans years.
The Pioneers coach, Ken Ott, has described a series of confrontations with the former town board, including issues over outfield billboards, rental and maintenance agreements, and more.
He garnered an agreement to use the Elk River High School ballfield and severed his relationship with the city in the fall of 2007.
"It was just one thing after another," he said in an interview this spring. "I made up my mind. I said it wasn't a workable situation and I would transfer to Elk River."
Still, he said, he had hoped to return someday to his hometown, and the ballpark he and his team helped build and maintain for years. Ott was unavailable for comment on Thursday.
The city incorporated last summer, changed its name from Burns Township to Nowthen, and elected a new mayor and City Council, several of whom are supportive of bringing the Pioneers back to town.
Olmon was supportive, too, and although she campaigned as a supporter of Nowthen baseball, she was not willing to give the team what she saw as exclusive rights to a city-owned facility.
"I would love to have the Pioneers back," she said. "But I'm not going to roll out the red carpet. The Twins don't own their stadium. Why should we give the Nowthen Pioneers their own field and get nothing for it?"
City Council Member Harlan Meyer, who has been supportive of bringing the Pioneers back to town, was clear in expressing his dismay over the threats.
"Nothing is worth that," he said.
But he added that he thinks opening up the field for other activities would result in trampled grass and an inferior playing experience.
"The fact remains that a lot of people have spent a lot of time in the past making that ballfield what it is today, and it is one of the finest ballfields in Anoka County," he said.
For his part, Williams admits he has been very vocal in promoting his plan. He has campaigned across the city, gathering 204 signatures in support of broadening the use of the ballpark. He brought it up at Tuesday night's City Council meeting, where he got into a shouting match with a council member.
"I'm an in-your-face person, and I'm dealing with old-school people," he said. "The team's not here, but they treat [the ballpark] like it's a shrine and it's my tax dollars out there."
Maria Elena Baca • 612-673-4409
