Local News

Winona County gets bid to buy one government building

Published

6 years ago

August 17, 2018

WINONA, Minn. — La Crosse County has been busy the last few years, selling its old courthouse and moving county offices into a former bank.

Now, Winona County is going through a similar re-organization. This week, Winona County received a bid from Fastenal founder Bob Kierlin to buy the county government center for $700,000.
The county has been making plans to move offices into another of its buildings in downtown Winona. County administrator Ken Fritz says saving money is a big motivation.

“Depending on what the sale of the government center would bring to the county, it looks like we can save about ($1.5 million) over 10 years,” he said.

Fritz says since there’s extra space available in the county office building, so it makes sense to move departments out of the government center:

“There’s almost a whole floor available,” Fritz said. “We’re only moving 44 people. So it’s not a gigantic move.”

A licensing center might still remain in the government center, even if Kierlin or another party buys the property.

Related Topics:fastenal Winona

Brad Williams

A native of Prairie du Chien, Brad graduated from UW - La Crosse and has worked in radio news for more than 30 years, mostly in the La Crosse area. He regularly covers local courts and city and county government. Brad produces the features "Yesterday in La Crosse" and "What's Buried on Brad's Desk." He also writes the website "Triviazoids," which finds odd connections between events that happen on a certain date, and he writes and performs with the local comedy group Heart of La Crosse. Brad been featured on several national TV programs because of his memory skills.