Will tiny southern Minnesota city’s feud end after critics sweep election?

The years-long feud between current and former city officials in a tiny city south of Albert Lea may soon come to an end after critics swept city council members out of office Tuesday. Yet the new mayor and council members in Twin Lakes say they have a long way to go to fix the 134-resident town’s various issues , from hiring a new water and sewer maintenance worker to eventually tackling millions of dollars’ worth of much-needed infrastructure improvements. “It won’t come easy, but we have a lot of support and that’s what’s needed,” Mayor-elect Pat Gavle said. Gavle beat her opponent, City Clerk Keith Haskell, by a margin of almost 2-to-1. Fellow critics Jean Epland and Val Kvale also handily defeated husband-and-wife city council members David and Lynda Vis. Advertisement The election reflects dissatisfaction among Twin Lakes residents with most of the city council and Haskell, who was hired more than a year ago after serving as a consultant for Mayor David “Baretrap” Prestholt. A clean sweep could also resolve the ongoing drama in a feud that has included everything from dead rats and social media scraps to assault citations and restraining orders. The trouble began in 2022 when the council decided to dissolve the city’s Fire Department, which led David and Lynda Vis to run for office. From there, disagreements descended into public squabbles that dragged council meetings on for hours, prompted the city’s water and sewer workers to quit and fueled disagreements over how Twin Lakes taxes were spent. Officials, including Haskell, say previous council members and city clerks failed to track how city funds were spent and didn’t tackle issues in a timely manner. Gavle, Sletten and other former city officials say the Vises, Prestholt and Haskell haven’t been forthright about where city funds are spent.