The Minnesota Department of Safety has yet to close an investigation in the fire on Sept. 13-14 that destroyed the Hastings Cooperative cleanup, and the company has been cited by the City of Hastings with failing to comply with an order to clean up debris at the site.
A Department of Safety spokesperson said last week that the investigation is still ongoing into the fire.
“There is no update with this fire investigation. It is still listed as open and no report has been filed. It's not uncommon for fire investigations of this magnitude to take a long time to close,” said Minnesota Department of Safety Public Information Officer Amber Schindeldecker.
City officials have said that investigators have given the green light to the project being cleaned up. Some work has been done, but there’s a lot left to go.
The vacant creamery building had closed in August after 110 years of serving local farms and the community. City of Hastings officials are anxious to have the site, an eyesore on busy Hwy. 61, cleaned up.
The Hastings Cooperative Creamery closed Aug. 18 and its Dairy Store across Vermillion Street days later.
In June, the creamery was disconnected from the sewer system by the Metropolitan Council after the business reportedly leaked thousands of gallons of milk into the city sewer system. The Hastings Creamery was cited with six violations over the previous seven months.
The Hastings Creamery shutdown left 45 farms that it purchased product from to find other places to sell their milk.
State Rep. Shane Hudella of Hastings brought Hastings Creamery, City of Hastings and Metropolitan Council officials together last summer in hopes of coming to a solution to get the creamery in compliance with Met Council wastewater rules. For months prior to the close, the Hastings Creamery was transporting wastewater via tanker trucks to St. Paul to be processed.
The 11-alarm fire was called in at the Hastings Creamery, 1701 Vermillion St., at 10:34 p.m. Sept. 13. By the time fire crews arrived on the scene, large plumes of black smoke could be seen from the building. Moments later, flames enveloped the entire middle of the property. Firefighters controlled the blaze by about 2 am. Sept. 14 and were called to the scene days later for flare ups.
The Hastings Creamery was given a deadline of Feb. 9 for site clean-up. Community Development Director John Hinzman told the Hastings Economic Development and Redevelopment Authority at its meeting Thursday, March 14 that a city citation has been issued because of the lack of clean-up of the site.
“They’re doing some work on-site over there. We did issue them a citation last month and are following up on that to try to get to some conclusion for the cleanup on that project,” said Hinzman.
HEDRA and Hastings City Councilmember Dave Pemble expressed concern about debris being blown around the neighborhood by spring winds.
“Is there any way we can insist they cover over that roofing material or something with the spring storms coming in? A lot of that stuff could be blowing into the neighboring properties and creating some issues,” said Pemble.
Hinzman responded, “I’ll take a look at that.”
