Kim was selected for Dakota County Jury Duty within a year of officially moving here. She pushed it back due to our wedding and work issues. She called in on Sunday night (as instructed) and was told she wouldn’t have to report Monday. She called again last night but got the dreaded news — she would have to report between 8am and 9:30am to the Dakota County Courthouse (1560 Highway 55 in Hastings).
We got up at 5am, got ready, and piled into the only car we own. Dakota County will pay you $27/day for mileage. It doesn’t cover the fact that it will be 4x my normal commute or enough for a taxi because there is no public transportation to the Courthouse. Real fucking cute putting the Courthouse in the middle of nowhere. Thanks! If you’re going to do that, and make it difficult for people to get to, at least provide a shuttle, public transportation, or enough to cover a round-trip taxi fare!
We left our house at 5:42am and arrived at the County Judicial Center at 6:16am for a total of 22.5 miles. I took a slightly different route home to avoid traffic and lights and got back at 6:40am. Not even worth it to stop at the house so I drove straight to work. I got to work at 7:24am (about 15 minutes earlier than I normally do and almost two hours after I left home.) Mind you, depending on the time that Kim finishes up, she may be waiting for several HOURS afterward for me to come and get her. I probably won’t arrive until 5:45pm or later and depending on traffic, we may not arrive home until nearly 7pm. That’s about 14 hours of wasted time because of poor planning by Dakota County. What a way to treat your citizens!
If Kim has to report tomorrow, she is going to have to report at 9am. Problem with that is that only the County Jail is open when I drop her off at 6:15am and she has to wait around in their lobby for nearly 3 hours. So, in addition to the hardship placed upon ME by creating an inconveinient situation, they are also creating a hardship on their jurors by making them wait in what feels like an unsafe location for many hours, because they refuse to have the lowest common denominator of common sense when planning the location of the Dakota County Courthouse.
Best thing about all of this? We could be doing this every day for multiple weeks! Yay!
Thanks Dakota County for providing the wonderful services you provide including adequate public transportation to and from your mandatory jury duty.
See all the pictures from today here.
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November 9th, 2005 at 8:35 am
After picking Kim up and driving her home the total driving distance was 121.7 miles. Thankfully, someone that was waiting in the jury pool with her was willing to help us out and drive her to the Courthouse today. Depending on who is picked and how long they need to stick around, I may not need to pick her up either.
I’m crossing my fingers.
June 27th, 2009 at 4:59 am
dont you know that your government doesn’t care in the least . Im not trying to be rude, they simply dont care. If it doesn’t affect them they are not going to bat an eye. I just left the web site of crooked Dakota county judges and these criminals dont instill confidence in the system. Can the public trust it’s servants? Certainly not when someone like a judge a cop or a politician is in power.My government could never get me to sit on a jury I know first hand of the crooked police and judges that sit in powerful places.
January 4th, 2011 at 7:31 am
[...] link is really useful for all those who have to visit the city. Some may remember that there is no eco-friendly/economical way to get to the Dakota County Courthouse in Hastings and Dakota County residents are charged a Wheelage Tax in order to promote more transportation [...]