UPDATED: Tweet & email sources claim Dennis Egan has resigned as mayor of Red Wing; local paper cited

Update: 8:56: Confirmed: Dennis Egan resigns as mayor

We'll post excerpts from the Republican Eagle article when it becomes available. The citizens andcity council membersin Red Wing deserve great credit for bird-dogging the former mayor's double-dealing.

Props to journalists--from Charley Shaw at Politics in Minnesota, Tony Kennedy and Jon Tevlin at the Star Tribune, Brett Boese at the Post Bulletin, and the editorial boards of the Post Bulletin and Winona Daily News for shedding light and analysis on this story.

Original edited post: Sources say Dennis Egan has resigned as Mayor of Red Wing.

Kent Laugen, a Red Wing lawyer and resident who was been a sharp critic of Mayor Dennis Egan's decision to take a job as Executive Director of the Minnesota Industrial Sand Council, tweets that "Red Wing Mayor Egan, under extreme pressure over frac sand lobbyist job; resigns."

A source emails Bluestem that this news--that Egan has resigned as Mayor-- is on the front page of the latest Red Wing Republican Eagle. There's nothing on the paper's webpage, but that's not unsual given that premium content isn't loaded on the site for a day or two.

Neither source is confirmed online.

There's nothing yet in the Winona Daily News or the Post Bulletin, the area's dailies that have covered the issue, or the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Nor does the city's website carry any notice of this alleged development.

Here's the tweet (be warned that the second reply is a link that our security software flagged as a hack, so don't click on it if you delve off the page.):

Red Wing Mayor Egan, under extreme pressure over frac sand lobbyist job; resigns.
— Kent Laugen (@KentLaugen) February 23, 2013

Mayor Egan had not testified at Tuesday's joint hearing on frac sand mining at the state capitol. At their last meeting, the Red Wing City Council voted to hire an independent investigator to look at legal and ethical issues related to Egan's dual role. They had also voted to ask the state Attorney General's office for advice on the issues.

Yesterday, State Senator Matt Schmit (DFL-Red Wing) announced that he would introduce a bill mandating a GEIS for the silica sand industry. The bill, SF786, is online, and Bluestem posted about it in Press release: Senator Matt Schmit, others to introduce frac sand mining legislation on Monday.

We''ll update--or retract--this post as more information comes in.

Photo: (Former?) Red Wing Mayor Dennis Egan.

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