Bill would name highway for fallen prison officer
Minnesota lawmakers will consider naming a stretch of a state highway after a corrections officer killed in the line of duty.
A bill introduced Monday would designate a portion of Highway 95 as the "Corrections Officer Joseph Gomm Memorial Highway." Gomm was killed in an attack by a prison inmate at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Stillwater last July. Gomm served as a corrections officer for 16 years.
Republican Rep. Bob Dettmer of Forest Lake said such a tribute is appropriate. It would cover the riverside highway north of Interstate 94 up to Trunk Highway 36. Signs with Gomm's name would be posted along the route.
"And it goes right by the prison, too," Dettmer said. "So, it would be in honor of him to have it named after him then."
Similar legislation recognizing other fallen law enforcement officers has passed in recent years without opposition.
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