Stretch of I-94 in Minnesota dedicated to 2 MnDOT workers killed in 1968
Signs installed recently honor the life of Kenneth Sellon and Eugene Schlotfeldt. (FOX 9)
(FOX 9) - Decades after their deaths, two MnDOT workers killed on the job are being remembered along a stretch of highway in Minnesota.
Two memorial signs have been placed along I-94 between Sauk Centre and Alexandria for the men killed in 1968 after being hit by a car.
This a project 45 years in the making, one that took help from lawmakers and the community. The whole thing came together because of one of the men's grandsons.
Jerry Middelstadt’s work brought everyone involved to a room Friday afternoon to honor his grandfather, Kenneth Sellon, and his grandfather's colleague, Eugene Schlotfeldt, affectionately called “Schlotty." In that room, family members and friends gathered to tell stories and remember their loved ones.
Middelstadt says he wanted to figure out a way to honor his grandfather and the other man killed that day so that their legacy lives on.
“He needs to be remembered,” said Middelstadt. “What he did, he was doing his job. He was killed on his job. There was no reason for it.”
Sellon and Schlotfeldt were both working along I-94 on November 14, 1968 when a truck crashed into their worksite, killing both men.
"All of our plans changed on that horrible day," said Schlotfeldt’s daughter Beth Watson. "Waze never said to us ‘heartache ahead. Recalculate.'"
The section of I-94 was dedicated Friday, becoming the "Kenneth E. Sellon and Eugene B. Schlotfeldt Memorial Highway."
"It really touches you at the very core of your being because our whole lives we’ve lived with this," said Watson.
Watson was just six years old when her father was killed and Jerry was 14. Their families have been dealing with the losses for more than 50 years.
But now the signs will pass along their legacies in a way that may help others.
“To slow down and give some consideration to these people,” said Watson. “They are someone’s husband, someone’s dad.”
According to MnDOT, since 1960 there have been more than 45 workers killed along highways while they were working. April 28 is their Worker Memorial Day, where they honor all of those lives lost.