Cottonwood residents relieved after bus trial verdict

Memories of the school bus crash that killed four children last February are still raw in the southwest Minnesota town of Cottonwood.

Last night, Olga Franco, 24, was found guilty on all counts in connection with the accident. Cottonwood residents said the crash has left a permanent scar on the town.

Six months after the accident that shook this small southwest Minnesota community to its core, most people seemed happy that Franco had been found guilty.

People shake their heads slowly or even tear up as they talk about the loss and suffering the bus crash caused. The jury found that Franco was driving the van which struck the Lakeview school bus on Feb. 19, 2008.

Lifelong Cottonwood resident Lisa Fratzke said the key piece of evidence for her was that Franco was sitting in the driver's seat, pinned by the collapsed dash board. Fratzke said the verdict seems to close a chapter in the town's life.

"I was relieved," said Fratzke. "I was relieved for the families, for the community, it would have been a whole different atmosphere in our town if it would have been different. People would be upset. And we can't bring the kids back but this gives us a chance to move on and time to heal."

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Fratzke is a real estate agent in the Cottonwood area. Before that she owned a beauty salon in town for 25 years.

"Cottonwood is a very close-knit town and we all love each other, look out for one another," said Fratzke. "And these kids I knew, they came into my salon. The families I'm close to. It's a very hard thing to go through."

Fratzke said the bus crash has been difficult for everyone in town, all ages and races. Fratzke said there are a couple of dozen Latino residents in the town of just over 1,000 people. Fratzke said they took part in memorial services for the bus crash victims. She said there have been no signs of a rift between Latino and white residents in town because of the bus crash.

"We have a wonderful Hispanic population and very family-oriented," said Fratzke. "I don't feel the Hispanic idea really was a problem."

One area resident who's active in the Latino community agreed with Fratzke's assessment. She said the Latinos in Cottonwood did not know Olga Franco, and don't want to be linked to her in the news media.

For another Cottonwood resident, the verdict is just another step in the town's long path to healing. James Dahl works at a hardware store in nearby Marshall, but at times he's taught art classes in Cottonwood. He said he knew the four children that died.

"I just remember all those faces and those children," said Dahl. "It's a tragedy, and I don't think anybody really knows how to deal with it. It's a loss and there's no explanation."

Dahl remembers that on the day of the accident he was making a hardware store delivery in the area. He remembers a poem popped into his head and he wrote it down.

"Life comes at you fast and hard, like falling on ice.

At first it hurts, but you get back up

And you try not to fall again."

Later he realized he wrote the poem at just about the same time that the bus crash was taking place. He said it was just a coincidence. He was writing about his own problems in life. But it's clear the bus crash has left a lot of people hurting.

Chris Lorentz expects to encounter a lot of that sense of loss. Lorentz just moved to Cottonwood to work at a church in town. He said he knows he'll be ministering to people still hurt by the bus crash.

"Most of what you got to do is just be there for people and just, if they need help washing dishes, or watching the kids for a night, or this or that," said Lorentz. "Helping to meet the little needs, and letting know that you care about them and you're here to help in whatever way you can."

Lorentz said he expects to listen and encourage a lot. It's his way of helping people recover from the day the town of Cottonwood took its own hard fall.

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