FREE PRESS AMERY
1892 - 2017
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2017
125 YEARS STRONG
VOL. 123 NO. 18 www.theameryfreepress.com $1.00
FALL FESTIVAL: Another community celebration in the books SECTION B
No more Boe’s Bog?
Clayton officials meet to tackle police concerns
BY JESSICA DE LA CRUZ EDITOR@THEAMERYFREEPRESS.COM
Every Memorial and Labor Day weekend for the better part of twenty years, ‘Boe’s Mud Bog,’ has brought together mud-bogging enthusiasts for muddy, summer fun. The word-of-mouth event that takes place in a pasture just south of Range has turned into quite the gathering spot. Owners Deb and Wayne Boe estimate that around 100 campers came for Memorial Day’s event this year, and another full weekend was planned for earlier this month. A new access driveway had been installed, portable bathrooms were ordered, and several local non-profits had stepped up to sell food. But the event was not to be. After operating without a permit for years, the Boes report that ‘complaints’ prompted them to apply for a conditional use permit earlier this summer to allow mud bogging and camping on the property. “It’s just a pasture with a swamp,” Deb said of the muddy spot on their sixty acres. But during a hearing held August 22, Department of Natural Resources and county zoning officals disagreed with that assessment, calling it a ‘navigable body of water,’ and as of just before SEE BOG PAGE 2A
BY JESSICA DE LA CRUZ EDITOR@THEAMERYFREEPRESS.COM
BOB JOHNSON
A community celebrates The Swedish Club’s Julia Johnson of Eureka waves the Swedish Flag while dancing in Saturday’s Fall Festival parade. Fall Festival coverage in Section B.
After a September 8 meeting of the Clayton Village Board in which both members of the Clayton Police Department were placed on paid administrative leave, village officials met once again September 14 to take care of several more matters of urgent concern. The meetings follow the September 6 arrest of Clayton Police Chief Grant Pickard, who has been charged with misconduct relating to alleged sexual contact with his female subordinate officer. The board approved a motion to have the village attorney secure an outside law office to conduct an independent investigation of the Clayton Police Department. They also approved the restructuring of the village’s Police Commission, a group that has historically met annually to oversee the department. That group will now be comprised of Brenda Ketz, Jim Kuntz, Randy Slack, and newly added members Angela Grosskreutz and Leif Ringstad. Clear Lake Police Chief Tim Strohbusch presented the board with details of Clayton’s open municipal citations and circuit court cases, offering his assistance in cases that have yet to be resolved. “It is very difficult with your police chief’s current status to have him as a witness in a case of any sort,” said Strohbusch. Strohbusch offered the board a proposed SEE CLAYTON PAGE 2A
Clausen named National Merit Scholarship semifinalist Officials of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced the names of approximately 16,000 Semifinalists in the 63rd annual National Merit Scholarship Program last week. Among them was Amery senior, Dylan Clausen. Dylan is the son of Heidi and Dave Clausen of Clayton. Clausen joins a select group of academically talented high school seniors who will have an opportunity to contin-
ue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million that will be offered next spring. About 90 percent of the Semifinalists are expected to attain Finalist standing, and about half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar® title. NMSC, a not-for-profit organization that operates without government
assistance, was established in 1955 specifically to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program. About 1.6 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools entered the 2018 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2016 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. Amery senior Dylan Clausen
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