COUNTRY
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2019
Serving Marine on St. Croix, Scandia, May Township
VOL. 36 NO. 34 www.countrymessenger.com $.75
LEVY SET FOR 2020: Marine City Council. PAGE 9
"If you can drive your grandkids, you can drive this!" Red Cross seeks more volunteers to deliver lifesaving blood products CONTRIBUTED
MOLLY RODEN
“It’s going to help somebody—it really is lifeblood,” explained Red Cross driver, Jerry Wahl who volunteers with his wife Karen. “You use a Red Cross mini-van. If you can drive your grandkids, you can drive this! It’s very doable.” Originally from Minnesota, the Wahls lived in Florida for three years as part of Jerry’s work as a Lutheran pastor. After retiring back
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Scandia residents, Jerry and Karen Wahl, volunteer with the Red Cross delivering life saving blood products from blood drives and taking them to testing labs and area hospitals.
in Scandia, Minnesota to be close to grandkids, Jerry and Karen, inspired by the Red Cross response to the 2017 Hurricanes,
contacted their local chapter to learn how they could give back. The Wahls have SEE RED CROSS, PAGE 2
Santa Claus came to Marine There’s a new Santa in town! For their first year, Larry Roden, and Gwen Roden dressed as Santa Claus and his helpful Christmas Elf to visit kids at Security State Bank of Marine during their Holiday Open House December 13. “They approached us earlier in late summer of early fall and we thought it would be a lot of fun,” said Gwen. “Larry even grew out his beard special for the event. It was just so much fun and we hope to do it again.”
O’Rourke announces retirement as Washington County administrator Molly O’Rourke, Washington County administrator, has announced that she will retire at the end of January. O’Rourke became county administrator in 2012. Prior to that, she was the county’s deputy administrator, and the director of the county’s
taxpayer and services and elections department, O’Rourke and the assistant auditor-treasurer. She joined Washington County in 1995. Previously, she worked for
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the City of St. Paul. The County Board, which hires the county administrator directly, will discuss the process for her successor at its meeting Dec. 17. In her note to employees announcing her retirement, O’Rourke SEE O'ROURKE, PAGE 2
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City budget to feature 7 percent levy increase BY KYLE WEAVER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
After four consecutive years of no increases, Scandia taxpayers will pay for a 7.08 percent bump in next year’s city tax levy. The Scandia City Council will vote to approve a 2020 budget this week that includes a $2,429,946 local tax levy, an increase of $172,074 over the levy amount taken in 2016-2019. According to documents provided during the council’s Dec. 4 Truth In Taxation budget hearing, the city’s budget calls for 2 percent cost-ofliving increases for non-union city staff and 2.75 increases for unionized public works staff.
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Those likely won’t be the only wage increases. Salary adjustments that were considered earlier this year for the fire chief, public works director, and city administrator—the result of a classification and compensation study done in April—were not implemented in the budget. Following the budget hearing, the council directed City Administrator Ken Cammilleri to work on a proposal for the city to provide those increases at a later date. The city’s 2020 spending plan includes $100,000 for design work and improvements to the Scandia SEE COUNCIL, PAGE 9
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