WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2017
Serving Polk County’s St. Croix Valley since 1897
VOL. 119 NO. 25 www.osceolasun.com $1.00
SPORTS: Osceola boys basketball falls to a barrage of treys. PAGE 10
Slow, steady and threatened by habitat loss
School turns to taxpayers for budget help
Riverway speaker series kicks off with focus on wood turtle BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@OSCEOLASUN.COM
Wood turtles, known for tree-like growth rings on their shells, were once common in northern Wisconsin, east central Minnesota and northern Michigan. Unfortunately, the species has declined and now sits on Wisconsin’s list of threatened species. The source of the threat? Habitat loss linked to human development, according to Carly Lapin, a district ecologist for the Wisconsin DNR’s Bureau of Natural Heritage Conservation. “It’s primarily hu-
BY PAULO MARTINS CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The School District of Osceola’s Board of Education has decided to ask taxpayers for additional school funding. Residents in the district will have a chance to vote in April on whether or not to provide the school with $3.8 million over four years, recurring indefinitely. Board members have been wringing their hands for some time over this decision, and just how much to ask for. The Sun reported in December on how concern for maintaining the school system’s operating budget in the face of an increasing year-to-year deficit of the school system had stymied hopes for a new elementary building. After much discussion, the board decided to vote on a plan to ask taxpayers for more money. Discussion preceding the vote was centered around the details of exactly how much taxpayers would be asked for, the effects that overriding the state’s levy limits would have on state funding, and the school district’s budget going forward. Board Director Keri Upzen was concerned about voter perception of the bill and how it could lead to resistance that might hinder the bill’s passing and risk the school not getting the funding it needed. She wanted to ensure that the language was not go-
TRISHA SHEARS
The Wisconsin DNR has been investigating wood turtle ecology and conservation strategies since 2014. Ecologist Carly Lapin will share findings at a Jan. 19 presentation in Hayward, the first in this year’s Riverway Speaker Series. Different topics will be covered later this year in St. Croix Falls and Stillwater.
man-caused,” said Lapin, explaining that habitat lost to expanded human development has reduced the wood turtle’s rates of adult
survivorship. “Road mortality is also a major threat,” she added. Lapin attributed another symptom, re-
duced nesting success, to increased predation by species linked to human development, such SEE TURTLES, PAGE 5
Following vote, Osceola passes ‘We the People’ Resolution opposes corporate personhood, money as speech BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@OSCEOLASUN.COM
The Village of Osceola formally moved to “reclaim democracy from the expansion of corporate personhood rights and the corrupting influence of unregulated political contributions and spending” last week, passing a resolution that will be sent to state and federal representatives with a request to enact legislation. The resolution is part of a national grassroots
SUZANNE LINDGREN THE SUN
Trustee Walt Piszczek, second from left, opposed the ‘We the People’ resolution, saying Osceola voters didn’t know what they were approving on Nov. 8.
effort to overturn the Supreme Court’s 2010 “Citizens United” decision, which freed corporations and unions to spend unlimited outside funds on political campaigns.
Osceola voters showed strong support in November for amending the nation’s Constitution to reduce the influence of money in politics. Of 1,203 voters 973 voted in favor of
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Cutting services and staff, the district has increased its operating budget just 0.2 percent, about $49,000 in the last several years.
board to communicate the needs and ramifications of the bill to the voters through media outreach, and that the community has been supportive of past increases. A point that was emphasized during the meeting was that the district is not being extravagant in asking for this increase. The school system has only upped its operating budget by 0.2 percent, or about $49,000, in the last several years. They have achieved this through cuts to programming, services and staff. However, the board agreed that they can no longer keep cutting without impacting the education of the children. A budget increase would allow the school to cover its operating cost and begin to save money for SEE SCHOOL, PAGE 5
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the measure; 157 voted against. “If it hadn’t been on the ballot, people wouldn’t have been able to express their
ing to confuse community members, and that the amount they were asking for was not too high. Board president Timm Johnson responded by saying it was up to the
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