WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2020
Serving Polk County’s St. Croix Valley since 1897
VOL. 122 NO. 25 www.osceolasun.com $1.00
SPORTS: OHS boys basketball beats Amery. PAGE 11
Village involvement in Farmington mine expansions sought BY MATT ANDERSON EDITOR@OSCEOLASUN.COM
The Village of Osceola has thrown their hat into the ring regarding recent mining expansion issues in the Town of Farmington. At the January 14 board meeting, the village indicated that they would be directly contacting the board of Farmington to become involved in the conversations regarding any expansion that might take place. The board of Farmington recently spoke with attorney Paul Mahler who recommended a continuation of the current moratorium on any expansion of North 40 Mine until June of 2020. This will give them time to consult professionals and draft ordinances appropriate for a proposed expansion. Aware of that continuation, the Village of Osceola hopes to use that time to consult with Farmington and discuss their concerns with that board – one of them being the possibility of village expansion. “The concern is if [the mine] does expand, it’s set to expand, I believe around 200 acres which is right on our border, which is an area where SEE VILLAGE, PAGE 2
Law and order in Osceola OHS Mock Trial team starts its first year BY MATT ANDERSON EDITOR@OSCEOLASUN.COM
Osceola High school students have taken a step into the world of law. In their inaugural year, the Osceola High School Mock Trial Team started through community education programming and is organized by volunteers Becky Styles, and attorney coach, John Gearin. The team consists of 14 students currently and has already taken home a win after a competition January 7 against Irondale High School in Minnesota. Because Minnesota has a well-established mock trial program through the Minnesota State Bar Association, Osceola’s mock trial team is competing against 139 teams across the St. Croix River at the historic Ramsay County Courthouse
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The OHS Mock Trial Team includes Margaret Nalen, Brecken Styles, Emily Jaroscak, Ethan Robinson, Sean Rogers, Zach Solsrud, Aubrey Johnson, Sarah Carlson, Morgan Johnson, Jacob Jensen, Ella Derosier, Shaw Styles, Morgan Feldt and Sophia Heyer.
in St. Paul. Each team prepares to compete in a single mock trial and are scored on their performances against one another. “There’s one case for the whole state,” says Styles. “All the teams prepare for this one case either on defense, or on prosecution, depending
on when they are competing with three attorneys and three witnesses on each side. So, we have a defense and a prosecution team wrapped up in our one team at Osceola.” The current case that the teams are competing on is a case of negligent homicide in which a friend provides opiates
to another person who overdoses and dies. According to Gearin and Styles, a case like this is very complicated with many moving parts. “This is a very, very difficult prosecution case because reasonable doubt can be shown everySEE TEAM, PAGE 8
Dresser, Osceola meet to clear up sewer billing slip BY MATT ANDERSON EDITOR@OSCEOLASUN.COM
The Village of Dresser met with Village of Osceola administrator, Ben Krumenauer, to discuss the recent revelation of under billed wastewater treatment in Dresser at their regularly scheduled meeting in January. In previous meetings, the board discussed a bill of roughly $60,000 dollars in treated wastewater that went unnoticed from 2014 to 2016 due to misreading of flow rates by an Osceola employee during that time. The board met with Krume-
nauer to discuss how paying off that debt would be handled. “It’s a shame that this happened, but the village of Osceola has covered a total of $63,000 dollars in costs and we want to work with Dresser on finding a method to slowly, and appropriately pay it back,” said Krumenauer at the meeting. “I think what would work best is to do this slowly. We can spread this out…I would suggest that we work really closely and look at a couple year payback.” The topic of responsibility was brought up at
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previous meetings and was revisited by Dresser trustee, Grace Bjorklund. “I would think we should be discussing who is responsible for an employee mistake in the Village of Osceola,” she said. After the issue was brought up again, village attorney Tim Laux made clear that responsibility was not the point of the meeting. “This is not a fault issue. This is a utility payment issue,” he said. “This concept, although it’s understandable, is not applicable. What SEE DRESSER, PAGE 8
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MATT ANDERSON | THE SUN
Village of Osceola administrator Ben Krumenauer (right) met with the board of trustees in Dresser to clear up a quarterly sewer billing issue of over $60,000 that went unpaid from 2014 to 2017.
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