WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 2016
Serving Polk County’s St. Croix Valley since 1897
VOL. 118 NO. 38 www.osceolasun.com $1.00
GIVEBIG: Donate to your favorite non-profit April 26. PAGES 13-16
Osceola captures TIF revenue BY TIM KRENZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Osceola’s Tax Increment Finance (TIF) District 2 can return approximately $1.26 million to the village Capital Improvement Fund for projects completed or authorized prior to July 27, 2014, reported Village Administrator Joel West April 12. The particular TIF district, according to an April 8 memo from West to board members, “is generating additional revenue.” Money generated for the village in TIF 2 can only go toward capitalized municipal projects —roads, water, sewer, etc. — within the specified district. It cannot go into general government funding of projects. TIF District 2 will undergo de-certification in four years, at which time the revenues from that district will be shared by other tax-power jurisdictions. Policing grants The Osceola Police Department received two
grants: $10,000 for traffic safety inspections and $7,500 for seat belt awareness checks. According to a memo to the board from Police Chief Ron Pedrys, “This [traffic safety] grant covers overtime and fringe wages for officers who work special traffic enforcement details (with the goals of improving traffic law compliance and overall highway safety).” Also, the board discussed traffic control measures during the summer holidays with US Highway 8 under extensive and even unplanned repair. Since controlling and facilitating traffic with onsite manpower at the Wis. Hwy 35 an US Hwy 243 intersections cost the village money, inquiries will get made to find reimbursement, with some past precedent behind the village’s search and request for that special traffic funding. Road improvements SEE VILLAGE, PAGE 2
Making sense of multiple sclerosis Few answers but plenty of growth for Osceola native after diagnosis BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@OSCEOLASUN.COM
It started with a bad headache that wasn’t going away. Then Kelli Johnson’s vision began to blur – and get worse. In an effort to find out what was wrong, doctors gave the Osceola native (née Kelli Kruschke) an MRI imaging test. At first it didn’t look like much was wrong. They sent her home. Then, a phone call. Doctors wanted to see her again right away. She had optic neuritis, a swelling nerve was pushing against her eye. As it turns out, says Johnson, optic neuritis is one of the more common symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS), an unpredict-
able, often disabling disease of the central nervous system that disrupts the flow of information within the brain, and between the brain and body. Johnson was diagnosed with MS in November 2014. Now 25, she says the diagnosis helped her make sense of previously mysterious experiences. “A couple years before, my left arm had fallen asleep for a week or two,” she recalls. “There was nothing that could be done about it and eventually it went away.” In many ways, MS still baffles doctors and researchers. The progress, severity and specific symptoms of the disease in any one person cannot yet be predicted, and the cause of MS is still unknown. Scientists believe the disease is triggered by environmental factors in a person who is genetically prone to respond. Though the disease is not technically hereditary, Johnson
SCF addresses complexity of ‘historical property’ BY TIM KRENZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The issue of the St. Croix Falls football field on Vincent Street once again confronted the city council at its April 11 meeting. With some resolution in sight over the potential designation of the public property as historic, the larger question of historic value versus functional and useful property remains, and every community in the St. Croix Valley will have to confront this larger issue at some point. Once designated historic, any private property (like a home) or publicly owned property (like the football field) becomes recorded in that status by the Polk County Register of Deeds. It then enters a nebulous and opaque protective SEE SCF CITY, PAGE 5
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“I’m married, I work, I still do everything I did before,” says Kelli (Kruschke) Johnson, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2014.
says someone else in the family usually has it. But no one in her family had been diagnosed. Most people with MS are diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50. Two to three times more women are diagnosed with the disease than men. And it’s not as rare as many might think. In the northern half of the
The current press box was neither designed in the architectural style of the late 1930s nor built with materials used in that era. If the football field were designated historic property, any future updates would have to be done in a historically accurate manner.
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SEE MS, PAGE 2
Osceola aims to boost tourism BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@OSCEOLASUN.COM
SUZANNE LINDGREN |THE SUN
United States, more than one person per thousand has MS (statistics show 11 to 14 cases per 10,000 people). Several girls and young women are being diagnosed in the Osceola area, says Johnson’s mother, Darla Kruschke. And if that rate is rising, so little is known about MS that it’s difficult to
An intentional effort to increase tourism in Osceola could improve economic vitality in the village and boost the St. Croix Valley’s reputation as a great place to get away. Thus far, the Osceola Area Chamber of Commerce has been working mostly behind the scenes on its tourism growth project, but signs of the effort have surfaced. Last fall Wisconsin’s Department of Tourism shot a promotional video of the tourist train and Osceola was also featured in the Minneapolis Star Tribune as a quaint village worthy of a day trip.
Why visit Osceola? A local group listed the village’s top assets as: • The Osceola and St. Croix Valley Railway • Cascade Falls • St. Croix River • Trail network • Agricultural tourism — visits to local farms and wineries • Downtown area — shopping and eating • Transportation — highway corridors and the airport • Events such as Wheels & Wings • Nature-based activities
SEE TOURISM, PAGE 10
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