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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2018 VOL. 121 NO. 07 www.osceolasun.com $1.00
SPORTS: OHS volleyball wins Osceola Invitational. PAGE 13
Trail planning process under scrutiny in Town of Osceola BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@OSCEOLASUN.COM
SUZANNE LINDGREN | THE SUN
Stener crowned Miss Osceola
Abbigail Stener was crowned Miss Osceola Sunday night at the Osceola Community Fair. Megan Olson was crowned first princess and Savanna Grant was crowned second princess. More fair photos on page 10.
Town of Osceola sees some progress with cluttered yards BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@OSCEOLASUN.COM
After sending letters in June requesting that four property owners tidy their cluttered yards, board members in the Town of Osceola checked in on the clean up efforts last week. Results were mixed. The board gave one property a pass based on the owners’ efforts to tidy and their promise to build a fence that will screen the view. Another property owner showed some signs of an attempt to clean up, but not enough to come into compliance. A third had rid part of the yard of clutter, though much remained. A fourth property owner, they ruled, had cleaned enough to
come into compliance with the town code. The township will notify two of the four property owners that their 60-day deadline to clean up has passed. If the situation is not remedied immediately, the town code directs that the township issue a citation and have the items removed at the owner’s expense. The public nuisance code can be found in chapter 10 of the town’s ordinances, abatement is addressed in section 10.7. Other business • The board denied a request from the Osceola Historical Society to mow and brush along Depot Road in the Village of Osceola. Joyce Tesch, vice president of the historical society, said
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she approached the town because it had the equipment to do the heavy-duty job and the village did not. The board voted two to one to deny the request. • Approximately $10,000 in spending was approved to replace the tires on the town’s road grader. The upgrade is expected in December. • Amendments were made to two ordinances. One was a correction to recent speed limit changes that did not significantly alter the original ordinance. The other acknowledged said speed limit changes in the town’s vehicles and traffic ordinance. • The board approved a lot division and request for a driveway variance.
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Trail use on the Stower Seven Lakes State Trail remains contentious in Polk County even as representatives work to develop a master plan for the Stower and Cattail trails. The planning process itself came under scrutiny last week in the Town of Osceola as two members of the trail planning subcommittee talked with the SUZANNE LINDGREN | THE SUN town board about Signage on the Stower Seven Lakes the committee’s recommendation State Trail indicates no snowmobiles, for what kinds of horses, ATVs or motorcycles. If the activities should county follows the recommendation be allowed on the of the trail planning subcommittee, snowmobiles and horses will soon be trail. allowed. The subcommittee proposed adding horseback riding and winter snowmobiling to the Stower’s current “silent sports” uses. To the Cattail, which allows hikers, snowmobilers, ATVs, UTVs and motorcycles, they proposed adding horseback riding. Both subcommittee members at the Sept. 4, Brandon Whittaker and Katie Bruns, called the process unorganized, noting that they hadn’t learned of pertinent information until relatively late in the planning process. However, while Whittaker seemed satisfied with the process, Bruns did not. “Overall I thought the members of the subcommittee were a good team and we made some good progress,” Whittaker said. Bruns maintained that the board was skewed toward a motorized outcome from the beginning and the subcommittee as a whole had not listened to advocates of keeping the trail motor free. “We had the public comment and we didn’t use it,” she said. “[…] Because of the way the board was constructed, we weren’t able to do that.” Whittaker defended his position, saying he’d apSEE TRAIL, PAGE 23
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