WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2016
Serving Polk County’s St. Croix Valley since 1897
VOL. 118 NO. 26 www.osceolasun.com $1.00
SPORTS: OHS boys basketball on winning streak. PAGE 10
Fires of change Teen and pizzeria team up to help cancer patient BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@OSCEOLASUN.COM
SUZANNE LINDGREN | THE SUN
Polk County Clerk Carole Wondra (left) and Register of Deeds Laurie Anderson will retire at the end of their terms, Jan. 2, 2017.
County clerk, register of deeds to retire BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@OSCEOLASUN.COM
When it comes to announcing one’s retirement, few must give as much notice as Polk County Clerk Carole Wondra and Register of Deeds Laurie Anderson. With both of their terms ending Jan. 2, 2017, they’ve given voters – who will choose their successors in the November election – a year’s notice. They need plenty of time to get the word out so their would-be replacements have time to file for candidacy. And since no one within their respective departments has expressed interest, the opportunity is wide open. The shoes of both women will be hard to fill. Before Jim Doyle, then-governor, appointed Anderson to her position in 2003, she’d been working in the county’s deed office for almost 20 years. She was elected to the position in 2004, but January marks her 32nd year with the county. Wondra was elected clerk in November 2008 and came to the position after five years spent working for Polk County Abstract Co. But she’d worked for the county for 13 years before that, making 2016 her 21st year there. For a time, the two worked together in the register of deed’s office, and their work still frequently overlaps. “We work closely in so many ways,” said Wondra. “Although it’s behind the scenes.” “Our work is all connected, kind of like a train,” Anderson added. To succeed as register of deeds – head of the department responsible for archiving and accessing real estate records, personal property records and vital records including birth, death and marriage certificates – a real estate background would be helpful, said Anderson. “The job can be learned,” said Anderson, “but it would be good if they had some knowledge of what transpires here.” Candidates should also enjoy working with the public and with documents. The incoming county clerk will handle licenses and permits in addition to recording county meetings and helping to coordinate elections. It’s SEE RETIREMENT, PAGE 15
NEWS 715-294-2314 editor@osceolasun.com
It was a secret mission sparked by the impulse to help a family friend. Now, after surpassing her $8,000 fundraising goal, Sarah Vater, a senior at Osceola High School, says the experience has changed her ideas about the world and her ability to make it a better place. Vater was just 17 when she started raising funds for Andrea Statz, a longtime friend of the Vater family. Statz, who lives in New Richmond with her husband and two young children, is fighting breast cancer – her second bout with the disease. “I had thyroid cancer when I was 30,” she says. “The Vater family was with me through that. Then at 42 I found out I had breast cancer. I was shocked. “I had two kinds of breast cancer in four
SUZANNE LINDGREN | THE SUN
Sarah Vater, left, talks with Andrea Statz, Genevieve Statz, 3, and Derek Statz, 8.
spots, and it was aggressive,” she continues. “We started chemo immediately and did a double mastectomy five months later. That was when Sarah got involved.” But Statz didn’t know it yet. “Last August I decided to do something about helping Andrea,” says Vater. Statz, at that time, could barely get out of
bed to take care of her children. “I had visited her family,” said Vater. “And my mom visited her a lot and told me about what she was going through. So I thought to start raising money.” It sounded easy enough, says Vater. “I was reading a book called ‘You Are a Badass’ by Jen Sincero,” she remembers. “It’s about do-
ing what you want and achieving what you want in life. It got me pumped and empowered.” The book advises readers to make thoughtful decisions and stick with them in spite of naysayers or even initial failures. “I thought of a list of ideas and went off that,” says Vater, who started SEE FUNDRAISER, PAGE 15
Changes proposed for Gandy Dancer Trail plan Date of public hearing to be determined BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@OSCEOLASUN.COM
Polk County residents will have a chance to weigh in on proposed changes to the Gandy Dancer Trail master plan at an upcoming public hearing. The hearing date remains to be set. Although the trail’s plan is being amended, the changes primarily validate current use of the trail, which expanded over the course of several years to allow first one, then two motorized events per summer. Updates to the master plan limit motorized events to two each summer and add the potential for two non-motorized events each winter, when ADVERTISING 715-294-2314 sales@osceolasun.com
SUZANNE LINDGREN | THE SUN
From left: Supervisors William Johnson, Jim Edgell and Kim O’Connell.
the trail is open to snowmobiles, ATVs and UTVs. The addition of the two winter events was proposed Jan. 19 by Supervisor William Johnson, Frederic (having temporarily handed board chair duties to Supervisor Larry Jepsen). PUBLIC NOTICES 715-294-2314 sales@osceolasun.com
Before making the proposal, Johnson tried to strike all use of the trail by motor vehicles in summer months. “I’ve been involved with Gandy Dancer Trail issues since the late ‘80s when the railroad abandoned it,” said Johnson,
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who owns property adjacent to the trail and chairs the Gandy Dancer Trail Commission. “The biggest compromise was in the ‘90s to make it a non-motorized trail in summer and a motorized SEE COUNTY, PAGE 8
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