WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2015
Serving Polk County’s St. t Croix C i Valley V ll since i 1897
VOL. 118 NO. 04 www.osceolasun.com $1.00
SPORTS: Fall sports season begins. PAGE 10
Senior care center planned in Osceola BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@OSCEOLASUN.COM
Plans for a 32-unit senior living facility took a big step forward August 11, when Osceola’s village board approved the sale of a 16-acre lot for the building and grounds. The lot sits on the west side of Highway 35, south of Ridge Road. The site’s
visibility was a major draw, said the facility’s developers. DigniCare, the company building the roughly-$5.5 million facility, offers memory care, assisted living, respite care and hospice. The buildings and services are designed for “aging in place,” with care plans that evolve acSEE CENTER, PAGE 6
Kraviks named grand marshals BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@OSCEOLASUN.COM
SUZANNE LINDGREN | THE SUN
The pickle lady
Kathy Earnest, the “Pickle Lady,” with a jar of pickles made from her award-winning recipe. Earnest lives at Osceola’s Christian Community Home and her Minnesota State Fair blue-ribbon winning pickles – Gedney’s “Grandma’s Baby Baby Dills” – can be found on grocery store shelves. The Minnesota State Fair runs from Aug. 27 through Labor Day, Step. 7.
Zion celebrates 150 years Zion Lutheran Church of East Farmington is observing its 150th anniversary on Aug. 30. A special morning service at 10 a.m. will include brief messages from all living former pastors. A special afternoon service at 2 p.m. will feature artist Paul Oman. During
this devotional service, participants can watch while he produces a five foot by seven foot painting that is to be displayed in the church. When Wisconsin because a state in 1848 Germans were migrating to
Mark and Deb Kravik know well the rhythm of the Osceola Community Fair. Having raised four children in the village, the fair was an annual ritual, a winding down of summer. “As soon as school was out on Friday, everything revolved around the fair,” says Deb. “The kids would go on the rides and I’d usually go on the 5k walk. After that I’d head down to the craft fair and wander around town seeing everybody. It’s the great Osceola get together.” They’d watch the coronation of Miss Osceola – their girls participated in the Little Miss pag-
SEE ZION, PAGE 2
SEE KRAVIK’S, PAGE 8
Polk County audit shows progress BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@OSCEOLASUN.COM
Polk County has received the results of its 2014 audit, which reveals a net positive position. The unassigned fund balance increased by $1.1 million to 36.5 percent of expenditures. That number will drop slightly this year, said County Administrator Dana Frey, because the county is using some of those funds to pay a $1.6 million bond two years early. With the exception of human services, all major funds – including highway and the nursing home – ended in the black. Fee schedule and budget
Polk County’s 2016 levy cap rose by $33,800. New construction was a net 0.16
County spending by the numbers “The fee schedule should be answering the question, what are your dollars buying? We should be able to start showing what it costs to buy something, and you can look at that and make a determination whether that’s reasonable or not. If it seems to be high you dig further and see why it is.” – Polk County Administrator Dana Frey
percent ($33,000). “That’s far and away the lowest in Wisconsin,” reported Frey, noting that most counties were in the one to two percent range for new construction. “We’ve got some other things going that’ll help make it a workable budget, but there’s not going to be a lot of extra money.” Frey said the number was disappointing. “We have to trace through and see what happened,” he said. “It appears there may have been an error in last year’s budget which they correct for this year. Again, we have to figure that out.” The audit, fee schedule and budget will be available soon on the county website.
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SUZANNE LINDGREN | THE SUN
Deb and Mark Kravik have been named Osceola Community Fair’s parade grand marshals.
$6,685 Cost to construct a mile of highway $30 Cost to maintain a mile of trail (paid for in part by grant funds) $80.77 Cost to hold someone in jail overnight $60,000,000 Overall expenditures 32 Fewer full time employees than 2010 $16,000,000 Current principal owed $33,400,000 Debt at county’s peak, in 2009 – From the 2015 Annual Report on the Condition of Polk County and County Departments, available soon on the county’s website.
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