FREE PRESS MESSENGER AMERY
TUESDAY,SEPTEMBER SEPTEMBER33,30, 2025 THURSDAY, 2222
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RESULTS ARE IN: Winners and finalists announces in the Best of the Amery Area Contest INSIDE
‘We’re playing Whack A Mole’ COUNTRY Officials face uphill battle on road quality
BY TOM STANGL TSTANGL@THEAMERYFREEPRESS.COM
It’s not your imagination. The quality of paved roads in Polk County declined from 2016 to 2024, according to data from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. The
condition of the roads has fallen by over 11% since 2016. The county, cities, villages, and towns report the condition of roads to the state using a 1 to 10 rating system called Pavement Surface Evaluation and Rating, commonly known as PASER. The average rating for roads in
Polk County in 2016 was 6.83. By 2024, it had dropped to 6.15. PASER was developed by the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s TransporSEPTEMBER 33, 2222 tation Center. Road maintenance THURSDAY, crews VOL. 131 NO. 19 www.moraminn.com $1.00 perform visual inspections of roads and assign ratings on a scale from one
Serving Marine-on-St. Croix, Scandia, May Township
SEE ROADS, PAGE 10
SENTINEL
Amery school tax levy to rise 8 percent
BURNETT COUNTY
FREE
BY JUSTIN RUNBERG EDITOR@THEAMERYFREEPRESS.COM
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 33, 2222 Amery School District residents will face VOL. 131anNO.increased 19 www.moraminn.com $1.00levy this fall as property tax the district prepares a $20.8 million budget for 2025-26. The annual meeting provided an initial overview of the proposal, which will be finalized in October. The proposal requests a total levy of $13.65 million, reflecting a 7.43 percent increase from last year’s $12.6 million. Most of that increase comes from the general fund, which is expected to grow by nearly $1 million, reaching just over $10.3 million. The mill rate will be set at $7.41, with several Jon McBridge methods to determine the Director of Finance individual tax impact. “One is you can just take the mill rate times your value of your home divided by a thousand and then multiply it by the mill rate,” Director of Finance Jon McBride said. “The other way to do it is to multiply the actual assessed value of your home by using the mill rate as a percent. So it would be like this year, if your property value is $500,000, you would take 500,000 times .00741.” With the major construction projects now complete, the district is seeing a significant drop in spending. While the budget remained steady and well-planned throughout the pro-
COUNTY ST R FREE
ISANTI-CHISAGO
CONTRIBUTED
The weather has helped the apple crop rebound this year. Rains damaged pollination last year, cutting apple production.
Apple crops bounce back from last year
THE SUN BY JUSTIN RUNBERG EDITOR@THEAMERYFREEPRESS.COM
Each fall, certain crops begin to thrive, one of which is apples. After a difficult season, the region’s apple orchards have rebounded with a plentiful harvest.
Last year’s harvest struggled to get started because of excessive rain. “Last year, we had a very light crop, and the whole area did because the heavy rain washed the pollen off, so nothing pollinated,” Bill Zager, Owner of Z-Orchard
said. “Well then, Mother Nature's what she wants to do is propagate more apples, so this year everybody had a tremendously heavy apple crop.”
SEE APPLES, PAGE 20
SEE TAX LEVY, PAGE 2
Serving Polk County’s St. Croix Valley since 1897
WD
‘This year, if your property FREEis value $500,000, you would take 500,000 times .00741’
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 33, 2222
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