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• Drug task force funding is drying up
• Agents find a niche selling repossessed homes
• Hudson's St. Croix EMS expected to finish 2008 in the black

By Randy Hanson, RiverTown Staff

The St. Croix Valley Drug Task Force that has been at the forefront of the battle against methamphetamine trafficking is in jeopardy of being disbanded.

Federal and state budget cuts reduced the task force's funding to $56,185 for 2008, and officials are worried that no federal money will be available for 2009.

"The indication we are getting from the Office of Justice Assistance in Madison is that next year there will be no funding for the task force," St. Croix County Sheriff Dennis Hillstead said last month.

Does that bother him?

"Well, yeah. It does," he said. "Because over the past number of years the three counties have been quite effective - I won't say successful - but we've been quite effective, especially with the methamphetamine problem."

Five years ago, the St. Croix, Pierce and Polk county sheriff's departments got roughly $150,000 among them to devote to the drug task force, according to Hillstead.

The departments used the money to hire a drug investigator and to pay the overtime for sheriff's investigators and police officers working drug cases.

"We used a lot of that money to reimburse the smaller departments for the overtime their officer would spend working on drug cases," Hillstead said. "And now there isn't even enough to cover the overtime for the investigators that are assigned to do the drug investigations. So we will no longer be able to support any of the local municipalities in doing drug investigations, and that is going to have a serious impact."

Hillstead said the state law passed a few years ago that put pseudoephedrine (a key ingredient in methamphetamine) behind pharmacy counters greatly reduced the number of meth labs in Wisconsin.

Arrest rates for meth possession in St. Croix, Pierce and Polk counties also have dropped, he said.

But the number of people entering treatment programs for meth addiction indicates that it is still a serious problem, he said.

He also said cocaine use appears to be on the rise as meth use tapers off.

According to the Wisconsin Office of Justice Assistance, the St. Croix Valley Drug Task Force conducted 244 investigations into meth production and distribution in 2007.

The investigations netted 155 arrests and located 20 hazardous dump sites.

The Office of Justice Assistance says that a 67 percent cut to the federal Byrne Justice Assistance Grant program put funding for Wisconsin's 18 multi-jurisdictional drug task forces in question.

In Wisconsin, funding for drug task forces has dropped from $3.7 million in 2004 to just over $1 million in 2008. Fifteen task forces have been defunded as a result of the federal budget cuts, according to the Office of Justice Assistance.

In 2004, there were 33 task forces covering every county in the state.

A news release from the Office of Justice Assistance said that if Congress doesn't reach an agreement to increase 2008 funding, the number of drug task forces in Wisconsin is likely to fall to fewer than five.

By Randy Hanson, RiverTown Staff

Realty agents Cindy Otten and Laurie Larsen are making the best of a bad situation.

With dozens of repossessed homes on the market because of the mortgage meltdown, Otten and Larsen have found a niche in selling them.

"A home buyer should absolutely be looking right now," says Otten. "They should find some very nice deals on the market."

According to Otten, a Century 21 agent based in Hudson, there are 20 to 25 repossessed homes currently for sale within the Hudson School District. The River Falls area has 10 to 15 on the market, and other surrounding communities - Roberts, Hammond, Somerset and New Richmond - have similar numbers of them.

Otten works with Larsen, a River Falls Century 21 agent hired to list repossessed, bank-owned homes.

"Things are really heating up, especially in the foreclosure market. That's what's really selling," Otten says.

She and Larsen are advertising a "Repo Bus Tour" that they hope to guide soon.

The idea - which Otten borrowed from real estate agents in California - is to load up a bus of prospective buyers on a Saturday and take them around to some of the most attractive repossessed homes in the area for a walk-through.

People can sign up for the tour at www.therepobustour.com.

The site also has links to Otten's and Larsen's Web pages, home listings and contact information.

The pair says repossessed homes are available in a variety of price ranges, styles and conditions. They include single-family dwellings, twin homes and townhouses.

Larsen recently sold a house on Riverside Drive in North Hudson that provides scenic views of Lake Mallalieu. It's in good condition and sold for $100,000 less than it would have three years ago, according to Larsen.The offerings range in price from $70,000 for some homes in outlying communities to $780,000 for a mansion in Hudson.

"There are some very nice homes out there. And there are some homes that need work," says Larsen. "Whatever anybody wants, we've got them."

Otten adds that low interest rates, in addition to lower prices, make it a good time to buy. The problem is that fewer people qualify for mortgages because of the tightening of the credit market.

Repossessed homes are moving, however, Otten reports.

"Agents in western Wisconsin are trying to do their part to get them sold so we can move on - get our market back to where it needs to be," she says. "The faster the foreclosures get sold, the better it is for everyone. It benefits everyone by stabilizing the whole economy."

Otten and Larsen say they haven't had enough people sign up for the bus tour yet to schedule a trip. But they're expecting it to happen now that the weather has warmed.

"We've already got the bus hired. We're ready to go as soon as we get enough (buyers) to fill a bus," Larsen says.

Otten and Larsen say they have received a good response to "The Repo Bus Tour" ad on the Star-Observer's Web site, www.hudsonstarobserver.com.

"We've definitely picked up customers from this. We just haven't loaded up a bus," Larsen says.

The agents are happy to show repossessed homes on a individual basis.

You can contact Otten at (612) 916-7309 or Larsen at (612) 598-9259.

By Randy Hanson

rhanson@rivertowns.net

Hudson City Council members' worries about the financial condition of the local ambulance service were eased somewhat at their May 5 meeting.

City Finance Officer Betty Caruso reported that she expects St. Croix Emergency Medical Services to break even in 2008.

Caruso credited the ambulance service's improved financial condition to a 50 percent increase in the four participating municipalities' annual per capita subsidy to the service. The per capita subsidy was raised to $10.50 in 2008, up from $7 in 2007.

In 2007, St. Croix EMS had an operating loss of $66,711.

City Council members got worried when it was reported at their April 21 meeting that billing write-offs had equaled revenue for the first quarter of 2008.

It turned out that that report was incorrect.

Caruso said May 5 that unpaid bills for the first quarter of the 2008 were actually $132,931, well below the $330,000 in potential write-offs initially reported.

The ambulance service's bookkeeping is complicated, Caruso indicated, and a bookkeeper confused some accounts receivable that are likely to be paid with bad debt.

For more information see the May 15 edition of the Star-Observer.