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• Pierce County has to cut $1.3 million from budget
• 9th grader shoots principal in small southwestern WI school
• Man airlifted following Pierce County accident
• Hunter in critical condition after fall from tree stand
• Fire destroys historic Bay City building, another damaged
• Pierce County teens injured in ATV accident

By Judy Wiff, RiverTown Regional Editor

ELLSWORTH - Over three months after 2007 budget work began in earnest, Pierce County administrators still have more than $1.3 million to cut from department requests.

The Human Services Department is proposing a 53-percent increase in its budget and that doesn't take into account another $906,400 needed to cover the department's deficits for this year and last, according to Finance Director Julie Brickner.

She said the budget turned in by the Sheriff's Department reflects a 3-percent cut, but the sheriff is asking for increases in personnel, which aren't included in the budget. Despite the Sheriff's Department cuts, "The bottom line would still go up," Brickner said.

Also, the Public Health Department's proposal to trim its budget by eliminating a jail nurse position would only move that job to the Sheriff's Department budget. Therefore, a supposed $109,000 cut would be about half that amount.

While many of the smaller departments have offered, the Finance and Personnel Committee is still dealing with some larger departments that are asking for more tax levy support.

Brickner told the committee Monday night that budget requests as they stand include $329,500 for new positions, $906,400 to cover Human Service Department deficits for this year and last but no provisions for additional money in the property acquisition fund or to cover losses from pending lawsuits.

She said even after using $30,000 in new farm land conversion funds, an extra $125,000 from the county's sales tax fund and $325,000 from investment interest, the county needs to cut $1.339,848 from budget requests to stay under state-mandated tax levy caps.

One of the concerns listed by Brickner was a proposed $908,321 increase in the human services budget.

"Why, in the name of fiscal sanity, are we looking at a 60-percent increase in budget?"County Board Chairman Paul Barkla asked. The department also had a double-digit levy increase a year earlier.

Barkla said that while he understands needs in the human services area, at some point the county has to say there is no more money.

The county has lawsuits pending but has made no provisions for paying that potential cost, added Barkla.

"We don't know what's out there," he said.

A suggestion was made to send some of the budgets back to their parent committees, but Finance and Personnel Committee Chairwoman Kirstin Schilling wondered if that would do any good.

"We've said it and said it and said it," said Schilling of instructions to cut budgets. "I don't know what good it's going to do to say it again."

Brickner asked committee members to take a week to go over the preliminary budget documents and consider any changes they'd like to see or questions they have.

Since many of the smaller budgets have already been tentatively approved, the committee plans to focus on human services, law enforcement, public health, highway and Extension.

Judy Wiff is the Regional Editor for the RiverTown Newspaper Group and is based in River Falls. She can be contacted at 715.426.1049 or at regional@rivertowns.net

A 9th-grader in the southwest Wisconsin village of Cazenovia shot his principal Friday morning.

Authorities say John Klang, 49, was hit three times, and was airlifted to UW Hospital in Madison, where he was in critical condition over the noon hour.

Administrators said the shooter was a 15-year-old. He's a current student at the Weston School - a combined elementary-through-high school in a town of just over 300 residents.

At a noon-hour news conference, a Sauk County prosecutor said charges would be filed no later than tomorrow evening.

Investigators were still interviewing the teen and they didn't know the motive.

They said the boy walked into the school around 8 with multiple weapons. A custodian knocked one shotgun out of the boy's hands in a hallway near the front door and the boy pulled out a .22-caliber pistol, hitting principal Klang three times.

Meanwhile, authorities said a 16-year-old female student at Weston was killed in a car crash on her way to school just a few minutes before the shooting took place.

Early reports said an officer was chasing a speeder in a different car and when the officer got behind the student, she apparently panicked and drove her car into a ditch. The incident was totally unrelated to the shooting.

The school was placed in a lockdown after that shooting. Elementary and middle school students in the building were sent home, while about 125 high school students stayed behind to be questioned by investigators.

It was homecoming weekend at Weston and officials said all activities in Cazenovia are called off including a football game, parade, and dance.

Staff members at the school wrote a statement for reporters that called principal Klang a compassionate, caring leader. He lived in the area for years, and three of his children graduated from the Weston School.

Today's shooting took place two days after a gunman took six students hostage at a high school in Colorado. In that incident, Emily Keyes, 16, whose grandparents live in Madison, was killed just before authorities stormed in, and the shooter took his own life.

A Sunday afternoon car-motorcycle accident just south of Prescott Sunday afternoon resulted in the driver of the motorcycle being airlifted to Regions Hospital in St. Paul.

The accident occurred at around 1:10 p.m. near the intersection of Highway 35 and 1150th Street in the town of Oak Grove, according to the Pierce County Sheriff's Department.

R. Gordon Nesvig, 53, St. Paul, was driving his motorcycle northbound on Highway 35 and was attempting to pass a car that was turning onto 1150 Street when he sideswiped and collided with the car. Nesvig was then thrown from the motorcycle.

The Prescott Ambulance and Fire Service along with emergency services personnel from Ellsworth responded to the scene. Nesvig was then airlifted to Regions on a Life Link II helicopter where he was listed in fair condition on Monday morning.

The car was driven by Bradley Yotter, 43, Lake City, Minn. Neither Yotter nor his passengers were injured.

A hunter from Marathon, Wis., was in critical condition Monday morning after he had to be airlifted to Regions Hospital in St. Paul following a fall from his tree stand in Pierce County.

The accident occurred at approximately 10:15 a.m. Saturday near Bay City in the town of Hartland.

The Pierce County Sheriff's Department says that Mitch Hoyt, 33, was found by a hunting partner about a quarter of a mile from the road in a wooded area after he did not make contact with his hunting party.

Ellsworth Ambulance Service responded to the scene and Hoyt was then airlifted onboard a Life Link III helicopter to Regions Hospital.

By Brady Bautch, RiverTown Newspaper Group

A Saturday night blaze destroyed a historic corn-drying building and damaged another nearby building, both owned by Brown Seed Genetics in Bay City.

"The fire destroyed one of the first forced-air dryers built in the state," said Charles Brown, owner of Brown Seed Genetics.

He added that the fire destroyed a dryer built in 1927. The damage building was built in 1965.

Ellsworth Fire Department responded to the fire at 10 p.m., according to Brent Langer, Ellsworth fire chief.

Langer said 25 firefighters from the Ellsworth Fire Department battled the blaze until 1:30 a.m. Sunday. They were assisted by a fire engine and crew from the Red Wing (Minn.) Fire Department.

No one was injured in the fire, but Langer said that the corn drying building was a complete loss.

The building next to the drying building is used for corn storage and received heavy damage to its roof. However, the corn storage bins in the building remained unscathed, according to Langer.

Brown, who was in Illinois at the time of the blaze, said he doesn't know yet how much the damage will cost.

"We'll just pick up the pieces and move forward," Brown said. "This is just a setback."

He added that the company will be able to continue operations because they have remnant seed stored at other locations.

Brown added that the building destroyed contained commercial seed hybrids which were just harvested, experimental hybrids and seeding hybrids.

Brown said he expects to be back in Bay City Monday evening. The cause of the fire is not known at this time.

A 13-year-old and a 14-year-old from rural Elmwood in Pierce County were injured Sunday afternoon after an ATV accident.

The Pierce County Sheriff's Department said that the pair were riding the ATV on a steep hill when the 14-year old driver lost control and the vehicle flipped, throwing both.

The accident occurred near Elmwood just off Pierce County G. According to Deputy Brad Verges of the Pierce County Sheriff's Department, neither teen received life threatening injuries. The two were taken to Myrtle Werth Hospital in Menomonie for treatment.

The Elmwood Ambulance and Fire Department assisted on the scene. The accident remains under investigation.