Half a million dollars.
That's the result of the county's first timber sale of the year last week.
Fourteen bidders bid on 11 tracts of land which included, once cut, about 16,000 cords.
"I was surprised they went that high," forestry administrator Jake Nichols said. "It was a good bid opening."
With the housing and construction markets being what they are, it's a good thing Burnett County is a pulp wood market.
"A lot of this stuff isn't going for logs, it's going for pulp wood, either paper products or bio-mass," he clarified.
The bids are for tracts which must be cut by April 2011. He said there are two sales left in the year, one in June, one in October Nichols also released a forest summary which showed $1.4 million in timber sale revenue collected for 2008 — which was a record year.
Another report he issued revealed county forest property yielded $17.39 per acre.
"That's the highest we've had since I've been here," Nichols stated.
Of the 106,000 acres in county forest, about 85,000 acres, roughly 75 percent, is proving to be productive forest land.
"It's very sustainable," committee chairman Ed Peterson said. "That's the good thing about our forest."
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City of Ladysmith residents may soon be asked to pay more of the cost of street paving, chip-sealing and sidewalk repair and replacement.
The city is proposing:— Assessing abutting owners 100 percent for sidewalk repair/replacement.— Assessing abutting owners 50 percent for chip sealing.— Assessing abutting owners 25 percent of the cost for street paving and repaving.
A hearing on the series of proposed changes in the city’s municipal code is scheduled for 6:35 p.m. Monday, Feb. 23, at city hall. The public is welcome to attend and comment on the proposal.
The city currently assesses for 75 percent of sidewalk and for all of new utility mains and curb and gutter. It does not assess for the cost of rebuilding the actual driven street, the base and pavement.
The city currently does not levy special assessments for street construction and chip sealing.
City Administrator Al Christianson said the city had budgeted about $40,000 for a few small street reconstruction projects, but those funds were earmarked for one or two small projects.
At one time, the city levied special assessments for 100 percent of the cost of sidewalk construction, repair and replacement. Then it was dropped back to 75 percent for the past several years. The city is proposing to raise it back to 100% at this time to recover some of the $25,000 it spends in a typical year for this purpose.
Residents may pay off special assessments all at once right away or make installment payments over 5-15 years with interest slightly above what the city pays to borrow money — right now about 5.75 percent.
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Bayfield County Comprehensive Planning Committee will be holding two input meetings this week.
February 25, 20096:00 PM -8:00 PM North Visitors Center View the Meeting Agenda
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