Chisago County lost a one-of-a-kind; Wildcat team is in need of your support

Chisago County lost a great one. Warner Johnson passed away last week. If the name does not ring a bell, his face surely would. Warner is married to Sherry Stirling who runs the Chisago County Historical Society. The two have been inseparable as long as I can remember. In fact, some might say that Warner was the unofficial director of the Historical Society for all of the work he has done. When Sherry was hired, they basically got a two-for-one deal with Warner. Remember the Moody Barn restoration? Warner. Every event, every celebration, Warner was there. If you know the two of them, it will be hard to imagine just Sherry. I am sure we all will look out for her and take good care of her, but Warner is in a better place. He is probably in Heaven looking for projects to tackle right now.

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Did you get a chance to visit Ojiketa Haunt last weekend? If not, there is another weekend of haunting taking place this weekend. Brave the haunted trail and enter the Haunted House spooked by its history, creatures, illusions, and ghostly characters. Brave the Haunted Hollow and see Fairy Tales that have gone wrong and turned into Scary Tales. Discounts are available when you bring a non-perishable food item. It’s $5 per person or $3 per person with food donation. The scaring runs Friday and Saturday 7 to 10 p.m.

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If you have followed the Wildcat football team this year, then you know they have something special going on. Coach Weiss and his staff have really worked hard and have a great bunch of kids that are hard workers playing for him. The Wildcats have secured the top seed in their section and will play this Saturday at home. This is your chance to come out and cheer the team on. The Wildcats have a really good chance to make it to the section finals, but they need our help. They need us to be their 12th man. If we come out in droves and are as loud as we can be, that will just make it that much harder for St. Francis to communicate. The game is at 2 p.m. at Chisago Lakes. Come out and cheer them on!

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Thank you to all who donated winter clothing for this year’s outerwear fair. We had a huge pile that you dropped off here at the Press. + + + + + +  If you are like me, then you were a little confused on Tuesday. Not because your head was spinning from watching the debate, but confused about what was falling from the sky. I saw bright flashes in the sky, so I figured that transformers were exploding on telephone poles. Then as I left to take the kids to school, I got some form of moisture on my coat. After scolding the kids for spitting on their old man, I realized, this was not spit. This was something called rain. I had heard the word before, but have yet to see rain. It was marvelous. Everything around the area was wet. It was like a fresh coat of snow on Christmas morning. In all seriousness, the lack of rain has been horrible. Horrible for the lakes, horrible for lawns, horrible for gardens, horrible for businesses. It has been good for one thing and one thing only, road construction. Our desert like conditions have kept local road work on schedule and completion dates in tact. But if you are like me(and I wouldn’t wish that upon anyone), a dose of rain now and then can really lighten the mood.

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If you have looked in our public notices recently, you would have seen the ad titled “Foreclosed?” What we are trying to do is simple. If you or someone you know has been foreclosed on or is in the process, and really wishes to keep their home, we can help. If your notice was published in another newspaper and could not be seen in your town, we can help. We have attorneys who specialize in reversing foreclosures. These attorneys are not like what you would expect, they are in it for you. They make it easy and affordable and the best part, they are successful at what they do. So if you or someone you know is being faced with foreclosure, there is hope. Send us your name, address a copy of the published notice or the name of the publication it ran in and the date of that publication to: Foreclosures, County Press, PO Box 748, Lindstrom, MN 55045. We have already had a few people contact us, now we would like to help you. Area residents who experienced home foreclosure in 2009-2010 have until Dec. 31, 2012, to request a free independent assessment of whether they deserve monetary compensation for foreclosure processing deficiencies.

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, nearly 1,100 Chisago County households may be eligible for a free and impartial third-party review of whether their mortgage servicer handled their foreclosure inappropriately. This program is part of an enforcement action against 14 major mortgage servicers by the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. If your mortgage was serviced by one of the 14 covered servicers and was involved in any part of the foreclosure process during 2009-2010, from initial filing to sale or redemption period, you can request an independent review. An impartial expert will re-examine each case and recommend whether compensation is warranted for mortgage servicer deficiencies that resulted in financial harm to the borrower. You have nothing to lose—there’s absolutely no charge of any kind for these reviews, and you don’t sign away any rights to pursue separate legal actions. If you or someone you know may be eligible, view the informational video on the Federal Reserve’s IFR webpage www.federalreserve.gov/consumerinfo/independent-foreclosure-review.htm.