New cranberry vines at the Wetherby Cranberry Co. will eventually double yields at its Warrens bogs. But that’s not much help when the berries sell for less money than they cost to produce.

A saturated cranberry market is driving down prices at a terrible time for regional growers. Many have made big investments in recent years to expand their bogs.

Brittney Berger was so anxious to get home to Baraboo for Easter break that she left a night ahead of time to avoid an impending wintry storm.

Her ride from Duluth, Minn. to her hometown was going smoothly until she hit Jackson County and ran into an icy mix of precipitation.

A matter of minutes after entering the county and nearing Black River Falls, she had lost her windshield wiper blade, leaving her barely able to see and drive safely.

The Black River Falls City Council was split last week over approving incoming City Administrator Brad Chown’s contract.

Much of the debate before the 4-4 vote that had to be broken by Mayor Ron Danielson centered over whether Chown should be allowed to leave on EMS and fire calls during the work day.

Danielson voted in favor of the contract to break the tie and said he doesn’t think the city should restrict Chown — who is leaving his post as EMS chief — as long as he makes up time lost while out on calls.

It’s OK as long as he makes up the time,” Danielson said after last week’s council meeting. fully qualified EMT and firefighter, and if there’s an emergency, why wouldn’t we have our people go?

If a downtown business has some of its people go, it would make us foolish (not to let Chown).

However, alderpersons Brad Rahmlow and Randy Eddy — two of the four council members to vote against the contract — disagree.

Rahmlow said he’d like to make sure Chown is regularly available to the public during business hours.

My thoughts were he is the CEO of our city, and I would have preferred that he be available to the public when the public needs him during regular business hours,” Rahmlow said after the meeting.

Eddy said he agreed with Rahmlow’s concern and would like to see Chown at city hall regularly while he gets acquainted with his new position.

He’s new coming to the job and doesn’t have a lot of accounting background and that, so it’s going to be a big learning curve for him,” Eddy said after the meeting.