Voters have requested more than 8,000 absentee ballots in Washington County this fall, about a 20 percent increase over the 2010 election.

The uptick can be attributed to a new state law that allows voters to request absentee ballots without stating a reason, said Jennifer Wagenius, who oversees the county's elections division.

Last week, 1,000 ballots were returned in a single day and were being reviewed, she said. By mid-week, more than 8,000 voters had claimed absentee ballots, compared with a total of 6,708 four years ago. This year's total was sure to rise even more before Election Day on Tuesday because county government offices in Stillwater, Forest Lake, Woodbury and Cottage Grove would be open for voting until 3 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 1.

Information about absentee ballots is available on the county website at www.co.washington.mn.us.

Cottage Grove

Community mourning veteran police officer

Sgt. Greg Brysky, a 23-year veteran of the Cottage Grove Police Department, died at his home on Oct. 23 after battling a very severe form of brain cancer (Grade 4 Glioblastoma) for the past year and a half.

Brysky served with the department for 23 years and retired from law enforcement last December.

The week before his death, Brysky's condition deteriorated rapidly, he went into hospice at home and was cared for by his wife, Lisa, daughter Jesse and son Joe and friends.

Funeral services were last week. For more information, go to www.kokfuneralhome.com/obituary/Greg-Brysky/Cottage-Grove-MN/1445166#sthash.Vgd0mi1D.dpuf.

Washington County

Homebuyers' course to be held twice in Woodbury

Home Stretch, an eight-hour education course that prepares participants for buying homes, will be offered in one session in November and one in December. The classroom-style workshop is taught by instructors from the nonprofit, real estate, and lending industries. Home Stretch is a requirement for most home buyer assistance programs.

To register for Home Stretch in Washington County, call 651-458-0936 or visit: www.wchra.com/pages/education.

Classes will held on Saturday, Nov. 8 and Monday, Dec. 8, at the Washington County HRA, 7645 Currell Blvd., Woodbury. Each class will run from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Tax-forfeited properties sold at Dec. 5 auction

Washington County will sell several tax-forfeited properties Dec. 5 at an auction in the County Government Center in Stillwater.

The County Board reviewed the details of the sale at its meeting Oct. 28.

First, the board approved the reappraisal and inclusion in the December sale of 12 parcels that were part of an auction in September but did not sell.

The board identified additional parcels that will be for sale in December, which have been classified as non-conservation parcels. Twenty will be sold, including two houses, four commercial units, two vacant commercial land parcels and 12 vacant land parcels.

The sale will be at 10 a.m. in Lower Level Room 14 in the Government Center in Stillwater, at 14949 62nd St. N.

The board also approved the sale of tax-forfeited parcels to adjacent landowners. That sale will be at 2 p.m. Dec. 12.

Stillwater

In November, Zephyr will leave the station

A resolution is back on track for two stranded Minnesota Zephyr locomotives in Stillwater.

The City Council voted recently to hire a moving company to move the locomotives to a storage yard no later than the third week in November. Cost of the removal, from land owned by David Paradeau at the north end of Main Street, will be assessed on his property taxes.

The locomotives were part of a dinner train that operated in Stillwater for more than 20 years. The 5.8-mile corridor that the train followed, along Browns Creek, will open officially as a state trail next spring. Paving began in October, and interpretive signs and other amenities will follow.

Paradeau sold most units of the train, but the remaining locomotives — missing their wheels and undercarriage — sit on blocks at the head of the new state trail. Estimates of their value range from $10,000 to $50,000, according to a City Council discussion on Oct. 7 preceding the 5-0 vote to move them.

Lake Elmo

Marathoner, 73, still advocating for patients

Don Wright of Lake Elmo, who has completed 84 marathons in the past 11 years — all of them with multiple myeloma — will be a featured participant in the inaugural event of a partnership fighting to accelerate access to new medications for cancer patients.

Wright, who is still running at age 73 and on active treatment for his cancer, was able to get a then-investigational medicine through a clinical trial five years before it was approved for use in the United States. During that time he watched many of his fellow patients succumb to their cancers while waiting for regulatory approval for a new drug.

The event, titled "Closing the Gap Between Hope and Cures for Cancer Patients," is intended to create a pathway to accelerate and expand access to investigational medicines for patients with cancer and other life-threatening diseases. The two-day conference begins at 5 p.m. Tuesday, at the University of Minnesota McNamara Alumni Center's Memorial Hall. For more information and conference registration, visit closingthegapnow.org.

St. Croix region

River association gets grant to cut phosphorus

The St. Croix River Association (SCRA) has received a $200,000 grant from the Minnesota Legislature to help reduce the amount of phosphorus flowing into Lake St. Croix.

In 2008, Lake St. Croix was listed by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources as impaired because of phosphorus, which in excess causes algae blooms. The new funding will help meet the reduction of 123 metric tons per year of phosphorus necessary to restore Lake St. Croix.

Kevin Giles, Jim Anderson