While revenue from timber sales has declined, Cass County Land Department has increased its revenues by selling more land.

This does not mean the county owns less land, however. A $557,000 grant in 2011 and another $619,633 grant in 2012 from the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage fund created by the three-eighths cent sales tax has enabled the county to more than replace land sold those years.

The county receipts from land sales were $37,900 in 2010, $35,800 in 2011 and $750,175 in 2012. The county bought 785.36 acres in 2011 and 2012 and sold in those years 583.4 acres.

The Cass County Sheriff’s Office received 18,812 calls for service in 2012, according to Sheriff Tom Burch’s annual report.

That is an 8 percent increase over 2011. It includes calls for the sheriff’s deputies, city police and fire departments and ambulance services.

Since 1997, the lowest number of calls received in a year was in 1999 when there were 13,931. The highest, 21,207, was in 2006.

BY MONICA LUNDQUIST

Cass County Correspondent

Cass County Board voted on March 5 to continue working with the county Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) on projects of mutual interest.

The board also received a report on 2012 SWCD accomplishments. Cass was one of five counties to share a $144,000 grant, which was matched with an equal amount of local funding to install 70 shoreland buffers between lakes and lawns on developed properties. One of those buffers is a band of native plants installed at Green Hill Town Homes on Gull Lake.

Timber backlog finally hit Cass County in October when the county sold only five of 17 sites offered for logging at the monthly auction.

The price paid for aspen dropped to $15.91 per cord for the first time since the early 1990s, according to Land Commissioner Joshua Stevenson.

While the county appraises its timber at $15 to $17 per cord, the average price paid has been running about $28 per cord. Until now, 99 percent of the acreages Cass put up for timber auction have sold.