Pay raises to cover cost of billboard

The pay raise that Pope County Commissioners approved late last year will be on display for all to see this spring.

Each commissioners' paycheck increase will go towards buying a billboard along Interstate 94, between Maple Grove and Rogers, visible to westbound traffic.

The billboard will reportedly promote Pope County, encouraging people to visit and make the county their home.

The billboard idea is the brainchild of freshman County Commissioner Gordy Wagner.

"Why not promote this area?" he said. "People will hopefully see that we've done well with our pay raise. If we gave the money back, it would go back in the general fund and this kind of advertising would never happen."

The billboard will cost commissioners at least $2,000 and it's scheduled to go up May 4 and stay in place through June.

The billboard design hasn't been finalized yet, but Wagner said he'd like to see the following phrases included:

• 13th largest lake in the state

• Great work force

• 90 minutes from here

• Affordable housing In December, a 3 percent raise was approved for county commissioners - it raised their annual salary to $16,861, that's about $491 more than 2008.