Girl Scouts sell 100 acres of Camp Rolling Ridges for $405,000

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One hundred acres of Camp Rolling Ridges east of Hudson have been sold to a private party, the Girl Scouts of Minnesota and Wisconsin River Valleys have announced.

The news came at the end of a four-paragraph post on the organization’s website by River Valleys Board Chair Phyllis Willerscheidt on Nov. 30.

The paragraph devoted to the property sale said it happened Nov. 18 and involved the Windy Acres parcel, including a barn and house.

“The net proceeds from the sale will be placed in a designated endowment to support River Valleys camps and properties,” Willerscheidt wrote.

The announcement brought a chorus of protests from local Scout leaders unhappy with the council’s early 2010 decision to decommission and sell the entire 555-acre camp.

As of Monday, 26 comments had been posted on the River Valleys website protesting the recent sale.

“The situation is deplorable. How could an organization meant to do so much good turn around and be so bad?” one writer asked.

The first three paragraphs of Willerscheidt’s message are devoted to a special meeting of the River Valleys council forced by the membership.

On Dec. 11, the members will vote on a resolution to stop the River Valleys board from proceeding with land sales.

“The goal is to stop the sale of additional camp properties without the permission of the membership,” Lorrie Bohl Beaulieu, a leader of the opposition, said in a Facebook message to members of a Friends of River Valleys Camps group.

“Our attorney assures us that we indeed have rights despite what RV (River Valleys) might say otherwise,” Bohl Beaulieu adds.

She said the friends group had no idea the sale was pending.

“Apparently, our board does not share this information with its members. I have no idea why,” Bohl Beaulieu wrote.

St. Croix County land records indicate the property at 832 McCutcheon Road was sold to Jamie and Carolyn Grupe for $405,000.

Jamie Grupe is the owner of MidAmerica Financial, a Hudson financial planning and tax preparation firm.

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