May 2015 – Page 2 – Dustin Monke

Press named best small daily in North Dakota

BISMARCK — The Dickinson Press was named the state’s best small daily newspaper during a ceremony Friday night at the Heritage Center.

The Press claimed the North Dakota Newspaper Association’s General Excellence and Sweepstakes awards for daily newspapers with a circulation of 12,000 or less — the highest honors given in the category. The newspaper also won the most individual first-place and total awards in both the editorial and advertising contents.

Press Publisher Harvey Brock said winning these honors “just reaffirms what I already know — that I’m privileged to work with a team of professionals who go about the business of putting out the best paper possible every day. We’re blessed to work for a company that gives us the training, resources and a culture to succeed. Congratulations to everyone.”

Managing Editor Dustin Monke won five first-place awards and reporter Andrew Brown won two in the editorial contest. Reporters Nadya Faulx, Bryan Horwath and Meaghan MacDonald, and Sports Editor Royal McGregor each claimed one first-place award.

“Our staff deserves all the credit for the awards they received,” Monke said. “They put in long hours — working nights and weekends — and tackled a variety of challenging stories in 2014. I’m proud of their efforts and am glad to see their hard work has been recognized.”

Advertising consultant David Hanson won two first-place honors in the advertising contest, while consultants Nikki Baer, Jenn Binstock, Sam Cunningham and Sonya Sacks each won one award in the advertising contest.

“Great advertising always sells advertising, and getting awards is always nice for the team. It validates that what they do is very, very important,” Press Advertising Director Bob Carruth said.

The General Excellence award factors in a newspaper’s reporting, editing, headlines, photography, design, advertising and production from three selected days. The judges commented on The Press’ “excellent news reporting, writing, editing.”

The Sweepstakes honor is given to the newspaper with the most awards in its circulation category, and is determined by a weighted point system. The Press won 20 first-place awards, 18 second places, 17 third places and eight honorable mentions across all categories.

Click below for a full list of award-winners.
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Wilson steps down as DHS boys basketball coach

Former Dickinson High boys basketball coach speaks to players in the huddle during a game in this undated Press file photo.

John Wilson said the time is right to turn his focus away from coaching basketball.

Wilson stepped down as Dickinson High’s head boys basketball coach on Thursday after seven seasons, citing family and his health as the primary reasons for the decision.

He leaves the program with a 71-81 overall record.

“I just felt it was time for me and my family to take care of me,” he said.

Wilson endured his share of ups and downs as head coach.

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Dickinson refinery begins producing fuel from Bakken crude oil

Dakota Prairie Refining plant manager Dave Podratz, left, and MDU Resources public relations manager Tim Rasmussen stand outside the gates of the Dickinson, N.D., refinery on Monday after it started producing its first diesel fuel. (Dustin Monke / The Dickinson Press)

RURAL DICKINSON — Dave Podratz, still wearing his hard hat, safety glasses and coveralls, walked into a conference room at Dakota Prairie Refining’s main office building Monday afternoon and sat a small glass jar containing clear liquid on the table.

The jar is soon to become a keepsake. It contains some of the first diesel fuel created from Bakken crude oil at the refinery facility west of Dickinson.

After more than two years of construction and testing, the approximately $425 million refinery — the first greenfield refinery built in the United States since 1976 — began making product over the weekend and is now storing it in preparation for sale.

“It’s been a long process,” said Podratz, the refinery’s plant manager.

Construction on the facility, which is jointly owned and operated by MDU Resources Group and Calumet Specialty Products Partners, began March 26, 2013, with a groundbreaking at the 318-acre site about four miles west of Dickinson.

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Dickinson businesses begin feeling slowdown's effect: Drop in oil prices has led to fewer customers, better employees

Todd Anderson, service manager at T-Rex Conoco in Dickinson, talks to customer Bobby Metz, who came into the shop Wednesday while looking for an oil change. Anderson said business has slowed down along with the drop in oil prices, but said he's somewhat happy to have a reprieve from the chaos of the boom. (Dustin Monke / The Dickinson Press) — Todd Anderson, service manager at T-Rex Conoco in Dickinson, talks to customer Bobby Metz, who came into the shop Wednesday while looking for an oil change. Anderson said business has slowed down along with the drop in oil prices, but said he’s somewhat happy to have a reprieve from the chaos of the boom. (Dustin Monke / The Dickinson Press)

Steve Keinzle noticed a change around the first of the year.

The manager of Mac’s Hardware in north Dickinson said his business catered to many oilfield service companies, both big and small — mostly hot-shot crews and roustabout companies — that would come in and buy everything from tools to flame-retardant gear for employees.

But when the oil prices dropped out, so did much of that business.

“Their budgets went away real fast,” Keinzle said. “And, of course, we felt that effect right away. The traffic is down.”

Many business owners and managers in Dickinson say they’re feeling the effects of the drop in oil prices as much as anyone else. For some businesses, traffic and profits are down. Others report steady customer flow not all that different from a year ago, when oil drilling in western North Dakota was at an all-time high — particularly around Dickinson.
Some say it isn’t all bad. They say they’re happy to have more time to work on projects, improve infrastructure and think ahead instead of worrying about the challenges the oil boom brought them over the past few years.

“It’s a nice reprieve to be able to slow down a little and catch a breath, because once things get going again, (business) will pick up,” said Todd Anderson, service manager at T-Rex Conoco off Third Avenue West in north Dickinson.

Anderson said he’s noticed a definite slowdown in work. Now his crew has time to take walk-in oil changes or fix vehicles without work being scheduled weeks in advance.

“I’d say equivalent to before the oil came,” he said.

On the other side of the building, T-Rex convenience store manager Vicki Nogosek said she is ordering less product than she did in 2014.

“You notice pretty much all day that it has slowed down a lot, just in gas and everything,” Nogosek said.

However, she said there is some good that has come with the slowdown in business.

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Company touts new way to eliminate H2S

Tom Wilson, left, and his brother-in-law Dan Johnson, both of Buffalo, S.D., have manufactured a device that removes hydrogen sulfide, commonly known as the deadly gas H2S, from crude oil. They were at the Bakken Oil Product and Service Show on April 15 at the West River Ice Center in Dickinson, N.D., during the third week of April to tout their device and talk with others about its potential. (Dustin Monke / The Dickinson Press)

An oilfield veteran and a retired schoolteacher believe they have found a method of removing deadly hydrogen sulfide gas from crude oil at wellsites without using chemicals in the process.

Dan Johnson and Tom Wilson, brothers-in-law from Buffalo, S.D., and cofounders of Blue Bull Lamont, gave a short presentation April 15 at the Bakken Oil and Product Show in Dickinson about their machinery and methods they say have been proven to eliminate the gas commonly known as H2S.

The new company — which is funded by and shares a name with Aberdeen, S.D.-based venture capital and private equity firm Lamont Enterprises — has patented a 40-feet-by-8-feet mobile processing unit that was fabricated in Johnson’s Dickinson shop and has been proven by independent oil-testing laboratories to work at wellsites in the Bakken.

“We dreamed it up, we proved it, we patented it,” Wilson said.

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