Jesse Samsa broke down in tears as he watched firefighters inspect the apartment building he had lived in for the past three months.
As he looked at his section of the white building at 1143 Sims, now black and charred beyond repair, the Pennsylvania native living and working in Dickinson could only muster up three words.
“Pain and hurt.”
Continue reading “Apartment fire displaces 2 tenants”
The first big-box store in Dickinson is closing its doors at the end of the year and a new supermarket is taking its place.
Representatives for Kmart and the Prairie Hills Mall announced Tuesday that the store will close in early December after 36 years. About an hour later, Coburn’s Inc., owner of Cash Wise Foods and Cash Wise Liquors announced that it plans to move into the space and open the supermarket and liquor store by spring 2015.
“We’ve been working to find the right opportunity to come to Dickinson for some time now and I’m glad everything has come together to allow us to open in the spring,” Chris Coburn, Coburn’s president and CEO, said in a news release.
Last week, Dickinson lost one of its oldest restaurants. Not because business was bad. Not because the food was inedible. Not because of a fire or some other act of God. No.
The Bonanza steakhouse and buffet that has been serving customers for 35 years was forced to shut its doors for good Monday because it could only find 11 employees. That wasn’t nearly enough for franchise owner Bob Wade to keep the business running.
The closure of Bonanza should be a wake-up call not only to Dickinson business owners, but to those who set the price of housing. It’s the clearest sign we’ve seen so far that the cost of living in Dickinson is so high, even successful businesses can’t make it unless they pay part-time workers more than $15 an hour.
It’s time to find a balance and help low- and medium-income workers before more businesses — especially restaurants — raise the white flag and lock their doors permanently.
Continue reading “Bonanza evidence of city’s biggest problems”
BEACH — Citing the absence of a council member, the Beach City Council tabled a rezoning decision regarding a proposed $7 million railroad expansion for the Beach Grain Cooperative following a public hearing at its regular meeting Monday night.
Beach Mayor Walter Losinski said Tuesday that the council “didn’t want to make a snap judgment” after about 20 people attended Monday’s meeting and others provided letters and comments both for and against the rezoning of 156 acres on the city’s east side from agriculture to commercial. The council’s next meeting is Oct. 6.
“We wouldn’t have done anything without a full council. It’s too big of an issue,” Losinski said. “It impacts more people than just the ag people. It impacts people on both sides. Everybody needed that extra time to wrap their heads around it. A lot of questions need to be asked and answered yet.”
Continue reading “Beach tables rezoning for rail expansion”
Robin Reynolds owns a small business in Hebron, a southwest North Dakota town along Highway 10 about 2 miles off of Interstate 94.
Like so many other small towns in the state, Hebron has seen busier times.
“When the interstate came in, these small towns emptied out,” Reynolds said.
Continue reading “‘A different route’: Strategic plan in place for state scenic byways”
Dustin Monke 