Dustin Monke

Mott-Regent divided on new school vote

Everywhere you look in southwest North Dakota these days, school districts are growing, talking about expansion or looking into building completely new facilities.

Dickinson’s leaders support building a new middle school less than a year after opening a new elementary school. South Heart and Belfield are weighing their options for new facilities separately, or even the possibility — however slim it may be — of a centralized school and a combined district. New England is almost finished with an expansion to school building, complete with a modern library.

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Debate a taste of races

I had a front-row seat to debates for two of North Dakota’s most hotly contested elected positions on Thursday night, serving as the timer for U.S. House and agriculture commissioner debates while Press Publisher Harvey Brock moderated the event sponsored and organized by the North Dakota Newspaper Association on the opening night of its annual convention at the Radisson hotel in Bismarck.

These debates weren’t so much about who won and lost as they were an opportunity for the candidates to feel each other out on stage, establish talking points and set the tone for what will likely end up being the state’s two closest races of the year.

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Gone too soon, but always remembered

I sat near the back of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in New England on Wednesday morning.

Like most people in the church, I was somewhere that only a few days earlier I never thought I would have to be, honoring a man I never imagined we would lose so young.

Forty-five minutes before the funeral was set to begin, there wasn’t a seat left. I looked around and saw people crowding into the back of the church and squeezing into pews. I patted my hand on the shoulder of one of my oldest friends and said, “Look around.”

We didn’t know what to say. I wanted to smile, knowing this man had touched the lives of so many people, but couldn’t muster one.

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Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library once-in-generation opportunity for North Dakota

You can visit the George W. Bush Presidential Library at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. It only costs $7 to get into both the Bill Clinton library in Little Rock, Ark., and the Gerald Ford library in Ann Arbor, Mich.

These presidents each had their faults, yet they still have libraries to honor them and serve as historical research sites.

Somehow, Theodore Roosevelt — a man whose face is on Mount Rushmore and is considered one of our greatest leaders — is among the American presidents without a library.

The North Dakota Legislature has tasked Dickinson State University with changing that.

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A place for Teddy: Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library plans taking shape

Dickinson could one day be home to a library for one of the most revered presidents in American history.

Dickinson State University and one of the country’s top museum planning firms, at the behest of the North Dakota Legislature, are in the early stages of designing a concept for a Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library to be built in the city — likely on the university’s campus. Planners envision a facility that would be as nationally renowned as any other presidential library.

“I think this is huge for all of North Dakota,” DSU President D.C. Coston said. “A presidential library — as it’s been discussed here — has huge national and, in many cases, international impact.”

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