Symposium Attendees Ted-Set on Plans for Roosevelt Library in Dickinson

Louise W. Knight got her hands dirty Saturday morning.

The author and historian from Evanston, Ill., who is in Dickinson as a speaker at the Theodore Roosevelt Symposium, tore into the bark of cottonwood trees at the behest of Roosevelt scholar and symposium leader Clay Jenkinson.

As Jenkinson spoke about the process for how the trees will soon be used to build a replica of Roosevelt’s Elkhorn Ranch cabin, Knight wrapped her hands around the bark and started to pull. In all, she tore off about 10 feet of bark from a cottonwood sitting at the site of the proposed Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library.

“The most fun work is where you see the results right away, and this is that kind of work,” Knight said with a smile.

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RockPile Gets Bought Out, Expands

One of Dickinson’s biggest oilfield employers has been bought out, but little is changing. It’s even expanding.

RockPile Energy Services, which operated primarily as a hydraulic fracturing operation during the Bakken oilfield’s boom years, was acquired earlier this month by Houston-based White Deer Energy. RockPile was previously a subsidiary of Triangle Petroleum Corp.

“It puts us in a debt-free situation, which in this time and day is exceptional compared to our peers, and most of them are in some really big debt,” said Howard Rough, RockPile’s vice president of sales and marketing.

RockPile stated in a release that when it was acquired by White Deer Energy, the move allowed it to acquire more capital to fund growth.

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Democrat Out of Race for State Senate

A New England man who planned to oppose Republican state Sen. Kelly Armstrong in November’s election has withdrawn his name from the ballot.

Democrat John D.W. Fielding said Thursday that his job as an employee of the Transportation Service Administration prohibits him from pursuing political office.

Fielding was nominated by his party to challenge Armstrong in District 36 last spring. The party chose not to put up a challenger in his place after he dropped out, said Dean Meyer, chairman of the District 36 Democrats who is running for state House of Representatives.

“It was a pretty close deadline,” Meyer said. “We’d had a hard time finding the first line of candidates, so there really wasn’t much we could do with that short time.”

Fielding said he learned he couldn’t pursue public office in an email he received from the TSA about election rules for employees. Federal government employees are prohibited from holding partisan political office, a law that dates back to the Hatch Act of 1939.

“I kinda need my job,” Fielding said with a laugh.

Fielding said he was working as a geologist in the oilfield before the drop in oil prices caused the Bakken’s significant slowdown. He said he wants to stay in the area because his children want to graduate from New England High School.

… I knew it would have been an uphill battle, but I thought there was information that should be out there and voters should know instead of voting the party line like most people do.”

“Family has got to come first,” Fielding said.

Fielding admitted he faced an uphill battle against Armstrong, who isn’t just a state senator but also chairman of the North Dakota GOP. He said, however, that he has had the opportunity to bring attention to issues faced by voters and added that he believes Armstrong hasn’t represented his constituents well.

“I had issues with the way the state handles the oil industry in general, basically from a position of weakness rather than strength,” Fielding said. “… I knew it would have been an uphill battle, but I thought there was information that should be out there and voters should know instead of voting the party line like most people do.”

Meyer said Fielding dropping out of the race creates more of an uphill battle for he and fellow House candidate Linda Kittilson, who face incumbent Republican Rep. Mike Schatz and newcomer Luke Simons.

Simons beat out incumbent Rep. Alan Fehr in the District 36 GOP nominating process.

“It does make the race a little tougher for the other two of us to not have anyone else ahead of us on the Senate side of it,” Meyer said. Armstrong said Thursday that despite running unopposed, he’s still putting in the campaign legwork for not only himself but Schatz, Simons and other Republican nominees he represents as party chair. “Even though I’m running unopposed, I think I’ll be working just as hard,” he said.

DSU Enrollment up 5 Percent: Mitzel Says Heritage Foundation’s Work Essential to Growth

Dickinson State University’s fall semester enrollment increased 5 percent from last year.

It’s a small but significant increase as the College on the Hill rebuilds its reputation under a new administration following years of enrollment and foundation scandals.

DSU President Thomas Mitzel said Tuesday that fundraising efforts by the DSU Heritage Foundation – formed last year after the old DSU Alumni and Foundation was forced into receivership by the North Dakota Attorney General’s Office – was essential in helping recruit new students to the university.

“You never want to have to start a new foundation, but by doing so I think we were able to target some very nice scholarship packages for students,” Mitzel said.

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Blue Hawk Square Variance Approved

Dickinson State University can start making plans to place students in the Blue Hawk Square off-campus housing complex after the city’s Board of Adjustment approved an off-site parking variance for it Monday morning.

The board granted the variance request made by Dacotah Bank, which took ownership of the building in June by claiming the deed from the DSU Foundation in lieu of foreclosure.

The variance will allow residents of the four-story, 108-occupant apartment complex on the corner of West Villard Street and 10th Avenue West to park their vehicles on DSU’s campus instead of in a parking lot across Villard that had been leased by the foundation since it opened. Obtaining the parking variance was a crucial step in Dacotah Bank obtaining a certificate of occupancy for Blue Hawk Square.

Board member Trevor Ernst requested the variance be granted for two years on a temporary basis after an hour of debate and comments from concerned neighborhood residents and property owners. The motion passed 3-2.

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