Tag: Columns

When a veteran speaks, listen

On Thursday night, we had to make a quick trip to Bismarck. Because we were heading that way, I decided that it was time to pay a visit to the North Dakota Veterans Cemetery in Mandan.

That’s where my Grandpa Monke was buried in December, and because circumstances kept me from attending the burial service, I had yet to see the place where he was laid to rest.

While this was my first trip to the Veterans Cemetery, it certainly won’t be my last. Not only is my Grandpa there, my Grandma and parents plan to buried there as well.

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Grain train issues will only get worse

On Wednesday, I made a quick trip to Southwest Grain’s Boyle Terminal between Taylor and Gladstone to take a photo of Delane Thom, the cooperative’s manager. He had been interviewed for a national story by Reuters titled “Grain trains scarce on the Plains,” that we ran Thursday on our front page.

I spent 15 minutes chatting with Thom about the issues facing elevators throughout North Dakota, particularly those out west in the Oil Patch areas. I came away with an even better understanding of what people like those in Thom’s position are facing as they head into another busy season, trying to appease producers tired of hearing that an elevator with millions of bushels of space has no room and then begging BNSF Railway to send a few more trains their way to help free up space, only to watch a train hauling 110 cars full of oil roll east past the facility.

So much attention is being paid to those train cars carrying Bakken oil and its volatility that most forget about the issues facing local grain cooperatives throughout the region.

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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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