Dickinson – Page 9 – Dustin Monke

Cigarettes caused downtown building fire

The Dickinson Fire Department works at a fire in downtown Dickinson on Tuesday night

Cigarettes started the fire that displaced the tenants of four apartments Tuesday night in a downtown Dickinson building.

The fire originated from a plastic cigarette disposal container, Dickinson Fire Chief Bob Sivak said. The container, sitting a second-floor deck area on the north side of the Jessen Building on the corner of Villard Street and First Avenue West, somehow ignited and started a fire because of multiple combustible materials nearby.

“We’re listing the cause of the fire as unintentional and related to smoking materials,” Sivak said.

Sivak said two apartments and the building’s roof were badly damaged by the fire, as was electrical wiring to the building.

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Convenience concerns: Rep. Cramer works register, hears issues at The Hub

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The new guy working the register at The Hub convenience store on Monday took a few customers by surprise.

Rep. Kevin Cramer said this wasn’t his first time working at a gas station — he ran a bulk fuel truck at a co-op in Kindred for one summer during his college years — and the North Dakota Republican took to the challenge just fine.

“He actually caught on really well,” said Melanie Stradling, The Hub’s new assistant general manager.

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Haider’s mother still waiting for answers about son’s death

The mother of a man whose body was found in a Dickinson construction site three years after he disappeared from there says she has received little information about the investigation into his death just days before a memorial service will be held for him.

Nearly three months have passed since the body of Eric Haider was found at a worksite off 40th Street West in north Dickinson by private investigators who had been hired by Mary Ellen Suchan, Haider’s mother.

Haider’s remains were exhumed May 22 “relatively intact,” according to a Dickinson Police Department report and a positive identification was made a week later. He had disappeared from the job site where he was working for Cofell’s Plumbing and Heating on May 24, 2012. Police investigators and private citizens spent months looking for Haider, who was 30 years old and living in the Bismarck area at the time of his death, near the site following his disappearance, but turned up no results.

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Gas leak shuts down Dickinson restaurant, street for 2½ hours

Montana-Dakota Utilities workers dig a hole in an attempt to shut off a natural gas line Wednesday in the El Sombrero Mexican Restaurant parking lot in north Dickinson.

A popular Dickinson lunchtime restaurant was evacuated shortly after noon Wednesday and part of a busy street was blocked off as a precaution for about 2½ hours after a contractor struck a gas line near the corner of 15th Street West and Elks Drive.

El Sombrero Mexican Restaurant was evacuated and part of 15th Street West south of Prairie Hills Mall was blocked off by law enforcement after the line was inadvertently struck by a contractor with Denny’s Electric who was attempting to service an electric line.

Montana-Dakota Utilities spokesperson Mark Hanson said at 2:45 p.m. that the blowing gas had been shut off and the two-inch plastic line has been looped and repairs were underway in the El Sombrero parking lot. The gas had been blowing since about noon. No customers lost service because of the line break, however.
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Home prices fall in Dickinson, but not much

Buying a home in Dickinson is cheaper and less stressful than it was only a year ago, two of the city’s top Realtors said Friday.

Though the oil industry slowdown around Dickinson has led to lower average sale prices and more homes in the city being listed for sale, the overall residential housing market has remained strong and may be beginning to stabilize.

“They (prices) have definitely softened and buyers are now more cautious, so there’s more on the market,” said Ninetta Wandler, a longtime Dickinson Realtor. “But they’re not forced to buy yesterday. Before, if you had three houses to look at, you were lucky — and you didn’t have time to think about it.”

Compared to last year, there’s much more time for prospective homebuyers to think about a home purchase and to negotiate the price.

The average year-to-date sale price for residential property has fallen nearly 10 percent — from about $294,000 to $266,000 — according to the Badlands Board of Realtors’ market summary report for June.

Still, more than 84 percent of active listings last month were for homes priced above $200,000 — a decrease of only about 3 percent from last year — while more than half of the homes on the market at the end of June were listed between $250,000 to $400,000.

Don Paulson is trying to sell one of those homes in north Dickinson.

“I just want to downsize,” he said.

He may not have to wait long to do so.
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