downtown dickinson – Dustin Monke

After a year of plenty, Dickinson’s independent retail businesses prepare for more normal year-end sales

Out of Town owner and manager Brooke Leno, left, helps employee Chloe Jazvic as she helps a customer and Melissa Moos folds clothing on Friday, Nov. 29, 2015, at the store in the Prairie Hills Mall in Dickinson, N.D. (Dustin Monke / The Dickinson Press)

Holidays can make or break the profit margins of small retail businesses.

In Dickinson, the time carries even greater meaning for relatively new businesses — especially those that sprang up in recent years around the promise of the burgeoning energy industry and population growth, only to see commerce wane in the wake of the industry’s slowdown.

“In general, business is slower,” said Brooke Leno, manager of Out of Town and Out of Town Kids in the Prairie Hills Mall. “People aren’t coming in and dropping a bunch of money like they used to. They’re being more strategic about their purchases. It’s nothing that’s going to make or break us. It’s definitely slower and you can tell. But it seems like the last few days, people are getting into that Christmas shopping.”

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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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Artistic concentration: Fargo artist begins painting downtown mural

Fargo artist Paul Ide began painting a mural that will grace the west wall of the old Dickinson Press building on Saturday afternoon in downtown Dickinson.

Building owner Eric Smallwood said he found Ide after searching for the best mural artist in North Dakota.

He wanted to add color to downtown Dickinson and to get rid of the drab gray brick wall that he said needed to be repainted anyway.

For more photos, visit The Press website.

Trial Runners continues to expand

Few Dickinson businesses felt the impact of the Great Recession.

As stock prices fell, the national housing market crashed and consumer confidence dipped, southwest North Dakota largely weathered the storm.

Trial Runners tells a different story.

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Planner talks ways to improve cities; focuses on Dickinson's downtown

Mike Zimney, a planner with Ulteig Engineers in Fargo, gives a presentation about building better cities Thursday afternoon at the Eagles Club in Dickinson.

Mike Zimney believes there are good and bad ways to build cities.

The Dickinson Downtown Association brought in the city planning specialist to speak to a group of about 60 Dickinson officials, business owners and others interested in revitalizing downtown Thursday afternoon at the Eagles Club.

“We can still build great places,” Zimney said early into his hour-long presentation, “Designing Great Cities.”

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