Marc Mellmer, an operations coordinator for JE Dunn Construction in Dickinson, stands on the outside of the St. Joseph’s Hospital construction site. Mellmer, a Dickinson native, has climbed the ladder with JE Dunn is now part of the management team in charge of more than $250 million worth of construction projects in western North Dakota.
At just 29 years old, Dickinson native Marc Mellmer has found himself at the forefront of western North Dakota’s construction boom.
As an operations coordinator for JE Dunn Construction, Mellmer is responsible for building the new St. Joseph’s Hospital in Dickinson and numerous other infrastructure projects. All told, Mellmer estimates he and his management team will oversee about $250 million in vertical construction in western North Dakota over the next three years.
“My goal is not to leave,” Mellmer said with a smile. “I don’t plan on moving JE Dunn out of here ever — if I had it my way.”
Sara Spradley puts a tool set on a rack at Newby’s Ace Hardware on Wednesday in preparation for the store’s early morning opening on Friday.
Lenny Johnson calls the sound similar to a “stampede of horses.”
The co-owner of Starboard, an apparel store in the Prairie Hills Mall, has been a part of three Black Friday doorbuster sales pushes. Each one has been more interesting than the last, he said, as the mall doors open and customers flood in — some of them running — toward stores looking for deals.
“It is absolutely the craziest thing you will ever see,” Johnson said. “You can literally hear the feet.”
Dickinson’s population has practically doubled in the past five years and many who work in retail businesses said sales have improved during that span.
Hundreds gather at New England’s Lions Park on July 30 for Burgers in the Park. New England, which was down to an estimated 460 residents not long ago but now believes it is closer to 700, has received many positive effects of North Dakota’s Bakken oil boom. Though it does not having a producing well within 15 miles of its city limits, as oil development continues its slow march south, New England officials are preparing for the possibilities that come with increased activity.
NEW ENGLAND — There isn’t a producing oil well within 15 miles of New England.
But just like many other western North Dakota communities, the small town in northwestern Hettinger County is seeing a revitalization thanks in large part to the economic impact of the Bakken oil boom.
Several new homes are being built, and the city’s population has increased from 460 a few years ago to an estimated 700.
Business isn’t exactly booming, but it has seen a noticeable uptick with more sales tax dollars being generated, longtime community businesses building new facilities and new businesses opening along a once-decaying Main Street.
All are great signs for a small town that only a few years ago seemed relegated to watching businesses close as its population grew older and dwindled.
“Main Street in New England hasn’t probably looked this good in 30 years,” New England Mayor Marty Opdahl said.
Doug Goehring, the agriculture commissioner of North Dakota, said there are concerns about the business of bees in the state. So much so that he has fielded late-night phone calls from landowners concerned about the placement of hives.
“‘Doug, I just want to let you know I’ve got bees right across from me,’” Goehring recalls one McKenzie farmer telling him over the phone at 10:30 p.m. on a recent Saturday.
Placement of beehives and the regulation of out-of-state beekeepers in North Dakota are among the concerns Goehring believes will have farmers, landowners and beekeepers buzzing at the first North Dakota Pollinator Summit, which is being held at 1 p.m. CDT today at the Kelly Inn in Bismarck.
“I think that the beekeepers are going to think I’m taking a shot at them. I’m not,” Goehring said. “I’m trying to address this issue because they are guests here.”
FNS Photo by Brian Basham Joe Nichols shakes hands with some fortunate women in the front row of VIP seating Aug. 7, 2010, at WE Fest in Detroit Lakes, Minn.
Every day this summer has seemed sunny and 75 for Grammy-nominated country star Joe Nichols.
He has one of the top songs of the summer, recently got to spend some time on tour with his wife and two daughters, is with a new and burgeoning record label that specializes in country music, and has a new album dropping this fall.
The singer with such No. 1 singles as “Brokenheartsville,” “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off” and “Gimme That Girl” will be in Dickinson on Wednesday as the headliner of the Roughrider Days Fair & Expo concert that begins at 8 p.m. with Restless Heart opening for Nichols.
“Honestly, things have been going pretty great for me lately,” Nichols said. “I can’t complain about anything.”
Nichols’ single “Sunny and 75” hasn’t reached the top of the charts but it has held steady with strong radio airplay and has a five-star rating on iTunes, where it is his second-best selling single behind his catchy 2005 hit “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off.”
“It’s a made-for-summer type of song,” Nichols said via a phone interview while in Oshkosh, Wis. “Hopefully the song is not only connecting this summer but for summers in the future and it’s played throughout every summer.
“It’s the kind of song you love bringing to radio. It’s a tempo thing for the summertime. We need songs like this on the radio. The track feels great, it’s well written. The vocals are beyond what I’ve done before.”
Dustin Monke 