Tag: Local

Stenehjem makes campaign stop in for Dickinson

0114 Blog - wAYNE

North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem touted his nearly four decades of political experience working with the state’s agriculture and energy industry Wednesday in Dickinson as part of his campaign seeking the Republican nomination for governor.

Stenehjem geared much of his 20-minute speech to a small but friendly crowd gathered at the West River Community Center around topics important to western North Dakotans — agriculture, oil and education.

“We also have to emphasize that North Dakota, more than ever, is truly a part of a global marketplace,” Stenehjem said. “We must redouble our efforts to secure global sales of all of our farm and energy commodities. If there is one thing we’ve learned, it’s the importance of diversifying our economy. We’re doing that in marvelous ways and we can do more.”

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Is the answer blowing in the wind?

Would you put a 350-foot wind turbine on your land?

That’s the question my dad was asked by a representative of NextEra Energy Resources not long after the company expressed interest in leasing a small corner of land in an area owned by our family about 2½ miles west of our farm.

The turbine would be part of the Brady Wind Energy Center II project NextEra plans to stretch across northern Hettinger County as a complementary project to the larger Brady Wind Energy Center I proposed for southern Stark County.

My dad promptly asked me the same question and others. “What do you know about the company?” And, “What do you think we should do?”

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The dark problem with our parks

Growing up, I always heard rumors and stories about Dickinson parks at night. “That’s where kids go to make out and people go to get high.” Back then, teenage me laughed at that because, of course, I didn’t really care. Whatever you can get away with, I often thought. Now that my family lives across the street from one of Dickinson’s largest public parks, I don’t find it so funny.

I called the Dickinson Police Department three times this summer and made similar calls last summer after witnessing what appear to be drug deals and other suspicious activity taking place in my neighborhood’s park after dark.

One call to police a month ago prompted an officer to drive by and eventually get out of his car to look for two men who had been sitting in one of the park’s many darkened areas for more than an hour. By the time he got there, they were already gone. I watched as they fl ed on foot as the officer rolled by.

This spring, I was one of the three people who called 911 after finding a severely beaten man who’d been thrown out of a vehicle and onto a street in the middle of a Saturday afternoon as a dozen bystanders enjoyed a warm day in the park.

Many of those bystanders were children. Some were just yards away.

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Young plans unique additions to Players

James Young, the new general manager of Players Sports Bar and Grill in Dickinson, stands in Players’ bar area Friday night. He hopes to bring more consistency to the business, as well as new flair.
James Young, the new general manager of Players Sports Bar and Grill in Dickinson, stands in Players’ bar area Friday night. He hopes to bring more consistency to the business, as well as new flair.

James Young’s earliest memories are cracking eggs in a large mixing bowl at his family’s restaurant in suburban Chicago.

Forty years and a lifetime of food service and hospitality industry jobs later, Young has brought his experiences to Dickinson as he takes over as the general manager of Players Sports Bar and Grill.

His biggest challenge, he said, is establishing a consistency throughout the food and customer service aspects of the business.

“In my opinion, there are three things that are going to make a restaurant successful … good food, reasonable prices, excellent customer service,” Young said.

That, he said, and reasons for people to keep coming back.

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Stop trashing our town and pick up your $#!+

No one has ever considered me a hippie environmentalist. But if there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s people who treat the land like it’s one big trash can.

Growing up on the farm, it was pointed out to me from a young age that my grandpa wanted the farm to look clean. The grass was always to be kept cut and neat, machinery was parked in rows or in a shed, garbage was meant for the can and junk shouldn’t be left sitting around.

I often wish some people I encounter around Dickinson would have grown up in a similar atmosphere, where lessons about cleanliness and respect for the community and land sometimes go out the window — quite literally in one case.

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