Tag: News

Mott-Regent Passes $8.7 Million School Bond Issue by Thinnest of Margins

MOTT — Mott-Regent is getting a new elementary school and making major improvements to its high school.

The district’s school board made that official Monday after a canvassing meeting found that 61 percent of the district’s residents voted in favor of the $8.7 million bond referendum. The project needed a 60 percent “yes” vote to pass.

Viola LaFontaine, the district’s new superintendent who is just settling into her role and doesn’t start full time until July, said she has heard the mixed opinions about the bond passing.

“When you get a vote this close, you know there’s opinions out there,” she said. “I’m hearing different things.”

The bond calls for a 32.01 mill levy increase, or about a $143 increase on $100,000 in residential property. Cropland will see an average tax increase of 93 cents an acre.

A total of 639 district residents in Hettinger, Adams and Stark counties voted on the bond referendum, with only 390 voting yes. It was such a thin margin, the school board waited to receive additional mail-in ballots at Monday’s canvassing meeting to officially announce the results. They received just one mail-in ballot.

Mott-Regent has 240 students in its system.

With the funding, the district will construct a new elementary school, remodel and renovate the high school building, and demolish the old elementary school.

Work could begin immediately, LaFontaine said. Though she and school board president Kevin Roth said the school is likely going to ensure all the legal aspects of the project are shored up.

“We’re not going to rush into anything,” Roth said. “We’re going to do our due diligence and do everything properly. Hopefully everything will come in under bid.”

Consolidated Construction was hired as the contractor at-risk for the project. LaFontaine said the company wants to start soil borings and sight surveys soon.

“Some of those things, I think we can do pretty quickly,” she said.

The school will officially approach the Bank of North Dakota this week about a 2 percent, 20-year loan.

“The main thing is we just move forward from here,” she said. “I’m a very open and willing to listen to people, and am looking to make this a positive move for the Mott-Regent School District. … This is an opportunity for the school to celebrate education.”

The district also canvassed the election of incumbent school board members Garret Swindler and Lucas Greff, as well as newly elected Jeremy Ottmar. All three ran unopposed.

Century-Old Dunn County Church Destroyed in Fire

DUNN CENTER — A lightning strike to its steeple set a 100-year-old church ablaze Monday evening in rural Dunn County.

The Vang Lutheran Church, which maintained a small congregation despite ending regular Sunday services in 2010, was destroyed by the fire.

“You just trust the Lord knows what’s best for the congregation,” said Dave Nodland, one of the church’s few remaining members.

The church opened in 1916 about 6 miles southeast of Dunn Center following eight years of planning and construction. The earliest parishioners were Norwegian immigrants who moved to the area from Renville County, Minn., and the church served generations of central Dunn County Lutheran families, former state Sen. George Nodland said.

“It was basically an icon to the county,” said Halliday Fire Chief Joey Bogers, who responded to the fire.

Dunn County Commission Chairman Reinhard Hauck — who was baptized there — said Tuesday the church only recently officially closed as a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America’s Western North Dakota Synod.

Hauck and Dave Nodland said because of the building’s deterioration — it was badly damaged by hail a few years ago — families who were stakeholders in the church had started talking about its eventual fate.

“We were still struggling with that,” Dave Nodland said. “I guess the good Lord made the decision for us. … Nobody wanted to see it close because it was a landmark for generations.”

Around 30 firefighters responded to the fire after it was reported around 7:30 p.m., Bogers said, adding he could see the fire from three miles away.

Dave Nodland said he and other congregation members told firefighters to let the church burn after the blaze spread beyond the steeple and fire trucks began running out of water.

“It was at the point where you just couldn’t fight it,” he said.

The church burned to the ground within two hours, Bogers said.

“You think of all the lightning storms there have been in the last 100 years and finally one struck,” Dave Nodland said.

Denise Brew, the county’s emergency manager, called the church fire is “devastating” to locals.

“It’s that one church everybody in the county knew of,” she said. “It was the beacon of the county down there.”

George Nodland said he was baptized at the Vang Lutheran Church and has about 40 relatives buried in the church’s cemetery, which he said will continue to be maintained.

His grandfather was one of the church’s founders, and said services were held at the family’s home while the church was being constructed.

“It has quite a history,” he said.

Shortly before Memorial Day, George Nodland said he visited the church after tidying up his relative’s gravesites.

“I went into the church and looked at some stuff,” he said. “I made a comment to my wife, ‘Somebody should get that stuff out of there.’ It was getting old.”

A few items were spared, Dave Nodland said, including the baptismal fountain, and some pictures and communion items. However, the pews and the altar — which he said the congregation hoped to save — were completely lost in the fire.

George Nodland said he went through a range of emotions Tuesday as he learned more about the fire and the remains of the church his family helped build.

“It means a lot to me,” he said.

Burglar who shot himself in head after standoff gets probation

The Reeder man who shot himself in the head after a standoff with Dickinson police last December was sentenced to three years of supervised probation Monday during an arraignment at the Stark County Courthouse.

Jeremy Mellmer, 32, had a five-year prison sentenced suspended by Southwest District Court Judge William Herauf after the judge agreed to the Stark County state attorney’s deal to keep the severely injured Mellmer out of the corrections system.

“He shot himself in the head and left himself in considerable poor health, which will greatly impact his life going forward as well as the reality of any extended incarceration,” said James Hope, Stark County assistant state’s attorney.

Mellmer pled guilty Monday to theft of property and burglary charges, both Class C felonies, after breaking into the home of Dickinson resident Bernard Deichert and stealing approximately $3,000 worth of firearms and other items on Nov. 24.

Mellmer, who wore a large neck brace and an eyepatch over his right eye, spoke in a gravely voice and mustered only one-word answers when responding to the judge’s questions.

Herauf said he was concerned about the proposed sentence, but agreed to keep Mellmer’s health burden out of the state’s hands.

“I’m going to go along with what’s been worked out, otherwise the state is faced with the problems that your health creates,” he said, before speaking directly to Mellmer about his future. “We’re not having this conduct again. None of it whatsoever.”

Joseph Mrstik, Mellmer’s court-appointed attorney, spoke on Mellmer’s behalf before Herauf agreed to the sentence.

“Through his own actions, Mr. Mellmer has significantly limited the ability to live his life and, frankly, if it weren’t for his father, he’d probably be out on the street and not doing very well,” Mrstik said. “My point is, he’s basically just taking it one day at a time, trying to make up for lost time and appreciating the fact that he’s still here.”

Mellmer escaped police during a traffic stop on Nov. 30. Police searched for him until Dec. 2, when they surrounded a house on the 900 block of Ninth Street East. The standoff ended when Mellmer shot himself. He has not been charged for that incident.

However, Mellmer is not done with court appearances.

He will have pretrial conference July 5 on charges of possession of marijuana with intent to deliver, a Class B felony, and possession of methamphetamine paraphernalia and carrying concealed firearm or weapon, both Class A misdemeanors. A July 20 trial is scheduled.

Hope said the state has few concerns about Mellmer committing further crimes following his final sentencing, solely because of his health.

“We’ll monitor his health condition and see how his recovery goes, and whether the health condition he has now is permanent,” Hope said in an interview.

Watch: Trump answer our questions

Forum News Service reporter Amy Dalrymple, who is a lot smaller than me, were front-row at the Donald Trump press conference Thursday. In a room full of national and state media, Amy kept getting overlooked by Trump. So, she showed me the question she wanted to ask and, moments later, the Republican presidential candidate pointed to me and I asked what the federal government’s role should be in the oil industry.

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Toward the end of the press conference, I had the chance to ask him what North Dakota Congressman Kevin Cramer’s role would be in a Trump administration, as Cramer has been eyed as something of an energy advisor by Trump. While Trump didn’t answer that question, it created an interesting moment where Trump brought Cramer to the podium to speak in front of the national media.

 

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This is everything we compiled from Trump’s visit to North Dakota, including the protests outside.

Holtz motivates energy conference in leadup to Trump

BISMARCK — Lou Holtz joked Thursday that the last time he was in North Dakota, oil was $100 a barrel and he wasn’t homeless.

The former college football coach and ESPN commentator, who lost a Florida home in a fire last summer, encouraged energy industry leaders and workers to take the recent oil downturn in stride during a speech preceding Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s appearance at the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference.

“Quitting is a permanent solution to a temporary problem,” he said. “Until you fly on solar energy, oil is going to continue to be very, very important.”

Holtz, a former board member for Watford City-based Nuverra Environmental Solutions, only lightly touched on energy in his speech and went through standard motivational material that has made him a sought-after speaker nationwide.

Holtz peppered multiple jokes throughout his 40-minute speech. His few moments speaking about oil were tied into his motivational theme, and for a moment, Holtz even got political.

“We all have injustices done,” he said. “It would bother the daylights out of me in this oil business, where our government subsidizes all kinds of fancy things and puts all kinds of restrictions on me. But you can’t be bitter about it.”

Continue reading “Holtz motivates energy conference in leadup to Trump”