Tag: News

51 below doesn’t hinder western ND much

Clay Cosler, left, and Randy Paulson of Two Brothers Moving Co. in Dickinson help move a resident into the Hawks Point senior living community on Monday, Jan. 6, 2014.

Brutally cold temperatures appears to be on the way out of western North Dakota after wind chills in Dickinson dropped to as much as 51-below zero on Sunday and lingered into Monday afternoon with temperatures as low as 18 below in the morning.

Despite the cold temperatures and wind chills that grabbed national attention, most workers soldiered on outside as usual throughout the area with the exception of area schools cautiously canceling Monday classes based almost entirely on potential safety hazards posed to children because of the cold.

“It sounds like a lot of people did take the right precautions — layered up, covered exposed skin,” said Tony Merriman, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Bismarck. “We have ways to combat the wind chill. It’s just not fun.”

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Shoppers Holiday: Dickinson store owners, managers prepare for Thanksgiving, Black Friday rush

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.

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ND farmers flying into D.C. to push for farm bill

Everyone has to eat.

That’s the motto southwest North Dakota farmers Jim Kerzman and Bob Kuylen have, and it’s the sentiment they’re taking with them to Washington, D.C., this week as part of the National Farmers Union’s annual fly-in event to lobby members of Congress to support the farm bill.

Sixty-seven North Dakota Farmers Union members are flying into the nation’s capital and Kuylan, who farms wheat and sunflowers near South Heart, said he hopes the delegation can put some faces to the farm bill.

“They like to talk to actual farmers instead of lobbyists,” Kuylen said. “We’ll tell them what’s going on out in the country, instead of someone being paid and curving it their way.”

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Despite being away from Bakken, New England is experiencing a resurgence

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.

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Holding on until harvest: Crop outlook in southwest ND good despite late harvest projections

A field of durum south of New England, still almost completely green, is shown in early August.

The same fields that were being harvested on this day last year are lusher today in most parts of southwest North Dakota, and most are just barely showing signs of ripening.

Despite late planting and below-average July temperatures — including one overnight when southwest North Dakota neared frost-like conditions — grain crops in the area look good and have producers anxiously hoping the weather cooperates for another three to four weeks until it’s ready to harvest.

“It’s the old, ‘You never know until it’s in the bin,’” Scranton Equity grain manager Mike Wedwick said. “But things look good.”

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