Dakota Beacon

Grassy  Butte is a wide spot on U.S. 85 near the northern Badlands.  A resident sent a letter to ND newspapers.  The letter included selective emotions and perceptions about the oil boom -- the underlying problems will challenge state leaders in 2012.  Here are a few excerpts from the letter:

“Thousands of homeless people are crammed into campers — and Dalrymple declares thousands more are coming. Crime has skyrocketed. Housing prices are outrageous. Highway deaths are soaring. An entire town has gone dry of water. Our quiet, safe, agricultural lifestyle is being annihilated.”

Clearly, the letter writer takes a bleak, extreme view of ND’s oil boom.  Tribune columnist Clay Jenkinson tapped into that view.  He wrote “the people of North Dakota . . . have begun to worry that the boom is geting away from us . . . that it is going to wreck that which we love.”  Jenkinson says it is possible to tame the boom and suggests that those who care about ND take a drive around the oil patch in early 2012.  He proposed a route which begins in Minot, passes through Williston and ends in Dickinson.  Jenkinson urges state government to “chasten the boom and restrain the kinds of destructive excesses that are otherwise invevitable.”

“More of everything” -- that is what the Tribune sees for Bismarck-Mandan in 2012 if the oil industry continues its frenetic growth.  The Tribune says it is time to make sense of this growth --  Bismarck, Mandan and their respective counties should jointly and cooperatively put planning resources in place.

A block of four counties (Mountrail, McKenzie, Williams and Dunn) account for 80 percent of ND oil production.  The four counties are in the forefront of another statistic -- traffic fatalities.  The northwestern region of the state accounted for over 40 percent of 2011 vehicle deaths.  The other three regions, although more populated than the northwest, each had 20 percent or less of the state’s traffic fatalities.

McKenzie County is cowboy country, Badlands country, even Lewis and Clark country, but recently it has been getting an “out of control feeling.”  The county has adopted its first-ever zoning ordinances.  County tax director Deidre Berquist has a new objective: "My goal is to know what in the heck is going on out there."  Man camps are in her gunsights.

“Any other place, I would have just gotten a ticket for disorderly conduct or taken to a drunk tank. But in North Dakota, they put you in jail for a week.”  -- that was bad Jimmy Baldwin blowing off steam after he was arrested for disorderly conduct in Williston.  He said, “If they want me to go, I’ll go.  People aren’t very godly or friendly here anyway.”  Earlier, a Colorado homeless center gave Jimmy a one-way bus ticket to ND.

UND President Robert Kelley disliked the Fighting Sioux nickname when he came to Grand Forks in 2008 -- he likes it less now.  His administration recently asked news media to restrict use of the nickname and logo.  It may be too late, but we’ve finally figured out what went wrong.  Kelley failed to to learn the lyrics to “Fight on Sioux,” which begins “Fight on Sioux, we’re all for you, We’re thousands of strong and loyal souls” and concludes “We’re the fighting Sioux from North Dakota U (add a few drumbeats).”

The Forum’s 2011 Area Person of the Year is American Crystal Sugar CEO David Berg.  He is the person thought to have had the most impact on the area in the past year.  There will be little dispute -- American Crystal’s union employee lockout was the most discussed event in Fargo-Moorhead in late 2011.

Where is the easiest state to find Norwegians?  Try ND, 33 percent of Nodaks identify themselves as having Norwegian ancestry, the highest of any state.  Minnesota is second (20 percent) and SD third (17 percent). 

One more Kleinsasser item.  Over Jim Kleinsasser’s 13-year career with the Minnesota Vikings there have been many comments here about him.  Since this newsletter is utterly free of bias, you can be sure the items had nothing to do with Kleinsasser being from Carrington.  The Jamestown Sun jumped aboard and awarded JK one of its cherished “Bravos.”  The Vikings did more than that, sending two bus loads of Carrington fans to participate in the “fear the beard” celebration at Kleinsasser’s last football appearance in Minneapolis.  Many of the 125 Carrington fans wore his No. 40 jersey.  A Star Tribune photo showed Jim hugging his 4-year-old son Carter Kleinsasser, who wore a miniature No. 40 jersey.

Somewhere near the end of 2011, Montana exceeded a population of 1 million.  ND is one of six states with populations under a million -- the others are Alaska, Delaware, SD, Vermont and Wyoming.  Whatever its population, ND is doing well economically -- a Creighton University economist predicts ND will have 2012 job growth of 3.4 percent  and a 5.7 percent increase in real GDP.  Translation -- when GDP grows faster than jobs, average incomes usually increase.

DAKTOIDS: Nodaks have some work to do in 2012: over 50% are not getting enough exercise, 66% are overweight or worse, and 88% have diabetes or are at risk for developing diabetes . . . Hunting is becoming more difficult in ND  -- one reason, acreage in the Conservation Reserve Program has dropped to 2.6 million acres from 3.4 million at its 2007 peak . . . The oil boom is turning into an attorney boom -- Bismarck has 400 of the state’s 2,200 attorneys, many feeding off delicious business coming out of the oil patch . . . The 2010 census indicated the number of Hispanics in ND increased 73 percent since 2000.  The first Fargo baby of 2012 was a Gonzalez . . . The obituary for Charlotte Hetherington (80) of Jamestown declares she was an enthusiastic member of the Jewels of the Prairie chapter of the Red Hat Society.