Dakota Beacon

The Jamestown economy has taken a blow and Minnesota’s second-largest electric utility is sitting on a $437 million problem.  Great River Energy is a wholesale cooperative owned by 28 electric cooperatives.  GRE spent $437 million on a coal plant (Spiritwood Energy) near Jamestown.  The state-of-the-art plant met a confluence of problems: cost overruns, low demand and prices, and the loss of an ethanol plant which was to be a major steam customer.  The plant will be off-line until 2013 or later.  Spiritwood Energy Park is Jamestown’s major economic development project.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune had a lengthy story about the Spiritwood plant.  Two days later the Jamestown Sun briefly noted the plant is on standby.

In three separate articles, Tribune writer Lauren Donovan covered different aspects of “fracking,”  underground injections used to recover oil in ND:

 In the first article, Lynn Helms, director of the Department of Mineral Resources, predicts near catastrophe for the ND economy if the EPA declares a moratorium on fracking (EPA officials hurriedly denied such an intention).

 A second article discussed how large oil companies are voluntarily disclosing details of their fracking technology in order to reduce environmental concerns.

 The third is somewhat of a head shaker.  Donovan interviewed Kris Kitko, a self-described Bismarck musician and writer, who maintains a website called “Bakken Watch” and publishes anti-fracking charges faster than oil companies can rebut them.  Some of her charges are emotional (fracking kills kittens) and others seem technically off base (she cites dangerous chemicals not used in fracking).  Whether her charges stick or not, a squad of attorneys and experts is kept busy responding to the accusations.

Tiny town allows tiny man camp.  Almont is 30 miles southwest of Mandan and has only 85 residents. The town reluctantly agreed to permit a Colorado builder to house nine workers in an old schoolhouse, but prohibits any further dormitory-style housing.  Ken Rogers of the Tribune says small towns are not welcoming man camps -- they fear being overwhelmed “by people who do not share their values” and “That along with these ‘outsiders’ will come social problems and crime.”

In many western states, construction has ground to a halt, but ND has become the Happy Hunting Grounds for out-of-state contractors.  The Minot City Council just awarded a $1.1 million contract to a Boise firm to demolish and remove over 100 flood damaged homes.

They have various names, “cannon balls” is most common, technically, they are naturally concreted geographical rock formations.  Harmon Lake is a recreation area to the northwest of Mandan -- 70 to 80 cannon balls were unearthed there during excavation for a dam system.  The balls resemble their nickname and appear to be several feet in diameter.  The Morton County Park Director says the boulders will be used as traffic barriers.

Below freezing temperatures and a wind chill factor of 14 degrees seem harsh, yet that didn’t stop Cherie Schumaker of Hope from camping outside a Fargo Target store at 3 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day; Mike Piechowsky did the same outside a Target in Bismarck.  Their goal: to be the first to snatch big flatscreen TVs at bargain prices when the stores opened at midnight.  They came well-equipped for Black Friday and the Pizza Hut delivery person had no trouble spotting them at the front of the line.

Tribune columnist Clay Jenkinson does not object to the bedlam and antics that accompany Black Friday.  What he does object to is screwing up what he thinks is our best national holiday.  He says “the thing that makes Thanksgiving so wonderful is that it has not been overwhelmed (yet) by the tidal waves of materialism and consumerism.”  He laments the increasing encroachment of “soulless consumerism.”  He suggests holding off to Saturday.

A California resident isn’t expected to know much about the ND Farmers Union, but I actually know a little.  When I was 13, my parents sent me to a FU camp in Medora.  The campers formed a mini-cooperative store and sold candy bars and soft drinks to each other -- a way to indelibly imprint the principles of cooperatives.  But I digress, the FU remains ND’s largest farm advocacy organization and the related Centex convenience stores and gas stations are everywhere in the state.  Farmers from the southwest ND towns of Flasher and South Heart, respectively, are the FU’s newly elected president and vice president.

Newcomers will be the big political unknown in ND’s 2012 elections.  GF Herald Editor Mike Jacobs speculates on the impact.  It’s not likely that new residents will have a big effect on statewide races in 2012, but local races in western ND -- that’s another matter.  Take Dunn Center, the Dunn County town of 150 residents has 200 housing units under construction.

You might wonder where ND counties got their names, especially all those “McSomethings.”  Curt Eriksmoen finds that seven of the names can be traced to one man, E. A. Williams, an attorney and early legislator.  Williams so admired his friends that he named six counties after them: Burleigh, Dunn, Mercer, McKenzie and McIntosh.  For good measure, he added his father-in-law, Mathias Hettinger; by then, a little reciprocity was in order and his friends designated Williams County.

Here’s a tutorial: glycerin is a byproduct of producing biodiesel from (mostly) canola.  UND plans to buy large quantities of refined glycerin (45,000 gallons a month) to partially substitute for coal in its power plant.  Why?  While not saving money, glycerin will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and coal transportation, handling and ash removal.  BenchMark Energy, the company providing the glycerin, plans to build a new refinery in Grand Forks.

In early December, UND will circulate ground rules for transitioning away from the Fighting Sioux nickname and logo.  Meanwhile, elves are at work at the Spirit Lake and Standing Rock reservations preparing a petition for a statewide vote on the issue.  The elves are enlisting volunteers off the reservations, such as retired Hebron teacher Marilyn Schoenberg (63).  She sent the following statement to several newspapers: “We have become a nation ruled by victimization-mentality minorities and special interest groups driven by political correctness.  We have lost our democracy. The majority voice no longer governs our once-great nation.”  UND officials are warily eyeing the elves.

Huh!  The Kleinsasser scholarship?  Can that be right?  Jim Kleinsasser is a blocking tight end for the Minnesota Vikings and the team’s most senior player -- he is best known for knocking over 300-pound men.  The Carrington native and the Vikings are offering a $10,000 scholarship to a 2012 UND freshman.

Kleinsasser must be proud of his home state -- ND was picked the #3 best-run state after Wyoming and Nebraska.  Who was at the bottom?  You won’t be surprised, California, Illinois and Michigan.  The picking was done by a financial news company.  It does seem to help if you are a small prairie state.