Dakota Beacon

“The show must go on” -- Norsk Hstfest Association president Chester Reiten.  The show will go on, but one senses it will be significantly diminished.  Reiten, who is the founder of Hstfest, will receive numerous honors, including induction into the Scandinavian Hall of Fame.  Last year, nearly 60,000 people attended the Minot festival.  This year, housing and hotel space are at a premium because of the flood.  Not everyone is upbeat, a Daily News reader said the festival should have been canceled: “If one family gets the boot out of their hotel room so a bunch of blue hairs can eat stinky fish and buy over priced sweaters . . . this event had no real need to happen.”

The state Attorney General has appointed a Grand Forks attorney to provide legal assistance to Minot flood victims.  Howard Swanson and his staff have substantial post-flood experience from GF’s 1997 flood.  While GF had a larger number of damaged homes, Swanson says “the damage wasn’t as extensive . . . as we are seeing here in Minot.”  He says mobile home damage is also greater in Minot, where 623 mobile homes are affected.  FEMA has declared Minot’s Ramstad Middle School a total loss; it will need to be replaced.  Total damage to Minot public schools is estimated to be $50 million.

Life’s little ironies.  A new law on the Ft. Berthold Reservation permits tribal law enforcement to cite non-Indians for violating traffic laws -- a desirable change to calm oil industry traffic.  The new law is named in honor of “Gracie May Fox, Layla April Little Owl, Sarah Johnson and Ross Little Owl” all recently killed in a head-on collision with an oil truck.  The irony is that investigators believe the driver for the tribal victims probably caused the accident.

The Bison were hired for $375,000 to be football cannon fodder, a confidence builder for Minnesota.  It did not turn out well for the Gophers who lost 37-24.  Minnesota coach Jerry Kill sounded almost despondent: “I feel bad. I feel bad for our students, I feel bad for the state of Minnesota, I feel bad for our kids.”  Not flattering comments.  NDSU has embarrassed Minnesota two out of the last three encounters.  Bison fans were one-fourth of the 48,000 in attendance.

They started out in 1883 (same year as UND) as the Dakota Territory Spearfish Normal School -- today they play as the Black Hills State Yellow Jackets.  Their stingers weren’t working as UND crushed them 53-19 in the Potato Bowl.  However, the win against the hapless Yellow Jackets was not UND’s finest football moment this season.  Oddly, that happened the week before when UND led Fresno State in Fresno before falling 27-22.  Every year, the Fresno Bulldogs play near the top of Division I football.

“If it happens.”  A Mike Jacobs editorial in the GF Herald teetered on those words.  “If” the political climate turns against Republicans in ND in 2012, Democrats may have an advantage for top-of-the-ballot offices.  Preliminarily, Jacobs sees Heidi Heitkamp (D) versus Rick Berg for the Senate, Pam Gulleson (D) versus Brian Kalk for the House, and Ryan Taylor (D) versus Jack Dalrymple for governor.  All six candidates would be seeking their respective positions for the first time.  Don’t forget the “if,” it’s a big if.

Tom Dennis, another Herald editorialist, took on an uphill task: convincing readers that the Postal Service could honor universal postal service “by cutting costs and boosting revenues without hurting customer service.”  A virtual impossibility.  The Herald, like many newspapers in rural areas, dreads loss of Saturday delivery, or any day for that matter, because some papers are delivered by mail.   Advertising would suffer.  A mail processing facility in Grand Forks is also a question mark.

Columnist Lloyd Omdahl said, “Sixty-four per cent of North Dakotans are overweight or obese - and the number is rapidly expanding. I am a few pounds over the edge myself but it isn't because I am fat - I am half an inch too short.”  He noted fat is a major factor driving rising medical costs.

Welcome to the oil world.  In the last six years, ND workmen’s compensation claims in oil and gas have risen annually from 250 to 1,900; during that time oil and gas jobs have increased from 4,800 to 23,800.  Workplace regulators, such as OSHA, are unable to keep up with the increased activity.  Law enforcement in oil counties is even more overwhelmed.  Sheriffs report a sharp escalation in the theft of oil field equipment, such as front-end loaders, and pipe.  Mountrail County Sheriff Ken Halvorson said violent crime is even a greater concern “with pistols and knives part of nearly every criminal and traffic encounter.  This is a different group of people.”

"We're out of water. We're out of sewage capacity. We're out of highways. We're out of everything.  We’re on edge." -- Williams County Commissioner Dan Kalil, as the commission decided to put the brakes on “man camps.”  They had already approved 9,400 man camp beds.  Mountrail County followed suit and temporarily stopped new man camp housing -- their planning administrator stated, “We need to get our arms around it.” 

Cityscapes Plaza in downtown Fargo seemed like a good idea in 2009 -- students occupying apartments in the upper four floors would be served by businesses on the main floor, including a NDSU bookstore.  It was a beautiful, but quiet store -- I visited last fall and asked “how’s business?”  Answer: not good.  The store subsequently closed and the apartments are now open to non-students.  A grocery store may replace the bookstore.

Pour me a “Wood Chipper,” bartender.  The Fargo Beer Co. launched its first beer at a kickoff party at the HoDo bar in Fargo.  An actual woodchipper has turned into a major draw at the F-M Visitors Center.  Grand Forks will have 200 more “Amazonians” -- a new building in GF will expand Amazon’s customer service facility by 200 employees.

DAKTOIDS: Tribune columnist Clay Jenkinson says winter in ND takes up nearly half the year -- spring, summer and fall must share what’s left  . . . In the last 20 years, northwest Minnesota’s moose population has declined from 4,000 to less than 100, but moose are increasing on the ND prairie -- parasites in Minnesota (not the ones in St. Paul) are blamed for the shift . . . A five-story office and condominium building is planned for north Bismarck.  The development name, “Energy Vista,” tells you much about the prospective tenants.