Dakota Beacon

Paradox on the Prairie.  Creighton University in Omaha reports that in 10 Midwest states “While the farm sector is experiencing healthy growth, Rural Mainstreet businesses continue to report waning economic fortunes.”   Why is that?  Here are some possibilities:  Although agriculture is doing well, as farms get larger, small town market areas continue to lose population.  Large farms are sophisticated, high volume buyers and are quite willing to bypass local merchants for better deals on equipment, parts and supplies.  The Internet helps farmers spot those deals.  Many rural household purchases, such as clothing, are also made on the Internet.

As small towns downsize, local government has to do the same.  A Herald article with the heading “The small-town blues” tells how police departments are being dissolved in most incorporated cities.  ND has only 46 remaining police departments -- less than the number of counties.  Most police work is contracted to county sheriff departments.  The ND League of Cities says many cities are down to a part-time city auditor and a maintenance person.

Right now, the future of corn ethanol doesn’t look good.  A Grafton ethanol plant, one of ND’s first, is being sold piecemeal on the auction block.  A large ethanol plant near Jamestown never got beyond the planning stage.  In its place, something called the Dakota Spirit AgEnergy biorefinery is having a very slow birth.  Dakota Spirit would produce ethanol from crop residue such as wheat straw and corn stalks, requiring as much as 480,000 tons a year.  Much is unknown about the logistics of harvesting, baling, transporting and storing feedstock in that volume.  Can it be done at a profit?

The impact of the oil boom on Minot was dramatized by separate articles appearing the same day in the Minot Daily News.  One announced that Halliburton, an oil field services company, would build a $15 million facility in a new energy park.  The other announcement met mixed enthusiasm, the Ward County Commission approved a permit for temporary housing near Minot for 200-300 people (a “man camp”).  Neighbors immediately crouched in a defensive position.

A Wall Street Journal article had a tantalizing picture of a highrise city in the Arctic.  Something that doesn’t exist now, but could if there is more global warming, if the Northwest Passage becomes a reality, and oil and gas development becomes practical in the Arctic.  The article is a speculation about the “New North” of which the U.S. and seven other nations would be a part.  ND is one of the northern border states which would be included.  Winnipeg and Saskatoon are regional cities named to benefit.  The “New North” would be in the area above the 45th parallel north, the halfway point between the Equator and the North Pole.  The 45th parallel runs on the Montana-Wyoming border through South Dakota crossing Minnesota near Minneapolis.

There seems to be little question there was a large failure of financial controls at NDSU under the administration of former president Joseph Chapman.  Ask the acting president who followed Chapman and had to get control of campus cash flow.  State audits continue to detail the problems, yet, the Fargo Forum remains in denial.  Here’s their peculiar editorial description of the problems: “The missteps were symptoms of an extraordinary period of dynamism at NDSU.”  Well, that puts a new face on dynamism.  The editorial went on to say “auditors should not make policy for the university” and audits should not be used to punish a university.  OK, free passes for everybody.

The GF Herald took a different tone.  In an editorial about NDSU and leadership the Herald said, “But leadership sets the tone, and clearly, Chapman’s sense of entitlement filtered down several layers to improperly influence his management staff.”

A Forum article on college readiness contains several startling disclosures.  Of particular interest, the chairman of the math department at NDSU estimates about 55% of freshmen in math are taking remedial courses.

The war of words between Devils Lake and Valley City worsens.  Listen to the president of Save the Sheyenne in Valley City: “There should be absolutely no water from the East Bay of Devils Lake or Stump Lake going into the Sheyenne.”  Devils Lake sees an emergency, city engineer Mike Grafsgaard says: “If you don’t call a situation where we’ve spent $700 million protecting property and moved hundreds of homes and businesses and lost 140,000 acres of cropland an emergency, I don’t know what is.”   

Pumps on the west end of Devils Lake provide background music for the arguments -- they lift water 200 feet over a ridge from Devils Lake into the Sheyenne River at an electricity cost of $10,000 a day.  Water could be drained out the east end of the lake by gravity.  Every major roadway leading to Devils Lake is under construction and will remain so for the next couple years.  The levy system around the city is being increased from 8 miles to 12 miles -- parts of the city of Devils Lake are 22 feet lower than the lake.

The Minot Daily News made a dry observation about a $6 million federal Education Department grant to build a new Minnewaukan school away from the rising waters of Devils Lake.  The News said, “If a new school is built in Minnewaukan, and the lake continues to rise and floods more of the town, forcing residents to move, will there be any students left to attend classes in the new school.”  Your federal dollars at work.

ND residents get a very high return on the federal taxes they pay.  In some prior years the state received nearly two dollars of federal spending for every dollar of federal taxes paid.   A Tribune column by Edward Lotterman discussed why some states get back little more than half of the taxes they pay, while others, like ND, enjoy the opposite result.  One of his comments seemed tailored for parts of ND: “Some farming counties . . . have little economic base other than agriculture and with aged populations have the highest ratios of federal dollars received versus taxes paid . . . because of ag subsidies, Social Security and Medicare.” 

DAKTOIDS:  ND Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem says the state has a huge problem -- last year there was one DUI arrest for every 100 people in the state -- one-third are repeat offenders . . . ND already makes more gasoline than it uses -- consultants say that if the state adds more refining capacity it should be for diesel fuel.