Dakota Beacon

SPEND LESS, SPEND WISELY.  A Bismarck Tribune editorial on Dec. 13 was uncharacteristically frank and aimed directly at Sen’s Conrad and Dorgan and Rep. Pomeroy.  The Trib said debt “has reached an alarming and critical point” and Washington is “taking steps toward a bigger and more obtrusive federal government.”  It said CoDoPo “need to take a stand and represent our state’s population by saying no to out-of-control spending.”  They “have been involved in government spending for years and own the deficit as much as anyone.”  The Tribune suggested they look for efficiencies and not create new inefficiencies.

Financially, ND is near the top of its game.  Hardly any other state has the same degree of financial flexibility.  The State Historical Society newsletter recalls a time when that was not so.  In the early ‘30s the combination of drought and depression almost knocked the state out -- it had no money.  Teachers in small schools did not get paid; residents of school districts supported them with room, board and other necessities.  Students could be absent for two reasons:  Sickness, of course, but the other reason Is startling, “That the child is needed at home to KEEP THE FAMILY FROM STARVING.”

On December 23, the BOBCAT plant in Bismarck is closing and 475 employees will permanently lose their jobs.  This is not expected to be a catastrophe for the city, because, fortunately, the economy in the area is generally healthy.  But the closing will be unusually difficult for the employees.  Their jobs and benefits were among the best in Bismarck and are not duplicated in the community.  For example, a welder may have to leave Bismarck to find work. 

Jon Knutson, a Forum writer, describes ALERUS FINANCIAL in Grand Forks as a patient, conservative hunter.  It sometimes waits for years, warily eyeing the economy and price levels before pouncing.  The Red River Valley bank’s home territory is slow-growing and subject to volatility (an agriculture economy can go south fast), so it’s important to add markets and products that dampen volatility.  Noticing, over the years, how Valley residents migrated to the Twin Cities and Phoenix, the bank awaited economic slumps to follow them and acquire existing banks in each market.  Nodaks save and invest more than average -- Alerus acquired businesses to manage that money.  These strategies brought them where they are today -- managing $7 billion in assets.

WHAT HAPPENED TO AGRARIA?  Several years ago the ND Farmers Union opened the Agraria restaurant in Washington, DC -- the general idea, feature fresh foods from the type of farmers represented by the NDFU.  The restaurant has been lavishly and repeatedly praised by the Fargo Forum (“marvelous display of visionary thinking”) and lauded by Bismarck Tribune columnist Clay Jenkinson.  So how have things worked out?  Agraria, by that name, is no more -- it is repositioned as “Farmers & Fishers” and is being managed by a restaurant consulting firm VSAG.  VSAG’s website proudly describes F&F as the “Turnaround of a Failing Concept.”  In its new life, the restaurant is described as a “more relaxed approach to sustainable agriculture.”  Their cute definition of sustainable mentions respect for animals, permitting them to “carry out their natural behaviors, such as grazing, rooting, or pecking.”

Agraria has a more successful sister restaurant, FOUNDING FARMERS, also owned by the NDFU and said to have benefited from mistakes at Agraria.  Founding Farmers is in Washington and also uses the buzzwords “sustainable” and “green.”  It may have been a coincidence, but FF was attacked on Pearl Harbor Day by Washington Post writer Jane Black (“But being green isn’t always what it seems”).  Black accused the restaurant of getting its salmon from a large corporate fish farm and its best of the season “farm fresh” salad from foreign countries.  Small farms named on the menu were no longer suppliers.  FF acknowledges some missteps in sourcing, the chief executive of the management company said, “I’m vulnerable to being duped.”

The website of the ND FARM BUREAU unequivocally lists a 2010 priority: “We believe that all government agricultural program payments should be eliminated.”  They would like to get the government out of farming and return it to the private sector.  For many of the state’s small farmers, this is heresy.  Charles Linderman of Carrington spoke for them in a letter to the Jamestown Sun saying the Farm Bureau proposal would deprive the state’s farmers of $200 million a year and inspire enemies of farm programs.  He also said, “Thankfully, for us who still believe that the American family farm is an institution worth preserving, there is the North Dakota FARMERS UNION.”  The Farm Bureau also represents family farmers, but has fewer members (thus fewer voters) than the FU, so don’t expect reforms in the near future.

COLD WEATHER STORIES.  In Boise, Idaho, a woman driver saw a 10-year-old boy with his tongue stuck to a metal pole.  It wasn’t much of challenge for firefighters to free the boy with a glass of warm water.  A bit wiser, the boy continued to school with a slightly bloody tongue.  Foolish “pole lickers” have almost mythical status -- the wailing of a little girl and the sight of her blistered tongue was very instructional for everyone in my ND grade school.

For elderly people in rural ND driving is more than transportation, it’s the KEY TO FREEDOM.  Without the ability to drive, the elderly are dependent on others and one step closer to leaving homes where they may have spent much of their lives.  It’s a difficult public policy issue -- one of ND’s special problems, balancing the independence of the elderly against public safety.  In mid-December an elderly man died in Jamestown Hospital after losing control of his car, striking another vehicle and then a building.  Police said it was unclear whether the death was the result of an accident.  In other words, did this man in his 90s just die at the wheel?

DO ND TAXPAYERS BUY DIVERSITY?  Recently appointed interim NDSU President Dick Hanson has reported a surprise budget shortfall and hiring freeze at the school.  Part of the explanation is tuition shortfall.  He said NDSU typically waives half the tuition of foreign students.  UND reports it gives full or partial tuition waivers to minority students to increase diversity.  NDSU’s tuition policies will be reexamined, according to Hanson.   He also indicated some may blame outgoing President Joseph Chapman who left amid questions about his spending and the cost of a new president’s house.  Hanson said the budget problems are unrelated.