Dakota Beacon

A SERIOUS PIPELINE SPILL occurred in Walsh County near Edinburg, ND.  The Keystone Pipeline oil spill released nearly 400,000 gallons in a wetlands area.  The ramifications go beyond ND — Minnesota is considering pipeline projects by the same operator, TC Energy.  These projects, which are contested by Indian tribes and environmental groups, will be made much harder.  Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders jumped aboard saying “the Keystone Pipeline should never have been built and that as president he would shut it down.”

ESPN GAMEDAY in Brookings, SD, was a winner for NDSU in a number of ways.  The No. 1 Bison beat No. 3 SDSU 23-16, retained the Dakota Marker and now lead their conference.  One sports commentator called it effectively a playoff game.  The Bison earned their 29th consecutive win and received favorable attention in front of 1.7 million viewers.  The Jackrabbits were generally good losers, but took the opportunity to remind their supporters that their $3.8 million football budget was $1 million less than the Bison.

HOMESTRETCH  The list of candidates for UND president was reduced to six.  The reaction of columnist Mike Jacobs was “what happened?”  He was referring to the absence of candidates with ND backgrounds, a scarcity of women and the absence of any sitting college presidents.  It was thought, that by keeping the initial list of applicants confidential, it would encourage sitting college presidents.  The list of candidates included some former college presidents, but they appeared to have been forced out of their respective schools.  The list will be narrowed to three on Nov. 22 and the State Board of Higher Education will select a UND president on December 3.

THERE’S TROUBLE IN BUFFALO CITY  People in Jamestown knew something sneaky was up when the Frontier Village Association board met in secret without the required public notice.  Then it became known that FVA had changed its bylaws to allow sale of its assets including the possibility of out-of-state buyers.  Prior bylaws required the assets to go to the ND Historical Society if the Village ceased to exist.  The worst fears of residents were realized when the FVA board announced arrangements to transfer FVA assets to Perham Pioneer Village in Minnesota — this could include the buildings, as well as the collection.  There has been a long history of poor cooperation and communication between FVA and Jamestown Tourism and the city of Jamestown, this led to a decision by the city to not renew FVA’s lease.

THOSE ROTTEN GUYS  The FVA board seems to have taken a spirit of revenge.  They said any buildings not accepted by Perham would be demolished.  Jamestown reminded the FVA that the lease called for the buildings to go to the city.  Residents were overwhelmingly saddened by the FVA attitude considering the support it had been given for many years.

IT’S ABOUT TIME  ND has too much local government, but it stubbornly persists including counties with less than a thousand residents.  The state is moving to consolidate it social services reducing 43 service zones to 19.  The four counties with over 60,000 residents (Ward, GF, Cass and Burleigh) will remain stand-alone zones.

IS GRAND FORKS COMING TO LIFE?  A GF Herald editorial urged residents to look around and realize that the “billion-dollar boom” predicted by the mayor was happening.  Simplot is completing a $60 million, 13-story freezer expansion, Altru Health has a $300 million construction project, UND is building a new student union and many other commercial projects are underway in downtown.  A real estate developer proposed a $30 million boutique hotel and events center to begin in the spring.  Compared to the state’s other larger cities, GF has languished in recent years.

 

WE KNOW NOT WHY  For reasons that were somewhat unclear, U.S. Rep. Earl Pomeroy (1993-2011) and Gov. Ed Schafer (1992-2000) placed a joint letter in ND newspapers.  They noted they were from different political parties and had differing views, but had always found a way to work together.  They said the U.S. had always been an international leader “and now is not the time to retreat . . . The world is a better place when America leads – and that’s no partisan matter.”

IMPROVISERS  ND farmers can be counted on to exercise a good deal of ingenuity to harvest their crops.  Trucks can’t be used to haul corn silage in muddy fields, so farmers have converted lighter equipment, such as manure spreaders, to be hauled behind tractors to load silage from corn choppers.

THE NATIONAL REPORT CARD  The National Assessment of Educational Progress made its periodic report about reading and math by fourth and eighth grade students.  What did it say about ND?  Overall, average.  Fourth graders were close to neighbors and the national average in reading, and above the nation, SD and MT, but below MN in math.  Eighth graders were close to neighbors and the national average in reading.  They were above the national average in math, close to SD and MT, but below MN.

BREMER BANK, the fourth largest bank in Minnesota, may be sold.  The Bremer Trust which controls the bank may double its assets to over $2 billion if a sale is made.  ND is one of the states where the trust would increase it philanthropy.

DAKTOIDS:  NDSU expects its enrollment will continue to drop and asked it departments to prepare for 10% budget cuts . . . ND appears headed for the coldest year in 25 years . . .  The Red River Valley faces the most difficult beet harvest in 40 years — quantity and quality will be down . . . ACT scores are hard to compare because not all students take the test in some states.  ND scored 36th among 50 states, about the same as Montana, but poorer than SD (21st) and MN (23rd).