Dakota Beacon

UNWANTED DISTINCTION  Last Saturday, ND and SD led the nation in new coronavirus cases per capita for the preceding two weeks.  Within ND, among the larger counties, the most active cases per 10,000 residents Thursday were:  Stark (Dickinson) 83, Morton (Mandan) 73, followed by Burleigh (Bismarck) and Williams (Williston) tied at 56.  Cass County (Fargo), an early hotspot, had only 25 active cases per 10,000 residents.

“CAPTAIN NO” is the moniker Tony Gehrig has earned as a member of the Fargo City Commission where he cast 77 “no” votes in the last 20 months.  Most of those votes were against property tax incentives — Gehrig believes most of those projects would have proceeded without incentives.  Mike Allmendinger, president of Kilbourne, takes the opposite view — he said downtown projects are more complicated and expensive than building on undeveloped land and many would not have occurred without incentives.  He indicated the vitality of downtown Fargo is evidence of success.  Kilbourne (Gov. Doug Burgum’s company) is a major user of property tax incentives.

LIBRARY ARCHITECT  The board of the T.R. Roosevelt Public Library today selected Norwegian architecture firm Snohetta.  Melani Walton, the wife of one of the Walmart heirs, chaired the design committee    In order to receive a $50 million operations endowment from the state, the trustees must raise $100 million.  The library CEO said that will be accomplished before the ND Legislature meets in January.  Medora residents largely approve of the library, but must constantly be reassured that the library will not overshadow the town.

BRIDGE OVER LITTLE MO  “It’s not if, it’s when” — Jim Arthaud, chairman of the Billings County Commission referring to a proposed bridge over the Little Missouri River about 18 miles north of Medora.  The proposal began over 20 years ago as a means of providing emergency services to residents.  Environmental opponents say that is a thin cover to permit oil industry traffic.  But momentum has built and the proposal is now supported by the state’s congressional delegation and state and local officials.  It appears $12.3 million in federal grants may soon be available for construction.

POSSIBLE GOOD NEWS  The Army Corps of Engineers began a 13-month review of the Dakota Access Pipeline ordered by a federal court.  The Corps must evaluate whether to allow DAPL to continue to move oil during the review — the line now carries a large part of ND oil production.  The Corps may also decline to act which would mean DAPL could continue to operate during the review.  Tribal attorneys representing opponents of the pipeline were not optimistic, they said "the inevitable choice is that the Corps will take no action to shut down the pipeline.”  If this is the case, it will be good news for the ND oil industry.

COMPLAINERS TAKEN ABACK  The city of Minot raised a LGBTQ rainbow flag at city hall.  Rob Port reported there was an uproar and complainers descended on the city council.  Council member Carrie Evans exploded and said, “I am not paying any heed to your crap.  I am proudly the first openly, elected lesbian in North Dakota.”  Until that moment, it was not publicly known she was gay.

AMATEUR HOUR  In December 2013, a eastbound oil train blew up near Casselton when it struck a derailed westbound grain train.  Had the accident been in Casselton, there could have been injuries and deaths, as it was, 1,500 residents were safely evacuated.  So, while memory of the incident is dimming, residents are still touchy.  In May of this year, bad Sklylar Goodman (19) of Fargo tried to derail a train near the scene of the earlier explosion.  He wasn’t very skillful, there was no derailing and an engineer reported “rough tracks.”  A complaint was filed against Skylar in August and he was jailed in September.

PRARIE FATALITY  SD Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg’s car hit and killed a pedestrian on a rural highway Saturday night.  It took several days for a full and consistent explanation to emerge.  Ravnsburg was returning to Pierre from a political meeting when he hit what he thought was a deer.  He called Hyde County Sheriff Mike Volek who joined him to look for the deer — nothing was found.  His car was so badly damaged that Ravnsborg borrowed a car to go home.  He returned the next morning and again searched the crash scene — it was then he discovered the body of Joseph Boever (55).  People at the political event are expected to confirm the AG had not been drinking.

NO LAST WORD YET  The preceding version of the accident was largely provided by the AG.  Because of the political sensitivity of the AG’s position, the governor has organized an investigation of the incident to include the ND Bureau of Criminal Investigation.  There are detractors.  Forum columnist Mike McFeely took every opportunity to put the AG in a bad light — he saw scandal around each corner.  In his political career Ravnsburg traveled widely in SD — the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported he had eight traffic tickets since 2014, six for speeding, but none since he took office in 2019. 

STEREOTYPES  Saturday a 2020 BMW was carjacked at gunpoint near the University of Minnesota — it was the most recent of nine violent crimes reported by the school in the past few weeks.  There is a pattern to the crimes — teenagers with guns.  The university will not provide physical descriptions including ethnicity.  The university has previously defended the policy because it avoids stereotyping Blacks as criminals.

DAKTOIDS:  The resumption of college hockey is delayed indefinitely . . . You insisted on knowing the most popular baby names in ND.  They are: Boys - Lian, Owen and Oliver.  Girls - Amelia, Evelyn and Harper . . . David Gipp died — he was a leader in Indian education and the 38-year president of United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck.  Gipp was a staunch opponent of the UND Fighting Sioux nickname and logo . . . In July, ND oil production returned to more than a million barrels a day; natural gas production also increased and the gas capture rate was 91% — the highest rate in recent history.