Around the State: May 2, 2022

The counties and cities within the state of North Dakota hold many interesting news stories.

Here are just a few of the feature stories that others are reading in communities around the state.

LHS receives three national broadcasting honors

Two local students and their teacher received national honors for their broadcasting program in early March.

During the 82nd Intercollegiate Broadcasting System Conference on March 3-5, the Linton High School Broadcasting Program was recognized among the Len Malioux Management Awards.

Hunter Mattheis was named the Best High School Program Director in the Nation while Nicole Lawler was named Best Sports Director/Play-by-Play Announcer in the nation.

Both winners were selected by broadcast industry professionals from across the nation.

Linton High School Broadcasting Director Jay Schmaltz also received an award for Best High School Radio Station Advisor/Teacher in the nation.

“The awards are just the cherries on top,” Schmaltz said, adding the students taking away from the program is what drives this adventure at Linton High School.

The two radio stations, KLHS FM 104.1 and KLPS FM 100.1 are low power frequencies and are still the only High School Radio Stations in North Dakota

(Story by Kelli Ameling, the Emmons County Record)

Essentia Health to build $3.3 million clinic

In a press release dated April 15, 2022, Essentia Health announced the construction of a state of the art replacement clinic in Lisbon.

In the release, Essentia said, “Highlighting our commitment to rural health care, Essentia Health is proud to announce the construction of a replacement clinic in downtown Lisbon.”

The new building will be located on the site of the current Essentia Health-Lisbon Clinic which will remain open during construction.

At 6,000 square feet, the replacement clinic will be three times as large. And, via expanded services, additional providers and equipment upgrades, it will allow Essentia to enhance access to high-quality care.

Features of the new clinic include 12 exam rooms (all of which will be telehealth-capable), two procedure rooms, increased office space and an expansion of lab and radiology services. Additional opportunities for specialty care, for example, cardiology, orthopedics and urology, also will be available.

(Story taken from the Ransom County Gazette)

Book details Vogel’s fight to save family farms

Anyone 50 or over should remember the 1980s farm crisis that choked the nation’s heartland. Family farm after family farm fell to the auctioneer’s block.

It was much more than the loss of a business, though. For many farmers, it was their inheritance and legacy threatened by Administrative Notice 580, handed down by the FmHA, that accelerated payment schedules of borrowers behind on their payments or who had violated any agreement terms of their loans.

North Dakota attorney Sarah Vogel, in her exhaustively researched account, “The Farmer’s Lawyer,” tells the heartbreaking, but later inspiring story of how she as a young lawyer fought and beat the federal government in the landmark class action case, Coleman vs. Block, that originated with a lawsuit in which Vogel represented nine North Dakota farmers against the FmHA.

Vogel takes us to the kitchen table of family farmers and through their eyes shows us the impact of early 1980s predatory FmHA collection practices. We see, hear and feel the soil that has sifted through their family’s hands for generations disappear.

(Story by Michael Tidemann, the Traill County Tribune)

Court orders eviction of Hellervik Midstream

Hellervik Midstream is being evicted from the site of its fractionation plant in Ray.

The writ of eviction, signed by a district court judge on April 4, commands the Williams County Sheriff’s office to evict Hellervik from the property they lease from L&D Pittstop Motel due to the nonpayment of rent and property taxes.

The company has been ordered by the court to pay L&D Pittstop Motel the $98,531.16 in unpaid rent and property taxes due and to return the land to its preexisting condition, as nearly as is practical according to a March 17 judgement by the court.

(Story by Jacob Orledge, the Tioga Tribune)

Walking the trail

The North Country National Scenic Trail (NCT), a footpath that extends 4,700 miles from the Appalachian Trail in Vermont to North Dakota’s Lake Sakakawea State Park, generally follows much of the Sheyenne River, the state’s longest river and a pathway that takes hikers on an arduous but scenic 475-mile trek across a good portion of the state.

A segment of the North Country Trail traverses across Wells County along the New Rockford Canal from New Rockford to Harvey before it enters the Lonetree Wildlife Management Area, south of Harvey.

The North Country Trail cuts through Sherifan County’s Lonetree managed grasslands and prairie before heading south by southwest toward McClusky. From McClusky, the trail swings toward Turtle Lake and Coleharbor, eventually reaching Lake Sakakawea State Park, south of Garrison.

Following the North Country Trail and its 37 miles through the Lonetree Wildlife Management Area, hikers often encounter flocks of geese, ducks and sandhill cranes, in addition to the wildlife found in the northern plains’ tall grasses and wooded areas.

Thru-hikers and long-distance trail users have been enthralled at their experiences hiking Lonetree.

It’s the experience of hiking tall grasses and woods, Garrison Diversion Project canals, pathways skirting the Coalmine and Sheyenne lakes and everything prairie that friends of Lonetree are hoping to introduce to hiking enthusiasts, first-timers and the occasional hiker, starting this summer.

(Story by Neil O, Nelson, the Harvey Herald-Press)

NDHP & NDDOT called on to deliver blood

The North Dakota Highway Patrol’s Minot office was requested to make a blood delivery to Bottineau recently during the pinnacle of the blizzard and was successful in transporting the blood to the local medical center.

According to the North Dakota Highway Patrol (NDHP), SMP Health - St. Andrew’s and other news agencies, a call was given from St. Andrew’s to Minot at three-thirty in the morning on Wednesday, April 13 for the need of blood.

The NDHP was called and they sent a trooper to Bottineau with the assistance of two NDDOT snowplow operators which assisted the trooper to deliver the blood to St. Andrews.

The trooper followed the two snowplows which cleared the roads for the trooper from Minot to Bottineau in what became a four-hour drive.

(Story by Scott Wagar, the Bottineau Courant)