Around the State: February 6, 2023

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.

Group questions tribal land purchase in Las Vegas

The Three Affiliated Tribes recently announced a major land purchase in Las Vegas, but the $90 million purchase raised questions from some members of the tribe as to why the multi-million-dollar deal wasn’t discussed with tribal members until it was finalized.

A recent purchase of 13 acres of land in Las Vegas is being heralded as a major financial investment by leadership with the Three Affiliated Tribes. But not everyone in the tribe is on board with the purchase.

A group of tribal members who call themselves the general council said the purchase should have gone to a vote.

Tribal chairman Mark Fox said the Tribal Business Council couldn’t discuss the purchase until it was finalized because MGM asked them to sign a non-disclosure agreement, but he’s adamant they’ve been transparent with the tribe.

Fox added that no individual stands to gain from the purchase, but rather the tribe as a whole. The tribe has yet to decide what to do with the land.

The land was part of the site of the 2017 mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival. Fox said the tribe is working with MGM to honor those who lost their lives there.

(Story taken from the New Town News)

Quite a novel approach

McClusky, N.D., Mayor Bryon Belile isn’t sure why his city and surrounding Sheridan County don’t have a public library.

“I guess it never occurred to anybody. Nobody really pushed it, I suppose,” he said.

McClusky residents instead have a book swap by the grocery store.

Now readers in one of North Dakota’s least-populated counties are getting a new option: a book vending machine available 24/7 year-round at city hall.

“I like it. I know a lot of the people in town are pretty excited about it,” said Belile, a Louis L’Amour fan who has his own library of 300-400 books, which he chuckles he’s halfway through reading.

North Dakota’s State Library is using more than $913,000 in federal American Rescue Plan Act coronavirus aid to fund the statewide project, including books. The 10 machines cost $772,000.

Five counties in North Dakota have no public libraries within their borders: Oliver, Sheridan, Sioux, Slope and Steele, and nearly two dozen don’t have county-wide library service.

The machines are a response to the coronavirus pandemic, albeit “ a little bit late,” State Librarian Mary Soucie said.

The machines are a way to get materials to people who have no access to libraries or the State Library’s ebook collection, “bridging the digital divide,” Soucie said.

The state library initially leaned toward bookmobiles, but arrival time, weather and staff to drive the vehicles were concerns.

A book vending machine from the state library has been placed inside the Agassiz Valley Human Service Zone offices on the north side of the Dakota Heritage Bank building in Hillsboro.

The machines are of no cost to the communities, which provide electrical and internet access.

Two collections of books, which came in more than 250 boxes weighing nearly 4 tons will fill the machines, one collection each for five machines.

Each machine holds 228 items, a mixture of adult and kids books.

Patrons walk up, scan their state library card, browse the machine’s collection, make a selection and pull the book from a door. Patrons may also return state library books to machines.

(Story by Jack Dura/Bismarck Tribune and Cole Short, Hillsboro Banner)

YouTube travel channel stops in Rugby

“Miles in Transit,” a channel created by Boston, Massachusetts resident Miles Taylor, features trips all over the U.S., using public transit services.

Taylor decided last summer to visit five American cities for what he called “a nerdy reason.”

Together with college friend Jackson Betz, Taylor set off to travel across the country on Amtrak, stopping at big cities and small towns with unique distinctions.

“There’s a type of bus called a trolley bus that has wires that connect up top,” Taylor said. “There are only five cities that actually use them, so we were trying to get to each one, and I figured we’d stop at some small towns along the way to break up the train journey.

Taylor said he and Betz chose Rugby for its status as the least-used Amtrak station in North Dakota.

Betz noted when the two stepped off the westbound Empire Builder at the Rugby station early one Sunday morning last summer, “The station was beautiful.”

Taylor said a train “is kind of our gateway into everything.”

“And it was incredible.”

“Ultimately, my goal is to visit the least used Amtrak station in every state,” Taylor said.

“But in terms of any Amtrak station I’ve seen, nothing beats the character and care that was put into Rugby’s train station, just with the memorabilia and posters, and art people made to celebrate the trains and the town.”

(Story by Sue Sitter, the Pierce County Tribune)

Sky Dancer Casino helps nab alleged murderer

According to news reports, a security supervisor at Sky Dancer Casino and Resort in Belcourt contacted federal authorities on New Year’s Day when he got suspicious after Fidel Arenas Torres showed up to collect $4,800 in winnings, but could not produce a social security number, which is required to collect winnings over a certain amount.

It didn’t take long for the border patrol agent who took the call to find out that Arenas Torres was a Mexican national arrested and sentenced for murders and kidnapping there in 2013.

Arenas Torres left the casino before he could be detained, but he returned on January 20. Casino security once again alerted border patrol agents, who enlisted the help of the Belcourt Police to take him into custody.

El Sol, a newspaper in Nayarit, Mexico reported Arenal Torres was arrested for two murders in December of 2012 as well as for his involvement in a shrimp trader’s kidnapping the following month.

El Sol reported Arenas Torres was linked to a criminal gang and known to Mexican authorities as “El Pelon.”

(Story taken from the Turtle Mountain Star)