Around the State: March 11, 2024

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.

Live hand grenade found in scrap pile

There is an old saying, another man's trash is another man's treasure. Recently, over at Russ's Auto and Scrap while going through a pile of scrap, the people at Russ's came across what appeared to be a live grenade.

According to Grafton Police Chief Tony Dumas, the folks over at Russ's were going through a pile of scrap and lo and behold they came across a pineapple looking metal object that looked like a hand grenade.

Dumas said Grafton Police Department investigated and sure enough that is what it appeared to be to them, so they called the bomb squad out of Grand Forks.

"I texted them a bunch of pictures and they sent a couple of bomb techs up. They X-rayed it and found it more than likely to be a live grenade," he said.

Dumas said "more than likely" because the grenade hadn't been "hollowed" out.

"Usually the way to tell if a grenade is live or not is to see if it has been hollowed out and this one was not," he said. "It looked like a pineapple. It was an MK2 frag grenade."

Dumas said a grenade like that probably has a kill radius of 30 feet. So they brought the grenade outside of town to a secure location, strapped C4 to it and made it go boom.

(Story by Todd Morgan, the Walsh County Record)

Harvey bus fleet going electric

Harvey Superintendent Robbie Lukens was holding practice at the high school when he got his first look at the 2018 14-passenger bus the school acquired on bids from the North Border School at Pembina, N.D.

The bus, with 17,000 miles, cost $68,500, with an expenditure approved by the school board last year.

Commercial Driver Licenses (CDL) are not required, allowing coaches to drive the bus to activities, games and matches out of town.

This will amount to a significant savings for the school, according to Dr. Lukens.

In the meantime, the school is expecting delivery of a new electric bus this spring, obtained through a federal grant written by Dr. Lukens.

There's also the possibility that Lukens and the school will receive two more electric buses through the successful federal grant.

The school need only keep the bus or buses for five years, another attractive feature of the electric vehicles, said Lukens.

The new buses, if available, will be 2025 models.

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

A new path from Garrison to Ft. Stevenson

At February's Garrison City Council meeting, Fort Stevenson State Park manager Chad Trautman shared a proposal for a path that will connect the City of Garrison with the park.

In the "Fort Stevenson to Garrison Trail - USACOE Easement Request" it is stated that "Visitors to FSSP and Garrison residents and the community leaders have expressed the need for this trail. There are already strong ties between the community and the park, and this trail would serve as the last mile to further that relationship by connecting to a gateway community."

The trail will be 3.9 miles of nonmotorized Class 5 gravel and will be used for hiking, biking, snowshoeing and cross country skiing.

Approximately three miles of the trail is planned for construction on Army Corp. of Engineer land.

Construction of the trail is planned to begin in the spring of 2024.

(Story by Tyson Matthews, the McLean County Independent)

Matted and Malnourished

A grim discovery was recently made in rural Eddy County.

After being contacted by a concerned family member, volunteers from Prairie Paws Rescue of Jamestown traveled to a residence in Eddy County on Friday, Feb. 23, about 10 miles northeast of New Rockford.

What they discovered were more than two dozen neglected and malnourished dogs and puppies, along with several deceased animals.

Kaye John, President and Co-Founder of Prairie Paws Rescue, were among those who first came to Eddy County on Friday, Feb. 23 and she described the poor conditions they witnessed.

"We had found a deceased dog and there were some deceased puppies on the property as well," she recalled. "Dogs were covered in mud, feces and matted hair, lots of matted hair."

She added that many were also malnourished and in need of food, which the rescuers immediately provided.

Rescuers made three trips to the property in total over the course of the weekend, and were able to rescue nearly every dog on the property with the owner's cooperation.

Eddy County Sheriff Paul Lies said the property owner in Eddy County had been unable to care for the dogs due to a health situation, and therefore won't be facing criminal charges.

(Story by Nathan Price, the New Rockford Transcript)

Crosby council still revising animal ordinance

The Crosby City Council revisited removing biting incidents from the city's dangerous animal ordinance during its monthly meeting on Feb. 20.

Removing the reference to biting incidents would make the district court responsible for deciding punishments for dog bites instead of the city council.

There has been some opposition to changing the ordinance, however, Denise Johnson submitted a letter sharing her concerns over removing reference to biting incidents.

"Her concern is that you guys are placed up here as judge and jury for people who say they get bit, and don't have the option to civilly sue," City

Auditor Alexa Kruger said.

"The council just felt that it was a position that was better dealt with by a judge than people sitting up here," said Mayor Kjell Vassen.

Additionally, the council considered removing references to breed bans from the ordinance.

"You're assuming an animal is dangerous solely because of its breed," Vassen said. "In my four years, I haven't seen a pit bull, a German shepherd, any of these so-called aggressive dogs."

He added the ban has deterred families looking to move to the city because their pets would not be able to come with them.

While city council members agreed to revise the ordinance, they decided to table the second and final reading to allow for more consideration of the breed bans.

(Story by Jordan Rusche, the Journal, Crosby)