News

The year in review

By Scott Wagar

12/30/2014

Editor’s Note: During the next two weeks, the Bottineau Courant will be writing the year in review over what happened in Bottineau County during 2014. This week, the Courant looks at January through June.

The first six months in Bottineau County were busy and filled with excitement, anticipation through a variety of happenings taking place. 

JANUARY

The month of January was a busy month, starting with the first headline of the year, “Schock comes to St. Andrew’s,” which was about Jenifer Schock of Bottineau who not only had the first baby of the year at St. Andrew’s Health Center, but had the first baby delivered at St. Andrew’s in over eight years when she gave birth to her son, Tucker, who was born on Jan. 3. 

All the excitement about Tucker being born was because St. Andrew’s closed its maternity ward in the mid-2000s and expecting mothers in the county started to go to Trinity Health Center in Minot to have their babies delivered.

Schock was suppose to have Tucker at Trinity Health Center, but she became stuck in Bottineau when a no travel advisor came due to blizzard conditions so she had to go to St. Andrew’s.

The North Dakota Department of Health confirmed that the H1N1 Type A flu virus was in Bottineau County with two confirmed cases, along with 56 other cases in the state. 

Flu cases increased in the county but no one passed away from the Type A virus, which was the genetic type of the H1N1 flu that was so dangerous in 2009 when it was a novel strain at that time.

The county also fell into sub-zero temperatures, which caused cattle ranchers to struggle with their livestock. Although it was a tough winter on cattle due to cold temperatures and continuous snow, the majority of the livestock did make it through the winter months.    

Deanna DeFoe accepted the position of EDC director in January, while Jared Nelson was named the new NDSU Extension Office agent for Bottineau County.

At the end of the month, Dakota Fred of the Discover Channel’s show, “Gold Rush,” and who is from Minot, made an appearance at Bottineau’s Pride Dairy which saw a large number of fans from in and around the area come to the creamery to meet Fred. 

FEBRUARY 

In February, propane prices in the county jumped from $1.99 per gallon to $4.99 causing great concern for the residents of the county and some hardships economically for other individuals of the county in making sure they could pay for propane to heat their houses. 

Dakota College at Bottineau (DCB) and Minot State University (MSU) had public meetings prior to February to see how the public felt about DCB and MSU discontinuing the cooperative management between the two colleges. In February, it was announced by the board of higher education that the two colleges would continue with its cooperative management primarily due to the public meetings that were held. 

The Anne Carlsen Center of Jamestown became a partner with Annie House at the Bottineau Winter Park to assist adaptive skiers with the opportunity to ski along with helping in the parks summer activities like hiking, fishing, horseback riding and other activities. Michael Cerkowniak was named the director for the Anne Carlsen Center’s program at the Winter Park.   

Dennis Gravseth of Bottineau was inducted into the Snowmobile North Dakota Hall of Fame due to the work he conducted to make snowmobiling in the county and state a fun, safe family event.

Georgia Rose from Willow City road a bicycle 3,000 miles with Michael Jenn Krussow through the southern states (California to Florida) to bring awareness of human sex trafficking, which they did with great success. 

MARCH 

In March, cold temperatures still prevailed and the county saw seven feet of frost in the ground, which caused sewer issues in towns and water problems for individuals in the rural area of the county. Water had to be trucked out to rural areas to provide them with water. 

Bottineau received a new store in March when Tractor Supply opened it doors for business. 

APRIL 

With the spring thaw, activities picked up in the area. After waiting for the winter to end, the local veterans who were given the State Bank of Bottineau on Highway 5 to make room for the State’s Bank new building, was finally lifted off its foundation and moved to the future home of the Bottineau County Veterans Memorial Building just west of the Bottineau County Fairgrounds.

The Dunseith Public School Board made the decision to go from a five day school week to a four day week, which made Dunseith the second school in the state’s history to do so. The school district made the decision to assist the district in financial funding, improve classroom attendance with students and teachers and to grant their students a better environment to learn in.

Joel Bickford, secondary principal in the Bottineau School District, received the North Dakota Association of Secondary School’s Principal of the Year award for his leadership with the students in the school district.        

Harold Gessner, the chairman and co-originator of the Orphan Grain Train, retired from the organization after spending decades assisting individuals from around the world.

Within Bottineau, the water ran so fast and strong in Oak Creek it washed out the culverts and bridge on Fifth Street, which took a few months to prepare because they had to wait for the water to recede and materials to come in to fix the culverts, bridge and street.

MAY 

May started out with flooding issues in the county to such a point that the National Weather Service gave a flood warning for low-lying areas in Bantry, Towner, Westhope and Willow City. The high water caused flooding in fields and caused damage to roads and other entities in the county.

Stephanie Lang of Bottineau, and Dakota College at Bottineau Phi Theta Kappa member, was named as a student member to attend the International Scholar Laureate Program Student Delegation on Medicine and Science, which took place in Australia and New Zealand where she attended a variety of medical and science events. 

As May came to an end, six Bottineau teachers from the school district retired, which included Jan Gienger, Larry Gienger, Sandi Hoffman, Dianne Mehlhoff, Rod Schmidt and Gerald Wettlaufer who together taught in the district a combined 158.5 years. 

JUNE  

June brought a serious crisis to the Turtle Mountains when an unknown arsonist(s) started to burn down abandon farm homes (along with barns and sheds) in the eastern part of the Mountains. To date, the arsonist(s) has not been found. 

The Bottineau County Fair, which is the oldest county fair in North Dakota, celebrated its 125th Anniversary with a variety of activities to participate in. The festivities brought in a large crowd for the four day event. 

Immanuel Lutheran Church just west of Willow City celebrated its 125th anniversary during a two day celebration, which brought people from two different countries and a number of states. 

And, the city of Bottineau said goodbye to Bottineau veteran and former mayor Mensvil Larson who passed away in June at the age of 89.         

Larson joined the U.S. Army in 1945 and served his country for 25 years through WWII, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. During his time in combat zones, Larson was awarded the Bronze Star, the Meritorious Service Award and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry. In peacetime, Larson also served on posts in the U.S. and Germany.

Larson was a member of Bottineau’s Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 8688 and Bottineau’s AMVETS Post 25.

Larson served on the Bottineau council from 1977 to 1980, and then again from 1984 to 1990.

He was elected mayor of Bottineau in 1990 and served in that capacity until 1998.