News

Special session votes will affect the county

By Scott Wagar

11/15/2011

The week long special legislative session in Bismarck this past week voted on a variety of issues which will affect Bottineau County on a couple issues.

The primary discussion of the 62nd legislative assembly was flood disaster relief for those cities and counties which experienced flooding this past summer. Bottineau County received a great deal of damage from the Mouse River flooding, but state legislators last week made the decision not to provide any funding for Bottineau County because of finances coming to the county from FEMA and state funding.

Another major issue that was discussed was the redistricting of the Sixth District, which includes Bottineau County. Legislators voted in favor of redistricting the Sixth District, which lost portions of Ward County, but gained all of Bottineau, McHenry and Renville counties, which added a total of 113 townships and 1,600 more voters to the district.

With redistricting, the Sixth District will lose the city of Kenmare and its current district’s representative, Glen Froseth, R-Kenmare. However, Rep. Richard (Dick) Anderson, R-Willow City, and Senate Minority Leader, Ryan Taylor, D-Towner, both from the Seventh District, will become part of the Sixth District for the next coming election.

The next session of the North Dakota State Legislative Assembly will take place during the 63rd legislative assembly, which will begin in January of 2013.