News

The year in review

By Scott Wagar

01/07/2014

In 2013, Bottineau County was a busy year with good crop yields, celebrations and the construction of new buildings; but, it was also a year with inclement weather, increases in taxes and even a government shutdown that affected a number of individuals in the county. All in all, it will be a year that certainly will not be forgotten any time soon.

JANUARY

The year started out in the city of Bottineau with an increase in taxes for property owners, who saw such a great increase in their taxes they criticized loudly when they received their taxes. Ben Aufforth, mayor of Bottineau, addressed the issue at a council meeting and stated the increase had to do with the value of the properties in town, and the state of North Dakota required property owners to stay within a percent of sales and went forward with an across the board increase to bring Bottineau into compliance, which equaled 90 to 100 percent.

With the shooting at the Sandy Hook school in Newtown, Conn., the Bottineau School District made changes within the school to protect the students and staff from a similar incident. Changes included locking all doors during school hours with the exception of a couple designated doors, locking classroom doors at all times, requiring staff and visitors to the school to wear a lanyard or badge for identification purposes and all visitors to the school had to report-in at the main offices of the school buildings before conducting business in the schools.

As local volunteers were working on the inside of Annie’s House at the Bottineau Winter Park (BWP), a  number of children with adaptive needs came from Portland, N.D., visited the park and became the first skiers to utilize the new chalet at BWP which grants adaptive skiers the opportunity to ski or tube the slopes at the Winter Park. Annie’s House was named after Ann Nicole Nelson, the only individual from North Dakota who lost her life in the 9/11 attacks. Nelson had a bucket list with a wish to build a home in North Dakota. With that, New York Says Thank You, along with hundreds of volunteers, constructed Annie’s House in honor and remembrance of Nelson.

As the month came to an end, the Smithsonian’s traveling exhibit, Key Ingredients: America by Food, came to Bottineau and granted visitors a variety of exhibits to learn about the history of food in America.  

FEBRUARY

As February came, a mysterious death of a Westhope man took place in that city with Tim Mundt of Westhope charged with the murder. Mundt was accused of murdering Jessie Kirk, but pleaded not guilty in one of his first court appearances. In September, Mundt changed his plea to guilty in the murder charge to gain a lesser sentence. It was stated in court that after a day of drinking Mundt murdered Kirk through what he called “a mercy killing”, because Kirk was depressed and wanted to die, but he could not bring himself to commit suicide. So, Mundt killed Kirk with a 30 caliber rifle to assist Kirk in his death. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Juan Acosta of Newburg, the individual who drove a truck into a tent while intoxicated, and killed two children while they slept in the tent at Lake Metigoshe over the Fourth of July in 2012, had his sentencing hearing and was sentenced by Northeast District Judge, Michael Sturdevant, to 15 years in the state’s penitentiary.

MARCH  

March in Bottineau County came in like a lion with inclement weather and cold temperatures, which left agricultural producers behind in spring field work and ranchers dealing with dangerous cold temperatures while calfing.

As cold temperatures and wet conditions plagued the county, Bethel Lutheran Church in Antler felt the warmth of celebrating 110 years as a church congregation on Easter Sunday. The church’s origins started in March of 1903 when members of the Antler community came together and organized a Lutheran church denomination they named Bethel.  

The Bottineau School District at the end of March began a seven-month process to move forward with school developments.

Through the school board meetings and public forums, it was decided to building a new grade school on the east end of town at an estimated cost of around $19 million. However, in November the voters in the school district voted down the bond and debt limit for the project primarily due to the cost of building. The school district is presently re-working its next steps for the future developments in the school district.

APRIL

As spring came to the county, Bottineau Farmers Elevator and Farm Credit Services held grand openings for their new offices buildings. Both entities gave tours, gifts, door prizes and meals to their guests who came to the events.

Seth Serhienko, a sophomore at Dakota College at Bottineau, was chosen from the state’s university system five junior colleges as the New Century Scholar, which is the highest accolade a student can receive in the nation for community colleges.

Long time math instructor at Dakota College at Bottineau, Betty Rehfuss, passed away after a long battle with cancer. Rehfuss was an instructor at the college from 1977 until her death, and was well known in the Bottineau community as a dedicated volunteer to a number of organizations and community events.

Bottineau’s third grade brought celebration to the end of the month when the class broke a school record for the most money raised by a group of third graders for the St. Jude’s Math-a-Thon fundraisers. The students raised $3,295 to assist patients at St. Jude’s with their health care needs. One student, Kaleb Wittermute, raised the most money of all the third graders with a total of $500.

MAY

The month of May saw another new building open its doors in Bottineau when Cobblestone Inn and Suites started taking reservations for its 45 room motel, which also offers a continental breakfast, convenient store, lounge, fitness center, meeting room and convention center to its guests.

St. Andrew’s Health Center celebrated its 100th anniversary with a week long festival of activities.  Monsignor Joseph Andrieux, in association with the Sisters of Mary of the Presentation, established St. Andrew’s Hospital in 1913 to improve the health care of Bottineau County’s residents.

As May and the school year came to an end, Bottineau Public School instructors, Sheila Bertsch, Marla Byrd, Heidi Danielson and Laurie Law retired at the end of the school year with a combined 79 years of service as educators.

JUNE

As summer started, Gregory Page, Bottineau High School graduate and the CEO of Cargill, Inc., was elected to Deere & Company’s board of directors.

The Swedish Zion Lutheran Church near Souris celebrated its 110 anniversary in June and was also named to the National Register of Historical Places. The church was constructed of stone and built by a group of Swedish immigrants who migrated to the county through the Homestead Act.

Tragedy came to the county in mid-June when Jason Mower, 29, from Minot Air Force Base tipped a canoe at Lake Metigoshe in strong winds and went under the water and passed away. With the late winter and cold temperatures, the lake’s temperature was between 52 to 54 degrees Fahrenheit.       

Even though summer had just started, the Bottineau school board and its teachers started negotiations for the 2013-14 school years. However, the negotiations went into impasse when the two parties could not come to an agreement over salary and the teacher’s fund for retirement. The North Dakota Education Fact Finding Commission was brought in to settle the disagreement and in late August the two groups came to an agreement.  

JULY

Students from the Sheyenne Valley Special Education Unit came to Annie’s House at the Bottineau Winter Park in July and became the first group of students to utilize the summer hiking trials in the park. The students also spent time riding horses in the Turtle Mountains and fishing at Lake Metigoshe.

The Early Explorers Head Start organization made the announcement that its program in Bottineau would be discontinued due to federal budget cuts. Outside of Head Start, Bottineau’s Pre-School announced that it, too, was closing its doors due to the fact it could not find a director and instructor for its program. Without the two schools in operation, it left a large number of students without the opportunity to be educated prior to entering into kindergarten.

Local agricultural producers experience a rain, wind and hail storm across the eastern part of the county in late July which caused crop damage in the storm’s path and at the cost of thousands of dollars to some local farmers.

AUGUST

Due to unpleasant weather in Bottineau County, the county in the early part of August was ranked second in the state of North Dakota for Prevent Plant. But, weather conditions finally turn around and when fall harvest came around in the county farm producers saw great yields and average prices in the market. Wheat yields where anywere from 50 to 100 bushels, while canola yields were from 1,800 to 3,000 pound yields.

Even though some ag producers couldn’t get into their fields this year in Bottineau County, they did see over a 40 percent increase in its crop land value average from 2012. The National Agricultural Statistics Services, a branch of the United States Department of Agriculture, published its 2013 land value survey results which showed that North Dakota ranked number one in the nation for the largest average per acre price increase in cropland, coming in at $1,910, which was a 41.5 percent increase from 2012. In Bottineau County, the average per acre price for cropland in 2013 came in at $1,547, which was an increase of $457 from 2012 where the average value was $1,090 for cropland.

Pride Dairy of Bottineau was awarded a contract with Mount Rushmore’s cafeterias to supply ice cream they created from the personal recipe of President Thomas Jefferson. As the summer months ended, Pride’s Mount Rushmore ice cream, called Thomas Jefferson Vintage Vanilla Ice Cream, grew in sales and became an inclusive product for Mount Rushmore’s national park. In the summer of 2014, Mount Vernon and Pride Dairy will also start selling Thomas Jefferson Vintage Vanilla Ice Cream. There are also discussions currently taking place to have the ice cream served in the White House for state dinners because Jefferson served his ice cream recipe during a formal dinner in the White House when he was president.

SEPTEMBER

September saw a lot of activity as students returned back to the classrooms.  

Dakota College at Bottineau announced in September that the junior college had good enrollment numbers. In November, DCB official numbers came out and the college had broken an all time enrollment record with 951 students enrolled with at least one credit.

The Bottineau School District also saw an increase in its enrollment from 2012 with an increase of 47 students. As school started on the first day this past fall, the school district had 645 students, which when compared to the fall of 2012 the district had 598 students. Superintendent Jason Kersten stated that he believed the increased number of students came from the oil industry in the county and individuals moving back to Bottineau.   
Dakota College at Bottineau also celebrated 30 years of Evergreen. The theme for the special anniversary theme was the Great Gatsby Party and guests to the event dressed up in 1920s attire and raised $59,295, which broke the all time record of $41,806 which was set in 2012. Evergreen was established to raise money for student scholarships and bring awareness to the college.

OCTOBER

October, the month of dealing with budgets, the U.S. government made a decision to shutdown the government in October when members of congress had some disagreements with the national budget, Obamacare and other items. The shutdown affected a number of federal government employees in Bottineau County, who were either furloughed or left working without pay as the federal government stayed closed. The injunction left the government in shutdown for a long number of weeks; however, Congress finally came to an agreement and the government and its employees eventually went back into operation.

After a number of years of Bottineau’s EDC attempting to get a day care center started in Bottineau, the EDC finally broke ground in the later part of October for a new day care. The issue came up because a great number of children were left without day care because a large number of day care providers had either retired or closed its doors, leaving a small number of day cares which were filled to their capacities. To make matters worse, with Head Start and pre-school closing it doors, it brought the number of children without day care to an even higher number. To solve the problem, Diane Olson, EDC director, spent many months working on finding the funding for the day care while she attempted to overcome the financial cost of building the structure.

In the end, Olson’s determination paid off for the children of Bottineau.    

The month ended with Fintan Dooley, an attorney from Milwaukee, Wis., and Donny Nelson of Keene granting a tour in western Bottineau County to give insight on the number of saltwater spills that have taken place in the county due to the oil industry. The spills have brought concerns about the ecological damage it can do and what can be done to make the situation better in the county and state.

NOVEMBER

In November, Lucas Lindholm, a sophomore at DCB, was accepted as a National Community Aerospace Scholar at NASA’s National Community College Aerospace Scholars program. The program is one of the most eminent programs in the nation for which junior college students can be accepted as a scholar.

The month of November also saw a number of serious accidents. A two vehicle accident happened near Souris when a truck collided with a semi-trailer at a gravel intersection near Lesje Church. The semi failed to stop at the rural intersection and the truck hit the semi’s box, went under its trailer and was struck by its rear wheels. As the pickup came out from the trailer it caught fire while the semi was placed on its side across the gravel road.

The driver of the truck was severely burn and transported to a burn center.

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, three Bottineau residents were involved in a serious airplane crash in Towner County after the plane iced over and came down six miles northeast of Rock Lake.

The pilot was Steve Scheflo, who was coming home to Bottineau from International Falls, Minn. with his mother, Dianne Scheflo and Robert Abrahamson. There were no fatalities in the accident, but Dianne Scheflo spent a number of days in intensive care at Trinity Health Center in Minot before being moved to Trinity’s rehab department. Abrahamson also sustained some minor injuries that left him in the hospital for a few days. Steve Scheflo had a number of cuts and bruises and spent one night in the Rolla Hospital before being released the next day.   

DECEMBER

The month of December was a time to be jolly for a town in the western part of the county, but it was also a very sad month for a country church in the same area.

Westhope School District spent the fall holding public meetings to discuss adding on additions to its school and doing some renovation work on its present day school. In mid-December, the school district voted in favor of the $4.5 million project by a large majority. Work will start on the school this spring.

On Christmas Eve, Lesje Lutheran Church near Landa held its final service as a church with a candle light service. The church members closed its doors because they could not find pastor to serve the church, and they had only 10 to 12 active members left in their congregation. The church was established in 1899 with its present day church being constructed in 1918. Lesje will hold a closing ceremony for the church this July.