McKenzie County ND

Yes, it is. Do refer to ‘Our Vision’ posted under PAGES found to the right hand of the scroll/screen. At least one strategy of our 22 deals with transportation needs in order to reduce poverty. Under Goal 3 the strategies call for expanding existing elderly transportation services, increasing the availability of long distance transportation service by coordination …availability…

Carol Mauer, director of the Williston Council for Aging and Region I Senior Services announced at the meeting that there will be increased availability soon.

The meeting I attended was titled ‘Is transportation important to you?’ and was very well attended March 25. 2008, Airport International Inn in Williston.

The meeting was organized and lead by the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute, North Dakota State University.

Dignitaries were there to reiterate much of what was discussed and reported earlier at the following.
From the Dec. 12, 2007 Summit Conference written by me, Dale A. Swenson: Concerning road funding, the Department of Transportation (DOT) had little good news. Construction costs inflated 45 percent in the past six years. The appropriation for the Roosevelt Highway, that is Highway 85, did not come through. Congress has not sent out allotments and some say crisis is looming as highway fund status could remain unknown into February 2008. It was thought that by Dec. 31, 2007 the DOT would know if they could do the road construction from Grassy Butte to Williston. The DOT is committed to a four-lane construction from the Montana line when Montana is done building up to the line. Twelve miles remain on the North Dakota side, and there is a need to look at “Super 2″ in that area.Parts of Highway 1804, which runs along the north side of Lake Sakakawea will be smoothed of ruts this summer, while other parts will be mined and blended as other portions get an overlay application. Looking to all sources of funding, federal, state and local will be more important than ever.The Challenges long list provided March 25, 2008 was thus:

• an aging road system needs preservation and maintenance
• the gas tax has a declining purchase power
• the wear and tear of increasing materials costs, traffic volumes, tourism and truck traffic (ag and energy industry) (more…)

If you think our community has no problem with underage drinking, think again. Prevention Coordinator Karen McDaniel’s power point presentation of McKenzie County underage drinkers graphically shows how the students in Watford City’s Risk Survey perform the risky business above the statewide average and above others in this region.

Ten members of the Community Coalition and the McKenzie County Horizons program met today to finalize plans for the Monday evening, March 31 Town Hall meeting to be held in the Watford City Civic Center.

If you think you’ll miss the supper, think again. The supper, served at 6 p.m., is free: lasagne, salad and a brownie for dessert.

Bring your appetite for improving the health of our community.

The panel discussion follows McDaniel’s power point presentation of the current facts about underage drinking in McKenzie County. Different points of view will come from each panel member: Dr. Gary Ramage, Sheriff Ron Rankin, Northwest District Director of Juvenile Cort, Unit 4 Chris S. Myers, and Jerry Chapman, Mercy Recovery Center Addiction Counselor. From our county, Heidi Garmann, Northwest Human Services Counselor; Steve Holen, McKenzie County District #1 Superintendent; Daryl Vance, Watford City Police Chief and Ben Weltikol, Watford City Fire Department.

Moderator Pastor Tim Swenson of Arnegard will also represent the McKenzie County Ministerial Association.

Insights will be offered by the Watford City Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) Chapter Advisor Katie Paulson and SADD student Missy Morken will speak to the problem as they see it.

The 11 presenters promise to deliver the “goods” on their topic in just four minutes each and a timer will hold them to it. Questions from the audience will be carried forward by ‘facilitators’ to serve each table.

Discussion groups will have five minutes to map out ways to convince youth and young adults that avoiding alcohol consumption is to their benefit. The final 15 minutes means sharing the mapped out solutions and a feedback short-form should be filled out by each person, please.

To you who say…”The youth are the future,” come out Monday evening and help them make it be a good future with some mapping to prevent criminal behavior, accidents, health problems and poverty.

The Smithsonian Exhibit “Between Fences” continues at the Pioneer Museum until April 25th. We offically opened on Monday March 17th with a ribbon cutting and reception. We have seen great traffic through the museum to visit the display (about 175 people to date). There was a great discussion on March 10th with Dr. John Helgeland, NDSU, about the book Their Fathers God. In attendance were about 40 adults and 20 students. The art students of the WCHS Art Class/Ms. Erickson teacher, competed in an art contest and interpretation of “How We Build Our Fences. Winners were: Mamie Kieson, First; Joey Trumpower, Second & Ross Norby, Third. The art interpretations of the class are on display at the museum. Also on display are some wonderful quilts designed and sewn by the Prairie Rose Quilting Guild and the “Picket Fences” designed & painted by the 4th grade(last years class) students of WCES.

In the last 2 weeks we have had people from many areas including Bismarck, Jamestown, Noonan, Minot, Williston, Dickinson and from Minnesota, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, Wahington, and Idaho along with many local visitors. There have been classes from Horse Creek School, Round Prairie School, and Watford City High School and other schools scheduled for the next couple of weeks. There are also other group tours of “out of town” people scheduled to come through. I believe that this has been a great commerce event for our community in that most of these people eat, shop and visit other sites in our community. If you haven’t all ready done so, stop by the Pioneer Musuem/Visitor Center.