The soapbox, please.

Thank you.
Forever trying to improve the economics of the region, promoting topless beaches at Frog Point on the Red River to tourist information centers at Caledonia and Blanchard, I am dismayed at the recent action of the state Legislature.
Just when the legislators had the opportunity to increase the watch-dog police force in the state, they chose instead to look the other way.
We’re missing the boat, folks.
But I know you know that.

Anticipation.

Will it or won’t it?
Are we going to get it or not?
It’s going around us, right?
Wait, just wait, it’s bound to come.
Snow-watchers looked skyward Wednesday — and didn’t see much, at least in our ZIP code. All around us, schools closed and churches waved off midweek Lenten worshipers.
Like everyone, I waited and watched and worried and wondered. I logged on to a weather radar site and watched the Doppler spin around us — a green oasis surrounded by angry oranges, red and pinks. The fiery colors on the radar signalled snow and lots of it, I surmised.

Winter strikes back with record snowfall

Good thing crystallized ice melt has a long shelf life.
The Banner purchased a 50 lb. bag back when we had ice everywhere, thinking we were going to need it this winter.
Then, the daytime temperatures went from the Banana Belt range to the sub zero variety.
We still didn’t have much snow, that is until last weekend.
We’ve got snow now, we were telling friends and family far from home at the start of the week.
Then, the storm trackers started telling us to prepare for another snow event, guaranteed this time to bring another 10 to 18 inches of more snow. Possibly more.

Vets Club gives back $9,000 to community

The Hillsboro Vets Club last year returned more than $9,000 to the community.
The Vets Club, which annually gives proceeds from its gaming operations back to the community, wrote checks totaling $9,223 to deserving programs, organizations and clubs in the Hillsboro community,
At its annual meeting last week, Kevin Grothmann and Jerry Tufte were named to the Vets Club board of directors. Grothmann and Tufte are replacing Tim Wright and Vern Knodle, whose terms expired this year.

Winter strikes back

Winter weather, complete with back-to-back snow days last weekend and again this week, is reminding the state that it isn’t Spring yet. Coming off the heels of last weekend’s 8 inches of snow, another storm front moved into the state Thursday and Friday, promising to leave another 10 to 18 inches of new snow on the ground. Schools closed Thursday as weather forecasters warned of worsening conditions later Thursday and again Friday. The winter storm this week was predicted to leave the region late Friday afternoon. Meanwhile, much of the state was under a winter storm warning yesterday and today.
The major winter storm, which hit the two Dakotas and Minnesota, was threatening to move into Wisconsin Saturday.

Power knocked out in Hillsboro early Thursday

Power was knocked out in Hillsboro early Thursday morning when a three-phase transmission line switch burned.
The equipment failure cut power on the Xcel Energy line servicing the city of Hillsboro, according to public works supt. Jim Anderson.
Anderson was notified of the outage about 6 a.m. by the Traill County Sheriff’s Department. The city crew powered up the city’s backup generators and over the next 40 minutes about two-thirds of the city was back on line.

Some kind of lucky

Transystems truck leaves road, hits bridge, lands on river

A Transystems beet truck driver escaped injury when her truck left ND200 early Monday morning near the bridge that crosses the Goose River north of Hillsboro. The truck sheared off the guard rail on the west side of the highway and damaged the north end of the new concrete bridge. The truck came to rest on the ice-covered river. It was the first time driving solo for the 55-year-old Idaho woman.
“She’s some kind of lucky,” observed Tony Ernst, Traill County sheriff’s deputy. The accident occurred shortly before 8 a.m. Monday.
The frost-covered road contibuted to the accident, according to Scott King with the N.D. Highway Patrol. King said the driver was probably going too fast for road conditions but she was not ticketed. King said the incident was one of the “most interesting” he’d investigated in 17 years on the job.

Sex offender sent to prison for violating probation

A Mayville man convicted of sexual assault in December 2005 has been resentenced to a year in prison for breaking the rules of his probation.
Merilyn Fredrick Knutson, 47, formerly of Mayville, N.D. now living in Fargo, was ordered to serve the remainder of his original sentence — one year in jail. He was given credit for time served prior to his conviction — 82 days — and since his latest arrest for probation violations — 13 days.
Knutson’s probation officer Rachel Wallock told the court that Knutson was unwilling to attend court-ordered sex offender treatment, despite efforts to arrange sessions around his work schedule and to provide transportation to Fargo. Knutson is considered a high-risk sex offender, Wallock said.

Cuts follow crossover

Monday, February 26, 2007 — I write this report as we begin the second week after crossover. Last week was quiet except for the recap of the budget situation prior to crossover. The fact is both the Senate and the House authorized expenditures far in excess of our capacity to fund them.
Legislative Council budget staff gave us a summary indicating that legislative expenditure and revenue changes to the Governor’s budget are causing a net deficit of some $370 million. What this means, is that we have to establish our core priorities and begin the cutting process.
Some of the expenditures are doubled up — where a House bill and a Senate bill did the same or similar thing and cost approximately the same. This amounts to $113 million. In addition, all revenue reductions passed by both chambers amounted to $196 million. This paints a little better picture of the reality. It is not all spending increases that have burst the budget.

Down payment made on HBA electronic sign

The response from the community for help in purchasing an electronic billboard sign for downtown has been nothing short of fantastic, according to Hillsboro Business Association members.
HBA officers in January alerted the community of their plans to install a new electronic sign in Railroad Park, directly across from Olsen Hardware.
The new $14,000 sign will replace the old sign that has served the community for decades.
The HBA fund-raising campaign (Alphabet March From A to Z) has raised more than $9,000. Pledges have been received from eight businesses. The campaign offered each letter of the alphabet for $500 each.
“While the response to our campaign has been great, we still need contributions,” said Gail Mooney, who is on the HBA new sign committee along with business owner Steph Olsen and Neil Nelson, HBA president.