In case you missed it in The Sun the week of Sept. 18, 2023
Sep. 23—The following stories from this week appeared on
and in The Jamestown Sun.
A 76-year-old Jamestown man
was sentenced
Monday, Sept. 18, in Southeast District Court in the 2022 death of a 20-year-old Illinois man whose bicycle was struck by a vehicle while riding near Jamestown.
James Lees previously pleaded guilty to negligent homicide, a Class C felony, in the death of Timothy St. John, Northbrook, Illinois. The charge of leaving the scene of an accident, a Class B felony, was dropped.
Judge James Hovey sentenced Lees to five years in the North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation with the five years suspended. Hovey placed Lees on three years supervised probation and ordered him to complete 200 hours of community service to be served at no less than 10 hours per month. Hovey also made a recommendation to have Lees' driving privileges revoked for 25 years.
The Stutsman County Commission in a 4-0 vote on Tuesday, Sept. 19,
appointed Levi Taylor to serve on the board
.
Earlier at a special meeting, Commissioners Jerry Bergquist, Chad Wolsky and Mark Klose, chairman, voted for Taylor. Commissioner Joan Morris voted for Robin Iszler.
The vacancy was created after the death of Commissioner Steve Cichos on Aug. 23. He was reelected to the commission in November 2022.
Taylor will hold the office at least until the next general election. North Dakota Century Code 44-02-05 says the appointee holds office until the appointee's successor is elected at the next general election that occurs at least 95 days after the vacancy and the successor has qualified. The next general election cycle is in 2024.
Five structures on the grounds of the North Dakota State Hospital
are slated for demolition
sometime in the next year, according to Eduardo Yabut, MD, interim superintendent of the facility.
The 2023 North Dakota Legislature provided $4 million for the demolition. The structures in order or priority for demolition are the employee building, the old administration building, the water tower, water treatment plant and a pig barn.
All of the buildings are unused in the operation of the State Hospital, Yabut said.
Senate Bill 2026 says the buildings must be demolished by June 30, 2025. Plans call for the completion of the demolition by the end of summer 2024 at this time, Yabut said.
BuffaloJam! organizers are planning
to bring the two-day event back
to Jamestown next year.
Brad Gabrielson, the main organizer of the event, said he is working with the same promoter, VIPcontacts, to come up with a lineup of talent for next year's event.
The first BuffaloJam! featured music over two days on Aug. 25-26 with Nashville Country Day on Friday and Classic Rock Day on Saturday. Gabrielson said the music lineup was "great."
He said some changes could be made for next year to help boost attendance to the event. He said some changes organizers are looking at include holding the two-day-music festival on Saturday and Sunday, holding it in June and doing one- and two-day general admission tickets.
The University of Jamestown
plans to launch
a professional doctorate in the leadership program and nursing programs in Fargo to help with the nursing shortage beginning in the fall of 2024.
Kim Ash, chair of the UJ nursing department, said the university is in the preapproval process to offer a two-year Associate in Science nursing degree and a direct-entry master's program in nursing based out of Fargo. The university is partnering with Sanford Health for the programs.
She said programs could be approved by the end of January with plans to launch them in fall 2024.
The expansion of the Unruh School of Character in Leadership is twofold, said Liz Hunt, director of the program at UJ. She said the university wanted a program that is mission driven and one that UJ is known for.
Jim and Candy Unruh's $15 million gift, the largest-single donation in university history and to private education in the state, goes toward the creation and naming of the School of Character in Leadership. The gift also helps support the renovation of Voorhees Chapel and a new building that will become the center for faith and life and will connect the chapel to the Badal Nafus Center.
The School of Character in Leadership will be headquartered in the basement of the chapel once it is renovated. Hunt said the School of Character in Leadership will include faculty offices, conference rooms and spaces for training and classes. The university plans on launching a professional doctorate in leadership in fall 2024.
A Jamestown man who died Tuesday, Sept. 19, after a plane he was piloting hit an electrical wire and crashed into a cornfield in Eddy County
has been identified
.
Lawrence Polries, 63, was piloting an Air Tractor Agriculture plane and spraying a sunflower field on the east side of Highway 281 just 5 miles south of New Rockford, according to a report from the North Dakota Highway Patrol.
Polries was flying west after spraying a pass when he hit an electrical wire with the plane's tail fin, the report said. Polries lost control and crashed into a cornfield on the west side of Highway 281 north of 12th Street Northeast.
Polries died at the scene, according to the report.
The crash remains under investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration.
The Stutsman County Commission on Tuesday, Sept. 20,
failed to restructure
the Stutsman County Park Board.
A motion made by Commissioner Jerry Bergquist failed due to a lack of a second.
Bergquist had proposed a restructuring of the park board with two county commissioners, three township officers or designees and two at-large members who are Stutsman County residents. The restructuring of the park board would have been effective beginning Jan. 1.
The current park board consists of all five county commissioners and two appointed Stutsman County residents.
The Jamestown Civic Center and Promotion Committee recommended approval on a 4-0 vote to
dispose of a Midland Continental Railroad caboose
located at Frontier Village.
The caboose has been closed to visitors for at least the past four years, said Emily Bivens, executive director of Jamestown Area Chamber of Commerce and Jamestown Tourism. She said Frontier Village has another fully refurbished caboose from Midland Continental Railroad for exhibit near the depot.
Bivens said the existing space could be used for more interpretations and visitor experiences among other ideas.
The North Dakota Supreme Court issued an order on Wednesday, Sept. 20, for a
vacant judgeship seat to be retained
in the Southeast Judicial District.
The vacancy in the Southeast Judicial District is for seat #1 which is chambered in Jamestown. Southeast District Court Judge Troy LeFevre's seat is also chambered in Jamestown.
The vacancy in the Southeast Judicial District was created after Gov. Doug Burgum appointed Judge Cherie Clark on July 31 to one of the two newly created judgeships in the East Central Judicial District, which comprises Cass, Steele and Traill counties. The North Dakota Supreme Court was also notified on July 31 of Clark's resignation from the Southeast Judicial District, which was effective Sept. 3. Clark's term expires in 2024.
Under North Dakota Century Code 27-05-02.1, the Supreme Court is required to review vacancies that occur and determine within 90 days of receiving the notice of a vacancy whether the office is necessary for effective judicial administration, the Supreme Court's order says. The Supreme Court may order a vacancy to be filled or order the vacant office to be transferred to another judicial district where an additional judge is necessary or abolish a vacant judicial office with or without a transfer.
