Completion of Green Bison Soy Processing facility top story for 2023

Dec. 27—The completion of the Green Bison Soy Processing facility at Spiritwood is the top news story for Jamestown in 2023 as selected by the news staff of The Jamestown Sun.

The following are the top 10 stories of the year as selected by Sun staff.

Officials celebrated the completion of the Green Bison Soy Processing facility — the state's first dedicated soybean processing plant — in November.

The first load of soybeans was brought to the Green Bison Soy Processing facility on Sept. 18.

Green Bison Soy Processing is a 75%-25% venture between ADM and Marathon Petroleum Corp., respectively. The $350 million soybean processing facility is located in the Spiritwood Energy Park Association industrial park about 10 miles east of Jamestown.

Green Bison Soy Processing is expected to process 150,000 bushels of soybeans per day into oil, meal and fiber. The facility is expected to produce approximately 600 million pounds of refined vegetable oil annually that will be supplied exclusively to Marathon Petroleum as a feedstock to produce 75 million gallons of renewable diesel.

The winter of 2022-23 brought over 91 inches of snow to Jamestown.

The snowstorms caused many businesses and public agencies to close during those days.

The Jamestown City Council and Stutsman County Commission approved emergency declarations related to snowfall events.

Because of all the snowfall in the Jamestown area, the peak combined releases this year was 1,600 cfs with 1,100 cfs from Jamestown Reservoir and 500 cfs from Pipestem.

The Jamestown City Council and Stutsman County Commission approved a request from the Jamestown/Stutsman Development Corp. for a $1 million Bison World Inc. investment.

The city of Jamestown's share is $800,000, and the county's share is $200,000.

The Bison World project calls for the construction of a bison-themed cultural and entertainment park adjacent to Interstate 94 on land currently owned by the state of North Dakota through the North Dakota State Hospital. When complete, the park would include an amphitheater, museums and other attractions to entertain and educate visitors about the American bison, which is the national mammal.

The cost of the project is estimated to be about $90 million.

Parents of Bismarck High School basketball players said racial slurs and actions were used toward minority players Tuesday, Jan. 31, during a game against Jamestown High School and nothing was done to stop it.

An investigation into the incident of a Jan. 31 basketball game determined that an administrator supervising the event did not act on a particular issue because the official thought it was not racially motivated and there was a general failure to adequately supervise fan conduct during the game.

The Jamestown Public School District officials investigated concerns that Jamestown administration or staff failed to take appropriate action during the game when racial taunts and actions were made to two minority basketball players from Bismarck High School.

The University of Jamestown constructed the Nelson Family Bubble and broke ground on the renovation of Voorhees Chapel and the construction of the Reuben and Clarice Liechty Center for Faith and Life.

Jim and Candy Unruh donated $15 million toward the creation and naming of UJ's news School of Character in Leadership. The Unruh's gift was the single-largest donation in the university's history.

The donation also supports the renovation of Voorhees Chapel and the construction of a new addition that will become the Reuben and Clarice Liechty Center for Faith and Life that will house the Unruh School of Character in Leadership and connects the chapel to the Badal Nafus Center.

The Nelson Family Bubble — an indoor athletic and wellness facility located next to Harold Newman Arena — will serve UJ's student population and student-athletes.

Construction began on the Pipestem Dam safety modification project that will help protect lives and property against the risk of flooding in Jamestown and other communities along the James River.

The Pipestem Dam safety modification project consists of building a concrete terminal structure on the downstream end of Pipestem Creek and filling in the eroded areas with concrete. The downstream end of Pipestem Creek is where erosion could happen because of a drop-off.

Decades of erosion at Pipestem Reservoir created a risk of a breach during times of high-water flows.

The project is expected to be completed at the end of 2025. Once complete, the improvements will help prevent erosion in the event of a large storm. The eroded areas will be filled in and a terminal structure will be built over the drop-off at the end of the spillway.

The cost of the project is about $200 million.

A state-of-the-art facility for educating and treating students with developmental disabilities is nearing completion in Jamestown.

Work began on the 110,000-square-foot facility in August 2022 with an estimated cost of $57 million. The facility is located east of Jamestown Regional Medical Center on the west side of Jamestown.

Tim Eissinger, CEO of the Anne Carlsen Center, said substantial completion of the facility is expected in February with occupancy of the buildings planned for March.

In less than two years since breaking ground on its first facility, Applied Digital Corp. has constructed two data centers in North Dakota.

The 180-megawatt facility about 1 mile west of Ellendale is Applied Digital's second in North Dakota along with the facility in Jamestown that went online in 2022.

Applied Digital also broke ground in October on its first 100-megawatt high-performance computing facility that will be located immediately north of the current data center. The facility is designed and built for artificial intelligence workloads such as generative AI, natural language processing, machine learning, rendering and traditional high-performance computing applications.

The number of job openings in the region was the lowest it had been since the fall of 2020, according to a June 2023 Online Job Openings Report issued by Job Service North Dakota.

Those statistics also showed a return to the job opening numbers prior to the coronavirus pandemic.

The decline in the number of job openings may not be an accurate reflection of actual number of job openings though, said LuWanna Lawrence, public information officer for the North Dakota Department of Health and Human Services, in June. She said employers can list one announcement that reflects multiple openings.

Community stakeholders, such as the Jamestown/Stutsman Development Corp., have been working to address the workforce challenges in the area. Other challenges include adequate housing in the Stutsman County area and the need for more child care.

The 12th Avenue Southeast reconstruction project in Jamestown was completed this year.

The 12th Avenue Southeast reconstruction project consisted of reconstructing 12th Avenue Southeast from 3rd to 6th Street Southeast with a realignment between 3rd and 5th Street Southeast.

A new road was created at the intersection of 12th Avenue and 5th Street Southeast. The project included paving 12th Avenue Southeast from 5th to 6th Street Southeast and building a cul-de-sac road for access to an electrical business along 12th Avenue Southeast and the city water department's water tank and station.

The final layer of pavement will be done in the spring.

Other top stories in 2022 for the Jamestown area include:

* Coborn's Inc., the parent company of Cash Wise Foods, launched a new fuel center and grocery store expansion. The fuel center was added to the parking lot of the Park Plaza Shopping Center. New updates to the grocery store include adding an in-store Caribou Coffee, expanded liquor department, enhancements to the produce, meat, dairy and deli departments and replacing the existing parking lot. An Ace Hardware store will be added nearby.

* The construction of the largest Dairy Queen allowed by the franchise. The new Dairy Queen will include two drive-thru lanes and will be located at 202 Business Loop W where the old Salvation Army was formerly located. The new Dairy Queen is expected to be operational by July but it could be sooner if the weather cooperates. The new Dairy Queen has a total valuation of just under $2 million.