701 Rundown: Feb. 6, 2023

Here’s your weekly rundown of some of the most interesting headlines from newspapers across North Dakota.

Hillsboro City

Commissioners OK pay hike for themselves in 4-1 vote

At their regular January meeting, Hillsboro City Commissioners voted 4-1 to increase their annual salary from $1,800 to $4,800 per year, and to increase the Commission President’s yearly salary from $2,400 to $6,600 per year.

To offset the higher salaries, commissioners eliminated insurance benefits that had previously been given to commissioners Dave Sather and Mike Kress, who both supported the change despite losing out on nearly $10,000 in insurance benefits per year.

“I think it’s the fair way to do this,” said Sather moments before casting his vote in favor of the pay raise.

Back in 2020, city commissioners voted to no longer offer insurance benefits to incoming commissioners. Sather and Kress, however, were still grandfathered in before the January meeting.

City Commissioner President, Levi Reese, said that even with the pay raises for commissioners and himself, the City of Hillsboro is saving about $5,000 per year by eliminating the benefits being received by Sather and Kress.

Reese added that the salaries offered to commissioners of Hillsboro – a city of roughly 1,600 residents, lagged behind similar-sized cities in North Dakota.

By comparison, the City of New Rockford’s city council members are paid $3,000 annually, and its mayor $3,600 annually.

(Story by Cole Short, Hillsboro Banner)

Oil production in North Dakota falls slightly

According to state officials, there are signs that North Dakota’s energy production is strong.

“It is going to take strong drilling and completion activity to maintain 1.1 million barrels per day,” said Lynn Helms, the director of the N.D. Department of Mineral Resources (N.D. DMR), during his January 2023 Director’s Cut.

“It is encouraging to see our natural gas county back up to over 43 and that activity has picked up substantially,” he added.

In the month of November, oil production in North Dakota dropped by 2 percent overall, however, that’s still 10 percent above the revenue forecast.

McKenzie County continues to lead the state in oil production, as they produced 11,488,839 barrels of oil in November. The state, meanwhile, produced a total of 132,931,469 barrels of oil. Natural gas production during November averaged 3,029,033 MCF per day. The state saw a total of 90,870,939 MCF produced.

According to reports from the N.D. DMR, the price of natural gas delivered to the border of Watford City has risen to $6.76/MCF due to much colder temperature and LNG exports to Europe.

Helms noted that while storage is pretty full in the Midwest, the European market will likely pay 30-40 percent more for liquid natural gas than domestic markets.

(Story by Kristen Jones, McKenzie County Farmer)

Divide County School Board votes to oppose HB 1251

At their latest regular school board meeting, Divide County School Board President Stephanie Reistad asked board members to consider a formal vote in opposition to House Bill 1251.

“They want us to look at what our potential district sharing would look like,” said Reistad after receiving an email from the bill’s sponsors.

The bill, which has been widely opposed by school officials in North Dakota, would require smaller school districts to share a superintendent and further limit the amount of compensation a superintendent can receive.

The purpose would be to use the money saved to invest in teacher’s salaries and classrooms.

District Business Manager Barb King said the bill would provide a maximum salary of about $90,000 for a superintendent sharing administrative duties in Divide County, Burke Central and Bowbells school districts – potentially giving one superintendent three times the work for less money.

Reistad said the average superintendent salary in North Dakota is currently $118,000 per year.

The board, citing issues of keeping local control of their school and the need to hire more administrators, not less, voted unanimously to oppose the legislation.

(Story by Cecile Wehrman, The Journal)

Benson County K-9s are hard at work

K9s Ares and Raptor are the impressive four-legged fellows currently working with the Benson County Sheriff’s Department.

The K-9s are an important and respected part of the team in Benson County. Like their human counterparts, the dogs are sworn in to their position and work to protect Benson County residents and uphold North Dakota’s laws.

Their ability to locate narcotics with just their sense of smell is so accurate, that by law, if one of them detects drugs inside a vehicle, law enforcement is allowed to search that vehicle without a warrant.

Sheriff Ethan Rode, who began working for Benson County as a deputy in 2013, said there were a lot of drug problems in the area and felt a K-9 would be an asset as they continued to fight the problem.

Rode said that shortly after acquiring the K-9s, there was an almost immediate decrease in crime as word spread that the local police force had a powerful new tool to catch the bad guys.

(Story by Brenda Halvorson, Towner County Record Herald)

County will plow private driveways for a price

Following a 4-1 vote in favor, the Rolette County Commission has moved forward with a plan addressing snowed-in driveways throughout the county.

The policy has been officially dubbed a road maintenance and improvement initiative, which would allow the county to plow private driveways following a minimum downpayment of $150, along with a liability waiver that needs to be signed in the courthouse prior to service.

There will also be a charge of $50 per driveway each time it is maintained.

Commissioner Kent Abrahamson, who was in favor of the plan, said, “There will be some confusion, but there are a lot of people that need the help. Most I’ve talked to are on board with doing it.”

(Story by John Rosinski, Turtle Mountain Star)