701 Rundown: March 28, 2022

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

City weighs options on controlling deer numbers

Prior to 2012, seeing a deer in Watford City was a rare occurrence. Today, it’s hard to go from one place to another without spotting 10 to 15 of them.

Without a doubt, the deer population has grown immensely and as the city limits and ETA expanded, it pushed them further into the heart of the city.

With a huge surplus of food, security and shelter, they’ve had no reason to leave.

Now, the community of Watford City has a love/hate relationship with the deer as many residents view them as assets to the community, while others consider them pests.

Some residents want a special bow hunting season to be opened within city limits, while others worried that such a thing poses significant risk to residents and pets.

The city hasn’t made any concrete decisions yet, but are considering another special meeting or potentially putting the matter on the ballot for this summer’s elections.

“We need to hear all - do we do something, or not? If we do, do we support a bow season?” asked City County President Kenny Liebel.

(Story by Ashleigh Plemper, McKenzie County Farmer)

Local author releases book, talks possible TV production

After reminiscing about many of his family’s real-life stories of fleeing Russia and coming to the United States, a local resident’s imagination took those tales to the next level, landing him a book deal and possible TV series.

Glen Vetter started writing “14 hands to Freedom” in 2019 after a health diagnosis took him from an active outdoor life to hospital visits and a wheelchair.

The Napoleon native started putting pen to paper to get the stories of his ancestors out of his head, developing in-depth characters with plots and twists in hopes of holding any reader’s interest.

Each character, Vetter said, is based on a real-life person from his family’s stories of his great-grandfather fleeing then Russia (now Ukraine). However, names have been changed and storylines have been dramatized for the publication.

“This story has been told for so long in our family,” Vetter said, adding he started to write because “I thought it would make a really good movie.”

“I’m very proud of this book,” Vetter added. “Just the way each chapter flows into the next, making references to other chapters.”

(Story by Kelli Ameling, Emmons County Record)

Go Fund Me set up for Pustovits

A distant cousin who grew up in North Dakota has established a Go Fund Me page to help the family of Maryna Pustovit, the Ukrainian woman whose escape from her war ravaged country has been documented the past few weeks in The Journal.

Bruce Pustovit’s father, who lives in Fargo, is a cousin of Wanda Olsen of Crosby. Through his father’s connection with Dan Olsen in tracing both family’s roots to the Max area, and beyond, to Ukraine, Bruce also has become acquainted with Maryna and her husband, Vlad.

Since Bruce was already Facebook friends with the Pustovits, Bruce messaged Vlad as the conflict started to see how the family was doing.

Vlad told him that he wasn’t allowed to flee, as all men of fighting age are expected to stay and fight, but that Maryna and the kids left with little more than the clothes on their backs and a few bags of necessities.

As of Monday, March 14, the site for their Go Fund Me had recorded more than $7,000 in donations, including several from Journal readers.

Anyone wishing to assist the Pustovit family through the Go Fund Me page can do so here: https://www.gofundme.com/help-our-ukraine-refugee-relative-maryna-pustovit.

(Story by Cecile Wehrman, The Journal)

Potential soybean plant divides community

The sense of division in the community was addressed during the City of Casselton’s regular monthly meeting Monday, March 7.

City Hall was full with residents waiting to hear more about two agenda items, the potential soybean plant and the Master Plan for sidewalks and shared use paths.

In an attempt to understand the soybean plant’s potential impact on the community, four council members visited a similar plant in Mount Vernon, Ind. They reported to the board that the “nutty” smell emanating from the plant was only noticeable while standing directly in front of the building, and the noise impact was minimal (around 50 decibels).

The council members also stated that the only complaints from the community there were about semis, not the plant itself.

When asked why the plant can’t simply be moved further from town, residents were told that if it were moved another 0.5 miles it would become a county matter, and that the city would no longer have any say.

The location was also chosen because of access to rail lines, highways and water.

(Story by Marley Herald, Cass County Reporter)

NAWS to be delayed

Bottineau was to receive NAWS (Northwest Area Water Supply) water in January of this year, but it was delayed due to a couple of complications and was granted a new date of March, but with March having nearly come and gone, NAWS has announced that it will be delayed again until May, if not longer.

There are multiple issues delaying the project. Those issues include the water treatment plant being constructed in Max that is moving forward but has not been completed, inlets that need to finish, and funding for the three million gallon water reservoir that needs to be built on the Cadbury road.

The water from Minot will only be temporary, because the plan for NAWS water is to have the water delivered from Lake Sakakawea to Bottineau.

However, due to some complications and legal issues on NAWS’ end, water from Minot will come to Bottineau for an estimated three years before NAWS water will start to be delivered from Sakakawea.

(Story by Scott Wagar, Bottineau Courant)