701 Rundown: Dec. 12, 2022

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

Sports co-op presents new contract to parents after fall confrontations

Parents and guardians of athletes competing with the North Prairie sports cooperative have been handed contracts prior to winter activities.

Rolla high school’s principal and athletic director, Randy Loing, said, “This is not a new policy. It’s simply an amendment to the current athletics handbook.”

The new contract sets out requirements for communication between parents and coaches, following a number of on-court altercations that got out of hand during fall athletics.

The most recent took place in October, after which administrators, athletic directors and school board members asked Loing to come up with a contract that creates consequences for parents who don’t abide by its rules.

Failure to abide by the new contract comes with three different consequences, the harshest among them being a season-long ban from attending events.

“I spoke with many (athletic directors) about this and pretty much everyone has parents sign some kind of agreement,” Loing said. “Other schools in our county have parents agreements that must be signed and some have very strict consequences.”

(Story by Jason Nordmark, Turtle Mountain Star)

Towner County Ambulance Service celebrates 50 years

The Towner County Ambulance Service reached a major milestone in 2022: they’ve officially been in existence for 50 years, and there’s talk of a 50th anniversary banquet to take place early in 2023.

In preparation for the event, the Towner County Ambulance Service is on the lookout for memorabilia, history and stories from the 50 years, to help document the long history of the service. The public and alumni of the ambulance service are invited to share memories.

The Towner County Ambulance Service first began taking calls in 1972, but because the ambulance they had ordered hadn’t yet arrived, the first calls were responded to in the station wagon of Charlie Dix.

Gary Allen, a long-time member of the Towner County Ambulance Service, said the first ambulance was a Chevy Suburban that “drove like a lumber wagon. And nobody got better riding in that ambulance!”

Andrew Toney, a recently-hired field specialist paramedic, explained that the ambulance service started with one ambulance and people who wanted to help their neighbors in times of trouble.

Now, Toney says, “We have a critical care paramedic, a highly seasoned paramedic and an RN on staff, along with the finest EMTs and emergency vehicle operators in North Dakota.”

(Story by Brenda Halverson, Towner County Record Herald)

State sets record for gas production

As it has in recent months, oil production in North Dakota has increased yet again.

“This is really good news from September production. For the first time since March of this year we are back at about 1.1 million barrels per day,” said Lynn Helms, director of the N.D. Department of Mineral Resources.

The number of inactive wells decreased from 1,714 in August, to 1,447 in September. In total, there was an all-time high 17,759 actively producing wells in the state.

McKenzie County continues to lead the state in active wells with 5,336, producing 35.68 percent of the state’s oil.

Throughout the state, 33,581,38 barrels of crude oil were produced, equating to 1,119,379 barrels per day.

Of those, 96 percent came from Bakken and Three Forks. McKenzie County produced 11,955,486 barrels for the month of September.

Because crude oil inventories in the U.S. and around the world are low, reasonably high crude oil prices should be expected for the foreseeable future.

(Story by Kristen Jones, McKenzie County Farmer)

Lottery defendants scheduled for trial

Three defendants, all charged after lottery tickets were allegedly stolen from Northdale Oil in Park River, N.D., waived their preliminary hearings and have been formally arraigned in Northeast District Court. All three entered not guilty pleas.

35-year-old Gene William Irelan, 53-year-old Jodi Lynne Goulet and 59-year-old Greg Anthony Olson, all of Park River, have been charged with felonies for their alleged involvement in a stolen lottery ticket scheme while each were employed at Northdale Oil.

The criminal complaint filed against them alleges that between January 2020 and January 2021, Ireland and Goulet stole $90,435 worth of lottery tickets, and collected the prize money from those tickets worth $28,199, as well as free play games worth $6,019.

Olson’s alleged role in the scheme was to cash the tickets.

All three defendants have backup jury trial dates scheduled for March 15-17, and Northeast District Judge Barb Whelan has ordered the three individuals stand trial together should the case end up going to trial.

(Story by Todd Morgan, The Walsh County Record)

Bottineau’s movie theater opens under new ownership

The Botno Theater, with new owners Riley and Sara Kleven, held its opening night on Nov. 18, and a good number of people attended throughout the first weekend.

Sara Kleven, a dentist at Oak Creek Dental just a few buildings down from the theater, said she loves rural theaters, and so she and her husband purchased the Botno Theater a few months back.

“Sara is from a small town in Nebraska and when we moved to Bottineau she fell in love with the theater,” said Riley. “Sara always thought that it would be nice to purchase the theater, fix it up and provide a theater in the Bottineau area.

This past year we felt it was the right time and purchased it.”

Now, the Botno Theater is undergoing a number of changes as the Klevens modernize and improve the overall theater experience.

The digital projector and sound system will primarily stay the same with only a few minor changes to the way it operates.

Riley, who’s overseeing the updates taking place in the theater, said, “We will be working on updating the sound here this week. We are also working on going to a satellite system so the movie studios can send us films remotely through our computer system.”

Riley added that they brought in a coke machine, snack boxes, nachos, apples, chocolate milk, etc. for customers to enjoy.

(Story by Scott Wagar, Bottineau Courant)