701 Rundown: October 2, 2023

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

Six escape uninjured after fire destroys rural home

A fire that had engulfed an attached garage spread and destroyed a rural home near Hillsboro late Friday, Sept. 15.

Traill County Sheriff Steve Hunt said firefighters arrived at the home of Brittany and Alex Thompson at 296 159th Ave S.E. at around 10:30 p.m. to find the attached garage and the roof of the home engulfed by flames.

Six adults and three children were able to exit the house safely and without injury, Hunt said in a press release.

Firefighters from Hillsboro, Grandin, Hunter and Mayville, as well as several ambulance services, responded to the blaze.

The American Red Cross provided assistance to the Thompson family.

The cause of the fire is under investigation by the North Dakota State Fire Marshal and the Traill County Sheriff’s Office, said Hunt.

(Story by Cole Short, Hillsboro Banner)

Deputy retention issue for sheriff’s office

The Foster County Commission learned at their meeting last week of a dilemma happening all across the country; fewer and fewer people are signing up to be in law enforcement.

During the meeting held on Tuesday, September 19, Foster County Sheriff Justin Johnson said, “No one wants to be a cop anymore.”

“Departments everywhere are experiencing this,” said Johnson.

He attended the meeting to ask the commission if he could increase wages for starting deputies and his sergeant Nathan Kruse.

He asked to increase Kruse’s wage by $1 per hour plus 3 percent and set the starting deputy wage at $55,000.

Johnson told the board that the schedule he and Kruse are working now will be “the death of them.”

The board agreed to the increase in wages.

Johnson told the board that this increase would bring the wages up closer to what other counties the size of Foster County are offering.

(Story by Leasa A. Lura, The Foster County Independent)

ND gas production sets record in July

North Dakota’s natural gas production set a new all-time high in July, averaging nearly 3.29 billion cubic feet per day.

The N.D. Department of Mineral Resources released the July oil and gas production numbers in its monthly press conference Thursday.

“July was a really good month for the oil and gas industry,” said Lynn Helms, the state mineral resources director. “Saw a 1 percent increase in oil production and a 1 percent increase in natural gas production.”

Natural gas production for the month reaches 101.9 billion cubic feet. The average daily production of 3,289,759,000 cubic feet was an increase from 3,247,513,000 in June.

“Pretty historic,” Helms said. “The state of North Dakota has never before produced over a hundred billion cubic feet of natural gas in a month.”

Gas capture also set a new all-time high at 96 percent, up from 94 percent in June.

Oil production climbed from 1.16 million barrels a day in June to 1.18 million barrels a day in July, reaching that mark for the first time in two-and-a-half years, said Helms.

“It has been a long haul,” Helms said. “Goes back to really early COVID times, December of ‘20, and we were on the way down at that point.”

(Story by Jody Michael, The Journal)

Thompson pleads guilty to reckless endangerment

In what has been a grueling 11 months for everyone involved in the tragic vehicle death of Jason Schatzke, of Wheatland, it all came to a head on Friday, Sept. 15.

Judge Kari Agotness in Northeast District Court accepted a plea agreement in the case which charged Chris Thompson, 47, of Grafton, with reckless endangerment, a Class A misdemeanor.

Schatzke’s wife, Tanya, 47, was present for the hearing via Zoom along with an unidentified male, both seemed upset by the plea agreement.

It’s been a twisted turn of events since Thompson’s initial appearance on Dec. 13, when he was looking at a Class A felony charge for negligent homicide after Schatzke died following a car crash.

Schatzke was the passenger in a car driven by Thompson, who was intoxicated at the time of the accident.

However, the prosecuting attorney was all but forced to drop the felony charge after a coroner ruled the cause of Schatzke’s death was cardiac dysrhythmia in the context of hypertensive cardiomegaly and acute ethanol intoxication and that the crash did not cause his death.

Thompson was sentenced to 360 days with 326 days suspended, and was given credit for time already served for the remaining 34 days. He’s required to be on a 24/7 sobriety program for a year, which he was also given credit for per his bail terms.

He was sentenced to 18 months supervised probation and fined $3,530, of which $2,705 is restitution.

Judge Agotness said the following just before concluding the hearing.

“To those of you who feel like this court has not done justice today, under the circumstance, you may be correct.”

(Story by Todd Morgan, The Walsh County Record)

Merrell sentenced in crude theft

On September 14, Darrell “Woody” Merrell, one of the four men charged in the theft of $2.4 million of crude oil from Crestwood in 2022, pleaded guilty to a Class A felony of conspiracy to commit theft exceeding $50,000.

The charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and $20,000 fine. He also pleaded guilty to to a Class C felony charge of trafficking in stolen property, which has a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

According to court records, Merrell and three other individuals were charged in connection to the ongoing theft, or “skimming,” of crude oil in 2022.

Merrell was sentenced to serve one year in jail, with 19 years suspended, for the theft. He will be serving one year concurrently for dealing stolen property after 4 years were suspended on that charge.

Additionally, he has been ordered to pay Crestwood $200,000 in restitution and have two years of supervised probation after his release.

(Story by Kristen Jones, McKenzie County Farmer)