Medical training site OK’d

Watford City will soon become a training site for medical students who are looking to practice medicine in rural communities in North Dakota.

According to Dan Kelly, McKenzie County Healthcare Systems CEO, the process of being selected as a Rural Residency Training Site has been long but rewarding.

As part of the training site requirements, Dr. Gary Ramage was selected for a faculty appointment as a clinical instructor for the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of North Dakota Medical School. That appointment will allow MCHS to begin offering a Rural Residency Training Rotation for interested residents in a family practice residency.

“Dr. Ramage has been an unrelenting advocate for the UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences offering residency opportunities to their medical students in small North Dakota communities,” said Kelly.

“He correctly identified that the practice of medicine in Watford City is different than the practice of medicine in Minot or Bismarck.”

Kelly said Ramage believes that if medical students are exposed to rural North Dakota, they are more likely to practice in a rural community.

McKenzie County Farmer

Parshall project launched

Tribal Council Representative Mervin Packineau, Parshall Mayor Kyle Christianson and members of the Northeast Segment Community Board joined to break ground for a new restaurant in Parshall.

The Community Board is building a Taco Johns on the east side of North Dakota Highway 37. Packineau said it is the first part of a community development project for the city.

It also plans to build a walking path and park, which it will donate to the city of Parshall, and expects next year to build three eight-unit apartment buildings on the 100-acre site.

“This should be one of the first Taco Johns franchises on the reservation or in the surrounding area,” Packineau said.

“We’re pretty excited about it. I hope it will serve the community the way we expect it to.”

He said it is a project of the Northeast Segment Community Board and all the revenue will go back to the board to help support the community.”

Mountrail County Record, Parshall

Stanley sports complex on tap

The Stanley City Council and Park Board are moving forward with plans for the Sauber Sports Complex on the city’s west side.

Project supporters Wade Enget, Heath Hetzel and Kyle Hanson attended this month’s Stanley School Board meeting to talk about how the school district might participate in developing the 20-acre site.

The city and park board have agreed to purchase the property, with the Sauber family donating the cost of five acres.

Plans are to develop a baseball field, two softball fields and a little league field. There will also be a concession stand and storage area as well as a parking area.

Supporters said there is sufficient space available to also develop a football field and track. When the group approached the board previously they stated they would be back when they had an idea of what property would remain and how it could be developed in this section. There are roughly 14 acres of potential land available, which would easily accommodate a football field and track.

A community center also is being considered.

Mountrail County Promoter, Stanley

Work starts on Crosby center

Crosby Kids Daycare board members plan to break ground this fall for a facility that will give children more playful space, and give more families a chance to enroll their children in a state-of-the-art daycare facility.

The board will remove a former bowling alley yet this fall in order to begin construction of an 8,600-square-foot building in spring.

“Our ultimate goal is to be debt-free when the final nail is hammered,” daycare board member Traci Lund said.

Economic Development Director KayCee Lindsey said there are more than 140 children ages newborn to 5 in Divide County who potentially require childcare; 89 percent of their parents are in the labor force, according to ChildCare Aware of North Dakota.

The current daycare has a waiting list of approximately 30 children. The new facility will accommodate 96 children almost double the amount in the current daycare.

The board, which has raised more than $800,000 in donations, grants and a pending commitment from the ND Commerce Department, has approximately $200,000 more to raise in order to secure full funding of the facility.

“The community support has been wonderful and amazing,” Lund said.

The Journal, Crosby

Tioga defunds developer

Tioga Economic Development Director Melissa Koch has resigned her position after the city commission decided not to include a full-time salary in its 2016 budget.

She had been part-time since the summer to complete classes that would help her in the position.

Koch was offered a position in the auditor’s office, but declined because the job was for administrative support of the auditor, not economic development, and came with a significant cut in pay.

Chris Norgaard, president of the volunteer Tioga Economic Development Council, said his group will consider other options for economic development work.

“We should explore everything because the city is not willing to support what we’ve been doing. So all options are on the table,” Norgaard said.

Koch was spearheading a number of projects, including the Renaissance Zone, which would grant various property improvement incentives to businesses within the zone.

In the 22 months she was the city’s economic development director, she said she ran into a lot of barriers and lack of support from the city.

It was hard enough trying to bring in business, she said, when oil was at $120 a barrel, but it’s going to be all the more difficult now.

Tioga Tribune