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Briefly

Area airports awarded grants

Area airports are among those that will receive more than $4.1 million in federal grant funding that was recently announced.

Area airports are in Rolla, Cando and Harvey.

The Rolla Municipal Airport will receive $1.2 million to rehabilitate the existing apron, runway and taxiway. The Cando Municipal Airport will receive $486,000 to construct a 9,500-square-foot hangar. The Harvey Municipal Airport will receive $45,795 to rehabilitate the existing apron, runway, and taxiway.

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Landowner shuts hiking access to Medicine Hole

WILLISTON (AP) – A landowner is closing off public hiking access to Medicine Hole in the Killdeer Mountains.

Landowner Brian Benz has put up barbed wire and “no trespassing” signs around his property.

Benz is upset that the National Park Service commissioned a North Dakota State University historian to study the 1864 Killdeer Mountain Battle site without first consulting landowners. Benz says he is tired of people who have never talked to him making decisions about his property.

Medicine Hole overlooks the site of the Killdeer Mountain Battle.

Arnie Skanchenko is another landowner in the area. He says he did not join Benz and other landowners in closing off the area to the public because that’s “picking on the wrong people.”

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Rain, wind hampers crop spraying

FARGO(AP) – The spring planting season in North Dakota has mostly wrapped up, but rain is hampering farmers who are trying to spray for weeds.

The Agriculture Department says in its weekly crop report that 1-3 inches of rain was reported in the eastern and southern parts of the state over the past week.

The moisture and windy conditions affected crop spraying, but the rain has been good for soil moisture. Topsoil moisture supplies statewide are rated 97 percent adequate to surplus, and subsoil moisture supplies are 99 percent in those two categories.

Stockwater supplies also are rated 99 percent adequate to surplus.

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Auto dealer faces 61 charges

JAMESTOWN (AP) – A Jamestown auto dealer faces 61 misdemeanor charges for alleged improper contracts and vehicle loans.

Forty-four-year-old Brian Lee Hanson with Budget Auto Sales and Service could face more than 33 years in prison if convicted on all counts. He declined comment to The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Police Sgt. Thomas Nagel tells KQDJ radio that Hanson is accused of not following state and federal contract requirements, and of charging extremely high interest rates.

Briefly

Towner woman dies in crash

Alice Marie Rosencrans, 83, Towner, died in a rear-end collision on U.S. Highway 2 about two miles east of Towner Tuesday just after 1 p.m.

According to the North Dakota Highway Patrol, a 2012 Kenworth T800 tractor-trailer driven by Harold R. Porch II, 54, Moore, Okla., was westbound on the highway when it crashed into the rear of a 2003 Chrysler PT Cruiser driven by Rosencrans. A fire engulfed both vehicles following the collision but Porch was able to exit his vehicle without injury. Rosencrans remained in her vehicle throughout the fire.

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Bill would support language programs

The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on Wednesday held a hearing on legislation co-sponsored by Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., that would help Native American children learn their native languages to make sure those languages continue to survive, while also boosting academic performance among students.

Heitkamp’s Native Language Immersion Student Achievement Act would help protect Native languages by establishing a grant program to support Native language immersion instruction from pre-kindergarten through college.

In North Dakota, programs that would benefit from such grants include the Wakanheza oti (Sacred Children’s Place) at Spirit Lake Reservation, Tiny Turtles preschool at the Turtle Mountain Reservation and Lakhol iyapi Hohpi (Lakota Language Nest) at Standing Rock Reservation,

In March, identical legislation was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives.

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Lawmaker: Oil tax savings unlikely to be tapped

BISMARCK (AP) – The chairman of committee in charge of North Dakota’s oil tax savings account says it’s unlikely lawmakers will tap into the fund when its earnings first become available.

Rep. Keith Kempenich says there is no need to access the fund if money is available from other sources.

The Legacy Fund gets 30 percent of the state’s oil tax collections. The money can’t be touched before 2017 and it would still take a two-thirds vote of the Legislature for the state to dip into the fund.

The fund’s balance is more than $2 billion at present.

Kempenich said he doesn’t “think there’s going to be a will to appropriate it.”

North Dakota voters approved the fund in 2010.

Briefly

Man dies in corn bin accident

Corneilius Johannes Du Plessis, 27, from South Africa, was pronounced dead at the scene of a corn bin accident by the McLean County Coroner Ben Gehring Monday morning.

The 911 call reporting the incident came in just after 10:15 a.m. The incident occurred at a farm on U.S. Highway 83 in Wilton, about seven miles south of Washburn.

McLean County Sheriff Don Charging said in a statement that an autopsy will be conducted by the state medical examiner’s office.

Flint McColgan

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Update on shooting incident

The Minot Police Department has disclosed some additional information on an incident where a 44-year-old woman was shot Sunday in Minot.

When police pulled over a speeding vehicle while it was en route to Trinity Hospital in Minot they arrested the 31-year-old driver, Robert Putney Jr., for driving under the influence and for simple assault – domestic violence, both Class B misdemeanors.

He pled guilty to both charges during his initial appearance in court Monday and he was sentenced to 30 days in the Ward County Jail.

The shooting of the 44-year-old female passenger of the vehicle remains under investigation.

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Spills reported in Marmarth, Ray areas

The North Dakota Department of Health reported two recent spills in North Dakota, one near Marmarth and another in the Ray area.

A 2,000-barrel spill of water used for enhanced oil recovery from a flow line owned by Denbury Onshore occurred about eight miles southwest of Marmarth in Slope County.

The water is higher in dissolved solids and minerals than fresh water. The spill occurred as a result of a leak in the flow line. Most of the water has soaked into the soil and a dike will be constructed to control runoff. The Health Department is working on an initial site assessment.

On June 12, a spill of 20 barrels of crude oil, produced water and fresh water was reported 12 miles south of Ray in Williams County as a result of a valve assembly failure. The site is owned by Kodiak Oil & Gas. The spill impacted a dry intermittent stream. Free liquid has been recovered and sorbent booms are in place in the stream bed. Oil and Gas Division, and Health Department inspectors have been on scene.

The Health Department will work with the companies on remediation plans for both spills.

Briefly

Woman knocks over lightpost

Breanna Horn, 19, Minot, was cited for care required in operation of a motor vehicle when she struck and downed a lightpost in Minot after leaving the roadway while traveling westbound in the 900 block of Valley Street Tuesday just after 6:30 p.m.

Horn suffered minor injuries in the crash but did not require transport to the hospital.

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Tioga breaks ground on clinic

TIOGA Tioga Medical Center, along with USDA Rural Development broke ground Tuesday on a new clinic.

“With a growing workforce and aging population, there is a greater demand for medical services,” said Jasper Schneider, USDA Rural Development state director. “This project doubles the size of the current clinic, offering ample space to provide first-rate care in the oil patch.”

The medical campus, which serves Divide, Williams, Burke and Mountrail counties, has seen a steady increase of patients from 6,000 in 2010 to over 24,000 today. The new 15,000 square-foot clinic, slated to be finished in 2015, will be able to better accommodate the dramatic increase of patients. The facility will be connected to the existing hospital in Tioga.

Through the Community Facilities program, USDA committed up to a $6.5 million direct loan and a $1.5 million loan guarantee through the Bank of Tioga. Other financing will come from the Bank of North Dakota and Tioga Medical Center.

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Group receives $2 million loan

WATFORD CITY A housing development in Watford City will receive a $2 million federal loan to construct a daycare facility for more than 200 children, North Dakota’s congressional delegation announced Tuesday.

U.S. Department of Agriculture rural utilities program provides zero-interest loans and grants to electric utilities which then lend the funds to local businesses for projects to create and retain employment in rural areas.

The $300,000 loan will be passed through Reservation Telephone Cooperative of Parshall to Wolf Run Village Inc. in Watford City to construct a daycare facility for 200 children ages 6 weeks to 12 years.

Last month, KinderKidz Learning Center in Dickinson received a similar loan from USDA in the amount of $300,000 to expand its existing child daycare facility.

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Bismarck airport to receive grant

BISMARCK (AP) – The Bismarck Municipal Airport will receive a $472,000 federal grant to rehabilitate one of its runways.

The Federal Aviation Administration awarded the grant.

The airport has seen an increase in passenger boarding of about 70 percent during the last decade.

Briefly

Brine spill occurs in Bottineau County

About 1,000 barrels of salt brine were released at an injection well site in Bottineau County, with abut 100 barrels escaping the site into a neighboring wetland, North Dakota Department of Health officials said Friday.

The spill occurred as a result of a failed pipe fitting. The injection well is owned by Denbury Onshore.

A temporary berm was constructed to prevent additional fluid from reaching the wetland. About 700 barrels of brine have been recovered.

Inspectors from the state Health Department and Oil and Gas Division have been on location. Samples have been collected by Health Department officials for testing, according to Kris Roberts, Environmental Response team leader with the Health Department’s Environmental Health Section. Further assessment and remediation activities will be coordinated between the state and the owners of the site.

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No license needed to fish in N.D. this weekend

BISMARCK (AP) – Don’t have a North Dakota fishing license? Not a problem, at least not this weekend.

The state Game and Fish Department says anglers can fish for free on Saturday and Sunday. The agency holds one such weekend every year.

-While no fishing license is required, all other regulations still apply.

Suspect in custody after armed robbery

WAHPETON (AP) – A suspect is in custody in the armed robbery of a Wahpeton gas station.

Police in Moorhead, Minnesota, on Thursday night arrested a 31-year-old man who they say confessed to robbing the Tesoro station in Wahpeton early that day. Investigators say the man gave them a detailed account of the robbery in which a man with a pistol demanded money from the cash register and fled with between $200 and $250 in cash.

The man was arrested at a Moorhead motel on an armed robbery charge. Authorities say they also recovered evidence tying the man to the robbery.

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Williston settles lawsuit filed by ad agency

WILLISTON (AP) – The northwestern North Dakota city of Williston has settled a lawsuit filed by a Florida-based advertising agency over signs in the city.

The City Commission in August 2013 denied sign applications from Great Plains Outdoor Advertising, saying the signs did not conform with city guidelines. Great Plains then sued in state district court.

The settlement agreement reached through mediation includes undisclosed compensation and also gives Great Plains the right to put up signs at six sites in the city. Mayor Ward Koeser signed the agreement Wednesday.

Briefly

Police investigate hit-and-run

Police are looking for a vehicle that allegedly struck a 16-year-old boy on a bike last Wednesday and then fled the scene of the accident.

According to a press release issued by the Minot Police Department, the accident happened at 3:10 p.m. May 28 at the intersection of Main Street and Third Avenue South. Shortly after school let out, the boy was riding his bike in the area of Wells Fargo bank. He attempted to cross the street at the cross walk and was struck by a vehicle described as a four-door gray or silver Toyota, possibly a Camry. The boy was knocked to the ground and sustained minor injuries to his leg and ankle. The driver is described as a heavy set white male with a “Justin Bieber” style hair cut. The victim stated the driver of the striking vehicle did not stop to speak with him and fled the area after the crash. Call the police department at 852-0111 with any information.

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Two arrested for alleged burglary

Two Minot men were arrested Monday at around 11 p.m. while allegedly as close to in the act of burglary as you can be without items in your hands, the Minot Police Department said.

Someone reported a burglary in process at North Broadway Pawn and Exchange at 501 N. Broadway and when officers arrived they say that James Skinner, 18, and Clayton Shubert, 19, were standing in front of the store and began to flee before being apprehended.

Both were charged with burglary, a Class B felony, and are being held in the Ward County Jail.

Flint McColgan

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Minot man arrested for drugs

A 19-year-old Minot man was arrested early Sunday morning on drug charges.

Vaughn W. Brock, 19, was stopped by a Minot police officer at 1 a.m. Sunday on suspicion of driving with no headlights or tail lights while traveling westbound on 20th Avenue Northwest, according to a press release. Brock was allegedly found to be in possession of several individually wrapped bags of marijuana. According to the release, the investigation revealed that the bags were allegedly intended for sale. The bags of marijuana and a separate container with a small amount of marijuana were seized as evidence. Additionally, a digital scale with marijuana residue was allegedly found in the car.

Brock was placed under arrest for possession of marijuana with intent to deliver, a Class B felony; possession of marijuana as operator of motor vehicle, a Class A misdemeanor; possession of marijuana paraphernalia, a class A misdemeanor, and an outstanding warrant through Minot Municipal Court for failure to comply with a court order. Brock was taken to the Ward County Jail.

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