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President’s message: Aspirations into action

The task before me is to share my recommendations regarding the City of Minot 2022 Proposed Annual Budget. I don’t view this as a stand alone opinion, but rather a culmination of the work that we have done collectively over the past few months. Under the leadership of our city manager, input from all of our department heads and goals that we developed during our council retreat, we have a proposed budget before us. As we delve into the budget process, it is important for all of us to revisit our newly penned Magic City Aspirations. – Dynamic and Prosperous: Minot is a thriving ...

Minot well on its way to reaching 50,000

When the details of the 2020 Census were recently released, we found out that Minot did not reach the 50,000 level we had hoped to achieve. How should we interpret that data? I’m guessing it depends on who you ask. Scenario 1: We have failed in our attempt to reach 50,000 in population. Minot will never be a big city, and this Census proves that belief. We remain just a big small town, and we won’t be able to attract significantly more residents or businesses in the future. During a decade with an energy boom that helped drive the population of North Dakota from 672,591 in 2010 to ...

North Dakota, a state comes of age

When General Custer left North Dakota he told us not to do anything until he came back. We have done our best to respect his instructions. It is true that he had political ambitions. After all, General Grant got two terms for being a war hero. Custer decided to run as a Democrat which would have been worse than going to the Little Big Horn. Even though he messed up in Montana, we still think of him as a North Dakota hero because he is the best we could get. Not in the Civil War He was a genuine hero in the Civil War. Minnesota had a unit in the Civil War but North Dakota was ...

Time for transparency about ND history

If you haven’t noticed, the country is having a big rhubarb over whether or not we ought to come clean about our history involving African-Americans. This debate has created a lot of soul-searching in the United States. It just seems to be the time to be transparent about that part of North Dakota history that has been swept under the rug by historians, political leaders, pioneers, editors, legislators and all others not included in the foregoing groups. When we were founded no one was actually looking for us. Pierre de la Verendrye came upon us in 1738 while looking for a route to ...

2022 budget provides unique challenges

Crafting a budget for the City of Minot is a time-consuming and detailed process that begins in earnest in early spring, and culminates in City Council approval in late September. City Manager Harold Stewart presented a preliminary 2022 budget of $175.95 million to City Council members on Aug. 2. At Monday’s regular meeting, City Council members will have the opportunity to ask questions and seek more details about the budget from City department heads. The Council meeting scheduled for Sept. 7 includes a public hearing where members of the public can appear before the Council to ...

Legislature will survive term limits

Term limits will not greatly impact the state Legislature if the constitutional provision being proposed by initiative petition is approved by the voters in 2022. Called “ultraconservative” by the media, the 42-member petitioning committee must expect some policy changes in North Dakota as a reward for their efforts. What those policies may be in an already conservative state have not been disclosed. Unless the public at large is hurting, change is difficult, if not impossible, to achieve. The only time change happened swiftly in North Dakota was when farmers revolted 100 years ...