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| February 26, 2009 Golden Valley News |  |
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Sports .................. Page 2
Opinion ................ Page 3
Classifieds ............ Page 4
Legal notices ......... Page 6
Comics ................. Page 7
Sports action, page 2
Capitol notebook
Greetings from your state
Legislature as we reach
crossover and are taking a
short break from heating and
voting on legislation. By the
time you read this we will have
started the second half of the
session with hearings on bills
that made it through their
respective chambers.
Some of the more interest-
ing bills included allowing
students to have guns in their
college dorm room and build-
ing a new veterans home in
Lisbon. I generally support
the gun bills but this came
down to safety of other stu-
dents. It's true that to have the
gun in the first place they must
have a concealed license per-
mit, but it is also true that
dorm rooms are not well pro-
tected, that more than one stu-
dent lives in one and that
young people are emotional
and can make mistakes. Add
in alcohol and you could get a
deadly combination.
Full story on page 3.
• Conclusion of Region 7
High School Girls Basketball
Tournament, Thursday, Feb. 26,
Knights of Columbus Activities
Center, Dickinson, TBA.
• Public meeting regarding
Theodore Roosevelt National
Park's draft elk management
plan, 2-5:30 p.m., Saturday, Feb.
28, Medora Community Center.
• District 13 High School
Boys Basketball Tournament,
Feb. 27-28, March 2-3, at
Dickinson State University,
TBA.
• Girls Class B High School
State Tournament, March 5-7,
Grand Forks, TBA.
• Billings County
Commission monthly meeting,
courthouse, 9 a.m., Wednesday,
March 4.
• Golden Valley County
Commission monthly meeting,
courthouse, 9 a.m., Thursday,
March 5.
• Region 7 High School Boys
Basketball Tournament, March
9-10 and 12, Knights of
Columbus Activities Center,
Dickinson, TBA.
State wrestling action
Above: Devin Steele wrestled his way to a seventh place finish. Below: Scorpio Fields
entered the tournament unranked but finished in third place, (Photos by Jason Nordmark)
Agency pushes for
sixth alternative
By Richard Volesky
Editor/Reporter
MEDORA - Gov. John Hoeven
and the N.D. Game and Fish
Department (NDG&F) continue to
push for a sixth alternative in any
upcoming effort to reduce the num-
ber of elk in Theodore Roosevelt
National Park.
In December, the National Park
Service (NPS) released its draft Elk
Management Plan and
Environmental Impact Statement,
which listed five alternatives for
addressing the park's elk popula-
tion. The herd is estimated at 900
animals.
One of the Park Service's alter-
natives involves volunteer sharp-
shooters, who would help thin the
herd. However, they would not be
hunting for the elk, or keeping the
meat from the animals. Federal law
does not allow hunting within park
boundaries, therefore such is not
being considered among the NPS
alternatives.
The NDG&F plan would allow
"certified volunteer sharpshooters"
to remove elk from the park, and
citizens who volunteer considerable
time and expense to help the
remove elk would keep a portion of
the meat.
"We have always believed that
the elk are a resource of the state
and therefore state citizens should
be directly involved in the popula-
tion management process inside
park boundaries," Game and Fish
Director Terry Steinwand said in a
prepared statement. "We have
reviewed the EIS and do not sup-
port lany of the options the Park
Service is now considering because
there is no alternative that allows
qualified people a chance to partici-
pate and keep a portion of the elk
meat."
Hoeven has personally dis-
"We have always I
believed that the I
elk are a res°urce [ I
of the state and l
therefore state citi-
zens should be
directly involved in
the - population
management
process inside
park boundaries."
Terry Steinwand
Game and
FishDirector
cussed the issue on several occa-
sions with the U.S. Department of
Interior in Washington D.C., in an
effort to allow North Dakota
hunters to participate, according to
the NDG&F.
The Game and Fish Department
views the Park Service alternatives
as too expensive, too complex and
not sustainable over time,
Steinwand said. "We believe the
EIS should be amended to allow for
the Game and Fish alternative," he
added. He said they support con-
gressional ation to change the law
or agency policy so the NDG&F
alternative can be included.
Recently, both the North Dakota
Senate and House of
Representatives passed a resolution
supporting the alternative prOmoted
by Hoeven and developed by the
NDG&F.
A meeting regarding the draft
plan is scheduled for Saturday, Feb.
Agency
(Continued on Page 8)
Fire hall plans are
being rewritten
By Richard Volesky
Editor/Reporter
Work toward a new fire hall in
Beach seems to be back on track.
Earlier this month, the Beach
City Council returned the three bids
it had received for the project
because council members weren't
happy with the designs. Council
members had said the problem was
that the plans didn't follow the
council's wishes and that the build-
ing was over designed without con-
sidering practical cost constraints.
Problems included specifications
for an electrical panel that was
oversized beyond what is needed,
and there were questions about
bonding requirements, among other
issues.
Since the council members did-
n't agree with the plans on which
the bids were based, they decided it
would be better to not open the bids.
The bids were returned to the bid-
ders.
An architect with the firm of
Kadrmas, Lee & Jackson has been
designing the building.
City Auditor Kim Nunberg, in a
recent report to the council, said she
has since spoken with a KLJ man-
ager about why the building's spec-
Plans
(Continued on Page 8)
[ • cog ized fo Winter taking!ts toll on wildlife
.()Wl lan re n r North DakotaGame i reporting 75 percent fewer birds
Department biologists indicate the than they did in the beginning of
helping start national event
By Richard Volesky
Editor/Reporter
SENTINEL BUTTE A
Sentinel Butte man helped mark
the recent Silver Anniversary of
the National Cowboy Poetry
Gathering in Elko, Nev.
Rancher and cowboy poet Bill
Lowman is among the event's
founders. In 1985, folklorists from
around the western states put
together, after several years of
research and groundwork, the first-
ever gathering.
"They sought to convene on the
last week of January in the most
remote cowboy country on the
atlas to ensure that only the true
working cowboys and cowgirls
would attend," said Lowman.
Elko, Nev., was chosen. The
Western Folklife Center was then
created at Salt Lake City by Hal
Cannon and later moved to several
Elko locations before finding a
permanent home in downtown
Elko, thanks to Western Folklife
Center board member George
Gund's gift of the three-story
Pioneer Hotel, according to
Lowman.
Lowman
(Continued on Page 8)
final 4-6 weeks of winter will be
critical to the health of the state's
wildlife.
"Depending on how the rest of
the winter plays out, the cumulative
impact could be significant," said
Randy Kreil, wildlife chief.
Reports of pheasant losses con-
tinue, especially after the statewide
rain experienced in early February.
"Reports across the state vary from
birds doing okay to areas with con-
siderable losses," said Stan Kohn,
upland game bird supervisor. "In
some instances, landowners are
winter."
The Game and Fish Department
receives phone calls on a regular
basis from hunters inquiring about
what this winter will mean in terms
of pheasant hunting opportunities
next fall.
"We've even had people ask if
we are going to lower the bag
limit," Kreil said. "At this point it is
far too early to make any such pre-
dictions. We will closely monitor
the results of the spring pheasant
Wildlife
(Continued on Page 8)
• First State Bank"
Beach 872-4444 • Golva 872-3656
Medora 623-5000
24 hr. ATM in Beach & Medora lobby
Medora Hours: 9 a.rn. to 4 p.m
lk Member FDIC •
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