In case you missed it in The Sun the week of March 4, 2024
Mar. 9—The following stories from this week appeared on
and in The Jamestown Sun.
One North Dakota family is hoping for
help in finding their missing sister
.
Breeanna Ward, 27, was reported missing on Feb. 28. She was last seen in Williston, North Dakota, where she lives with her boyfriend. Ward hasn't contacted friends or family despite them reaching out.
Though Ward has posted to Facebook, her sister, Chelsey Francis of Jamestown, believes
another individual is controlling the account
.
Francis and a small search team are heading to Williston this weekend to hang posters and find answers.
NextEra Energy Resources Development has
accepted loan terms
under the state's Clean Sustainable Energy Authority Fertilizer Development Loan Program, the North Dakota Industrial Commission announced Monday, March 4.
Prairie Horizon Energy Solutions has declined the loan terms but still plans to proceed with its plant near Dickinson.
The fertilizer loan was authorized by House Bill 1546 during the November 2023 special session, which required the production of hydrogen "by the electrolysis of water" and directed the CSEA to forgive the loan "upon completion of construction of the fertilizer production facility."
At its Jan. 24 meeting, the Industrial Commission approved a Clean Sustainable Energy Authority recommendation to authorize $50 million in loan funding to NextEra and $75 million to Prairie Horizon for fertilizer production facilities in Stutsman and Stark counties, respectively. The Clean Sustainable Energy Authority recommendation also provided for an applicant to receive the full $125 million if the other applicant were to decline funding.
The Jamestown City Council approved in a 3-0 vote
establishing a committee of nonelected members
to review the memorandum of agreement with Stutsman County on providing joint library services.
Councilmen Dan Buchanan and Brian Kamlitz were not present at the meeting on Monday, March 4.
The committee would include five to seven members who are not elected officials.
" ... (the) intent here is not for this committee to look at funding, not to look at library operations, not to look at where should the library go next but only the document itself and is the document in the proper format because this has been copied since 2005," Mayor Dwaine Heinrich said. "Is there anything that's changed that's out of sync with current state law, so on and so forth or with whatever rules the state library has in place."
Otter Tail Power Co. is working on securing land rights for a regional electric transmission line between Jamestown and Ellendale, a company official said.
The Jamestown to Ellendale 345 kV transmission line project consists of five components, said Todd Langston, project manager for Otter Tail Power Co. He said the project includes upgrades to four substations, including one located north of Jamestown along N.D. Highway 20 and another west of Ellendale, North Dakota. The other component is the construction of about 90 miles of transmission line from Jamestown to Ellendale.
Langston presented
information about the project
at the Stutsman County Commission meeting on Tuesday, March 5.
Otter Tail Power is working with Montana-Dakota Utilities at the request of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator. The Midcontinent Independent System Operator manages the power grid for a 15-state area and parts of the province of Manitoba. The project is part of Midcontinent Independent System Operator's Longe-Range transmission planning initiative to improve the power grid.
Plans call for constructing about 90 miles of transmission line connecting the Otter Tail substation north of Jamestown along N.D. Highway 20 to the Montana-Dakota substation near Ellendale. The line will have a 345-kilovolt capacity.
Construction on the project could start in 2025 or 2026 depending on when the route permit is approved.
Food pantries in Jamestown had
4,900 visits in 2023
, according to Zoe Absey, community initiatives manager for Great Plains Food Bank.
Absey said the Great Plains Food Bank served 777 families through its mobile food pantry in Jamestown last year. She said the food insecurity rate is 7.8% in Stutsman County.
Across the state, the Great Plains Food Bank served about 156,500 individuals through its food pantries, meal sites and programs.
"That's 1 in 5 people in the state," Absey said. She said about 13 million pounds of food went through Great Plains Food Bank's warehouse in Fargo.
The Great Plains Food Bank held a meeting in Jamestown with 21 community members who represent different organizations and entities on Thursday, Feb. 29, to discuss food access, opportunities and barriers. The community members divided into groups and answered questions about food access in Jamestown and Stutsman County.
Barriers to food access include a lack of cooking skills and where to find resources to get food, community leaders said.
School board approves child care proposal
The Jamestown Public School Board unanimously approved on Monday, March 5,
adding child care programming and services
at the James Valley Career and Technology Center.
The Jamestown Public School District will finalize architectural drawings and issue a request for bids later this month, according to a draft timeline for the child care center. The projected start of demolition and construction is July 1.
The child care program could begin in the 2025-26 school year.
Under the proposal
, the Jamestown Public School District's child care program would serve existing staff during the school year for regular and drop-in child care services. Jointly with an expanded family and consumer science program, the James Valley Career and Technology Center would operate the child care facility for district staff, Superintendent Rob Lech wrote in a memo to the school board.
