Community

Whether your family celebrates Thanksgiving with corn casserole, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole or good old mac-and-cheese casserole, there is a farmer to thank for the food.

More than 60 years after Capt. William Richardson’s F-106 aircraft crashed into the frozen prairie near Flasher in 1963, a memorial saluting his sacrifice now stands alongside Highway 31 in Grant County.

Richardson’s daughter, who was 2 years old when her father died, tearfully attended the memorial’s dedication, as a 21-gun salute sounded into the pristine sky and a P-51 Mustang roared overhead in a flyover.

The soldier’s ultimate sacrifice has been honored in a warm embrace by the state, even though he was not a native son.
 

What can other towns learn from Bowdon and its meat processing cooperative?

“It gets back to the basics of the game, the baseball analogy: Too many are shooting for the grand slam when they could be really focusing on these types of base hits,” says Ellen Huber, rural development services director for the North Dakota Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives (NDAREC). “Big things get all the attention, but this is an important incremental small business step a community was known for and made sure they could continue to stake their claim.”

Service and sacrifice are two things Mike Steier understands well.

After graduating from New England High School, Steier volunteered in 2005 for a yearlong deployment to Iraq. Last year, he retired from the N.D. National Guard after 20 years of service.

After returning from Iraq and working as a farmhand, Steier went to Bismarck State College on the GI Bill and obtained his electrical lineworker degree. Shortly after, he was hired by Roughrider Electric Cooperative in Dickinson, and he’s worked for the co-op ever since.

You could drive from Watford City to New York City and the distance would be roughly the equivalent of the miles of roads maintained by McKenzie County in the western North Dakota oil patch.

“It’s right around 1,500 to 1,800 miles of roads with gravel and pavement,” says McKenzie County Road Superintendent Layton Northrop.

Howdy Lawlar has driven most of them.

Farming in his tractor or feeding his registered Black Angus cattle.

Driving to county commission meetings as chairman or responding to calls as a volunteer fireman.

A gardener, quilter and fourth-generation McKenzie County resident living on her grandparents’ homestead. A mom and trusted local real estate agent. A U.S. Air Force veteran and Montana transplant turned McKenzie County resident. A proud new dad and long-suffering Minnesota Vikings fan.

What do they all have in common? They are among the more than 3,000 North Dakotans who run North Dakota elections. And, they’re your neighbors.

Voting and elections provide a vehicle for citizens to change laws or introduce new ones they think would benefit their community.

With North Dakota’s ballot measure process, citizens can introduce a statewide ballot measure to change the North Dakota Constitution or state law. A statewide measure can be placed on the ballot by the Legislature or through a petition process initiated by the citizens of North Dakota.

One in five eligible North Dakotans turned out to vote in June’s primary election. My county did better than the state average with 43% voter turnout in Kidder County. But little Billings County in western North Dakota, home to Theodore Roosevelt National Park and 945 people, did better than all of us with 59.25% voter turnout. Teddy would be proud.