News, descriptions, comments, opinions about Carrington (Foster County), North Dakota and surrounding areas. This blog was created to supplement CarringtonNews.Com and to give local residents an outlet to express their opinions regarding the attractions, events, sports, politics of the area.
CARRINGTON/FOSTER COUNTY: ARE YOU VOTING YES OR NO ON THE TAX INITIATIVE TO BUILD A NEW SCHOOL, ETC.?
A vote will be taken on February 16, 2016, regarding whether or not citizens of Carrington/Foster County want to build a new elementary school and sports complex at a site east of the current high school. This is a serious topic for our community and every property owner to consider because it involves a vast amount of taxes distributed over a 20-year period.
We are attempting to obtain all of the new tax assessments for every land and property owner in Foster County to be able to calculate each individual's tax liability if this tax initiative passes. That way each tax payer of Foster County and we can better understand exactly what passing this tax initiative will mean to our finanial committment for the future. Specific facts/information can help each citizen/property owner determine whether or not they wish to encumber their property for whatever amount for the next 20 years.
We have included a copy of a letter from Russ Heidt, a Carrington resident, who explains what he thinks this initiative will mean to each of us if passed. We've also included an article from the Foster County Independent which sees the initiative from the school district's perspective. We understand that a Facebook site has been established in support of this initiative at: https://www.facebook.com/cardinalpridevoteyes/. Also, you can read very detailed information at the Carrington School District site: http://www.carrington.k12.nd.us/Carrington/bulletin/longrangeplan2.html.
We hope you will take time to thoroughly study and understand what it means to either vote yes or no on this initiative in February. We invite all comments - for or against - this initiative.
The Parade of Lights is a December tradition that takes place during "Christmas around the Town" in Carrington, North Dakota. Many shops around town have extended hours and invite the community to visit and to have drinks and goodies while they browse.
The Parade of Lights, lead by fire engines and ambulances, usually starts around 5:30 p.m. and moves along Main Street till it ends with a police car.
This year the weather was great, so we had quite a few nice floats and community-spirited people marching along with them. It was fun to see so many people working together for a common cause. Way to go, Carrington!!!
Roland "Pete" Peterson celebrates Veteran's Day at CrossRoads in Carrington
We had a wonderful Veteran's Day luncheon in our small town of Carrington, North Dakota, to honor our local veterans and their families.
Marlene Boyer talks to the community about supporting our veterans
The event was sponsored by the American Legion Ladies Auxiliary and the Veterans of Foreign Wars Auxiliary, along with help from other thoughtful ladies in the Carrington community.
Holly, Marlene & Jen help serve the veterans, their families and the community
Marlene Boyer, president of the North Dakota American Legion Ladies Auxiliary, who helped coordinate the event, introduced some very special veterans who live in our area. It was an honor and privilege to hear from Carrington's three World War II veterans, Roland Peterson, Lorraine Schroeder, and Adam Malinski, as well as have lunch and visit with other veterans from the Korean War, the Vietnam War, Desert Storm and Afghanistan.
Roland Peterson - Lorraine Schroeder - Adam Malinski
On September 2, 2015, a complaint and a motion for a restraining order was filed against Foster County regarding a county shop project. The case is entitled Hagel Construction vs. County of Foster - Case No. 16-2015-CV-00037. The attorneys involved are Paul Murphy, representing Foster County, and Elizabeth Lee Alvine, representing Hagel Construction. As we all know, years back the voters approved the building of a new county shop. The location and the type of shop were issues of contention between then Chairman Jim Carr and Commissioner Paul Straley. The shop project stayed in limbo until Bill Bauer became chairman of the commission. The shop was put out for bid, and that's when the controversy was renewed. The controversy centered around whether or not an architect was required to overview and approve the project. Another issue was the type of building structure that the County wanted a bid on. Apparently, the original architect-approved plans required the building of an all-steel structure, in other words, not just simply steel on the exterior or roofing, but a steel building consisting of I-Beam type construction. Somehow in the process, the commissioners gave the decision to move ahead with a none-architecturally-approved structure. Their choice was to substitute a steel structure for a pole-barn-type structure. According to the complaint filed by Kelly Hagel, he submitted two bids. One bid was for a wood structure and one was for a steel structure. The complaint goes on to state that he was $20,000 lower than the accepted bid for a pole-barn-type structure. As well, Mr. Hagel alleges that the bid process involved favoritism in the awarding of the contract, because the winning bidder agreed to buy all the materials for the project in Foster County. Whereas, Mr. Hagel informed the commission that he intended to buy his materials from an out-of-county source. According to Chairman Carr, at a recent commission meeting, Mr. Hagel withdrew his bid and informed him that he had no intention to filing an action against the county. However, as you can see Mr. Hagel, filed his complaint and motion for a restraining order on Wednesday, September 2, 2015.
We are wondering if Mr. Schroeder intends to continue working on the shop in light of Mr. Hagel's request for a restraining order stopping all construction. It should be noted that if you examine all these issues, all these problems, all the missteps, all the confusion and all the controversy... they all center around our States Attorney's total inability to do the job that he's been paid to do. That is to counsel our elected officials on how to avoid breaking the law.
The letter below is another example of State’s Attorney Paul Murphy's illegal advice, costing Foster County money once again.
Please understand that it was Mr. Murphy’s advice to former Commissioner Bill Bauer and the other commissioners that they proceed on the shop -- notwithstanding the law. He then repeated this advice to the current commissioners at the August 4, 2015, commission meeting.
Read the letter from Kelly Hagel's attorney and judge for yourself if Mr. Hagel has a case against Foster County.
If this case is filed and Mr. Hagel prevails (which we believe he shall), he will most likely be awarded attorney’s fees. Our question to you, the taxpayers of Foster County, is who should be responsible for these attorney’s fees?
Is it Foster County's insurance policy once again? Is it the commissioners, themselves? Is it the taxpayers of Foster County? Or, is it the person who seems the most responsible, the person behind the bad legal advice, who encouraged the commissioners to break the law – our very own State’s Attorney Paul Murphy.
We invite any and all comments regarding Mr. Hagel's claim. Agreeably, shortcuts in the law on the surface make for a less expensive process. In the long run, however, they may be the paved road to Hell for a small county’s finances.
We ask the community what you think of this claim, and do you agree that this problem rests solely on State’s Attorney Paul Murphy’s bad advice to go ahead and violate the law?!
Dolly Footitt is one of my favorite people in the world... a very dear friend who will turn 101 years old on October 4, 2015. No one can ever believe that Dolly is that age... and you can see why when you listen to her on this tape. The sparkle in her eye and her quick, funny comments let you know that you're dealing with someone whose mind is sharp and ready to have fun with you.
This spur-of-the-moment tape came about one day when I was having coffee with Dolly. She is well-known in our Carrington community for sharing her wonderful pies, cookies and doughnuts with friends who come to her house for coffee. She also shares her goodies with her church, the hospital, the fair, the neighborhood and various fundraisers in the community.
Lucky for me, Dolly and I became great friends, so I often go to her house for coffee, and we chat about all kinds of subjects that are interesting to us. I've often thought about recording some of our conversations and sharing them with our community, because I think people are really missing out if they don't know Dolly. In addition to enjoying her personality, you can imagine the great storehouse of knowledge about our area that she has to offer.
After Dolly got such a kick out of this spur-of-the-moment recording, I've decided (with her permission) to record more coffee visits with her to share with everyone. If you have any special questions that you would like to ask Dolly, please let me know, and I'll record her answers for you.
So, here's to having fun with Dolly and hearing the opinion of someone who has lived for over a century!
Result of Death Threats toward Recorder Lynelle Hoppe
I personally appeared before the Foster County Commission on
Tuesday, August 4, 2015, to discuss the death threats which were texted to a
county cell phone about Recorder Lynelle Hoppe on June 4, 2015. I was, and still am, concerned about what is
being done to address this situation.
The seven or eight ex-employees, who were discussing or
"joking" about ways to kill Recorder Hoppe, no longer work for Foster
County. However, one of the texters still works at the courthouse
in an office located on the floor above Recorder Hoppe.
One would think that the employee would have been
disciplined in some way right after the messages with death threats were
discovered. However, after Sheriff
Mattice made his report to State's Attorney Paul Murphy, nothing seemed to
happen. It was as if the event did not
take place.
However, since the issue of texted death threats was published in the Foster County Independent,
and published on CarringtonNews.com, I had had numerous inquiries from the
public wanting to know the status of this investigation and/or
prosecution.
So, on July 8, 2015, I
decided to write some letters to find out what was going on and to shed some
light on this situation.
I had already written a letter to Joel Lemer, since Ms.
Hesch is his secretary, and sent a copy to the North Dakota State University
Extension Office, his employer, but had received no response from them. Since I had been led to believe that Ms.
Hesch was also an employee of North Dakota State University, I wrote a letter to the legal counsel of
NDSU. I enclosed copies of the texted
death threats, as well as a copy of my letter to Joel Lemer and the NDSU
Extension office.
That letter eventually ended up in the office of the North
Dakota State Attorney General who replied (on July 27, 2015) that Melanie Hesch
was NOT an employee of NDSU, that she was an employee of Foster County. Therefore, NDSU's policies have nothing to do
with this situation and that it needed
to be taken care of locally.
I also received a phone call from Governor Dalrymple's
office and a letter from Representative Chet Pollert who expressed the same
opinion as the Attorney General -- that the issue needed to be handled by the
appropriate personnel in Foster County.
Then I received another letter from the State Attorney
General's office. This time they
enclosed a "Letter of Concern" which had been written by Joel Lemer
to Melanie Hesch on July 21, 2015 - over a month and a half since the death
threats took place and almost two weeks after I wrote a letter to his boss,
NDSU. Mr. Lemer basically told Ms. Hesch
that she could no longer text personal messages or use Facebook during office
hours, that she would have to do that during her breaks.
Does anyone besides me think that is a rather weak
consequence for texting death threats during office hours, or during any time,
for that matter?!!
Since I did not receive any kind of response from the
letters I wrote to State's Attorney Paul Murphy or the state's attorney to whom
he had given the case, I decided to appear before the Foster County Commission
to find out if the County was going to do anything at all about the death
threats.
After all, I think the public has every right to know the
facts about this situation. As county
taxpayers, we are paying the salary of Melanie Hesch, an employee who was
texting death threats during her office hours when she was supposedly working
on county business for us.
Watch the video to see the reactions of the commissioners
and State's Attorney Paul Murphy. Also,
the meeting was taped by DakTel, so you can see the entire meeting on Channel
17 at various times during this week.
July 29, 2015 -- Trees snapped and uprooted during last night's winds... Fallen branches and debris along the streets of Carrington, ND.... We didn't have to go far this morning to see some intense damage from last night's high winds. Just across the street in Kelly Hagel's yard a tree was literally snapped in two. Luckily it landed away from his house! Down the street a large tree fell completely across the road, completely blocking traffic. By the time we drove by for a second look, a crew was already there with equipment to assess the situation and remove the tree. Foster County Emergency Manager Jess Earle tells me that she is out taking pictures and assessing damage all around the county. She will share those photos with us later.
After almost two years, (complaint filed October 31, 2013) the State and Roger Schlotman entered into a plea agreement. Former County Auditor Schlotman was formally charged after a preliminary hearing with three counts of misapplicaiton of entrusted property and two counts of criminal conspiracy. In the end Mr. Schlotman plead guilty to one count of a public servant refusing/failing to perform his duty -- with no fine and a reimbursement of the $900 in question plus $100 court costs. This case is a testament to prosecutorial misconduct. Prosecutor Murray stalled and delayed this case for almost two years. On the eve of trial, August 3, 2015, she played "Let's make a deal with Mr. Schlotman." One's examination of the file shows that all the delays were caused by Ms. Murray's incompetence. Why the delay of bringing this case to trial? One can only speculate that Ms. Murray felt that the lack of any hard evidence would be apparent to a Foster County jury. The best example of Ms. Murray's dilatory tactics can be found in HER motion for a change of venue. She requested that the Court move the trial to Ramsey County because of the pretrial publicity (almost exclusively from this website). Apparently, Ms. Murray failed to take any type of Constitutional law classes while attending law school. Her motion for change of venue lacked any real legal authority since the 6th Amendment to the United States Constitution requires all criminal trials to occur in the district in which the offense is alleged to have occurred. Ms. Murray engaged in a battle of attrition. Her numerous frivolous motions for continuances and her unsuccessful motion for change of venue and joinder of Commissioner Carr's case obviously cost Mr. Schlotman tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees. What was the final result? As mentioned above, Former Auditor Schlottman has to repay the $900 that was authorized for payment by the commission and $100 in Court fees. This website has repeatedly demanded that Ms. Murray disclose to the public her billable hours in this case and in the case of State vs. Carr. To this date no such response has been provided by her. Now that the case is closed, we intend to demand that Ms. Murray provide all of the billing records regarding this case. Once those records are revealed, we believe that it will show the incompetence of the Foster County State's Attorney's office. This entire case was initiated by our own State's Attorney Paul Murphy. We taxpayers can thank Mr. Murphy for wasting all the taxpayers' money in this case.
What a great idea... an old time tractor trek! All kinds of awesome old tractors and their owners gathered at the City Park in Carrington, North Dakota. Their destination? To have a nice meal at the Bordulac Bar & Grill about 10 miles away... Trekking along a pleasant country road on a beautiful sunny day with the goal of visiting with friends over a great meal... What an outstanding way to spend the evening! Simply delightful! Although I didn't go on the trek, I had a huge amount of fun with my friend, Dolly Footitt. We tried to park far enough away from the park so we could film everyone who drove by on the way to Bordulac. Dolly was thrilled to see everyone waving at the camera. For someone who is over a hundred years old, she gets the biggest kick out of such small pleasantries. That's probably why she is the wonderfully positive person that she is! I hope all the trekkers saw Dolly waving back at them! I wish the faces of all the trekkers showed up better on the video. However, because of the evening shadows, the twilight, the position of the camera, etc., most of them aren't that recognizable. I'll try to do better next year!
