Quickies: More updates

The City Beat is gonna try something new. I'll throw stuff out as I notice them during the day. This week might be a slow one because I'm doing research on taxes.

* NYT's got a story about which states are getting the college students and which ones aren't. North Dakota, Montana, Vermont and Maine aren't.

On the bright side, this could be a strength in the future as the high-draw states fill up and it's harder to get in.

"In states with low capacity, look for places with tuition benefits like the ones the state provides," Mr. (David A.) Longanecker says. "North Dakota will give you a hell of a deal. My guess is in the future, there will be some pretty good deals in Midwestern universities."

Longanecker is executive director of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, based in Boulder, Colo.

Sorry, you'll have to register with NYT.

* Interesting tidbit in Fargo Forum's interview with Lars Moller, the Danish-born president of DMI, about the Danish wind energy industry. Grand Forks' wind turbine plant is owned by Denmark-based LM Glasfiber.

* One year anniversary of Grand Forks' smoking ban. Biz reporter Elisa Rineheart has a story today and the people responsible for the ban, the Grand Forks Tobacco Free Coalition, have released a survey of public opinion on the ban. Check here tomorrow for the story on the survey.

Update 12:06 p.m., 8/1/06: Looks like JGS restarted the My Grand Forks blog again. Good. These quickies are hard when there are fewer blogs to link to.

* Grand Forks Guy sees a new coffee shop at Columbia Mall.

Update 3:06 p.m., 8/1/06: Dakota's got a funny interview with some big chicken. Reminds me of this conversation, though it's far more ridiculous.

Update 6:39 p.m., 8/1/06: Photographer Mike Mohaupt is one of two artists on exhibit at the Third Street Gallery in downtown Grand Forks. Mikey works for the Herald occasionally. The other artist is Mariah Masilko.

Ooh, fresh meat

After a (too) long period of contraction, the Herald newsroom is actually growing! Some long time readers have noticed that we simply don't cover as much as we used to. Our excuse was we just had fewer people doing the same work.

We're currently advertising four positions, two of which are replacements and two are new positions. Actually, they're positions we used to have until all those darn lay-offs.

You can thank our new overlords at Forum Communications for the expansion. Investing in the product, a concept Knight-Ridder investors never thought of.

The replacements include a new business reporter to replace Elisa Rineheart, who is leaving; a new education reporter to replace Paulette Tobin, who is taking over the arts and entertainment beat left vacant by Lisa Davis, who has left. (It's not a turnover problem. They're just following their spouses.)

The new positions include the region reporter and a copy editor -- that's the person laying out the paper.

I probably should have mentioned earlier that we got a new addition to our team, higher education reporter Joseph Marks. He's substituting for my good buddy David Dodds, who is deployed somewhere in the Middle East.

The word in the newsroom is we aren't done with the new hires yet, so check this space for future news. Ooh, ooh, I'm so excited!

Quickies: Bambi's coming and he's bringing all his cousins; Columbia Mall owner says it's doing great; The Herz's wedding photos

* The City Beat has a follow-up to the earlier story on Grand Forks' potential deer problem. North Dakota Fish and Wildlife Department biologist Marty Egeland said that, when it is done, the Greenway will definitely be an attraction for wildlife. "Build it and they will come."

One way to deal with deer overpopulation is the holding of an urban hunt, as is done in Bismarck and, on Sept. 1, in Fargo. There won't be any urban deer hunt here any time soon, though the idea isn't as dangerous as it sounds. According to Fish and Wildlife biologist Doug Leier, bow hunters usually shoot from about 20 yards out, he said.

* "The town really wants to shop at the mall now. Retail sales have increased in each of the last two years." That's Garo Kholamian, head of the company that owns Grand Forks' Columbia Mall, talking about the mall in The Great Falls Tribune. His company, GK Development, just bought the Holiday Village Mall in Great Falls.

* AP reports story on Fargo potentially tapping Lake Ashtabula if the Red River keeps dropping. I don't know how alarmed they are down there but it reminds me of how not alarmed Grand Forks water people are, as I mentioned in this story. Grand Forks gets water from the Red Lake River and the Red River and we're first in line for Lake Ashtabula water, too.

If you'll recall, we're still working out which city pays how much for that project to pipe Missouri River water to the Red River Valley. This is another a reminder of how much more Fargo appears to need an alternate water source compared to Grand Forks. (Of course, some think that when the big drought strikes we'd need the pipe almost as badly as Fargo.)

* Pictures from The Herz's wedding here and here. Bridesmaid Lisa took the picture so it's more like photos from "The Herryn's" wedding.

* Off topic: Anybody read Garfield this past week, the one with the amnesiac date? Garfield has been consistently unfunny for the past, what, 15 years? Is this the start of an era of non-suckiness for the Herald's suckiest comic? I sure hope so.

Quickies: Downtown apartments starting, Point2Point snubs Cirrus Design

* Bad news: Parking downtown will be getting a tad tougher on Monday due to the temporary closure of a part of the lot across the street from the Dacotah Hotel building. Really great news: The closure is so they can do soil testing for the apartment complex that's going up there. I reported it as the Dakota Block a few months ago but now it's called Riverview Apartments.

* More Canadians headed for North Dakota, presumably with wallet in hand and a shopping mall in mind.

* What gives? Point2Point Airways, formerly based in Grand Forks and now in Bismarck, says it won't be buying Cirrus Design planes. They're buying Canadian. Oh yeah, they got $1.25 million in federal grants by way of the city of Bismarck in August.

* Grand Forks Guy has more new biz announcements. Even made WDAZ.

* City of Grand Forks confirms the Point Bridge will be closed until early September.

Update 3:10 a.m., 7/27/06: A few things I negleted to mention:

* One of my colleagues, Carol Graham Brue, passed away recently, striken down by cancer. We had quite a few people show up for a ceremony at the Herald yesterday evening. The house was full of tears. She'll be missed.

* The second week of the summer block party Thursday night Farmer's Market at Town Square is tonight from 5 p.m. 4:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. There's also a concurrent summer block party. It's run by a some of my fellow Greater Grand Forks Young Professionals. Thanks to Farmer's Market president Cheri Reitmeier for the correction.

* The Third Street Gallery, owned by a couple of Young Professionals, is holding a silent auction tonight from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. The social starts at 6 p.m. I'll be volunteering during the event so if you want to say "hi" or kick my *ss, come on down!

Downtown parking: Get off the street and make room for the customers

Grand Forks' consultants are back and they have a message: Get off the street and make room for the customers. That's what I took away from that downtown parking open house today, which, by the way, was attended by four people, two of them reporters.

The consultants, a couple of nice fellas from ND LEA's Winnipeg office, figured the big problem with downtown is that the allocation of parking spaces is all wrong. The major concentration of parking, parking ramps and big public parking lots, isn't near the places people want to go. Most of drivers use on-street parking and avoid the ramps and lots. Hence the perception of parking shortage when, in fact, there is a surplus.

The way to fix this, according to consultant Richard Tebinka, is to get all the people that have to be downtown anyway -- that would be high school students, downtown residents and workers, like me -- into the ramps and lots so there's more on-street parking for the people that don't have to be there -- that would be customers of downtown businesses.

(I was going to tell you how pissed off that makes me feel, but remembered not to get too opinionated. It should be mentioned that many people that live and/or work downtown are the customers, too. I've got enough of those "frequent flyer" cards from Urban for half a dozen T-shirts [10 cards for a free shirt] to prove it.)

There's various ways of doing this, Tebinka said, such as strictly enforcing the time limit on on-street parking, meaning more parking tickets, and upgrading security in the parking ramps.

He said that the ramps are statistically safer than many people believe. Police report that the Central High School ramp, the most dangerous one in many people's minds, gets an incident of criminal mischief only once every two months. (He conceded that minor vandalism might go unreported.)

This seems to imply that the ramps are safe, except there weren't any statistics on incidents of criminal mischief for on-street parking. Since we're talking about parking for workers, there should be a break out for daytime versus nighttime incidents.

Anyway, the security upgrade Tebinka talked about would include things like better lighting, security cameras and regular visits by uniformed security personnel.

ND LEA's Powerpoint presentation is available here. There's more information about proposed changes to downtown parking, including angled parking and better signage.

Don't like the fountain? You got a better idea? Sure you do!

When it comes to local politics, the City Beat tends to hear way more criticisms than proposals -- note the comment sections of postings about the Alerus Center, the Riverwalk Centre and that $800,000 fountain. (Love the comments, by the way. Keep them coming.)

Let's balance out the imbalance. If the old railroad bridge pier in the Red River downtown is an eye sore to you, what would you put on it? And how would you pay for it?

Saying "thanks" with an $800,000 fountain

East Grand Forks Mayor Lynn Stauss went to the Grand Forks City Council tonight to ask for $300,000 to build a $800,000 fountain in the middle of the Red River. The City Beat is surprised the council was so receptive with only Council member Mike McNamara saying "no" to using tax dollars on the project. Some others indicated they were willing to consider it.

Stauss' funding plan is as follows:

* Grand Forks: $300,000.
* East Grand Forks $200,000. ($100,000 approved for the River City market place transferred to the fountain. Another $100,000 would come from utility fees.)
* Private donors: $300,000. ($150,000 committed)

So here's some of the reasons Stauss thinks tax dollars ought to be used:

1) Grand Forks and East Grand Forks got $1.5 billion or so in aid from the federal and state governments, which probably doesn't include donations from private citizens. The $800,000 would be a nice way to say "thank you" because the fountain would be dedicated to everyone who helped. It'd be "selfish," he said, to do otherwise.

2) Grand Forks should pay $100,000 more than East Grand Forks because it got more aid.

3) Since the nation helped the governments of the two cities, the governments have to be involved in the thank you. "We as cities should give back a little of what we received."

4) Sure this isn't a strict necessity, but it benefits the community. He didn't specify much but he did talk about all the tourists that would flock downtown to get their picture taken in front of the landmark fountain.

You'll notice in my story about this today that I mentioned "a reporter" asked "why a project to honor the nation wasn't being built in Washington, D.C." That'd be me.

I was thinking, didn't we spend $33,000 on a bison statue that we sent to our old sister city Awano, Japan, in part, to thank the people there for sending us flood aid? We didn't put the statue in one of our parks to honor them while we kept the tourist money.

Not to be cynical but if we spent the money here in town, isn't that like buying a present for yourself and going to your friend's birthday party and telling her you'll be thinking of her when you use the present?

Stauss kind of evaded my question. Yes it will benefit us, he said, but "we can't do it for the past. We need to do it for the future." Future generations will look at the fountain, he said, and remember the trauma of the flood.

I then asked if the nation wouldn't be more likely to see it if it was in Washington? He said some thing about people coming here to see the fountain and, prompted by me, the national news media will also report about it.

Maybe the mayor got caught by surprised, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt and reported: "Stauss said he'd like citizens from around the country to come for a visit. And, he said, the news media would spread word of the fountain."

That still doesn't really answer my question.

Quickies: Downtown traffic jam?

Short Quickie today:

* That plan to lease the parking lot off of Riverboat Road to Central High School for student parking could have a slight problem. Grand Forks Council President Hal Gershman wondered if all those cars turning left from DeMers Avenue onto Riverboat Road might not cause a big traffic jam downtown. Council member Art Bakken thought the solution might be to have traffic patrol directing traffic.

Patrol or no patrol, more cars has to mean slower traffic. I'm glad I don't have to commute across the river during the morning hours. That's gonna suck.

* Lack of rain around Grand Forks is getting to be a drag, but, on the bright side, there aren't too many mosquitoes and mosquito control is costing $100,000 less than the $640,000 budgeted. Abundant rains last year meant the city had to spend nearly $700,000.

Mosquito control supervisor Todd Hanson said to tell you guys that, if you're older than 50, you still have to be careful about mosquito bites. Culex mosquitoes, the ones that carry the West Nile Virus, aren't easily deterred by dry weather so they'll still be coming out in August and September.

Update 3:44 p.m., 7/25/06: Oops, it rained. There goes the 100 grand.

Quickies: Hunting on GF's Greenway?

* Not being from around here, the City Beat had to sort of snicker at the letter the state Game and Fish Department sent to the city of Grand Forks.

Department director Terry Steinwand said he'd heard the city was looking to ban the feeding of deer. City staff reported that that is necessary because the new Greenway park system would prove irresistible to the animals.

But Steinwand suggested that the city might want to go one step further:

What the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, as well as other agencies around the country, have found to be the most effective and cost efficient approach is to: 1) reduce or eliminate deer feeding and baiting, and 2) have a hunting season.

Whu-what?

Apparently, Bismarck already has a bow hunting season, Bemidji just put one in place and Fargo is looking to do the same. Besides that, Steinwand is right, there's tons of places where urban bow hunting is allowed. A quick Google search found that cities in Virginia do this, so do cities in Missouri and Ohio.

Being the ignorant city slicker that I am, this scares the willies out of me. Hopefully, it's safer than it sounds. We're probably talking about hunting in sparsely inhabited areas of the city, not, say, Belmont Road.

* Dog park activists at Roaming Paws Advocates have a new Web site. They're also planning to push their cause at the Aug. 19 Farmer's Market, which has the theme of "Dog Days of Summer." There will be petitions available for signing.

* That request from LM Glasfiber to expand its space in the Noah's Ark Building in the Industrial Park is coming up Monday night. It'll be on City Council TV on Channel 2 at 7.

* Grand Forks city staff is proposing the city apply for National Recreation Trail designation for the city's Greenway by the river. "National Recreation Trails benefit from the prestige and increased visibility of being part of the National Trail System," staff wrote.

Here's a Web site with trails that are now part of the system.

* There's going to be a follow-up to that meeting on downtown parking that the Grand Forks-East Grand Forks Metropolitan Planning Organization held a month ago. It'll be from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., Tuesday, in the Herald's Community Room. A presentation starts at 5:30 p.m.

If you're planning on attending, be aware that the entrance the Community Room is in the alley and there's a fence blocking the area of the alley closest to the Herald parking lot. Use the alley between the Herald and the federal courthouse.

* Speaking of parking, the Urban Development Department is looking to move Central High School student parking from the Civic Auditorium lot to the one behind the dikes off of Riverboat Road. I'm told the walking distance appear longer but is the same. The reason for the move is Urban Development thinks it might have a tenant for the auditorium. No, I still don't know who the would-be tenant is. There's some speculation it's Amazon.com but that rumor has apparently been around for a while.

Big news for a few: The Herz gets hitched

The biggest news for the City Beat this week was the wedding on Saturday of my friends former WDAZ personality Herryn Riendeau and Matt Herzog, or as friends like to call him, "The Herz."

The Riendeaus have roots in Gentilly, Minn., and the Herzogs in Cavalier, N.D., and, man, were there a lot of aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, neighbors, etc. I was the passive-aggressive usher, one of two, that tried to get them all seated at St. Peter's Church in Gentilly. (Talk about small world. Grand Forks city finance director John Schmisek, a friend of the family, was there. He said he'd brought his camera if he knew I'd be there in the penguin suit.)

The reception was at the Alerus Center and Herryn's mom, Lynn Erie, says the staff did a great job. I agree.

The proud parents, by the way, are Tim and Judy Herzog, Ted Riendeau and Lynn and Steven Erie.

Indulge me if you're not familiar with the newly minted Mr. and Mrs. Herzog. A remarkable number of the relatives have actually read this blog, so I'm indulging them.

Here's something for you general readers: If you're ever in the Gentilly area, arrange for a visit to the church. It's one of the nicest ones I've seen and, as a bonus, the little statuettes and stained-glass windows bear French inscriptions, indicative of the area's heritage.

Quickies: Catching up with all the blog news

What a barrage of local news from the other blogs! I was wondering when people would get back to Grand Forks issues...

* GrandForksGuy has a bunch of news on all the commercial developments in town.

* Not to be out done, Coffee Guy has a rumor about Olive Garden coming to town. I checked with city planner Brad Gengler but he said he hasn't seen anything to that effect, yet.

* Dakota checked out a news report on that casino the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa is developing down in Mississippi. She said she talked to tribal Chairman Ken Davis who said this development is not replacing the Grand Forks casino effort, which continues. I think that's more than he told me last time around!

* Ben Klipfel from Culture Pulse says street musicians can freely play and collect tips. The cops have been informed. Way to go Ben!

* I forgot to note that former Grand Forks City Council member Gerald Hamerlik made a final appearance as a commissioner at the Alerus Center commission meeting Wednesday. Gerry's been involved in this project for a dozen years so he's taking a lot of institutional knowledge with him. His replacement will be Council member Curt Kreun. The council still has to approve the appointment.

Looks like Curt is a glutton for punishment. He's involved with that landfill brouhaha being a vocal supporter of the city's efforts. Now he's gonna get involved in a facility for which there is also a lot of brouhaha.

Holy heck! LM Glasfiber explodes!

A couple of months ago, LM Glasfiber said it would expand employment at its Grand Forks plant from 320 to 450. This week, the company said it plans on expanding to 550. That's a whole lot of jobs in a very short time.

For a comparison, check out the Grand Forks Region Economic Development Corp.'s 2004 report on major employers. At 550, LM would be the city's biggest manufacturer by head count.

There's been a lot of discussion about economic development on this blog, accompanied by a lot of healthy skepticism. Some question whether this is the proper province of government, with most of the criticism directed at money-losing facilities such as Grand Forks' Alerus Center and East Grand Forks' Riverwalk Centre.

To me, those facilities are just economic development's sideshows. The main attractions are really employers like LM, Cirrus Design, SEI Information Technology, and Amazon.com, among others. Companies within primary sector industries -- meaning firms that export products and services outside their homd regions -- that pay a relatively high wage are what economic developers go after.

How those companies perform should be benchmarks for the state of economic development in Grand Forks, not how events centers and malls perform.

LM got its start in Grand Forks in 1999 when the EDC built, with city funding, an 84,000 square foot plant, which was then leased to the company. Back in March, the city decided to spend $2.65 million to renovate a section of the Amazon.com building, which the city owns, to turn it into factory space for LM. The city will soon be deciding whether to spend $2 million to renovate the rest of the space. LM would then lease the warehouse.

You could ask if LM would have come if the city hadn't built a plant for the company. I suspect the answer would be "no." Philosophically, you could say that government should let businesses decide where businesses go. Realistically, with other cities competing for the same companies, governments that are philosophically pure would be at a disadvantage against those that are pragmatic.

I have to admit, as a fan of economics, I tend to think that the economy operates most efficiently when it is free of distortions caused by government intervention. I suspect, though, that places like North Dakota would be empty of people if that policy were followed to the letter. And, broadly speaking, I'm keenly aware that a lot of innovation have come out of government efforts. After all, it was DARPA, a government research agency, that invented the Internet.

Not feeling the love

Some of those guys at the city of East Grand Forks are way too sensitive about the Riverwalk Centre mall. So a guy reports how the mall is losing money and some of its tenants didn't pay rent, and suddenly he's getting hate.

Anyway, the City Beat was trying to report that the Buffet House had closed under pretty mysterious circumstances. I called Jim Richter, the economic development chief who's also the mall manager. The conversation isn't verbatim but here's what it came out to:

Me: So, Jim, I'm just following up on that conversation we had (at City Council) about the Buffet House closing. So how much did they owe the city?

Jim: Tu-Uyen, that's not a story.

Me: Why?

Jim: Because it's sad. It's a sad story.

Me: Um, so what? We do sad stories all the time.

Jim: It's sad. "They walked. They packed their bags and they left."

Me: What do they owe the city?

Jim: They owe a lot of people money. They owe us rent money.

Me: How much?

Jim: I don't know. I'd have to look that up.

Me: Could you?

Jim: [brief pause] I could.

Me: Would you?

Jim: [5-10 second pause] I don't have time right now.

Me: Could you get the numbers to me later this week?

Jim: [I forget the answer, I recall it was something like "I'll try."]

Anyway, no, I still have no idea how much the restaurant owes.

I had to ask the interim city administrator and finance director Wayne Oberg. He said he didn't know either because Richter reports the numbers to him at the end of the month. But he did know that the Buffet House paid $21,100 in rent last year and has paid $7,700 so far this year. He also though the restaurant hadn't taken out a loan with the city. Bottomline: Not a huge amount owed.

I know where Jim's coming from. A city owned mall operates at a disadvantage to a private business because anybody can ask for its finances. Also, reports of tenants leaving doesn't help the mall get more tenants. I'm not making his job easy.

Some may say the city ought never have gotten into the mall business and to that city officials would say they had to. They bought the mall after the flood and used it to house businesses that would've otherwise left town or gone under without subsidized rent.

Still, I wish it were easier to get info out of some of these guys. They're public servants and I'm a member of the public, ergo...

Break even definitely a goal for Alerus Center

So it's official: Alerus Center commissioners said again Wednesday that one of their main goals is to break even. One of them, Brian Conneran, was so intent on breaking even he voted against the new 2007 budget because it's a deficit budget. He said he thought management should check to see if the labor cost to revenue ratio was within industry standards.

This dissent is significant because usually by the time a budget is ready to be voted on, everybody's on board.

The other commissioners approved the budget, too, but only because they felt there was no way around the higher expenses, blamed mostly on new electric rates. Boy I wish I had the presence of mind at 6:30 a.m. to ask if they'd seen these new rates coming. The new rates standard commercial rates that most businesses pay. The Alerus Center has been paying the economic development rate reserved for new facilities.

Anyway, the concern with breaking even is a big deal to me -- as you'll have noted from this post -- because for a few years, it seemed like it wasn't on the commission's radar screen. Typically, the conversation about breaking even comes up after the year end financial report is released and the center is in the red. The commissioners usually get pretty defensive and point out the big (estimated) economic impact. And I end up saying, "but you guys said that one year when the moon was blue and hell was cold that you wanted to break even."

Anyway, here's some facts about the budget, which you can also read in the Herald story:

* Revenues are expected to be in the $4 million range. Last couple of years, actual revenues have been in the $3.8 million range. I'm not saying it's impossible but they have a lot of work ahead of them.

* Revenue from the hotel-motel tax (a built in subsidy) is about 9 percent of total revenue.

* Commission Chairman Randy Newman keeps saying that the whole budget is driven by "programming," meaning by concerts and other events. He sounds like he's really worried that without enough concerts, advertisers and suite holders would leave. Together the suite leases and advertisers make up 22 percent of the budget or $880,000.

* As Dadinggf commented, the Alerus Center does compete for weddings with local businesses. Catering makes up 20 percent of the budget, or $817,000.

I'm sure that's not all from weddings but center officials were pretty excited about how good they were getting at the wedding business. In June, the single biggest category of event in terms of attendance for the Alerus Center was wedding receptions with 1,800. That's a 242 percent increase over the same month a year ago. The second biggest was conventions with 1,600.

It's just a single month, so I'm curious what it was like for the first half of the year.

* Electricity costs is are up 55 percent to $242,000.

* Parking fees, a new revenue source, is expected to total $103,000. The center doesn't plan on starting parking fees until September so that's just the last four months of the year, albeit potentially very profitable months with the football games and winter concerts. The amount would be more than enough to cover the higher electricity costs, which amount to an additional $86,000 in spending.

* Labor costs amount to about 48 percent of total revenue at $1.9 million. That's what Conneran was concerned about.

Quickies: Point Bridge closed until mid-Sept.; bar owners seek to punish underage drinkers

BUSY DAY for the City Beat. I think I have five bylines in the paper tomorrow.

* As promised, here's the story on water usage in Grand Forks. Water usage in June was the second highest ever for a single month at 322.5 million gallons. The highest was in July 1989 when residents and businesses used 383.8 million gallons.

* The Point Bridge, closed since early June for major renovation, might stay closed until as late as mid-September. That's from East Grand Forks city engineer Greg Boppre. Good luck with that extra 2 mile commute.

* Bar owners in Grand Forks say a proposed law requiring bartenders and liquor store clerks to receive server training is unfair. Led by Mike McMenamy of McMenamy's Tavern, the owners say the city ought to punish the real culprits: minors using false ID. They want to increase the minimum fine for that offense up to $2,000. All this additional regulation is meant to cut down on underage and binge drinking in the area.

* Everybody who's calling the city of East Grand Forks about that humongo road repair project, check out this map from Floan-Sanders first. The city engineer is begging you. (This wasn't in a story, in case you're counting bylines.)

* Is it hot enough for ya, people? A Grand Forks street buckled yesterday because of the heat, said city engineer Al Grasser. Most streets have gaps that allow concrete to expand, he said, but silt can fill in the gap on older streets. This sort of thing was pretty common back in the late 1980s and early 1990s when it was hot and dry, just like it is now, so the city expects this buckling might happen again.

* Not city related but I had to cover Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Amy Klobuchar's visit to East Grand Forks today. She was just like she is on her TV commercial. Her opponent is Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Kennedy.

GF landfill court battle begins

The city of Grand Forks faced Turtle River Township in Grand Forks District Court for the first time today. As has been reported, the township's attorney, Al Boucher, looks like he's hoping to nip this thing in the bud by getting it dismissed before it even really begins.

Al said the city didn't follow procedure and file an appeal so it doesn't make sense for the city to appear in appellate court. The city's attorney, Ron Fischer, said he did, too. The lawsuit he filed pretty much put the township on notice that he's appealing even if he doesn't say he's "appealing."

The judge, Joel Medd, said he'll decide within 30 days.

Quickies: Comment on Park District fitness center; water sales are brisk

* I'm a day late on this link to Ryan Bakken's story about the Park District efforts to build a new fitness center. But I figured y'all would appreciate the opportunity to comment. The main story is here. The sidebar is here.

* Grand Forks Public Works director Todd Feland said the dry weather is, in an odd way, good for his department. Most of the costs of pumping and treating water are fixed, he said, so additional usage of water doesn't add much more to expense. On the other hand, it adds a lot more to revenues. The city doesn't want to max out capacity, he said, but getting close means the system is operating at peak efficiency. End result: Public works is getting more cash than usual.

More on this later when I interview Feland more in-depth. (Note to WDAZ: You think my story ideas are so lame, so don't take them, OK?)

* Grand Forks City Council members elected new officers today. Council President Hal Gershman got another term and the council's grand old man Eliot Glassheim was voted vice president. He replaces another grand old man, Gerald Hamerlik, who retired from public office last month.

The council's two big policy geeks, Council members Doug Christensen and Curt Kruen got chairmanship, respectively, of the Finance-Development Standby Committee and the Service-Safety Committee.

The council will figure out who else sits on the committees next week.

(Note: "Old man" and "geek" used affectionately here.)

* What a grand discussion we all had hear here when the Alerus Center last came up. Get ready for more after the center's commission meets this Wednesday to talk about the budget. The fun begins at 6:30 a.m. with a finance committee meeting followed by a two hour commission meeting. I for one am stoked.

* Council member Mike "Mac" McNamara, back from Iraq in less than 60 days, wished his wife Susan and daughter Katherine happy birthdays.

* City Council must've broken a record today. It was over in less than 30 minutes.

* Got an e-mail from a friend about this block party starting at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday at Town Square in Grand Forks. JLG Architects is organizing it with other sponsors. There will be one every Thursday after that until Aug. 24. What a perfect compliment to summer.

* What the ding-dong happened to the My Grand Forks blog? Something screwy going on. Disappeared without a trace.

Update 8:14 p.m., 7/18/06: Bummer! JGS says he's been too busy to work much on the blog so it's gone.

Hey Tran,

I closed down my blog due to not having much time to write anything. I feel the City Beat and GFL [Grand Forks Life blog. - Ed.] cover the main topics around town. I will continue to read all the blogs, post and voice my opinion. You might see My Grand Forks in the near future or a different name, who knows. Until then, keep on blogging.

JGS

Well, hope nobody else goes anywhere. We got a good thing going on here. See you around, JGS.

Quickies: VastLane back up; GF artists feeling suppressed?

The City Beat played hooky Friday and went tubing with some hot-looking TV news women -- this must be why I got into journalism -- so the blog has been sparse. So here's some quickies to make up for it.

* I've been wondering what the heck happened to VastLane, one of Grand Forks' first discussion group. They're back up now and they gave a plug to the entire local blogosphere.

There's a funny quote too (emphases mine):

I believe there are some Fargo sites out there, but they represent the Johnny-come-lately in this little foray of the digital status quo. Interestingly, a diverse range of ideologies seem to exist within the GF blogs, but they all seem to rally together against their shared geographical foe.

* Thanks to VastLane, I found out about the CulturePulse blog. The latest post is by Benjamin Klipfel, who asks the question: Why is the city trying to suppress the artistic community?

I didn't know you have to have a transient merchant license to play music and accept tips. On the other hand, if you stand in the road with a cardboard sign asking for money, you're left alone.

The main CulturePulse Web site, by the way, is a community events calendar.

* I checked out the National League of Cities Web site the other day, Grand Forks being a member and all. The league has a neat Cities 101 reference section with all kinds of information about how other cities around the country conduct their business. Good compare and contrast possibilities.

Update 12:25 p.m., 7/17/06: What a curious lapse in etiquette. I forgot to give GrandForksGuy credit for pointing out that VastLane's back up.

Twilight Zone at the Alerus Center

It was like an episode of the Twilight Zone this morning when the City Beat groggily went to the Alerus Center commission finance committee's 7 a.m. meeting.

It's the first time the Pollyannas at the Alerus Center have planned to lose money, about $150,000. Everytime, they've planned to make money or break even and they've never made goal.

Here's how it normally works: The center reports it lost money and I go, "Holy heck! How dare you fools waste taxpayers' hard earned cash!"

Center commissioners say, "No, Tu-Uyen, you fool, we're losing money but what do you think all those people that come to our events do when they're in town? They spend money at the mall and the restaurants and the hotels!"

Here's how it happened today: Center commissioners say, "This projected loss of $150,000 is terrible! How can we show our face before the City Council with a budget like this?"

Some of these guys actually agonized over the losses. I swear, committee chairman Randy Newman said bringing a deficit budget to the council would be like "accepting" the inevitability of losses.

I couldn't believe it, but I actually said, "Realistically, shouldn't you be budgetting for a bigger loss? I mean, you've got that Canad Inns construction right next door disrupting everything, you've got huge energy bills and big concerts are as scarce as ever. It'd be reasonable for you to expect to lose more money, right?"

[Fade out as Twilight Zone theme plays. "Dah-dah-dah-dah, dah-dah-dah-dah..."]

Anyway, I still think they ought to try to break even. After all, the Alerus Center gets about $300,000 in hotel tax revenues that it gets to count as its own revenue. It's deficits are paid out of the economic development fund. But all those obstacles I just mentioned are truly outside of the Alerus Center's control and it'll take a little time to transition into some kind of new revenue model. Whatever that is.

As a side note, expect this year's budget to be skewed by the cancellation of redneck woman Gretchen Wilson's concert.

Quickies: Dog park on Park's back burner; AG comes to town

* Looks like the dog park proposal is squarely in the city's court. I chatted briefly with parks superintendent Steve Mullally the other night and he said it's pretty much on the "back burner" for the Park District.

* Sweet! Frolf in Crookston!

* Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem is holding a presentation on the state's laws on open meetings and open records at 4 p.m., July 19, at the Alerus Center.

I was gonna just leave the notice at that. But a friend pointed out that this comes after his opponent, Democrat Bill Brudvik, questioned a recent ruling that the State Board of Higher Education didn't violate any laws when two of its members met with the governor in February to talk about university system Chancellor Robert Potts.

Whatever the motive, I gotta say that I've always liked the way Stenehjem treats the press. He's always approachable and makes himself available at strange hours.

Advice column: Ask a City Council*

Dear City Council: Why is the sky blue?
- Suzie, age 6

Dear Suzie: Sometimes the sky is blue and sometimes it is grey. We on the council get a lot of comments from the community and the community wants blue skies. Just yesterday, we ran into a neighbor of ours who said overcast days are depressing and he wished it would clear up already.

To us, it's sad that a few clouds could change the our quality of life like this.

The time may have come, then, for the city to look into the cost-effectiveness of weather modification. We motion that the City Council form a task force made up of representatives from the council, city staff and residents, both from the pro-blue sky camp and the pro-grey sky camp. We also motion the city set aside up to $10,000 to hire consultants to run some calculations at our direction. Do we have a second?

Dear City Council: There's this really pretty girl in my class and I really like her. What should I do?
- Johnny, age 9

Deary Johnny: If this girl is as pretty as you say, no doubt a lot of boys will be trying to get her attention. Normally, we would suggest you send her a nice card with maybe some Tootsie Rolls. But since you really have to stand out from the competition, we think you should build a fountain dedicated to her.

It should be a really nice fountain, possibly in the middle of a river, that can spray water high in the air. That way, the girl you like will be able to easily see it. It should also have lights so it is equally attractive day and night.

As a side benefit, this fountain would also attract visitors to our community, helping our businesses. That's what we call a win-win situation, Johnny.

But a fountain like this, our engineers say, would cost a lot more than the average 9-year-old's allowance. We understand the water and light department has some money that it won't be using next year so we recommend you go ask them. You should ask nicely and soon because those guys get pretty grumpy when you ask at the last minute -- something about needing to do budget planning.

Dear City Council: Kyle took my toy and he won't give it back.
- Cynthia, age 3 1/2

Dear Cynthia: The city's role is to protect and serve and we need to show zero tolerance towards toy-taking. Our officers tell us that they can't always respond to incidents of toy-taking because toy-taking is lower on the priority list than other crimes, such as assault and battery or murder.

Sometimes the officer has to help another officer requiring assistance.

Let us say that you, Cynthia, call 911 and an officer is sent over. But suppose, at that time, another officer pulls over a speeding driver and that officer needs help with the ticketing process. The officer that was supposed to help you would have to divert to help out a fellow officer.

It occurs to us, then, that our police might need more resources to enforce the existing toy-taking laws. It further occurs to us that the laws we have might not provide our officers with enough flexibility. For example, if the toy is taken but then is returned, the laws do not specify whether the original toy-taking is still a crime. The law also does not say whether our officers can scold the toy-taker or not.

Therefore, we motion the city attorney draft the necessary amendment to the toy-taking ordinance and present this matter before the public safety standby committee.

Dear City Council: How are babies made? My friend Stu says kissing is involved. Is that true?
- Timmy, age 8

Dear Timmy: We're not convinced that making babies (or kissing for that matter) is the role of city government. Our role is to "protect and serve," not "titilate and procreate." Also, in this time of fiscal constraint, it really wouldn't be prudent to create new programs. Private individuals, we feel, can best kiss and make babies without interference by government.

It might be, as you suggest, that we as a community need to make more babies to counter outmigration. It occurs to us that, going forward, the city might consider providing incentives to help the private sector reach its full potential.

Anyway, Timmy, we don't think we should talk about how babies are made right now. Making babies, like legislating, is like making sausages.

*This is a fact-free article. It is satire. It might not be funny, but it's still satire. See McSweeney's for similar weirdness.

Quickies: Discord on the board; trading junk

* Prairie Pundit shreds the Grand Forks School Board, based on this story by Paulette Tobin.

Discord on the board brings back memories of the Grand Forks City Council circa 2002. Accusations of conflicts of interest. Debates over ethics. Fourteen council members with almost as many agendas. Ah, sweet memories....

* There weren't enough quickies yesterday for a post so I saved this item. If you didn't check Dakota's blog, she's getting the city to put together a Web site to exchange -- well, one man's trash is another's treasure, especially if it stays out of the landfill. Fargo's got one. There's even a junk wanted page.

* East Grand Forks' Civic Center to turn Green Wave green.

* Behold the power of blogs: Looks like the Kentucky state government can't handle the heat from this blog.

GF Park District energy bill too high

The budget writers at the Grand Forks Park District figured that energy costs would go up by about 15 percent this year so that's how much they added to the energy budget. It actually went up 20 percent.

Executive director John Staley told park commissioners tonight that they might have to make some cuts starting this fall -- for example, reducing the number of hours warming houses are lighted -- and make cuts for next year's budget.

For you people clamoring for a cut in the property tax rate, John says he still expected the district to reduce some mills. Unlike the city, the park district has certain mills dedicated to certain functions and can't transfer money among different funds. That means some funds will be overfunded due to the recent increase in property values citywide.

Other funds, like the general fund, which pays the energy bills, will not change. The general fund won't even go up, despite the higher bills, because they have as many mills as the state allows.

Dog park petition, the sequel

Anybody remember Nancy Joyner?

Four years ago, she wrote a letter to the Herald editor suggesting the city of Grand Forks build a dog park where dogs like hers can enjoy a little freedom from the leash.

Well, with progress on the dog park moving at roughly the speed of -- hmmm, what is it that takes three years to move no where?* Let's say it's not moving at a pace that suggests there will be a dog park, conveniently located in town, any time soon. There's also a lot of NIMBY opposition popping up and irate taxpayers wondering why they have to pay for somebody's pet's happiness.

So Nancy is doing what a lot of people have been doing lately: She's putting together a petition. It says simply: "I support Grand Forks City and Park District in establishing a fenced dog park area within Grand Forks." Nancy's just trying to show a little voting muscle. Petitions are at veterinarian offices, pet stores and pet supply stores. You can also e-mail her here.

In the interest of fairness, I haven't talked to other dog park petitioners but if you are one of them, let me know and I will post your contact information.

* The city identified two potential sites for a dog park back in August 2003. Now it is July and two potential sites have faced such vigorous opposition that I'm pretty sure they've been ruled out. Haha. Like Council member Doug Christensen likes to say, this is like "making sausage."

Quickies: This is encouraging recycling? New city Web site

* This is the scene at Hugo's on Sunday evening. Either Waste Management has been really successful at encouraging recycling or they need to pick up more.

Oh yeah, when does my apartment complex get a no-sort recycling bin?

* The city of Grand Forks has unveiled its new Web site. The links page with all the information for taxpayers -- to me, the most important one -- is pretty comprehensive.

There's a bunch of forms that you can fill in to request anything from repairing streetlights in your neighborhood to getting on the city mailing list for news releases. There's also information on current bids the city has open for construction and other services.

And there's what you've all been waiting for: Council TV online! Woohoo! Yeah, baby!! Come over to my quarters for some toast and we'll watch Council TV.

* JGS has an update on all the biz that's going up around town. GrandForksGuy has an update on the old Stratford Building downtown. Man, I always thought that place would look great with a brew-pub. Now it's massages and facials and stuff.

* The City Beat went to the movies this weekend for the first time in a long time. I won't complain since I don't know how the business works, but I can't help but wonder a) why the theater here charges $8 a ticket and theaters in Fargo charge less -- how much they charge, I don't recall -- and b) why, at that price, new theaters don't want to come to town. You'll recall that Canad Inns had such a hard time finding a theater operator that it told the City Council not to expect one, just some amenity to be determined. You'll also recall Columbia Mall announced about a year and half ago that Wallace Theaters is supposed to come to the old Target space. Whatever the delay is, they sure ain't in a hurry to get here.

(I saw Nacho Libre, by the way. It was hysterical. I expect the line "Have you ever had feelings for a nun?" to appear on T-shirts soon.)

* Almost forgot: Viva Italia! To think, we tied those guys.

GF council turns right

It looks to the City Beat that the Grand Forks City Council has shifted a bit to the right.

Last night, during discussions of two new laws, newly elected Council member Art Bakken explicitly questioned whether new regulations would have the desired impact. (Maybe "right" is the wrong description. "Libertarian" is probably better.)

The first law discussed was the the one requiring bartenders to receive training on false IDs. Bar owners are afraid it would cost too much and do little to reduce binge drinking. They also feel it would shift responsibility to them rather than punish the real culprits: kids using fake IDs. Bakken appeared to agree with the bar owners. His predecessor, Dorette Kerian, favored the licensing law.

The second law discussed was the one requiring owners of single family homes who rent them out to get a license. The law was proposed to curb the wild partying and chaotic parking in the UND neighborhood. Bakken said he's not necessarily opposed to the law but he wants the council to, in six to eight months, examine whether the law had worked. Kerian favored the law, too.

I don't want to suggest a humongo shift, since Bakken is only one new member. The other new member is Mike McNamara. But I see him as a conservative in the law-and-order mold and that's a little different from the libertarian mold. (That's just a hunch. We'll see if I'm right or not.)

What I did notice, though, was the balance shifting on the bartender licensing law. Initially, there were three council members who questioned its effectiveness: Council members Doug Christensen, Hal Gershman and Curt Kreun. The other four varied from cautious to supportive. With Bakken, though, that makes four out of seven council members.

I also noticed Bakken's skepticism of new regulations. He mentioned that, as the owner of a trucking firm, he finds that some laws intended to enhance safety on the road comes at too high a cost for businesses.

Reader question: What's up with the water on the paddle wheel?

Barb wrote:

I enjoy the paddlewheel at the Town Square and think it adds to the atmosphere during the summer when the "water" part of it is up and running. I do have a question though and wonder if you could investigate it. Why does the water run down one side of it? Can't it be made to work so water runs down both sides of the paddlewheel? To me it looks like it's only working half way right...

As luck would have it, Barb, I did investigate this a long time ago. The answer is that the wheel is supposed to look like it was in motion. Imagine the wheel on a paddleboat as it's turning. Water comes down only on the side that was just in the water. The other side is still in the air. If that's the case, I always thought a more asymmetrical arrangement would've enhanced the illusion of motion even more.

While we're on the topic of public art, I'm still trying to figure out who's responsible for that goofy fountain thing -- the one with the two faces facing each other -- at the parking lot across from the Dacotah Hotel. I'm told city staff calls it the "Beavis and Butthead" lot. If you don't know what I'm talking about head downtown sometime. The likeness is uncanny.

Come to think of it, there must be a city guide to public art somewhere. Be back soon with the answer.

Update: 10:10 p.m., 7/6/06: Since you asked, here's a side-by-side comparison. Sorry about the first image. I have a digital camera but it doesn't cooperate with the computers here so I had to use by cell phone camera.

"Now and Then" statue	Beavis and Butthead

According to a pamphlet published a couple of summers ago:

"Now and Then"; Patrick Luber; Grand Forks, N.D. The interior of the doorway outlines two faces looking at each other, the negative space forms the shape of a vase. [Not sure why that's significant. - Tu]The upper portion of the fountain echoes the shape of the vase/face configuration. The repeated use of the vase suggests looking forward and back, contemplating the changes that have occurred over the years and anticipating things to come. [Photo is from the other side so the fountain isn't as prominent. - Tu] The flowing water of the fountain mimics the theme of the passage of time. "Now and Then" reminds us that, although water has the potential to create havoc, it is also a thing of beauty and a life-giving force.

Luber has some other works that you can see here.

Amazon.com land lease

The city of Grand Forks is set to renew a $1,710-a-year lease on the 77 acres off of 32nd Avenue South. It looks like that site is next to the 77 acres the city bought back in 2000 for $1.25 million. Another $1 million was spent leveling the land. City officials thought at the time that Amazon.com would locate a warehouse and distribution center here.

The lease lets the owner, Beau Bateman, continue to farm unless the city needs the land for some new company. This could come in handy if the city runs out of land in the Industrial Park.

New tenant for Corporate Center

The north building of downtown Grand Forks' Corporate Center is gonna get a new tenant after sitting vacant for the last three years.

The Social Security Administration, which has an office near downtown, is moving into the third floor and paying $146,000 a year for the first seven year. The lease for another eight years is negotiable.

The city built the Corporate Center in 2000 and quickly filled the south building with Alerus Financial; Camrud, Maddock, Olson & Larson; and Brady Martz. But man has it had trouble with the other building. Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota, also known as Noridian, moved into the second and third floor in August 2000 but had left by August 2003. The first floor has always been vacant.

The same year Noridian left, United Way of Grand Forks, East Grand Forks and Area and Village Family Service Center began plans to convert two floors into a non-profit center. But the groups sought incentives from the city to make that happen and the city wouldn't bite.

Quickies: Scenic views of Grand Forks, doing business with East Grand Forks

* The City Beat went out and took some photos of fireworks last night and was pleased to find all the downtown parking ramps packed. Those ramps were definitely helpful. The cars would have otherwise taken up all the parking in the surrounding neighborhoods.

* Speaking of photos, anybody besides me and young Rick Abbott posting their photos of Grand Forks online?

I found a couple of cool photos, like this one (Hard to remember the "thrills" of winter at this time of year. Here's a reminder.) from Lazy~Lightning; or this one (Indy Day fireworks) by The Angel Frog; or this one (Great Flood of '06) by Cpod the Elder; or this one (I had the same shot!) by Vaseeharan.

Then there's this guy who's OBSSESSED with Dairy Queen. Scroll down to see all the photos of the Columbia Road DQ.

Don't forget, the city of Grand Forks has this photo calendar contest. Deadline is Aug. 15.

* I noticed two funny items on the East Grand Forks City Council agenda today.

13. Consider adopting Resolution No. 06-07-64 a Resolution authorizing the City of East Grand Forks to approve purchases from Bert’s Truck Equipment for #615 Packer Repair and #733 Fuel Filler Cup for a total of $1,173.53 whereas Council Member [Wayne] Gregoire is personally interested financially in the contract.

14. Consider adopting Resolution No. 06-07-65 a Resolution authorizing the City of East Grand Forks to approve purchases from Hardware Hank the goods referenced in voucher 29691 and 29692 for a total of $1,803.01 and $252.71, whereas Council Member [Craig] Buckalew is personally interested financially in the contract.

Nothing sinister here. It's just a really small town and the city wants to do business only with Eastside businesses, if at all possible (I don't think Grand Forks has this policy). When it says "personally interested," it means the person named will abstain from voting.

* My good buddy, reporter David Dodds, stopped in recently to visit after several months of hardcore training at Ft. McCoy, Wis. Doddsy, a National Guardsman, is headed for the Middle East for a while.

He'll be back but, man, it makes me think of the changes in this business. I've been here six years and so many faces have passed by. Who remembers weekend anchor Herryn Riendeau? Or the Herald's political reporters Ian Swanson and Sam Black? Or Herald reporter Xiao Zhang? Or WDAZ anchors Jane Joyce, Sara Groenberg and Jenny Frederickson?