In case you missed it in The Sun the week of June 23, 2025

The following stories from this week appeared on www.jamestownsun.com and in The Jamestown Sun.

The Stutsman County Commission unanimously approved an emergency declaration during a special meeting on Monday, June 23, for the severe weather event on Friday and Saturday, June 20-21.

The emergency declaration says Stutsman County experienced a severe weather event on Friday and Saturday that included rain, high winds, hail and confirmed tornado activity that resulted in damage to fields, homes, agricultural and commercial buildings, roads, parks and other public facilities. The declaration says severe weather caused power outages, created localized flooding impacting public transportation, damage to public and private property and debris on public property and impacted travel, damaged infrastructure including overhead power lines and disrupted water and sewer systems.

The emergency declaration says the damage resulted in a death and threatened the health, well-being and public safety of Stutsman County citizens. It says the resources to make roads passable might exceed normal local capabilities. High winds caused additional damage to roads via wave action and downed trees and power lines.

Stutsman County Sheriff Chad Kaiser told WDAY in an email that a 76-year-old man died after power was lost at a residence in rural Courtenay. Kaiser said the man was on a breathing machine and the residence lost power due to the severe weather, causing the man to pass away while was sleeping.

The Jamestown Parks and Recreation Commission unanimously approved an emergency declaration on Monday, June 23, due to the damage caused by the severe weather on Friday and Saturday, June 20-21.

The emergency declaration authorizes Jamestown Parks and Recreation District Executive Director Amy Walters to close and reopen all or portions of city parks. It also authorizes Walters to contract with licensed arborists and engage with licensed contractors as necessary to secure any structures without a formal bid process to complete the work.

Walters said many trees were downed at Klaus, McElroy, Nickeus and Solien-Denault parks.

The Parks and Recreation District announced on Monday, June 23, the closure of Klaus, McElroy, little Meidinger along 16th Avenue and 15th Street Southwest and Solien-Denault parks and the Sensory Garden. White Cloud Nature and Pipestem Creek trails were also closed. Nobody should drive, walk, run or bike in these facilities or trails, the district said.

More than a hundred trees are estimated to be down at Highland Home Cemetery after last weekend’s storms, said one of its board members.

“The old section of the cemetery, the original section, that got hit the worst,” Nick Scherbenske said. “There was a lot of big evergreens that got knocked down.”

Most of the downed trees are evergreens, he said.

They expected to begin moving those downed trees on Tuesday, Scherbenske said.

“The crew is working on some of the smaller stuff but some of them big trees, we just don’t have the equipment to take care of (them),” he said Monday.

Scherbenske said some of the trees that uprooted also displaced headstones.

The Jamestown City Council unanimously approved changing the city of Jamestown’s health insurance carrier on Tuesday, June 24, to the Sanford Health Plan.

During the special meeting, the City Council also established monthly premium rates and health savings account contributions for the city of Jamestown’s employee group health insurance plan for the fiscal year from Sept. 1 to Aug. 31, 2026.

The city of Jamestown’s previous health insurance carrier was Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Natasha Harr, benefit broker for the city of Jamestown, said renewing with Blue Cross Blue Shield would have an estimated additional cost of $166,000 annually, or 11%.

Switching to the Sanford Health Plan will have an estimated additional cost of only about $700 annually, or 0.05%. Harr said the Sanford Health Plan includes a 10.9% second-year rate cap guarantee.

The Jamestown Finance and Legal Committee unanimously recommended approval on Tuesday, June 24, to schedule a public hearing on July 24 for a request from Cavendish Farms Inc. for a tax exemption for 15 years for the potato processing plant’s expansion and improvements.

Mayor Dwaine Heinrich said a negotiating committee would need to be created with appointed members from the Jamestown Public School District and Stutsman County.

“We'll have to ask them for their recommendations,” he said, referring to the proposed tax exemption for Cavendish Farms.

Cavendish Farms is planning an expansion that will replace the fryer, expand the building by 55 feet and provide a better working environment and storage at the facility, Agweek reported in November.

Cavendish Farms is looking for a tax exemption for its expansion and improvements that has an estimated cost of about $200 million, said Josh Teigen, principal of Harvest Group which represents Cavendish. He said construction on the project is expected to begin in August and be completed by December 2026.

Cavendish is also looking for a tax exemption on constructing a wastewater treatment facility with an estimated cost of about $25 million to $35 million.

The tax exemption would be about $2 million annually or $30 million over 15 years for the projects.

The Jamestown Fire Department responded to 25 calls related to the severe weather on June 20-21 that downed many trees and caused power outages throughout Jamestown, according to Fire Chief Jim Reuther.

Reuther said at the Jamestown Police and Fire Committee meeting on Thursday, June 26, that firefighters responded to fires, power outages and fire alarms. He said some alarms went off when the power was restored at some businesses.

He also said firefighters responded to power lines landing on top of the roofs due to the high wind.

Reuther said the Jamestown Fire Department helped the Jamestown Rural Fire Department with a call west of Jamestown. He said a barn collapsed with 12 horses in it and eight horses were rescued.

Workforce grows by 30,000 as ND helps with talent recruitment

The North Dakota Department of Commerce’s Workforce Development Council has worked to attract out-of-state talent , including domestic and foreign-born workers, according to Katie Ralston Howe, deputy commissioner for the Commerce Department.

The state has a 2.1% unemployment rate with a labor participation rate of 69.5%, one of the highest in the nation, Ralston Howe said at the Jamestown/Stutsman Development Corp.’s annual meeting Wednesday, June 25, at Harold Newman Arena.

In 2020 and 2021, the state’s workforce participation rate dropped due to economic shifts caused by the coronavirus pandemic and changes in North Dakota’s oil and gas industry, she said. She said total employment was at 395,000.

“Now, according to the 2024 annual report released by Job Service (North Dakota), our total average employment last year was 424,030 workers,” Ralston Howe said. “It's important to keep in mind that a 1% increase in our workforce is 4,000 workers, so an increase of 30,000 workers over the last four years is no small feat. We're also seeing this growth reflected in our population, earning North Dakota the No. 1 ranking in net migration.”

Ralston Howe said the state of North Dakota is using a hands-on approach to support out-of-state job seekers and helping them relocate. She said the Find the Good Life in North Dakota national talent attraction initiative uses software to collect information for job seekers and connect them with communities and employers in the state.