2007 in Review, Part 2

From a big snowfall to the start of field work March and April were busy months for major news stories in the region Jim Olson has a look as he continues his look at 2007 in review March came in like a lion A nasty snowstorm blew through much of North Dakota causing major travel problems - especially on highways where snow fog was a big issue - as we demonstrated in this story from March 2nd The storm was a little foreshadowing of what was to come from mother nature - as the region had a very wet late spring and early summer The snowy start to March was also a harbinger of good things to come on Lake Sakakawea The moisture made lake management officials a bit more optimistic about the season to come - the 8th year of drought on the Missouri River system But even with the optimism the fact remained that the lake was 25 feet or more below its normal levels - a fact that brought a big crowd to the KX Sports Show in March to hear experts talk about the issue Early March brought a big announcement regarding the area s value-added Agriculture industry Minot officials announced that MG Grain an international exporter would open a location in the new ag park on the city s east side The announcement was also a catalyst in getting the developing intermodal site moving forward We ll tell you more about that shipping facility in later reports Jails were in the news in March and April In Rugby officials announced they were delaying payments on loans for the North Central Regional Corrections Center after the number of inmates failed to reach the levels expected Jail officials said they were not getting all of the promised prisoners from some agencies causing a slow financial start to the new facility Meanwhile in Williston groundbreaking was held for the 16-million dollar regional jail and law enforcement center The project offered the promise of more space to handle a growing inmate population and the benefit of bringing several agencies from police to sheriffs department to federal agencies into one location Law enforcement agencies were busy near Towner on April 10th when they raided the Sandhills Dairy arresting 13 workers they said were in the country illegally The business owner complained of the tactics used in the raid but officials said they acted properly in making the arrests which resulted in deportation or jail time for all of the 13 suspects Easter Sunday was a devastating day for friends and family of Alice and Don Willey The rural Sykeston couple were murdered and their house was burned down Before long law enforcement officials announced they had charged Aaron Nicols and his girlfriend Tamara Sorenson with the crimes They say Sorenson who bore a grandchild of the Willey s conspired with Nicols to kill the couple in order to acquire a multi-million dollar fund set up for the grandchild after the child s father - the Willey s son - died in a helicopter crash several years ago The trial for the two is coming up early in 2008 Groundbreaking was held in early April for the 8-and-a-half million dollar North Broadway reconstruction project By the end of the month work was reaching a fever pitch Farmers were getting into the fields by the end of April with the promise of pretty good moisture and promising prices And the 60th Legislature wrapped up its work in late April after deciding on a 115-million dollar property tax refund and setting up a committee to decide how to proceed with space problems at the state pen In all legislators worked on more than 900 bills in the four month session that ended late in the evening of April 25th Jim Olson KX News Cam 2 Tomorrow Jim will continue his report with the major stories of May and June