In case you missed it in The Sun the week of April 15, 2024

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

The Stutsman County Park Board could look at completing a comprehensive plan for its facilities and assets to find out what the community needs and wants.

Stutsman County Commissioner Jerry Bergquist said Tuesday, April 16, that the park board needs to look beyond just the Jamestown Reservoir land formerly owned by the Bureau of Reclamation if the board is going to review its master plan.

“We need to incorporate all those responsibilities that the park board has and find out from the public what they want us to do with those lands,” he said.

During a public input meeting on April 3 on the Dakota Skies Outdoor Recreation Area project, Bergquist said he realized the park board didn’t have a plan for its land.

“We need to somehow invest time and money on somehow putting a plan together,” he said.

No action was taken on the suggestion.

Amy Walters, executive director of the Jamestown Parks and Recreation District, told the park board about the district putting together a comprehensive plan .

Berguist said having Walters talk about Jamestown Parks and Recreation District's process of getting a comprehensive plan might help the park board make a decision on how it should move forward with its master plan.

Conflicts with the Red River Valley Fair forced Stutsman County Fair Board members to schedule the event about two weeks earlier , according to Rod Wilhelm, a member of the board.

The Stutsman County Fair is now scheduled for June 12-15. The Red River Valley Fair now plans events over three weekends including June 28-30, July 4-7 and July 11-14.

“The Red River Valley Fair went to just a weekend schedule,” said Dennis Mickelson, president of the Stutsman County Fair Board. “It messed up our schedule with the carnival.”

Wilhelm said the carnival travels a circuit with the Stutsman County Fair on a schedule with the Red River Valley Fair, the North Dakota State Fair and other major events in the region. This year, the carnival is operating under the name Amusement Midway Providers.

“There was a merger of a couple of the carnivals,” he said. “It is basically the same carnival we’ve had here in previous years with a new name.”

The open class Home and Hobby events, including garden exhibits, will remain part of the fair in June. Nearly all food vendors are also anticipated to return this year.

More veterans are now eligible to enroll in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ health care system after a recent expansion of the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act, according to David Bratton, veterans service officer for Stutsman County.

The expansion of health care eligibility in March makes all veterans who served in the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Global War on Terror or any other combat zone after 9/11 eligible to enroll in VA health care without applying for VA benefits first. Veterans who were never deployed but were exposed to toxins or hazards while training or on active duty in the U.S. are also eligible to enroll.

“It covers mainly toxic exposure,” Bratton said. “They are looking at things like air pollutants from burn pits, sand, chemicals, pesticides. They are always finding new bases that have issues from contaminated water.”

He added that veterans could have been exposed to depleted uranium or industrial solvents.

The FRC7578 Quantum Mechanics robotics team at Jamestown High School finished in seventh place at a regional FIRST Robotics Competition on April 6-7 in St. Cloud, Minnesota, said their coach, Jordan Montgomery.

Montgomery said the rookie team of six students, including five from JHS and one from Montpelier High School, competed against teams with twice as much funding and up to six times the number of students. The local students competing for the first time were Miah Tyson, Layna Hoffer, Brennen Roepke, Ty Everett, Brock Truax and Cody Veldkamp.

James Valley Robotics Association, a local nonprofit organization, runs the team and partners with Jamestown Public Schools to work with students in Jamestown, said Montgomery, who is also the executive director for JVRA. Students from surrounding districts are invited to participate, he said.