welkhome2smallBISMARCK, N.D. (AP) – North Dakota’s Legislature has decided to pay for maintenance and other costs at the boyhood home of famous band leader Lawrence Welk.
 
     The Legislature two years ago included $100,000 in the State Historical Society’s budget for the purchase of the home in Strasburg.
 
     Senators had wanted an appropriation of $135,000 over the next two years for maintenance and to pay part-time staff. North Dakota’s House voted against the funding.
 
     A House-Senate conference committee reached a compromise and recommended that $100,000 should be spent to pay staff and maintain the home.
 
     Both chambers approved the funding Tuesday.
 
     The historical society hopes the Welk home also can be a tourist draw to tout in part the region’s German-Russian heritage.