CSi Weather…

TONIGHT…CLOUDY. LOWS 5 TO 10 ABOVE. SOUTH WINDS AROUND 5 MPH.
.FRIDAY…PARTLY SUNNY. HIGHS IN THE MID 20S. SOUTHEAST WINDS
5 TO 10 MPH.
.FRIDAY NIGHT…MOSTLY CLOUDY. LOWS 15 TO 20. SOUTHEAST WINDS AROUND 10 MPH SHIFTING TO THE NORTHEAST AFTER MIDNIGHT.
.SATURDAY…PARTLY SUNNY. HIGHS IN THE LOWER 20S. NORTHWEST WINDS 5 TO 15 MPH.
.SATURDAY NIGHT…PARTLY CLOUDY. LOWS 5 TO 10 ABOVE. NORTHWEST
WINDS 10 TO 15 MPH.
.SUNDAY…MOSTLY SUNNY. HIGHS 15 TO 20.
.SUNDAY NIGHT THROUGH TUESDAY NIGHT…MOSTLY CLOUDY. LOWS 10 TO 15. HIGHS IN THE LOWER 20S.
.WEDNESDAY…MOSTLY CLOUDY. SLIGHT CHANCE OF SNOW AND SLEET IN THE MORNING…THEN SLIGHT CHANCE OF SNOW IN THE AFTERNOON. HIGHS IN THE MID 20S. CHANCE OF PRECIPITATION 20 PERCENT.
.WEDNESDAY NIGHT…DECREASING CLOUDS. LOWS 5 TO 10 ABOVE.
.THURSDAY…MOSTLY SUNNY. HIGHS 10 TO 15.

 

 Jamestown, ND (KCSi-T.V. News) — The Jamestown Area Chamber of Commerce has announced the hiring of a new Executive Director.

Chamber President Tim Burchill says Felicia Sargeant has been selected, by the Chamber’s Board of Directors, following a search.

The regular day to day operations of the Jamestown Area Chamber of Commerce continued while the search was in progress, spearheaded by the Chamber’s Communications/Program Coordinator, Lisa Hicks.

Burchill said four individuals applied for the position, and three were interviewed.

Burchill says Ms. Sargeant is well known in the Jamestown community serving as the National Buffalo Museum Director, and the National Buffalo Association.

Ms. Sargeant will step down as the Director of the National Buffalo Museum in Jamestown.

She succeeds Kimberly Saxberg, who voluntary stepped down for the Chamber’s Executive Director position October, 9th this year.

The Jamestown Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors had hired Ms. Saxberg to serve as the organization’s Executive Director June 1st of 2011.

Burchill also has announced the winners of awards to be given out at the January 31, 2013 annual banquet.

Selected as the Outstanding Citizen of the Year was: Fran Romsdal

The Above and Beyond Award for volunteerism will be given to : Corey and Jodi Bayer

And the Business of Year is:  The Bison Six Cinemas.

More information with an interview with Chamber officials on Friday’s (Dec 14, 2012) Wayne Byers Show on CSi Cable 2.

 

Jamestown, ND (KCSi-T.V. News) – The Jamestown City Council met Thursday morning (Dec 13,2012) at 9-a.m., at City Hall, in Special Session and then entered into Executive Session.

During the open session, the City Council approved a Resolution for payment to Interstate Engineering, Inc., for engineering services on the following:

Payment on 2012 Water Tower & Distribution System Improvements, in the amount of $7,135.00.

Payment on 2012 Water Tower & Distribution System Improvements, in the amount of $3,898.00.

Payment for Survey & Design for 13th Avenue & 13th Street SW, in the amount of $857.50.

Payment on 2012 Lift Station and Sewer System Improvements, in the amount of $15,800.00.

Payment on 2012 Lift Station and Sewer System Improvements, in the amount of $8,325.00.

Payment on Water & Sewer District 12-61 & 12-31 (Titan Addition), in the amount of $14,291.00.

Payment on Water & Sewer District 12-61 & 12-31 (Titan Addition), in the amount of $8,773.50.

Payment on the Plant Influent Piping at Wastewater Treatment Plant, in the amount of $3,722.10.

Payment on the Plant Influent Piping at Wastewater Treatment Plant, in the amount of $12,147.40.

Payment on Phase II, Water System Improvements, Water Treatment Plant Improvements, DWSRF Project No. 4700498-03, in the amount of $632.55.

Mayor Andersen said the bills being paid were unpaid for August and September of 2012.

Mayor Andersen said the bill paying process will be improved to eliminate future clerical errors, of bills being overlooked for payment.

　

Another topic discussed at Thursday’s Council meeting, in Executive Session, was negotiations between the City and Stutsman Rural Water District.

Representatives from the City of Jamestown and Stutsman Rural Water District met privately on December 10, 2012 to further discuss issues and concerns, relative to territorial service claims by Stutsman Rural Water District, including the area of Jamestown Regional Medical Center, and the Titan Machinery building under construction in that area.

At that meeting were: Mayor Andersen, City Administrator Jeff Fuchs, and City Attorney, Ken Dalsted, representing the City of Jamestown.

Representing Stutsman Rural Water Users were, board members Joel Lees, Ron Wanzek, and Roger Florhaug, along with Manager Geneva Kaiser, along with Council Scott Sandness, and Co-Council Steven Harris joining on the phone with a conference call from Oklahoma.

At the meeting, Rural Water proposed the city pay it a royalty of $1.50 per 1,000 gallons and the city suggested a royalty of about 6 cents per 1,000 gallons.

The city proposed an additional two a percent payment on any development on sections 2,3 and 4.

Rural Water Manager, Geneva Kaiser, says the two parties were far apart but hoped a compromise could be reached.

　

At Thursday’s City Council meeting, Council Member Charlie Kourajian asked Mayor Andersen if the meeting she attended this week with representatives from Stutsman Rural Water Users, to discuss issues, was open to the public.

The Mayor said it was not officially announced as open, as she was not acting at the meeting by direction of the City Council. No other City Council members were in attendance at that meeting.

Mayor Andersen said future meetings between any city representative and the Stutsman Rural Water District will be announced, in the media.

The Mayor added that the Stutsman Rural Water District met Wednesday, and sent to the city, information discussed at their meeting, in response to the city’s proposal, which the City Council was to discuss at Thursday’s Executive Session meeting.

The Rural Water Users were expected to respond to a city proposal of an additional two a percent payment on any development on sections 2,3 and 4.

　

The City Council then entered into closed Executive Session for the purpose of consulting with the City Attorney relative to territorial service claims by Stutsman Rural Water District.

Those present were: Mayor Andersen, City Attorney Ken Dalsted, City Council Members Kourajian, Gumke and Brubakken, and Jamestown City Fire Chief, Jim Reuther, along with Jamestown Deputy Auditor, Jay Sveum.

 

Following the closed Executive Session at Thursday’s City Council meeting, the Special Session was reconvened, with no further discussion, and no action announced by the Mayor, stemming from the Executive Session.

The City Council meeting was then adjourned.

The meeting was shown live on CSi Cable 67, followed by replays.

 

  BISMARCK, N.D. (AP Dec 13, 2012) – Gov. Jack Dalrymple says a North Dakota National Guard soldier killed in Afghanistan died doing what he loved and will be remembered as an American hero.
 
     Dalrymple spoke at the funeral for 20-year-old Spc. Tyler Orgaard, of Bismarck, on Thursday.
 
     More than 900 people packed the church. Tears flowed as Orgaard’s father, Jesse, played guitar and sang songs of tribute to his son.
 
     Orgaard was killed in a roadside bomb attack along with 41-year-old Sgt. 1st Class Darren Linde, of Devils Lake. Services for Linde were held Tuesday in Sidney, Mont., where he grew up.
 
     The two members of the Williston-based 818th Engineer Company died in southern Afghanistan on Dec. 3. A third soldier was wounded but is recovering.

 

 BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) – Police in North Dakota’s capital city are on the lookout for a cat burglar who broke into a pet store and stole a weeks-old orange tabby from its cage.
 
     Barbara Weekes, owner of Animal Kingdom in Bismarck, tells The Associated Press that someone broke into the store overnight Monday by smashing a glass door, then stole the kitten and some change from a till.
 
     Weekes doesn’t care about the money but is worried about the feline, who she described as loveable and quick to purr. She estimates the kitten was about 12 weeks old. He was in a cage for sale for $48.98 with two other kittens who were left behind.
 
     Police tell the Bismarck Tribune that surveillance video shows a man fleeing the area in a brown, four-door car.

 

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (AP) – A Grand Forks man accused of hiring a 17-year-old girl for sex has been sentenced to 15 days in jail on a misdemeanor charge.
 
     Authorities alleged that 61-year-old Michael Delmore was a customer of two men and a woman who prostituted the girl in Grand Forks over several months in early 2011. Those three people face felony charges of human trafficking of a minor.
 
Prosecutors say Delmore’s cooperation as well as little evidence he knew the girl’s age led to the lesser charge of hiring a woman for sexual acts.
 
     Delmore was a high school counselor in Larimore for more than two decades before retiring last spring. He is the husband of state Rep. Lois Delmore.

 

 WILLISTON, N.D. (AP) – Voters in Williston have shot down a $55 million school bond issue and tax increase to pay for school construction.
 
     The  bond issue and tax increase received less than 30 percent support. The money would have paid for needed school construction and renovations for the rapidly expanding school district.
 
     The district had plans to build a new elementary school where Rickard Elementary is located to open in 2015. Plans called for tearing down Wilkinson Elementary and building a new middle school on that site.
 
     School Board president Sue Brokaw says the district will continue to educate students in the current buildings and modular classrooms and technology advances will be sluggish.

 

FARGO, N.D. (AP) – The North Dakota State University Office of the General Counsel has named Matthew Hammer as the new assistant general counsel.
 
     Hammer has been the office’s legal assistant for nearly two years. In his new role, he will provide legal services to NDSU on a variety of issues.
 
     Hammer earned his Bachelor of Science degree in psychology and sociology from NDSU in May 2003 and his law degree from Drake University of Law School in Des Moines, Iowa, in May 2007.
 
     Hammer worked for the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development prior to joining NDSU. 

 In sports…

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP Dec 13, 2012) – A group pushing a state constitutional amendment to save the University of North Dakota’s retired “Fighting Sioux” nickname has missed a one-year deadline to submit petition signatures.
 
     The group had until Wednesday to turn in 27,000 signatures to Secretary of State Al Jaeger to get the issue on the June 2014 primary ballot. Jaeger says no petitions were submitted.
 
     The proposed constitutional amendment would have required UND’s sports teams to be known as the Fighting Sioux. Jaeger says if the group wants to continue pushing the proposal, it will have to start from scratch.
 
     Group spokesman Sean Johnson didn’t immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment.
 
     UND dropped the contentious nickname after more than two-thirds of North Dakota voters in the June primary chose to dump the moniker.

In world and national news…

WASHINGTON (AP) – House Speaker John Boehner (BAY’-nur) says the White House is so resistant to cutting spending that it is risking pushing the country off the “fiscal cliff.” The Ohio Republican says President Barack Obama has not been serious about controlling spending, which Republicans say is the source of government’s budget deficit problems. Boehner says Obama wants far more in tax increases than on spending reductions, and says the president’s refusal to control spending is why talks between the two men have failed to reach an agreement so far.
 
     WASHINGTON (AP) – House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi says a deal must be reached “in the next couple of days or the very beginning of next week” to avoid the fiscal cliff of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts. Pelosi is criticizing Republican House leaders for sending lawmakers home Thursday, saying they should stay in Washington and work on a solution. Last week, most House members left town on Wednesday. Negotiations appear at standstill over President Barack Obama’s insistence that tax rates increase for top earners.
 
     NEW YORK (AP) – Stocks are slipping on Wall Street after more tensions flared up in federal budget talks in Washington. The Dow Jones industrial average and other major market indexes had been little changed in morning trading, Thursday but took a turn lower after House Speaker John Boehner expressed frustration at how slowly negotiations were going with the White House.
 
     BEIRUT (AP) – Even Syria’s most powerful ally is now expressing uncertainty over the future of Bashar Assad’s government. A Russian foreign ministry official says Assad’s government is losing control over “an increasing part” of Syria, and that the possibility of a rebel victory “can’t be excluded.” 
 
     MIAMI (AP) – Anti-virus software founder John McAfee says U.S. authorities have made no efforts to question him. He spoke to reporters outside a Miami Beach hotel, where he’s been staying since arriving yesterday from Guatemala. He’s spent weeks evading authorities in Belize who want to question him in a homicide.