A group raising money for the new Governor’s residence has met one of its goals.
“Friends of the Residence” has raised $500,000. That’s half the group’s overall goal. The committee's co-chair, Jim Poolman of Bismarck, says that means ground can be broken for the new residence.
"The process of continuing on with the new residence, in terms of construction, and coming up with the actual plans to build it continues," said Poolman. "Those will happen without interruption. And we're pretty excited about that."
Poolman says dozens of contributions – ranging from $25 to $100,000 – have come in to make this step happen. And he says he hopes to raise the remaining half-million dollars by the first quarter of 2016.
The new residence has a $5 million budget. $4 million was appropriated by the Legislature.