General News

It's been dubbed the "North Bakken Expansion Project."

WBI Energy is proposing to build a 60 mile long, 20 inch diameter natural gas pipeline from WBI’s Tioga Compressor Station to an interconnection with the Northern Border Pipeline south of Watford City.

The division of MDU Resources plans to build a new natural gas compressor station near that interconnection, and it plans to construct 20 miles of 12 inch diameter pipeline from the Tioga station to a receipt station.

North Dakota will see an upgrade in its voting system.

The Legislature approved $12 million for a new system. Jaeger says $3 million of that comes from federal funds.

"We already had the bid in place for the voting system," said North Dakota Secretary of State Al Jaeger. "So now that we have the funding, and the Legislature passed that part of the bill with an emergency clause, the funding is available now."

Jaeger said an executive steering committee will start the procurement process for the new system.

It could be the final legal hurdle for the Northwest Area Water Supply Project.

That’s the project to bring Missouri River water to Minot and areas of North Central and Northwest North Dakota.

With Mark Kennedy leaving the University of North Dakota, the Board of Higher Education is beginning to lay out the steps to replace him.

Kennedy has been hired as the President of the University of Colorado. He starts his new job June 15.

University System Chancellor Mark Hagerott said the plan is to hire an interim President, and have that person on board by June 15. Hagerott said he hopes to have someone in mind by the May board meeting.

Our guest is Gov. Doug Burgum, as we finish this season of North Dakota Legislative Review.

The manager of the state-owned Mill and Elevator in Grand Forks said the third quarter of fiscal 2019 was good – despite some challenges.

"We were knocked back on our volume a little bit by the tough weather we had," said Vance Taylor. "Our volume is down by about 3%."

Despite that, Taylor said the mill made $2.2 million in that quarter.

For the fiscal year to date, the mill reports $9.2 million in profits. That’s down slightly from the same time in the previous fiscal year, when profits were about $10 million.