EDITORIAL
LOCAL
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Vol. 114 No. 50
Weather brings warning for caution, preparation BY BRAD MOSHER Country Media
W
inter has arrived and hit Bowman County with a blast of frigid Canadian cold. According to the Bismarck office of the National Weather Ser vice, the southwestern are of North Dakota avoided the biggest hit over the weekend when a large winter storm hit Montana and North Dakota with snowfall getting as high as 10 inches in parts of the Peace Garden state. In Bowman and surrounding counties, the snowfall was much less, but with travel being impacted on the state highways with blowing snow and patches of ice on the roads. The weather service office in Bismarck predicted that the Bowman area would get between one and two inches of snow from the weekend storm, while the rest of the region would get between four to six inches. But the storm was the first wave as a frigid cold moved into the state after ward, dropping
Bowman Library helps kicks off the season with
BY BRAD MOSHER Country Media
S
anta spent several hours visiting with children in the Bowman Public Library, posing for photos. But that wasn't the only seasonal draw for the library. Just a short distance away, children of all ages could create homemade Christmas ornaments with designs of trees, angels and donkeys. While some children were busy in the library with ornaments and Santa, others chose to get a hayride around
Editorial................... 4
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the downtown area, sitting on bales of hay in a horse-drawn wagon. The Bowman Theater also got into the act with
a matinee performance of the 2003 Will Ferrell film “Elf ”. According to a library spokeswoman more than 250 people stopped
by to visit with Santa and also get a picture taken with the visitor from the North Pole. This is just a few of the seasonal activities
in store for Bowman and the surrounding communities in the weeks before Christmas. Saturday, the Frosty Frolic will be held at the recreation center, starting at 10 a.m. And ending at 3 p.m., while in Rhame, it will be Santa Day, starting at 10 a.m. The Kat Perkins concert Sunday at 2 p.m. in the Bowman Theater will also have a holiday theme. The Bowman County School District Christmas concert will be competing with the Christmas concert in Scranton, with both starting at 7 p.m. Monday evening in the respective school gymnasiums.
City, school says goodbye to their gentle giant
Local.................2, 3, 6
Classifieds............5, 7
Santa, homemade ornaments
Local residents got a chance to take an old-fashioned hayride with A.G. Giannonatti as the guide through downtown Bowman Saturday for several hours Saturday. PHOTO/Brad Mosher
WEATHER » PAGE 3
Obituaries.................4
DECEMBER 13, 2019
BY BRAD MOSHER Country Media
H
e was called a ‘gentle giant’ at his Celebration of Life Monday in the New England Public School gymnasium. But Shawn Flaherty proved even bigger than that, drawing more than 650 people to remember his life and impact on the small North Dakota town he had called home. That is more than the city’s population of 602. Flaherty was back in Tiger town for the second time when he was killed in a traffic accident Dec. 4 in Dickinson. He came to the Hettinger County city in the 1980s and spent nearly a decade on the sidelines before moving on to coach and teach at Central Valley High School in the small California community of Shasta Lake near Redding and also at Liberty Christian. While at New England, he helped coach a New England-Regent-St. Mary’s football team that won a state football championship (1988) and a New England-Regent squad that was second (1985). He also coached basketball teams that won District 29 titles in 1985 and 1986. Several years ago, Flaherty returned to New England. He coached the varsity basketball team for two years before handing the reins to a former player. He still was on the sidelines, most recently guiding
the youth football team. Michael Schatz, a longtime friend and coaching
colleague, told the people attending of one time the pair thought having a
hamburger stand downtown during the city’s centennial celebration would be a good idea. Schatz recalled that with all the food competition they sold only a few. They decided to stay open as the competition closed. Schatz recalled that Flaherty would go around shouting “hey hamburgers” with his big booming voice. “By 3 a.m. we had sold more than 1,100. “I know if I ever want to
talk to Shawn, all I have to do is go outside and shout ‘hey hamburgers’,” he said looking upwards.” “We were each other's assistants, so we spent a lot of time together. I saw him as a breath of fresh air. “After just four short years, he led us to the state basketball tournament.... a place we had not been since 1942. He taught me and many others how to win the big game which can be one of the most elusive things that there is,” Schatz said to the crowd that filled the gymnasium completely. “If I could sum up Shawn in one word, it would be passionate. Shawn was all in for whatever he was passionate about. And he made you passionate as well. He was a force of nature, uncompromising about what he thought was right. He would eat, sleep and drink basketball or whatever sport he was coaching,” he added. Schatz said Flaherty was a big part of the New England family. “He would do anything for you. He was one of the most entertaining people I have ever met. He loved greeting the children when they came in from the outside. “He was that gentle giant of a man that all kids could look up to, willing to help when other people didn't want to. Anything that benefited kids, Shawn would be there,” his longtime friend added. “Shawn was a miracle, sent to New England to help us and to teach us and to coach us,” Schatz said.