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Serving the Region Since 1907

DEADLINE IS FRIDAY AT 4 P.M Vol. 115 No. 32

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AUGUST 7, 2020

Bowman schools start registration as board finalizes plans

Access to the Bowman County campus is still being strictly regulated as it prepares for the start of the school year. PHOTO/Brad Mosher

By Brad Mosher

bmosher@countrymedia.net

The Bowman County School District unveiled its draft for opening and operating its campuses in Rhame and Bowman July 29 and it went before the board again Wednesday for final approval, according

to local school superintendent. Superintendent Wayne Heckaman said that there were only a few minor changes made after the first meeting, which lasted about three hours. According to the superintendent, if approved, the district will be following the state health guidelines and use that for the cleaning and student scheduling protocols. Registration has already started for the students, with the students starting their first day of school Aug. 19. Eighth grade students will start registration Aug. 10, followed on Tuesday by the seventh graders registering and going through orientation. “Last week, on Wednesday (July 29), we presented our first draft,” the superintendent said Monday. “This week we had will have another special board meeting on Aug. 5. It is our hope and our goal that when we submit our latest draft for full approval, that is will be passed.” The latest draft incorporates material from the surveys that the district’s COVID-19 Response Team has received, the superintendent explained. “We had a really good presentation on our draft last week and there is not going to be any real substantial changes to our draft. We are going to add a few resources and guidance onto that draft, but other than that, we feel pretty confident going forward. “Our response team that help draft our health and safety plan met for three and a half days. There was a lot of collaborating and that team did an enormous amount of work,” Heckaman explained. “A lot of the credit to how the first draft came (together) was because of that time and effort. We had a really diverse group of individuals that met those three and a half days. We had two school board

members, high school principals, both of our counselors and the elementary, our tech coordinator, myself, both of our athletic directors were there and we had representation from the Rhame teaching staff. We had representation from the Bowman elementary and high school teaching staff, a social services representative and our local county health nurse was also involved in our team planning. There were also two parents, one from the Rhame community and one from the Bowman community on that team,” he said. “The majority of the people on that (team) were also parents,” he added. “We all wear multiple hats. “I feel really good. It was a huge team effort and the collaboration and diversity that we had really provided for a really good draft.” If approved, the latest draft calls for continuing to follow the state guidance for cleaning and disinfecting the campus, facilities and buses, the superintendent said. The district will also post the approved draft on its websites. The risk levels will determine how the schools and the district respond to the COVID-19 threat, the superintendent explained. “Each of our risk levels, we go off of a color, so it is all laid out in the draft,” he said. “State-wide, I believe we are currently green right now.” There may be distance learning available for the parents and students. “We are working with our building principals and families if they want to go look at that option,” he said. “For our district, K through 12, our students have that option to do distance learning from the very start of school. We will work with those parents, if that is what they would like to do. “Right now, I don’t know of anybody requesting to do it from the first day of school,” he added.

County plans special meeting Monday for preliminary budget Staff Report

Beth Criswell mops up the cornhole boards after an early afternoon rainstorm stopped play in a tournament during the Rock the Block event July 30. The tournament finished later just before another rainstorm caused the block party to close down. PHOTOS/Brad Mosher

Rain cleared out many of the people attending the inaugural Rock The Block event in downtown Bowman temporarily shortly after it started. But the people returned after the rain left to make the event a success, according to organizers.

Rock the Block at downtown Bowman Downtown celebration becomes a demonstration of precipitation Staff Report

A summertime celebration became a demonstration of precipitation when downtown Bowman businesses hosted a ‘block party’ called Rock the Block July 30 on Main Street. One block of downtown Bowman was blocked off with businesses setting up booths and food stops, mixed with places to pick up rub-on tattoos and sit down. The only problem came from above. Twice in the space of a few hours the celebration was put on hold while the area was drenched as the town was hit by cloudbursts. Still, organizers considered it to be a “huge success.”

The Bowman Area Chamber of Commerce hosted the new event with 14 local food, beverage, and retail vendors set up. According to a chamber spokesperson, it welcomed over 200 attendees in spite of the unpredictable weather. The cornhole tournament had ten teams with Tanner Fischer and Jim Bartholomay winning the title. In addition, there was a variety of outdoor kid’s games and fire pits. The event was in response to holding a Summerfest this year. In addition, ‘The Mollies’ performed on a flatbed trailer parked across Main Street until the second rainstorm and the lightning, which came with it, shut down the perfor-

mance. Even though it was cut short by the weather, the chamber officials thanked both the people who attended ‘Rock the Block’ and the vendors who participated in the event. The sponsors included A2Z Printing, Brosz Engineering, Buffalo Hardware Store, Dakota Community Bank, Dakota Dental, Dakota West Credit Union, Eido Connect, Flowers and Cappuccino by Lasting Visions, Frontier Travel Center, Lucky’s Liquor, Propoint Cooperative, Repeat Outlet, Silver Dollar Bar, Southwest Healthcare Services and Tax and Tourism. In addition, special thanks were offered to Southwest Ag, Brian Moench and Josh Buchman.

The Bowman County Board of Commissioners will be holding a special meeting Monday at 8 a.m. to approve the 2021 preliminary budget. According to the Bowman County Auditor, Sandy Tivis, the commissioners have been going through a series of staff meetings to help meet a more spartan budget that will take in the impact of reduced tax revenues from local and state sources, in addition to the impact of the recent collapse of the global oil market has had in the region. The auditor explained that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a dramatic impact on tax revenues, both locally and at the state level, forcing the departments to adapt to reduced budgets while still following current restrictions in dealing with members of the public. Each of the department head were asked to come up with ways to reduce their budgets in preparation for less money coming into the

county coffers, she said. The county not only is facing a strong drop of state revenues from state taxes because of the impact of the economy by the Coronavirus, but the spring drop in oil prices also meant a drop in revenues for the county, she explained. The drop in both state tax revenues and oil revenues is hitting most of the counties in western North Dakota hard. “We finish up meeting with different departments and taxing districts (Tuesday) in Bowman County to present their budgets,” she explained. “Then we’ll work through the figures and then we will have a special meeting on Aug. 10 to review the budget. Hopefully, they will approve the preliminary budget at that time. One of the county commissioners with expertise and contacts in the oil industry will help provide the county departments with an estimate

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