Braun dominates commissioner race Fallon County General Election Staff Report
Republican Kevin Braun easily dominated the race for Fallon County Commissioner Tuesday, getting 766 votes out of 1,526 total votes, according to the unofficial early results posted online. Brian O’Connor was a write-in with 410 votes, followed by Sandra Kinsey, another write-in with 198 vote. Independent Chuck Lee was fourth with 94 votes, while Pete Rising, another Independent, had 58 votes. Including write-in votes, the total votes for Fallon County Commissioner District 1 was 1,526. The results will be certified Nov. 9 by the county canvas board. According to Brenda Wood, the clerk and recorder election administrator for Fallon County, 83 percent of the mailed ballots were returned by Monday. The county was operating under a vote by mail plan with an in-person option, she explained Tuesday. “We would like to opt in for mail ballots and most counties would rather do mail ballots. The majority of our voters in Fallon County already get a ballot mailed to them,” Wood said. The total of 83 percent ballots being returned was as of Monday. “As of Monday we only have about 120 ballots not returned of all the ballots we have sent out. We sent out 1,721.” On Tuesday, several ballots came in and there still were people registering to vote in the office in the Fallon County Courthouse. “It has been crazy since 7 a.m. (Tuesday) morning,” she said.
More local results
In other local election results posted online Tuesday night, the strong performance by republicans continued in Fallon County with the incumbent president and vice president getting 87 percent of the county votes (1,375), while Democratic challengers Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris had 11 percent (172) of
See ELECTION RACE Page 2
Local company plans to cap well sites Staff Report
A local energy company will be permanently closing well sites near the city. WBI Energy, a company based in Bismarck, will be closing the sites just east of Baker Lake. According to Fallon County Commissioner Steve Baldwin, the wells are in and around the city. “They are on the east side of the lake by a home. They need to block off the road for a short period of time. There is another one (well) over by the baseball field that is going to be cemented in, covered and reseeded.” Baldwin said that the plans would be moving forward with the current warm weather the county is having. According to the mayor of Baker, the company
is planning to abandon wells no longer being used. “To the southeast of Baker, they are taking the above ground well apparatus out and reclaiming that ground,” he said. “They (WBI Energy) will be taking care of that and they will be re-leveling the ground. They will be coming back in the spring I imagine and re-seeding those areas.... and get them all touched up,” the mayor said. “It is called the Baker Well Abandonment Project,” Mayor Zachmann said. “They are just storage wells that they no longer use.” There will just be a minimal expense to the city for surface damage to city property, he added. There are three wells and four other locations involved in the project located between the east side of Baker Lake and Coral Creek Road.
Parkview Retirement Complex repairs continue on schedule Staff Report
A multi-million dollar project to repair and renovate the oldest portion of the Parkview Retirement Complex is on schedule and moving forward, according to a Fallon County official. Identified as Parkview 1, the project started when the current residents were relocated during the summer after three Fallon County Commissioners discussed the options during a meeting in July. The extent of the work to repair the building interior and exterior is scheduled to take up to eight months, Fallon County Commissioner Steve Baldwin said Tuesday. That is a deadline that it looks like the company involved will be able to keep even after recent
concrete work which needed to be done. “The only problem they had was a concrete pour which didn’t work out,” Baldwin said. “We had to redo that. Other than that, the inside stuff – the power – is getting redone. “They are getting ready to start putting things back together. They have the sheeting down... the floor … the air ducts running to the air conditioning system. They are still right on task,” he added. Chad Sutton of SDI Architects + Design in Miles City is the project designer for the more than $2 million renovation and repair project. T.W. Clark Construction of Billings won the bid for the renovation of the oldest section of the Parkview Retirement Complex in February with
a $2,062,706 bid. In addition to addressing problems with water drainage and damage, the contractor’s proposed plan will also be updating the air conditioning, plumbing and fixtures in the 12 apartments in the older Parkview 1 building which was built in the 1980s. “There was a big delay in getting this project going because of COVID-19. People picked up other work and now we are asking them to come back and start over again in autumn. Their work schedule has shifted out a couple of months (because of COVID-19).” “The only question mark right now is weather and whether it (the weather) holds out for us or not … and when some of the subcontractors can get started,” he explained.
and Statewide Unofficial Results
Voter turnout 1597 85.9%
Clerk of District Court Jeraldine A. Newell (R) 1454 County Commissioner District I Kevin J. Braun (R) 766 Chuck Lee (I) 94 Pete J. Rising (I) 58 Brian O’Connor WRITE IN 410 Sandra Kinsey WRITE IN 198 President Joseph R. Biden (D) Jo Jorgensen (L) Donald J. Trump (R)
172 28 1375
United States Senator Steve Bullock (D) 235 Steve Daines (R) 1341 United States Representative Matt Rosendale (R) 1312 Kathleen Williams (D) 251
Governor Lyman Bishop (L) Mike Cooney (D) Greg Gianforte (R)
Secretary of State Bryce Bennett (D) Christi Jacobsen (R) Attorney General Raph Graybill (D) Austin Knudsen (R)
49 218 1288 164 1331 166 1343
State Auditor Troy Downing (R) 1273 Shane A. Morigeau (D) 164 Roger Roots (L) 57 State Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen (R) 1234 Kevin Leatherbarrow (L) 42 Melissa Romano (D) 224 Public Service Commissioner, District 2 Valerie McMurtry (D) 172 Tony O’Donnell (R) 1322
See RESULTS Page 2
George Avenue project runs into weather, elevation obstacles Staff Report
The planned George Avenue drainage repair project has run into a few obstacles, but is still on schedule, according to the mayor of the City of Baker. Estimated to take approximately three weeks to fix drainage problems along one block of George Avenue east of Baker High School, the project is continuing, Mayor Steve Zachmann said a week ago. Cold weather and snow caused some problems, but so has the elevation of the proposed repairs, he said. “We had to make an elevation change with the drainage, due to the utilities at the alley,” the mayor explained. “It was the communications lines. We have to get below the lines and stay above the water and sewer.” “The drainage coming out the east side is a little bit lower. The drainage has to come out a little lower and extend further into the east property,” he explained. “We have some room (along the east side). We knew we could make it. We just didn’t know what elevation the utilities were at. Fortunately, they don’t have to be moved,” he added.
Local gun range gets new water source Staff Report
Water has been a problem for the Fallon County Gun Range for a number of years. But that has changed. According to Fallon County Commissioner Steve Baldwin, the gun range has been connected with the city water supply. It used to be supplied by a well, but problems with water quality forced the gun range to
seek a connection to the City of Baker water supply. The agreement was finalized Monday in front of the county’s Board of Commissioners. “It just wasn’t worth all the grief there. It was plugging up the water heater,” the commissioner said. “It (the water) was just black. We have been battling that well out there for quite some time. So we just ended up
running a line out there from the city,” Baldwin said. The connection also went through the TC Energy line west of the city. “We had to tap into their line. They were very cordial and allowed us to do what we needed to do,” Baldwin explained. “Our tap in site is just east of the site they are renting on county property so that it runs straight over to gun range.”
Downtown Trunk or Treat - Oct. 30, 2020