FARGO — Less than a month before leaving office, President Joe Biden signed off on FEMA’s declaration of the October wildfires in western North Dakota as a major disaster, allowing federal assistance to flow into the state to supplement recovery efforts.

About 40 wildfires coupled with straight-line winds Oct. 5-6 claimed two lives and destroyed nearly 120,000 acres of land, several homes and multiple outbuildings, causing damage of more than $8 million, officials said. About $3.7 million in damage was caused to rural electrical cooperatives in McKenzie and Williams counties.

The FEMA funding is available to state, tribal and eligible local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis for emergency work and the repair or replacement of facilities damaged by the wildfires and high winds in McKenzie and Williams counties.

Federal funding is also available on a cost-sharing basis for hazard mitigation measures statewide.

Robert Little III has been named as the federal coordinating officer for federal recovery operations in the affected area. Additional designations may be made at a later date if requested by the state and warranted by the results of further assessments, according to a statement by FEMA.

For more information, visit

ndresponse.gov/wildfire-recovery

.

Our newsroom occasionally reports stories under a byline of “staff.” Often, the “staff” byline is used when rewriting basic news briefs that originate from official sources, such as a city press release about a road closure, and which require little or no reporting. At times, this byline is used when a news story includes numerous authors or when the story is formed by aggregating previously reported news from various sources. If outside sources are used, it is noted within the story.

FARGO — Slowly, the North Dakota Horse Park in Fargo is growing its live horse racing meet and for the first time in nearly a decade, the organization that runs the track is not scrambling to make the tax payment that once loomed over it.

The Fargo track is operated by Horse Race North Dakota, a nonprofit organization that contributed when the track was built in 2003.

At a meeting of Horse Race North Dakota on Friday, Dec. 20. Cindy Slaughter, accountant and co-owner of TaxLady, which contracts with Horse Race North Dakota, said the track’s overall income is up about $93,000 from this time last year.

A fourth weekend of racing cost the track about $148,000 this year. However, that cost can be offset in the future by factors such as attendance and the amount bet on the races.

“There’s a couple of things we could do differently this year to reduce that amount,” North Dakota Horse Park General Manager Hugh Alan Drexler said.

While Drexler and HRND will look to decrease costs, they will not try to do that at the expense of the horsemen, as they hope to keep purses for each race flat or increase them in 2025.

“I don’t want to cut the purses at all, that would be the last thing we would cut,” HRND President Jay Aslop said.

“That is what our goal is, to promote racing and to increase race dates,” Drexler said. “The day the finances don’t look the same, that is when we need to make a change.”

Live racing receives additional funds from the North Dakota Racing Commission. The commission will meet in February to determine the amount of funds that will be granted to the Fargo track as well as Chippewa Downs, the second horse racing track in North Dakota near Belcourt.

Heavy special assessments loomed over the North Dakota Horse Park for several years after it opened.

In 2003, the city of Fargo spent $1.5 million to extend sewer, water and other infrastructure to the track. The city planned to recoup the costs with special assessments, a kind of property tax assessed to benefiting properties, but the city agreed to suspend the assessments for five years in hopes that the race track would stimulate the development of commercial and residential properties. This would spread the assessments over more property owners and create a smaller bill for the track, which in 2015 was about $1.9 million.

The track is now in repayment of its taxes, making annual payments to the city of Fargo, and accountants are confident a fourth weekend of racing in 2025 will not adversely affect the track.

“I don’t have any concerns about running a fourth weekend this year,” Slaughter said.

Horse racing will be held at the Fargo track in 2025 over four weekends, likely July 12 through Aug. 3, track officials said.

“(It will be) some combination of either Friday, Saturday or Saturday, Sunday depending on what other events are going on in the area,” said Drexler.

In 2024, attendance at the Fargo track was up overall with about 8,358 in attendance over the eight race days, up from about 8,127, in 2023.

The Fargo track held horse races on Saturday and Sunday afternoons for four consecutive weekends, starting Saturday, July 13. The weekend of July 27-28, races were held in the evening so as to not compete with the Fargo AirSho. The horse park competed for attendance each weekend as the Fargo Street Fair, Red River Valley Fair and the Renaissance Fair overlapped the schedule. The horse park’s closing weekend coincided with WeFest.

The track hosted only three weekends of racing in 2022 and 2023, as it was constricted to operating expenses and the amount of money granted for a live season by the North Dakota Racing Commission. The Fargo track hosted a four-week meet in 2021 but held only two weekends in 2020.

BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) – Bismarck High Wrestlers win a lot of titles.

“We’re striving for a state championship, that’s where the bar is set,” said Bismarck High Wrestling head coach Mark Lardy.

Three of said titles belong to the top-ranked 133-pound wrestler in North Dakota, Ben DeForest.

Now, Ben’s going for number four.

“It would mean everything to me,” said Ben DeForest. “There have been some great wrestlers from BHS that have been four-timers it would just mean a lot for me to add my name to that list.”

”He led a lot by example in the past,” said Lardy. “Now he leads not only by example but his voice in the room is heard.“

Even when his BHS days are over, Ben has another chapter to write in his story: He’s committed to Wrestle at UMary.

“We pride ourselves on trying to keep and retain as many local North Dakota kids here at U-Mary and we’re just very thankful that Ben chose to come here and wrestle for us as well,” said U-Mary Wrestling head coach Adam Aho.

The state champ has a bigger goal in mind.

“His goal is way beyond what our room is going to give him. This is just a stepping stone,” said Lardy.

Ben wants a national championship.

“We need every guy to have that type of mentality,” said Aho. “Without it, we will never be relevant on the national scene.”

”Once you get your hand raised you realize, all those morning practices you didn’t want to go to and all those lifts that you were like, uh I don’t know, it’s worth it. It’s worth it,” said DeForest.

Copyright 2024 KFYR. All rights reserved.