By Lloyd Nelson
Valley City

More to story regarding alleged meeting violations
During the week of Jan. 11, my wife telephoned Barnes County Commissioners Harlan Opdahl and John Froelich to ask them to vote against purchasing anything from Vanguard Appraisals Inc.
On Jan. 14, at 12:31 p.m., Mr. Opdahl returned her call on my cell phone. I was unavailable to take the call, so Mr. Opdahl left a message. He said, “We switched to Vanguard because ...”
Commissioner Froelich also left a voice message.
Even though no decision was to be made on Vanguard until the Jan. 19 commission meeting, the interpretation of this phone call was that the decision to hire Vanguard was made prior to the Jan. 19 meeting!
Mr. Opdahl was also the commissioner who made the motion to approve hiring Vanguard at the Jan. 19 meeting.
I contacted Brad Cruff, Barnes County States Attorney, to get his opinion on the recording. He didn’t listen to it, and I was told that it would be a “conflict of interest” on his part, and he indicated I would have to take any complaint I had to the state attorney general. I forwarded a copy of the voicemail I received from Commissioners Opdahl and Froelich to the attorney general, along with minutes of the Jan. 5 meeting, and a statement from County Auditor Ed McGough that no meeting was held between Jan. 5 and 19.
I was at the commission meeting on March 2 when Mr. Cruff was addressing this issue with the commissioners.
Mr. Cruff told the county commission that the recording was inaudible and hard to understand. Because he hadn’t listened to the one I have, I don’t know how he decided it was inaudible.Mr. Opdahl said he didn’t say what he was being accused of.
After Mr. Cruff was done addressing the commission, I asked permission to speak.
I told the commission that since there was some concern about what was said, I would play the recording for them – which I did. I asked if they could all hear the voice message, and they said yes.
The response from Commissioner Opdahl was that he would NEVER return any calls again!
Commissioner Froelich stated that I don’t represent anyone because I don’t sit at the commissioners’ table, but he does. (I never claimed to represent anyone.)
To which I replied that he apparently doesn’t represent anyone, either, because “On Jan. 19, the commission chambers were filled with people opposed to hiring Vanguard and the county commission ignored the people of Barnes County and hired Vanguard anyway.”
Commissioner Cindy Schwehr said that just because they purchased Vanguard’s software doesn’t mean they have to use their programs. If you purchase Vanguard software, you use their programs, because that is the program you have installed in your computer! And if the county is not going to use Vanguard programs, why did they spend in excess of $65,000 to purchase it?
But, of course, whenever someone questions any of the government entities in Valley City/Barnes County, the government people immediately attack you.
The county commission is trying to whitewash this incident by saying, “That isn’t what he meant.”
However, because the Attorney General’s Office is investigating this incident, they apparently also believe there was wrongdoing by the county commission and have interpreted the phone call in the manner in which it was said.

Faye Rockswold
Litchville

Congratulations to the Litchville-Marion-Montpelier Rebels’ boys basketball team on a hard-fought and exciting run through the District 5 basketball tournament!
Even though you came up a little short in the championship game, the way you played and conducted yourselves on the basketball floor should make you, your parents and fans proud. Unfortunately, some of your fans didn’t follow your example.
It was great to see so many fans turn out to support and cheer our team on. However, the “cheering” in the championship game was often embarrassing to the team, parents, schools and communities encompassed in our sports co-op. Making noise while the opposing team is shooting free throws is poor sportsmanship.
By the way, it’s probably more unnerving to the shooter to have absolute silence.
It’s obvious that the Valley City players were not bothered by the unsportsmanlike noisemaking of the LMM student body fans. They made almost all their free throws.
Signs showing support and encouragement are great! Signs expressing insults (“Valley City has no class”) are degrading not to the intended target but to those holding them.
The final chant while the Valley City players and fans were on the floor celebrating their win (“Class A rejects”) was totally uncalled for and what prompted me to write this letter. I have been a proud supporter of LMM for many years – before during and after the years our children participated. I have never seen our fans act in such an unsportsmanlike manner.
Instead of leaving the building feeling good about the way our players performed, and excited about the Class B tournament atmosphere, I left feeling totally ashamed of the conduct of our student body fans. I am looking forward to the region tournament and certainly hope the LMM fans show a lot more class than they did in the district championship game.
Go Rebels!!

By Bob Davide
Valley City

I don’t pay attention to Lloyd Nelson, I don’t read Dennis Stillings and I don’t listen to Ryan Cunningham.
I’m pretty happy.