By Steve Shirley
Columnist

Summer is just around the corner.  Those are pleasant words to hear, but we all know the reality of what awaits us during the next four to six weeks.  With much conversation currently ongoing regarding potential flooding conditions in Valley City and throughout the region, I thought this a good time to provide an update on Valley City State University’s readiness.
First, we all realize there are many unknowns during the next month that will determine if we have a significant flood:  How much additional snow will we have? Will we receive early spring rains? How quickly will our snow melt?  These and other issues are all factors that will go a long way in determining this spring’s flood.  Last year, this community successfully faced the historic levels of the Sheyenne River.  No doubt, there were many sleepless nights, difficult circumstances, long days, and a lot of blood, sweat, and tears.  However, we also know as a community that we will succeed again if faced with similar conditions in 2010.
The students at VCSU were a major force in last spring’s flood fight – volunteering thousands of hours at Sandbag Central, building sandbag levees throughout the community, and volunteering in many other ways.  When our students were asked to help, they responded in force time and again.  We have been in contact with City and County officials already this Spring, and are preparing for the weeks ahead.  Our students will be there again in 2010 if and when called upon.  Simply put, we have great students at VCSU, and any university in the nation would love to have the character and quality of students such as those here at VCSU.  Of course, I am only writing about this campus, but we know the same is true of our local high school students and other students as well as all citizens across our region.  When called upon, people of this region heed the call!
A major improvement made during the past year at VCSU was the re-location of our Information Technology Data Center.  The Center was moved from the first floor (ground level) of the Rhoades Science Center up to the second floor.  This move ensures uninterrupted service of IT services for students, faculty, and staff should any situation such as last year be encountered again.  In 2009, VCSU was forced to hurriedly dismantle our IT services and re-build them in a temporary location at the Regional Technology Center.  The RTC was a fantastic location, but this move disrupted service for several days, required significant personnel time and labor, and had some major costs.  All of that can be avoided in future flood situations thanks to the improvements made in Summer 2009.
VCSU has invested in new technologies and implemented their availability to our faculty for teaching students.  These technologies assist in utilizing new modes for teaching and delivering curriculum to students at VCSU, and can also be of great assistance should a closure of the physical campus ever be necessary again.  Technology was invaluable in Spring 2009 as we completed the final weeks of the semester at a distance.  In the past year we have strengthened these capabilities and our faculty have further trained to enhance their skills with these exciting technologies.
Another improvement was made in the VCSU Library. Because a large portion of the collection housed in the lower level of Allen Memorial Library needed to be re-located to a higher level last year, decisions were made to replace many physical items with electronic access to the same information. Although items still remain on the lower level of the library, the number has been reduced. Again, these changes will serve us well for future flood possibilities.
We will collectively keep our fingers crossed during the next few weeks, but it is very reassuring to know we have faced these circumstances in the past and succeeded.  The changes made at VCSU during the past year will serve us well should we face another flood in 2010. 

 

By Lloyd Omdahl

The wave of anti-government anger sweeping the nation has spawned a petition in North Dakota to amend the state constitution to limit the terms of legislators and elected state officials to two four-year terms. Petitioners are now getting the 26,000 signatures by August to get their measure on the fall ballot.
Of course, we already have term limits. At the end of every four years, legislators and elected state officials face the end of their terms. Unless they persuade the voters otherwise, they get pink slips and someone else gets their job. Their terms are up.
Adding term limits to the election cycle is an indictment of the electorate, suggesting that voters aren’t qualified to know when they’ve had enough and need protection from their own ignorance. As the campaign for term limits unfolds, perhaps the initiators will explain in detail how the present system of periodic elections is failing the democratic process.
From the electronic media, we find that the petitioners feel accountability is lacking when incumbents keep getting re-elected without answering to the people for their voting records. That is substantially true in North Dakota, at least as far as legislators are concerned.
North Dakota’s small population results in greater intimacy among the people and intimacy despises divisive political controversy. Consequently, candidates for the Legislature are judged more on social qualifications than on political issues.
The typical legislator’s campaign card proves the point. The card usually includes several innocuous political positions, all designed to please God without displeasing the devil – a balanced budget, low taxes, better roads, more jobs, etc., etc. It is obvious that their policy positions are irrelevant to the campaign.
The really important items on the card include such things as member of the Lutheran Church, community development leader, township supervisor, school board member, Lion of the Year, parent of three children and married to one spouse for 35 years. In other words, the list represents a combination of qualities that tells the voter: “You can trust me. I am one of you.”
Imposing term limits would increase competitiveness by creating open races every eight years. However, it would not change the way voters judge candidates. The level of intimacy in the state would still be present so voters would still render their decisions on the social acceptability of candidates rather than on contentious political issues. This would surely frustrate the petitioners who want to force electoral decisions into a more combative environment.
If greater accountability is what the petitioners want, they should be promoting a one-house Legislature. It would eliminate buck-passing between houses, end the closed-door conference committees, and put the legislative process under more intensive media and citizen scrutiny.
Since surveys indicate that North Dakotans have every reason to be content, we can only guess that the petitioners are a group of angry people who are having fun at being angry. For them, the petition drive may be nothing more than an opportunity to vent their spleen at someone for something, but they’re not sure what.

By Jodi Rae Ingstad
Columnist

Often times life teaches me when I hadn’t even planned on learning anything.  The exciting news about the school that chose to teach me is there are no increases in tuition.  In fact, there is no monetary charge at all.  I didn’t have to apply by filling out forms. The school just accepted me. The subjects offered at my school range from one end of the spectrum to another.  I don’t have to plan my own class schedule.  My school does it for me.     There are no textbooks. That’s odd, isn’t it?   To top all of this off, would you believe I can never be tardy?  It’s as if my school has a “learn as you go” curriculum.
This week I was counseling friends on some pretty heavy issues. I thought for sure my school bell would ring to warn me that class was soon beginning but I never heard it.  If there was ever a time when school would have been welcomed, it surely was in the midst of figuring out other people’s problems.  I didn’t have a study partner.  I must have passed because my friends worked their problems out.
This week also found me dancing.   That mother of mine put me in tap and ballet lessons when I was a wee one but I haven’t had a lesson since.   Wednesday found me at the Eagles Club dancing with my favorite people.  The North Dakota Women’s Division hosted the spectacular “Senior Day Dance.”     I was hoping my school would show up quick as the band began playing polkas and waltzes.  My school apparently signed off on my dancing skills because a good time was had by all. No spring break in that dancing action!
I began feeling like an honor student in my school.  I figured I had graduated with know-it-all honors-and then I found the hat boxes I had stuffed away.
I buy every vintage hat box I can find. I like stacking them after filling them with things that make my heart pitter-patter.   
I reached for the giant yellow box at the top of my closet.  Inside I found the history of my courtship with that husband of mine.    We courted fast and married faster.   During our courtship he would send me at least one card, letter or trinket in the mail every single day.  Sunday was the only day I wouldn’t receive anything.  That meant on Monday I’d get double.   The retired Post Mistress in Oriska, ND will attest to the fact that one time he sent me a clear bottle.  He had stuffed it with the words, “Love in a Bottle” along with a snapshot photo of the two of us.  He declared his love openly and honestly.  He wanted the world and the US Postal Service to know he was in love.
As I opened the hat box my school bell rang.  The box was filled with the love letters he sent me way back nearly 7 years ago.  He wrote things like, “Before we met I knew your face from the stars, flowers, sunsets and rainbows.  Before I met you my heart sang a harmony-the hint of love-a feeling to find. Now I found you. My melody.”
My school has taught me that the language of courtship is not the same language of a 7 year marriage.  No longer does he talk in the language his giddy heart taught him. Now it’s more like, “When are you gonna wash more socks?”
My school is the school of life. It has taught me that the somewhat unrealistic language of young love turns into something far more comfortable.  We successfully cohabitate, communicate and well-you know.  I learned that life is not all about rainbows and melodies, sunsets and flowers. It’s about appreciating the effortless, un-sugar coated language that is ours, together forever.  I’d better go shine an apple. You never know when the teacher might show up again.

Nick Simonson
Columnist

Muskie anglers love to throw the biggest, flashiest baits.  But in these days of dwindling discretionary income, spinners with oversized blades, magnum flashabou skirts and price tags to match are becoming cost-prohibitive.
 However, you can produce a bait at home for half as much as you’d pay for popular store models and catch fish just as effectively - if not more so due to your ability to customize the bait for your favorite water.  If you’re new to bait building, or just want to get the kinks out before starting in on your first big spinner of the season, log on to   www.nicksimonson.com and search “bucktail basics” for a beginner’s guide to lure making which will help set the stage for this tutorial.
There are two principal parts to a super-sized spinner: the pounding blades in front and the pulsating skirt on the business end.  And it is the profile of the spinner’s skirt that makes big fish commit after the thump of the blades has lured them in.  To make a strike-inducing skirt on a mondo muskie spinner, you’ll need one package (20 inches) of magnum flashabou, two 3/4-inch coils cut from a lawnmower throttle cable along with some Size A nylon tying thread and some head cement (Figure 1).  The magnum flashabou, thread and head cement are available through Rollie and Helen’s Muskie Shop, Barlow’s Tackle (www.barlowstackle.com) or Lure Parts Online (www.lurepartsonline.com) and the throttle cable can be found at your local hardware store for about a dollar per foot.   We’ll be tying a full skirt and a partial skirt, which when combined on the spinner shaft will provide for some amazing action on the retrieve.
To make the skirts, you will need to extend your tying vise by taking a scrap piece of .051” diameter spinner shaft and forming a 90-degree bend on one end using needle nose pliers.  Thread the cable coil on the shaft and lock it firmly in the vise so the cable coil sits snugly between the vise and the bend and does not move.  From there, you can begin wrapping the tying thread on the coil to form a foundation, cementing liberally (Figure 2).  
Cut the hank of magnum flashabou in half so there is a pile of strands approximately 10-inches in length on the table in front of you.  Divide the strands into two separate piles, one consisting of two-thirds of the total strands and the other consisting of the remaining third (Figure 3).  For the primary skirt, we will be working with the larger pile of flashabou.  
Form the primary skirt by evenly distributing the flashabou strands around the coil and tying them in at their midpoint (Figure 4).  The strands should lay flat against the coil and the tie-in point should be centered on it.  After every couple of sections, apply some head cement to the tie-in area and allow it to set for a minute or so.  Tie the strands evenly in sections that overlap so that none of the coil is showing and the skirt is full in all areas.  When done tying in the flashabou, make several half hitches over the tie-in point and cement the area thoroughly.  Allow the cement to harden and apply some more, letting the second coating set on your finished skirt (Figure 5).
To make the partial skirt, cut the strands of the smaller pile of flashabou in half, so you have a group of strands approximately five inches in length (Figure 6).  Remove the first coil from the vise and replace it with the second coil.  Form a thread base on the coil and cement it for posterity.  Tie the five-inch strands of flashabou onto the coil by their bases, so the bulk of each strand hangs to the left of the coil.  Again, be sure to tie these strands in evenly for a full-looking skirt and apply cement after every couple of sections.  Once completed, make a few half hitches or whip finish at the tie-in point and cement it thoroughly as you did with the primary skirt (Figure 7).  
Once the cement is dry, you should have two skirts - the primary and the partial (Figure 8).  Placed together on the spinner shaft, they will form a bulky-looking body, but because they are so light and easily moved by turbulence in the water, they will provide pulsating and life-like motion sure to trigger the wariest fish.  Next week, we’ll put the skirts together with the rest of the spinner components for a homemade lure with all the attraction of a store-bought model minus the sticker shock.  My guess is, those monster muskies won’t know the difference…in our outdoors.