Hog Farm Business Gets State Grant

The Army Corps of Engineers says it has finished installing instruments for measuring the stability of an embankment that separates Lake Audubon from Lake Sakakawea along the Missouri River north of here.

The corps said in a statement Friday that eight piezometers were put in through the ice on Lake Sakakawea and appear to be working.

Officials have said a major difference in the levels between the two lakes could threaten the Snake Creek Embankment, which holds up a two-mile stretch of U.S. 83 and a rail line.

The corps said four relief wells will be installed under Lake Sakakawea as a precaution, to reduce pressure in the area downstream of the embankment.

Readings will be taken over the next several weeks to determine whether more work is needed, corps officials said. Lake Audubon already has been lowered by 2 feet.

Associated Press

GRAND FORKS (AP) – A state public defender’s office is being established here, the fourth one in North Dakota.

Attorneys for the office have been hired, and other staff will be hired by March 15, said Robin Huseby, executive director of the North Dakota Commission on Legal Counsel for Indigents.

The office is scheduled to open about April 1. Other offices are in Dickinson, Williston and Minot.

The commission, created by the Legislature two years ago, assigns a defense attorney to a case when a suspect is declared eligible for indigent counsel.

The Grand Forks office also will collaborate with the University of North Dakota on an internship program, Huseby said.

A state group that helps fund developers of North Dakota farm products has awarded a grant to a hog business, three months after rejecting a similar request.

Forest River-based North Dakota Sow Center LLC is getting $71,000 from the Agricultural Products Utilization Commission for two 5,000- head farrowing barns near Edmore that should be operating by May.

It is one of four operations planned around the state. The second one will be built near Bottineau. The third and fourth sites have not been determined.

In November, APUC rejected an application for about $400,000 for the four planned centers. The company then decided to divide the request into separate applications for each facility, said Craig Jarolimek, a project partner.

Associated Press

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