Bravo to Jimmies' Burley

Talk about it

The Jamestown Sun hands out these bravos and a buffalo chip this week:

* Bravo to Travis Burley, Jamestown College Jimmies basketball player who was named the Most Valuable Player by the Dakota Athletic Conference and the Association of Independent Institutions. He was also named first team all-A.I.I. Burley is averaging 15.5 points and 7.8 rebounds for the Jimmies, who are headed for the NAIA National Tournament next week.

* Buffalo chip to Troy McKinley, the organizer of the “Party in the Patch” over Memorial Day weekend. The event is being billed as a singles dance to attract women from Chicago and the Twin Cities to the Oil Patch. McKinley is continuing to sell tickets for the event ($150 for men, $20 for women), when the landowner who owns the site that he planned to use for the event won’t let him use it and said he hadn’t obtained the permits needed.

* Bravo to the North Dakota Winter Show in Valley City, which marks its 75th anniversary next week. The show is March 6-11 and continues to offer traditional events like educational seminars in agriculture, livestock displays, old-time tractor pull and rodeo, along with music to appeal to a broader audience.

* Bravo to Donald Olson, 74, of Montpelier, a volunteer weather observer for the National Weather Service since 1971. Olson recently received the Thomas Jefferson Award from the NWS, the highest award given to cooperative weather observers.

* Bravo to the Jamestown College students who leave Sunday for a Habitat for Humanity project in Georgia. Twenty-two students, along with three advisers, are spending their spring break working with the Valdosta-Lowndes County Habitat for Humanity’s Collegiate Challenge Program. They will help build a home for a family of four.

* Bravo to the Jamestown High School girls’ hockey team for taking home its first trophy at the state girls’ hockey tournament. The girls, despite illness and injury, had two wins at the state tournament at the Ralph Engelstad Olympic Arena.

* Bravo to North Dakota, ranked first in the nation for work environment in 2011 in the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. The index evaluated the 50 states and the District of Columbia in other areas also: life evaluation, emotional health, physical health, healthy behavior and basic access to things such as food, shelter and health care. Overall, Hawaii ranked first in the Well-Being Index with 70.2 points (out of 100), with North Dakota close behind with 70.

*Bravo to a new absentee ballot system in North Dakota that will help make voting easier for residents living outside the state and deployed North Dakota service members. Residents will be able to go to the secretary of state’s website at https://vip.sos.nd.gov/VoterInformatonPortal.aspx to apply for an absentee ballot. After a voter provides basic information, that voter can choose to get and return the ballot electronically.

(Editorials are the opinion of Jamestown sun management and the newspaper’s editorial board)

Tags: opinion, editorials, bravos