In case you missed in The Jamestown Sun the week of May 9

The Jamestown Sun received 54 news, photo and advertising awards in the North Dakota Newspaper Association’s annual Better Newspaper Contest.

The contest recognized excellence in various aspects of newspaper journalism for the 2021 year. The Sun awards were in the Small Multi-Day circulation group for newspapers that includes the Devils Lake Journal, Dickinson Press, Valley City Times-Record, Wahpeton Daily News and Williston Herald.

The Sun received second place in the General Excellence category, which judges the overal product.

The Jamestown/Stutsman Development Corp. Board of Directors unanimously approved a Flex PACE request up to $215,000 from Agri-Cover Inc.

If approved the Jamestown City Council and Stutsman County Commission, the request will be an 80-20 county-city split with Stutsman County’s share being $172,000 and the city of Jamestown’s share being $43,000.

Agri-Cover plans on building a new facility to house its truck-tarp manufacturing business. The 300-by-420-foot building will cost $9 million to construct, which does not include the items inside.

Tim Metz, who is from Gackle, North Dakota, founded the Jamestown Community Choir in August 2021.

The Jamestown Community Choir will conclude its first season with a performance that’s open to the public at 7 p.m. Sunday, May 15, at Concordia Lutheran Church. Admission is free.

The Jamestown Community Choir practiced for 90 minutes one day a week at Temple Baptist Church. The group had 13 people singing in the choir by the time Christmas rolled around.

Choir participants range in age from their 30s to 80s, and high school and college students are welcome to join.

Metz plans for the choir to resume in August or September.

Jared Schultz, 25, was diagnosed with testicular cancer.

Schultz, who is from Jamestown but lives in Fargo, had a surgery to remove a mass that was found. The entire testicle was removed and sent off for testing, which revealed that Schultz had testicular cancer.

During a three-month checkup in March, doctors discovered the cancer had spread to lymph nodes in Schultz's chest and abdominal area. He began his first of three rounds of chemotherapy on April 19. Each chemotherapy cycle is 21 days. He completed his first round of chemotherapy with a few side effects.

Schultz is unable to work during his chemotherapy because of the elevated risk of infection and compromised lung function from the treatment. He has been out of work for about a month and a half up to this point with more time off expected after chemotherapy is complete.

His wife, Jenna, recently gave birth to their daughter, Iylah, on April 29, and she is on maternity leave for six weeks where she will get paid but not as much as she would be if she was working.

A spaghetti dinner fundraiser was held for Jared and Jenna Schultz on Friday, May 13, at Club 1883 in Jamestown. Donations can also be made to Jared and Jenna Schultz’s GoFundMe page at https://bit.ly/37vy83y .

Larry Woiwode, the state poet laureate, was a good colleague, teacher and a good man, according to his friends and colleagues.

Woiwode passed away April 28 at age 80. He was the recipient of the Theodore Roosevelt Rough Rider Award, the state’s highest citizen honor, in 1992.

Woiwode was a supporter of the liberal arts in general for writing and literature, said Paul Olson, provost at the University of Jamestown. Olson said Woiwode was a student favorite and inspired and helped many students learn how to write very well.

Woiwode taught English composition courses, upper division creative writing classes and also literature courses at the University of Jamestown. He also edited UJ’s Plainsong magazine. He was at UJ from 2007 to 2020.

Woiwode was born in 1941 in Carrington near his hometown in Sykeston.

The Jamestown High School Choir was selected as the 2022-2023 Governor’s Choir Tuesday, May 10.

JHS Choir Director Cheryl McIntyre said the selection was an honor that she was not expecting. A parent nominated the JHS Choir and sent recordings of the group to the Office of the Governor.

McIntyre said the students do a lot of “detail work” in class on their performance, using good diction so the audience can understand them and making it emotional so the audience can feel the emotion of the song.

The last time the JHS Choir earned the honor was in the 2008-2009 year.

The Bismarck Century High School Wind Ensemble was selected at the Governor’s Band.

The Governor’s Band and Choir selections are based on musical talent, achievement and community involvement. They may be invited to perform at official state functions throughout the year.

About 600 students from grades 3-8 learned about entrepreneurship and career awareness Tuesday, May 10, at the Marketplace for Kids Education Day at Harold Newman Arena in Jamestown.

Students attended classes that included lessons about money, seed engineering, experiments with electricity, being a babysitter and carpentry and automotive.

Marketplace for Kids holds education days where students get an opportunity to explore careers, technology and the future through hand-on activities that are rooted in entrepreneurship and innovation, according to its website.

Some students also pitched their inventions and ideas to business professionals who ask the children how they came up with their ideas, how much they could sell it for and how much it would cost to make.

The James River Valley Library System Board of Directors unanimously approved on Wednesday, May 11, having its consultant move to the next steps of implementing a plan for the library system’s future.

The library system hired Debora Denny, owner of Facilitation and Mediation Resources, to explore options for strategic planning that can meet the library system’s current and future needs. The core objectives of hiring Denny include the continued operations of a robust library system, planning for space needs, productive and constructive board and staff relationships and collaborative goal setting for the delivery of 21st century library services to Jamestown and Stutsman County.

Denny reviewed her assessment and recommendations for the library board. She said she interviewed all library board members, Library System Director Joe Rector, Stutsman County Commission Chair Mark Klose and Mayor Dwaine Heinrich as well as being in contact with the building committee.

Pipestem Reservoir was at 1,470 feet above mean sea level as of Wednesday, May 11. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will increase its dam safety surveillance at Pipestem from once a month to once a week.

As of Wednesday, Jamestown Reservoir was 9 feet into the flood storage at 1,440 feet AMSL.

Water releases at Pipestem Reservoir were decreased from 250 cubic feet per second to 100 cfs, while releases at Jamestown Reservoir were increased to 650 cfs.

About 1,200 cfs from runoff and the James River is coming into Jamestown Reservoir.