The Jamestown Sun hands out these bravos and a buffalo chip this week:
- Buffalo chip to the continuing dry conditions in North Dakota. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, more than 75 percent of the state is in extreme drought. Recent moisture has been welcome but more is needed.
- Bravo to Annie Nabwe, a junior on the Jamestown High School girls track team, who broke JHS records last week. Nabwe broke the 100-meter dash record with a time of 12.52 seconds, beating Meghan Orr’s 2016 record by 0.01 seconds. She also broke the outdoor shot put record, throwing 44 feet, 10 inches, breaking Jill Schlenker’s 2007 length by more than 5 feet. Nabwe, her sister, Yolanda (100-meter dash) and Meghan Ford (1,600 meters and 3,200 meters) are the latest JHS girls track team members to qualify for the 2021 Class A State Track and Field Meet.
- Bravo to Meghan Ford, a senior at Jamestown High School, who was recently named the 2021 Gatorade Player of the Year in North Dakota Girls Cross Country. This is the third time that Ford has received the honor. Ford won the Class A individual state championship this past season, the Orriginals Invitational, the Mandan Kiwanis Invitational and the WDA regional meet.
- Bravo to some good news in Jamestown's taxable sales and purchases during 2020, a difficult and challenging year. Total taxable sales and purchases for Jamestown were up 1.13%, according to the 2020 Annual Sales and Use Tax Report issued by the Office of the State Tax Commissioner. That compares to a decline of 13.7% for all of North Dakota. Positive numbers for Jamestown included manufacturing being up 64% and retail was up 3.9%. The largest decline for Jamestown was in the accommodation and food services category, which declined $18.1%, also lower than the state rate of 19.6%.
- Bravo to the University of Jamestown women's and men's volleyball teams for GPAC Conference Championship wins. The women won the championship over Northwestern College on April 10 at Harold Newman Arena, keeping the title it won last year. The Jimmies are the No. 1 seed in the NAIA national tournament, with opening-round play at Harold Newman Arena on Saturday. The men won their first championship over Ottawa University and advance to the NAIA national tournament on April 19-24 in Des Moines, Iowa. And bravo to the men's players earning honors on the GPAC all-conference teams: Derek Owens was named GPAC Player of the Year, Derek Correa was named GPAC Setter of the Year, Braden Neumann was named GPAC Libero of the Year, and Riley Salmon was named GPAC Coach of the Year. Owens, Neumann, Samuel Jackman, Tanner Woods and Caylor Cox were named to the first team. Correa and Clark Steele were named to the second team and Austin Jacob and Zack Meyer earned honorable mention.
- Bravo to the approval of North Dakota Senate Bill 2281 that would create a statewide system to keep track of sexual assault kits. According to a Forum News Service story, the bill would allow the state crime lab to develop and manage an electronic tracking system for that purpose. The bill was unanimously approved by the North Dakota House of Representatives this week. To become law, Gov. Doug Burgum would need to sign it.
Editorials are the opinion of Jamestown Sun management and the newspaper’s editorial board.
