Susan Prady Named Principal of Sloulin Elementary School
WILLISTON GRAPHIC STAFF
Williston Basin School District #7 has announced that Susan Prady will serve as the principal of Sloulin Elementary School, set to open in fall 2026. Prady was selected last week through a hiring process led by a committee of teachers, administrators and
school administration. Originally from California, she has expertise in special education and has a track record of supporting diverse student needs. Among her achievements is the successful implementation of an English Language program that significantly improved student outcomes, later adopted across her previous school district.
Beyond instructional leadership, Prady has extensive knowledge of education law,
ensuring that educators receive meaningful training and that staff and students are well-prepared for emergencies.
Having visited Williston for over 13 years to spend time with her daughter and grandchildren, Prady is eager to join the community in a permanent role.
“I am honored to serve as the new principal of Sloulin Elementary School and to join the vibrant Williston community,”
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SLOULIN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPAL, SUSAN PRADY | SUBMITTED PHOTO
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Williston City Commission Discusses Budget Amendments, Infrastructure Projects and Public Safety Investments
WILLISTON GRAPHIC STAFF
The Williston City Commission convened on February 25, addressing key financial, infrastructure and public safety matters.
Commissioners approved a budget amendment (Resolution 25-005) to allocate $621,000 for landfill improvements, including a solid waste permit renewal and engineering services for landfill expansion. The city also allocated $500,000 from the Star Fund to support fixed-wing air ambulance operations with Williston Care Flight, ensuring continued emergency medical transport services.
In public safety matters, the commission approved an emergency equipment pur-
chase for the Williston Police Department—authorizing $74,982.76 from the Police Auction & Forfeitures Fund to fulfill a contract with Motorola Solutions Inc. for body-worn and in-car cameras.
The commission also approved multiple infrastructure projects, awarding bids for: 2025 Seal Coat Project –ASTECH was awarded a $209,440.40 contract for road surface maintenance.
2025 Striping Project – Traffic Safety Services secured a $74,470.50 contract for pavement marking.
2025 Sidewalk Improvement District (D25-1) – Jaramillo Concrete was awarded a $161,012.50 contract for sidewalk repairs.
The commission advanced Ordinance 1157, a proposed amendment to the municipal
5:30-7:00 P.M.
liquor license ordinance. The change would allow domestic winery license holders to sell off-sale wine not produced by their own winery, aligning with state law.
Additionally, a dangerous building hearing was held for 825 2nd Ave West, with commissioners voting to demolish the structure due to severe disrepair and public safety concerns.
The meeting also included approvals for business licenses, development projects and grant applications. Commissioners authorized applications for State Water Commission grant funding to support local water infrastructure improvements.
The next commission meeting was held for March 11. Minutes are not yet available for that meeting.
SUSAN PRADY CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
ucation, Prady enjoys hiking, cooking, baking and pickleball. She is a fan of both NFL football and motocross and also enjoys tackling home DIY projects in her spare time.
Prady’s official contract will begin on July 1. Over the 2025-2026 school year, she will focus on preparing Sloulin Elementary for its
opening, including finalizing school details, hiring staff and ensuring the school is ready to welcome students in August 2026. She will also take time to familiarize herself with district culture, practices and procedures while assisting other elementary schools.
For more information on the development of Sloulin Elementary School, visit WillistonSchools.org/2024bondproject.
SLOULIN
TIRED OF WHAT’S HAPPENING NATIONALLY & LOCALLY?
District 1 & 23 Dem-NPL Reorganization Meeting
Saturday, March 29, 2025 | 2-4pm
The Ready Room | 4th Floor of Frontier Hall, Williston State College
WPD Patrol Captain Rodney Dickerson Graduates From FBI National Academy
CITY OF WILLISTON
Williston Police Department Patrol
Captain Rodney Dickerson was one of 244 law enforcement officers to graduate from the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Va. on March 13.
The 293rd session of the National Academy consisted of men and women from 48 states and the District of Columbia. The class included members of law enforcement agencies from 24 countries, eleven military organizations and four federal civilian organizations.
1. Take heed 5. One's superior
Prepped meat
Tighten anew
Type of textile fiber
Animalistic 16. When you hope to get somewhere
Offender 19. Former NYC mayor Ed
Type of cryptocurrency
Mauna __, Hawaiian volcano
23. Herring-like fish 25. Popular PBS program 26. Congressman (abbr.)
Flightless Australian birds
Defrosted
Prior Yankee sensation
Nasal mucus
Some are southern
A place to construct
Popular beer brand
Shouts of farewell
Network of nerves
Make a mistake
Showed old movie
Body parts
A divisor 52. Congressional investigatory body
Papers 54. Most unnatural 56. Judge the worth of something 57. Makes sounds while sleeping
Which
Hungarian Violinist
CLUES DOWN
1. Pages 2. Head pain 3. A loud utterance
4. Large brown seaweed
5. Hulu's chef Carmine
6. Greek mountain
7. Made final 8. Bar
9. Tai subgroup
10. What you eat
11. Teaches again
12. Small constellation 14. Type of berry
15. Cows fattened for meat
18. A way to hoof it
20. Exaggerated a role
24. About two
26. Long upholstered seat
28. What employees earn
30. Fiber from a coconut husk
32. Digits
34. Polish by rubbing
35. Liquid body substances
37. Furniture with open shelves
38. Edible part of a chicken
40. Satisfy
42. Tool used to remove
43. Icelandic poems
45. Swiss village
47. Drunks
49. Evergreen plant genus
50. Light precipitation
51. Ribosomal ribonucleic acid
55. An informal debt instrument
Internationally known for its academic excellence, the National Academy offers 10 weeks of advanced communication, leadership and fitness training. Participants must have proven records as professionals within their agencies to attend. On average, these officers have 21 years of law enforcement experience and usually return to their agencies to serve in executive-level positions.
FBI Academy instructors, special agents and other staff with advanced degrees provide the training; many instructors are recognized internationally in their fields. Since 1972, National Academy students have been able to earn undergraduate and graduate credits from the University of Virginia, which accredits all the National Academy courses offered.
FBI Director Kash Patel de-
livered remarks at the ceremony. Class spokesperson Joses Walehwa, Brea Police Department of Brea, Calif., represented the graduating officers.
Captain Dickerson joined the Williston Police Department in 2012, where he was promoted to Patrol Sergeant in 2015, Patrol Lieutenant in 2017 and Patrol
Captain in 2019. A total of 55,941 graduates have completed the FBI National Academy since it began in 1935. The National Academy is held at the FBI Training Academy in Quantico, the same facility where the FBI trains its new special agents and intelligence analysts.
PATROL CAPTAIN RODNEY DICKERSON | SUBMITTED PHOTO
North Dakota
Senate committee advances property tax package supported by Gov. Armstrong
MICHAEL ACHTERLING NORTH DAKOTA MONITOR
Aproperty tax bill
backed by Gov. Kelly Armstrong received a unanimous do pass recommendation Monday immediately following a Senate committee hearing.
House Bill 1176, sponsored by Rep. Mike Nathe, R-Bismarck, would give North Dakota homeowners up to a $1,450 primary residence tax credit and cap the amount of property taxes that could be levied locally at a 3% annual increase.
The bill would also raise income thresholds for seniors to the Homestead Tax Credit program by $10,000 and expand the state’s renters credit for those that qualify from $400 to $600.
Tax Commissioner Brian Kroshus estimates the bill would provide an estimated $503.3 million in tax relief to citizens for 2025-27.
“During my campaign, I visit-
ed with thousands of constituents from every corner of our state and I can confidently say that this is their top priority and it should still be ours,” Armstrong told the Senate Finance and Taxation Committee.
Other property tax relief bills under consideration by the Senate would reduce property taxes for
commercial, agriculture and centrally assessed properties in addition to residential property.
Armstrong said focusing on primary residences would bring tax reductions to small business owners in the state indirectly.
“Every small business owner I know in North Dakota lives in
North Dakota,” he said.
Most of the testimony Monday was in support of the bill, but some including the North Dakota League of Cities and North Dakota Association of Counties advocated for amending the 3% cap for local political subdivisions. Both groups favor a cap tied to the rate of inflation, such as the consumer price index plus 2%.
Brandy Madrigga, finance director for Cass County, told lawmakers that salaries and benefits for the county’s 277 employees account for the majority of the county budget. She said the average annual raise and cost of living adjustment for county employees is about 5%.
“These increases are necessary to ensure the county can retain skilled personnel and maintain the quality of essential services,” Madrigga said.
Nathe said the Legislature could revisit the caps during the 2027 legislative session.
The bill also allows local gov-
ernments to exceed the cap with approval from voters. It also allows local governments to bank unused increases for up to five years.
Committee member Sen. Michelle Powers, R-Fargo, said she liked that House Bill 1176 only affects primary residences. The committee advanced the bill to the Senate Appropriations Committee, which could make amendments to the bill, including discussing the 3% caps.
The two other property tax bills, House Bill 1575 and House Bill 1168, also would affect outof-state property owners and those who own multiple properties in the state. The committee held hearings on those bills last week but has yet to make a recommendation.
All three bills were passed by the House.
This article originally appeared on the North Dakota Monitor website on March 17. Find it at www. northdakotamonitor.com
GOV. KELLY ARMSTRONG SPEAKS IN SUPPORT OF A PROPERTY TAX BILL DURING A SENATE COMMITTEE HEARING ON MARCH 17. | MICHAEL ACHTERLING, NORTH DAKOTA MONITOR
Through a Lutheran Lens
QUESTIONING OUR FEARS IN MANY PLACES: A CROSS-OVER EVENT
PASTOR ZACH HARRIS FIRST LUTHERAN CHURCH
The time is serious. It’s always supposed to be that way for those who are church folk this time of year as they anticipate the coming of Easter. The liturgical season of Lent is designed to get us ready to hear that Easter message quaintly put: “Jesus Saves! But the message rings hollow if you don’t know the answer to: “Jesus saves me from what?”
Lent always flows through March and so there are some commonalities each year that try to distract. The Madness of college basketball, the green beer of St. Patrick and lengthening of days (could it be Jesus saves us from the snow?) all want to pull us from that Lenten concentration. Except five years ago, basketball and beer were cancelled by COVID, and everyone got serious at the same time in isolation and loneliness asking fearful questions, but with no one to dialogue with except our pods!
Once again, however, the time is serious. Uncertainty pervades the world. Everyone seems
on edge, even when we can get together to drink that Leprechaun Ale and cheer our teams on, there seems to be a paranoia also between friend groups as well as long established allies across the world. Weren’t we all living and working together for some common purpose just a little while ago?
Just this past Wednesday, that’s the kind of question we tried to look at as we faced the fear of the loss of the planet that God gave to God’s children? It’s bad enough when we think of an asteroid on collision course with earth to possibly wipe us out and now with Bruce Willis off the board to fly up and take care of it. But the fact that those Jesus-predicted “wars and rumors of wars” have gotten so pronounced that the Doomsday Clock is now 89 seconds to midnight when we no longer worry about our rotisserie-version of burning up the planet with carbon emissions and just jump to the microwave-version with nukes!
In a weird twist on unification: isn’t it strange that at this particular time, maybe the thing that unites all of humanity is the fear of the mutual loss of the very shared planet that we all inhabit—imaginary lines on maps disregarded.
But might a common discussion of those mutual fears (even as you polish off the rest of those green beers from last week) be in itself a way to cross over that divide?
“Crossover” is a word or phrase heavily on my mind this week for a number of reasons. The first is the above. People around us are wired differently. I’ve often said that when a congregation of 100 says the Apostle’s Creed together, you have 100 different interpretations of what that means. But we “cross over” the differences to the commonalities, and that’s how we form relationships from as large as countries down to congregations and ultimately couples. It’s the compromise and commonality of actually DOING the act of “love thy neighbor as thyself” that allows us to realize that no matter what side of the planet someone is on: the care for family, desire for stability and search for meaning are all the same.
The original reason “crossover” came to mind was its use in story-telling. Like when two of your favorite TV shows will have the characters meet up on each other’s shows. Or, in the dreaded comic book parlance of the annual summer crossover event: that’s a
storyline that runs through multiple comic book titles (probably many of which you normally wouldn’t read, but you read now just so you can follow the whole story) to tell a massive epic. What SHOULD happen is that a good crossover event would allow each separate component to stand on its own, but if you put them all together, they create a larger message: the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. That’s what I’m trying to achieve this Lent each week at First Lutheran with a) an event on Wednesday evenings at 6:30 (there’s actually food at 6 also), b) this article that comes out on Thursdays and c) a standard Sunday morning sermon along with other teaching opportunities and church newsletters and such. In theory, there should be a consistency of messaging, so those who catch it all, will get it; but if you only read this article, you won’t get a disconnect along the way.
All of which leads to my third understanding of this phrase “Cross-Over,” which is sort of the ultimate version of the above, and the bookend to what Lent is all about. You see, THE thing that has a chance of pulling together and calming the fears no matter where one of God’s children kneels to pray throughout the world is the very Cross of Jesus. It is the
same cross which shines over all the world to give salvation no matter the language or culture. And it is indeed consistent across multi-media platforms: in movies and messages, in comics and conferences, in print and persons— Jesus message of salvation stands at the crux (a word that literally means “cross”) of Lent, on Good Friday, when God gives God’s very own self in Jesus, a self-sacrifice for this big blue marble in the vastness of space and each and every one of God’s kids perched upon it—out of Love which is God’s essence as expressed in First John. The time is serious. The time is now. And with April Fool’s just around the corner, that devilish joker Satan is sure to try to sow seeds of doubt: “Why so serious?” But, in the midst of real fears, we could simply ball up in our isolation and be paralyzed. Or maybe we could come together and take seriously this sacred time we find ourselves in and contemplate the heart of the message being lifted up in my little crossover event: Perfect Love casts out fear. And to be sure, God is Love, that perfect Love is what we are looking for!
Pastor Zach Harris has been an ordained minister for 33 years and currently serves First Lutheran Church in Williston. His column, “Through a Lutheran Lens: A Pastor’s Perspective,” will appear regularly in the Williston Graphic.
PARTS DEPARTMENT
Classifieds
Most competitive prices anywhere
MISCELLANEOUS
1985
VEHICLES
The Housing Authority of the City of Williston is now accepting applications for 1 bedroom, 2 bedroom, 3 bedroom, and 4 bedroom units. *Income, eligibility, and admission preferences apply. Applications are available at The Housing Authority of the City of Williston located at 1801 8th Ave West Williston, ND 58801 Monday-Friday 9am - 4pm (701) 572-2006
Local History
A True American Hero
JOHN DEKHANE
The heartbreaking story of Captain Raymond J. Check is a poignant reminder of the selflessness and bravery that defined a generation of young men who gave everything for our freedom. At just 25 years old, Raymond was a young man on the brink of beginning a new life. He was a dedicated pilot, a man of integrity and a loving fiancé with dreams of a future filled with love and happiness. On June 26, 1943, he embarked on his 25th mission, which was meant to be a celebration, the last before he could finally marry the woman he loved and return home. The mission was supposed to be a simple bombing run, but fate had other plans.
Born on Sept. 27, 1917, in Williston, N.D, Raymond J. Check was the youngest of five children in a family with deep immigrant roots. His father, originally from Poland, worked as a railroad roadmaster, while his mother was born in Russia. Raymond’s early years were shaped by a hardworking family, where discipline and duty were paramount. It was here that he learned the values of loyalty and commitment, traits that would define his life and his service during the war.
When World War II broke out, Raymond, like many young men from North Dakota, felt a strong calling to serve his country. On June 11, 1941, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces. As the war raged on in Europe, Raymond’s skills as a pilot quickly became apparent, and he was assigned to the 423rd Bomber Squadron of the 306th Bombardment Group. Flying B-17 aircraft, he faced danger head-on, achieving countless missions over Nazi-occupied Europe. Despite the odds and the toll it took on the men
who flew these dangerous missions, Raymond’s resolve remained unshaken. He was a man of deep integrity, respected by his fellow airmen for his bravery, leadership and the care he took in ensuring the safety of his crew.
Through the chaos of war, Raymond found love. He became engaged to a beautiful Army nurse, and with 24 missions behind him, he was just one away from completing his tour of duty. His 25th mission, scheduled for June 26, 1943, was meant to be the last.
Afterward, Raymond was to marry his fiancée the following day and begin the life he had fought for.
The mission was a bombing run over a German airfield in France.
A "milk run," as it was called, meaning minimal risk. The crew was in high spirits, knowing that
Raymond was just one step away from returning home. They had no reason to think anything could go wrong. But as they neared their target, tragedy struck.
In the final moments of the bomb run, a German fighter appeared out of the sun and attacked the bomber. A 20mm cannon shell struck Raymond in the neck, instantly killing him. The plane was severely damaged, and many of the crew members were injured in the attack, but the B-17 managed to get back to base. The radio was out, and there were no remaining flares to signal an emergency landing. In an attempt to avoid the reception group waiting for Raymond’s triumphant return, including his fiancée, the aircraft made a difficult landing, downwind and against incoming traffic.
The loss of Raymond was felt deeply by everyone who knew him. His family, his friends and his fellow airmen were devastated by the news. His fiancée, who had been filled with anticipation for their wedding the very next day, was utterly shattered by the tragic turn of events. Raymond’s sacrifice was the ultimate cost of war. He is now resting in peace at the Cambridge American Cemetery in England.
Raymond J. Check’s sacrifice is one we must never forget. At just 25 years old, he gave everything— his life, his future, his love—to fight for a cause greater than himself. We must remember him, not
just with words, but through our actions. We must live in a way that honors his memory, cherishing the freedoms he fought for and ensuring that future generations understand the true cost of liberty. Raymond’s story is a call to honor what was given for us, to live lives worthy of the sacrifices made and to keep his legacy alive in everything we do.
John Dekhane is based in France and writes tributes dedicated to World War II fallen heroes. More if his stories can be found on armenianweekly.com
CAPTAIN RAYMOND J. CHECK | SUBMITTED PHOTO
CAPTAIN RAYMOND J. CHECK'S GRAVE AT THE CAMBRIDGE AMERICAN CEMETARY IN ENGLAND | SUBMITTED PHOTO