A4 Williston Herald, Friday, January 24, 2020

high school anymore, but you’re not on the bar scene. So we’re try-ing to put a little bit of attention on them and not only say ‘let us help you,’ but seek out peo-ple in that age group who want to come and help cu ltivate t hat

space. The idea isn’t us just doing it for them, but bridging people to-gether so that we can create what they need.”

W hi le the church transitions into its new identity, Martin want-ed to assure the com-munity that the church was still open, still op-erating and commit-ted to helping those in Williston who need it,

without question.“Our mission state-

ment here is ‘Hospital-ity and service, set for all people, as we walk together in the hope of Christ ,’” Martin said. “That includes banding together as people for healing and restoration. Inside of that, tending to the young adults is where we’ve decided to start

with that. From there, brai nstor mi ng how we can work for food insecurities or a food pantry.”

M a r t i n s a i d t h e church is working to find where its identi-ty meets the greatest need, which members are discovering in-volves working with the community, open-ing the church’s doors to everyone and host-ing communities that are disenfranchised by giving them a space to meet. Martin said it is a dynamic change for the church, one that is alive and vibrant and has inspired its mem-bers to seek out how they can help, some-thing that she said she has found “interesting-ly perplexing” in the people of Williston.

“People will random-ly come up to me and ask ‘Do you know a place where I can help? Do you know a place where I can serve? ’” she said . “ I t hi n k there’s a lot of beautiful people in Williston who are looking for a way of serving their neigh-bor and they just don’t know how to do that.”

M a r t i n s a i d t h e church would essen-tially function as a mission center, albeit without focusing on just one group of peo-ple. Instead, the focus will be “What is the need of Williston?” and how does the organiza-tion fit into filling that need.

“It’s different and it’s vibrant and it’s a para-digm shift and it’s new life and new energy,”

Martin said. “To be able to boldly say this is a community where all people are welcome, and truly mean al l people are welcome, is refreshing. There is a cool thing happening here that Wil liston needs to know about, and it’s beautiful.”

Shepherd’s Table has an event coming up on Saturday, Jan. 25, hosting Breakfast and Books for the Child and the Family from 9 a.m. to noon at the church wit h t he Wi l l iston Rainbow Rendezvous. For more information, check out their event page on Facebook or visit facebook.com/wil-listonrainbowrendez-vous. To find out more about Shepherd’s Table, visit them online at shepherdstablewill.org.

Connecting our communities

“The Williston Herald is a great publication.

It’s always filled with great local stories about our

local people, businesses, and events. I look

forward to reading it every year when it comes out.

I like to put our ads in Williston Herald as I know

it will be seen as it is very well read issue.”Ken Callahan

WICK253815

14 W. 4th St. Williston, North Dakota 58801

701-5 2-2165 • www.willistonherald.com

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FEBRUARY 27,2020

events.“McKenzie County is looking for-

ward to the information ISight will provide to assist us in making road decisions,” said McKenzie County Commission Chair, Tom McCabe, in a media release. “Just one day of road closures has economic impacts for the county. We’re looking for-ward to working with ISight on this pilot project.”

The ISight project will coordinate with the Western Dakota Energy Association’s WISE Roads project, which has already placed somewhere between 25 to 50 weather stations in the Oil Patch, to help counties refine their road closures.

“We are going to correlate the data we get with the closest (WISE Roads) weather stations,” Tommy Kendall, CEO for ISight, told the Williston Herald. “If everything works well, we would graduate our data into the Load Pass system.”

WISE Roads arose from a round-table discussion between oil and gas industry representatives and county officials. Road closures can cost mil-lions per day, the industry represen-tatives said.

But, when it is too wet, one over-weight truck can easily wreck the sub-base of a gravel road — not a cheap repair. One county official es-timated during the discussion that it costs a million and a half per mile to repair such damage.

“Our project will collect the data commissioners need to make in-formed decisions on road closures,” Kendall said. “We’re thankful to the commission for trusting ISight with such an important project and we’re excited to assist in keeping the eco-nomic pulse of the county running when rain threatens to shut every-thing down.”

Kendall said ISight will also coor-dinate with oil and trucking compa-

nies, to figure out which roads are most critical.

“They are working in different regions of the county all the time,” Kendall said.

The ISight project for McKenzie County will have two phases. The first, in spring of 2020, will include recording baseline data. In the sec-ond phase, there will be a a little storm chasing, a half hour or so after weather events. That will use be-yond visual line of sight infrastruc-ture — if it is available – which Ken-vile said would allow the drones to cover many, many square miles very quickly.

North Dakota has already put out a request for proposals for addition-al beyond visual line of sight radar equipment in the state. The timeline calls for placing the next ones some-time in 2021. Exactly where will be based on commercial need, Kenville said.

The McKenzie County project is one of two that Kenville has already lined up in the region. The other is research for an oil and gas company.

The two projects gave Kenville enough work to justify opening an office in the region with two pilots and two helpers, Kenville said. He’s hoping it will also be enough to jus-tify getting the next radar in the Oil Patch.

A radar in the West, of course, would not only help ISight, but would help any commercial businesses in the West are using drones within the scope of the radar, regardless of busi-ness sector.

Kenville said ISight has already purchased a long-range, gas-pow-ered drone for beyond line of sight projects.

The American-made drone can stay airborne for five to six hours at a time, so that it can make full use of the beyond line of sight network.

“We have used it some already for FAA test site work we do,” Kenville added. “But I think it will be perfect for the McKenzie County project.”

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money that paid for it.”“ T h e s e a n i m a l s

didn’t deserve to be hu r t or i nju red or killed at all,” student Maci Hel ler added. “And it was all due to humans starting the fires, so we just wanted to say our sorries and help out for what we did to them.”

Ba k ken P ri ncipa l Jeremy Mehlhoff said he was tremendously proud of the students coming together for such a great cause.

“It’s just awesome,” he said. “I love it when kids want to help oth-ers, and we don’t often give our kids enough credit for doing that. To see kids wanting to do this and step up, it was fantastic.”

Mehlhoff added that getting involved and giving back is a great lesson to learn early on, as it helps you be-come a better adult.

“As we get older, it’s part of being a part of the community,” he ex-plained. “so much in school, everyone focus-es on all the academic things, but realistically a big part of school is how to be a functioning member of society and how to take care of one another, how to take care of your environ-ment and your commu-nity. I think events like this teach a lot to our kids about that.”

Arneson echoed that

sentiment, saying the experience helps stu-dents become part of the larger picture and helps them understand how they can take part in things outside of their bubble and be a

force for good in the world around them.

“They need to un-derstand that there’s more than Williston, North Dakota,” she ex-plained. “They need to understand that there

are things happening in the world that they should be aware of. When they get older it will broaden their hori-zons. And I think it’s good that they start out with kindness early so

that they know when they get older that they can continue being kind and doing things for people. It may only be $ 500, and there’s been millions of dollars that have been donated,

but this is something that we did in Willis-ton for Australia. We are thousands of miles away, and the fact that these students wanted to help says a lot about them.”

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MITCH MELBERG • WILLISTON HERALD

Sixth grade students from Bakken Elementary were excited to help out with Australian wildefire relief by hosting a bake sale at the school on Thursday.