Compiled by LAUREN DONOVAN

Bismarck Tribune

Two quilts that will be sold at auction Sunday were decades in the making.

That's a little misleading, since there's been decades between when they were started and when they were finished in the basement of the Lutheran church in Beach.

It's likely they were donated along with quilting supplies many years ago, but who the donor is, remains unknown, said church member Ardyn Mattson.

At any rate, Judy Lonnberg of Beach decided to make a project of completing the old quilts in time for the annual quilt auction held to benefit the Badlands Ministries Camp near Medora.

One is a 1960s-era quilt with a circus pattern and the other is a 1930s-era quilt with an egg carton pattern.

Lonnberg said she dated the '60s quilt by the fabric, which the manufacturer quit making in 1960 and the earlier quilt by its use of fabrics common to that time period.

She has about 50 hours invested in completing the '60s circus quilt and about 200 in completing the '30s egg carton quilt.

The two will be among 55 quilts sold at the benefit auction, which will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Medora Community Center.

- Billings County Pioneer

Dog scouting

A Hazen Boy Scout wants to take his Eagle Scout project to the dogs.

Jordan Grosz, the scout, asked the Hazen City Commission what it thinks about turning three lots near the town's tennis courts into a fenced area where dogs could romp and play with their owners and other dogs.

Grosz said he and Hazen Parks and Recreation Director Joe Amundson scouted likely locations in town, before recommending the tennis court site.

The lots are situated under a power line and are near a fire hydrant, although the hydrant was not touted as one of the dog park's amenities.

Commissioner Myra Axtman said she likes the location and the idea.

"There are a lot of people who really like their pets, and a dog park would be another reason people would live (in Hazen), or stay here," she said. "I definitely like the idea."

City Planner Steve Frovarp said the selling price of the lots would be around $3,800 and would probably need to be rezoned to accommodate a dog park. They are in the flood plain and anyone using them for a building site would likely have to add fill.

Axtman suggested going to the planning and zoning commission and then stopping back to city hall with the plan.

- The Hazen Star

Random thievery

Wells County is fairly remote and rural and some thieves are taking full advantage of all that dark, open countryside.

Abandoned farms, hunting shacks and farm machinery sitting idle in fields have been most at risk, starting last spring.

Wells County Sheriff Curt Pellett said the incidents started near New Rockford, where copper wiring and plumbing were stripped from an old farm house.

Deputy Allen Kluth said the high price of copper is the lure and he received a report that up to 1,500 pounds of it had been stolen in the past three weeks, though he didn't say whether that was a broader area than just the county.

Other thefts have been of gasoline, siphoned from every vehicle on the farm place reported, of machinery parts such as mower blades and a power-takeoff-shaft and of 180 gallons of diesel drained out of a tractor near town.

The sheriff said fuel was stolen from emergency vehicles in the tiny town of Cathay and from Canadian Pacific Railroad machinery.

Kluth said he thinks the rash of thefts are being done by different people, because of their random and scattered nature.

He said people can and should protect themselves against these crimes of opportunity.

"Don't leave vehicles sitting out in the fields. Let a neighbor know when you're gone. Keep things put away," the deputy said.

- The Herald-Press