Compiled by LAURENDONOVAN

Bismarck Tribune

Everett Hoard, 87, of Lehr, still has the capacity to be of service to the U.S. Air Force.

He's the owner of Frontier Capacitor and Electronics and he recently secured yet another bid, this time to rebuild capacitors for vintage B-52 bombers based at Hill AFB in Ogden, Utah.

Seven of the capacitors arrived at Hoard's shop on McIntosh St. in Lehr, where he spends at least four hours every day on restoration and getting them back in good working order.

"I'm a capacitor specialist," he said. The pieces regulate the alternating and direct electrical currents in an engine system.

He estimates it will take him a week for each, adding up to shy of two months for this particular job. He'll earn "thousands," he said.

The job will require a one-pound box of epoxy resin, which he ordered from Chicago. It's considered a hazardous material and UPS charges $20 more than its normal shipping fee.

He whistled at the price. "Almost 60 bucks shipping for a one-pound package," he said.

But the real whistle ought to be for Hoard himself, still hard at it after all these years and recovering now from injured neck vertebrae from a bad fall. He said the injury doesn't bother him much, and he's wearing a neck brace until it's healed.

The Air Force tells him it would cost more to replace the bomber parts than to have them restored.

"I have to say I really enjoy this work," he said. "If I didn't, would I still be doing it at my age?"

- The Wishek Star

Lake being surveyed

For the first time in the project's history, the U.S. Army Corps boundary around Lake Sakakawea will be professionally surveyed.

The government hired a legal, professional surveyor to establish its true property demarcations, but the work has some folks around the lake wondering what the corps is up to and what it will mean to them.

Corps land managers Tim Kulke and Phil Brown recently told the McLean County Commission said the agency is also fencing the corps' property line and said it also has the right to shut down section lines.

"The corps did not properly survey the land at the initial building of the dam. We are trying to remedy that now," Kulke said.

The reason is that the original surveys were conducted by State Game and Fish Department employees, who worked to the best of their abilities, but were not exactly professionally trained, Kulke said.

Kulke said the corps is working with landowners on a case-by-case basis when concerns over property lines crop up.

Emerson Woods, a township representative, said the arrival of hunting season has raised questions about section line roads that are closed off, or fenced in.

Kulke said the corps has left open the option to talk to anyone about the survey results.

"Again, I can't promise that just because a question about the boundary is asked, that the person will like the answer we have to give," he said.

The survey project will take up to three years and is already fully funded.

The county and the corps will meet again in the spring to talk about projects of mutual concern.

- The Leader-News

Black pheasants

Folks in Mott have a lot of questions these days and one has to do with a large number of black pheasants being seen around.

The answer to that, and a buzz of activity down at the old Main Street bowling alley, all point to the same person: Kimball Parker, from Utah.

Parker, an avid hunter, purchased the Mott Motel a few months ago and more recently purchased and is restoring the bowling alley in town.

His overriding interest, though, is in developing a hunting preserve business for avid bird hunters like himself.

The new "black" birds are melanistic mutant pheasants, a purebred variety that's large and has iridescent greenish black plumage.

Parker is establishing the birds on preserves both north and south of Mott; 160 acres and 105 acres respectively, under the name Flushing Hills Hunting Club and Preserve.

That incidentally, is the umbrella for the motel and bowling alley/cafe enterprises, also.

He said he's hard at work developing these opportunities in Mott because it's the "Superbowl" of pheasant hunting. In answer to some rumors in town, Parker said he and helping friends from Utah are not members of a religious sect, they are not being financed by Remington and the preserve land is not fenced.

Oh, and the motel is open to anyone not just guests of the preserve who needs a bed for a night or two.

- The Herald