Compiled by LAURENDONOVAN

Bismarck Tribune

A son's prayer for a big buck for daddy was answered.

Greg Knopp, who's a minister and no stranger to prayer himself, shot a buck that's the envy and the talk of the Wildrose area.

Knopp said his son included his dad's desire to have hunting in his nighttime intercessions to the man upstairs.

In answer to those prayers, on Nov. 20, with the end of the season closing in, Knopp found himself in the unbelievable position of having a 9x9, 18-point buck running right at him.

The buck has an estimated 196-point gross score.

"There aren't a lot of them," said Bill Jensen of the North Dakota Game and Fish Department.

Jensen said while size matters to some hunters, the important thing is that they enjoy the experience.

Knopp said he spent most of the morning in pursuit of the buck, which was part of a group he spotted on and off, always moving.

He got within a half-mile of the animals and crawled through the brush, hoping to sneak up on the group that had edged into a tree row.

Instead of a sneak attack on his part, he got quite a surprise when the deer started running toward him.

"The big buck ran at me to my left about 60 yards away," he said. "I shot at the big one and heard the bullet hit, but he kept right on running."

Knopp said he saw blood through his scope and knew it was only a matter of time before he tracked the buck to where it fell.

News of the trophy traveled quickly.

J.D. Nygard, who hosts an annual big buck show, said he thinks he'll have several sheds on display from the same deer that were collected in the Alamo area, where the buck has been spotted in recent years.

The buck is figured to have been about 6 years old.

- The Journal

Library overflowing

Bowman public librarian Sarah Snavely came to city leaders with what she described as a "wonderful issue."

Snavely said the library, which is greatly expanded at a new downtown location, is getting so much use that parking has become a problem.

Because of all that use, parking on the library lot by non-library users is preventing legitimate library users from having handy access to the building.

She told the Bowman City Commission that she hopefully solved a good example of that problem by speaking with the employee of a nearby business who took up a library parking spot all day.

She asked the commission to put up "For Library Use Only" signs in the lot and for street parking in front of the library to be restricted to two to three hours.

The commission said it would get a read on the situation and take action at its next meeting.

- Bowman County Pioneer

Win for Wishek

Wishek voters said "no" to a plan to allow the city to move forward and develop acreage in town into a residential subdivision.

The dream may not be dead, however.

Jim Weber, president of the Wishek Economic Development Corp., recently told the Wishek City Council that his group, along with the Wishek Job Development Authority, plans to buy three acres and spearhead the subdivision development.

"If everything keeps going as planned, we'll soon own the land," Weber said. "We need to know what to do next, so we can get the ball rolling on this next spring."

City attorney Richard Herr has said it would be difficult to reconcile the city's involvement as developer, given the results of the 2007 election.

Herr said a special assessment district could be created to improve the planned lots, with the development group responsible for taxes.

The city, however, could install a $200,000 sewage lift station that would be needed for that part of town.

Mayor Victor Vilhauer said the group should get the property rezoned from agricultural to residential and that the city will proceed with securing approval from the State Health Department for the sewer lift portion of the project.

- Wishek Star