North Dakota Senator Patten reflects on 2024, eyes property tax reform
Steve Hallstrom
Special to The Farmer
Dale Patten is about to begin his fourth session in the North Dakota State Senate and brings with him a host of experiences from 2024 that will certainly be part of his mindset as the 2025 legislative session begins. And as any resident of McKenzie County can tell you, the 2024 wildfires will never be far from his mind.
“Things are going pretty well here; other than the fire damage we had this fall,” said Patten, speaking on KTGO “The Flag Radio” (AM 1090 / FM 92.7). That was pretty devastating. The one north of the river in Williams County was by far the worst one. But we had a lot of acres burned, a lot of fences, a lot of grass damaged, and some outbuildings as well. But I’ve been very impressed with the response we’ve been getting from so many places. We’re dealing with it. We dealt with it in the past and everybody’s participation is much appreciated as we go forward.”
The state fire marshal has determined that heat from natural gas flares combined with high winds and dry conditions is to blame for two of the fires. Multiple investigations are still ongoing related to several of the other fires. In total, two died and six were injured.
Approximately 14,000 acres of pasture and rangeland were lost and nearly 20,000 acres of cropland were damaged. Fires also destroyed nearly 110 miles of fence. The cost of the damage has been estimated at more than $8 million.
“Some of the challenges, once the fire started, was the high wind,” says Patten. “We weren’t able to get the helicopters to get out there and it got dark. I heard some of the people out there fighting the fire were using GPS on their phone to drive down the road because they couldn’t see anything. So, we’re waiting on some of the final reports from the state fire marshal regarding the cause and I know the various industries that work out here are working on “preventing the event” in the future.
If there’s a downed power line, you can’t shut the power off when we have a high wind, but how do we mitigate the results of this as much as we can? Senator (Greg) Kessel from Belfield and I have been working with DES (Department of Energy Services) and the state fire marshal on some ideas to beef up a response available to our local fire departments.”
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