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Groton Daily Independent
Friday, April 20, 2018 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 280 ~ 16 of 43
and where to develop until the endangered-species act was invoked. It is almost always advisable to avoid trouble rather than to rush headlong into it. Right now, it feels like we’re rushing headlong into it.
The problem of harming a grassland bird or having to decommission a wind farm may feel far off, but if we want to avoid potentially serious problems down the line, we’ve got to answer these questions now. We need to take a measured approach on wind development and as a state, we should look for ways to hold developers accountable for their actions when the time comes.
North Dakota State football coach signs contract extension
FARGO, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota State’s Chris Klieman has signed a two-year contract extension with the perennial Football Championship Subdivision powerhouse.
Klieman is entering his fifth season leading the Bison, who have won six of the last seven FCS titles. He was an assistant at the Fargo school for three years before he was promoted to head coach when Craig Bohl moved to Wyoming.
The 50-year-old Klieman signed a six-year contract extension in 2016 that called for a base salary of $300,000 a year, with minimum pay increases of at least 4 percent annually. Those terms remain unchanged. The new deal increases various performance bonuses and appearance fees.
Klieman has a 54-6 record with NDSU. He’s a native of Waterloo, Iowa, and played defensive back at Northern Iowa.
California company purchases 17 South Dakota properties
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — A recently formed California company is buying up hotels and motels across South Dakota.
AG Dakota has acquired 17 properties in South Dakota so far this year, including the Fort Pierre Motel, the Capital Journal reported . The group plans to invest $50 million over the next decade.
AG Dakota has already spent around $15 million, said David Hooper, the company’s senior director of operations.
“We’re not trying to take over all the hotels and motels in a place and then spike prices; we’re absolutely not trying to do that,” he said. The company aims to invest in “towns, cultures, and experiences,” he said. South Dakota’s lack of state income tax makes the area business-friendly, Hooper said. The state has a
culture of tourism built into it, he said.
The hospitality industry can make money in rural America’s small towns, and the company’s business
can help the economy of those towns, Hooper said.
Some of AG Dakota’s newly acquired properties are located in towns such as Ipswich and Murdo, with
populations estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau to have shrunk since 2010.
Hooper said he debated temporarily closing the Hospitality Hotel in Ipswich after purchasing it because
the hotel only had a manager on staff. But residents raised concerns about the economic impact of a clo- sure because local contractors stay at the hotel for weeks at a time. The concerns led to Hooper keeping the hotel open during the transition to a new management team and staff.
The company will keep the current names of the purchased properties, Hooper said. The buildings will eventually get updated signage with a tagline indicating the new ownership.
The company’s hotels and motels will eventually be operated off the same property management and payroll software system, Hooper said. The properties are currently listed under online travel agencies.
AG Dakota also has one hotel in North Dakota and one in Minnesota. ___
Information from: Pierre Capital Journal, http://www.capjournal.com