Compiled byLAURENDONOVAN

BismarckTribune

Jessica Raasch of Hettinger will be the fifth generation in military service, a tradition that extends back to her great-great-grandfather's service in the Civil War.

The 17-year-old high school senior recently signed on for the National Guard, partly because she can earn $60,000 in six years, working two days a month and two weeks every summer, participating in the guard's College First program. She's allowed two years of college before there's any chance of deployment under the program rules.

"There's my college money," she said.

What makes her situation most interesting, though, is that her dad, Sgt. Randy Raasch, will be her supervisor. He works with recruits, preparing them for basic training.

"She'll be treated just like everyone else, no better, no worse," he said.

Jessica Raasch said she's a little worried about that.

"He likes to show off sometimes. I don't think my dad will be harder on me, but I think there will be a lot more attention on me," she said.

Randy Raasch said he thinks his daughter, who plans to specialize in public relations for the Guard, will be safer wrapped in a military team than she would be driving up and down gravel roads with a carload of friends.

"I think the statistics are that you're seven times more likely to die in a car accident than you are to die overseas," he said.

Randy Raasch said each of his children will make his or her own decision about whether the join the Guard. He only asks that they attend one drill and meet once with a recruiter.

"I don't love them any more for joining and I don't love them any less if they choose not to. I am proud of all of them," he said.

- Adams County Record

Elk attack

Neal Shipman, publisher of the McKenzie County Farmer, isn't impressed with the National Park Service's process to control the elk population in Theodore Roosevelt National Park South Unit.

Shipman noted the park has been working on the issue for five years and recently released a 500-page report that outlines a range of possibilities for reducing the elk herd.

"Except for the waste of money and manpower in drafting this report, as well as now having more elk to deal with, this is exactly where we were five years ago," Shipman editorialized this week. "The National Park Service and everyone involved in the entire process so far should be ashamed."

He said the quickest and easiest way to control the elk would have been to follow the State Game and Fish Department's recommendation for using skilled volunteer sportsmen.

Instead, the park proposes to use federal employees, teamed with skilled volunteers, to thin the herd by 1,300 elk in five years. Other options are to kill enough for a true sample of chronic wasting disease and then transport them to other locations if the herd is disease-free; or to push elk outside the park for public hunting.

"It is also extremely unfortunate that the Park Service chose not to work with State Game and Fish to develop a simple and cost-effective solution that would have used volunteer hunters to thin the population," Shipman said. "It shouldn't have been this complicated."

- McKenzie County Farmer

Ambulance delivers

The Oliver County ambulance service got an early Christmas present - a new 2009 model ambulance that arrived a month ago, earlier than expected.

The ambulance has more room for the drivers, more headroom for the ambulance responders in the rear patient area and better lighting for going on down the road.

"You can see us coming from a long ways away," squad leader Mickie McNulty-Eide said.

Other features are an automatic switch-over on oxygen tanks, a built-in, fold-out child's seat, remote controlled side mirrors and an automatic curbside step.

One feature that everyone likes is an electric interior heater. It's left plugged in and maintains the ambulance interior at about 60 degrees, making it more comfortable for the patient and improving the longevity of the equipment.

The ambulance cost $118,000, and of that, $114,000 came from a federal Homeland Security Assistance to Firefighters grant. The remainder was donated by the community, including $2,500 from BNI Coal.

Lilly Hintz-Henke, president of the ambulance board, said acquiring the grant was a long process.

"We really needed it. People expect an ambulance as reliable as their car," she said.

- Center Republican