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Job Service ND director brings positive message to Rugby

By Sue Sitter - | Apr 22, 2023

Sue Sitter/PCT Patrick Bertagnolli, executive director of Job Service North Dakota, talks to an audience of area residents and community leaders in Rugby High School’s Tilman Hovland Auditorium Tuesday, April 11.

The Rugby Job Development Authority welcomed Patrick Bertagnolli, executive director of Job Service North Dakota, on a one-day listening tour of Rugby Tuesday, April 11.

The tour ended with an hour-long free presentation to Pierce County residents at Rugby High School’s Tilman Hovland Auditorium, where Bertagnolli shared stories and strategies for growing vibrant communities.

Bertagnolli centered his presentation on Watford City, where he had worked in human resources for an oil and gas company, then as director of economic development, before taking his post at JSND.

The former Montana resident admitted he hadn’t felt eager to move to North Dakota when a friend approached him with the idea more than 10 years ago.

Born in Three Forks, Montana, population 1200, Bertagnolli grew up as the son of “a small-town doctor, my sole parent from the time I was nine years old.”

Bertagnolli worked as a driver for United Parcel Service while in college. He said when he delivered packages to small businesses, “I could tell which ones were going to make it and which ones weren’t.”

He gave kudos to Rugby small business owners in the audience. “You command my full respect for who you are and what you do,” he said.

Bertagnolli advanced from driving to operations management for UPS, and then managed human resources for the company in a multi-state area that included North Dakota.

Along the way, he made a connection with Terry Moe, who left UPS “to help his hometown of Watford City, North Dakota with an oil boom.”

Moe invited Bertagnolli to join the business he had started there as a human resources manager.

When Bertagnolli expressed his reluctance to leave Montana and UPS, Moe invited him to visit Watford City, sending a private jet for him.

Despite the first-class treatment, Bertagnolli said he stood firm in his refusal to move to another job and state.

Warm welcome

“We go to a restaurant on Main Street, Outlaws, and have lunch in the bar area, talking oil and gas,” Bertagnolli recalled. “And the owners of the restaurant came up and introduced themselves to me, Aaron and Angie Pelton.”

“I thought that was kind,” he said. “But as we were leaving the facility, Angie, the owner of the restaurant, chased after me and said, ‘Pat, it was wonderful to meet you. I hope you’ll consider joining our community. We’d love to have you.'”

“I tell people to this day, that’s what got me,” he said.

“That community made me feel welcome, special, important, needed and wanted,” he said. “It sealed the deal for me and I moved my family to Watford City, North Dakota.”

Bertagnolli said Watford City could serve as a template for any North Dakota community, even if, like Rugby, it’s not located in the Oil Patch.

“Part of my message is really inspiring communities to kind of get off the bench and get in the game and be a part of the solution,” he said.

Bertagnolli shared stories of youth who served as champions for their communities.

Some, like two daughters of his neighbors in Bismarck, fell into the role naturally.

Community champions

He told of Emily, a three-year-old whose older sister had written a note for him that read, “Won’t you be my neighbor?” when he and his wife moved to Bismarck for his state job.

Emily often wore a cape and called herself a superhero. Bertagnolli noted she would graduate high school in 15 years, and for communities to thrive, they needed to find a role for a “superhero like her.”

Watford City High School student Lydia, the subject of another story, joined a group of student ambassadors to raise $12,000 through a silent auction after a fellow student’s family lost their home in a fire.

“In her senior year, Lydia joined the National Guard,” Bertagnolli said. “She went to basic training after she graduated, then went on to Fort Sam Houston, where she graduated February 18 of last year.”

Lydia later contacted Bertagnolli about a newspaper article from her hometown about suicide in veterans.

“She said, ‘I’ve seen they lost four veterans. That’s unacceptable to me. Do you know the people quoted in the article?'” Bertagnolli said.

“I said, ‘I sure do, but I can one-up you,'” he recalled. “‘I’ve got a whole veterans team at Job Service North Dakota, so let me connect you.'”

“So, we’re working with Lydia behind the scenes who wants to further impact her community by talking to veterans and making sure they understand nobody quits,” he said.

Engaging youth in their communities not only helps keep them connected but shapes futures and careers, Bertagnolli said.

Students engaged in their communities are also more likely to return to them after college or career training, bringing needed skills to local workforces.

The Watford City students’ efforts echoed Rugby High School’s Community Building program, whose students won a “Future Leaders Empowerment Award” from Gov. Doug Burgum in 2019.

Community building

Rugby High School students remain engaged in their community and local workforce through the school’s work co-op program, which places students at local businesses for on the job training and job shadowing.

Bertagnolli praised seven Rugby High school students placed at Heart of America Medical Center, adding the hospital makes sure employees are aware of high school activities and sporting events and encourages them to attend.

“Youth engagement in the community is critical,” said Kevin Leier, who taught community building as a social studies teacher at Rugby High from 2018-2020.

Leier said he created the class and curriculum after “getting the green light” from Superintendent Mike McNeff and Rugby High Principal Jared Blikre.

“It was a huge hit,” Leier said. “The kids loved it. We got to do some really neat projects – projects that were both visible to the community, and projects that were entirely spearheaded by kids that impacted the community. “

“The biggest reason I would say it’s critical is it allows students to have buy-in in the community that they’re growing up in,” he said.

“I personally think when they have that buy-in and they’re a part of something that’s bigger than themselves, like their community, you have a greater chance of convincing that kid someday to come back and be a productive person in that community.”

“They can see how in a small community like Rugby, it doesn’t take a lot of people who volunteer their time or who help out to make wonderful things happen,” he said.

After spending two years focusing on his family bison ranch business, Leier moved back to education as principal of Little Flower Catholic Elementary School.

He said he planned to bring community engagement to the students there, using activities such as clean-up days or “things kids can actually be involved in to develop and make our community a better place for the citizens that live here,” he said.

“What we did in Rugby really struck a chord, to show the value of our school system,” he said. “Our public school system in Rugby is wonderful. Having the ability to get kids out and active in the community is a good thing. It shows the community our school system is engaged with the whole community, too.”

“I know the FACS (Family and Consumer Science) program with Mrs. Lovcik is doing a lot of things to get kids out in the community doing things, and Paola Trottier does a phenomenal job with her job placement and job shadowing program through her department, too,” he added.

“It’s definitely not dead,” Leier said of student community engagement in Rugby.

Pierce County workforce stats

Bertagnolli also shared statistics for Rugby compiled by the U.S. Department of Labor.

The data showed the average age of Rugby residents is about 44, compared to 30 in Watford City and 31 in Williston.

Twenty percent of Pierce County residents come from other states. Bertagnolli suggested finding out what attracted these residents to the area, then encouraging them to contact friends and neighbors from their home states to promote moving to Pierce County.

He discussed ways to involve older residents in the workforce, attract workers from job training programs for inmates leaving the correctional system and welcome immigrants fleeing countries such as Ukraine.

“We’ve got a Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act,” he added. “We’ve upscaled close to 1,000 people through that program, the top three occupations that we’re training people in, and we’re paying for the training, are CDL (commercial driver’s license), C.N.A., welders.

He said JSND offered to help Heart of America Medical Center and Rugby Manufacturing with recruitment and training.

Bertagnolli also talked about finding community champions in Rugby.

“I don’t think we have any community champions in Rugby yet,” he said. “There are 71 community champions across the state.”

Representatives with JSND visit Rugby’s Heart of America Public Library at 201 3rd St. SW on the first Wednesday of each month from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

For more information on programs available through JSND, visit www.jobsnd.com or call 328-2825.