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Off Center…t

By Staff | Oct 20, 2012

At the time of this writing, I have been a resident of Rugby for about 10 days. So far I’ve been greeted warmly by nearly everyone I’ve met, and pleasantly surprised with the amount and quality of the activities going on in town.

My first 10 days in town have been a whirlwind. I’ve been trying to get acclimated to the town and its people, all the while trying to complete job No.1 of putting out a good newspaper.

So far I’ve covered two city council meetings (one of which included a pizza lunch) and two county commission meetings (one of which included coffee and some outstanding baked goods).

While I don’t always rate government meetings on their culinary amenities, I will say that there is plenty of action going on in and around Rugby.

A lot of stuff is happening, as indicated by the number of times these local leaders are meeting.

That growth and activity is a good thing and something I hope to explore in depth in future issues of the Pierce County Tribune.

I’ve also had an opportunity to sample some of the culture and entertainment in Rugby.

Aside from making a couple of trips to the library, I’ve attended a Rugby football game, and a interesting talk from North Dakota journalist Roxana Saberi.

I was especially impressed that the community was able to bring, with the help of native daughter Kristi Rendahl, a person of Saberi’s notoriety to town to speak. She made headlines a few years back when she was jailed in Iran on a trumped-up, bunko charge of espionage.

I always thought it would be kind of cool to be charged with espionage, except for the whole lifetime jail sentence or being put to death part. The bad thing about being a good spy is no one ever finds out, so you never get the credit you deserve.

I’ve noticed that Main Street (or in this case, Main Avenue) is alive and well in Rugby. That’s something that my hometown, Minot, is struggling with, as the town has been inundated with chain stores and restaurants. I like a Subway sandwich or a trip to Kmart as much as the next person, but there’s nothing better than something produced in a local store owned and operated by people from the community.

I received mostly good feedback on my idea of devoting a few pages to the outdoors in each issue of the PCT. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to pull it off this week. A lot of the people I contacted about submitting to the section are even more busy than I am, and I’ve been pretty darn busy. The good news is, I’ve got some things lined up for next week’s paper and I think people will enjoy the content.

Hopefully, people that hunt and fish will especially like it, but I want it to be an outlet and showcase for all sorts of other outdoor activities as well.