View Point - Letters to the Editor

EDITOR: Much has been said in the past couple years about Traill County and its resistance to preserve history.
I have had a unique vantage point few do, owing to the fact that I have served on the County Historical Society Board and have also been a county highway department employee for the past 22 years. It has been personally disheartening to have the county portrayed as not encouraging preservation.
It was in fact the County Commission 42 years ago that allowed a fledging historical organization to have a stable annual income through a county wide mill levy, which has allowed the Historical Society to flourish for the past four decades.
Through that time the County has cooperated with the Historical Society on preservation efforts by allowing permanent display cases in the Courthouse rotunda, to lending a helping hand with machinery and employees to place the steeple on the St. Olaf Chapel. The county’s forces were also instrumental in helping to clean up the original building site of the Bloomfield School when it was relocated to Hillsboro and there are numerous other smaller acts that are carried out yearly that only a handful of people are aware of but are important none the less.
Perhaps one of the greatest things the county commission has done for preservation in Traill County is the grant program of $5,000 which is given out each year. This money is appropriated from the county’s general fund by the county commission and is above and beyond the Historical Societies mill levy. This grant arose from the concerns of the Hatton Eielson Museum of the lack of financial help available to other local museums or preservation groups. That was approximately eight years ago and to date Traill County has awarded $40,000. They include grants to the Hillsboro Community Partnership, Mayville Public Library, Hatton Eielson Museum, Goose River Heritage Park and Buxton in Bloom.
The Commission is also the custodian of our grand old courthouse. I think anyone who spends any amount of time there is aware of the concern that goes into any changes that occur within its hallowed halls. Historical architects review and plan any work which is done; these in return are reviewed by the ND State Historical Society.
Quietly over the past 42 years help has come from the county commission and I hope it will continue for the foreseeable future. Of course there have been some decisions made by the commission that not everyone has been happy with. In a relationship does everyone get everything they want all the time? Of course not.
I believe when accusations are repeatedly made about one particular entity the whole record of their performance should be presented. I hope that is what I have done in this letter.

— John Wright
Hillsboro