Ryan Johnson
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Ryan Johnson is the Features Editor for The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead. He previously wrote for The Forum and the Grand Forks Herald.
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FARGO — The threat of significant spring flooding remains low here, even as the region's abnormally dry conditions have diminished. The National Weather Service on Thursday, March 22, issued an updated 2018 spring flood outlook for the region, the first update since March 1, and said there was another "slight uptick" in the risk. The threat for moderate or major flooding is still low on the Red River, as well as its tributaries and the Devils Lake basin in northern North Dakota, according to the outlook.
MOORHEAD, Minn. — Wayne Sander said things seemed busy at the Sam's Club in Moorhead since he got a job in the photo department just after Thanksgiving. That's why it came as a "complete shock" Thursday morning, Jan. 11, when he arrived for a 9 a.m. shift only to be told he and all other employees here will soon lose their jobs when the store closes.
FARGO—On a wish list full of high hopes for downtown, one item stands out not for its extravagance but a plain, practical goal. The Downtown InFocus master plan approved by city commissioners last month to serve as a blueprint for the neighborhood includes developing a homeless "day center." It's a goal local leaders in the field have championed for years—these experts helped get it included on the InFocus plan—and it could become a reality sooner than imagined.
FARGO—Even for small businesses here, Black Friday could be a better day for sales than Small Business Saturday. That's a main takeaway from a new national analysis of transactions at nearly 65,000 retailers in the U.S., including about 200 businesses in North Dakota, during the 2016 holiday shopping season.
FARGO—A line of 40 or so people waiting for the doors to be unlocked said it all—locals were eager to check out North Dakota's first lululemon store when it opened Friday, Nov. 17, in West Acres Shopping Center. The lifestyle clothing and athletic gear brand that was founded in Vancouver in 1998 is inspired by yoga, and that remains the foundation of the company that had more than 400 stores around the world by the start of 2017.
FARGO — As employees continued their work in the background, representatives of Walmart stopped by a Fargo-based sunflower butter company to put the spotlight on a local example of American manufacturing. A short ceremony was held Monday, Nov. 13, at SunButter LLC, 4040 7th Ave. N., that featured remarks from local and state leaders, business officials and Lisa Nelson, a public affairs and government relations director with Walmart.
MOORHEAD, Minn.—The broken bones Chris Bjur suffered from a 16-foot fall hurt the most financially. The Moorhead handyman was painting his parents' house near Kulm, N.D., in early June, when he slipped on the steel roof and slid feet-first toward the ground. He landed with his right foot on grass and left foot on the sidewalk, and knew it was serious when he saw his mangled left leg.
FARGO — Human resources staff don't usually get the spotlight at work, but speakers at an annual conference here said these employees play a vital role in promoting a strong workforce and innovation that could make their businesses shine. North Dakota Commerce Commission Jay Schuler said the state is dealing with a big "challenge" right now: It had the nation's lowest seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 2.3 percent in August, but it lacks enough workers to fill open jobs.
FARGO—A long-vacant laundromat building here will become a new restaurant on the edge of downtown as a Perham, Minn., couple plans to expand their eateries to Fargo and Wahpeton, N.D. Britt Belquist and her husband, Alex Belquist, opened Perham's Brew Ales & Eats in 2011 in the back of a diner. The couple bought a building at 124 E. Main St. in 2012 and moved Brew there the following year.
At first glance, viewers of Cathy Hummel's large printed canvases might notice an overhead view of a lake, complete with some major roads winding around the perimeter. Hummel sees something a little different. "I call it maps of memories because I think that's what happens when you look at it," she said. The interior designer launched her business Lake Overview in 2002 out of necessity for something she wanted but couldn't find—an aesthetically pleasing map of Minnesota's Pelican Lake where she spent summers with her grandparents.