Cally Peterson

MOUNTRAIL-WILLIAMS ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE
NDAREC President
▶    FAMILY | Wife, Helen. Four children and eight grandchildren.
▶    BOARD SERVICE | Mountrail-Williams Electric Cooperative board since 1981, currently vice president. NDAREC board since 1998, currently president.
▶    WHY I SERVE | I believe in the mission to improve the quality of life for every member through the delivery of electricity. It is so enjoyable to be involved with all the important issues we are involved with in our local communities and state.

“We are preparing for as many contingencies as possible,” Bjornson says.

Those legislative preparations and COVID-19 precautions have largely been pursued by Bjornson and Legislative Council staff at the direction of the Legislative Procedure and Arrangements Committee, chaired by Senate Majority Leader Rich Wardner. Interim committee work has spread the gamut, from pursuing technological improvements throughout the Legislature’s facilities to debating mask mandates.

“Clean-up is the hardest part about cooking!” says 10-year-old Adelyn “Addy” Boling.

(Agreed, Addy. Agreed!)

And based on the sheer volume of meals, recipes and cakes Addy has made, she’s done her fair share of dishes.

A fifth-grader in Miss McDonald’s class at Des Lacs-Burlington Elementary School, Addy plays volleyball, flute and ukulele, enjoys art and has become quite the chef.

“She’s been cooking since she was 4,” Addy’s mom and mother of four, Aftin Boling, says. “She’s always been my creative one.”
 

At 100 years old, Hunter still lives in the home he built decades ago, kitty-corner from the old Maddock Aggies school, now the high school. An American flag flies in his yard, near the parked car he still drives. Inside his home, the TV news hums in the background of his Solitaire game, which he does to “stay sharp.” A hallway bookshelf holds the Bible, Lutheran hymnals, Maddock history compilations and Webster’s New Students Dictionary. Adorning every possible space are pictures of his successful and well-educated family.

“What drives me is when I can go to the store and see all the products that our ingredients are in, and know that I, or us, as a company, have played a role in establishing that product,” Bartsch says.

“It shocked everybody as to what was going on, but I saw something in our companies this spring,” says N.D. Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring. “It was so enjoyable to watch how quickly they adapted. They looked at creating a new product or learning a new skill, based on what need existed in the market. (The pandemic) gave quite a few of them time to assess, or reassess, their business plan. Some actually took the time to maybe reinvent themselves a little bit. Others became more familiar with online sales.

“It shocked everybody as to what was going on, but I saw something in our companies this spring,” says N.D. Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring. “It was so enjoyable to watch how quickly they adapted. They looked at creating a new product or learning a new skill, based on what need existed in the market. (The pandemic) gave quite a few of them time to assess, or reassess, their business plan. Some actually took the time to maybe reinvent themselves a little bit. Others became more familiar with online sales.

Set amongst Hunter’s photographs is a small black-and-white image of a handsome young man. His light eyes shine under a U.S. Army service cap. They are the same blue eyes looking at me now from behind a pair of glasses.

Hunter is one of 16 million Americans, and 60,000 North Dakotans, who served in the military during World War II.

“Emmit’s a mini-Eric,” says Candace Sieg, the family’s matriarch. “He remembers everything and anything that comes out of Dad’s mouth.”

Emmit’s two older sisters, Isabel, 18, and Avery, 10, are also part of Eric’s fan club. You can see it in the way they look at their father and talk about one of their favorite family activities – hunting. All three children grew up hunting with their dad; Eric started them young.

“When they were 3 years old, Eric would dress them up at 5 in the morning, and they would go lay in the blind,” Candace says.

Derrick Bulawa had recently arrived in Steele to take over as general manager of BEK Communications Cooperative. He set his eyes on adding a TV service to BEK’s portfolio that offered local sports, and he pegged Jordan Hassler as the young buck to move the idea forward.

“They wanted to do something different, something that gave them a competitive advantage when they launched,” Hassler says. “They wanted to give something to their members that they couldn’t get anywhere else.”