The swearing in of newly elected Mayor of Devils Lake, Jim Moe, took place at a special Devils Lake City Commission meeting held at the end of July 2022.
We’re heading into the fourth month of what we are calling “the new and improved Devils Lake Journal.” March 1 will mark the start of our fifth month and I am asking for someone to step up and help me with covering meetings I am unable to attend.
First, I’m looking for a retired teacher or the parent of a Middle School or High School student, maybe, someone who would like to stay a little more involved with education, but without all the time and work involved in substitute teaching or being a para, for example. You do NOT have to have a degree or a teaching certificate or years of experience to attend a school board meeting, for example, and write it up for the newspaper.
The Devils Lake School Board
The Devils Lake School Board meets twice each month, normally on Monday afternoons at 5 p.m. in the Administration’s Conference Room of the Sports Center; Feb. 27, March 13 and March 27. They provide an agenda for each meeting which covers both discussion and action items. Most meetings last about an hour, some less than that, some longer, it just depends on what is happening. All you’d have to do is attend the meeting and afterwards write up a recap of the highlights of the meeting – what they talked about, what they voted on, etc. Then send it to me at loleson@cmpapers.com and I can publish it in the next issue of the newspaper.
Devils Lake City Commission
The Devils Lake City Commission meets the first and third Mondays each month in the City Offices, 423 6th St. NE, at 5:30 p.m. (unless the meeting falls on a legal holiday, then it meets the following Tuesday in the commission chambers of City Hall at 5:30 p.m.)
They too provide an agenda for each meeting and what is going to be discussed and/or voted on. Again, all you would have to do is attend the meeting, take a few notes and write them up afterwards, sending them to me at loleson@cmpapers.com. Most meetings of the City Commission last about 1/2 an hour to an hour, some longer, some shorter.
Ramsey County Commission
The Ramsey County Commission meets the first and third Tuesdays of each month in the Ramsey County Courthouse, commission’s chambers, the first Tuesday of the month the meeting begins at 8 a.m., the second Tuesday of the month the meeting begins at 5:30 p.m. They also provide an agenda for each meeting and meetings last about 45 minutes to an hour, depending on what’s being discussed.
Again, all you would have to do is sit in, listen and jot down notes of what is talked about, reported on and voted on. Then send it to me at loleson@cmpapers.com – I will make sure your grammar, spelling and punctuation are correct (heck, mine’s not always perfect!).
Interested?
If YOU are interested in helping me with this, just give me a call on my cell phone 701-230-2651 and I will help you get started. You don’t have to go to ALL the meetings – maybe you’re interested in the School Board and not necessarily the City or County Commission meetings, that’s okay – ideally it would be one person covering all three of those entities which would equal about a total of 10 to 12 hours a month, I’m hoping we could find the money to pay you to do that.
Maybe you would like to do just the City meeting or just the County meeting – if that’s what you’d like, I can work with that and have maybe two or three people helping out. If I had someone to help out in the Editorial Department during the day, I’d go to the meetings myself and cover them but I can’t do it all! I am, however, open to ideas and suggestions.
If you know a DL high school student or college student at LRSC who would be interested in this, I would work with them. Any other ideas or suggestions – I would gladly entertain them, as well!
