View Point - Editorial

Everyone wants to know what kind of fish the Hillsboro VFW serves Friday nights at the Vets Club.
“Whatever it is, it sure is good.”
True, but the secret is in the batter recipe. And the boys in the kitchen aren’t about to disclose the secret ingredients.
Sorry.
For the last four weeks, VFW post members have been serving their all-you-can eat fish fries to full houses each night.
Good fun.
Good food,
Good company.
All that and the price is right, the beer cold. (more…)

Hillsboro city leaders will soon make a recommendation to the state Department of Transportation about the rebuilding of ND Hwy. 200 — commonly called old Hwy. 81 as it cuts through town north to south. The well-traveled road is a symbol of Hillsboro to many and an oh-so familiar route for most. It is a weathered friend in desperate need of repair.
The 2008 road construction project — funded in large part by a $2 million federal and state grant — has local business owners who use the highway as a major trucking corridor insisting that the road remain its full 56 feet wide. The state proposes narrowing the well-used road to 44 feet. Local drivers argue that a narrower road will limit access for the steady stream of semi-trucks that now use the road daily. A narrower road will also compromise safety for drivers and pedestrians, wide-road proponents insist.
We wholeheartedly agree.
A narrower road is a giant step backwards. One could argue that a narrower road will cost less to build and less to maintain. We contend the savings is negligible — $150,000 out of a $2.5 million project — when weighed against the potential loss of commerce and the certain loss of a safe street. (more…)

Not surprisingly, our community has been most generous in its response to the fund-raising drives of the Hillsboro Medical Center and the Hillsboro Business Association.
The medical center wants to build a new 36-bed nursing home, add a 16-unit assisted living apartment complex and remodel the hospital. All this at a cost of $12.5 million; the medical center’s board of directors and capital campaign volunteers are asking the community to contribute $2 million, or 16 percent of the project’s total cost.
Hillsboro’s business association simply wants to replace the decades-old billboard it has downtown at the intersection of Main and Caledonia. The HBA project pales in comparison to the medical center’s building plans; still, friends of the business community have opened their checkbooks. (more…)

Good thing crystallized ice melt has a long shelf life.
The Banner purchased a 50 lb. bag back when we had ice everywhere, thinking we were going to need it this winter.
Then, the daytime temperatures went from the Banana Belt range to the sub zero variety.
We still didn’t have much snow, that is until last weekend.
We’ve got snow now, we were telling friends and family far from home at the start of the week.
Then, the storm trackers started telling us to prepare for another snow event, guaranteed this time to bring another 10 to 18 inches of more snow. Possibly more. (more…)