They say that change is inevitable, but today is May 1 and it’s like someone waved a magic wand and transformed once full parking lots around Trinity Health into open spaces. Yesterday was moving day for Trinity Health. The ER is gone, the hospital is empty and also gone are all of the patients and staff that once occupied Trinity Hospital. Looking south, it is kind of lonely.
Conversely, the Renaissance lot and the new Minot City Hall parking lots are full of activity as today marks the first official day that the newly remodeled Minot City hall is open for business. Looking north the main entrance is busy, the flags are flying in the breeze, and there is a definite increase in activity at the corner of Main Street and 3rd Avenue SW.

I have been a resident of Minot for over 45 years, and this much change in 24 hours is certainly unusual if not unprecedented. Being from North Dakota we are resistant to change, anyway. But to accommodate changes in traffic flow and the absence of helicopter traffic, well, it’s just darn hard. That statement goes with the knowledge that both the City of Minot and Trinity Health have moved into much larger and more efficient spaces, and these changes were certainly anticipated. Trinity Health started their construction over 3 years ago.

The newly remodeled city hall project has been under construction for over a year. Soon, folks will be used to having city hall on Main Street and the Trinity Medical campus in southwest Minot, and we’ll talk about their former locations in past tense. What I will miss the most though, is the sound of helicopters on the roof of the” old” Trinity Hospital, and the almost hourly sirens of ambulances arriving at the Emergency Room entrance just across the street from my office.

The Northern Sentry office is located in the Main Medical building on the corner of Burdick and Main Street, and being a news organization, we don’t have all that much pedestrian traffic. It will be interesting to converse with the downtown merchants and get the results of the first week of what is soon to be “the norm” for Main Street Minot.
In the meantime, in an area that often struggles, even with the 2 downtown ramps, to provide adequate parking, there is now a plethora of new open parking spots within a block of downtown, and for the moment they are free.
So welcome to downtown City of Minot employees, we look forward to being of service whether it be restaurants or retail.

Best Kept Secrets
On my Spouse Excursion Tours, the most recent one was on April 25th, we take the time to point out the dog park on Minot’s 83 Bypass West. Once just a fledgling idea, the dog park has grown into a destination for hundreds of dog owners who use it on a regular basis. I always point to the walking path that heads east from the park along the dike next to the Souris River. Later on the tour we drive into the parking lot of the Jack Hoeven Wee Links Golf Course, which is where the path goes down under the river and continues, for a while, on the east side of 16th Street. So, my best kept secrets this week? The dog park, the river path and the Wee Links Golf Course. All 3 are certainly worth investigating.

Today’s Chuckle
Many an optimist has become rich by buying out a pessimist.