Vol. 3 - Issue 5
March 2, 2023 $2.00 A Community Newspaper a Serving N orthwest North Dakot
“KNOWING OTHERS IS INTELLIGENCE; KNOWING YOURSELF IS TRUE WISDOM. MASTERING OTHERS IS STRENGTH, MASTERING YOURSELF IS TRUE POWER.” - LAO-TZU
GIVE A HIGH FIVE
By Kristen Ator As a lifelong basketball fan, I have seen and experienced the power of sports - the way it brings people together, even after a time apart. Page 3
WELCOME TO MAIN STREET: THE LIFEBLOOD OF COMMUNITIES AND CONNECTION
By Alyssa Stromberg Picture an old-fashioned town square town in the heart of a small community, lined with cozy shops and bustling traffic. People greet each other as they pass by. Locals pop into their favorite businesses to say hello or purchase goods. This is Main Street. Page 5
CULTIVATING TOMORROW: PREPARING THE GROUND
By Chelsey Weisz “When I was hired as Director of Economic Development for Tioga, my first mission was to dive into the various challenges and opportunities facing our community.” Join Chelsey in her monthly column to learn how she is preparing the ground. Page 6
HOW DAVID ALLEN REVOLUTIONIZED OIL & GAS MAINTENANCE
By Rachel Venture Inspired by the MRI’s that use complex magnets and receivers, this scanning system looks inside the tube to see the level of corrosion and how imminent failure is. Page 11
WHO TOOK BARB? TO ARCHERY FROM INSURANCE
Part 3 of 4: Missing Person Barbara Cotton
LOCAL PROFESSIONAL BRINGS EXPERIENCE
By Kristin Miller There are 3 persons of interest in the disappearance of Barb Cotton, and unfortunately, none of them are alive today. This is where YOUR help comes in. When reading the details around each POI, if something triggers a memory, no matter how big or small, we ask you to please do the right thing and call the Williston PD to help bring closure to the Cotton family. Person of interest, Stacey Werder: You will remember that Stacey was Barb´s “boyfriend,” however the only person to ever confirm that fact, or that he was ever in Williston, was Louise. To this day there are no other accounts of that information. Here is Stacey Werder’s story. Stacey was born in Yreka CA in 1959. He is described as a smaller kid, very intelligent, quiet, and was bullied as a child. Others have said he was a really nice guy. His siblings knew
PROGRAM
Subscribe Online For Parts 1 & 2: www.vocellaoracle.com
TO NEW 4H
Story on Page 8 Persons of Interest: Top left & middle, Stacey Werder; Right Frank De la Peña. Bottom: the gravestone of Barbara Cotton and her brother, Frank Cotton.
a different version of him. According to his sisters, as Stacey got into his teen years he would have fits of rage with a flip of a switch. His family recalls Stacey trying to harm them on several occasions. Stacey’s untreated mental health issues continued to get worse as he got older. He joined the Navy in 1978 but was allegedly discharged for Paranoid Schizophrenia. Stacey then became a drifter and left home. He got
a job as a laborer for an oil crew (per his death certificate) and hitchhiked from town to town, supposedly going through Williston where only Louise can say that he was there. Then two days after Barb went missing, he went on to Montana. During his travels, he met a guy named Red, who also said how nice Stacey was and he never feared him during their time together. They ended up camping out (Story Continues on Page 2)
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