Telling it on the level
By ALLAN TINKER
One building, three locations, and four lots leveled ended in a permanent home for a large Quonset building originally first purchased by George Tkach, then by Gary Nigrin. The building is still on the Burleigh County land, occupied by Gary’s widow, Myrna. The story starts with a request to Sheridan County blade man Clifford Neff to level a lot for the building in McClusky. Neff complied with the request using a straight cutting blade on his big machine. The level mounts on the machine and adjusts by a screw on the side. Neff said that he received a call from Tkach that when the lot was checked for placement of the building, "the level was off by six inches." Checking his level, Neff found Tkach to be right, corrected the level and repeated the work. Then, before anything else happened, the Bureau of Reclamation bought the land. Tkach decided to place the building out on land he owned, formerly owned by Henry Herr. Neff leveled the lot but then Tkach died, leaving the land to his widow Mabel. She decided to sell the building and Nigrin purchased it for his farm in Burleigh County. Known for his good work, Neff received a call to come to Burleigh County and level the lot there and the Quonset finally had a permanent home, remaining to this day. Along with this story, Neff shared the story of a huge blizzard, where the snow on one farm they were sent out to Balfour, to rescue the Verendrye crew. In this storm, the snow was so deep that only six inches of the gas pumps stuck out from the snow banks.
