Jump to content
SiouxSports.com Forum

Oil Booms in North Dakota


star2city

Recommended Posts

Let me interpret this for our friends at the Ag College:

"UND your big brother do good. The Ag College do bad. It sad time for you people now. :sad: But, it better cuz you won at the football! Yay you! :bigsmile: "

Just doing this as a public service. No thanks are necessary!

"Won at the football." Classic!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Won at the football." Classic!

Well, when their shift is finished at whatever fast food joint they are working tonight, they'll go home, break open a bag of Cheetos, pull the top off their Mountain Dew and spend hours trying to understand it. I tried. But, it probably won't help.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Let me interpret this for our friends at the Ag College:

"UND your big brother do good. The Ag College do bad. It sad time for you people now. :sad: But, it better cuz you won at the football! Yay you! :bigsmile: "

Just doing this as a public service. No thanks are necessary!

Don't forget Sioux suck, and UND is NOT our rival. :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Got this in my e-mail today, pretty much summarizes a lot of the bad things the oil activity has brought to the area. Williston used to be a nice day trip to go to, now you hope you never have to go there again. I pity the locals that cannot afford to relocate.

A meeting was held recently of the ND Sheriff’s & Deputies Association in Bismarck,,,, as part of this meeting we had an opportunity to sit down with Law Enforcement from western ND to discuss what they are going through with oil impact.

Here is a summary of points made:

1. Currently there are a total of 84 companies involved in the oil industry in western ND.

2. It takes between 2000 and 2200 semi loads of water per well. Currently there are 258 wells in progress with so many scheduled it is hard to determine the exact amount.

3. Traffic accidents, especially fatal traffic accidents are of very high concern. At one location on Highway 85 south of Williston, a traffic count was conducted in October of 2011. In one 24 hour period of time there where 29,000 vehicle through the intersection looked at with 60% of the traffic being semi’s.

4. Traffic is typically backed up for ½ to ¾ of a mile. One of the guys stated that one day last week he sat at an intersection on Highway 85 for about 30 minutes to get a big enough opening to cross over.

5. They have closed the weigh scale house because it was causing such a traffic jamb that it was closing the roadway.

6. Rent in Williston currently is: $ 2000 for a one bedroom to $ 3400 for a three bedroom appartment.

7. They have no more hook ups for campers any where in the area.

8. Williams County allows three campers per farmstead, the farmers almost all have three campers on their property and are charging $ 800 per camper per month for rent.

9. Wal Mart in Williston no longer stocks shelves, they bring out pallets of merchandise at night, and set it in the isles, people then take off of the pallets what they want.

10. On 1-1-12, the Williston Wal Mart had 148 campers overnight in their parking lot.

11. Willams County wrecked a pickup and ended up bringing it to Bismarck for repairs because there no available body shops to do the work. Williams County has purchased a trailer and has started to bring vehicles to the Bismarck area for repairs. Willaims County took a pickup in for ball joints and front brakes, the shop charged them $ 2800 for the repairs.

12. Williston and Williams County now produces more taxable sales than any other area in ND, including Fargo.

13. The Williams County jail has increased booking by 150%. With a 100% increase in inmate population. Bonds of $ 5k to $ 10 K are typically paid with cash out of pocket. The Williams County Sheriff stated that a couple of week ago he received a $ 63,000 bond in cash carried into the jail in a plastic Wal Mart bag.

14. Williams County Sheriff’s Department has more than doubled in staff over the last two years, they are now buying trailer houses that come up for sale to rent to newly hired deputies.

15. Williams County new starting salary with the academy is $ 46,000 plus 100% of all benefits paid.

16. They are in a continuous hiring cycle, they have no set budget at this time, the Sheriff has been told to manage his office to the best of his abilities and keep the Commission updated, but do not worry about the budget.

17. The Williston McDonalds just announced that they will pay $ 15 an hour, a $ 500 immediate sign on bonus and a single medical plan paid for.

18. The restaurants are full and with limited staff to work in them they usually just have the drive through open. The restaurants that have inside seating are now an hour wait at all times.

19. Law Enforcement in the Williams County area cannot provide training to staff due to time constraints and no location to hold training.

20. The local Motel 6 in Williston now rents rooms fro $ 129.95 per night.

21. Law Enforcement no longer does any proactive work (school programs, community services, house checks) they do very little traffic related issues as well, they just to from call to call. Bars fights are one of the biggest issues.

22. Other law enforcement issues include the strip clubs. The local clubs have now started what is called “babe buses”. These buses go out to areas and pick up people and bus them back and forth to the strip clubs, the buses have poles on them as well as live entertainment.

23. Drug problems are immense, and they are seeing narcotics that they have never seen in the area before, like black tar heroin.

24. The civil process section of the Sheriff’s Department use to average 1800 paper a year, they are now doing 4500 processes a year.

25. Law Enforcement said that they make as many Driving under the influence arrest at 10 Am as they do at midnight.

26. Illegal aliens have become a huge problem, especially getting the proper authorities to remove them from the Country.

27. The current thought from the oil companies is that the area will continue to grow as it has over the past two years for the next five years and stay for ten years. At the end of the ten years they feel the communities will drop in population somewhat.

28. The current thought is that the oil companies will be drilling wells on every 1280 acres of leased land, this way they have tied up the land and do not have to re-lease the property.

29. The Williston General Motors dealership has now become the number 1 seller of Corvettes in the upper Midwest.

30. The bigger oil companies are doing very well in hiring good people. They run checks and make sure the people they hire are drug free; it is the smaller companies that are having trouble-hiring people that will look the other way on hiring issues.

31. They said they do not know anybody anymore. The Sheriff of Williams County he use to be able to go to Wal Mart and not be walk very far without knowing somebody, now he does not know any of the people in there.

32. Many of the local citizens are taking retirement and moving out of the area.

33. They have an extreme amount of alcohol abuse going on. They have more calls than ever of drunk people trying to get into houses, to find out they are at the wrong place.

34. Minot population has grown by a projected 9000 people since the completion of the 2000 census. Minot is expecting to reach a population of 75,000 in the nest five years.

Trinity Hospital in Minot has just hired 115 nurses from the Philippines to work at the hospital, as they cannot get enough local nurses to apply.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jodcon,

That is insane. I sent it to a few friends. Already getting "OMG!" responses...

Scary isn't it?

The only thing that isn't on the list is the amount of sexual assaults reported, supposedly there is now a curfew in Williston, 8 or 9 PM is what I've heard, for minors AND women. Seriously. I haven't seen that in print but have heard it probably 100 times in the last few months so there must be something to it. Whether the curfew for women is an actual law or more of a warning not to be out alone after dark I can't say, but you can't let your wife/daughter go anywhere alone anymore regardless of time of day, it's a 24-hour town with people getting off shift constantly, and drunk people out and about 24 hours a day.

Oil has made Williams County rich, but has turned the cities within it into sh!tholes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I also was forwarded the above-referenced e-mail yesterday. Crazy stuff. Almost sounds like the movie "Tombstone". I honestly feel sorry for the longtime residents. Sure, some are making a lot of money, but whether it's worth the (lack of) quality of life is questionable at best...

I went to law school at UND in the mid-1990's with a guy from Williston who used to talk about the "boom years", and how much things changed for the locals during that time. Clearly those years pale in comparison to what's going on now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Will all the crime, etc...make its way towards the eastern part of the state? I wouldn't want ND to be known as the crime hub of the US.

Darell do you really think ND is going to become the crime hub of the U.S? Please.....I would like to think North Dakotan's won't let it happen. Also, with all our new found money it's time we pony up and start paying law enforcement what they are really worth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Darell do you really think ND is going to become the crime hub of the U.S? Please.....I would like to think North Dakotan's won't let it happen. Also, with all our new found money it's time we pony up and start paying law enforcement what they are really worth.

Go West young man (sorta speak) its happening right now. As for paying law enforcement what they are worth. You forget those towns have had maybe 1 officer per 100 people now those 100 people towns are booming into a 1000 people town, and so on. You need to do a major hire on police and highway patrol.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Go West young man (sorta speak) its happening right now. As for paying law enforcement what they are worth. You forget those towns have had maybe 1 officer per 100 people now those 100 people towns are booming into a 1000 people town, and so on. You need to do a major hire on police and highway patrol.

I was born and raised in Western ND. My hometown of slightly over 1,000 typically had 1 or 2 cops, not 10 like your numbers would indicate. If you pay law enforcement what they are worth they will come and stay. My point being the crime can be dealt with properly if it becomes a priority. I'm pretty sure cities like Flint, Detroit, Oakland, Gary and Memphis to name a few are bigger "crime hubs" than Western ND cities. Believe it or not some media outlets like to embellish things :ohmy:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was born and raised in Western ND. My hometown of slightly over 1,000 typically had 1 or 2 cops, not 10 like your numbers would indicate. If you pay law enforcement what they are worth they will come and stay. My point being the crime can be dealt with properly if it becomes a priority. I'm pretty sure cities like Flint, Detroit, Oakland, Gary and Memphis to name a few are bigger "crime hubs" than Western ND cities. Believe it or not some media outlets like to embellish things :ohmy:

13. The Williams County jail has increased booking by 150%. With a 100% increase in inmate population. Bonds of $ 5k to $ 10 K are typically paid with cash out of pocket. The Williams County Sheriff stated that a couple of week ago he received a $ 63,000 bond in cash carried into the jail in a plastic Wal Mart bag.

This part really frightens me. And can you imagine if you are someone who has lived in a tiny town all your life and suddenly your jails are filling up as a crime wave is setting into your area. You get worried. One reason I have never moved out of this state is crime. I don't like Minneapolis (city itself) because of traffic and crime, now in ND I am not saying crime is non-existant but it IS on the increase. What is going to keep the crime out west and not migrate this way? More money for officers or more officers and the latter is the problem because of the housing crisis out there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The search for the body of Sydney, Mt teacher continues, and this morning another male body was found in a ditch along Hwy. 2 west of Williston, not yet ID'ed. Probably killed over the weekend. Constant fights inside and outside the small town bars all over western ND, knives and even guns have been involved, and also a recent assault on LE in Crosby outside the bar. It's now a terrible place to live and raise a family, nice that ND is benefiting economically from this boom, but that is the only positive to come from the oil boom out here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The search for the body of Sydney, Mt teacher continues, and this morning another male body was found in a ditch along Hwy. 2 west of Williston, not yet ID'ed. Probably killed over the weekend. Constant fights inside and outside the small town bars all over western ND, knives and even guns have been involved, and also a recent assault on LE in Crosby outside the bar. It's now a terrible place to live and raise a family, nice that ND is benefiting economically from this boom, but that is the only positive to come from the oil boom out here.

Are a lot of the locals leaving, or at least seriously considering leaving?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Are a lot of the locals leaving, or at least seriously considering leaving?

32. Many of the local citizens are taking retirement and moving out of the area.

Seems to me like there's opportunity for another ND city without those issues to invite them back to the ND lifestyle they lost.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Seems to me like there's opportunity for another ND city without those issues to invite them back to the ND lifestyle they lost.

I've heard that a lot of retirees are moving to eastern North Dakota. The rumor is that Grand Forks has gotten a lot of new citizens from the western part of the state in the past year.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've heard that a lot of retirees are moving to eastern North Dakota. The rumor is that Grand Forks has gotten a lot of new citizens from the western part of the state in the past year.

There are definitely fewer houses on the market right now in Grand Forks than what we've seen the past several years. That is likely due to a combination of factors, but people moving east from western ND could certainly be a part of it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are definitely fewer houses on the market right now in Grand Forks than what we've seen the past several years. That is likely due to a combination of factors, but people moving east from western ND could certainly be a part of it.

Reports also say that apartment occupancy is in the high 90% range even though hundreds of apartments have been added in the past few years. It sounds like this will be another good year for housing being built in town.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Being from the western part of the state in the middle of oil country myself (same town as SiouxDini above), I went back last May and was not impressed with what my town had become. I didn't even go out to the bar because I heard that it was not worth it with all the fights and what not. My parents retired this fall and moved down to Arizona, so I don't even know if I'll ever make it back. The oil money is great for the state (and was great for my parents in selling my childhood home), but I would not really want to raise my family back there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Noticed the fairly new condos/townhomes/apts? on the north side of the REA when I was there in November. Have those been sold or rented as quickly as they were built, or is there any availability?

Those have been around a few years. I believe that they are condos/townhomes and I think that most of them are occupied. I know that the first wave went right away but I don't remember hearing much after that. IIRC they were aimed at the alumni or staff populations that wanted a retirement place near the campus.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • UNDBIZ changed the title to Oil Booms in North Dakota

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...