News
Leadership tours the Williston Basin
Scott Wagar
02/28/2012
A number of individuals which make up Bottineau and its county’s leadership traveled out to the Williston basin this past week to see how the oil industry is affecting the development of the communities in that area.
“From Berthold on out, we couldn’t believe what we were seeing in development,” said Diane Olson, director of Bottineau’s EDC. “From the man camps being built in Tioga to the five or six developers in Williston building apartment complexes and housing developments, things have changed there. It is not millions of dollars that have been invested out there, it is billions of dollars.”
While in Williston, the group was given the opportunity to tour a man camp and get an inside view of what they consist of.
“We were very pleased with what we saw,” Olson said. “It was a 1,100 bed facility with four different types of structures. It was very organized, very clean and security was very present there. The camp we toured had law enforcement agents patrolling the facility, and when we went into the camp we had to go through a security gate and it was off-limits to the local area.”
Ken Grosz, dean of Dakota College at Bottineau, was taken back by what he saw out in the Williston area.
“You hear a lot about what is going on in Williston through various media sources, which are all good. But, until you get there, and you are on the ground there, you really don’t have the big picture of the enormity of what is going on out there,” Grosz said. “The amount of construction, the number of people, how it has affected the economy and the wealth that is being produced there, you get a whole new prospective of what is going on there.”
Grosz added that Dr. Raymond Nadolny, president of Williston State College, spoke to those who went on the tour and stated that the two most important issues which future oil impact cities must obtain and control is planning and zoning.
“Dr. Nadolny said that as the impact moves forward, make sure you plan and zone, so you can deal with it in a more efficient manner,” Grosz said.
For the past year, Bottineau’s EDC Board has been working on planning and zoning concerns when it comes to the oil industry.
“We need to get our parties (city and county leadership) and start a community or county coordination zoning and planning committee for the future of Bottineau,” Olson said.
However, before a coordination zoning and planning committee can be established, funding has to be raised to pay for a comprehensive plan, which will cost an estimated $86,000.
Harley Getzlaff, city council member of Bottineau, stated the trip out to Williston granted him clear insight about what is taking place in the Williston area and what he has to do as a councilman to prepare Bottineau for any future impact from the oil industry.
“It was a real learning experience for me,” Getzlaff said. “In our last city council meeting, we talked about organizing different committees to work on zoning and developing areas to prepare for an oil impact, and I am focused in making sure that this gets completed.”
Time will tell how big an influence the oil industry will have in Bottineau County, but with the planning that is currently going on in Bottineau and its county, the leadership should be ready for what comes in the future.