News

Oil impact meeting held

By Scott Wagar

10/30/2012

Brain Cole of Building Communities Strategic Planning out of Oregon, in association with Vision West in North Dakota held a public economic sustainability meeting Monday evening at the Bottineau Armory where a number of topics were discussed about the upcoming oil impact that will be coming to Bottineau County starting in 2015.

Cole stated that his business assists rural communities in planning an economic development strategy plan for improving rural areas’ local economy and overall quality life.

Vision West is responsible for the Vision West ND Project, which covers 19 oil and gas producing counties in western North Dakota in setting up these counties with economic sustainability. 

Vision West does this through strategic planning sessions where community leaders and area residents classify strategies which they feel will be successful in their communities.

On Monday, Cole and Vision West met with Bottineau’s communities leaders and local steering committees to discuss a variety of issues which could make Bottineau more economic sustainable.

In the evening, the two entities met with the general public where they started the meeting with a questionnaire asking questions about what local residents would like their community to engage in economically; and, would the service be successful in being implemented in Bottineau and its county. The questionnaire included six different categories with the following strategies:

•  Stage 1: Business Recruitment, Business Retention and Expansion, Business Cultivation and Entrepreneurial Development.

•  Stage 2: Energy Development, Environmental Restoration, Transportation Distribution Center and Leading Edge Development.

•  Stage 3: Value-added Agriculture, Value-added Forest Products, Value-added Fisheries and Value-added Mining.

•  Stage 4: Destination Tourism, Cultural Tourism, Local/Regional Tourism and Pass-through Visitors Services.

•  Stage 5: Downtown Development, Education Development, Health Care and Bedroom Community.

•  Stage 6: Infrastructure Development, Attracting Retirees, Attracting Lone Eagles, Attracting Government Jobs and Attracting Government Funding.    

      
After individuals answered the questions, Cole presented the top four strategies the community leaders and steering committee members had chosen earlier in the day, which included: 1) Local/Regional Tourism 2) Educational Development 3) Attracting Government Funding and 4) Downtown Development.
Cole then opened the meeting up to public questions and comments.

One individual stated he was surprised by the top four strategies because he felt energy development would be in the top four. Cole stated that he, too, was surprised by that, but also said that in the manner the voting scale was set-up the majority voted right down the middle leaving it in the 12th spot. However, Cole added that if just a few more people would have voted on the higher end of the scale it would have been in the top four strategies.    
Primarily, the general public primarily articulated on four areas concerning the oil impact areas, which included electrical system, water resources, transportation and housing.

When it came to the electrical system, Wayne Martian, director of North Central Electric, said that a number of substations would be needed in the Souris area where the 2,100 wells to be drilled starting in 2015, which also includes transmission lines. Martian stated that each substation would cost $4 million and the transmission lines would cost $1.6 million. He added that North Central Electric was a cooperative and that its members could not afford such a large price for the electrical system, and that there had be discussions with developers, but that no one has stepped forward on the project.

Dan Schaefer, director of All Season Water Users, shared the water needed for fracking in Bottineau County would amount to 250,000 gallons per fracking unit. Schaefer said with that amount of water in the county, oil developers could only frack two wells at one time in the county. If a third unit was to be added there would not be enough water to conduct the fracking.

In transportation, the discussion was on bridges, rails and roads. There are currently 121 bridges in Bottineau County and the majority of them have reached their life expectancy, it would cost $300,000 to replace each bridge. The bridges are important because they are utilized for travel, agriculture and the oil industry.

Rails were also spoken about, which Cole was told would need repairs because the rails will play an important role for fracking and agricultural transportation. It was added that the rails need improvement and a sustained system, which would alleviate the trucking issue on township, county and state roads by these entities.

Bradley Robertson of Wold Engineering spoke on the possibility of installing pipelines in the county, which would reduce travel by the oil industry on the county road system.   

Housing played an important role in the discussion Monday evening, which is very limited in Bottineau. Pat Artz, president of the State Bank of Bottineau, stated that regulations are affecting the community banks in the nation and their ability in lending for new housing start-ups. He added that local banks are the engine of economy and that it is hard on bankers when regulations weigh them down on their ability to lend.

A local couple in town that own housing stated that they are currently contracting with new home owners to allow them to purchase their homes by holding the notes for the houses.

Appraisals also came up and it was stated that appraisals take to 60 to 90 days to take place and can cost $1,200. When it comes to business appraisals, it can take six to nine months.

Some other topics discussed included no available labor for businesses which need employees, lack of restaurants that stay open past 4 p.m. that are non-fast food restaurants, need for social/entertainment options outside of bars, oil impact on local hospital’s emergency room and the consideration of building a truck stop with a restaurant, but land has not been found and financing appears to be difficult for the project.