It’s news headlines and popular discussion. But my home state is faced with crisis in the midst of growth. North Dakota is booming. Our wide open spaces state has population influx with more jobs than we can fill. We need housing and daycare. Infrastructure is far behind where it needs to be.
Numerous arguments will say we should not drill for oil in western North Dakota. I want balance. I don’t want foreign sources of energy if we have the resources here. I want our country, state and communities to prosper.
Rural areas have been dying for decades. With energy production in our backyard brings renewed hope.
It makes me not want to just stay behind my camera to capture the growth and tell a story about it but instead it makes me want to actually take action for good.
I lived through the Flood of 1997 in Grand Forks, ND. It was an emergency.
We lost our family business and home. The Red Cross, Salvation Army and numerous other organizations came to Grand Forks to our aid. Our state government and federal government came to our side to support rebuilding. Whether it was sandbagging or clean up, thousands took action for good and growth in Grand Forks in 1997 and years after to save the community and people.
I feel the same way about western North Dakota today. It’s an emergency. We need to help retain people and businesses. We need to recruit new businesses and people. We need infrastructure. We need daycares. We need housing.
I am just one voice. But I am going to donate to the local Salvation Army this year in Stark County and Williams County after reading about their needs.
The resources and abilities my husband and father-in-law have through their lumberyard and general contracting business has them figuring how to get houses to western North Dakota. Not just for profit, but because it is the right thing to do for our communities and state.
Theodore Roosevelt spent time in western North Dakota before his presidency. I think his famous words from a 1910 speech apply over a century later to our home state.
Oil has been here for a long time, even during Teddy Roosevelt’s time. But now is the time to put a foot in the arena and play a role to help. Valiantly we can create more jobs if we focus on the next task at hand. Are we so selfish and so critical that we cannot see opportunities that benefit others and might not directly benefit ourselves? I see growth for others as growth for good and indirectly will benefit every American.
If we each do a little, whether it be donate to a charity, volunteer, talk to elected officials, use your business acumen and resources to build infrastructure or expand your own personal opportunities by working in this booming economic time, the time is now.
It is with great devotion, I step into the arena to battle for North Dakota. I am not afraid to fail. The battle is ours to win.
i do know the shortage of housing up there is dire (husband has trouble getting hotels for his work because all the oil workers need them, too).
Very interesting reading to see what you are going through as a state with major population and jobs increase. I have shared your post on my facebook for my North Dakota relatives to read. Many of us are in other states from the 1960s and later because of the lack of jobs and the economic state in North Dakota from those years. I am betting there is quite a controversy going on with peoples viewpoints. Thanks for posting. Katie’s Mom from On the Banks of Squaw Creek in Iowa
Dear Katie, I am Teresa Baumann Dorks SIL Angie. We were out to visit in March and got to experience this oil boom first hand. What an overwhelming and eye opening experience. Daycare and preschool, and Early Childhood is my background as well as agriculture. I sit here in WI wishing I could help provide care and education for ally those children who need it. Children need someone to love and care for them as there parents would when they are away to make a living. Proper, living and quality daycare is something hard to come by. If my circumstances were different I would love to be the one to provide the daycare the people of North Dakota and the oil industry people are looking for. I pray that quality daycare comes along for them. Wonderful post. Thank you. Angie Baumann
Dvorak. not Dork. Auto correct.
We live in Williston and the media, government reports, etc. do not do justice to the changes that are taking place here. Even the ND government has no idea how difficult it is to live and work here. The changes, struggles and stress are pushing natives and transplants alike to the breaking point. It is a state of emergency here and should be declared as such. Thank you for writing about it.
We need to develop ALL of OUR energy resources, I do agree.
Good luck to North Dakota!
I just returned from a 1200 mile journey through ND. It is such a beautiful state. Our son now lives in Williston. I agree that infrastructure needs to catch up with the state. One thing I did notice so much of….pride of ND. Almost made me want to become a ND resident…almost! We have a farm here in MN that needs to be run.
It was so good to see things with our own eyes rather than the reports from media.
I’m familiar with a small town area in southern Alberta that experienced not one, not two but three oil booms. You can drive through that area today and not have a clue that billions of dollars came out of the ground.
There were times when the grain fields would catch on fire from oil saturation. They said that if you couldn’t find IT (trouble and those things asoociated with it)…it didn’t exist.
Long story short…the oil companies WILL find the oil and pump it out 24/7/365 while we’re all sleeping on our feather plucked pillows. We’ll wake up one day and everything will look the same as it did before the boom except for the new steel vains in the ground. Pumping billions out of the state day and night.
By the way, same subject different situation…the Keystone Pipeline is only about one thing and that’s improving the bottom line of the oil companies. These companies do very little for the greater good especially on their own. It’s only about the money to them and to give you an idea how much money they have…the Gulf spill from a few years back would have bankrupted everybody else. Not only did BP lose money from the oil lost to sea they paid huge fines and clean-up costs. Probably saw overall business go down because of the bad press. But nobody had to bail then out..can you say auto! And we’ve seen any number of big financial companies tank in the recent past. For BP all of this was nothing more than an inconvience.
A flood creates victims I’m not so sure we have victims in this case. This is a modern day gold rush and those who choose to partake do so knowing the risks. Don’t forget the minute that oil prices drop below a certain level EVERYTHING will stop…and the crisis will be over.
When a real estate developer wants to put in a sub-division many times they’re required to put in city infrastructure. Depending on how big it is they’re even responsible for building schools, etc. A developer, many from other states, understands this as a cost of doing business. Oil developers should be held to the same kinds of standards.
What you have in North Dakota is a disaster that hasn’t hit yet. The early signs of what you’re seeing now is what greed produces and nothing more. The real problems will only show themselves after the oil companies have done their business and moved on. That’s when you’ll see the truth.
When you say we need infrastructure…we need daycare, etc. This is similiar to what they say when a hurricane is coming..we need shelter, we need food, we need water, etc. it’s only after the hurricane has past do we see the devastation. Nobody can stop the hurricane and nobody can stop the oil boom. The only thing any state can do is make sure they have enough of the oil companies money in the meantime to fix the problems after the fact.
It’s all so complicated, isn’t it?
Absolutely it’s complicated. I don’t have the solutions but I do know we have to embrace the changes and do what we can with what we have. Thank you for your comments.