August 23, 2013

Community members from the cities of Grenora, Ray, and Tioga in addition to others from Williams County participated in the Williams County planning session held August 19-21. The planning session was part of Vision West ND, a regional planning effort aimed at creating a vision for the future of western North Dakota.

Grenora residents identified a variety of quality of life issues they are facing amid ever-expanding oil and gas industry development. Crime rates have increased, they said, and the city has no way of enforcing its ordinances because it lacks a police officer. When crimes are phoned in, the Williams County Sheriff Department is the agency that responds. This can cause significant response time delays as there is not a sheriff's deputy stationed close to the area. Other issues within Grenora were discussed, including road and traffic safety concerns, a severely limited housing supply, lack of adequate child care, the loss of local places to shop, access to healthcare, recreational opportunities, and "community connectedness". Community connectedness was described as knowing one's neighbor, feeling comfortable with newcomers, and integrating new people into the community.

Karalea Cox, Building Communities, facilitates discussion among Ray community members.

A town hall meeting was also held in Ray on August 19. Members of the community gathered at the Ray Auditorium, enjoyed a nice meal, and shared their concerns and ideas for the future. Though most of those attending thought that Ray was a nice place full of good friends and neighbors, issues like affordable housing shortages, emergency services call increases, struggles with business attraction, and a shortage of available land were noted. Ideas to increase Ray's quality of life and the overall livability of the town were brainstormed, leading to several unique possibilities. Some of these include projects as simple as having a city cleanup day twice a year and allow residents to have their unused clutter and junk disposed of free of charge, or creating a walking path throughout town with flowers and trees as part of a city beautification project.

As in Ray, residents of Tioga met on August 20 to talk about their issues. The city is developing a funding mechanism for a swimming pool as well as eliminating "eyesore" buildings on city main street lots. Tioga also has a unique program in place to address public safety. Currently, six full time police officers are assisted on a limited basis by volunteer police department reservists. These volunteers go through extensive training and add a sense of security to the community.

Vision West ND Consortium members outline their small group discussion on each of the top five issues: Emergency Services, Housing, Child Care, Transportation and Roads, and Water.

On August 21 and 22, Vision West ND Consortium members met in Bottineau, ND. The Consortium is responsible for preparing and implementing the regional plan, as well as communicating the information learned in the planning process to local, state, and federal parties. During the first day of the Consortium meeting, representatives of Ulteig Engineering presented the results of the NDAOGPC commissioned study on EMS service coverage in western ND. Several areas were identified as those that would benefit from additional EMS service providers. The presentation made describing that draft study is available on the NDAOGPC website at http://www.ndenergy.org/Resources.aspx or by clicking this link.

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Please take your time to review all materials and links provided for your convenience.  We will continue to provide you up-to-date information on upcoming events and news happening in North Dakota's oil and gas producing counties!

Sincerely,

ND Assoc. of Oil & Gas Producing Counties