As part of the Vision West ND Solutions fund, the ND Small Business Development Center (SBDC) in the state's southwest counties has coordinated a new website to make it easier for day care providers to find information to start their child care business.

Renae Townsend, SBDC staffer in Dickinson, held three workshops recently in Williston, Minot, and Dickinson.  The public was invited to comment on the formation of the website to assist in its design.  This new web design, according to Ray Ann Kilen, Strom Center, DSU, is "to simplify the process to start a child care in the 19 counties (of western North Dakota)."  About ten attendees participated in the Wednesday session in Dickinson.  Child care law can be confusing, as there can be additional requirements if cities have added requirements of their own. Larger centers also have more requirements than smaller capacity child care facilities.

The group in Dickinson recommended less text and more graphics to help the viewer move through the information.  The Vision West ND Consortium approved $9,936 to provide a web link that is less complicated than the state website.

Dawn Keeley, Red River Regional Council Executive Director.

Dawn Keeley, Red River Regional Council Executive Director, provided testimony to the U.S. Senate Agriculture Subcommittee on Jobs, Rural Economic Growth and Energy Innovation on May 1, 2014. In her testimony, available here, Keeley cited the work of the Vision West ND project as an example of a regional development strategy currently at work in North Dakota. One of the top issues in the western ND region was the need for child care providers.

State Child Care Issues Heard by Interim Committee

The ND interim Economic Impact Committee again heard from representatives of the state Dept. of Human Services (DHS) and Child Care Aware of North Dakota this week during its meeting in Grand Forks on April 30, 2014. Jennifer Barry, Early Childhood Services Administrator with the DHS, shared updates on proposed federal requirements and opportunities related to early childhood services. Those proposed federal rules include comprehensive fingerprint-based background checks for all providers and staff, on-site monitoring by licensers, the development of a user-friendly state website for parents to receive information about licensing and regulation (including the monitoring and inspection reports for all licensed and self-declared providers), a toll-free 24-hour hotline for parents to report concerns about child care, and the development of a system of quality indicators to better inform parents about the quality of their child care choices.

Barry explained that North Dakota already meets many of the requirements being proposed, including onsite monitoring of programs. She added that the state partially meets the proposed requirements like background checks and pre-service training. The biggest cost to the state if the requirements are passed, she said, would be development of the website containing provider-specific licensing information.

Members of the Right of Way Task Force met this week, Tuesday, April 29, in Minot to further discuss ways in which easements for underground oil and gas-related pipelines could be more effectively attained. One of the key issues that's been identified as a barrier to easement acquisitions is an element of lacking communication between landowners and those responsible for getting easements. Often, landmen are contracted out by pipeline developers and leave the picture once an easement deal is signed by a landowner, leaving the landowner with no point of contact to communicate with in the event of an issue or incident.

Lynn Helms, Director of the ND Dept. of Mineral Resources, provides information on ND Industrial Commission gathering line rules put in place by 2013 legislation like HB 1333. The DMR will soon have two additional field inspectors that will be responsible for spot-checking pipeline construction in the region.

One way to combat this missing communication link, said Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) Director Lynn Helms, is to establish a pipeline issue reporting tool on the DMR website. Such a tool is currently being developed, largely due to previous task force discussions. Helms said the reporting tool will allow for landowners, tenants, and members of the public to report issues occurring along pipeline routes. The tool will potentially require the exact location and a photo to be uploaded to the tool's database, allowing DMR inspectors and the pipeline's owners to respond to the issue appropriately. Also discussed was the possibility of including a link to pipeline contacts within the tool's website so landowners and tenants can make contact on their own should they have an issue like inadequate reclamation occur.

There was also discussion on the possibility of counties purchasing rights of way along county roads and providing easements to pipeline and utility companies. Dunn County has had experience with this type of arrangement, which has provided an avenue for those companies to get their lines in the ground without being an inconvenience to farmers and ranchers in the area. Under such an arrangement, the responsibility for a company to adjust the lines in the ground if road construction projects alter the landscape is built into the easement contract.

A workgroup was also put together at the task force meeting. The workgroup will be working on viable solutions such as draft land agent codes of conduct, project scope summaries, and a landowner easement fact sheet. After the workgroup finishes its refinement of the various solutions pieces, it will present its findings to the full task force for review. The task force includes representatives of the petroleum industry, pipeline companies, local governments, and affected landowners.

During construction:

• Motorists will be detoured onto temporary routes as needed throughout the project
• Speeds will be decreased to 25 mph in some areas
• Motorists should expect delays
• A width restriction of 12 feet will be in place

Intersection work will be completed in July. Work north of the intersection will continue through October.

For more information about construction projects and road conditions throughout North Dakota, call 511 from any type of phone or visit the Travel Information Map on the NDDOT website at http://www.dot.nd.gov/travel-info-v2/.

May 20-22, 2014

The 2014 Williston Basin Petroleum Conference will be held May 20-22, 2014 in Bismarck, ND. Booth space is sold out, but limited sponsorships are still available. The full agenda can be found here. You can register for the event by clicking here.

Limited hotel rooms remain in Bismarck, so please book your hotels as soon as possible. Hotel reservations can be made immediately here.

For more information regarding the conference, please visit www.wbpcnd.org or contact event coordinators at 701.223.6380 and ndpc@ndoil.org.

WTI Crude: $99.86

Brent Crude: $108.43

Natural Gas: $4.74

ND Rig Count: 187