2015 budget will add to city's 'human infrastructure' Johnson: Dickinson must prepare for population of 50,000
More than a dozen new city employees are included in Dickinson's 2015 budget.
But even that might not be enough to serve the expanding population, which offi cials say could be edging toward 50,000.
The full budget, formally approved Monday night by the City Commission, comes in at between $260 million and $270 million, city administrator Shawn Kessel said, with almost $18 million in general fund revenues. A total of 15 new employees will be fi nanced through the budget, including a police investigator and four firefighters.
"Fire safety is getting to be a pretty big, growing part of our budget," said Mayor Dennis Johnson, the city commission president.
The four full-time fi refi ghters will be split between two locations. Two will be in the fi re department's existing downtown fi rehouse and two at the new Public Safety Center being constructed on the city's northwest side.
Along with "critical" volunteer involvement, the additional employees will allow the department to maintain 24/7 response crews, Fire Chief Bob Sivak told commissioners. And as the city's borders expand, the city might build another one or two substations to serve the entire community.
"In 2016 we'll ask for an additional four. In '17, we'll ask for an additional four," Sivak said. "My concern is we're not asking for too little, too late."
It's a legitimate concern, as population estimates now creep closer to 50,000 within the next few years. Oil production is expected to increase from 1.1 million barrels to 2 million barrels per day, insiders said at the recent North Dakota Petroleum Council annual meeting. Engineering fi rm KLJ announced Dickinson will need an additional 9,500 housing units by 2019 to accommodate approximately 20,000 new residents.
"I don't know that we can do that," Johnson said. "We really have to be prepared to be a community of 50,000 in a relatively short period of time."
Even with 15 additional employees, Johnson said the city has to do more to build what he called its "human infrastructure."
An earlier draft of the budget did not cover all 15 requested positions, but Johnson said after some consideration, he decided the city should fund the full 15, in part with additional money transferred from Dickinson's oil impact funds.
"If the pundits are close to right and we're going to build to 50,000 people in, say, less than a 10-year period, we're going to need the human infrastructure as well as the physical infrastructure to do this."
Other positions included in next year's budget include a geographic information systems technician, an accounting manager, a chief engineering technician and a parttime museum program assistant. Kessel, who said he has laid out staffi ng plans for two more years, is in the process of hiring a deputy city administrator to start next month.
Commissioner Scott Decker said another project the city will have to look at will be how to "attract these people to work for us and keep them in the city," from building infrastructure to improving the downtown area to make the community more vibrant.
"This budget's just going to keep growing," he said. "They're challenges, but it looks good."
Source: The Dickinson Press
