A meeting was held of the ND Sheriff?s & Deputies Association in Bismarck,
as part of this meeting we had an opportunity to sit down with Law
Enforcement from western ND to discuss what they are going through with
oil impact. Here is a summary of points made:

1. Currently there are a total of 84 companies involved in the oil
industry in western ND.

2. It takes between 2000 and 2200 semi loads of water per well. Currently
there are 258 wells in progress with so many scheduled it is hard to
determine the exact amount.

3. Traffic accidents, especially fatal traffic accidents are of very high
concern. At one location on Highway 85 south of Williston, a traffic count
was conducted in October of 2011. In one 24 hour period of time there
where 29,000 vehicle through the intersection looked at with 60% of the
traffic being semi?s.

4. Traffic is typically backed up for ? to ? of a mile. One of the guys
stated that one day last week he sat at an intersection on Highway 85 for
about 30 minutes to get a big enough opening to cross over.

5. They have closed the weigh scale house because it was causing such a
traffic jamb that it was closing the roadway.

6. Rent in Williston currently is: $ 2000 for a one bedroom to $ 3400 for
a three bedroom.

7. They have no more hook ups for campers any where in the area.

8. Williams County allows three campers per farmstead, the farmers almost
all have three campers on their property and are charging $ 800 per camper
per month for rent.

9. Wal Mart in Williston no longer stocks shelves, they bring out pallets
of merchandise at night, and set it in the isles, people then take off the
pallets what they want.

10. On 1-1-12, the Williston Wal Mart had 148 campers overnight in their
parking lot.

11. Willams County wrecked a pickup and ended up bringing it to Bismarck
for repairs because there no available body shops to do the work. Williams
County has purchased a trailer and has started to bring vehicles to the
Bismarck area for repairs. Willaims County took a pickup in for ball
joints and front brakes, the shop charged them $ 2800 for the repairs.

12. Williston and Williams County now produces more taxable sales than any
other area in ND.

13. The Williams County jail has increased booking by 150%. With a 100%
increase in inmate population. Bonds of $ 5k to $ 10 K are typically paid
with cash out of pocket. The Williams County Sheriff stated that a couple
of week ago he received a $ 63,000 bond in cash carried into the jail in a
plastic Wal Mart bag.
 
14. Williams County Sheriff?s Department has more
than doubled in staff over the last two years, they are now buying trailer
houses that come up for sale to rent to newly hired deputies.

15. Williams County new starting salary with the academy is $ 46,000 plus
100% of all benefits paid.

16. They are in a continuous hiring cycle, they have no set budget at this
time, the Sheriff has been told to manage his office to the best of his
abilities and keep the Commission updated, but do not worry about the
budget.

17. The Williston McDonalds just announced that they will pay $ 15 an
hour, a $ 500 immediate sign on bonus and a single medical plan paid for.

18. The restaurants are full and with limited staff to work in them they
usually just have the drive through open. The restaurants that have inside
seating are now an hour wait at all times.

19. Law Enforcement in the Williams County area cannot provide training to
staff due to time constraints and no location to hold training.

20. The local Motel 6 in Williston now rents rooms fro $ 129.95 per night.

21. Law Enforcement no longer does any proactive work (school programs,
community services, house checks) they do very little traffic related
issues as well, they just to from call to call. Bars fights are one of the
biggest issues.

22. Other law enforcement issues include the strip clubs. The local clubs
have now started what is called babe buses . These buses go out to areas
and pick up people and bus them back and forth to the strip clubs, the
buses have poles on them as well as live entertainment.

23. Drug problems are immense, and they are seeing narcotics that they
have never seen in the area before, like black tar heroin.

24. The civil process section of the Sheriff?s Department use to average
1800 paper a year, they are now doing 4500 processes a year.

25. Law Enforcement said that they make as many Driving under the
influence arrest at 10 Am as they do at midnight.

26. Illegal aliens have become a huge problem, especially getting the
proper authorities do remove them from the Country.

27. The current thought from the oil companies is that the area will
continue to grow as it has over the past two years for the next five years
and stay for ten years. At the end of the ten years they feel the
communities will drop in population somewhat.

28. The current thought is that the oil companies will be drilling wells
on every 1280 acres of leased land, this way they have tied up the land
and do not have to release the property.

29. The Williston General Motors dealership has now become the number 1
seller of Corvettes in the upper Midwest.

30. The bigger oil companies are doing very well in hiring good people.
They run checks and make sure the people they hire are drug free; it is
the smaller companies that are having trouble-hiring people that will look
the other way on hiring issues.

31. They said they do not know anybody anymore. The Sheriff of Williams
County he use to be able to go to Wal Mart and not be walk very far
without knowing somebody, now he does not know any of the people in there.

in my field one of our shops builds some of the oil storage tanks for out there. they are busy for now. all that info you posted shane sounds about right based on some of the stories i hear from out that way. tough for our field guys to find a place to stay even close to bismarck because of the oil boom. they are even talking man camps. it insane crazy out there.