{"id":3131,"date":"2012-08-18T22:00:02","date_gmt":"2012-08-19T02:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=3131"},"modified":"2024-12-04T17:31:58","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T22:31:58","slug":"why-so-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=3131","title":{"rendered":"Sky High"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Linda Burton posting from Bismarck, North Dakota <\/em>\u2013 \u201cEverything\u2019s high in Bismarck,\u201d was the answer I got. \u201cJust wait till you see the price of orange juice when you go to the store.\u201d I\u2019d anticipated summer tourist room rates in Honolulu and Juneau, but Bismarck rates were a surprise. I was too tired last night to look elsewhere; I only removed from the car the items that would get us through the night. My room was sparkling clean and modern, tastefully furnished, overlooking a pretty rock garden and a row of trees between the building and the street. But it was not much bigger than its double bed; there was no work space for my computer; how could I live in such a tight space for two weeks? The manager brought a table and a chair and an extension cord; I thanked him yet began an online search for a bigger place, at a better rate. I found no better deal, but I found the answer to my question \u201cWhy so high?\u201d It’s Williston, North Dakota, some 200 miles northwest of here.\u00a0Williston is\u00a0called Kuwait on the Prairie<\/em> now, where 100 new oil wells are drilled every day by some 150 oil companies that have come here since 2006. Sister, there\u2019s an oil boom going on. <\/p>\n

The numbers are staggering. Over 200 drilling rigs are punching holes in the earth; each rig brings about 120 jobs to the state; another 10,000 jobs are created\u00a0to lay pipe to producing wells and build the structures needed. In a state with only 670,000 people, that\u2019s a huge impact. Some estimates predict that western North Dakota could have as many as 48,000 new wells. This oil-boom\u00a0comes from a rock formation called the Bakken; it\u2019s about the size of West Virginia and covers a third of North Dakota. The US Geological Survey determined at least 4 billion barrels of recoverable oil; other estimates indicate 20 billion.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cIf you\u2019re unemployed, go to North Dakota\u201d has been the story on the news for several years, framing tales of recession and job loss nationwide. North Dakota isn\u2019t suffering; the state\u2019s unemployment rate is around 3%, in Williston it is less than 1%. The state\u2019s budget has a billion-dollar surplus. Millions of barrels of oil are going out; thousands of people are coming in. That\u2019s called a \u201cboom,\u201d and the oil business affects every other business too. Workers need housing and food; as families follow there is need for stores, and schools, and community services. Water, sewer, garbage, traffic; it all must be managed; more roads, more \"\"<\/a>traffic cops and teachers and retail clerks; the list goes on and on. And prices soar; the balance between \u201cdemand\u201d and \u201csupply\u201d is kept. Williston\u2019s McDonald\u2019s is the busiest in the country now; start out bagging fries at $15 an hour. If you have a license, no criminal record, and can drive a truck, you can expect to pull in a six-figure salary. Where else in the country is that happening? And how does a small community weather such a rapid, and dramatic, change?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This summer, the Wal-Mart in Williston began offering $25,000 cubes for sale; 80 square feet of \u201ctemporary housing,\u201d with two bunks, a flat-screen TV, a refrigerator, and a fold-out table inside. Workers need to be housed, and major oil companies are renting entire floors of hotels and apartments in the area. They are also building \u201cman-camps\u201d to meet the need. Man-camps are pretty much what you\u2019d think \u2013 a place to sleep, and a place to eat, not much on amenities. Target Logistics has almost 3,000 bedrooms under management, covering hundreds of miles around Williston. Halliburton relocated housing units from the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics Village to Williston for its workers. Former New England Patriot Jarvis Green owns a construction company building a 500-person man-camp in Watford City, south of Williston. \"\"<\/a>Companies are paying an average of $120 per night to house and feed their workers. Apartment suites may rent for $6,700 a month. Williston Mayor Ward Koeser is overwhelmed with growth management problems as developers build hundreds of houses and thousands of apartment units. Despite the building frenzy, there is not enough, and new arrivals may wind up sleeping in their cars or camping, their street address the Wal-Mart Parking Lot.<\/p>\n

I woke this morning up-to-speed on facts. My tiny room seems spacious to me now. I took my breakfast ticket to the dining room at 8; ordered up some scrambled eggs, hash browns, bacon, toast. The coffee\u2019s hot, the orange juice cold; the cook called out my name. My food is ready; the morning paper\u2019s there for me to read; I\u2019m with the program now. The Scion waited in the parking lot. I\u2019m staying put, and glad I have a place.<\/p>\n

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Linda Burton posting from Bismarck, North Dakota \u2013 \u201cEverything\u2019s high in Bismarck,\u201d was the answer I got. \u201cJust wait till you see the price of orange juice when you go to the store.\u201d I\u2019d anticipated summer tourist room rates in Honolulu and Juneau, but Bismarck rates were a surprise. I was too tired last night […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4586,839],"tags":[960,3071,958,957,959],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3131"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3131"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15154,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3131\/revisions\/15154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}