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These televisions, shown on Dec. 30, are a part of the sound
and video system that's been installed in the Beach Community
Center. (Photo by Richard Volesky)
ty building
By Richard Volesky city auditor. The funding comes from
Editor/Reporter city sales taxes.
Work was progressing last week In the community center, two 60"
on the installation of a sound and inch televisions were attached to the
video system in the Beach City west wall. The televisions can be
Hall/Community Center. used in presentations, instead of hav-
Previously, Mayor Walt Losinski ing to project on a wall, explained
said a complaint from residents was Losinski.
that they were unable to fully hear the The community center has become
conversations at council meetings, a popular location for events, with it
That should now be solved with mi= being used nine times in December.
crophones being placed in front of There is no charge for non-profit
each councilperson, organizations, while for others there
JaZ. Sound of Bismarck was doing is a $50 charge to use the council
the installation. The total cost is meeting room, and $150 for the com-
$21,500, according to Kim Nunberg, munity center, plus a deposit.
88 percent of N.D. enrollees
receive assistance
A total of 8,528 people in North states that are using the Health-
Dakota selected plans through the Care.gov platform for2015 (including
Health Insurance Marketplace leading North Dakota), and more than 600,000
up to the Dec. 15 deadline for cover- consumers who selected plans in the
age beginning Jan. 1,2015, according 14 states that are operating their own
to a report from the Department of Marketplace platform for 2015.
Health and Human Services. Open enrollment in the Market-
About 88 percent of North place runs from Nov. 15, 2014,
Dakotans who selected health insur- through Feb. 15, 2015. Consumers
ance plans in the first month of open can visit HealthCare.gov to review and
enrollment were determined eligible compare health plan options. Con-
for financial assistance to lower their sumers shopping for health insurance
monthly premiums, compared to 82 coverage should sign up by Jan. 15,
percent who selected plans over a sim- 2015, in order to have coverage effec-
ilar period last year. Of the 8,528 tive on Feb. 1, 2015. If consumers
North Dakotans who selected a plan, who were automatically re-enrolled
61 percent re-enrolled in a Market- decide in the coming weeks that a bet-
place plan in 2015 and 39 percent tar plan exists for their families, they
signed up for the first time. can make that change at any time be-
Nationwide, more than 4 million fore the end of open enrollment on
people signed up for the first time or Feb. 15.
re-enrolled in coverage for 2015 dur- Consumers can find local help at:
ing the first month of open enrollment. Localhelp.healthcare.gov/, or call the
That includes more than 3.4 million federally-facilitated Marketplace Call
people who selected a plan in the 37 Center at 1-800-318-2596.
Beef Day program s-,cheduled
MEDORA - The 41st annual Service.
Medora Beef Day program will be There will be a beef stew lunch at
held at the Chateau de Mores Inter- noon, then three programs in the af-
pretive Center on Wednesday, Jan. 14. ternoon with speakers Kevin Sedivec,
Registration and coffee will start Extension rangeland management
the day at 10 a.m. Fara Brummer, specialist at NDSU, "Pipeline Recla-
area Extension specialist, Streeter, mation: Steps to Develop a Success-
will be the first speaker at 10:30 a.m. ful Outcome for the Landowner and
with a program called "Alternative Company"; "Cattle Cents," given by
Feeds for Livestock Ashley Ueckert, Extension agent,
Supplementation," followed byGolden Valley County, Beach; and
Dr. Gerald Stokka, Extension veteri- Kurt Froelich, Extension agent from
narian from NDSU speaking on "The Stark/Billings counties; and Dr. Bill
VFD and Antibiotic Use, Does Tidball, DVM, Beach, who will
This Apply to Me?," according to speak regarding "Bovine Obstetrics."
After Chores Review, a newsletter of The program will adjourn at 3
the Stark/Billings County Extension p.m.
:.
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A Montana-Dakota Utilities truck is parked near the Golden Valley Manor in Beach during the evening of Dec. 30, as workers
restart the natural gas heating ins~ide of the building. (Photo by Richard Volesky)
By Richard Volesky ral gas. Although Obrigewitch said she too bad. They usedblankets and extra
Editor/Reporter The situation prompted the evacua- heard some complaining about the sweaters,". ~/~idl2~bl Weyer, a Manor
WIBAUX, Mont., Whil~ab0ut ,'.~?9ofthenu~_ingh~'~.~7.msi~ts.. situation, she said MDU should be employee'.: .,,ET~,ctr~::~qa~ters were
900 hotlgeh01ds -in Wibaux and ~gome ~vere t~ento Gien~6,]~I0nt., commended for hoWl{was hafidiedl s~'tb hr~at'til~itfie'noon baeal~ aaa a i L:-,~
Golden Valley counties dealt with a and some were taken to Baker, Mont., "I think MDU was very dedicated," cold meal was planned for the
natural gas outage on Dec. 30, the said Lillian Silvers, WCNH adminis- she said. evening.
problem was compounded with an trator. Glendive, Baker and Wibaux During the noon hour on Dec. 30, By 1 a.m. on Dec. 31, all but 20
electrical outage for a part of the city ambulances and two WCNH transport a recorded emergency phone message customers didn't have natural gas
of Wibaux. vans were used to move the residents, went out from Golden Valley County service restored, said MDU's Han-
For the city of Wibaux, a fuse was The evacuation started during the Emergency Manager Brenda Frieze, son.
blown at a substation, and power was noon hour. Space heaters in residents' telling residents of the problem and There were a total of nine homes
lost for about 1 ½ hours, said Mark rooms wasn't an option because that of the emergency shelters that were in Wibaux and Beach where MDU
Hanson, MDU's public relations di- wouldn't be allowed under federal available in the affected towns. Re- was unable tocontact the residents.
rector. Temperatures on Dec. 30 were nursing home rules, said Silvers. portedly, some residents used a shel- With a locksmith and accompanied
at about zero degrees. WCNH staffers were sent to Baker tar in Sentinel Butte, but none were by law enforcement, they gained ac-'
The problem with the natural gas and Glendive to stay the WCNH res- seen at the Beach shelter at the time a cess to those homes. They wanted to
was attributed to a frozen valve in a idents since they were familiar with reporter stopped by. avoid situations of frozen water
pipeline owned by a MDU supplier, them, said Silvers. For schools, the lack of natural gas pipes, said Hanson.
The problem required MDU to shut Space heaters became a popular wasn't an issue for students since Natural gas outages aren't too
of natural gas at every home and item in Wibaux and Beach. Randy school wasn't in session due to the common. However, there was a gas
business, and to turn the natural gas Nistler at Rohan Hardware in Beach holiday break, outage last winter at Watford City
on for each building once the supply said they had 50 heaters, but they At the Golden Valley Manor inwhen someone struck a natural gas
was restored, were sold in about 1 ½ hours. Penny Beach, the assisted-living residents line, said Hanson.
In Wibaux, the Wibaux County Obrigewitch, an owner of the Wibaux stayed put with individual room Hanson said MDU had about 70
Nursing Home (WCNH) has a new General Store, said they sold their 12 heaters, employees involved with correcting
generator, but it's powered by natu- heaters in a half hour. "Throughout the day, it's not been the problem and restoring heat.
oom simi
Kevin Killough lion barrel- per-day production as a side of the play, and its story is much
The (Crosby) Journal major boom milestone this past of thesame.
NDNA News Exchange spring. "Definitely, the newspaper has
Robert Stoddard says the problems But for Texas, this was a bust-level seen an increase in business," says
are interconnected, production. They were producing Claudia McDaniel, owner of the Car-
Area businesses are having a hard three times that amount back in the rizo Springs Javelin.
time filling open positions. First the early 1980s. The paper is seeing a large increase
oil boom brought workers from all Then in 2010, the oil started to in legal notices for permits like dis-
over, which ate up the housing stock, flow. True to its reputation for size, the posal wells, classifieds, and rental ads
Now rental prices are becoming much boom in Texas is now pumping 3 mil- for things like RV pa/ks.
less affordable. . lion barrels a day, and few believe that "We were a dying town," Mc-
So, anyone recruited from outside number will fall any time soon. Daniel says. "People are definitely
the area may not find a place to live or Where North Dakota has one shale better financially."
may be unable to afford it. This is as- formation, Texas has three major for- But surrounding this prosperity are
pecially hard for schools and hospi- mations: Barnett, Permian and Eagle problems and challenges whose par-
tals. And the oil companies offer so Ford. This spreads the oil impacted allels to life in the Bakken are eerily
many high-paying positions that other areas out all over the state over a similar.
businesses end up trying to suck gris- much larger area. Rental pain
fie off the bones of the labor pool. Eagle Ford stretches all the way Single-family housing has become
"They can make so much money across 400 miles of southern Texas. very scarce in Cuero, and when a
out in the oilfield," Stoddard says. Cuero is town of about 7,000 peo- home goes up for sale, it's gone within
This sounds like someone talking pie at the eastern side of the Eagle a day. And the town isn't seeing a
about North Dakota, but Stoddard is Ford shale formation. Like the whole lot of developer interest in
nowhere near Tioga or Ray. Bakken, the area has become abuilding new apartments.
He is the building official for hotspot for the oil and gas industry. "Even if you got a project, you
Cuero, Texas. They're experiencing unemployment can't find a plumber," says Pat
Texas is in the midst of an oil rates under four percent, incomes are Kennedy, Cuero Development Cor-
boom,just like North Dakota. Several rising, traffic is congested over deteri- poration director.
years ago, the oil-rich state was pro- orating roads, and the population is Stoddard says the town permitted
ducing an average of a million barrels growing, a 48-unit apartment building, but the
a day. North Dakota celebrated a mil- Carrizo Springs lies at the western project is funded by the Housing and
Urban Development Section 8 pro-
gram for low-income public housing.
The project is badly needed, but
these kinds of developments are hard
to come by since area incomes exceed
HUD limits.
The bulk of developments are tem-
porary housing for the oilfield work-
ers.
Like much of Texas, the local gov-
ernment of Cuero takes a "hands off'
approach to regulating business. Stod-
dar, l;l says the buildings department
hasn't denied a lot of permits.
The town restricts RV parks from
setting up within the town limits, and
it has some regulations to maintain
safe building practices. Stoddard says
that no one has tried to set up a new
park since the boom started.
The town even adopted a master
plan to help guide the growth. Indus-
trial projects are located at the edge of
town, and the city government
worked with companies on this zon-
ing.
"I think we deal with it all the best
we can," says Cuero Mayor Sara Post
Boom
(Continued on Page 8)
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