magazine

Feature
A Vision West ND Update:
Consortium Close to
Wrapping up Regional Plan
for Sustainable Development
By Heather Syverson, AE 2 S
The Vision West ND (VWND)
Consortium is busy fine-tuning
the regional plan for
sustainable development as
the project enters the home
stretch. The federal grant that funds the
three-year VWND project ends on January
31, 2015. The overall goal of VWND is to
improve the lives of the people who live and
work in the Bakken area of North Dakota.
The regional plan will be the project’s legacy,
a course of action that includes pieces of
all of the local plans that have been developed
in conjunction with the State’s 19 oil-impacted
counties, as well as the Three Affiliated
Tribes, four universities and colleges, two
regional councils, Rural Economic Area Partnership
(REAP) Fund, Southwest REAP Zone,
and the North Dakota Association of Oil &
Gas Producing Counties (NDAOGPC).
Local plans mesh to
become regional plan
The local plans came about over the past
two years to address communities’ immediate,
short-term needs to meet growth management
challenges and establish a diversified economy
in the future.
“It’s exciting to be nearing the end of this
enormous project. We have gathered input from
people all over western North Dakota, and now
we have to take that information and make a
plan that will lead the Bakken region into the
next phase,” says Deb Nelson, program manager
for VWND. “The regional plan is going to help
the area thrive well into the future.”
The members of the VWND Consortium
met in Minot, ND in early February to review
the 16 improvement categories that were
“The lack of child care in western North Dakota
is a major roadblock for families that want to
live and work in the Bakken. Developing more
child care options is absolutely one of the top
priorities of the Vision West ND project.
previously identified during the individual community
planning sessions. More than 1,000
residents from 18 of the oil and gas producing
counties, and four of the six tribal sectors of the
Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara (MHA) Nation
gave their input at public meetings over the past
two years. That input helped to identify the 16
improvement categories. The top five priorities
include housing, infrastructure, transportation,
child care and emergency services.
During the recent meeting, the consortium
came to an agreement on the top five issues and
reviewed nine of the 16 improvement categories.
Daryl Dukart, the newly-elected VWND
board chairman and a Dunn County Commissioner,
assigned special committees to work on
the topics that created the most debate—housing
and transportation. The remaining seven
improvement categories were reviewed during
the next consortium meeting, which was held
on March 6 in Williston, ND.
Public health,
emergency services and
child care
The consortium added a public health
section that will be developed with the
assistance of the three district public health
units located in the 20 oil and gas producing
counties during the February meeting. It
also approved funding for two projects that
address the lack of adequate emergency services
and child care. Consortium members
approved $23,150 for emergency services
planning for the MHA Nation.
“The availability of trained EMTs and
ambulances is at a premium in many of these
oil-impacted communities. This funding
will help the MHA Nation better respond
to medical emergencies,” says Vicky Steiner,
executive director for the NDAOGPC.
“The consortium voted to broaden the
health care initiative grant beyond emergency
services for the reservation for Native
and non-tribal residents on a conference call,
March 24, 2014. An EMS ambulance study
completed by the NDAOGPC brought
about a meeting in McKenzie County, which
identified a need for additional EMS workers
to transfer patients to hospitals in the region.”
Previously, $10,000 was set aside for
the emergency services project at a previous
consortium meeting. That amount was increased
by $13,150 with the stipulation that
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