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a letter acknowledging the funding and project
be received from Tribal Chairman Tex
Hall before the money can be released. That
stipulation has already been met.
“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,”
says Ray Ann Kilen, regional director for the
Small Business Development Center (SBDC)
in Dickinson, ND. Kilen is the organizer of
the One-Stop Child Care Forums that are being
planned in Minot, Dickinson, and Watford
City in March. The dates for those events will
be posted on VisionWestND.com. Members
voted during the February meeting to approve
reimbursement of travel expenses for the local
plan directors to attend one of the three forums.
The consortium previously approved
$10,000 for the development of a resource tool
for people who are interested in opening a child
care facility. The tool will list all of the forms and
other steps that must be taken at the local and
state levels in order to open a child care center.
Transportation
infrastructure
On February 19, 2014, consortium members
met in Bismarck, ND with legislators and other
western North Dakota community leaders to discuss
the current transportation infrastructure priorities.
The VWND Consortium, the NDAO-
GPC and the Theodore Roosevelt Expressway
(TRE) Association are in agreement that Highway
85 needs to be expanded to four lanes.
“Highway 85 between Bowman and Williston
needs to be widened to four lanes to allow
more vehicles to safely travel between those two
hubs,” says Cal Klewin, executive director of the
TRE Association. The 170-mile stretch of twolane
highway is currently a congested corridor
that is crowded with trucks and commuting
workers.
Another transportation initiative that
is included in the Vision West ND regional
plan includes a ferry transport service on
Lake Sakakawea. The potential service would
connect the two segments of Highway 8 that
are separated by Lake Sakakawea, from Highway
8 Bay to Elbowoods Bay. A proposal to
conduct a feasibility study on the ferry project
was presented at the March consortium
meeting.
Wrapping up the
regional plan
When the finishing touches have been
placed on the regional plan for sustainable development,
the next step will be to share it with
county commissions for their review. Then,
consortium members will develop a legislative
agenda for the next couple of biennia.
“Even though our federal grant funding
ends in 2015, the work involved with implementing
the regional plan will continue. This
is definitely a long-term project for western
North Dakota,” says Nelson.
Get to Know Our
Experts
Deb Nelson
Deb Nelson is program manager for
Vision West North Dakota. Nelson is also
president and owner of DLN Consulting,
which aims to serve as a resource for organizations
by building strategic plans to
help move them forward.
Ray Ann Kilen
Ray Ann Kilen is regional director for
the Small Business Development Center
(SBDC) in Dickinson, ND. She is the
organizer of the One-Stop Child Care
Forums being planned in Minot, Dickinson
and Watford City, ND.
Heather Syverson
Heather Syverson is Communications
Coordinator at Advanced Engineering &
Environmental Services (AE 2 S).
Trivia Time
Road Damage
A 2012 study estimated that it will
cost North Dakota $7 billion over the
next two decades to maintain county
and township roads, in large part due to
heavy truck traffic from increased drilling
and fracking. The state will need to
pay $834 million over the next two years
alone to maintain county and township
roads, two-thirds of that amount in western
North Dakota, where oil production
is booming.
The study was presented to the state
Legislature’s budget committee. The state
said it has an oil-driven budget surplus, expected
to reach $1.6 billion by June 2013,
and incumbent Republican Gov. Jack
Dalrymple has previously recommended
increasing state spending on roads.
Institute Director Denver Tolliver
said the 28 percent increase in the
group’s spending recommendation was
due to rising construction costs and an
80 percent increase in the number of
wells that regulators expect companies to
drill in the state.
Source: www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/
North_Dakota_and_fracking#Refining_
and_transport
BASIN BITS | Spring 2014 83