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Population increase in Dickinson area (over doubling)

ryanator

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I heard from my boss that while she was in a director's meeting a week or so ago, the hospital's upper managment discussed what they heard from city officials around here that we have a high chance of seeing our population increasing to the 40,000 just this summer (our censous last year had us at just under 18,000). I had her repeat it serveral times and said because they are drilling south of town, instead of just north, that we will see the huge increase. The hospital is worried about the huge increase of poplulation mainly because the dangerous work activity and how bad the ER related injuries and other care is going to be.

I have been hearing that when people are coming in through plane that the rest of the passengers are oil related people. Wow, just wow, you think it's bad now wait a little while, and I don't mean a few years to a decade, but just a few months apparently. And they said that this will last a couple of decades at least.

Has anyone else heard this? Any thoughts? If you ask me, I'm really dreading this and what will become of this town. Greed, crime, etc.. will rise out of what the city can control.

 
I am also dreading this since I have been hearing the same thing. I have heard that it is suppose to move south also. Some people are excited for it. But like you mentioned along with it comes crime etc. It will really change these small towns if it happens. I hate to say it but this area and the roads are just not made to handle this increase in people and vehicles in such a short amount of time.
 
What worries me is the type of some of the people, don't get me wrong, there are some good ones, but in reality there's a lot of rough necks. I feel sorry for the people renting who have been here there whole lives and now are seeing huge increases in rent and I imagine it to soar yet. Even those who have houses will see increased property taxes due to psydo property values which amount to a lot of money.

This town hasn't done anything for me, we're not getting the cool things for entertainment. Sure, I heard of maybe a Target or Menards (Menards, which I was hoping for many years), but at what cost? I don't care about that anymore. Now I get to worry more about oil rigs by day and bar hopping by night people, longer waits and out of stock stuff at stores in the mean time.

 
Yes, we talked about this already. Time to buy a gun....a big gun.
I was thinking 3,000 increase over a few years, maybe 1 or 2, but 40,000? Gonna need a big big gun.

 
I wonder how long till the businesses needs to start putting up bars on the windows and gates on the door?
 
Yup get ready for more crime. Our towns crime sheet is filled with imports from other states, mainly west coast and texas.
 
With population growth there will always be rise in overall crime, or similar statistics. Will it really be a raise per capita in the rate though? Will business really need to put bars on windows, etc? I doubt it. Fargo has a population of over 100,000 and there aren't bars in windows of businesses or any overly problematic crime rate. Sure there aren't rough necks, but still there's people always moving in from other states/countries.
 
What worries me is the type of some of the people, don't get me wrong, there are some good ones, but in reality there's a lot of rough necks. I feel sorry for the people renting who have been here there whole lives and now are seeing huge increases in rent and I imagine it to soar yet. Even those who have houses will see increased property taxes due to psydo property values which amount to a lot of money.This town hasn't done anything for me, we're not getting the cool things for entertainment. Sure, I heard of maybe a Target or Menards (Menards, which I was hoping for many years), but at what cost? I don't care about that anymore. Now I get to worry more about oil rigs by day and bar hopping by night people, longer waits and out of stock stuff at stores in the mean time.
Ryanator- Do you really think that the oilfield workers should be blamed for the high rent prices? Just because there is more demand for places to live doesn't mean that they should be blamed. The blame should be placed on all the property owners/managers. It is their greed that is leading to these ridiculous rent prices. I work with over 300 oilfield workers, most of them are sharing a place with 2-5 other people. Some are even living in their campers. They are struggling just as much as the people who were here before the boom. I just can't stand when these hard working men get the blame for all the bad things that go along with population growth. You never hear the good... local businesses are benefiting very well because of these oilfield men.These men work harder than 95% of Americas workers. They are in the field for 18-48 hours at a time. They don't sit in a heated/air conditioned office. They are out in the North Dakota elements all day long. When they get in from their shift they don't complain or quit. They show up early and get their gear and vehicles ready to go out and do it again. We all need to appreciate what these guys have done for our community.

 
Ryanator- Do you really think that the oilfield workers should be blamed for the high rent prices? Just because there is more demand for places to live doesn't mean that they should be blamed. The blame should be placed on all the property owners/managers. It is their greed that is leading to these ridiculous rent prices. I work with over 300 oilfield workers, most of them are sharing a place with 2-5 other people. Some are even living in their campers. They are struggling just as much as the people who were here before the boom. I just can't stand when these hard working men get the blame for all the bad things that go along with population growth. You never hear the good... local businesses are benefiting very well because of these oilfield men.These men work harder than 95% of Americas workers. They are in the field for 18-48 hours at a time. They don't sit in a heated/air conditioned office. They are out in the North Dakota elements all day long. When they get in from their shift they don't complain or quit. They show up early and get their gear and vehicles ready to go out and do it again. We all need to appreciate what these guys have done for our community.
LOL GET EM MA!

 
Yes they do hard work and there are many that earn a living. The greed I mentioned was the property owners not oil field workers. You have your good ones, but I have a few friends who do oil field service work and have come across a lot of careless workers that do a lot of stupid things on and off work. Personally, there is hardly anyone that I wouldn't say hi to with a smile or lend a hand in need.

Ask others about their feelings about different races around here in general, they become opinionated or feeling patriotic and start talking bad about them. It's not their fault that a few others or events give them a bad name (blacks, arabs, etc..)

Singling out the "oil field worker" is almost among the same sense I guess. Booms like this bring out both the good and the bad.

 
My mother in law sold her camper to someone moving to Dickinson for work for about $3 or $4K more than she would have got for it here. Advertising pays! Other than that, I haven't heard any good stories about the recent oil boom, just bad ones.
 
I have a good friend that works in the oil fields. He says there are some good guys but there are a lot of people that are trouble and just plain uncomfortable to work around. Also he said the bars are getting pretty ridiculous, lots of fights and whatnot. That said, I don't think anybody is disputing the fact that they work hard. Much respect in that aspect.
 
Kinda funny the more I think about it, the more I put the blame more on the actually city than I do the oil workers. Yes not picking on an oil worker as a person but as the oil as a whole, yes they make the roads worse. But its not their jobs to keep the roads in shape. Yes there will be more crime, but then there should be more police. So you see it's not so much as a problem with the oil workers as it is the city not being prepared for the unexpected growth and not being able to adjust to it.
 
Thought of this thread on my drive to work this morning. My radio station is rarely changed off of 98.7, which means in the morning I typically catch a few minutes of Lex and Terry on the short drive to work. This morning they happened to have some guy call in who stated he was about to fly from Texas to Fargo on his way to a new job on oil rigs. I have to assume that while flying into Fargo, he'll be headed west once he lands.
 
Thought of this thread on my drive to work this morning. My radio station is rarely changed off of 98.7, which means in the morning I typically catch a few minutes of Lex and Terry on the short drive to work. This morning they happened to have some guy call in who stated he was about to fly from Texas to Fargo on his way to a new job on oil rigs. I have to assume that while flying into Fargo, he'll be headed west once he lands.
The reason why he is flying into Fargo is from what I have heard, almost all the flights into Dickinson and Bismark are so packed with oil workers that some are being flown into Fargo and parts of Montana since there is not enough room on the planes.

 
Wow, did anyone see the breakdown of rent prices from Bauer: http://www.rentdickinson.com/11334.html

The below price table isn't formatted correctly, go to the link to see it.

Apartment Efficiency 1 bedroom 2 bedroom 3 bedroom Lot Rent

Century $1,100-$1,375 $1,700-$,2,075 $2,400-$,2,875

Royal Manor $1,100-$1,375 $1,650-$1,875

Eastwood $900-$1,100 $1,100- $1,375 $1,700-$1,975 $2,350-$2,775

West River $2,900-$3,375

Silvergate $2,800-$3,100

Carroll's Court $1,700-$1,975 $2,400-$2,875 $425

Park Place $1,900-$2,275

 
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