Dunn County is a very large land mass area with 2080 square miles of land in the southwestern part of North Dakota. Our present population is an estimated 3800. Farming and ranching has been the life style of many of our county residents until 2008. Bakken shale development has been in Dunn County since 2006 and the growth of energy development is steadily moving to the south with most of the growth taking place since 2009.

Killdeer population 750

Dunn Center population 100

Halliday population 75

Manning (County Seat) population 60

New Hradec population 40

Dodge population 30

Auditor’s Office

Treasurer’s Office

Tax Director’s Office

Clerk of Court

Sheriff ’s Department

Planning & Zoning

Road Department

EMS

JDA

Social Services

Chief Financial Officer

Increase in (FTE’s) full time employees: 2007 county had 50 fte’s today we have 80 fte’s

With this our payroll moved from 1.1 million in 2007 to 2.3 million in 2010.

E-mails in to the auditor’s office have increased by about 300% while telephone calls have increased over 200% over the last three years.

County board of commissioners has moved from three commissioners to five commissioners.

Commissioners have moved to two regular meetings a month with two or three special meetings each month to handle the work load.

Budget expenditures were at four million dollars in 2007 and in 2011 we are at 35.7 million dollars.

County Commissioners Board

Higher ratio of splitting of properties.

Increase valuation of property.

$50,000 homes in 2006 are now selling for $175,000 in 2011.

The property valuations have increased by 19.4% since 2010.

Increased recording because of sales & splits.

Numerous requests for valuation of land use changes.

Creations of subdivisions have increased work load.

Higher request for determination of land ownership.

Department has purchased a service agreement with GIS tracking system.

Huge demand for property for housing and industrial business.

2006 numbers

765 traffic violations

213 criminal court cases

205 civil cases

3 staff employees

Recorders office collected $147,107

Oil revenue starts to come into the county

2576 traffic violation

377 criminal court cases

298 civil cases

6 staff employees

Recorders office collected $503,095

Addition of a new Court room

Moved to digital- paperless documents

2010 numbers

Added full time position for code

administrator.

Hold 15-20 hearings per month for new

developments. (housing, truck parking,

industry/business development, temporary

housing, RV parks , crew camps and etc.)

Development of a new revised

comprehensive land use plan in 2011.

Crew camps applications are increasing

steadily.

2006

1200 miles of road with only 27 paved miles

Very few highly impacted roads from truck traffic

General road maintenance was two to three operation per year on all roads

General road surface materials used are gravel or scoria

Annual cost to maintain was about $1500 per mile

1200 miles of roads with only 25 paved miles

330 miles of heavily impacted truck traffic routes

Weekly maintenance is required on the 330 miles of impacted roads

Cost to maintain impacted roads is $24,000 per mile annually

Materials for road surfacing are getting tighter in supply because of competition from the energy sector

2010

2006

3 employees

4 vehicles

Average calls per day 6

• 7 employees • 8 vehicles • Average calls per day 26 • Large amounts of overtime

causing stress to employees and equipment

• Will be adding another employee and vehicle on January 1st 2012

• Budget has increased by 200% over three years

2010

A volunteer organization with roughly twenty volunteer members working with four ambulances in the county.

Today there are 34 oil rigs actively drilling within Dunn County. General estimates are from 80-120 personnel on each rig or 4080 employees working in Dunn County daily.

Many of the 911 calls being placed on cell phones are from out of state cell phones. The 911 fee does not remain in our state. These are monies that are funneling out of state.

EMS responders are having issues with locating individuals because of the lack of 911 addressing.

We have people living in the middle of fields.

Both Killdeer & Halliday squads cover 1140 square miles inside the borders of Dunn County.

Travel concerns right now are when we are responding to a rural address; the speed at which we wish to be traveling is impeded by road conditions and traffic.

Individuals are stressed by the number of calls.

Challenges with new types of accidents our volunteers are not accustomed to.

Cost of purchasing new equipment to handle the work load.

County operates with a total volunteer staff for ambulance, fire and rescue teams. They are risking their lives for our community.

The States Attorney Office has seen a substantial increase in child abuse and neglect, domestic violence, violent crime, alcohol related offenses, and illegal drugs.

Traffic and alcohol related offenses combined had a substantial

increase of 300%. Financial problems combined with alcohol and illegal drugs

appear to the be the gateway for an increase in domestic violence and child abuse and neglect cases.

Most of the increased case load involves individuals who have

recently relocated to western North Dakota to pursue employment opportunities in the Bakken.

A few years ago Dunn County economic development office tried about anything and everything to attract new businesses. Today new businesses are waiting at the door asking for help in getting the proper loans and financials in order.

Since the Bakken development started we have seen housing issues steadily climb. Issues that the county is dealing with is lack of housing, high rent values, and lack of contractors to build housing.

This department has been very busy working at the state level to attract new monies to our community to address the needs of the county and public so our quality of life is not reduced.

Elderly and handicap are scared to travel and move around because of the influx of new people to the community.

Waiting lines for food, gas and personal items.

More applications coming in monthly from individuals who come here looking for jobs and cannot find one right away. They need assistance for a few days to weeks to find a job and get a place to live. They arrive with little or no funds to work with.

Fuel assistance requests are higher than normal.

Many local residents are scared and say let’s go back to what it was like before oil development.

Positives:

Created many new job opportunities

Increased salary levels in western North Dakota

Brought additional money to the farm and ranch communities

Creation of many new businesses in the area

Increase sales of trucks, cars, and farm equipment

Negative:

Estimated 2200 out side workers who drive to Dunn County daily to work

Overload of patrons at restaurants, gas stations, and stores of all kinds

Lack of employees

Detrition of roads because of heavy traffic loads

Traffic everywhere

Total stress on all county departments is greater than we expected

Lack of funds to meet demands

“Stress is definitely an issue.”

“We’re experiencing frustration, overload, and burnout.”

Retaining current employees and hiring new ones is a challenge because we can’t compete with oilfield salaries.

Communities are seeing a lack of contractors for housing needs and fixing streets and roads.

There is a shortage of city/county workers, teachers, and daycare employees.

“The skilled labor force is inadequate.”

Demand for law enforcement, emergency response, public health, social services, public works, and medical services is growing. Current employees are working longer hours and feeling the stress of doing so.

Dunn County Trends Road use policies

Haul road agreements

Speed limits reduced

Weight restrictions for certain roads

New road designs

Different approach to general road maintenance

Road surfacing materials are becoming depleted in the area

Dust control is becoming a major issue

Planning and zoning policies and changes

Greater focus on EMS service

Load limits used

Haul road agreements

Speed limits reduced

New road designs

Changing the way general road repairs take place

Looking for surface materials

Dust control

Planning and zoning

EMS and social service impacts

Western North Dakota Trends

Daryl Dukart 470 96th Ave SW Dunn Center, North Dakota 58626 e-mail address: daryldukart@ndsupernet.com