Williston Mayor Reacts to Oil Expo | Video

Samantha Mehrotra | 5/10/2010

Last week’s “Bakken and Beyond” Conference provided city leaders with an opportunity to get the message out about the challenges Williston has been dealing with while working to meet the needs of a growing oil industry.

Today, Mayor Ward Koeser said that he and other city officials were able to meet with a few developers who expressed interest in making an investment in the city.

That’s a welcome sign, because even a month ago there was concern about not being able to build enough infrastructure in enough time.

“We’ve had a lot of interest,” said Koeser. “We met with two or three developers last week and we have a lot more that we are talking to on the phone. They’re all trying to determine what their role will be and we’re trying to see what their role can be. We know we need help from the outside to come in and help with some of this growth and putting in infrastructure and building. So we’re trying to find out who is going to be the best to work with.”

Koeser said we can expect a busy building season over the summer, with at least one developer coming in to work on raw land. More construction on housing and apartment complexes is also expected.

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