Williston, ND Active Issues

vko · Senior Member

RE: How About A Tax Rebate?

Sue Evans · Senior Member

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=cU4y-yNBbfw

I found this video on you tube. A Williams County resident. I hope the clip works.

Sue Evans · Senior Member

The exodus has more layers. I lost 2 primary care physicians. I need one. I can not get another there. Not a sob story, just facts that make living in Williston a wrong fit.

I know I was not alone, but I felt feeble attempting to hire a handyman or obtain simple vehicle repairs. I felt lucky to get glass cut for a window.

I see the courts there so overwhelmed at this point that cases are bartered away. The jail is full.

I was there through the rough times and envisioned more than the gamut of moratoriums that have been placed in the County/City over the last couple of years. I do not agree with some items in place.

I know the ones who have called Williston home, retired, sold their home several years back and have now lost their apartment. They were forced to move.

I also remember when our area had the down turn and many of our family members worked elsewhere and sent their money home to us.

Congrats VKO on the new grandchild. My 5th one is due on tax day. I got a call from the sibling to be and she told me her new baby will be here around her birthday. I told her that would be a wonderful gift for her. She sounded ho-hum and perked up when she found out Grandma will get her something else besides a sister/brother.

vko · Senior Member

I know Randy. I remember when the last boom went bust, we the Williston People, had to clean up after it. Bad decisions all over the place. I choose to stay home, as it is my home. Williston is no more ready for this, then the last time. When my neighbor said that the County, measured his chicken coup, and his taxes when up the size of the coup. New Structure. I really don't know what to think. I petitioned the city to help with taxes in Williston, last boom, you need a lawyer to help you through this. And all the people who got tax breaks, flew the coup. I really don't want the young ones to go through what Rik and I did, running our own business. Maybe and most likely. I am sour remembering back. I didn't like making 6.00 dollars one month and Rik was in Nebraska working. Thank God, my parents were there to help, when I needed it. Maybe it won't happen this time. Hopefully not. I sure wish they would give tax rebates to the Williston residents that have lived their lives here. Young and Old.

rwaitman · Senior Member

Hi VKO:

I am sorry to hear about your sister. It is the cycle of life, and we all are on the same highway, sometimes going fast, sometimes going slow, but always in that direction. I guess the key is to get the best quality we can in the elapsed time we get.

The tax rebate thing was more facetious than anything, but there are elements of truth to the whole idea. If we, as a community, do not get on the ball, we are going to find ourselves in even more of a bind a ways down the road.

I did not mean the post as a dig at the City or County Commissioners either individually or collectively, but rather, was trying to provoke some dialogue. I am still hopeful that we can have this discussion on the Active Issues Page....

be well

:o)

vko · Senior Member

Hi Randy, Alaska gets rebates due to people don't own any minerals, the government does. Williston is too greedy to allow this sort of thing, tax breaks, not happening. Mills keep going up, taxes keep going up and no breaks for anyone. Now, I live in Williams County and have looked from Montana to Idaho to Washington to Oregon, to get closer to my son. First grand baby due in December. Instead bought a fifth wheel and not leaving the home stead until they carry me off, dead. My taxes went up again last year on the farm and sure they will go up again, Williston loves to take from Williston people when oil is around. Always have and always will. They want - they want - they want and finally I read where they need and need and need. Now, do I have faith in the people that have been elected - some I do and some I don't. Either way, such is life, son having a baby and losing a sister to cancer, lung - liver - bone cancer. She just found out and soon to be gone. I have alot to crab about Williston, living here forever. I am not leaving. And don't expect any breaks from the people running Williston.

rwaitman · Senior Member

Whining, and Pishing and Moaning time....

I was in Billings last week for an Appointment....(couldn't get in here). I was visiting with Zach's mother-in-law who is a school teacher and she was bemoaning the fact that the school systems (at least at her level) were overwhelmed with students. Almost every class had like 32 students per class, and space was maxed out. I asked her where the influx was coming from, and unsurprisingly, she said it was from families moving to Billings so one spouse or the other could work in Williston. I'm sure Dickinson and Sidney were also included in the broader picture, but it is the idea that really miffs me. I love Williston, and I chose to come back here because this was where I wanted to make my home, even though I graduated from Rocky Mountain College in Billings and had come to love that place almost as much. My wife is from there, and many of my friends, even those from Williston have returned there as well.... but I'm getting off topic.... I'm getting madder every day as we watch all the dollars we are producing, go sailing out the doors. We have thousands and thousands of people who get a large paycheck out of the development of our resources, and send that money, all of it, less the minimum they have to pay for food or fuel. Companies fly them in and out, and are allowing them to work one or two week shifts with similar time off. I'm sure that there are plenty of Williston natives who wish they could run off to Billings, or Arizona, or Nevada, or Florida, or Grand Cayman, or Timbuctoo, every two weeks and still provide a good living for their family. So far we have seen so many negatives, that it is hard to see some light at the end of the tunnel, and many of us, optimists by nature, are getting tired of continually shoveling thru great deep piles of horse doo-doo expecting to find the pony we know has got to be buried deeply within that pile somwhere.

As I drove home, stewing in my own juices, and simmering over the gross miscarriage of justice of the whole thing, I came up with an answer that might make it a little more tolerable. Why don't those of us who live here permanently just petition the city for a rebate check....Heck, they do it in Alaska....it was the only way they could get people to live there....We are pretty much in the same situation they used to be in when people would go work on the North Slope for weeks at a time then come home and sit on their cans and enjoy themselves for a few weeks. Alaska figured it out...give em some money to stay. The idea would make many of us more tolerant of the constant outflow of our resources with nothing in return, and us living in a town that is absolutely nothing like the one we grew up in. The idea might stimulate some of these other people and businesses to invest some more into the retail services sector and others. We know we are not about to get any property tax relief.

I am getting a little tired of the old excuse that we don't have a place for families to live, blah blah blah, but that argument will end eventually, as the housing and infrastructure needs are met, and the bigger issue is why in Sam Hill would you want to bring your family to Williston....there ain't nothing there....and that's the truth. There's certainly a lot of money....it just ain't staying here.

If anybody is still reading the Active Issues...how bout this one for a topic to debate....

;o)