Posted on 11/26/2011 10:00:18 AM PST by Titus-Maximus
TIOGA, N.D. — As much as the drilling rigs that tower over this once placid corner of the prairie, the two communities springing up just outside of town testify to the galloping pace of growth here in oil country.
They are called man camps — temporary housing compounds supporting the overwhelmingly male work force flooding the region in search of refuge from a stormy economy. These two, Capital Lodge and Tioga Lodge, built on opposite sides of a highway, will have up to 3,700 residents, according to current plans.
Confronted with the unusual problem of too many unfilled jobs and not enough empty beds to accommodate the new arrivals, North Dakota embraced the camps — typically made of low-slung, modular dormitory-style buildings — as the imperfect solution to keeping workers rested and oil flowing.
But now, even as the housing shortage worsens, towns like this one are denying new applications for the camps. In many places they have come to embody the danger of growing too big too fast, cluttering formerly idyllic vistas, straining utilities, overburdening emergency services and aggravating relatively novel problems like traffic jams, long lines and higher crime.
The grumbling has escalated despite the huge influx of wealth from the boom, largely because it has become clear that growth is overwhelming capacity. Indeed, local leaders note incredulously that a conference on regional infrastructure took place in Colorado last month because the region lacked the facilities to host its own event.
“We need a little time to catch our breath to figure out what resources we need in place before we keep expanding,” said Ward Heidbreder, city coordinator in nearby Stanley, which has two camps.
In recent weeks, Williams County, where thousands of previously approved camp beds have yet to be built, and Mountrail County, where one-third
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I seem to remember OUR brilliant government buying thousands of trailers which were thought to be too demeaning for welfare recipients and their ilk (yes some taxpayers were involved) that just rusted out.
Refurbish them and let the field workers have them.
Hell, they won’t care, they are just working and paying taxes so what they think doesn’t matter anyway.
Wasn’t it Mayor ‘Ray’ that said the school buses were inadequate transportation to evacuate New Orleans they needed luxury buses with rest rooms etc?
Okay. First thing we do is start the sensitivity training sessions. Then set up the Human Rights Commission in really plush digs. Then build several palaces for the lawyers.
Then bring in the Sierra Club and its pet, the EPA, to sue everyone in sight for hoping to endanger the left-handed cross-dressing upside-down snarkfishwarblerspottedbluefinglowthing.
Invent some new OSHA safety standards.
Trot out some victims of anything.
Then, most important of all, raise taxes.
That’s just the start. We’ll have the economy roaring in no time.
That looks nicer than my barracks in Kuwait.
Open a restaurant - even a pizzeria, and get rich. There will be nothing for these workers to do on their day off.
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Then the ‘mob’ can pony up and build several saloons with hotels above them, giving Miss Kitty and her frolicsome companions a shot at the ‘big bucks’.
Entrepreneurship at its finest.
Put the opportunity for money out there and someone will conjure up many ways to get you to give it to them.
I believe you!
My dad has one too that he hates
Yep, everyone knows that's the first priority in any situation that requires prompt action!
If winter wasn't underway, I'd think this was the perfect time to take all my free labor (10 kids) on a road trip with a trailer full of laundry equipment. It worked in the Gold Rush!
...We need some land to build some soloons ...
... and bring in some dancing girls, we'll make a killing! ...
South Dakota is the tropics. This is North Dakota.
"Best example I can give you is Eureka, NV. Small town (and county) that has been run very prudently for decades every time a wave of mining comes through an brings in a fresh injection of money. They have no debt, they’re so fat with tax funds that the state of Nevada wants to rob their school fund.
You just re-made my point for me. "Some" level of "boom" is inevitable, even with "man-camps". Local economies should use some of their windfall to build infrastructure that is permanent, or inherently "dual-purpose", and bank the rest.
Think those lazy pathetic bums at the Occupy camps would think about working at one of these places? Probably not, it is work after all, and these people are completely against working for themselves. Why work when you can force the government to steal other peoples money?
You're slightly confused. The "Katrina trailers" were used and mothballed. They're still there, and available. The major stink about them was that they used "formaldehyde-based" materials in their construction, and some folks had allergic reactions, which, of course, the greens blew out of all proportion.
After this much time, they have long "out-gassed" any remaining formaldehyde (especially the ones stored in Louisiana). Got to be careful about mold with those.
They also need experienced truck drivers to haul this stuff around.
The interiors of the Target trailers are pretty nice:
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/11/26/us/JP-MANCAMPS-3/JP-MANCAMPS-3-articleInline.jpg
You’re slightly confused.
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You got it!!!!
I forgot what a great success the program was (Heavy Sarcasm).
They got about .07 on the dollar for the resale, but by government standards probably a ‘good deal’ as normally they let stuff just sit and rot or give away and the recipients let ‘the stuff’ sit and rot/rust away....
Didn’t realize some still being utilized (as of 2010).
BTW Has Japan ‘finished’ rebuilding from the typhoon/tsunami? You can pretty much ‘bet your bippy’ it won’t be any 7 or 8 years....
Actually, the program WAS a great success.....no sarcasm needed. The trailers provided shelter when needed. It wasn't until the green agitators and the ambulance chasing lawsuit lawyers got involved over the (highly exaggerated) formaldehyde "problems" that they started to get a bad name. I'm from Louisiana, and I followed the goings-on during and after Katrina VERY CLOSELY. And the place where most of the trailers were mothballed was about ten miles from where I grew up. And several of the major "temporary trailer parks" using those trailers were about eight miles (different direction).
They got about .07 on the dollar for the resale, but by government standards probably a ‘good deal’ as normally they let stuff just sit and rot or give away and the recipients let ‘the stuff’ sit and rot/rust away....
See above points about "formaldehyde scare" as to why they were perceived as "not fit to live in".
"Didn’t realize some still being utilized (as of 2010)
I'm sure most of them are "still being utilized" by those folks who were bright enough to buy them.
Probably better than the university "married student housing" where my wife and I resided in grad school (and those weren't all "that" bad).
During construction of the Trans Alaska Pipeline in the 70’s, Valdez went from around 700 people to 11,000, and most of them were housed in man camps made of Atco trailers stacked three storeys high, near what we called “Terminus,” or the end of the pipeline.
The buggy whip factories are now out of business, too, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t important and useful at one time.
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