Legislators Meet in Williston | Video

Chris Williams | 5/30/2012

Legislators met at Williston State College to board busses that took them on tours to see how the oil boom is affecting the area.

"A picture is worth a thousand words, and actually to see it first hand is even probably worth more than a picture, so I just think that`s gonna be very helpful to us as a city," said Williston Mayor Ward Koeser.

They came back together at Stevens Hall where officials said local and state government need to work together to fix the problems.

"The states in control of the number of drilling permits, the states in control of the oil industry, they`re in control of our impact. We need to work together with the state, we need their help because we`re overrun," said Williams County Commissioner Dan Kalil.

Senator Stan Lyson is happy other legislators got to see how much growth is happening here.

"The legislators that I`ve talked to that went on the tour were just absolutely amazed. They said, `You opened our eyes. We just didn`t understand that`s it`s this huge.`"

Lyson said the Legislators learned a lot today, something Wayne Beberdurf said is a positive.

"Any time we have a good learning experience going on there`s gonna be a lot of positives, and I think that`s what were hearing today."

Koeser says he hopes this experience will help him next year when he goes to Bismarck to talk to the legislature.

"I saw that up there or I heard about that up there, and so it won`t have to explain the whole start we can simply refer back to what they saw here...this is a big deal for Williston."

The committee will meet again in the morning to continue talking.

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