Williston Wire Headlines; Crude-By-Rail-Barge-Project Planned

Headlies only; no links. It is easy to subscribe to the Williston Wire.

• The first story is a biggy. Williston Holding Company has purchased four of the most well-known restaurants in Williston, and four that my dad and I used to frequent often:

Trapper's Kettle Restaurant
Gramma Sharon's Family Restaurant
J Dub's Bar & Grill
Williston Brewing Club in leased space in the El Rancho hotel

• Heidi Heitkam (US Senator) says she will influence public policy to help with the housing problem in the Bakken oil patch. Watch your wallets.
• Williston episode of "American Journey" on Headline News was show's highest rated
• Renae Mitchell is making a living photographing oil wells in the Bakken
• High-density drilling may re-define Bakken's potential
• Drilling more with fewer rigs
• Takeaway in the Bakken is sufficient for the next two years. I've heard that story before
• Indigo Resources Ltd will build a rail-to-barge facility in Osceola, Arkansas, to move Bakken and Canadian crude to the Gulf Coast; a 610-acre site on the Mississippi River with 3,000 feet of river frontage, three sets of manifolds, five rail loops, and 16 miles of track with room for 100+ car unit trains; the site has direct rail access to Minot and Tioga, with shipments moving as much as three times faster than long rail hauls to the Gulf Coast
• The Casper Star Tribune also reports on Harold Hamm's new pipeline to Cushing; previously reported
• North Dakota passes two laws aimed at eliminating unnecessary bureaucratic delay for pipeline projects; sounds like the same kind of sound thinking that created the Bank of North Dakota decades ago
• McKenzie County's landfill was supposed to last 50 years. With the boom, the 50-year life expectancy for the landfill went to .... drum roll .... 2 years. No typo. From 50 years to 2 years. I guess that's one way to define a boom. Maybe The Atlantic Monthly will do another story
• Crosby city residents overwhelmingly approved a one percent sales tax to help St Luke's Hospital during a time of transition, to include assuming ownership of the local nursing home
• Many critical access hospitals in North Dakota losing money, including McKenzie County
• Wildcat Pizzeria to open in Dickinson
• The Oilfield Cowboy has spent a lot of time around oilfields in Louisiana and Oklahoma but says he has never seen a boomtown like Williston
• The Beatles will be performing tonight in Williston. Oh-oh, strike that. The Abbey Road Band, a four-man live tribute band will be performing in Williston tonight. The Beatles can't perform. Paul McCartney had a conflicting engagement.