Members of the Grand Forks City Council tonight will discuss a plan to market the city to Oil Patch companies looking for expansion opportunities in eastern North Dakota.
"We've felt for a long time that Grand Forks needed a higher profile with the oil industry," said Council President Hal Gershman.
The council's Finance and Development Committee will look at some first steps toward a Bakken initiative for the city, a proposal to commit $75,000 of city money toward marketing and outreach in the west with another $50,000 to come from partners outside of city government.
Gershman said meetings with local groups interested in the plan started in February.
Mayor Mike Brown said likely partners in the effort would include UND, the Chamber of Commerce and the Grand Forks Region Economic Development Corp.
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Reducing pressure
Brown said city officials had been discussing the idea with their counterparts in Williston, N.D., and the goal was to reduce pressure on the Oil Patch's labor force, housing and infrastructure and not to steal jobs from the area.
"It shouldn't all be on their backs," he said. "They have limited resources."
The initiative's description in the committee's agenda cites Grand Forks' access to western North Dakota and its workers and property available for companies. The city has direct connections to Williston with U.S. Highway 2 and Amtrak.
The Steffes Corp. of Dickinson, N.D., last week announced plans to start a manufacturing plant for steel products and other items for the energy industry customers in an empty Pribbs Steel plant on Highway 2. The company's application for a state loan program identified a worker shortage around Dickinson as a reason to expand outside its home base.
Gershman said the city's initiative predates Steffes' plans to locate in Grand Forks, but the company's expansion is the type of investment the city wants to encourage.
"That's the poster child," he said.
The Grand Forks Planning and Zoning Commission will meet Thursday this week. It will consider plans by UND to construct a new two-story information technology office building at 4349 James Ray Drive, south of University Drive and east of Interstate 29.
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Reach Bjorke at (701) 780-1117; (800) 477-6572, ext. 117; or send e-mail to cbjorke@gfherald.com .
