Wild and wooley Williston-Part 2

Tongues continue to wag around these parts about what's happening out Williston way. I came across a report recently that said self-defense products are becoming a hot item among the women folks in North Dakota's booming oil patch. A Dickinson, North Dakota pawn shop manager told one of their local newspapers that he can't keep items such as pepper spray and stun guns on the shelves. He says handguns, that a year ago would stay in a display case for two months, are now being grabbed in two days! Other North Dakota business operators say sales went up when the region's population started increasing and have spiked with the arrest of two men in the recent disappearance of Montana high school teacher Sherry Arnold, now presumed dead. Watford City's Top Cop says that he's seen an increase in the number of women applying for concealed weapons permits. Here in Montana, our Montana Highway Patrol is increasing the number of troopers assigned to the eastern part of the state in order to handle growing law enforcement demands created by the boom. Ten new troopers were sworn in a week ago after graduating from the patrol academy and six of them are being assigned to counties in eastern Montana, where companies seeking oil in the Bakken formation along the North Dakota border have drawn a large influx of workers. Our Attorney General Steve Bullock says the challenges brought by the oil boom were evident in two recent criminal cases-the Sherry Arnold case I have referred to and also the negligent homicide case of oil field worker Brian Doyle. These new state troopers will increase the eastern Montana force to 26. Closer to home, three wells were recently completed here in Toole County...two are gas wells. Over in Glacier County, Rosetta Resources Operating got the approval for two new locations and both of those wells will be aiming for the Bakken Formation. Exciting, challenging times are ahead for all of us here in the Golden Triangle. Things may be "rockin' in the Bakken" but over here, we're getting ready to "fire up the Front".