Prairie Business October 2018

ENERGY SPECIAL ISSUE

THIS 3D COMPUTER GRAPHIC SHOWS SEISMIC REFLECTIONS OFF OF A SUBSURFACE OIL RESERVOIR. THE DATA HELP RESEARCHERS BETTER UNDERSTAND WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE RESERVOIR OVER TIME.

THE DIGITAL OILFIELD

How ‘mud on the boots’ energy jobs have turned into high-tech work

American Institute of Architects ND Honor Award 2018

PIPERS, DEVELOPED BY CALGARY-BASED INGU SOLUTIONS AND NOW BEING TESTED BY THE INTELLIGENT PIPELINE INTEGRITY PROGRAM OR iPIPE IN NORTH DAKOTA, ARE GOLFBALL-SIZED MONITORS THAT FIND PIPELINE LEAKS THROUGH BUILT-IN ACOUSTIC SENSORS. FOR MORE ON THIS AND OTHER ‘DIGITAL OILFIELD’ TECHNOLOGY, SEE PAGE 23.

IMAGE: INGU SOLUTIONS

TECHNOLOGY

THE DIGITAL OILFIELD EVEN ROUGHNECKS ON AN OIL RIG USE COMPUTERS TODAY, AS THE OIL-AND-GAS INDUSTRY BECOMES EVER MORE AUTOMATED AND HIGH-TECH

ENERGY

OPENING THE DOOR IF YOU’VE GOT THE WILL TO SEEK AN ENERGY JOB, AGENCIES, EMPLOYERS AND INSTITUTIONS WILL HELP YOU FIND THE WAY

CONSTRUCTION

MARKET CHALLENGE

LABOR SHORTAGES AND LAND COSTS KEEP OIL PATCH COMMUNITIES FROM GROWING AS FAST AS THEY OTHERWISE COULD

ON THE COVER:

AS DESCRIBED ON THE COVER, THIS 3D COMPUTER GRAPHIC SHOWS SEISMIC REFLECTIONS OFF OF A SUBSURFACE OIL RESERVOIR. IMAGE: ENERGY & ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH CENTER

Bullish on the Midwest

“It’s a great place to raise kids.” If you’ve lived in the Prairie Business region at any time in the past 30 years, you’ve heard that phrase. You may have to take a pay cut to live here, the thinking goes. But the good schools, safe streets and strong neighborhoods will make up for it.

Of course, neither regions nor cities nor neighborhoods are static. And now it’s time to revise the saying, in our view.

How’s this:

It’s a great place to raise kids – and to make a living.

That’s the lesson of this special Energy issue of Prairie Business, and the lesson comes through on every page.

Petroleum engineers can earn six-figure salaries right after graduating from the University of North Dakota. Two-year degree holders can graduate into energy jobs paying $60,000 or more.

Oil Patch cities such as Williston and Watford City, N.D., are back in growth mode, but with much stronger infrastructure networks than they had before. In Minnesota, meanwhile, nearly 60,000 people work in clean-energy jobs. That’s 2 percent of all the jobs in the state. Agriculture has long been the region’s key industry – the magnet that pulls in dollars from afar.

And agriculture retains its vital importance. But now, energy also is providing a draw, and it’s attracting more people, opportunity and wealth than ever before.

That’s providing Prairie Business communities with ever-stronger leases on life.

Then there’s this: Earlier this year, the United States likely surpassed Russia and Saudi Arabia to become the world’s largest producer of crude oil, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported in September.

Bullish on the Midwest? You bet.

Good reading, Tom Dennis

I welcome your feedback and story ideas. Call me at 701-780-1276 or email me at tdennis@prairiebusinessmagazine.com.

PUBLISHER KORRIE WENZEL

AD DIRECTOR STACI LORD

EDITOR

TOM DENNIS

CIRCULATION MANAGER BETH BOHLMAN

LAYOUT DESIGN ANNA HINSVERK

ACCOUNT MANAGERS

NICHOLE ERTMAN 800.477.6572 ext. 1162 nertman@prairiebusinessmagazine.com

JENNIFER LEROUX OLSZEWSKI 800.477.6572 ext. 1167 jlolszewski@prairiebusinessmagazine.com

Prairie Business magazine is published monthly by the Grand Forks Herald and Forum Communications Company with offices at 375 2nd Avenue North, Grand Forks, ND 58203. Subscriptions are available free of charge. Back issue quantities are limited and subject to availability ($2/copy prepaid). The opinions of writers featured in Prairie Business are their own. Unsolicited manuscripts, photographs, artwork are encouraged but will not be returned without a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

SUBSCRIPTIONS

Subscriptions are free www.prairiebusinessmagazine.com

ADDRESS CORRECTIONS

Prairie Business magazine Box 6008 Grand Forks, ND 58206-6008

Beth Bohlman: bbohlman@prairiebusinessmagazine.com

ONLINE www.prairiebusinessmagazine.com

(YOUTUBE.COM/WATCH?V=5CCWWDATTDO).

Renewable energy creates jobs, lowers costs – and deserves a second look

By Gregg Mast

MINNEAPOLIS – Across the region, the adoption of energy efficiency and clean energy solutions is booming. Here’s why business and community leaders should be paying attention.

• In Minnesota, renewable sources such as wind and solar power account for 25 percent of our state’s electricity generation – meeting our state’s Renewable Energy Standard a full seven years ahead of schedule.

Rapid advances in technology have driven down costs, speeding the deployment of clean energy. Over the past decade, there has been an 86 percent decline in the cost of solar and 67 percent in the cost of wind.

• Thanks to the passage of innovative energy policies, Minnesota is home to the country’s largest community solar garden program. CSGs provide access to solar to a wide range of businesses, homeowners and others. Subscribers get a credit on their electricity bills for the share of the power produced by their local solar facility.

Today, more than 401 megawatts of capacity is being produced by the program, saving money for residential, commercial and public entities, including schools.

• As costs continue to decline, clean energy jobs are on the rise. According to the 2018 Clean Jobs Midwest Report, Minnesota is home to more than 59,000 clean energy jobs –and 40 percent of those are spread out across Greater Minnesota.

These jobs are also growing two times faster

than all other sectors of our state’s economy. The Midwest region, as a whole, is home to over 714,000 clean energy jobs.

At Clean Energy Economy Minnesota, my team and I work with our clean energy business members to share this economic success story with policymakers throughout the state. Clean energy solutions are diversifying our energy mix, increasing our competitiveness and helping local communities prosper in every corner of the state.

This is a story we enthusiastically share with policymakers and the general public.

The business case for cleaner and more sustainable forms of energy has never been stronger. Thanks to their ability to reduce costs, mitigate business risks and respond to consumer demand, clean energy solutions now are viewed as mainstream, not alternative.

Among the U.S. Fortune 100, 63 percent have an energy efficiency, renewable energy or greenhouse-gas-reduction target, as do 48 percent of the U.S. Fortune 500.

Some of Minnesota’s biggest companies are leading the way. Target is the No. 1 U.S. corporation when it comes to on-site solar, with 203 megawatts of capacity installed across 436 of its 1,800 facilities.

The company also plans to install electric vehicle charging stations at more than 100 of its stores and properties, in addition to its many initiatives to reduce energy consumption. Ultimately, Target is working toward the goal of

being 100 percent renewable overall. Why? It just makes good business sense.

Target is leading by example, but many smaller businesses are innovating in their own way. 75F, a Minnesota-based early stage company, is using the Internet of Things to deliver smart heating, ventilation, air conditioning and lighting solutions, delivering energy savings for building owners and managers.

This is just one example where energy efficiency technology helps to both improve productivity and reduce energy bills. Business leaders also should watch for the coming battery storage boom. Minnesota is home to some smart companies developing innovative ways to use batteries and smart grids to help not only in the rapid deployment of renewables, but also to lower big power users’ energy bills.

Minnesota and the Midwest are wellpositioned to seize the substantial economic opportunities provided by energy efficiency and clean energy. In fact, clean energy is transforming our lives and powering our economy forward at an unprecedented pace.

How will you be a part of this energy revolution?

Gregg Mast Executive Director Clean Energy Economy Minnesota (CEEM) Minneapolis, Minn. 612-743-9157

GREGG MAST

THIS SCREENSHOT COMES FROM “MINNESOTA WIND FARM AERIAL TOUR,” A YOUTUBE VIDEO

Renewable fuels power region’s economy

By Jeff Zueger

UNDERWOOD, N.D. –

The United States, more specifically North Dakota, is blessed with abundant natural resources. Sun, water, wind, minerals, hydrocarbons and fertile land produce more food, feed, fiber and fuel than can be used domestically. Choices are unlimited in how to use these great resources.

As North Dakotans, we must support agriculture – a main driver of the state’s economy – by proactively expanding the availability of renewable fuels.

The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, commonly referred to as the Renewable Fuels Standard, set a course to change U.S. liquid fuel options. Its five primary objectives:

• Reduce dependence on foreign oil

• Grow the economy

• Improve domestic air quality

• Lower consumer fuel cost

• Provide consumers with renewable fuel choices at the pump

It has been one of the most successful energy bills ever passed; it was done with

broad bipartisan support; and to date, it has successfully achieved four of its five primary goals. Further, it has proven to be the most significant agriculture market development tool in the past 50 years.

Midwest AgEnergy, an upper Midwest biofuels enterprise that owns two biorefineries – Blue Flint near Underwood, N.D., and Dakota Spirit near Spiritwood, N.D. – processes 50 million bushels of North Dakota corn to produce 145 million gallons of ethanol, 400,000 tons of high-protein livestock feed and oil products annually.

Nationwide, the ethanol industry processes 5.5 billion bushels of corn to produce 16 billion gallons of ethanol and 50 million domestic tons of livestock feed. Additionally, the U.S. processes more than 2 billion bushels of soybeans into high-protein feed and biodiesel each year.

Without the RFS, these fuel markets would be limited, restricted and difficult to enter, given the barriers in place today.

While the RFS has been successful on four of five goals, work is still needed to achieve the last goal of providing consumers renewable fuel choices at the pump. The agriculture and renewable fuel industries have worked together to increase consumer access to renewable fuels. But it is critical for the long-term success

RENEWABLE FUELS ARE "HIGH-OCTANE, CLEAN-BURNING AND SHOULD BE AN OPTION FOR ALL CONSUMERS THROUGHOUT THE NATION," CEO JEFF ZUEGER OF MIDWEST AGENERGY WRITES. IMAGE: MIDWEST AGENERGY

of U.S. agriculture to proactively ensure this continues to happen.

Our industry supports free markets and would like to enjoy the same market access as traditional fuels; but unfortunately, there are many impediments to gaining market access. Current barriers include Environmental Protection Agency fuel-use restrictions, complex infrastructure certifications, complex and incumbent-favored fuel certification processes, regulatory restrictions that favor conventional fuels and state and federal labeling and use restrictions.

I encourage Prairie Business readers to choose renewable fuels such as E10, E15, E30, and E85, and to ask for those fuels if a reader’s fuel station does not offer the renewable-based products that North Dakota and U.S. farmers produce. These fuels are high-octane, clean-burning and should be an option for all consumers throughout the nation.

Do not stand for the status quo, but be proactive in making sure consumers have access to the renewable fuel products our state’s agriculture producers created.

Jeff Zueger CEO Midwest AgEnergy Underwood, N.D.

Jeff Zueger

How South Dakota can let the sun shine in

By Steve Wegman

PIERRE, S.D. – “Solar power in South Dakota has high potential but little practical application,” Wikipedia notes.

“The state ranked 50th among U.S. states in installed solar power in 2015,” despite the fact that “the state is ranked 14th in the country in solar power potential.”

Why this disparity? And what could be done to help South Dakota better realize its high solarpower potential?

That’s what this column is about.

While South Dakota has been known as populist region politically, the state has not been known for leading economic or social change.

In part, that’s because South Dakota is a rural state with very scattered population.

So, while Minnesota’s electricity consumption is about 16,000 megawatts on peak days, South Dakota’s comparable figure is only about 4,400 megawatts. Furthermore, South Dakotans pay less for electricity than do most Americans, further eroding any incentive for residents to switch to solar power.

No wonder that when it comes to solar energy, South Dakota finds itself following rather than leading the parade.

Nevertheless, South Dakota has as many

WITH ITS

sunny days as Florida, which gives the state its high solar-power potential mentioned above. And times are changing: These days, the cost of large- or utility-scale solar installations has fallen almost as low as the cost of new coalfired plants.

To take full advantage of this trend, the state of South Dakota should do two things.

• First, give large-scale solar projects the same tax and incentive treatment that large wind projects get;

• And second, fund a field verification of National Renewable Energy Laboratory solar maps, a project of very modest cost.

The state of South Dakota helped the wind industry by bringing the taxes paid by wind farms more in line with those paid by other highcost, capital-intensive projects. The incentives worked: While no company in the history of South Dakota had ever invested more that $60 million in a construction season before 2003, the renewable energy industries have invested more than $2 billion since then.

Likewise, the state of South Dakota also helped with high-tower wind monitoring from 2001 to 2005, a vital practice that helps assess and predict wind resources in complex terrain.

Without that monitoring, the only wind

development likely would have been east of Interstate 29 in South Dakota. With the monitoring, we saw in wind development in Campbell, McPherson, Brule, Clark, Day, Hyde, Hand, Jerauld, Aurora, Bon Homme and Charles Mix counties, all of them west of I-29.

Meanwhile, there are many good installation sites for large-scale solar in South Dakota that are practically shovel-ready. For example, there are some 20 existing generator facilities in the state that are used to backup the existing grid. These facilities already are connected to the grid and have utility agreements in place, which means solar panels could be quickly installed. And once that happens, the generators could start supplying electrical energy to utilities at peak times during the day.

The South Dakota Legislature begins its 2019 session on Jan. 8. If lawmakers and the public take time to learn more about these opportunities, their reasonable costs and their short payback periods, South Dakota quickly could move from the back to the front of the solar-energy parade.

Steve Wegman

Analyst, South Dakota Renewable Association Pierre, S.D. wind@pie.midco.net

4,284 SOLAR PANELS INSTALLED ON ABOUT 9 ACRES ON THE CORNER GROUNDS OF THE PIERRE REGIONAL AIRPORT, THIS 1-MEGAWATT SOLAR FARM IS SOUTH DAKOTA'S LARGEST AND SUPPLIES POWER TO PIERRE'S MUNICIPAL POWER GRID. IMAGE: CITY OF PIERRE

Steve Wegman

Now hiring

says

By Steve Wegman

EDITOR’S NOTE:

Brent Sanford, former mayor of Watford City, N.D., is the lieutenant governor of North Dakota. In this Q&A with Prairie Business, he talks in detail about the No.1 problem holding back economic growth in the state: the workforce shortage.

Q.

YOU’VE SPENT MONTHS TALKING WITH NORTH DAKOTA EMPLOYERS ABOUT THE WORKFORCE SHORTAGE. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED? Q. AT THE SAME TIME, YOU’VE SAID, SOME TRAITS SET NORTH DAKOTA APART. WHAT DO YOU MEAN?

A. A.

The main thing is that it’s a statewide issue. It’s not just an Oil Patch issue, it’s not just an energy issue. As the governor and I go across the state, we see that in small towns and large communities alike, everybody talks about the lack of workforce.

Every place we go, employers are saying, “I could do more work and I could take on more opportunities if we just had the bodies to do so.”

Furthermore, it’s not just the fact that western North Dakota is so sparsely populated. We used to think that was the reason why we couldn’t get enough workers.

The governor was just at a conference with other Midwestern governors, and this is certainly something that is happening throughout the Midwest.

In fact, we should be beating our chests more often, because in North Dakota, these are not low-paying jobs.

The low unemployment rate nationwide doesn’t mean that everything is equal between the states. In some of the states, there may be 4 percent or 5 percent unemployment, but the average wage of the job openings might be $10 to $15 an hour.

Not here. Over half of the job openings here are for more than $20 an hour. A quarter of them are more than $30 an hour, and remember: in the western part of the state, the average income now is over $80,000. These types of incomes are unique to our state. We have to be telling people, “Hey, this is why you need to be here.”

And in addition, we have our high quality of life, we have outdoor recreation, we have vibrant communities. Dickinson, Williston – a generation ago, these communities would not be on Top 10 lists. Now they’re on the lists of, say, Best Cities for Millennials for Opportunities. That’s a great thing.

Here’s something else: The average age in western North Dakota now is in the low 30s. That’s quite different than when I was a kid.

That’s the sign of the times in North Dakota, where much thought is being given to easing the workforce shortage, Lt. Gov. Brent Sanford

IN MAY, NORTH DAKOTA LT. GOV. BRENT SANFORD SPOKE IN GRAND FORKS, N.D., AT THE PARTNERSHIP SUMMIT ON “ENERGIZING NORTH DAKOTA’S FUTURE.” IMAGE: NORTH DAKOTA GOVERNOR’S OFFICE

A. Q.

A. Q.

WHAT DID THE WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL’S RECENT SURVEY REVEAL?

The council sent a survey to about 31,000 businesses in the state, and as the news media has reported, about half of the hiring managers who responded said the inability to recruit and retain workers is hindering their company’s growth.

Here’s another interesting result: Somewhere between 40 percent and 60 percent of those positions needed for growth require only a high-school or technical-school education. But again, we’re not talking about low-paying jobs.

So what does that mean, when so much of the attention of the state goes to four-year institutions? We’ve had lots of discussion around the state about the lower numbers of college freshmen, for example. Are we missing the chance to build awareness about the many opportunities for students with technical-school skills?

One strategy we’re encouraging is more private sector collaboration, such as when business leaders invest in programs that tell high school and college students about their industries.

The McKenzie County Skills Initiative is doing just that. (Editor’s note: The initiative is a collaborative effort between the McKenzie County School District in Watford City, N.D., Williston State College, the University of Mary at Dickinson, Train ND in Williston and the Small Business Development Center and the Job Development Authority in McKenzie County.)

The goal is to introduce high school kids to employers while the kids are still in the K-12 environment, then have the students team up with the institutions for skills training. There are tech and training facilities that the institutions can use, so the students can train locally even though historically, there haven’t been any higher-education campuses in the city.

It’s a great example of local groups taking it upon themselves to solve a problem, while partnering with state programs as well. It’s impressive, and it shows that if you bring together the different stakeholders, you can make a difference.

WHAT’S THE ROLE OF LICENSING IN THE WORKFORCE SITUATION?

The fact is that a lot of our professions have antiquated licensure requirements. These are requirements that have been in place for a long time, and that go back to a time where we weren’t growing as fast as a state.

They tend to be a little bit protectionist. And so, as a state, we need to balance the need to keep the quality of a profession high, against the need that we also have of letting people transfer in from other states and be able to practice here.

In a number of instances – including law enforcement, nursing and teaching – it’s not that easy to transfer in. For example, when the chief of police in Watford City was hired from out of state, he had to go back to the the law enforcement academy to become licensed. There are things that don’t make a lot of sense.

There are nurses who can’t transfer in from other states, teachers who can’t transfer in. These hurt us in other areas, including our base retention. We get low scores because the spouses of people in the military report that the licensing is really restrictive, so they can’t work.

So that’s a problem.

Importantly, the governor appoints a lot of the members of these licensing boards. So there is something that can be done from the governor’s office, and we’re now reviewing the boards and trying to make sure they are effective at accomplishing the basic goal.

Q.

HOW DOES THE ‘HEALTHY, VIBRANT COMMUNITIES’ PILLAR OF THE GOVERNOR’S MAIN STREET INITIATIVE RELATE TO THE WORKFORCE SHORTAGE?

A.

To solve the workforce shortage, we have to remove the obstacles that are keeping workers away from the open jobs – obstacles such lack of awareness of the openings, lack of skills training, licensure issues. In addition, all of our communities need to be ready to accept more workers. But we don’t always succeed; we in the West, for example, when we were sitting in a period of rapid growth, the workers who came in were living in man camps and often not bringing their families.

They didn’t feel like we were accepting of them, and they didn’t feel like they wanted to live in our communities.

So what can our communities do to make sure they are open and exciting and improving the quality of life? What does your own community look like to someone from the outside? Are there facilities for family recreation activities, and is the coffee shop a welcoming place?

Those can be some soul-searching questions for a small town. But they’re vital for a community’s growth, and that’s why “Healthy, Vibrant Communities,” “A Skilled Workforce” and “Smart, Efficient Infrastructure” are the three legs of the Main Street Initiative stool.

Meet the teams

At the ITC, five teams are competing for the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE, a $20 million global competition to develop breakthrough technologies that will convert CO 2 emissions from power plants and industrial facilities into valuable products like building materials, alternative fuels, and other items that we use every day.

• Breathe (Bangalore, India) – Led by Dr. Sebastian Peter, the team is producing methanol, a common fuel and petrochemical feedstock, using a novel catalyst.

• C4X (Suzhou, China) – Led by Dr. Wayne Song and Dr. Yuehui Li, the team is producing chemicals and bio-composite foamed plastics.

• Carbon Capture Machine (Aberdeen, Scotland) – Led by Dr. Mohammed Imbabi, the team is producing solid carbonates with applications to building materials.

• CarbonCure (Dartmouth, Canada) – Led by Jennifer Wagner, the team is producing stronger, greener concrete.

• Carbon Upcycling UCLA (Los Angeles, California) – Led by Dr. Gaurav Sant, the team is producing building materials that absorb CO2 during the production process to replace concrete.

In addition to the teams competing for the XPRIZE competition, Kawasaki Heavy Industries will be testing its solid sorbent capture technology at the ITC.

“We need an all-of-the-above energy solution in America,” says Basin Electric CEO and General Manager Paul Sukut. “More than ever in our time, this is one of the most important projects for America.”

INTEGRATED TEST CENTER BY THE NUMBERS

research & test facility of its kind at an operating power plant in the U.S.

test bays

private-public partners

teams competing for the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE

The dedication of the Wyoming ITC brought together partners from the various entities. Clockwise, starting at front: Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead; Paul Sukut, Basin Electric CEO and general manager; Jim Spiers, NRECA senior vice president; Lee Stein, Prize Capital; Marcius Extavour, senior director, NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE; Rick Gordon, Tri-State G&T board chairman; Yoshihiro Mizutani, government of Japan; and Osamu Tsukamoto, Japan Coal Energy Center (JCOAL) president.

The Digital Oilfield

Digital technologies are transforming the oil industry, changing the skills, the culture and the nature of the work

By Tom Dennis

CONTINUED ON PAGE 24

FROM CONTROL ROOMS SUCH AS THIS ONE IN HOUSTON, HESS EMPLOYEES CONTROL DRILLING AND MONITOR WELLS IN NORTH DAKOTA AND ELSEWHERE. SHOWN HERE ARE PATIENCE STERN AND JEREMY BROWN. IMAGE: HESS CORP.

GRAND FORKS, N.D. – A columnist from Pennsylvania has a message that people in the Dakotas and Minnesota should hear.

It’s this: Today’s oil-and-gas job “isn’t the same petroleum job your grandfather or your father would have applied for,” wrote Pittsburgh native Salena Zito in August.

“It not only attracts computer scientists, software engineers, mathematicians, and geologists,” but it also “provides careers for locals who thought those good jobs left for good.”

Cities that think only of Google, Apple or Amazon when the talk turns to high-tech work should think again, Zito wrote.

And she’s got a point, one that holds true for the Bakken region of North Dakota.

“What we’re seeing is a total transition,” said Ron Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council. “It’s a hightech oilfield.”

These days, not only is much of the actual drilling controlled remotely, but also the wells are monitored remotely by highly-trained people looking at screens.

In other words, “these are office jobs,” Ness said.

True, people still climb the rigs, but even that work has changed.

“Prior to 2009-10, oilfield work was very similar to what it would have been 30 years ago,” Ness said.

“The most basic component was the drilling rig, where you still had roughnecks up on the rig floor with chains, levers and tongs.”

Today, automation – notably “iron roughnecks,” computercontrolled hydraulic machines – can handle the heaviest and formerly most dangerous work.

And the drilling itself “is driven much more with a joystick,” Ness said.

“So the drilling rigs are safer, the monitoring is better and the work itself – many of these are now white-collar jobs,” with wages that range from $60,000 to $120,000 or more a year.

“It’s insane, the type of technology that’s being used in and is coming to North Dakota,” Ness said.

The iPIPE Program

In Grand Forks, the Energy and Environmental Research Center at the University of North

for a meeting, the focus of which was, ‘How do we reduce the number of spills we’re having in North Dakota?’” Lohnes said.

“That resonated with a group of operators, and we got in touch with the EERC. We reached out to see if this was something they could help with.”

The result was the iPIPE or Intelligent Pipeline Integrity Program, in which the EERC – sponsored by the member companies and the North Dakota Oil and Gas Research Council – is overseeing testing of new leak-detection and leakprevention technologies.

The partners held a Shark Tank-like event in May, in which industry experts judged proposals from around the world. Said Jay Almlie, EERC principal engineer, “we kidded that we had one of every accent, including German, British, Israeli and Swiss.”

Two technologies were chosen for further testing. Pipers were one. These golfball-sized monitors made by Ingu Solutions of Calgary, Alb., can be dropped into a pipeline in one location, retrieved hundreds of yards or hundreds of miles downstream, then tapped for data describing the pipeline’s condition.

It’s ingenious technology, Almlie said. “It’s got ‘ears,’ so it’s listening for leaks. It’s got pressure sensors, so it’s finding deposits. And it’s telling you about the health of the pipeline, because it’s measuring wall thickness as it flows through.”

Dakota is managing a pipeline-safety research project that’s on the technological cutting edge.

The iPIPE Program has its origins in a meeting called by North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, said Brent Lohnes, director of North Dakota operations for Hess Corp.

“Shortly after Gov. Burgum took office, he pulled together all of the operators in the state

The other technology selected was a satellite-monitoring system developed by Satelytics of Toledo, Ohio. Satelytics’ system watches the landscape along a pipeline’s length, then sends alerts when key changes are detected.

Those could be such things as a car on location, an excavation that’s occurring or a shift that could signal a landslide, Almlie said.

“These may be minute changes that the human eye couldn’t pick up,” he said.

JAY ALMLIE, PRINCIPAL ENGINEER AT THE ENERGY & ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH CENTER IN GRAND FORKS, N.D., HOLDS A PIPER INLINE PIPELINE MONITOR IN HIS EERC OFFICE. IMAGE: NICK NELSON/FORUM NEWS SERVICE

“When a landowner finds a leak, that’s the worstcase scenario. We want to prevent leaks or catch them early, so that a release might be limited to tablespoons rather than tens of thousands of barrels.”

Importantly, these and other technologies incorporate artificial intelligence. Satelytics’ systems, for example, “learn” from experience what to look for in landform changes.

“The system can be told, ‘You were wrong with that alert,’ or ‘You were right with that one,’” Almlie said.

“Eventually, the goal is 100 percent success on hydrocarbon alerts, with zero false alarms and zero missed true leaks.”

A fresh lineup of leak-prevention and -detection technologies will be evaluated at a second Shark Tank in late October, Almlie said.

Artificial intelligence

Speaking of AI, it’s being called upon to improve all aspects of drilling, from the tip of the drill bit

to the hearing rooms where lawmakers draft regulations, said Vamegh Rasouli, chair of the Department of Petroleum Engineering at UND. UND researchers, for example, are using data-mining and intelligent solutions to perfect refracking. That’s the practice of going back to once-fracked wells to frack them again. AI’s role will be to analyze the data about pressure, geology and productivity, then decide which of the region’s many wells would be the best candidates for refracking, he said.

AI also is changing how companies run their drilling operations. As mentioned, drilling engineers can operate remotely; “from control rooms in Houston, they drill in the North Sea now,” Rasouli said.

And sensors on drill pads transmit data that operators monitor 24-7.

But “we don’t want a lag between receiving the data, analyzing the data and sending back a solution,” said Minou Rabiei, assistant professor of petroleum engineering at UND.

Instead, “the industry is moving toward using machine learning, artificial intelligence and Big Data to make those decisions.” Smart machines can recognize problems and take action right away, much faster than any operator could do. And the better the systems, the safer the industry, and the more trust that can be built up with regulators, lawmakers and the public, Rabiei said.

Said Zito in her column, “Thanks to an infusion of high technology driving the natural gas industry, it’s not just about dirty boots anymore – and it’s a good story.” That’s the lesson of oil-and-gas development in the Bakken, and it’s proving to be a good story there as well.

Tom Dennis

Editor, Prairie Business

tdennis@prairiebusinessmagazine.com 701-780-1276

THE PIPER, A GOLFBALL-SIZED INLINE PIPELINE MONITOR, IS AMONG THE TECHNOLOGIES BEING STUDIED BY THE iPIPE OR INTELLIGENT PIPELINE INTEGRITY PROGRAM IN NORTH DAKOTA. THIS PIPER WAS PHOTOGRAPHED IN THE OFFICE OF JAY ALMLIE, PRINCIPAL ENGINEER AT THE EERC IN GRAND FORKS, WHICH IS OVERSEEING THE iPIPE RESEARCH. IMAGE: NICK NELSON/FORUM NEWS SERVICE

The last mile

How agencies and companies are connecting workers with energy jobs

By Tom Dennis

CONTINUED ON PAGE 28

IN THE INSTRUMENTATION AND CONTROL LAB AT BISMARCK STATE COLLEGE (SHOWN HERE), STUDENTS LEARN HOW TO INSTALL, TEST, CALIBRATE AND MAINTAIN COMPUTERIZED CONTROL SYSTEMS. GRADUATES CAN START AT $25-$30 AN HOUR OR MORE, THE COLLEGE REPORTS. IMAGE: BSC

GRAND FORKS, N.D. – Time was, a student could graduate from high school on Sunday, then wake up on Monday to the promise of a good-paying job.

And a big part of people’s yearning for the Good Old Days is the memory of those jobs. But in the energy industry (among other fields) in the Prairie Business region, these are the good old days. With one key difference: today, the graduation likely must be from technical school.

That stipulated, the description is spot-on. Graduates in 2018 absolutely can pick up their certificate or associate’s degree on Sunday, then wake up on Monday to the promise of an exceptional job.

“We are seeing a high demand in all sectors of the industry,” said Alicia Uhde, department chair for the National Energy Center of Excellence at Bismarck State College in Bismarck, N.D. The center trains students to be instrumentation and control technicians, renewable energy technicians and lineworkers, among other fields.

“Graduates of some programs are being offered $25 to $30 an hour with no problem, and some are getting even more,” Uhde said.

Minnesota tells a similar tale, said Jeremy Hanson Willis, deputy commissioner for workforce development in the state’s Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED).

“We don’t have the oil fields of North Dakota, but energy – especially clean energy – has been a rapidly growing sector in Minnesota,” Willis said.

“We now have more than 57,000 clean energy jobs. … Our clean energy sector has grown 5.3 percent since 2015, adding more than 2,800 jobs. That’s 3.8 times faster than other areas of the Minnesota economy.”

The downside of this bounty, of course, is the sand that the labor shortage throws into the gears of growth. As Gov. Doug Burgum said in

his 2018 State of the State address, if all of the state’s jobs were filled, it would be like adding a city the size of Jamestown to North Dakota.

So, what kinds of things are being done? What kinds of programs are being offered to help workers connect with training, and employers to find and hire those newly skilled workers?

Job Service North Dakota’s workforce center manager in Williston, N.D.

“They think that when you’re unemployed or laid off, this is where you go. Which is fine, but we’re so much more than that.”

In all three states, the offices have evolved to become workforce centers, offering comprehensive services to employers and employees alike.

“So for employers, we have a number of things that they can do for free,” Hickel said.

That includes searching lists of job seekers who’ve registered with the agency, as well as posting job openings. “And you’d be surprised how many people look at those openings, including people who are comfortably employed but looking for a change,” Hickel said.

Employers also can host job fairs and other recruitment activities at the centers. They can learn about incentives for setting up apprenticeships, setting up internships and hiring from targeted groups.

They can learn about little-known efforts such as the Federal Bonding Program. The program offers free insurance that protects employers against employee theft, MN DEED’s website notes. It covers otherwise hard-to-insure workers such as those with criminal records or a history of drug abuse.

“Nationally, more than 40,000 bonds have been issued,” reports the website, mn.gov/deed.

“Only about 1 percent of those bonds have had claims filed against them.”

Job Service Offices

For both employers and workers, Job Service North Dakota, Minnesota DEED and the South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation are great places to start.

That observation may come as a surprise. “Often when people think of Job Service, they think of unemployment,” said Paula Hickel,

All that and more is available to employers, and the services are free.

As Hickel put it, “there’s really no good reason not to use Job Service.”

Skills Training

Meanwhile, job seekers will find services that start with resume crafting – “For the most part, people stink at resumes,” Hickel said with a laugh. “And that’s true whether you’re a

A VETERAN LOOKS FOR WORK USING A COMPUTER IN JOB SERVICE NORTH DAKOTA’S WILLISTON OFFICE. NORTH DAKOTA HAD 14,446 ONLINE JOB OPENINGS IN AUGUST, A 21 PERCENT INCREASE FROM THE SAME MONTH A YEAR AGO. IMAGE: JOB SERVICE NORTH DAKOTA

brand-new worker or a professional with a career. Everybody can benefit from some resume coaching” – and extend, in some cases, all the way to tuition grants for skills training.

Don’t misunderstand. While customers often stop in to ask about, say, free Commercial Driver’s License training, the tuition help is not available to all – or even most, Hickel said.

Money is tight, and what dollars are available tend to be targeted at disadvantaged groups such as people with disabilities.

But that shouldn’t stop people from seeking training for skilled jobs. For one thing, many employers these days will help pay for training or train workers on the job.

Moreover, while schools such as Bismarck State offer numerous scholarships, even state residents who pay full tuition will be set back only about $4,000 a year.

“It’s really affordable, especially when you

think about the kinds of jobs people are getting after graduation,” said Uhde, the BSC department chair.

“I don’t often talk to somebody who chooses not to come to Bismarck State because they can’t afford it.”

Local Programs

Then there are efforts such as the McKenzie County (N.D.) Skills Initiative – a partnership between the University of Mary, Williston State College, TrainND Northwest and the Small Business Development Center, all of which now are offering classes in Watford City’s new Rough Rider Center – and the Minnesota Chamber’s partnership with the Winona, Minn., chamber, which is introducing high-school students to the 100-plus manufacturers that call Winona home.

All things considered, the current boom in the

energy economy feels calmer than the 2010-15 version did, said Hickel of Job Service North Dakota in Williston.

That’s partly because of the programs mentioned above, partly because of the housing and highways that have been built and partly because the crime rate seems to have fallen, among other factors.

“But I’m starting to notice that Wal-mart is having a hard time keeping its shelves stocked again,” she said.

“So they’re struggling to find workers, too.” And so begins a new chapter in the region’s history, she said.

Tom Dennis Editor, Prairie Business tdennis@prairiebusinessmagazine.com

701-780-1276

THIS SCREENSHOT FROM A SCHOOL VIDEO SHOWS WIND TURBINE TECHNICIAN STUDENTS AT RIVERLAND COMMUNITY COLLEGE IN ALBERT LEA, MINN. IN 2017, WIND TURBINE TECHNICIAN WAS THE FASTEST-GROWING OCCUPATION IN THE UNITED STATES, WITH NUMBERS EXPECTED TO MORE THAN DOUBLE OVER THE NEXT DECADE. IMAGE: RIVERLAND COMMUNITY COLLEGE

The big squeeze

High costs and labor shortages hinder home building in western ND

By Tom Regan

CONTINUED ON PAGE 32

MIKE DOLBEC, OWNER OF WINDSONG CUSTOM HOMES, STANDS INSIDE A MODEL HOME AT WINDSONG COUNTRY ESTATES, A DEVELOPMENT JUST NORTH OF WILLISTON, N.D. “MY AVERAGE COSTS FOR BUILDING A 1,700-SQ. FT. RANCH HOME FROM THE BEGINNING OF 2017 TO NOW ... ARE $28,000 TO $30,000 MORE FOR THE EXACT SAME HOME,” DOLBEC TOLD PRAIRIE BUSINESS. IMAGE: WINDSONG COUNTRY ESTATES

WILLISTON, N.D. – A shortage of qualified workers and escalating construction costs are preventing Williston-area developers from preparing for what one local newspaper headline termed an imminent “housingshortage tsunami.”

A statewide housing needs assessment completed in 2016 by North Dakota State University predicts a population growth of 68 percent for the Divide, Williams and McKenzie tri-county area by 2029. That’s 23,000 more residents for Williston, based on a best-guess estimate of a current population of 34,000.

As Mark Schneider, the city’s development services director, sees it, the study projects a need for 500 additional homes or other dwellings annually. Lending credence to the number, Schneider said Williston’s 2018 school enrollment is up by 400 students, to 4,500.

Apartment occupancy is already at 95 percent, he said.

There’s solid evidence Williston’s economy is growing again, following the 2015-16 slump. In early September, Job Service North Dakota’s Williston office listed 1,717 job openings, the highest monthly number for the year.

Paula Hickel, center manager, said the number suggests 4,000 actual job openings in the area. One-third of the listings are related to energy and construction. The Bakken set a new record

this summer with 14,778 producing oil and gas wells, half of them in the tri-county area.

Real-estate listings for Williston for the year ending Aug. 31 showed 588 residential properties were sold, a figure surpassing any previous similar period.

Right now, there’s a dearth of new, singlefamily homes in the $225,000 to $340,000 range, the range most young homebuyers are seeking, said Denise Pippin, Realtor and lifelong resident of Williston. The lending limit for Federal Housing Administration-insured loans (which have attractive terms and rates) for Williams County is $330,050.

In late August, out of the 161 homes listed, only 19 were new, and the only two homes within the “sweet spot” range were modular homes.

Millennials are the majority of the home buyers in Williston area, said Pippin. “They’re making six-figure salaries, and they’re looking for new, three-bedroom, two-bathroom homes in nice neighborhoods, with open floor plans, high ceilings, good-sized yards and threecar garages, or at least an oversized double,” she said.

Western Area Homebuilders Association President Mike Dolbec, whose Windsong Custom Homes has houses going up in both western North Dakota and eastern Montana, said numbers published by the National

Builders Association indicate housing starts nationwide are at their highest rate since 2004. The boom has driven up lumber costs by more than 60 percent and other building materials by double digits, Dolbec said.

And the rising costs have made it increasingly difficult for builders to produce the kinds of homes young buyers want at a price the buyers can afford or are able to finance. “My average costs for building a 1,700-sq. ft. ranch home from the beginning of 2017 to now, with the new ordinances and material and building costs, are $28,000 to $30,000 more for the exact same home,” he said.

Dolbec expects Windsong to reach the figure of 40 housing starts this year.

As homebuilders and energy companies compete for the same workforce, developerbuilder Terry Olin, principal with Stropiq, Inc., doesn’t foresee building more than 20 houses in 2019. “Why do I say 20 instead of 200? Because I know we don’t have the manpower,” Olin said.

In early September, Stropiq was finishing off nine homes in its housing development called The Meadows.

“What we need to happen here to realize our full potential as a city is for the rest of the country to slow down on the building front while the oilfield remains vibrant,” Olin said.

THIS AERIAL PHOTO SHOWS WORK BEING DONE AT THE MEADOWS, A HOUSING DEVELOPMENT IN WILLISTON OWNED BY STROPIQ. HIGH LAND, LABOR AND MATERIALS COSTS ARE MAKING IT TOUGH TO BUILD ENOUGH HOUSES TO MEET DEMAND, DEVELOPERS SAY. IMAGE: STROPIQ

Williston has 732 single-family lots ready for development and another 756 platted but not “shovel ready.” Whereas many cities pay for lot infrastructure and recoup the cost over time in the form of special assessments, Williston developers must shoulder those costs.

“The city is absolutely averse to special assessments,” Olin said.

“That’s a lesson they feel they were taught in the 1980s, when the boom was followed by a sudden bust, and nobody moved into the new neighborhoods to pay the assessments.”

The city spent 25 years paying off the infrastructure costs, he said.

“Infrastructure adds a minimum of $35,000 to the cost of producing a house,” he said. “That makes a big difference in who’s going to qualify for a loan.”

The Williston City Commission recently voted to move forward on two residential housing proposals, according to Schneider. One of the developers is bringing in an out-ofstate crew to build 26 homes and 11 townhomes. The other, proposing to build 40 single-family homes, is recruiting instate builders.

In an innovative move, the commission allowed one of the developers to sell fully developed portions of the property in order to fund remaining infrastructure improvement costs.

Williston is in the process of selecting an applicant to complete a comprehensive housing action plan, Schneider said. “One of the objectives of the plan is to help us define more options for housing incentives.”

Tom Regan

Freelance writer

Bismarck

tregan@bis.midco.net

SCREENSHOT OF ZILLOW.COM’S CHART OF THE REAL-ESTATE MARKET IN WILLISTON, N.D, SHOWS THE ZILLOW HOME VALUE INDEX’S DRAMATIC RISE. ZILLOW DEFINES ITS INDEX AS “THE MEDIAN ZESTIMATE VALUATION FOR A GIVEN GEOGRAPHIC AREA ON A GIVEN DAY.”

TERRY OLIN, PRINCIPAL WITH STROPIQ, INC., IS AMONG THE WILLISTON, N.D., DEVELOPERS WHO ARE TRYING TO BUILD HOMES DESPITE HIGH LAND, LABOR AND MATERIALS COSTS. IMAGE: STROPIQ

‘Take control of

That’s the slogan of MineralTracker, a North Dakota-based startup whose

A Q & A WITH JEFF KUMMER, FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT

Q.LET’S START WITH YOUR PRODUCT. TELL US ABOUT MINERALTRACKER.

A.MineralTracker is mineral management software. It gives mineral owners a dashboard through which they can see several important things.

First, by simply entering their wells and their interest, they can see a prediction of what they should have been paid in the past, month by month. Second, they can get a projection of what they should be paid in the future.

The way the software works is that it agglomerates a lot of publicly available data, such as the monthly reports that the oil and gas companies make to North Dakota. These reports document how much oil and gas is being produced for each individual well.

Q.

The software also accounts for historical commodity prices, taxes and other factors.

So again, by knowing the wells and the interest that Grandma Smith has, we can tell Grandma Smith that in June of 2018, she should have been paid X by Oil Company A. That way, when she gets her check in the mail, she can look at how much she was paid, and she can go to MineralTracker to see if the amount is correct.

It’s an audit tool, in other words. And we think that’s valuable, because otherwise, there’s no efficient way to audit your royalty check on a monthly basis.

Instead, most people just default to getting the check, looking at the amount and seeing it as a blessing.

PART OF MINERALTRACKER’S APPEAL COMES FROM THE OIL-AND-GAS BACKGROUND OF ITS DEVELOPERS. HOW DID YOU GET YOUR START?

A.The company is based in Watford City, N.D. I grew up here back when Watford City was a small little town, and my wife is from here as well. My family had been in the oil-and-gas business for three generations, and now, I guess I’m the fourth.

I started by getting a degree in petroleum engineering. I started at the University of North Dakota, then finished out my degree in 2006 at the Colorado School of Mines.

From there, I did what most petroleum engineers do: I went out and worked for oil and gas companies. I spent the first couple of years in Wyoming. Eventually, I wound up back in North Dakota and ended up being the president of MBI Energy Services, which in 2014 was the fourth largest independent business in the state.

To make a long story short, I spent lots of time as a petroleum engineer drilling and completing wells. So, I really understood the operational aspects of working for an oil and gas company. Then in 2013, my father passed away. He’d been handling all of my family’s mineral interests. So after he died, my mom had no clue about any of it.

I started helping her, and a light bulb went off. I asked myself, “If it’s this hard for me as a petroleum engineer to understand these revenue statements, what are the other thousands of mineral owners doing?”

Outside of going to an attorney, there was no service that I could see that would let mineral owners get their questions answered from people knowledgeable about the oil and gas business.

That was the seed. So in March 2017, I started a business called McKenzie Minerals Management. The goal was to open the doors for folks to come in with their paperwork and their questions, and for us to try to solve their problems or provide some answers.

We’ve been doing that now for a year and a half or so.

your minerals’

software lets mineral owners track and audit their royalty income

Q. AND MINERALTRACKER WAS NEXT? Q. HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO POPULATE THE DATA?

Right. After we’d started to see people and answer their questions, I went to my partner in the business and said, “What if we could create something where a person could go online, log in and put in the wells they’re being paid on and their unique interest, then see graphs and tables and other information displayed in a format similar to an online bank account?”

It’s a portfolio snapshot, in a way. And that’s where the idea for MineralTracker came from.

A.

The back end of this is that it has all been run through software developers, who are pulling the information in a variety of different formats.

In fact, Lynn Helms and his crew at the Department of Mineral Resources have been ecstatic about this, because they have the cleanest website of any state in the United States, as far as having the data be readily available. They get to kind of showcase that, and they know it’s being put to use, so that’s good. I’ve been on the radio with him and have talked about that some.

Q.

MINERALTRACKER USERS CAN ACCESS DISPLAYS SUCH AS THE ONE SHOWN HERE, WHICH TRACKS AND PROJECTS THE MINERAL OWNER'S NET ROYALTY INCOME OVER TIME. IMAGE: MINERALTRACKER

HOW MUCH DOES MINERALTRACKER COST? Q.

A.We’re trying to keep it as simple as possible: the rate for one user is $99 a month, and everybody who wants to try MineralTracker can do so for 30 days for free.

Furthermore, if there are, say, five brothers and sisters who’ve inherited something from their parents, and all five of them are being paid on the same wells at the same interest, we give breaks for adding multiple accounts underneath the same umbrella.

From the beginning, we wanted to make this available to people for less than $100 a month. The thinking was that if your royalties are something that you rely on and are a meaningful part of your life, then for what you pay for your cell phone bill, you should be able to audit and check things out for yourself.

WHAT’S THE SIZE OF THE BUSINESS AT THIS POINT?

A.My partners are Joel Brown, who’s also a petroleum engineer from Watford City and is my partner in the minerals management business; and Ryan Yesel, whose background is in software engineering and development. Between the three of us, we own MineralTracker, and we are actively seeking others to grow the business.

After a lot of testing, we officially went live with MineralTracker on Sept. 1; you can find it at MineralTracker.com. We feel that it’s completely viable at this point, and we’re really excited to see it get up and running.

Fargo’s Goldilocks City Hall

By Tom Dennis

FARGO, N.D. – “Here’s why I was impressed with the Alerus Center,” wrote Grand Forks Herald columnist Ryan Bakken back in 2001, talking about Grand Forks’ then-new cityowned arena.

“It’s nice.

“It isn’t too nice.”

The building is attractive and functional. And that’s good, because it’s important that visitors come away impressed.

“But not too impressed,” Bakken wrote.

Because the Alerus Center was built with taxpayer money. And North Dakotans tend to grumble when tax dollars are spent on frills.

The same philosophy is at work in the new Fargo City Hall, the design of which was famously scaled back when city commissioners

balked at the initial price tag of more than $30 million.

The new City Hall opened for business on Sept. 17. And as far as we can tell, the word on the street is:

Nice.

Very nice.

But not too nice.

“In the initial design, there was a three-story atrium, there were catwalks suspended from cables, there was lots of extra public space,” said project architect Terry Stroh of T.L. Stroh Architects-Interiors.

“The consultant kept talking about an ‘iconic’ building. But the price tag was just too much.

“So we cut out all the frills.” What remains is spacious and very attractive building, with more than enough office and conference rooms for city staff and full of technological upgrades – but not over the top.

“I would say it’s just more appropriate for North Dakota than the other one was,” Stroh said.

The project’s general contractor was Olaf Anderson, the mechanical contractor was Robert Gibb & Sons and the electrical contractor was Sun Electric, the city of Fargo reports.

A grand opening celebration, with public tours within each department, will be scheduled for late October.

Tom Dennis Editor, Prairie Business

PRAIRIEPEOPLE

Surgeons, nurse practitioner join Essentia Health

FARGO, N.D. – A cardiothoracic surgeon, an orthopedic surgeon and a nurse practitioner have joined Essentia Health in Fargo.

• Dr. Julio Williams, a cardiothoracic surgeon, has joined the Essentia Health32nd Avenue Clinic.

Williams earned a medical degree from Pontificia Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic. He completed a residency in general surgery at Bronx Lebanon Hospital Center/ Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, N.Y., and a residency and fellowship in cardiothoracic surgery at the University of New Jersey Medical School/ Rutgers University in Newark, N.J.

Williams also trained in in pediatric cardiothoracic surgery at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in Philadelphia. He is certified by the American Board of Surgery in surgery and the American Board of Thoracic Surgery in cardiothoracic vascular surgery.

• Dr. John Haggart, an orthopedic surgeon, has joined the Essentia Health32nd Avenue Clinic.

Haggart earned a medical degree from the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine in Iowa City, Iowa. He completed a residency in orthopedic surgery at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich., and a fellowship in sports medicine at Miami Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Institute in Coral Gables, Fla., where he served as a team physician for the Miami Heat, Miami Dolphins and Florida International University athletics.

• Nurse Practitioner Ashley Carr has joined the neurology department at the Essentia Health-32nd Avenue Clinic.

Carr earned a master’s degree in nursing from Concordia University in Mequon, Wis. She is certified as a family nurse practitioner by the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.

Bauer named interim head of NDSU Animal Sciences

FARGO, N.D. – Marc Bauer will serve as interim head of North Dakota State University’s Animal Sciences Department.

Bauer, an associate professor in the department, became interim head Sept. 16.

Bauer joined the department in 1996 after receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky. His research interests include feedlot management and byproduct utilization as well as nutrient digestion, absorption and utilization.

UND hires director of university analytics and planning

GRAND FORKS, N.D. – Amanda Moske will join the University of North Dakota as director of the Office of University Analytics and Planning (formerly Institutional Research and Effectiveness).

Moske will begin her new duties on Oct. 8. She comes to UND from Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y., where she has served as director of institutional research and effectiveness. She has master’s degrees in experimental psychology and research, measurement and evaluation, and a doctoral degree in experimental psychology. CONTINUED

Marc Bauer

Julio Williams

John Haggart

Ashley Carr

Amanda Moske

Neurosurgeon joins CHI St. Alexius Health

BISMARCK, N.D. – Dr. Alan S. Van Norman has joined CHI St. Alexius Health Neurosurgery Clinic.

Van Norman received his medical degree from Mayo Medical School in Rochester, Minn. He completed his internship in surgery from Madigan Army Medical Center at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., and completed his residency in neurosurgery from University of California Irvine in Orange, Cal.

He is a board certified diplomate of the American Board of Neurological Surgery. He is a member of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.

Van Norman was also a Senior Registrar in neurosurgery at Addenbrooke’s Hospital at Cambridge University in Cambridge, England.

Aldevron names Busch vice president of human resources

FARGO, N.D. – Aldevron, a contract service provider of plasmid DNA, proteins, mRNA and antibodies to the biotech industry, has appointed Mike Busch as vice president of human resources.

Busch joins Aldevron with 20 years of experience in a variety of industries. Most recently, he served as vice president of human resources for Border States Electric in Fargo, N.D., one of the largest wholesale electrical distributors in the United States.

Before coming to Fargo, Busch spent eight years with Whirlpool Corporation and 10 years at Eaton Corporation in various HR roles.

Busch earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Minnesota Duluth and a master’s degree in human resources from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.

ACLU of SD names community engagement associate

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota has promoted Kadyn Wittman to full-time community engagement associate to coordinate outreach with South Dakota communities. As the community engagement associate, Wittman will partner with legal, advocacy and communications staff to grow volunteer opportunities and community involvement with the ACLU.

Previously, Wittman served as the ACLU’s administrative coordinator. Before joining the ACLU, Wittman worked as the work study coordinator at Augustana University’s Mikkelsen Library.

Gephart hired at Bell Bank

FARGO, N.D. – Shannon Gephart has been hired as VP/wealth advisor at Bell Bank in downtown Fargo. In her new position with Bell’s wealth management division, Gephart will provide financial planning and relationship management for high net-worth households as well as nonprofit and institutional clientele.

Originally from Minot, N.D., Gephart graduated from Minnesota State University Moorhead and has been in the wealth management industry for 20 years. She holds Certified Financial Planner and Certified Trust and Financial Advisor designations.

Gephart most recently worked at Alerus Financial for more than 13 years.

Alan S. Van Norman

Kadyn Wittman

Mike Busch

Shannon Gephart

Q.

INSIGHTs & INTUITION

How has the dress code evolved in your industry and/or organization?

Joe Welsch VP of Marketing & Public Relations Nodak Insurance Co. Fargo, N.D.

Representing our company well to our clients and business partners is an important part of our culture and brand.

Twenty-five years ago, a shirt-and-tie was the everyday expectation. Today, the dress code is influenced by the person’s role in the organization, and business casual attire is an important part of that.

We want employees comfortable and feeling good when they come to work each day. This means having occasional casual days, maybe in support of employees’ favorite sports team or as part of volunteering.

It’s important to create a positive work environment in support of our quality employees.

Dress code in the engineering and construction industry can vary greatly depending on the type of work you are performing with clients or on a project.

That being said, the dress code has relaxed quite a bit over the 20 years I have been in the industry and at AE2S. When I started my career, we could wear jeans only on Fridays and only if we didn’t have meetings with clients. Fast forward a generation, and now jeans have become the “business casual” of our day.

Regardless of the more relaxed dress code, AE2S still places an emphasis on dressing appropriately for the situation at hand.

Andrea Boe Business Development Director/Communications Practice Leader AE2S Affiliated Companies Grand Forks, N.D.

A person’s role within the agency has always influenced attire. For example, account service personnel dress to emulate clients, which once meant a wardrobe full of suits. Over time, clients have become more casual; and therefore, so have we.

We need to dress for what we’re doing on any given day, activities that can include meeting a new client or going on a location scout or shoot. Advertising agencies attract a young workforce, so the business casual trend has been wholly embraced. We are an image-based business, and we need to look the part whether in account service or in a creative role. You can look sharp and trendy while maintaining a business casual approach.

We are not the world of “Mad Men” anymore. The time when a professional suit is required has passed.

Today’s attire depends entirely on the job you are doing. If you are meeting with a client, you dress to look professional; if you’re going to climb around a server room, you dress to get dirty. Of course, while the office dress code of today tends to be business casual, employees should make sure that they set boundaries. The business world is not a college campus for jeans, T-shirts and hoodies. Employees need to dress for the job they are doing.

There are many offices that you walk into and think “Wow, I am overdressed,” but it is better to be dressed to reflect you and the business you are there to do.

Michelle Smith Marketing Director Corporate Technologies Eden Prairie, Minn.

Shelly Johnson Director of Community Outreach Lawrence & Schiller Sioux Falls, S.D.

Cropland price, percent change 2017-2018

Though land values have retreated from their peaks in Ninth District states, the pace of that decline has been generally pretty mild around the region. This trend continued over the past year, according to recently released data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. As the map above shows, cropland values were generally flat across the district over the past year.

Source of map and quote: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis

Labor Force Participation

Number of families homeless for every 10,000 families in the

2017 Ranking: Bicycle Friendly State

* Bicycle Friendly Actions include a Complete Streets policy, a safe passing law, a statewide bike plan, spending 2% or more of federal transportation money on biking and walking, and a bicycle safety emphasis area.

Highest

Above average

Around average

Below average

Lowest

Higher than 5 years ago U.S. Rate: 7.4

On any given night in the US, nearly 60,000 families are without a home.

Source: Homelessness data are from the 2017 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress, Part 1. Population data are from the American Community Survey 2016 1-year estimates, available on American FactFinder.

WHY SHOULD A SMALL-TO-MEDIUM BUSINESS CONSIDER COLOCATION?

Nick Langerock Midco Business Solutions Senior Product Manager

With the ever-increasing need to store, maintain and backup critical customer data and core applications, small-to-medium sized businesses like yours need to keep up – not fall behind. Oftentimes, however, most businesses don’t have the time, expertise or budget to build and maintain facilities that will keep their IT equipment protected and running at peak performance.

That’s why data centers exist. Now your business can choose colocation, where you can outsource your technical equipment storage needs to a third-party data center provider. Data centers will keep your equipment maintained and secure – and a team of data center experts will monitor performance levels and perform reboots as needed.

While the benefits of colocation are endless, here are just a few reasons why your business should make colocation a key part of your IT infrastructure.

RELIABLE INTERNET ACCESS

A slow connection is not only inconvenient, but it might also be costing you money. After all, in today’s world, downtime isn’t an option. A single, unplanned outage can cost a business roughly $9,000 per minute – maybe more if your business thrives on online sales.1 With backup systems in place to handle outages, your business never loses out on revenue due to an unreliable connection.

DECREASED FACILITY AND EQUIPMENT COSTS

Businesses that choose colocation also benefit from lower facility costs – and longer-lasting equipment. Power, cooling,

security and sta ng can come at a high cost, but with outsourcing options available, your business doesn’t have to make that investment. Plus, colocation provides easy access to more network options and is a scalable solution that allows you to increase your equipment space as your business grows.

IMPROVED SECURITY

Can you guarantee your employees and customers their information is safe? A 2017 study from the Pew Research Center reported that 49% of Americans feel their personal information is less secure than it was five years ago.2 Monitored around the clock and protected by layers of security, your information is safe and sound when outsourced to a data center. Your business will have peace of mind – and so will your customers.

MAKE MIDCO YOUR DATA PARTNER

Time to work smarter – not harder. Whether you’re reading this as a business owner or an IT professional, your small or medium-sized business deserves to have one less worry. Midco data centers take the stress out of data management. Our two data centers in North Dakota are strategically distanced apart – one in Fargo and the other in Grand Forks – giving your business an optimal solution to mitigate risk. Plus, our team has a combined five decades of experience in managing data center infastructures – not including our experience engineering and managing our own network gear and data.

LEARN MORE

Is now the right time for your business to outsource? Visit Midco.com/InsightCenter for a white paper to help you weigh your options.