Interview: Todd Thompson, finance commissioner, Tioga, ND
For many, Tioga is known as ground zero for the Bakken Three Forks oil play. For others, it’s where Hess’s natural gas processing plant is. Now that the “new ground zero” or “hot zone” has shifted around from Williston to Tioga to Stanley to Watford City, I felt compelled to see what was the new normal in Tioga.
So I called North Dakota transplant Todd Thompson. The Thompsons are one of those families the state and elected officials have been trying talking about when it comes to quality of living investments. In fact, Thompson became so active in his community he is now serving on the city commission and is the finance commissioner for the city of Tioga.
His perspective will be two fold – one from an out-of-state transplant trying to adjust to North Dakota’s lifestyle and the city of Tioga’s financial status.
“I am from Georgia. My wife and I were born and raised there, and our kids were for 11 years before we moved to North Dakota,” Thompson said. “It was primarily due to the economy and lack of economic activity in Georgia back in 2010.”
Thompson said his background and education is in finance and accounting and the timing seemed right with Georgia’s economic issues and the Bakken’s opportunities.
“My wife and I always wanted to start a company so we did and moved to Williston. Since we’ve sold it, but still own part of that company, it’s an oilfield service company,” Thompson said. “We decided to move to Tioga because an opportunity there and some other opportunities that were still here in North Dakota.”
Thompson moved to Tioga in 2012 and became a commissioner a little over a year ago. He recalls the move and the integration process, which still appears to be happening.
“When we first moved to Tioga things were busy and hopping. There was a lot of talk about development going on,” Thompson said. “I have a family of four and we had a tough time, and to some extent still are trying to find a place to live.”
Thompson continued discussing the housing issues in Tioga.
“From a personal standpoint some of the housing prices and apartment prices have gone down, but it still is not to a level where it is attractive to a family. It is still more conducive to the oilfield worker and those who can come together as roommates and share the expenses,” Thompson said.
Since 2012, there’s been “plenty of apartments” that have been developed in Tioga, according to Thompson. A housing segment that is now showing its economic volatility in oil based towns like Tioga.
“At one time they were pretty much full as far as people renting them,” Thompson said. “So up until the down oil turn in oil price there was a need for apartments or single family housing.”
Thompson continued saying most of the construction and new developments in Tioga seem to favor those making high oil field wages without families.
“There has not been, in my opinion, a lot of single family housing developed,” Thompson said. “There’s been, for the most part, apartments some condos, some developments for trailers, single wide trailers.”
Thompson said there area variety of reasons the housing construction projects went that direction. From city ordinances to labor to supply shortages, the new housing projects ended up catering to the oil worker segment of the demographic chart.
“A lot of it was due to the lack of availability of people to do work, a lack of availability for materials. It was just hard to build. For a family to buy a lot with some land and find someone to build them a home and even find the materials, I mean the closest place would be Williston,” Thompson said. “And back then I think there was even more limitations on what supplies were available.”
He doesn’t believe that issue changed either. And with the downturn in oil prices, companies have changed names, left town, gone out of business or tightened their belts.
“Honestly, I don’t know anyone I can call to build me a house. I don’t know of a contractor that builds in our area,” Thompson said. “I suppose if I looked real hard I could find someone, but what available for the most part is apartments, townhouses and trailers.”
For now, Thompson and his family are content and see North Dakota as their long term future. They became active members of the Bakken community and took on community collaboration projects.
“After I had been in Tioga for a year or so there was an opportunity to serve on the city commission and it caught my interest,” Thompson said. “With my experience I thought I could contribute to the city.”
Growing up in Georgia, Thompson brings a unique and interesting perspective to the city of Tioga. But from a finance commissioner’s perspective, he sees Tioga’s future looking solid.
“From the commission’s standpoint things have been really busy over the past few years with construction, new development projects as well as the construction the city has done,” Thompson said. “We’ve renovated the street, the water and the sewer in downtown, which was quite a big project for us.”
He is quick to thank the businesses for being patient and making sacrifices for the community projects. Thompson said in other places of the country some business owners may have been more vocal and less understanding.
“We had to, not completely displace, but it was certainly a big inconvenience to the businesses owners in downtown Tioga this past summer,” Thompson said. “But we finished that project and we’ve got some other projects planned for street improvements, etcetera.”
That project represented more than community cooperation, it also demonstrated their expansion willpower. Their reprioritizing of projects created some balance in the spreadsheets.
“With the drop in oil prices things have changed significantly so we feel fortunate that the city of Tioga is in a good position because we have very little debt,” Thompson said. “So we are good moving forward, it is just going to be a challenge to manage the level or lack or activity and try to figure out ways to budget for the reduction in revenues.”
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