Scranton Equity Exchange General Manager Roger Goodfellow, who retires in April, stands in front of the elevator.
SCRANTON — Mike Wedwick chuckles when asked about what this small town would be like without the Scranton Equity Exchange.
“It’d be just like Bucyrus. How about Gascoyne?” said Mike Wedwick, the Equity’s grain manager, evoking a similar chuckle from general manager Roger Goodfellow.
Wedwick’s assumption of Scranton turning into a ghost town may not be far off — at least not in the eyes of the Equity’s employees.
“It’s basically the community,” said Kim Hodell, the Equity’s truck shop manager and an employee of 32 years.
Carol and Steve LaFramboise stand behind the bar at The B.A.R. in New England on Feb. 9. The owner of The B.A. bowling alley and restaurant, Steve partnered with Randy Schwartz and several volunteers to open the new business in the town’s old lumber yard building.
NEW ENGLAND — Steve LaFramboise had a nice little thing going inside his bowling alley. He had turned a small corner section of The B.A. restaurant into a bar and lounge area where bowlers could gather.
It turned into the place to go in New England for those wanting to socialize while enjoying an adult beverage.
But, LaFramboise said, it was never anything more than a hole in the wall. In fact, he acknowledges, it wasn’t even much of a bar.
A 4 p.m. traffic snarl along Highway 85 in south Watford City like this one on Feb. 13 is a typical sight in the town that went from 1,744 to more than 7,500 since 2010.
WATFORD CITY — There are days, Brent Sanford said, when he struggles to wrap his head around everything happening in his hometown.
Ten years ago, Sanford returned to Watford City to take over his family’s automotive dealership. He soon found himself on the city council and was elected mayor in 2010 — right as oil and gas exploration in the Bakken shale formation was beginning to put a stranglehold on northwest North Dakota communities.
Today, Sanford and other Watford City leaders are facing challenges few small towns in America ever have to endure. All the while, he said, they’re trying to keep their once-quiet community from becoming just another “dirty oil town.”
The goal, Sanford and other city leaders said, is to keep pace with growth that has gripped Watford City because of the unprecedented oil boom — it enters the construction season with $240 million in infrastructure needs, ranging from streets to schools — while maintaining its appeal as a progressive and welcoming home where people want to put down roots.
But that is more challenging than anyone could have ever imagined.
Ryan Rebel, left, and Ross Rebel, right, show off one of their machines that repairs cylinder heads during a walkthrough of Rebel Customs on Feb. 6 in Taylor.
TAYLOR — Inside the newest building in this tiny town along Highway 10 sits Ryan Rebel’s pet project: a 1944 Ford pickup truck.
It’s nothing special yet, but the 21-year-old takes pride in it. He has been working on the truck since he was in high school.
As he stood back to describe and admire the truck — something of a collector’s item as World War II all but halted the production of Ford pickups that year — Ryan described what it takes to restore a vehicle like that.
“You’ve got to have a vision when you start something like that,” he said. “When you start with some frame rails on the garage floor, you’ve got to have something in your mind — what you want it to look like when you’re done.”
New England Fire Chief Joey Kathrein stands Wednesday at the construction site of the new city’s Emergency Services Center, which will serve the city’s rural fire department and ambulance service and have sleeping quarters.
NEW ENGLAND — All it takes is one look inside the New England Fire and Ambulance Hall to see the small town could use a better facility.
Packed like sardines into a 40-foot long by 80-foot wide steel building on the town’s Main Street are two ambulances and five fire trucks of different sizes. One truck is always parked outside.
“Those who have questioned why we need a new building, all they have to do is walk into ours right now,” Fire Chief Joey Kathrein said. “It’s actually dangerous. That’s a big reason why we wanted to expand.”
With the help of grants, fundraising and a donated piece of land, the town is building the $1.15 million Emergency Services Center on the city’s northeast edge to house its fire and ambulance services.
Dustin Monke 