Tag Archives: working in Dickinson North Dakota

Why Dickinson, North Dakota Is So Quiet Tonight

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When I got home to my apartment in downtown Dickinson, North Dakota at 6:30 p.m., on this Monday, June 18, everything was very quiet.  I opened all of the windows in my apartment, turned on my computer, checked my e-mails, looked at my Worpress blog, looked at Facebook, read the Dickinson Press Newspaper online, and everything continued to be quiet in my apartment building, the parking lot, and this downtown residential area.

I fell asleep in my lazy boy recliner chair from 9:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., and I am just now waking up.  This residential area is so quiet right now, that I can hear that there is not a single car driving on the main downtown street through Dickinson, Villard Street.  Either directly on four-lane Villard Street, or one block north of Villard Street, there are twelve bars and restaurants, and about eight gas station convenience stores.

I am listening and trying to time it, and I am not hearing even one vehicle per five minutes on Villard Street.  I have heard one car in the past fifteen minutes.  Can you imagine how quiet that is, one car in fifteen minutes on the main street through downtown, at 11:30 p.m. on a Monday night?

I know why Dickinson is this quiet, it is a combination of about four different things.  I read a newspaper article about a month ago, that said the population of North Dakota decreased from 2017 to 2018, there was a net out-migration of about 500 people.  The total population of North Dakota is only about 750,000 people.

Despite what the business owners, real estate agents, real estate developers, chambers of commerce, business associations, elected representatives, and spokespeople say, the economy in western North Dakota has been slowing down since 2015, and it continues to do so.

In the Spring of 2018, there were newspaper articles and advertisements, radio announcements and advertisements, television reports and advertisements, trade journal articles and advertisements, telling people about the great need for workers in western North Dakota.  The truth is, that all of these reports and advertisements about the need for workers in western North Dakota, did not match the reality of the actual number of job openings posted on North Dakota Job Services, the Dickinson Press newspaper, Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com, Indeed.com, LinkedIn.com, etcetera.

Yes, there was a need every week for a few CDL licensed drivers, experienced heavy equipment mechanics, electricians, experienced hydraulic fracturing operators, and laborers, but just a few, not a huge amount.  Many of these job openings did not represent company growth or an expansion in business operations, but were job vacancies created by workers who quit and left North Dakota.

The truth is, that workers who are already living here or who come here, who can prove that they have experience welding, fabricating, operating heavy equipment, operating fracturing equipment, working on a drill rig, with a CDL license, or are a certified mechanic, they can probably find a job if they are in good health and have a clean driving record.  But there is not a huge demand for workers.

I know experienced oil field workers living here in western North Dakota who have had difficulty in finding a job, and the jobs that they eventually accept are lower pay, sometimes much lower, than what they used to get paid.  I know people over 50 years of age who have work experience in the oil field and in construction, who have a lot of difficulty in finding a job in western North Dakota.

In the past several years, I have seen many people with some college education, business experience, technical experience, construction experience, and oil field experience, decide to leave North Dakota, because of the combination of not very high pay, poor working conditions, cold weather, and overall unpleasant environment here.  The people who have remained here in Dickinson after the oil boom ended in 2015, are mostly blue-collar trades people.

As I previously stated up above, there was an attempt this Spring by business owners, real estate agents, real estate developers, chambers of commerce, and government spokespeople, to entice and lure people here to North Dakota using announcements, news stories, and advertisements.  Most of the people who responded to this and came to western North Dakota, were no-skilled, low-skilled, inexperienced, poor, uneducated, illegal drug users from cities in Washington State and California.

Initially, in this Spring of 2018 in downtown Dickinson, it was noisy and chaotic.  The poor white-trash and poor blacks who recently arrived from the inner-cities of Washington State and California ran around and got into everything like insects that had recently hatched.  In expectation of getting a high paying oil field job, these no-skilled, low-skilled uneducated inner-city people rented apartments, and behaved like they did where they came from.

These new arrivals from the inner-cities continued to use illegal drugs, sell illegal drugs, get high, get drunk, and drive recklessly around Dickinson.  Little by little, bit by bit, the Dickinson Police arrested these new arrivals for possession of drugs, possession of drug paraphernalia, reckless driving, and DUI.

Once these no-skilled, low-skilled, uneducated inner-city people with criminal records and bad driving records found that they were unable to get a job working in the oil field, they began doing what they did in the inner-cities where they came from, sell drugs, steal, commit burglaries, and robberies.

Little by little, bit by bit, these inner-city people who arrived in Dickinson, most of them have either been stopped by the Dickinson Police multiple times, or they have been arrested.  They are in jail awaiting trial, have posted bail and have fled the state, have calmed down because they don’t want to get stopped by the Police anymore, or they have moved away because of the Police and they can’t get a job.

What is very funny to me, is at the apartment building where I live in downtown Dickinson tonight, it is so quiet, such a contrast to the months of April, May, and the beginning of June.  There is no one driving recklessly through the residential streets, there is no vehicle in the apartment building parking lot playing ghetto music, there is no one stopping by the apartment building to buy illegal drugs, there are no drug addicts wandering through the parking lot or the hallways.

The people all throughout this downtown neighborhood tonight, they have got their jobs to go to in the morning, they were all in for the night by 7:00 p.m., they had dinner, watched television, and went to bed.  The people from Washington State and California, are mostly back where they came from, or locked in their jail cell.

Financial Problems And Taxes Working In The Oil Field Of North Dakota

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In 2016, this was about my fourth year of working in Dickinson, North Dakota.  The oil boom was over in North Dakota by the end of 2015, but I continued to stay in Dickinson because I could make more money here, than I could back at my home in Idaho.  I have always planned on, and looked forward to, moving back to my home in Idaho once I have made enough money.

Just like most years in North Dakota, I had very little work and very little income in January 2016, February 2016, and December 2016.  Even if you plan on working in the Winter in North Dakota, so many projects get shut down due to the cold, and frozen ground, that there is a ripple effect of a slow down or shut down through other occupations.

In 2016, I was lucky to get a work project at the end of February, and later in the Spring, Summer, and Fall, I had two jobs at the same time.  Though I had very little income in January, February, and December of 2016, I still made about $47,000 that year.  This was much, much more money than I could have made in Idaho.

In Idaho, even though I have a B.S. in mechanical engineering, I would be very, very lucky to find a job paying even $30,000 per year.  There are a few large manufacturers of agricultural equipment that might have a job advertisement for an engineer that pays a fixed salary of $45,000 per year, but you would be required to do the work of two to three people, taking work home with you every week night, and working Saturday and Sunday too, for an employer who would act like they didn’t know any better, but would actually be thinking that  “they were getting their money’s worth”.

One of the reasons why engineers in places like Idaho and North Dakota, get treated like shit, get hired on a fixed yearly salary, have to do the work of two to three people, and take work home with them, is because there are so few job openings, that if you want to work as an engineer that bad, this is what you get stuck doing.

So for me, I feel a lot better getting paid for every hour that I work, especially when I end up making more money than I would have working as an engineer.

But let me get back to what I wanted to talk about, the financial problems and taxes.  I had no problem with my employers withholding from my paychecks, federal income taxes, North Dakota state income taxes, medicare, and social security.  In fact, I only claimed one withholding allowance on my employee tax withholding forms, when I could have claimed two withholding allowances.

Because I had two different jobs at the same time, each employer withheld tax money from my paychecks at the correct percentage for the money that I was being paid by that employer.  However, because of my combined income from two jobs, and making $47,000 overall, I ended up being in a higher tax bracket, the 25% tax bracket instead of the 15% tax bracket.  With just one withholding allowance, most people would have received a federal income tax refund for overpaying, but not me, I owed more money in federal income taxes.

What pushed me into owing more federal income taxes, was the “Obamacare Tax Penalty” of $850.  Let me get this straight, I worked two jobs at the same time, I had one income tax withholding allowance, and now I owe additional money in federal income taxes, because I did not have health insurance, and you want me to pay for other people’s health insurance?

This keeps getting worse.  I didn’t have hardly any income in December 2016, January 2017, February 2017, March 2017, and April 2017.  I didn’t have the money to pay all of my taxes in April, and the CPA who has done my taxes for years, customarily files an extension for me because he is busy, so I didn’t pay on time.

When I did finally pay my income taxes before the end of my income tax filing extension deadline, I owed additional federal income taxes, $1,700 in Idaho State income taxes, and $450 Idaho State income tax penalty.

From my paychecks, the State of North Dakota was receiving all of the state income taxes that they were owed, which I believe was 2% of my gross pay on each paycheck.  However, I didn’t have any withholding from my paychecks for the State of Idaho, where I claim residency, and their state income tax rate is about 7% I believe.

Why, why would I pay state income tax to both North Dakota, and to Idaho?  Because I work in North Dakota, I don’t care that they withhold about 2% from the gross pay on each of my paychecks.  I would rather North Dakota just take the 2%, rather than argue with the state of North Dakota about my residency, which I would probably lose this argument with them anyway.

I wrote a whole blog post titled “Losing Your Home In A Lawsuit Judgement”, where I explain that it is very important legally, to make sure that your home is counted under the law as “Your Primary Residence”, and not an investment property.  Legal proof for me that my home in Idaho is my “Primary Residence”, and not an investment property,  would be such things as me having an Idaho driver’s license, not renting out my home, not owning a second home elsewhere that I claim as my primary residence, having most of my vehicles registered in Idaho, and especially, claiming myself to be a resident of Idaho on my federal income tax return, which unfortunately means paying something like 7% of my income in taxes to the State of Idaho.

Here is what the amount of my income that I paid in Year 2016 taxes looks like:

  • Federal income tax                  16% (bracket was 25%, but 16% was the effective rate)
  • Soc. Sec. & Medicare                7.6%
  • Obamacare Penalty                  1.8%
  • North Dakota income tax          2%
  • Idaho income tax                        7%
  • Idaho income tax penalty          1%
  • Idaho property tax                     1.7%
  • Sales tax                                         6%
  • Tax preparation                          0.75%

Total of my income paid in taxes     43.85%

I wrote this blog post today, because I am considering what to do.  What can I do?  If I sold my house back in Idaho, I would have to pay 6% to a real estate company, and then pay capital gains tax on the amount of gain over what I originally purchased this house for, at about a 25% tax rate on the gain.  Or if I put all of the sale money into a house in Dickinson, I wouldn’t owe any capital gains taxes, but I would be putting this money into a depreciating property, as prices in Dickinson are still inflated.

I don’t want to sell my house in Idaho, I had planned on going home one day.  What would I do with all of my personal property, furniture, trailers, equipment, and vehicles?  I would be eaten alive in storage rental fees, if I didn’t have my own property.  Even if I could fit all of my furniture, personal belongings, tools, equipment, and maybe one vehicle into a storage unit for $250 per month, this equals $3,000 per year, this is the exact amount of money that I am trying not to pay to the state of Idaho in the first place.  Selling my home to avoid paying about $3,000 per year to the state of Idaho in income taxes and property taxes, would result in me paying $3,000 per year in rent for a storage unit.

How or why would I drag all of my property to Dickinson, and buy a home here?  There is a tremendous shortage of women, the local people are very unfriendly, the town is being transformed by all of the drug people and criminals that are currently moving here, and the economy may continue to decline in Dickinson.

Ups, Downs, And Very Bad Times With Employment In Dickinson, North Dakota

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I first came to work in Dickinson, North Dakota in 2011.  I went to work in Texas in 2012, and then I came back to work in Dickinson in 2013.  I have been here for the past five years.

I have had ups, downs, and very bad times with employment in Dickinson, North Dakota.  My friends and acquaintances have had a worse time than I have had, many of them have had to leave Dickinson and North Dakota.

My problems with employment in Dickinson have never been about the hourly wage rate that I was paid.  So I want job seekers in Dickinson to keep in mind, not to focus solely on what wage rates a company is offering, but to pay attention to other things about the company.

Year 2017, was one of my worst years of employment in Dickinson, North Dakota.  The problems that I faced, are something that job seekers in Dickinson should know about.

I have been employed with the same small company in Dickinson for the past four years.  Sometimes this company pays very, very well when it has a project that I can work on.  Sometimes this company does not have a project that I can work on, so I go look for other jobs at other companies that I can do part time or full time.

I want to emphasize several reasons why I continue to work for this small company in Dickinson, that does not always have work for me.  One, sometimes it pays very, very well, like as much as $8,000 per month.  Two, the owner of the company leaves everyone alone, it is totally up to the employee to do their job, the owner does not check on the employees, the employees are on their own.  Three, I like this type of work very much.  Four, due to the nature of the work, the company owner, and the other employees, there are usually no work conflicts of any kind.  Five, I have usually been able to find a 2nd or 3rd job outside of this job when necessary, to make enough money.

The reason why I had such a bad year in 2017, was because the small company that I was working for did not have a project to put me on at the start of the year, and two of the other companies that I went to work for in 2017, were very bad companies.

The first new company that I went to work for in 2017, as far as I had heard, it was a good company, they had a lot of work, and they were branching out into different areas.  On my very first day of work, when I got to work at 4:30 a.m., right away it turned out to be the most disorganized, mismanaged company that I had ever worked for.  My gut instinct was to walk away from this company right then, and I might have been better off if I had done just that, and found a job with a different company.

The biggest problem with this company, turned out to be, that they didn’t pay all the wages that were owed.  I was missing a lot of money out of my second, and my third pay check.  I found out that there were already about four complaints with the Department of Labor against this company for non-payment of wages.

After the fact, I found out that if I would have asked other people working in the oil field, I would have heard not to go to work for this company.  Don’t believe what you read in the Dickinson Press newspaper about companies in Dickinson, what they write is sometimes almost the same thing as a paid for advertisement, rather than the truth.

What I learned, is that prospective employees should probably call the North Dakota Department of Labor to see how many complaints there are against a company.  Also, prospective employees should look the company owner and the company managers up on the North Dakota Court Repository website to see what lawsuits have been filed against them, and what criminal records they have.

The second new company that I went to work for in Dickinson in 2017, was a very long established company in Dickinson.  Some of my co-workers were agreeable, and some of my co-workers were unfriendly.  It turned out, that many of this company’s work projects were being completed, and as Winter was approaching, all of the workers were worried about being laid off.  Each worker was worried about being let go, though they wanted to stay on as long as possible, maybe even being one of the few people who kept their job through the Winter.  This was one of the reasons why some workers were uncooperative with each other, Winter lay offs were coming.

This second new company for me in 2017, due to a mistake, they shorted me a couple hundred dollars on several pay checks, and I quit because I was so angry about it.  But one of the reasons why I was so angry, was the day that I found out that I had been shorted so much money on my pay checks, a foreman who was not my foreman, was giving me a hard time, and there were several reasons why this was wrong.

It was a while after I quit, before I thought to look up on the internet who this foreman was.  This foreman had been charged in Arizona with 1st degree murder, armed robbery, drug charges, fleeing the police, and DUI, in multiple different cases.  On his company job application where it asked, “Have you ever been charged or convicted of any crime?”, I wonder if he wrote down “Yes, 1st degree murder, armed robbery, fleeing and eluding police, DUI, possession of drugs and paraphernalia.”

I then looked up other foremen at this company on the North Dakota Court Repository, and some of them had pretty bad criminal records, and always drug charges.  It then kind of fell into place, like the pieces of a puzzle, the way that people behaved, and the things that they did, that it was kind of a criminal and drug culture at this company.  So again I recommend to prospective employees, to look up the company owners and managers on the internet, and on the North Dakota Court Repository website to see what lawsuits and criminal charges they have had.

Just as it was becoming Winter in 2017, I was being hired at a company in New Town, North Dakota, which is about 100 miles north of Dickinson.  I had made this drive before on Hwy 22 going north to New Town for work, and it is not an easy drive.  You have to go through the Killdeer Mountains through an area called “The Breaks”, up steep hills, down steep hills, and around corners through the mountains.

I thought that this job paid $17 per hour, for about 12 hours per day, which is $204 per day.  It didn’t, it paid $15 per hour, for 8 hours per day, which is only $120 per day.  I was in trouble. I was willing to drive the 100 miles up to New Town, and probably having to drive back each day, to work 12 hours and make $204 each day.  But I couldn’t afford to do this for only $120 per day.  After taxes were taken out, and paying for gas, I would only have about $65 per day left, not enough to pay all of my bills.

I didn’t know what I was going to do.  Jobs get scarce in North Dakota once it becomes Winter.  I was thinking that I was going to have to sleep in my pickup truck in New Town, I couldn’t afford the $35 in gas each day to drive up from Dickinson and back.  It costs $10 to take shower at the truck stop in New Town, but where was I going to park and sleep in my truck without getting chased off?

When I was trying to figure out what I was going to do, the owner of the small company that I had been working for, for the past four years called, and he asked me if I wanted to, or would I be able to work 48 hours per week on a project, and I said that yes I would.

Out of nowhere, just by chance, I got a pretty good paying work assignment.  Not long after that, I had been stalling paying my Year 2016 income taxes by filing an extension, and I found out that I owed $2,000 in income taxes.  Plus I had vehicle insurance, homeowners insurance, and property taxes back in Idaho all due at about that time.

I hadn’t known how bad of a financial position I was in, I had been trying not to think about it.  I had not made much money at the first and the second new company that I went to work for in Dickinson, and the third company in New Town was a fail too.  I was really lucky that the company owner where I had been working called me to ask me if I could work on a project.

One of the reasons why I wrote this blog post, is to tell job seekers in Dickinson, that you can really get yourself into financial trouble in Dickinson by going to work for the wrong company.  A company in Dickinson may offer an attractive hourly wage rate, but this will mean nothing if you can’t work at that company for very long.  Beware, a human resources person or the person hiring you may lead you to believe that you can work for their company year round, in order to get you to take the job, however they may lay off most of their workers in October and November.

Remember, the first company that I went to work for in 2017, not only was it a horribly run company, they shorted me a couple of hundred dollars on each pay check.  It took me a while to get a job at a second company in 2017, and again this company shorted me a couple of hundred dollars on each pay check.  It took me a while to get a job with a third company in 2017, but this job didn’t pay nearly enough due to the number of hours per day and the long commute distance.  Having three bad jobs in a row like this, can lead to financial ruin.

What one of my readers pointed out to me in a comment, was that I would have been better off if I had just gone to work at WalMart in Dickinson for $15 per hour.  She was right, I would have been better off just going to work at WalMart.

Do Not Get Over Excited About Moving To North Dakota In 2018

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In the past several years, I have written many blog posts where I try to get the information out there, that there are false rumors and misinformation being spread about the need for workers in North Dakota, in order to lure people here.

Business people in North Dakota habitually try to talk up the economy, making broad exaggerations, making things up, and sometimes lying.  Business people, politicians, news media, and ordinary citizens, repeat back to each other, what they have heard, but very few people hardly ever take the time to see if what they are saying is true.

It is so frustrating to me, the reality of what is going on in Dickinson, North Dakota, versus what people in Dickinson are saying and talking about.

Since the oil boom ended in North Dakota in 2015, I have seen a net decrease in the amount of businesses in Dickinson, a net decrease in the number of residents, an increase in homes for sale, an increase in apartments for rent, an increase in trailer park vacancies, an increase in vacancies in commercial and retail buildings, real estate prices have gone down, people have been unable to sell their homes, rent prices have gone down, and there are fewer job advertisements.

Just a few highlights are, Delta airlines ceased operations at the Dickinson airport due to lack of customers and lack of profitability, and United airlines tried to cease operations at the Dickinson airport due to lack of customers and lack of profitability.  The government prevented United airlines from leaving the Dickinson airport due to an “essential air services” rule.

Sears has closed, JC Penny has closed, Herbergers department store is closing soon, and the Prairie Hills mall has recently been sold.  The two largest stores in the Prairie Hills mall were JC Penny and Herbergers.  For the stores like Sears, JC Penny, Herbergers, Hobby Artz, and Radio Shack that have closed, there have not been any new or different stores to open to replace these stores.

A few other businesses that have closed in Dickinson were Total Workforce Solutions staffing company, Evolution Gym, Pita Pit restaurant, Wildcat Pizza, several small business in the downtown business district, and more than several local construction and contracting companies.  The Elks Lodge was forced to downsize, they sold the upstairs to their own building, and moved into the basement of their building.

Even though the population of Dickinson has decreased, many businesses have closed and not been replaced by new or different businesses, many local companies have closed and not been replaced by new or different companies, there are many vacancies in residential and commercial properties, and there are fewer job advertisement listings, the people in Dickinson walk around talking about how things are taking off.

I looked at the North Dakota Job Services job listings for Dickinson today.  I counted about thirty-two job listings posted in the month of April so far up until today, April 23.  Of these thirty-two job listings for Dickinson, twelve of these job listings were for certified medical professionals like nurses, mammography technicians, and radiology technicians.  This leaves twenty non-medical job listings for the month of April in Dickinson.  Eight of these remaining jobs were low paying retail type jobs.

I then went and looked at the job listings for Dickinson, North Dakota on the website Indeed.com.  On Indeed.com, there were roughly twice as many job listings, as what North Dakota Job Services had.  There were roughly fifty to sixty job listings posted in the month of April so far, on Indeed.com.  Approximately ten of these jobs were low paying such as customer service, retail, and food service workers.  Approximately ten of these jobs were part time or seasonal.  Approximately ten of these jobs were sales type jobs where an applicant is led to believe that there is potential to earn good pay, but it never works out that way.  (You might not know what I mean about bullshit sales jobs unless you or your friends have done these jobs, where you never receive sales commissions.)

On Indeed.com, there were about fifteen jobs posted for Dickinson, North Dakota, in the month of April, that were good paying oil field, trades person, or professional type jobs.  However, these fifteen good paying jobs, required specialized experience, knowledge, or education, such as a commercial driver’s license, degree as an engineer or engineering technician, or being an experienced heavy equipment operator.

My point in writing this blog post, is not just to explain why I am annoyed that people in Dickinson persist in repeating information that is not true about things in Dickinson taking off, I want to explain that this luring people here by telling them that there is a huge need for workers, is going to cause problems and hardship for people.

As I explained about the job listings posted for the month of April on Indeed.com, there were about fifteen jobs that were good paying jobs, but they required specialized experience, knowledge, or education.  What are people in Dickinson trying to do, what are people in North Dakota trying to do, telling the world that there is a great need for workers, and high paying jobs, when this is not the case?

People are going to move to North Dakota, possibly bringing their families with them, because they heard about all of the jobs, and the high paying jobs.  When they get here, and can’t get a job, or can only get a low paying job, what is going to happen, what are they going to do, what are they supposed to do?  You don’t really care, or give a shit, do you?  You just like talking every day about how things are really booming in Dickinson.

Accused Armed Robbers in Dickinson

Alleged Armed Robbery In Dickinson Committed By The Gorilla Gang

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On Saturday April 14, 2018, an armed robbery was allegedly committed in Dickinson, North Dakota at an apartment on the 400 block of East 2nd Street.  Four suspects entered an apartment with firearms, and they took cash and marijuana from three occupants.

You can read more about this alleged armed robbery in the Dickinson Press newspaper online, or you can watch North Dakota television news reports online.  Three of the suspects were ages 18 to 19, so the Dickinson Police Department released their names and Police arrest photographs.  This is the photo that I used for this blog post headline.

I have been writing blog posts about criminal people moving to Dickinson from bad neighborhoods in large cities like Los Angeles, Seattle, and Spokane.  I am against news services, energy industry representatives, and North Dakota Job Services representatives making announcements that “North Dakota needs many, many workers for high paying jobs here in North Dakota”, because they are creating a problem.

Poor, unemployed people, who have very little or no job skills, very little or no work experience, who have been making money in the poor inner cities by stealing and dealing drugs, hear that North Dakota needs workers for high paying jobs, so they come to Dickinson.

They did not know, that companies in Dickinson might be able to hire someone with a commercial driver’s license, an experienced welder, electrician, plumber, heavy equipment operator, certified mechanic, or experienced oil field worker, but not someone with no job experience from the inner city.  With no job experience, they would be even less likely to get hired if they had a criminal record, or did not graduate from high school.

The people who arrive in Dickinson from poor inner cities with very little or no job skills, very little or no work experience, possibly a criminal record, possibly without a high school diploma, with the expectation of getting a high paying job like they heard about or saw on TV, they came a long way to get here, and they can’t just turn around and go home when they can’t get a job.  They see that some people have money and are making money from the expensive trucks that they drive, their snow mobiles, their four wheelers, and the RVs parked in their yards.

They can’t get a job, have difficulty getting a job, or see that they can only get a low paying job in fast food or retail.  They need money, and the way that they know how to get money or get what they want, is to deal drugs, steal, and commit crimes.

The three adults whose names the Dickinson Police Department released, I began doing a Google search to try to find out where these alleged armed robbers came from.  I didn’t get very far, before I found a YouTube video, and a YouTube channel, called the Gorilla Gang, where these three individuals had uploaded videos that they had made.  Here is one of their videos from YouTube:

You can watch a few other YouTube videos that they made, on the Gorilla Gang channel.

Update On Employment And Living In Dickinson, North Dakota

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I want to give everyone in the United States current and correct information on what employment and living in Dickinson, North Dakota is like, so that people do not experience hardship or make a mistake in coming here.

In April, some news services, energy industry representatives, and North Dakota Job Service representatives made announcements stating that there is a great need for workers in North Dakota.  From what I see, this is not true, and I want to explain how things really are.

For unskilled, low skilled, and non able-bodied workers, there are a few job openings that come up in fast food, convenience store, and retail stores.  These jobs are not very high paying jobs.

You might be asking or saying, why can’t I work in the oil field, or I plan on working in the oil field.  I will explain about the oil field in a minute.

For unskilled or low skilled workers that are able-bodied, there are a few job openings for construction laborers beginning in the Spring, and these jobs usually last through the Fall.  Once it becomes Winter in North Dakota, many construction companies shut down and lay off workers.  The way that the unemployment compensation eligibility formulas are designed in North Dakota, if you do not work in the Winter months, and have high income in the Summer months, you very likely will be determined to not be eligible to receive unemployment compensation during a Winter lay off.

Working In The Oil Field

I am going to try to explain some misconceptions about working in the oil field, which everyone in the United States should know about.  This is going to be pretty thorough and detailed, because I want to explain once and for all, not just how things really are in the oil field, but why things are this way, so that people quit falling for lies and bullshit that are not true.

Working For An Oil Company.  In North Dakota, some of the oil companies that do business here are Continental, Marathon, Whiting, Hess, and Tesoro.  One of the most common jobs for these oil companies is called “pumper”.  A pumper will be assigned a company pick up truck, and about twenty oil field locations, more or less.

The pumper’s job each day, is to drive to each oil field location, observe the condition of the site, look for any leaks in pumps, piping, or tanks, inspect the pump, inspect the tanks, and record information such as pressures, flow rates, and tank levels.

What the oil companies are looking for in a pumper, is someone who is completely reliable, and completely trustworthy.  They must very rarely ever call in sick, and almost never be late.  They must have an almost completely perfect driving record, with no accidents and no DUIs.  They must have an employment history that shows steady, long term employment with other companies, as evidence of reliability and trustworthiness.

Other qualifications that a pumper must have, is a demonstrateable knowledge of mechanics, controls, instrumentation, and equipment.  Acceptable proof of aptitude would be employment history working as a heavy equipment mechanic, working in automation or controls, or previous work history in the oil field installing and maintaining pump jacks, working on a drill rig, a work over rig, or fracturing.

Most of the oil company pumpers are in their 30s, 40s, and 50s, and worked for more than five years in the oil field before they ever became a pumper.

Working for Oil Refineries, Oil Pipelines, and Gas Pipelines.  In North Dakota, some of the companies that own and operate oil refineries and pipelines are Tesoro, Plains All American, and Dakota Access Pipeline.  Just like the oil companies, the refinery and pipeline owners and operators are looking for people that are absolutely reliable and absolutely trustworthy.

What I did not explain about the oil companies, which also applies to the refineries and pipeline owners, is that they just will not and can not hire personnel who are unqualified or questionable in any way.  There are too many people’s lives at stake, too much money at risk, too much environmental damage possible, and too much liability to hire or allow anyone to work who is questionable in any way.

They must exclude from employment, people with DUIs, people with criminal charges, people with drug charges, people with domestic abuse charges, people with mental illness, people with poor work histories, or people with vehicle accidents.  Though they will not come out and say it, they try to screen out people who have extreme views whether social, religious, or political, people with bad tempers, people with depression or bi-polar, people who are too young or too old.

I wanted to describe in detail who the oil companies, refineries, and pipeline owners hire, so that people would not mistakenly believe that they could just move to North Dakota and get a job with an oil company, without understanding how selective and strict these companies are in hiring.

Working for Drilling, Work Over, and Casing Companies.  In North Dakota, some of the companies that operate oil drilling rigs, workover rigs, and perform casing installation are Nabors, Patterson, H&P, Key, Big Sky, and Wyoming Casing.  Unlike the oil companies, refineries, and pipeline owner companies, who are concerned primarily with employees being completely reliable and completely trustworthy, the drilling, work over, and casing companies are primarily concerned with hiring people that can physically handle the work.

The drilling, work over, and casing companies perform the most dangerous and most physically demanding work.  There are very few people who are physically capable of doing these jobs, and very few people who would be willing to do these jobs because they are so difficult and dangerous.

On an oil drilling rig, the floor hands on the drilling platform typically have to work a twelve hour shift each day, for fourteen days in a row, then they receive seven days off.  During each twelve hour shift on the drill rig platform, the floor hands may be required to continuously stand at the drill pipe and make connections, they may be required to continually climb up and down fifty stair steps carrying heavy tools and equipment that weigh 100 lbs or more, they may be required to climb the twelve story tall drill derek.  The weather could be 90 degrees Fahrenheit, or it could be -40 degrees Fahrenheit with wind chill.

On a drill rig, there is no faking work, pretending to work, slacking off, getting out of work, or getting someone else to do your work for you.  It is nothing but work, all the time, the drilling has to proceed non-stop.  If you have any kind of physical defect or weakness such as a bad foot, bad ankle, bad knee, bad hip, bad back, bad shoulder, or are weak, out of shape, or get tired, you will be worked to failure to where you can not physically continue and that is the end of your job.

The drilling, work over, and casing companies do not want to waste time hiring anyone that they can already tell are not going to be physically able to do the work.  They do not want to waste time and money in hiring and training the wrong people, who will not be able to last one day or one week on the job.  What these companies are looking for, and who they screen out, they are not going to come out and say it because they don’t want any legal trouble, but I will explain it.

These companies are looking for men who are between the ages of twenty to thirty years old, who have a background in farming, construction, or military field duty, who are accustomed to harsh outdoor conditions, dangerous work conditions, and hard physical work.  Any person who appears to be physically week, lethargic, lacking energy, lacking stamina, severely overweight, underweight, too physically small, too old, or appears to be a female, these companies don’t even want to waste their time considering these people for employment, because they have found again, and again, and again that any person who has physical weakness is just not going to be able to do the work.

The work over rig companies sometimes have employees work 14 to 16 hours per day.  The casing companies sometimes have employees work up to 30 hours continuously, or until the job is completed.

Working for Directional Drilling, Hydraulic Fracturing, and Wireline Companies.  Some of the directional drilling, hydraulic fracturing, and wireline companies that operate in North Dakota are Halliburton, BJ Services, and Keane.  These companies seek to hire people who are reliable and trustworthy like the oil companies do, but are just slightly less strict, and they seek to hire people who are physically capable of doing hard work like the drilling companies, but they are slightly less demanding.

Directional drilling, hydraulic fracturing, and wireline companies are looking for employees who have almost perfect driving records, with no accidents, and no DUIs.  They want employees who have a commercial driver’s license.  These companies may be unwilling or unable to hire people with criminal records, especially with theft or assault charges.

They are looking for employees with a work history showing reliability, and having performed work in farming, construction, heavy equipment, military trades classification, or military field duty.  They want people who are accustomed to working in harsh outdoor conditions, dangerous work conditions, working around heavy equipment, performing hard labor, and working long hours.

These companies will not come out and tell you who they screen out, because they do not want any legal problems, but these companies do not want to waste time and money hiring and training people who are not going to be able to physically do the work, who will only last one day or one week on the job.  Typically, who they might screen out would be people who appear to be physically weak, lethargic, lacking energy, lack stamina, severely overweight, under weight, too old, erratic, unbalanced, or have bad judgement.  They will hire women who meet their hiring requirements.

Working for Oil Field Service Companies.  Some of the oil field service companies who operate in North Dakota are GE Lufkin, Weatherford, Stallion, Titan, Steier, SM Fencing, Bob’s.  These companies have more flexibility in hiring.  They are still looking for people with very clean driving records, no accidents, no DUIs, and a commercial driver’s license, but they are sometime willing to overlook a fault in one area, by an applicant having a recognized specialty in another area, such as being a certified mechanic, certified welder, certified welding inspector, certified crane operator, or journeyman electrician.

Oil field service companies are sometimes willing to hire one inexperienced younger worker at a time, if this worker appears to have good judgement, good common sense, a positive attitude, willingness to listen and follow instructions, if this worker can be placed with an older experienced worker.

Oil field service companies are sometime willing to hire older experienced oil field workers who have made a mistake, had an accident, had an injury, suffered an illness, or have a physical disability which can be accommodated.

Even though oil field service companies have more flexibility in hiring, they are still looking for people who have a background in farming, construction, or military field duty.  People who are accustomed to working in harsh outdoor conditions, dangerous conditions, performing physical labor, working around equipment, operating equipment, and working long hours.

Oil field service companies are the easiest entry point into gaining work experience in the oil industry, but even so, news organizations and the oil industry have misled people across the United States into believing that entry into a high paying oil field job is as easy as working at McDonalds one day, then working for an oil company the next day.

If this were true, all of the experienced oil field service company workers who are paid at the mid-level, would go get a “high paying” oil company job tomorrow.  Why would experienced oil field service company workers continue to work at mid-level pay for years and years, if it was so easy for anyone to get a high paying job for an oil company?

Working for Construction Companies in Dickinson.  Some of the construction companies in Dickinson are Winn Construction, Baranko Brothers, Northern Improvement, and Tooz Construction.  These construction companies would like to hire people with clean driving records and commercial driver’s licenses, but they will hire experienced construction workers who do not have a driver’s license.  The experience that they are looking for is experience in operating heavy equipment such as loaders, dozer, excavator, skid steer, boom truck, lull, or experience in concrete form work, concrete finishing, steel building erection, and paving.

If you do not have prior work experience in construction, doing some of the work that I have described above, do not be mis-led by news services or North Dakota Job Service into believing that you can come to Dickinson and easily get a job in construction.  The construction companies can sometimes hire people with not very much job experience to work as laborers, but it is impractical and undesirable for construction companies to hire more than just a few inexperienced workers at one time.

Summary for Working in Dickinson, North Dakota.  I want for everyone in the United States to know and understand that oil companies are very strict and demanding with their background and experience requirements in hiring, drilling companies are very strict and demanding with their physical strength and endurance requirements in hiring, and oil field service companies try to hire people with relevant work experience.

There are some job openings with construction companies for low skilled laborers, but these jobs usually only last from April through October, seven months, and that you will likely not be eligible to receive unemployment compensation during a Winter lay-off.

There are some job openings in fast food, convenience stores, and retail stores, but these jobs are not high paying.

When news services, energy industry representatives, and North Dakota Job Service representatives make announcement that many workers are needed in North Dakota, I am skeptical and I don’t believe this.  Many people that I know who are intelligent and skilled, have had to leave North Dakota in the past several years because they have not been able to find employment.  Also, I know people who are currently living in Dickinson, who are unable to find employment.

I believe that business people in North Dakota are trying to lure people to North Dakota using false information, so that they can grow the economy, fill in vacancies in housing, and drop the wage rate that employers have to pay by creating a surplus of workers.

Time’s Money Magazine Named Dickinson As 9th Best Place In America To Start A Career

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In March of 2018, Time’s Money Magazine named Dickinson, North Dakota as the 9th best place in America to launch a career.

When I see announcements like this, it makes me cringe.  It is annoying and irritating.  Most people who live in Dickinson, do not think of Dickinson as a good place to live.

The author of this article, Kerri Anne Renzulli, wrote that the criteria for selection was projected job growth, unemployment, cultural diversity, educational opportunity, and recreational activities.

Like I said, articles like this make me cringe, they are frustrating, annoying, and irritating.  How can people get things so wrong?

I wish that the people who write these articles about how Dickinson is such a good place to live, would spend at least one week living in Dickinson.  One month would be even better.  They wouldn’t dare do this, because they know that what they are writing is a bunch of made up, make believe bullshit, but they have to turn in something in order to get paid for their article.

In 2011 when I first came to Dickinson during the middle of the oil boom, there were all different kinds of people who had come from all over the United States with high expectations and enthusiasm about becoming rich and successful.  In general, it only took most people less than six months of living in this area to lose their enthusiasm because of reality.

The wage rates in Dickinson were generally $12 to $25 per hour.  By working five, twelve hour days, 60 hours per week, or more, workers could make $45,000 to $70,000 per year, this was not unusual.  However, 25% of their weekly pay was taken out in taxes, rents were very high, and workers easily spent $30 per day on convenience store food and drinks which was all that they could get.

Work conditions were horribly cold in the winter, filthy, frustrating, and dangerous.  It was very common for oil companies, oil field service companies, and construction companies, to have inadequate work plans, missing information, inadequate management and supervision, unqualified supervisors and foremen, and managers, supervisors, foremen, equipment operators, and workers who were working while under the influence of illegal drugs and alcohol.  It was a mess.

Even in the middle of the oil boom, six months was all that many people could stand.  To this day, just about everyone that I talk to who worked in North Dakota, they describe it as a horrible experience.

Even though things have calmed down in western North Dakota once the oil boom went away in 2015 after the price of oil fell to $30 per barrel, there are many things that still make Dickinson a bad place to live.  The local people who are from Dickinson, do not like people who are from some place else.  The local people from Dickinson are hostile and unfriendly to people who are from some place else.

There are very few things to do in Dickinson.  One of the things that people might do, would be to have drinks at dinner at a restaurant or bar at night in Dickinson, but it is not safe to do this, because the Police in Dickinson try as hard as they can to arrest people for DUI.

There is a shortage of women, and a scarcity of attractive women in Dickinson.  Exactly opposite of what the Money Magazine article says about Dickinson being a good place to start a career, all of the young attractive women who grow up in western North Dakota, get the hell out of here as soon as they graduate from high school.  The ratio of men to women in Dickinson is about 3:1, and the women who are here are unattractive and unfriendly.

If I had a son who was between the age of 18 to 30 years old, I would not want him to come to Dickinson, I would try to discourage it and prevent it.  Whether he had a college education or just a high school diploma, I would not want my son to come to Dickinson, it is just too bad a place, and too dangerous.

The companies in Dickinson, and the local people in Dickinson, do not like people with an education, especially engineers.  The employers in Dickinson, managers, and workers, have the intention of causing educated people and engineers problems, making work both difficult and unsafe.  The “Engineers” in Dickinson, are usually local people who do not have any education or degree in engineering.  Degreed engineers either get run off, or they won’t stay in Dickinson.

The employers, managers, and workers in Dickinson, do not like people who are from some place else, and they make work both difficult and unsafe for people who are from some place else.

I know from my own experience, that if I had a son I would not want him to come to work in Dickinson.  In addition to working in an environment where his local co-workers would be difficult, uncooperative, and undermining, and likely try to cause him to have an accident or injury, if the drug dealers in Dickinson did not get him, the Dickinson Police would.

In Dickinson, at the companies where I have worked, the managers, supervisors, foremen, and workers have been illegal drug users.  I have been around drug users, drugs, and people offering me illegal drugs at work.  At the same time, I have had undercover Police Officers in Dickinson come up to me in bars and ask me, again and again, do you know where I can buy drugs, do you know where I can buy drugs, do you know where I can buy drugs?  Then, the Police in Dickinson wait outside bars and restaurants at night in order to try to arrest people for DUI, or anything else that they can come up with.

If you are a young male who comes to work in Dickinson, you will be treated badly by local managers, supervisors, and co-workers who do not like people from some place else, you will not get cooperation, and you will likely be injured by your local co-workers on the job.  You will be around people who will try to get you to use illegal drugs, and you can be banned from oil field employment for 3 years if you test positive for illegal drugs.  The Dickinson Police will try to find a way to arrest you for either illegal drugs or DUI.

The friends and acquaintances that I made while living in Dickinson, several truck drivers, construction workers, engineers, electricians, equipment operators, business owners, entrepreneurs, and business managers, some of them highly skilled, intelligent, or hard working, they have all gotten out of Dickinson because there is nothing here.  No women, no good employment, nothing to do, no where to go, just the Dickinson Police constantly trying to arrest them for something.

If Dickinson has a low unemployment rate, it is because people willingly and gladly leave Dickinson because there is no reason to stay here.  This does not mean that Dickinson is a good place to start a career, because there is low unemployment.  This is how people like Kerri Anne Renzulli who went to the University of Central Florida, who lives in New York City can get things so wrong, she has never even driven through Dickinson, North Dakota, or spent any time here at all.

Who Gets Hired And What Companies Are Looking For In Dickinson, North Dakota

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As North Dakota emerges from the cold and frozen Winter, oil field service companies and construction companies in Dickinson will begin hiring people for the Spring, Summer, and Fall work season.

Employers in Dickinson like people who will fit in and get along with the people that they already have working.  There is a common expression, “People like people, who are like themselves.”

In this blog post, I am including a short video that shows what employers in Dickinson, North Dakota are looking for.  This video shows someone that employers in Dickinson would hire right on the spot.  This video also shows some of the discussion that might take place in your work environment in Dickinson.

Some Suggestions For Dickinson, North Dakota

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In the past several years I have written more than 500 blog posts about living in Dickinson, North Dakota.  Readers may wonder, what do I want, and what am I trying to accomplish?

I wanted to bring attention to some of the things that are wrong in Dickinson.  I thought that if I explained these things that are wrong, that many people might agree, and consider trying to change things.  Or, at least people from out of state would know how things are, what to expect, be able to make a more informed decision about moving to Dickinson, or be more prepared for Dickinson.

Here are some suggestions for Dickinson, North Dakota:

  • Everyone needs to acknowledge that it was wrong the way that housing prices were quadrupled during this most recent oil boom.  Do not persist in saying things like, “It was a matter of supply and demand”, when there are thousands and thousands of acres of vacant, flat, barren land just outside of Dickinson that stretches for hundreds of miles in every direction.  Steps were taken to make sure that there was a housing shortage, so that local people could profit and take excessive advantage of others.
  • Even though, “Millionaires were being made every day in North Dakota”, there was no homeless shelter in Dickinson.  People that were poor, down-on-their-luck, and out of work from everywhere in the U.S. came to North Dakota because of the lie that was told “Everyone was making $100,000 per year in the oil field”.  The poor people who came to Dickinson, slept in their cars, on the ground, or in the bushes at Wal-Mart, Tiger Truck Stop, Patterson Lake, along the railroad right-of-way, or in the ditch behind Kentucky Fried Chicken.  If Dickinson was not going to have a homeless shelter, they needed to contact every newspaper and every television station to try to get the word out, “Whoa, hold on everybody, you won’t make $100,000 per year in the oil field, there is a shortage of housing, and there is no homeless shelter.”
  • Dickinson needs to decide, once and for all, if alcohol can be served in bars and restaurants or not.  If the Police in Dickinson are going to try to follow and stalk everyone who is driving on the streets at night in Dickinson in order to try to give them a DUI, Dickinson should just go ahead and ban the sale of alcohol in bars and restaurants in Dickinson.
  • There are some things that are done in Dickinson, that ruin Dickinson’s chances for long term growth and prosperity.  One of these things, is the practice of most local companies in hiring convicted felons to be foremen, supervisors, and managers at the companies in Dickinson.  The local people in Dickinson so hate people with a college education, that they give preference in hiring to people who have several felony convictions, with no education.  Although local company owners are more comfortable having people like this working for them, here are the consequences:
    • When you hire a convicted felon with no college education, versus someone with a college education, for a supervisory or management position, what is guaranteed to follow, is that just about every subordinate position to that person being filled by convicted criminals, versus people with any education.  A convicted felon is already someone who has demonstrated that they don’t follow along with what is right and wrong, but whatever they feel they need to do.  If that means hiring only people who are less intelligent, less qualified, and less capable than them, in order to maintain their position, that is what they are going to do.
    • When local companies in Dickinson follow this practice of hiring convicted felons for supervisory or management positions in Dickinson, not only does this load up their company with a bunch of criminals, but this loads up Dickinson with a bunch of convicted criminals.  It doesn’t take long for normal, educated people from elsewhere, who may be doctors, nurses, engineers, attorneys, human resources people, administrators, professors, or journalists, to see, understand, and realize that Dickinson is an “Ugly” town that they don’t want to live in.  By “Ugly”, I mean no culture, no professional peers, no socializing with professionals, no where worth going, someplace that you do not want to stay.

If you people in Dickinson do not believe me, just sincerely ask one of the nurses, doctors, engineers, journalists, human resources professionals, chamber of commerce directors, or teachers who left Dickinson, to describe something that they did not like about Dickinson, and to please be honest.

Stupid People With Jumper Cables

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When I lived in Florida, Virginia, Texas, Colorado, Arizona, Utah, or Idaho, I never witnessed so many people asking for help with car problems, as I have here in North Dakota.

These people with car problems are not local people or North Dakota natives, they are typically down-on-their-luck people who were not doing very well in the states where they were living, and they came to North Dakota looking for work.  They came to North Dakota with very little money, alcoholism, drug addiction, no common sense, ADHD, and stupidity.

I am sick of these people.  I have worked with them, and I have tried to help them, but I no longer want to have anything to do with them, allowing their problems to become my problems.  Once you have any involvement with people like this, it seems like they have never ending problems, which could have been avoided if they would have used any kind of common sense or planned ahead.

In North Dakota, when I go to Wal-Mart, Menards, Runnings, Prairie Hills Mall, T-Rex Mall, or a grocery store, I will not park anywhere near a beat up car with an out-of-state license plate if there is any indication that the “Hey can you help me?” routine is about to play out.  Indicators of this would be people standing and looking at their car, the hood up, jumper cables, tow strap, or jack being out.

I have had so many ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), drug addict, alcoholic, stupid people ask me to jump start their car in North Dakota, that I bought several battery jump start boxes.  Any place else that I have ever lived, I had never personally witnessed anyone mistakenly trying to connect the positive jump start cable to a negative battery terminal, but these down-on-their luck people here in North Dakota will try to do this every time.

For those of you who don’t know, if you should ever volunteer to allow someone to connect jumper cables to your car battery, and they mistakenly connect the positive terminal of one car battery to the negative terminal of the other car battery, in about 1 second, this can short out the electrical wiring and electrical components in both vehicles, causing up to about $2,000 in damage to each vehicle.  Sometimes, it is hard to tell right away just how much electrical system damage has been done to each vehicle.

Your car’s battery, alternator, wiring, connectors, fuses, relays, sensors, ECU, computers, and other components, were not designed to handle the instantaneous passage of thousands of amps of current caused by someone connecting the positive battery terminal of one vehicle, to the negative battery terminal of the other vehicle.  This can melt everything electrical in your car.  An ADHD, drug addict, alcoholic, stupid person who has already caused their own vehicle to malfunction, will try to get you to let them connect jumper cables to your car, so that they can cause severe damage to your car too.

Yesterday evening, I was about 100 miles from Dickinson, sitting in a truck stop eating and using my computer.  I looked out the window, and I saw that ten feet away from where my car was parked, there was now someone standing there with a hammer in their hand.  I was thinking, what are they doing with that hammer?  I watched to see what was going on, and there were a couple of guys who were about 20 years old, working on a beat up Nissan truck which had Washington State license plates on it.

I was thinking to myself, that I needed to move my vehicle far away from them, because I did not want any involvement in their problems.  This is exactly what I am talking about, this is what I try to avoid, the “Hey can you help me people”, who always have problems.

I continued to use my computer, and these two young guys from Washington State showed me that they were in fact the epitome of everything that I am talking about.  They went from working on the underneath of their truck with a hammer, to buying a can of Sea Foam, to buying jumper cables.  A hammer, Sea Foam, and jumper cables?  What the hell is wrong with your truck that you have a problem that requires beating something with a hammer, is a fuel problem, and is also an electrical problem, which causes your battery to be dead?

When I saw them buy the jumper cables, I said to myself that there is no way that I am letting them connect to the battery in my vehicle.  Then, they began asking each of the store employees if they could drive their personal vehicle over to their Nissan truck, to give them a jump start.

The store employees were trying to find different excuses not to do it.  I didn’t want the store employees, who were young, poor, and maybe naive, to have their vehicle electrical system destroyed.  And I didn’t want for an unsuspecting customer to have the electrical system in their vehicle destroyed either.  I stopped what I was doing, and I told the two guys from Washington State that I had a battery jump start box.

I got my 1,000 peak amp jump start box out of my vehicle, and thank God it had a full charge, so that me or anyone else wouldn’t have to use our vehicles.  I unwound the two cables on my battery jump start box, and I said to the two young men, you connect it to your battery, and when you are ready, I will turn the jump start box on.  They connected the jump start box cables to their Nissan truck battery, and the audible alarm on the jump start box began beeping.

See!  I knew it!  These stupid ADHD kids from Washington State, the very first thing that they did was connect the battery cables the wrong way.  If this would have been my vehicle, a store employee’s vehicle, or a customer’s vehicle, there would have been instantaneous severe damage done to the vehicle’s electrical system!  Or, it could have blown up a battery and started a fire.

I told them to reconnect the battery jump start box cables the correct way, and I left my battery jump start box with them, while they continued to work on their Nissan truck.  After they had their truck running, I said to them, that they needed to be more careful hooking up jumper cables to their truck next time, with the jumper cables incorrectly connected, they could have caused a lot of damage to their truck and someone else’s vehicle.

It was cold and dark outside, and I picked up my battery jump start box and I put it back in the tool box in my vehicle, and I was about to close the trunk, but I took the battery jump start box back out to see if they had turned if off.  No, they had left my battery jump start box turned on, so that its cables were energized and could have shorted out in my vehicle and caused a fire, or the battery jump start box would have just been dead when I got it out to use it next time in an emergency.

A Mexican Almost Stole My Winter Jacket

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I sometimes have to work outside of Dickinson, North Dakota.  When I am working out of town, when I get off of work in the evening, I often go to a truck stop/convenience store/restaurant to get something to eat and use my laptop computer to get on the internet.

I bought a spare used laptop computer to take with me when I work out of town, so that it won’t be too much of a loss if it gets broken or stolen, but it is a good computer, worth about $200.  It would be upsetting if it got stolen, and I don’t want this to happen.

When I go to the truck stop that I usually go to, I wave hello to the cashiers who are working, and I go put my laptop computer down on a table in the dining area, take my winter jacket off, and lay it over top of my computer so that no one can see it.  I then go and pick out a drink, sandwich, or salad, and take them to the cashier to pay for them.  My jacket and my computer are not out of my sight for more than thirty seconds at a time, while I am doing this routine.

When I am eating and using my computer, I am vaguely aware of truck drivers, oil field workers, construction workers, farmers, travelers, and local people who are coming and going, paying for fuel, buying things, or sitting down at one of the ten tables in the dining area.

Usually by 8 p.m. or 9 p.m., the truck stop/convenience store/restaurant has slowed down, there are not very many customers, and I feel that it is safe enough for me to close my laptop computer, lay my jacket on top of my computer so that it can’t be seen, and go use the bathroom.  My jacket is just a common, black color, Carhart hooded jacket like most people in North Dakota wear.  Though these Carhart jackets cost $100 to $150, I thought that most North Dakotans would not stoop to stealing someone else’s jacket.

On this past Saturday night at about 9 p.m. I was eating and using my computer, there were two cashiers and one restaurant worker on duty, and only one or two customers in the truck stop.  I felt that it was perfectly safe for me to leave my jacket on top of my closed laptop computer, and walk away for two minutes to go use the bathroom.  When I got out of the bathroom, I walked over to the restaurant counter to see what they had, and I picked up a Philly cheese steak sandwich.

By this time, it seemed like there were several more customers in the truck stop, because I could hear more people walking around the aisles, though I wasn’t paying close attention.  As I was walking over to the cashier to pay for my sandwich, I happened to look back over my shoulder toward where I had been sitting and eating, and I saw a Mexican who was wearing a white T-shirt, walk around the corner, and come to a stop when he saw my winter jacket laying on the table.  There were nine empty tables in the dining area, with nothing else around, and one table with my bottled drink, napkins, fork, and jacket sitting on top of it.

I stood turned slightly sideways as I put my sandwich down on the counter, and I said to the cashier who was the manager on duty, this Mexican guy behind me seems to be taking an interest in my jacket.  Just as I said this, this Mexican leaned past the wall of the dining area, and looked at my jacket again.  The cashier said, oh yeah, I see him.   It was pretty hard not to notice, nothing but empty tables in the dining area, and this Mexican guy wearing a white T-shirt, is so focused and concerned about my jacket laying on top of the table.

I went back to my table and sat down.  I was now curious to see what this Mexican guy did in the store.  Was he going to buy anything to eat, which might have been a possible reason why he came into the empty dining area in the first place.  He must have spent at least eight minutes in the store, walking up and down every aisle several times.  He bought his son an ice cream from where a Mexican lady was working, and I don’t know if she charged him for it or not, he might not have had any money, because he didn’t buy anything else.

This Mexican guy walked out of the store and he got into about a ten to fifteen year old Dodge sedan, and backed out, almost hitting someone in a Jeep Cherokee who was already travelling in the drive lane, causing them to have to stop suddenly.  I asked the cashier/manager if this guy had been in the store before.   The cashier/manager said that yes he had, although he kind of looks like a bad person, he probably isn’t that bad a person.  This Mexican guy did look and act like someone from a ghetto/hood crime neighborhood in Los Angeles or Phoenix.

Some readers might object to what I am writing, so I will explain.  Truck drivers walk into the store at whatever pace or gait they have based on their age or health, pay for fuel, and go use the bathroom.  Travelers usually walk in the store quickly and head straight towards the bathroom.  Farmers usually aren’t in a hurry and have a casual pace.  Local people are like shoppers in a grocery store, they go and pick out the things that they want, like drinks, snacks, or food, and take them up to the cash register.

This Mexican guy, who had been in this store before, came in to the store and acted completely different and out of the ordinary.  He walked quickly over to something like this is what he was there to get, paused, then quickly walked over to something else like this is what he was there to get, paused, then quickly walked over to another area, paused, and he did this throughout the store for at least eight minutes.  You might say well, he was looking for something, or he didn’t like the prices.  At one point, he was at the drink dispensing machine, where they have the cups, lids, straws, napkins, and people fill their drink cups, he was acting like he was going to get a drink, but he didn’t.  It was like he was pretending to shop, but he was actually up to something else.

If you have ever set something down for just a minute and walked away, like a phone, set of keys, wallet, purse, jacket, ice chest, gas can, propane tank, bicycle, or left your car running, and come back to find it gone, I think that this is how this happens, and who does this.

In North Dakota, at a restaurant, bar, store, library, truck stop, laundromat, or any public place, do not set anything down and turn your back on it or walk away.  Not everyone is the same in North Dakota, and you might be unpleasantly surprised at how “diverse”, North Dakota has become.

What Is Wrong With Companies In Dickinson, North Dakota

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In 2017, I wrote five or six blog posts explaining how bad it was working for companies in Dickinson, North Dakota, even the companies, or especially the companies that the Dickinson Press Newspaper could not lavish enough praise on.

Working for two of these highly esteemed companies in Dickinson in 2017, I quit because I was not paid the wages that I was owed, and I had to threaten both of these companies with filing a complaint with the Department of Labor, and taking them to Small Claims Court to get the money that I was owed.  One of the “best” companies in Dickinson, already had four complaints against them with the Department of Labor.

I have written about five times now that, “The companies in Dickinson would rather hire someone who did four years in prison, rather than four years in college”, and that, “The companies in Dickinson hate engineers, disrespect, and mistreat engineers in every way possible because they hate educated people”.

Even though I have a degree in engineering, and I have worked as an engineer, estimator, foreman, inspector, superintendent, project manager, manager, and business owner, with absolutely no criminal record, these are the two supervisors that I worked under who each had Four Felony Convictions, at two different companies in Dickinson:

 

If you are a person with a college education, and you move to Dickinson, North Dakota, this is who you will be working for, and you will not be treated very well.

Dermatologist Shortage In North Dakota

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There is a shortage of Dermatologists in North Dakota.  To get an appointment with a Dermatologist in the state capitol of Bismarck, there is a five to six month wait.

On January 25, 2018 I noticed that I had a new mole on my right shoulder.  This mole was different than the other mole that I have had on my shoulder for the past thirty-two years, because this new mole appeared so suddenly, was dark in color, and it had a rough unhealthy looking surface.

From the television commercials that I have seen, and from reading about skin growths on the internet, I believed that this was very likely a melanoma.  A melanoma can be benign or malignant, meaning noncancerous or cancerous.  You need to have one checked right away, especially if it is dark in color, or has an irregular shape and appearance.

On February 2, I began searching for a Dermatologist in Dickinson, North Dakota and I found that there isn’t one.  This is kind of bad, because Dickinson has a population of about 25,000 people, and it is the largest town in southwest North Dakota.

I found that the nearest Dermatologists were in the state capitol of Bismarck, 100 miles to the east of Dickinson.  In Bismarck, there is the Mid Dakota Clinic of Dermatology with three Dermatologists, and two Nurse Practitioners.  I thought to myself, “Good, this is exactly what I was looking for.”

I telephoned the Mid Dakota Clinic of Dermatology, and I requested an appointment with Mark Ebertz, MD.  I was told, “Mark Ebertz is not accepting any new patients, you can choose to make an appointment with either of the two Nurse Practitioners, or one other MD, but their next available appointment is in August.”

I thought to myself, “February, March, April, May, June, July…that’s six months before I can even see a Dermatologist, and I need to get this melanoma mole looked at and removed right away!”

The administrative person at the Mid Dakota Clinic of Dermatology was not rude in any way, but I was very angry, and I ended the telephone call with her.  I could not believe the absurdity of having a melanoma, and a Dermatology clinic wanting you to wait six months for an appointment.  What kind of skin problem could a person have, that they could figure on waiting for six months to receive any kind of treatment?

I was very, very angry.  I write and write about this, but I don’t think that I ever truly convince people how backwards North Dakota is.  I thought about this for few minutes at the time, before continuing to try to find a Dermatologist in North Dakota.

I still want to give a big Fuck You!, to the Mid Dakota Clinic of Dermatology.  I hope that Dr. Mark Ebertz has some kind of life threatening emergency, where he needs the police, fire department, or paramedics to show up, and they tell him, “We are kind of busy, we aren’t accepting new calls at this time.”  Or anything that he needs done, everyone tells him, we can’t help you for six months.

I went on to telephone Sanford Health.  I telephoned the Sanford Health in Dickinson, and they told me that they did not have a Dermatologist in Dickinson, to call the Sanford Health in Bismarck.  I telephoned the Sanford Health in Bismarck, their Dermatology Clinic, and I was told that the earliest appointment that this particular clinic had was in April, but I could try calling their other Dermatology Clinic.  At the second Sanford Health Dermatology Clinic, the next available appointment was in September.

I called an older relative of mine who had had a skin growth surgically removed from his shoulder, to ask him about it, how much did this cost?  He said to me, “You can’t wait this long, you need to get this taken care of right away, it sounds like you are going to have to go to a different state to have this done.”

I looked up on the internet, a Dermatologist that I had seen in Idaho seven or eight years ago.  This Dermatologist surgically removed a small carcinoma from under my eye for about $140, which required stitches.  This was not a big deal for him, or difficult for him, and he did a very good job, not leaving any scar.

I telephoned his office in Idaho, and he had appointments available each week in February.  I explained that I was working in North Dakota, and I could not get this taken care of in North Dakota.  I explained that it was a twelve to fourteen hour drive one way to get there, I would have to drive there to get this melanoma removed, and then drive right back to North Dakota to return to work on time.

I e-mailed to the Dermatologist in Idaho, three photographs of my melanoma mole.  I followed up with a phone call to the Dermatologist administrator, saying that I didn’t want a biopsy, and that I was not looking for a preliminary visit prior to surgery, that I needed to get this melanoma mole surgically removed, and then drive right back to North Dakota.  The expected cost was $300 to $800, depending on how much they had to cut out.

I am not looking forward to this twelve to fourteen hour drive to Idaho, and the twelve to fourteen hour drive back to Dickinson, North Dakota.  The gasoline cost alone will be $350.  The weather this month has consistently been below 0 degrees Fahrenheit.  I know that the interstates will be snowy and icy the whole way.  If my vehicle breaks down, especially at night, I will be in a very dangerous situation, due to the extreme cold weather.

These Protests And Lawsuits Are Good For Dickinson, North Dakota

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I am becoming more and more encouraged when I read the Dickinson Press newspaper or Google Local News, and I learn about more protests and lawsuits in Dickinson, North Dakota.  I am glad that all different kinds of people in Dickinson are protesting, fighting, and bringing their mistreatment and grievances to light, where it becomes known, for everyone to see.

There is a well known quote by Edmund Burke, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

  • I am glad that the former City of Dickinson Streets Maintenance manager David Armendariz protested his dismissal.  At the Civil Service Commission hearing, many facts came out, such as the City of Dickinson using recycled concrete for road base where Class V material was specified, 4 out of 5 of the past Civil Service Commission hearings arising from the Public Works Department, and who the Civil Service Commission were.  This led me and probably other readers to more discoveries about the Civil Service Commission, former City Attorney Goos’ dismissal, and the Strom Center at Dickinson State University.
  • I am glad that Dickinson property owner Carlos Royal has created a GoFundMe page to raise funds to begin a class action lawsuit against the City of Dickinson.

    Carlos Royal is attempting to raise $50,000 to challenge the city’s tax assessment process on behalf of “all the property owners in Dickinson who have over-assessed properties.”  This led me and probably other readers to try to find out more about the City of Dickinson’s Tax Abatement Hearings.

  • It was a huge surprise and shock that Dickinson Public Schools Superintendent

    Doug Sullivan presented a letter of resignation on Monday, January 8 to the School Board at the end of a regularly scheduled meeting.  Doug Sullivan’s resignation came after the School Board approved a long list other resignations from longtime Dickinson Public Schools teachers and administrators.  It appears to me that all of these teachers’ resignations coming at the same time is a protest response to something, that people in Dickinson should try to find out about.

    Fortunately for the City of Dickinson, they just recently switched from having the City represented by an attorney from the Mackoff Kellogg law firm, to hiring a full-time City employee City Attorney Jan Murtha, who is probably on a fixed salary, so they won’t have to pay for hourly billing from a law firm.

    Dickinson Public Schools Superintendent Doug Sullivan’s resignation seemed to me, to be like the song written by David Allen Coe, “Take this job and shove it!, I ain’t working here no more…”

    But to me, who didn’t know what it was like to be treated like a Black person, until I came to work in Dickinson, here is what I think about protesting in Dickinson:

 

I Didn’t Like What I Was Reading About The Civil Service Commission In Dickinson, North Dakota

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My previous two blog posts were about the disputed termination of former Dickinson Street Maintenance manager David Armendariz and his hearing with the Civil Service Commission.  In a second article by the Dickinson Press from December 12 about the deliberation and finding of the Civil Service Commission, it concluded that there was nothing wrong with the City of Dickinson’s termination of David Armendariz.

This finding of the Civil Service Commission made me wonder, would the Civil Service Commission ever disagree with what the City of Dickinson does?  Who are the members of the Civil Service Commission, and how are they appointed?

I have seen many times in my life, where an individual has the mistaken belief that a company or an organization will do what is right, be a fair arbiter of fact, adhere to some kind of ethics, or do what they said they were going to do.  Some companies and organizations have a methodology of stating and appearing that they will act in good faith, but proceed to delay, waste time with formality and processes, dilute facts, disregard evidence, introduce doubt, create ambiguity, with the intention of finding in the end, whatever suited their interests.

To give an example, I have read more than several newspaper articles where an individual claimed that an Electric Company, Water Company, or Gas Company removed all of the money from the individual’s bank account through an auto-pay billing or debit card transaction, due to a supposed $10,000 charge.  Here is how Electric Companies, Water Companies, and Gas Companies handle this type of dispute by a customer:

Dear Mr. Smith,

We have investigated the matter concerning your belief that you were incorrectly charged for services.  We have conducted a review of all pertinent information and examined our records.  We can find no error in billing on our part, and the charges are correct.

Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

Yours Truly,

Asshole at the Electric Company

The reason that I have read more than several of these stories in the newspaper, is because the only way that these individuals were able to get their money back, was by going to a television station or newspaper and getting a reporter to go to the Electric Company, Water Company, or Gas Company and begin investigating for their news story.  At that time, when the Electric Company, Water Company, or Gas Company management learned that everything was going to be exposed, which might lead to them losing their job, they always gave the money back and issued the following statement:

“There has been a misunderstanding, which has now been addressed and resolved with Mr. Smith.”

I could go on with more stories about people mistakenly believing that a company or an organization was going to be a fair arbiter of fact, but I won’t.  The point that I want to make is this, I don’t know why any individual in Dickinson would think that they were going to get anywhere with the Civil Service Commission based on the history of outcomes.  Why even bother.

One way that the Civil Service Commission benefits the City of Dickinson, is that individuals never get anywhere, their claims are denied.  Not only are the individual’s claims denied, but the City of Dickinson doesn’t even have to pay an attorney to accomplish this.

From now on, if any employee of the City of Dickinson feels like they were unjustly or unfairly treated, hire an attorney, sue the City of Dickinson.  Don’t even waste your time going to the Civil Service Commission.

Once the City of Dickinson has to litigate again, and again, and again, then you might start to see some real change in personnel and practices with the City of Dickinson.

David Armendariz’s Rejection Of Reclaimed Concrete For Road Material

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In my previous blog post, I wrote about former Dickinson Street Maintenance manager David Armendariz’s hearing before the Civil Service Commission regarding his dismissal.  At this hearing, David Armendariz said that he believed that he was terminated, because he refused to accept and approve reclaimed concrete for use in road construction instead of the “Class V” material that was specified.

I can see what David was trying to accomplish by rejecting the reclaimed concrete as a substitute for “Class V” material.  In part, David might have been wrong, but I don’t know if anybody knows why, so I will try to explain this.

I received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, not Civil Engineering.  I worked as an estimator, superintendent, project manager, inspector, and engineer on many types of projects.  I was certified by the Arizona Department of Transportation as an inspector, and I was certified as a nuclear density gauge operator to test density, a.k.a “compaction”.

In my career, very early on, I experienced my company owner, other company owners, and project owners, trying to get me to do something that was not right, to sign off on, approve, allow, cover up, or participate in work that was faulty, failing, deficient, or substandard.  I had to think about, who was this going to harm, who was this going to endanger, what are the possible consequences, and who would take the blame for this?

I realized that in just about every case, should the deficiency be discovered, should the work fail, should someone become hurt, the person who asked me to bend or break the rules would be saying, “I don’t know anything about it, you need to talk to that engineer who inspected it, signed off on it, and said that everything was O.K.”

David Armendariz did not want to accept reclaimed concrete as a substitute for “Class V” material, even if the Dickinson Public Works Director told him verbally that this was O.K., because David knew that if anything wrong happened later, he would be the one to take the blame, because he was the one who approved it and allowed it to be used.

David Armendariz also said that he did not want to use the reclaimed concrete because it did not compact.  I know exactly what David Armendariz was talking about when he said this.  If you have ever received a load of clean washed gravel at a jobsite, that has stones all the same size, with no fine material, running a compactor over this, is like running a compactor over marbles, everything just vibrates and it doesn’t compact.  You could look at a batch of reclaimed concrete, with no fines, and think that this is going to be like trying to compact a bunch of marbles.

The governing authority on road construction in North Dakota, is the North Dakota Department of Transportation Standard Specification For Road And Bridge Construction specification book.  This book published by the ND DOT, is 590 pages in length.  You can look it up on the internet, and read all 590 pages.

I found the sections of this ND DOT specification book, that state that reclaimed concrete is an allowable substitute for any class of aggregate specified for road base, however, this reclaimed concrete still has a gradation requirement:

From the ND DOT SSRBC:

SECTION 302, AGGREGATE BASE AND SURFACE COURSE

302.03 MATERIALS

When the Plans specify a class of aggregate for the base, the Contractor may substitute Salvaged Base Course that meets Section 817, “Salvaged Base Course.”

 

SECTION 817, SALVAGED BASE COURSE

E. Salvage Base Course Containing Concrete Material.
Salvaged base course may be up to 100 percent concrete material.

B. Salvaged Base Course Gradation.
Sieve Size           Percent Passing
1-1/2 inch           100
1 inch                  90 – 100
No. 4                    35 – 85
No. 30                 16 – 50
No. 200               0.0 – 12.0

To be clear, the ND DOT SSRBC says that when the plans specify a class of aggregate for the base, the contractor may substitute salvaged base course that meets the requirement of section 817.  Section 817 says that the salvaged base course may be up to 100% concrete material, however section 817 also has a gradation requirement for the material.  100% of the material must pass through a 1-1/2″ sieve, 90% to 100% of the material must pass through a 1″ sieve, 35%-85% through a No. 4 sieve and so on.

I can understand David Armendariz trying to not accept reclaimed concrete that did not appear to have the required mix of material sizes, but the ND DOT SSRBC does allow reclaimed concrete to be substituted for aggregate used as base material.

Too bad nobody got out the ND DOT Standard Specifications For Road And Bridge Construction specification book, like a year ago.  But it is hard to read, in sections that refer to sections that refer to sections.

The Disputed Termination Of David Armendariz In Dickinson, North Dakota

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David Armendariz was hired as the City of Dickinson street maintenance manager in February of 2016.

In the summer of 2017, I was working on a project in Dickinson, when David Armendariz came up to me and introduced himself to me.  He was interested in what my thoughts were on a particular problem with a street that he was responsible for maintaining.

I was surprised that he was taking the time to ask me.  It was obvious that he was genuinely concerned about what was occurring with this street, though the impact of what we were doing would have only a minor effect.  But still, his professionalism and the time that he took to stop and become informed on what was going on, made a good impression with me.

I was surprised at first, when I read a Dickinson Press newspaper article from December 12, 2017 titled, “Former streets manager disputes termination”.  I was surprised at first, but within less than one minute, I was not surprised.  Having met David Armendariz, and remembering the positive impression that he had made with me, as someone who was professional and concerned about doing a good job, it was not a surprise that Dickinson was firing someone like this, because Dickinson, North Dakota, is backwards, messed up, and sometimes corrupt.

Before I even began to read the details in the Dickinson Press newspaper article about the disputed termination, I felt that this whole situation was very bad.  A City of Dickinson employee feeling that they were so unjustly and unfairly treated by the City of Dickinson, that they filed a formal complaint and requested a hearing with the Civil Service Commission.  From the kind of person that I believed David Armendariz to be, no nonsense and professional, I believed that there must have been something not right going on.

After I had read this entire Dickinson Press newspaper article about the hearing before the three-person Civil Service Commission, the facts that appeared to support David Armendariz were as follows:

  1. David claimed that the City of Dickinson Public Works director had pressured him to allow and approve the use of reclaimed concrete for road projects instead of the “Class V” material that was specified.  David said that he would not approve the use of reclaimed concrete because it did not compact.  The Public Works director argued with him, saying that the City of Dickinson had often used reclaimed concrete in place of “Class V” material, and that “Class V” material was hard to get.  David believed that his refusal to do what the Public Works director wanted, led to his dismissal.  ( I will write a second blog post article about this, to explain why this is significant.)
  2.  As many as seven current and former City of Dickinson Street Department employees appeared at the Civil Service Commission hearing and testified on behalf of David Armendariz, stating that he was a good manager and professional, and that the Street Department did have a culture and history of division.

When I read that as many as seven current and former employees of the City of Dickinson Street Department testified on behalf of David Armendariz at his hearing, and when I read what they were quoted as saying, this explained everything to me.  Especially in Dickinson, co-workers tend to keep their mouth shut in situations where someone has a conflict with management, because they don’t want to jeopardize their own jobs.

The fact that David Armendariz was not from Dickinson, and had only been the street maintenance manager for a little over 1-1/2 years, and so many co-workers were willing to come to a hearing and give testimony on his behalf, tells me that he must have been held in very high regard by his co-workers.  The people who worked with David on a daily basis, felt that he did a good job, and did not find fault with him.

It appeared to me that the City of Dickinson Public Works Director did not like David Armendariz, wanted him gone, and began the process of creating the paperwork in order to have a legal and legally defensible termination.  The Public Works Director had the following complaints against David Armendariz:

  1. Failure to track incoming calls.
  2. Failure to properly code invoices.
  3. Because of #1 and #2, it appears that the Public Works Director wanted to claim that David did not understand the computer software, David did not know how to use computers, David had insufficient job knowledge, David did not meet department expectations, David received four disciplinary actions including three written warnings.

The only specific things that it was claimed that David failed to do, was track incoming calls, and properly code invoices.  All of the other allegations, seemed to be unsubstantiated general claims of “insufficient job knowledge”, “not meeting department expectations”, and “substandard work performance”.

From having worked for different companies for 30 years, if anyone ever hands an employee a written warning or a “work improvement plan”, that employee had better start looking for another job, because this is the beginning of the end for him or her.  The reason that I say this, is because if an employee is liked, a supervisor or co-worker will gladly work with them on something that they are not good at or knowledgeable about, without any negativity involved, or any need for a supervisor to document “substandard work performance”.

Another way to state this is, if a company plans on keeping an employee, they don’t start pulling out written warning sheets and work improvement plans.  These documents are only needed in legal defense for an upcoming termination.

Also, from having worked for different companies for 30 years, if you are a street department manager, and the worst thing that you have done is improperly code invoices and not track incoming phone calls, this is not a big deal.

What is a big deal, is the failure of the Public Works Department to properly inspect the construction of the four-lane concrete Roers’ Road which in now collapsing, and the failure of the Public Works Department to notice that the new water tower was constructed 70′ too high and water could not be pumped into it.  These two examples, which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to correct, are examples of things that someone might be fired for.

The three-person Civil Service Commission that heard David Armendariz’s appeal of his termination, I am not sure that they are not primarily looking out for the interests of the City of Dickinson.  Who appointed the members of the Civil Service Commission?  Are they always people whose backgrounds, careers, and work experience would make them likely to have allegiance to City government?

Could any employee appearing before the Civil Service Commission ever expect to receive a decision different than what the City government has already decided?  Is this commission just a tactic to try to diffuse an employees’ attempt at legal recourse?

In my next blog post, I will explain the significance of not going along with other people’s requests to deviate from specification requirements.

You May Not Want To Stop In The Small Towns Of North Dakota

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I have lived and worked in North Dakota for a little over five years now.  I have worked in the following towns, in order of largest to smallest:  Bismarck – 73K;  Dickinson – 25K;  Watford City – 6K;  New Town – 3K;  Killdeer – 2K;  New England – 1K;  Belfield – 1K;  Richardton – 600;  South Heart – 500;  Taylor – 300;  Gladstone – 300; and Dunn Center – 200.

When I arrived for the first time in North Dakota back in 2011, at first everything was a new and exciting adventure for me.  Within about three months of living and working in North Dakota, it became more of frightening, worrisome, and scary adventure.  I came to have a great deal of apprehension about what my employer, co-workers, local people, and the Police were going to do to me next.

I came to realize that many or most of the local people from North Dakota were hostile, mean, unfriendly, hateful, uncooperative, and not helpful.  I came to be worried about my safety at work because my co-workers were not careful, so many of them were getting hurt, and everyone seemed to find a way to injure their co-workers.  It was as if the employers in Dickinson could not see the disarray, or straighten things out, however in time it came to appear more likely that the employers in Dickinson deliberately wanted the disorder and ineffectiveness, for reasons that I won’t elaborate on now.

The Police in Dickinson also seemed to have a hatred for people, and a predatory desire to arrest as many people as possible.  Before long, living in Dickinson for me became like being in prison.  There was no where to go, nothing to do, I was in danger of physical harm all day every day, and the Police were always trying to get me for something.

When I went to work outside of Dickinson in some place new, I looked at it as an opportunity to go to a better place.  I thought that in some other place, there might be nicer people, attractive women, or better restaurants.  In the places that I worked outside of Dickinson, I came to find out that most of them were even more unpleasant than Dickinson.

Outside of Dickinson, there were even less attractive women, and even less restaurants.  In Watford City, the Police were even more aggressive and constantly trying to sneak up on me, even more so than in Dickinson.

Within a couple of years of living in North Dakota, and having worked in several small towns, I learned to be very cautious about the small towns.  You have to be very watchful and careful about the small town Police.  Because there is very little going on in small towns, the Police do not have a lot to do.  They spend their time fantasizing about crime, criminals, and making a big arrest.

When a vehicle that the Police do not recognize drives through a small town in North Dakota, that vehicle and its occupants assume the roles that the Police officer has been fantasizing about for days, weeks, months, and years.  They want to try to stop your vehicle for any reason whatsoever, so that they can see who you are, ask you questions, decipher and detect what crime you are involved in, and make an arrest.

Also in the small towns in North Dakota, the local people are not that different than the small town Police in their fantasizing, imagining, and mistrust for people from somewhere else.

I decided to write this blog post, because of two recent incidents that happened to me.  I began working about one hour’s drive from Dickinson in the beginning of November.  At first, I was happy to be getting out of Dickinson, and I was looking forward to change.  I hoped that I might meet some nice people or attractive women in the rural, sparsely populated area that I was going to.

The closest town to my job site, is about ten miles away.  The small gas station in this town, and the small grocery store both close at 6:00 p.m., which is before I get off work at night.  After a couple of weeks of being alone all night after work, staying in a trailer at the job site, I looked forward to going to a restaurant for dinner in a town about 20 miles away.

When I got to the town 20 miles away, I found that the restaurant closes at 7:00 p.m., I was too late.  I went to the grocery store in this town, which closes at 8:00 p.m.  After I had paid for my groceries, and I was walking out of this store carrying my groceries to my vehicle, a store employee came outside and held up his cell phone pointing it at me to either photograph me or video record me going to my vehicle.

At that moment, I was both slightly amused and slightly irritated.  This was such a big deal, someone that they did not know coming into their grocery store, that they had to photograph me.  Their imaginations must have been running wild, who knows what they thought I was going to do.  After a few more minutes, I felt insulted.

As I was driving back to the job site, I began to think that this was not good.  If the people in this grocery store were so sure that I was some kind of criminal, so convinced of this that one of them followed me outside to photograph me and my vehicle, maybe I should just buy all of my groceries in Dickinson.

My current job assignment is a good one.  I am taking over from a ten year employee who recently got let go due to a conflict with a local person at the job site.  No one could have foreseen that what this ten year employee did would have resulted in him losing his job, but it did.  I do not want the same thing to happen to me, so I do not want to have any conflict with the local people.

The day following the incident at the grocery store 20 miles away, I had to take the company vehicle to the gas station 10 miles away from the job site to get fuel.  This was the fourth time this month that I have had to take this company vehicle to this gas station where there is a company account.

This time, the middle-aged woman at this gas station could not understand or did not want to understand anything that I was saying to her.  I said to her that the vehicle parked at pump #3, (which has the company name on the door and was parked closest to the store window), we have a company account under the name …., I would like to put about xx gallons in it.  She could not understand what I was saying, though I repeated what I was saying, twice to her.  An older man at the counter to told me to go ahead.

I went outside, and I tried to get the pump to start more that several times, but it would not start.  Keep in mind, that this was the fourth time that I had taken this company vehicle to this gas station this month.  I gave up trying to put fuel in it, and I began cleaning each of the windows, while I thought about what I wanted to do.  I did not want to get into a conflict with these people.

This was the only gas station in this town, and it was 10 miles from the job site.  The next closest gas station was 20 miles from the job site.  The owner of the company had opened an account with this gas station.  Any kind of disagreement whatsoever, even a minor one, I am sure that these people at this gas station would have told the company owner how “rude” I was.  Then, they would have started politicking with the local people about what a “rude” and “asshole” person I was, and very likely gotten me fired, just like the person who I replaced.

Meanwhile, during this delay, a couple of local people stopped and asked me about what I was doing, one because he did not recognize my vehicle, and the other because he did recognize my vehicle.  I am not supposed to say anything whatsoever about the project that I am working on, and anything that I said would jeopardize my job.

I went back inside the gas station, prepared to say that I would send someone else back tomorrow to get fuel, I needed to go and didn’t need the fuel right now.  I needed to tell them that I did not get fuel, so that there would be no misunderstanding, or a billing for the fuel amount that was already displayed at the pump.  The older man started the pump, and I got fuel.

Were the people at this gas station, trying to be difficult?  Were they trying to start a problem?  This is the only gas station in this town.  Any kind of disagreement, I would have lost.  The owner of the company would have thought, why can’t I just go get fuel without getting into an argument, what is wrong with me?  I don’t know, why can’t I just go get fuel, like I have been for the past 32 years of driving?

I talked to a co-worker, a North Dakota native who is older than me, who has worked at this job site longer than me, and I asked him if he had had problems at this gas station.  He said yes, but it had not come to the point of him having to leave without getting fuel.  I discussed that I might bring fuel from Dickinson, or I might wait until after this gas station closes at night, in order to get fuel with my own personal credit or debit card.  I do not want to get into any conflict with these local people, and I do not want to have any kind of delay in which local people want to ask me questions about work.

Essential Information On Working And Living In Dickinson, North Dakota

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I was an outsider to Dickinson, North Dakota.  I have now lived and worked in Dickinson for 5-1/2 years.  For the past three years, I have been writing about Dickinson on this blog website.  After writing, thinking, discussing, and searching hard for answers, about why Dickinson is the way that it is, I finally think that I have the answers.

I have seen and experienced that the local people from Dickinson have hatred, hostility, bitterness, resentment, maliciousness, and malevolence for the non-local people who have come to Dickinson to work.  Non-local people will experience this most profoundly at work in Dickinson.

I believe that one of the causes for the hatred of non-local people, was the Catholic Church here in Dickinson.  The Catholic Church here in Dickinson, was probably the biggest social and cultural influence for many years.  This Church did not teach kindness and helpfulness to others, but instead it taught foremost to protect one’s own family, Catholics, and the Catholic Church.  The Catholic Church here in Dickinson instilled an attitude of elitism and the belief of superiority of one’s own family, Catholics, and the Catholic Church, above all other people.

Another cause for the hatred of non-local people in Dickinson, has been the oil boom that made some local families rich, while other local families remained poor.  With it not seeming right to the local people to have hatred and resentment towards their local neighbors who became rich, the local people re-directed their anger and resentment toward the non-local people.

Another cause for the hatred of non-local people in Dickinson, has been that the local people have always had work as their main focus in life.  In Dickinson, life has always been hard due to the very long and very cold winters.  Work and surviving was the primary focus of people in Dickinson.  Unlike other places in the United States where entertainment, recreation, and social activities were a big part of people’s lives, Dickinson never had this.  In Dickinson, the local people’s identities, meaning, and purpose in life, was work.

During the oil boom that occurred in Dickinson from 2007 to 2014, and especially now that the oil boom is over and many jobs have recently gone away, the local people from Dickinson have been hostile, hateful, mean, uncooperative, and undermining to their non-local co-workers.  It wasn’t until recently that I determined that the specific primary cause for this, was that local people from Dickinson get their identity, meaning, and purpose in life, from work.

Unlike other places in the United States where people have many different interests and things that are important in their lives, the local people from Dickinson have just one primary focus, that is their job.  There is a shortage of women in Dickinson, and a scarcity of attractive women.  There are not enough women to go around.  The pursuit of romantic relationships is not common in Dickinson.  There is not much reason for people to go out or socialize in Dickinson.  Nor are there many places to go in Dickinson, or things to do.

The time that other people living in other places put into playing sports, exercising, recreation, entertainment, shopping, going out, socializing, dating, and having fun, the local people from Dickinson never had that, they just put all of their time into work.  Work was their focus, meaning, identity, and purpose in life.

In summary, the local people from Dickinson are so hostile, hateful, unfriendly, bitter, resentful, malicious, malevolent, and undermining to non-local people because the Catholic Church has taught the local people to feel superior to others; there is anger and resentment over some local families becoming rich, and this anger is re-directed toward non-local people; the local people have only work as the meaning and purpose in their lives, the non-local co-workers are a threat to the local people from Dickinson in their only purpose and reason for living.

What this means for people from out of state who come to work in Dickinson, is that your local co-workers from Dickinson will try to get you to leave because you are a threat to their very existence and reason for living.

Thinking About A Normal Life In Dickinson, North Dakota

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In my previous blog post, I wrote about going to a job in Dickinson, where they wanted me to stand and work on a two foot wide elevated platform from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.  During this 15 hours of standing and working on this platform by myself, I had a lot of time to think.  One of the things that I was thinking about, was that this is bullshit, and this is not normal.

Something else that I was thinking about, was what I wrote in my recent previous blog post titled “Jobs, Employment, and Working In Dickinson, North Dakota”.  I wrote about local co-workers from Dickinson having hatred, hostility, bitterness, malevolence, maliciousness, and ill intentions towards their out of state co-workers in Dickinson.

These long work hours and remote locations, provide local co-workers from Dickinson abundant opportunity to conceive, plan, and carry out their ill intentions and meanness against their non-local co-workers.

I believe, that it is abnormal and deviant, to have extreme hatred towards others, to think up plans on how to harm others, and to carry out hostility, hatred, and maliciousness towards others.  I think that it is abnormal and wrong, to try to hatch hateful plans against others at work.

If you have ever read about convicted criminals who have committed crimes of violence against other people, sometimes against people that they have never met, or if you have watched documentaries on these convicted criminals, it is most often the case that they had unbalanced, abnormal, anti-social lives.  Often, they were reclusive, with no friends, no romantic relationships, no social activities or interaction, and they kept to themselves spending an inordinate amount of time on one thing.  This describes life for most local workers from Dickinson.

In Dickinson, there is a shortage of women, and a scarcity of attractive women.  There are not enough women to go around, and most of the women are not very attractive.  In the past several years living in Dickinson, the people that I know and have worked with, none of them were pursuing women, or any romantic relationship.  Because they were not pursuing women or any romantic relationship, there was often no reason for them to go out, go anywhere, or socialize.

There is not a lot to do in Dickinson.  People do not have many things to look forward to.  People in Dickinson spend way too much time working.  It is like the time that other people in other places use for having fun, doing things that they like, and socializing, in Dickinson this time just gets applied to work.  This is one reason why I think that the local people in Dickinson are so hateful, hostile, and resentful at work.

At this time in Dickinson, it may only be the workers from out of state, that know in other areas of the country, people “work to live”, they don’t “live to work”.  In Florida where I am from, there were many fun things for people to do all year:  Surf, sail, sailboard, water ski, jet ski, swim, scuba dive, boat, fish from boats, fish offshore, fish from bridges, fish from beaches, go crabbing, go clamming, go oystering, go shrimping, sun bathe, ride motorcycles, ride bikes, rollerblade, jog, walk, hike, play tennis, play golf, and more.  People of all ages searched for and pursued romantic relationships.

In Florida, people loved to have fun, recreate, go shopping, socialize, go out to eat, and enjoy life.  For most people in Florida, work was something that took time away from the things that they would rather be doing.

I will drop talking about Florida, and briefly use the example of another state, Arizona.  There were many fun activities in Arizona that people could do all year.  People in Arizona also liked to go shopping, socialize, and enjoy life.  People in Arizona would have liked to have spent less time working, and more time doing the things that they liked to do outside of work.

In the Dickinson area, generations of people did not have fun things or fun activities to do.  Life in the Dickinson area was very difficult.  It was difficult just to survive due to the very long and very cold winters, and the barrenness of the land.  There is still not a lot to do in Dickinson, and there is a scarcity of attractive women.

The local people from Dickinson, historically, culturally, and genetically, for generation after generation, they have gotten up way too early in the morning, sat in their dirty worn work clothes, smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee, talking and muttering about work for an hour, before there was even enough light outside to go do any work.  In Dickinson, the local people like to try to “sneak up on work” or try to “get a head start on work”, when really they are just wasting time being miserable, and they don’t even know it.

In Arizona or Florida, an educated business owner would see this behavior, and put an end to it.  He would probably say, “At the end of each day, that is the time to clean the garbage out of your work truck, to load the equipment and material that you will need for the following day onto your truck, and to inform the workers what they will be doing the following day.  There is no need to get here at 4:00 a.m. or 5:00 a.m., 6:00 a.m. would be the earliest you would need to get here, it is not even daylight at 6:00 a.m.  I want my employees to have a normal work-life balance.  I don’t want my employees to get burned out, be unhappy, and be unproductive.  Also, I am not going to pay overtime every week for people to get here at 5:00 a.m. half asleep, to sit around smoking, drinking coffee, and muttering.”

People in Dickinson spend way too much time at work.  This is partly because the local people from Dickinson don’t have anything or don’t know of anything that they would rather be doing.  The local people from Dickinson, the focus of their life is on work, even if they are just an oil field service worker.  And I don’t mean their focus is on excellence.  They just burrow in like a tick at their job.

They have got to get to their job early in the morning, smoke a certain amount of cigarettes, drink a certain amount of coffee, talk for a certain amount of time, and accomplish absolutely nothing for about one hour.  Then it is load equipment and material, and go get fuel, when all of this could have been done the day before.  In my observation, these activities are all attempts to make the work day longer than it needed to be.

There is not the pursuit of excellence, insight, innovation, growth, progression, or increased effectiveness of the local people at their job.  Instead the local workers from Dickinson spend their time, energy, and mental faculties on trying to find something wrong with what their co-workers are doing, and trying to find ways to hinder and undermine their co-workers.

This is what I mean when I say that the local workers from Dickinson try to burrow in to their job like a tick.  What they are doing is not particularly beneficial, helpful, or productive, it is sometimes counter productive.  They have got to get to their job early, and stay there late, like they can’t let go of their job and go do something else.  They don’t have anything else, their job is their life and their identity.

I think that this is another reason why the local people from Dickinson try to drive their co-workers away.  This job is their entire life, their identity, and their purpose.  Without this job they don’t have anywhere to go, anything to do, or any purpose in life.  I think that this is abnormal and not a very good way to live your life.