Williston Annexes 5,000 Acres | Video

Chris Williams | 2/1/2013

In 1987 Williston was about 7 square miles. Fast forward to 2012 the city was around 13 square miles. On Thursday night, the city commission voted to approve the Northern Annexation plan, which bumps the city up to just over 20 square miles. With the new addition, some long time Williams county residents are now inside city limits, and some have a few questions.

City Commissioners voted to approve the northern annexation, which brings around 5,000 acres of county land into city limits. The city will now end at Loves Truck stop on County Road 6.

"None of us have in our mind that we`re doing this annexation to get any money, or any more money from anyone else out there. The annexations are being driven by the need for infrastructure development,” said Finance Commissioner Brad Bekkedahl.

During the meeting, residents had the chance to ask questions about changes they might face living in the city, as opposed to the county.

Jerry Graham/Resident "One of the questions are people are having is propane. I don`t really see that addressed in any of the literature I`ve looked at. We`re basically all self sufficient with propane, sewer systems, water systems, and really have no desire to hook up to any of those services, at least at this time,” said Jerry Graham whose land is affected by the annexation.

City residents pay a different fee than county residents to hook up to sewer, water, and gas lines.

"If you`re functioning with your septic sewer system, anybody out there, and it`s doing fine for you, and you don`t need to be on our system, you just ask us when you want to be on our system. We don`t force that upon you if you have a system that’s functioning,” Bekkedahl added.

The same holds true for water and gas. Residents also had concerns about some city codes that might affect them. Two big ones were barbed wire fences are not allowed in the city, and shooting guns is also not allowed.

"If we have issues like that that are not addressed appropriately to your area, I think we`ll look at that and use some common sense,” Bekkedahl added.

Animals will be grand fathered in. If residents have at least 10 acres, their land will remain agricultural, and that`s all one resident wants.

"We kind of feel like if we could remain agricultural we’d probably be happy. Whether they call us city or not, if we were agricultural, in reading the literature, I think we could probably live with those kind of things,” added Graham.

Of the 5,000 acres, the owners of 897 acres were against the annexation.

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