Editorial: Dickinson municipal employees have full plates

Talk about it

A man cannot be blamed for looking out for his well-being and stepping back from high-stress situations.

Dickinson City Engineer Shawn Soehren did just that as he announced his resignation Tuesday.

Soehren took on hundreds of projects over his 12-year tenure in a city that is bustling more and more with every day — every hour that passes.

This is a city that is working on upgrades to its wastewater facilities, has garbage collection issues, heavy equipment tears up its roads and numerous transportation complications put many roads in need of traffic-flow upgrades.

There are hundreds of people moving to the area weekly thanks to the oil boom and this has many municipal leaders scratching their heads, and in some cases pulling out their hair, dealing with the complications that come along with a flood of people.

Soehren was tasked with everything from reviewing areas for annexations to snow removal proposals. Street lights to non-stop zoning and rezone requests all need to be analyzed and he was in the mix of that.

Soehren is among city leaders to keep on top of day-to-day operations and likely much more. He is among the many others working in a public capacity in western North Dakota who takes calls and visits from various dignitaries who are curious about this booming city life that is unlike that of any other.

Soehren also works with building inspections, infrastructure and other planning and zoning projects.

The Dickinson Planning and Zoning Department is working with Grand Forks to ease Dickinson’s commercial and large structure permitting process, which are a few weeks behind — a good idea that could be useful to other departments.

And it’s likely finding good help in the Oil Patch is only going to get harder. Unfortunately, many of those like Soehren who perform proficiently are likely to move on.

Oil Patch cities are going to have to continue coming up with practices such as the Grand Forks partnership to catch up — and maybe even get ahead, if the arrangements work.

For now, Soehren is willing to help with the transition of the next city engineer, which is to be commended.

And of course, we must give our thanks to Mr. Soehren for the many times he took to talk to The Press, answering questions and sharing information with the community.

Our best to you.

Dickinson Press Publisher Harvey Brock and Editor Jennifer McBride are on the Editorial Board.

Tags: opinion, editorial, editorials