A Busy Year for Williston | Video

Evan Kruegel | 12/31/2012

The city of Williston still needs a lot of work, with ongoing issues involving infrastructure, schools, and housing. But for city officials, the past year provided hope that the challenges can be met.

"2012 was a good year for the city. We had a lot of issues and challenges we had to deal with, but we had a lot of opportunities, and I think we made a lot of progress,” said Mayor Ward Koeser.

It was a year chock-full of regulations. The city placed a moratorium on man camps, banned mobile food vendors and then banned RVs and campers from setting up inside city limits. Koeser says they weren`t easy decisions, but they were ones that had to be made.

"They were the types of things you need to do today to make sure you have a better day tomorrow. And although they`re not fun and you know that you`re probably creating a hardship for some people, I think you have to look at the whole community and the larger picture and make the decisions that will be best for the community down the road."

While Koeser feels like it was a successful year all-around, he`s especially proud of the 1,500 new homes that have become available in the last twelve months. The additional homes haven`t been enough, and prices are still far too high. Housing will be the main focus of city officials as they head into 2013.

"What I really wish we could do is have affordable housing. If there was one thing I would like to see it`s that. I think in a years time there`s going to be more housing and I think you`ll start to find availability, I`m concerned that it wont be affordable yet in a year, I think that could take a couple of years but I think we`ll at least see it available a year from now."

While 2012 was a difficult year, it also came with its share of success stories. Thousands of people were able to turn their lives around by moving to Williston, and for Koeser, that`s cause for celebration.

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