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• It's the newcomers, suddenly earning $2,000 and more a week, who are spending, said Judy Farris, general manager of The Bar in Midland and a lifelong resident.
• "You can tell the difference between the people who have been here and been through it and those that haven't," said the 58-year-old.
• "People are enjoying their money, but they're wiser," she added, sitting in the darkened tavern and restaurant where local lore says countless multimillion-dollar oil deals have been cut on the backs of napkins and with a handshake over a beer.
• Rolls Royce hasn't reopened its dealership. There aren't as many mansions going up. And Perry is taking heat for offering tax breaks for the proposed high-rise.
• "They've been through this before. They believe when this happens, the bust is upon us," Perry said.
• Just ask those in North Dakota's oil patch. Williston, in the heart of the Bakken shale petroleum reserves, was left in the 1980s with $28 million in debt and saddled with abandoned trailer parks.
• But now the state leads the nation in population growth, boasts a nearly $2 billion budget surplus and has the lowest jobless rate in the nation, as well as 21,000 unfilled positions. A study released in July estimates Williston's population has doubled since the 2010 census to between 25,000 and 33,000 people. And that may not account for all those in "man camps," the hastily built communities of tents and trailers that house thousands of oil workers.
• Mayor Ward Koeser believes the city is doing a better job than it did in the 1970s.
• "The big thing is it's given us opportunity," he said. "We were too small and too remote to make things happen without it."
• Some decisions, however, indicate memory may be short. Williston is building a community center so large a Walmart Supercenter could fit inside. Funded by the city's sales tax collections, it will have an Olympic-size swimming pool, basketball and tennis courts, a running track, a golf simulator and other features. It's designed to keep oilmen busy when they aren't working and encourage their families to move in, Koeser said.
• For Midland and Odessa residents, such projects run the risk of becoming vacant symbols of boom-time mistakes.
• Larry Melton, the former mayor of Odessa who stepped down in November after 12 years, says homes have to be built. Schools must expand. Police officers need to be hired. Road and infrastructure improvements can be delayed for only so long.
• And yet, a good plan needs to consider the future, too, he said.
• "At some point, we're going to have a downturn," Melton said. "We'll have excess housing. We'll still have transportation problems, and we'll still have water issues."
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