As the price of oil goes, so goes Williston, North Dakota. Now, though, the community located deep in the state’s Bakken shale play is working to break free from the industry’s boom-and-bust cycles. When oil sold for $100 a barrel, Williston — one among many oil towns dotting the nation’s shale basins — grew faster than its infrastructure and services could handle. There was a housing shortage, a too-small police force and endless traffic tie-ups. Then the bust hit, with oil prices falling below $30, and Williston lost around 4,000 residents in just a year as the industry responded with massive layoffs. Bad news? Not according to some. Even as the population fell, school enrollment and birth rates rose, adding incentives to improve infrastructure and services as Williston veered away from a population heavy with transient […]