00:00:10,730	Welcome. Today is December 30th, 2024. It is 5:30 and we are in the Bosch Frelich meeting room, Mandan City Hall. City administrator Neubauer, could you please take the role, roar here Schoberg here, Mayor Frelich here. Tonight we’re going to have Manan Police Chief Jason Zeigler. Lead us in the national anthem or not the national anthem.

00:00:42,330	Well, it’s gonna be an interesting Pledge of allegiance. Let’s try that one. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the Republic for which it stands, one nation. Under God, indivisible. Liberty and justice. Thank you Next week we’ll do this national anthem. Um Announcements.

00:01:15,400	I’m going to let Comm Hendon, uh, talk about Christmas in the park. Thank you, Mayor. I would just encourage all residents to come down to the park, uh Dykeshorn Park for the next 30, uh, some days here, uh, the park will be open every evening for the holiday lights on Maine and there’s some new attractions, so.

00:01:36,370	Uh, new exhibits lit up, so some changes from last year and I encourage everybody to come check it out. A lot of, a lot of fun down there over the last few nights, so. Thank you. Thank you and please um. patronize the Mandan businesses. Um, Commissioners, you have the agenda in front of you.

00:02:02,400	And he Changes If not, I would ask for a motion to approve. We have a motion by Comm Brown, a second by Comm Schoberg. Any further discussion, hearing none, roll call, please. Comm Braun, yes, Rohr. Yes, Schoberg. Hi, Mayor Frelich, yes. Under the minutes you’ve had a chance to review the minutes.

00:02:26,600	Could I have a uh motion to approve the minutes from November 19th. I make a motion to prove the November 19, 2004 minutes of the commission meeting. Second. We have a motion by Comm Rohr second by Comm Henon. Any further discussion? Seconded by Comm Brown, excuse me. Um, any further discussion? hearing non roll call, please. Schoberg Hera, Roar, Mayor Frelich. Yes.

00:03:03,200	OK, we’ll move on to agenda item F, which is a public hearing. But his final presentation and consideration of the arrived 2050 metropolitan. Transportation plan. Andrew Good evening, Mayor Fray and Commissioners.

00:03:28,930	I’m here to introduce a few folks, uh, who will be taking this item for the rest of the evening of the arrived 2050 Metropolitan Transportation plan is a relatively major transportation planning document that’s been prepared in conjunction with a couple of different local entities primarily coordinated by the Bismarck Manda Metropolitan Planning Organization, um, its general purpose is to outline some transportation planning priorities, ideas, and recommended projects and costs. that can be useful for future grant applications as we, uh, grow and expand and update our transportation network.

00:03:55,000	Um, again, just to make sure I’m getting my points, uh we’ve been working on the project for well over a year and a half. Um, I’ll be introducing Jason Carby from HDR Consulting to take it from. Uh, from where I leave off to the rest, however, um, he’ll kind of cover an outline of the.

00:04:13,200	Uh, the study’s preparation, how public input and and priorities were factored in. As well as the kind of general overarching goals and development themes that surrounded the document’s creation. For background info, the planning and zoning commission did recommend approval of this plan in its October 28th meeting.

00:04:34,300	Uh, it’s recommending acceptance of the MTP and tonight the NPO is requesting that the board of City Commissioners do, um, approve the arrive 2050 Metropolitan Transportation plan via resolution. So with this item after I hand it off to Jason, he’ll run through a presentation.

00:04:52,500	We do need to have a public hearing as it was advertised as a public hearing and the resolution of adoption is included under resolutions and ordinances. one in your packet. If there aren’t any other questions for me, I’ll introduce Jason Carby from HDR. Kim Ripple from the Bismarck Man and MPO is also here as well if any questions come up, um, the three of us, Jarek as well, are able to answer those. Thank you, Jason.

00:05:18,930	Right, and hopefully here in a second, you’ll be able to see some slides. Perfect. OK. Thank you. Basically, the agenda tonight is I’m going to do a very brief, uh, presentation on the long-range transportation plan.

00:05:41,000	Um, I’m gonna go through kind of the content of the document itself, um, but will be open to any questions you might have at the end, and we can go into more depth on anything you see up here, but I’ll try to keep it. pretty high level in brief. Um, so we had 11 chapters and when I kind of walk through all of those as part of this, uh, the presentation.

00:05:56,370	Um, this is one of, and I think Andrew did a good job kind of teeing this up, but this is one of kind of the main documents that the, the Metropolitan Planning Organization. And its partner jurisdictions are required to put together every 5 years. Basically, this is the Arrive 2050 plan, so meaning we are looking out to the year 2050.

00:06:12,200	You know, some of those shorter term, you know, projects and issues, we, we have a better focus on and know kind of the things that we really need to address in that shorter term. Longer term, it’s starting to get kind of some ideas together.

00:06:26,300	What are those longer term issues we might be, um, uh coming across and then, you know, how do we kind of start planning for some of these longer term, uh, projects. Um, one of the key things to note is this is for all modes of transportation. So for, uh, you know, driving cars, bikes, buses, pedestrians.

00:06:43,970	Um, it’s also physically constrained, which essentially we need to have a reasonable, the the projects that show up on that fiscally constrained list need to be reasonably fundable. Um, so we went through a process and again, there’s some federal guidelines that we need to follow, and there’s some federal goals, but the, the nice thing about this process is it really has a local flavor.

00:06:59,270	You know, we talked with the public, we talked with local, uh, planning and engineering jurisdictions. Um, you know, so Andrew and, and, and Jarrett got involved and, and so really got an idea of what the, you know, the local desires for that framework of that plan ought to be, um, identified 5 or 8 overarching goal areas, um, that kind of help shape the

00:07:20,070	plan. And really had a very kind of rigorous public engagement process, um, had both online and in person had public open houses on both sides of the river throughout this process. Um, it, it, especially at three major milestones as we went through it.

00:07:42,670	Um, but also, you know, had a stakeholders committee, so, um, also steering committee, so a lot of the technical staff from, you know, City of Mandan, City of Bismarck, all kind of came together and agreed on, you know, planned construction and direction as we walk through this.

00:07:58,100	Um, there’s a chapter on, you know, kind of the trends, you know, how is the community changing some of that growth we’ve had historically and how that might look going forward, but from a transportation perspective and just kind of a people and housing perspective as well.

00:08:17,400	Um, one of the, the more meaty chapters is the, the baseline transportation system performance, and we got into all these different perspectives of looking at congestion, safety, um, you know, connectivity, all kinds of different, you know, where’s the system today? And so looked at, you know, safety trends and crashes, both from a, you know, where are the highest crash locations, but also, you know, what are the trends for the entire region, um, looking at serious and fatal crashes, those crashes were really trying to eliminate through

00:08:33,200	this process. Looking at areas of congestion, you know, where they’re at today, but also recognizing that they’re starting to emerge, um, in the future. Um, and then kind of summary, I think one of the big things that’s always kind of come up every 5 years is the need for that cross-a travel and to really identify those

00:08:50,470	future corridors, um, on the, the mandan side really that need for good contiguous East West travel? How do we have those corridors where we can really get from, you know, West Mandan to East Mandan a little bit more efficiently or, or, or, or Northwest to southeast, um.

00:09:06,370	But those are some of the, the like long term projects we start laying out as a part of this process. So also part of this is looking to the future. So by 2050, we really anticipate, you know, a 30 to 40% growth in population, households, and jobs.

00:09:20,930	And we kind of looked at where a lot of that growth area, uh, would be, would be focused through this process for both households, um, and future employment locations. Um And then took that information about future growth and really focused on, OK, how is that going to affect how we travel as a community.

00:09:39,930	And so I started looking at, you know, some of those, those high growth areas, um, and, you know, you can see in, in, in North Mandan, um, you know, through the, you know, the, the, the interstate system through there, um, a lot of growth anticipated to occur through all that.

00:09:57,630	So but again, this translated in all this growth and travel and, you know, how long it takes to get from point A to point B, um, and so this is really the foundation of identifying. Existing issues and future issues and those things that, you know, we’re trying to address. And so through the process, we, you know, we would take, oh, you know, an issue popped up here.

00:10:12,930	What, you know, what kind of strategy should, should we consider and test and, and kind of identify maybe and help prioritize that might go into the plan. And so through that process, we’ve got this range of um different projects from different. Modal perspectives. Um, you know, we’ve got some big projects up here. Um, we’ve got like a, a thirty-eighth connection up there. We’ve got the North Bridge crossing, um.

00:10:33,870	Potential new interchange west of Mandan, um, you know, a and potential extension of Mckenzie. So, you know, a lot of different types of projects were considered, um. One of the key things as we go through this is understanding that has to be fiscally constrained.

00:10:52,270	And so a lot of, um, when you look at how transportation revenues have increased historically compared to transportation costs, um, purchasing power really is a historically gone down and we anticipated to continue to go down in the future. And so as we go through this, that really can constrain.

00:11:10,070	You know, which of those projects go into that fiscally constrained bin of, of projects, that being said, some of these might be great, you know, additional funding comes along, um, or if there’s a grant opportunity, something like that. Some of these projects were not discarding, but we’re keeping them, um, on that, we call it a vision list or or an illustrative project list.

00:11:27,400	But the, the, the fiscally constrained plan, um, I took a couple notes on some of the projects, but, so, um, we, we’ve got basically, um, some improvements down on 3rd Street South. Um, we’ve got sunset, um. 8th and um. thirty-seventh up there for potential growth areas. I know one of the interesting things was with so much growth in North Manan.

00:11:48,770	When we didn’t build out that grid of connecting to sunset, connecting to 37th, connecting the 8th. We had a lot of growth on 1806. Um And so we basically took care of a lot of those issues by just building a nice contiguous kind of grid roadway system, street system up there.

00:12:08,300	We’ve also got some, uh, Side path or trail, um, projects, both taking care of existing trails and building potential new trails. Um, and some maintenance type projects as well on that list.

00:12:29,530	And then the last chapter is basically just demonstrating that that federal compliance, how we take this locally crafted plan and kind of met the, the criteria, um, to, to meet those federal regulations. That is a very high level summary of a year and a half and 150-page document. So I guess, um, with any questions that you might have, uh, we could, we could answer those. Mayor, what is your first name, please? Uh, Jason Carby. Jason, Jason, this 25 years, uh. Is that a presumption that the automobile.

00:12:54,330	Will be the continuing use for people where, you know, families have 12 automobiles and increase, so everything is based. Parking streets around the automobile is the automobile going to be the conveyance. Yeah. 1520, 25 years down the road.

00:13:16,430	Yeah, so that that’s why we do this every 5 years, and if that’s a great question, because there’s a lot of uncertainty obviously by the time you get to 2050, right? And so a lot of those shorter term projects are things that we kind of start seeing those needs pop up now. So you know, they’ve got basically capital programs set right now that’ll get us through about the year 2029.

00:13:32,400	That first five years of this plan that gets us to about 2034, 2035. Those are probably some of the most certain years. And so those short term projects that we’re showing on this list. Um, you know, are, are likely going to be needed here in the short term.

00:13:48,170	We start getting that midterm and the long term, there’s a lot of uncertainty modes of travel, you know, electric vehicles, um, autonomous vehicles that drive themselves by 2050, are they going to be Everywhere, I those are great questions, um.

00:14:06,100	We, you know, if you’d asked us 10 years ago, we would have said that the autonomous vehicles would probably be very Very present everywhere right now and they They are a little bit, but not. Not nearly as much. So they’re the admittedly this is a great exercise to go through as a community to start kind of figuring out what your, your values are and where you ought to start thinking about long-term investments, but there is, there is some uncertainty, you know, as you

00:14:25,000	get further out there. But generally, yes, the current patterns are anticipated to continue and grow into the future. That’s kind of the, the best, the best we know horizon anyway. Yeah, right, yeah. OK, thank you. Good question.

00:14:47,430	Um, Jason, first of all, thank you very much for all your diligence and hard work, and I really appreciate, um, Your emphasis on safety being first and foremost, and, and all this many, many different uh areas of study. Um, you also, uh, your Andrew mentioned that Because through your hard work, your committee’s hard work. We will be able be able together to identify um Long term itemized uh improvement forecasting.

00:15:24,330	And therefore by default should theoretically be uh Um they better prepared to apply for and possibly receive additional federal funding for these projects. So part of the, yeah, part of the process really was when we went back to these goal areas. is as we went through, sorry, I’m gonna go back a couple slides.

00:15:48,270	It’s some Yeah, there, thank you. So some of these are very much federal emphasis areas, but we really locally tailored them, but as we go through and identify projects, we can kind of flag which ones meet some of these critical federal areas that might be, um, the best candidates for federal grants.

00:16:06,000	There’s, uh, you know, lots of different programs for, you know, their safety programs, there’s access to jobs type programs, there’s, you know, economic development, more focused ones. So you kind of go through that list and kind of match up, um, those projects with that focus. But again, we’ve got this.

00:16:27,000	Sorry List of you, we’ve got this whole list of projects, you know, not all of them made the fiscally constrained list. Doesn’t mean they’re not great ideas, but some of them are pretty high dollar type projects. Um, and so that, that’s where it’s that that opportunity to say, hey, we, we know it’s gonna give us this benefit, this benefit, and this benefit.

00:16:43,970	Can we find some additional funding knowing how those benefits fit in with both, you know, local, federal and state priorities. Cool. Awesome, thank you. One more. Um, Because this does reach out to to 2050 and Places in closets in between. Um, By considering, um, This plan that we’ve been involved with, uh, from what I understand, many years already.

00:17:11,670	So this is basically a reboot for Future 5 years up to 2050, um, I think it’s important for our citizens to understand that this is a preplan. And that um The city of Mandan, um, It is not necessarily locked in financially to any of these concepts or or proposed um safety enhancements. That’s correct, yeah, yeah.

00:17:42,100	No, this, what we’ve shown on that fiscally constrained list will will change and be amended, um, probably over these 5 years, depending on funding availability and things like that, that happens all the time. But this is, this is our best, um, current. Um, estimate of what that, that program.

00:18:02,330	could look like But every 5 years it gets revisited like you said, and even in between those 5 years, there can be some adjustments within there. OK. Thank you, Jason. And we, we’ve, we’ve learned a lot here in the last 6 months, and one of the primary, um, Focal points is that whenever we in the city of Mandan do something.

00:18:24,270	It’s not just because we have an idea and we want to get it done. I mean, my gosh, with this one, we’re out to 2050. There’s other plans that go out to, you know, 2040, definitely 2030 and so on, so, uh, we just want our citizens at home to understand that this stuff is all long

00:18:42,900	range and even the 2030 stuff, if it comes to fruition. Most of us aren’t going to be sitting here anymore, but we have to lay that groundwork so that we can um Watch the markets if you will, and prepare for funding opportunities and viability of the recommendations that you folks come up with.

00:19:05,370	So thank you very much, uh, everyone sitting here because I learned today it’s not just one or two people, it’s pretty much everybody that’s sitting here, so. Thank you very much. Mr.

00:19:23,570	Carby, can you Can you give the people out there a little a brief description of, of how you came to be, how the NPO came to be, how is it funded, um, as a program federally mandated. You know, how does, how does the MPO associate with the city of Manda and Bismarck. So So yeah, NPOs, I believe, so Metropolitan planning organizations are federally designated for any urbanized area over 50,000 population.

00:19:43,870	They go back to, I want to say the 1960s. Um, there was a movement for a kind of regional coordination and planning. Um, and so it’s, it’s a process that’s intended to be cooperative across boundaries because, you know, streets, trails don’t in, in, you know, bus service don’t end at a political jurisdiction. So that, that was really the spirit that created them.

00:20:03,530	Um, they are federally required. The governor of each state kind of wants they meet a certain thresholds, basically says, OK. You are now an MPO. My not became a new one after the 2020 census this year. So they, they crossed that 50,000 threshold. So that’s the fourth one in the state now. Um, and so They basically are.

00:20:24,330	That where all of the jurisdictions come together. They are made up of the policy board, so the representation from Lincoln. Bismarck, Burley County, Mandan, and Morton County. Um, and then a transit providers and the DOT, um, kind of all come together and, you know, and are, are the policy board essentially.

00:20:44,200	And so they’re the decision-making body for how federal transportation dollars that come into the area, um, our, uh, are distributed. anything else you would add. OK, so that, that’s, so Mandan is part of the MPO. Thank you. Any further questions? Thank you, Jason. Thank you. At this time we will open up the public hearing. For comments Are there any comments? Second call for comments.

00:21:26,800	The Third call for comments. Hearing none, the public hearing is closed, I would ask the commissioners to move to Agenda item K1. consider resolution of adoption for the arrived 2050 Metropolitan Transportation Plan.

00:21:55,900	Andrew, or Frelich, if I may, the recommendation of staff and the NPO is to adopt the resolution that’s in the Agenda pack and if you have any questions, I can take them as Ken Kim. No questions. I’ll make a motion for approval of arrive 2050, the 2025 through 2050 Metropolitan Transportation plan by resolution of adoption. I second that. We have a motion by Comm Hendon, a second by. Comm Schoberg. Any further discussion? Hearing none roll call, please. Comm Schoberg.

00:22:34,170	Hi Ron, roar, yes, Mayor Frelich. Yes. We’ll move on to the consent agenda, agenda. Item H Can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda. I’ll make the motion to approve the consent agenda as printed. Second, We have a motion by Comm Schoberg, seconded by Comm Hendon. Any further discussion? Hearing none, roll call, please.

00:23:12,600	Ron Roar Schoberg, Mayor Frelich, yes. Move on to agenda item Jade. Consider acceptance of final report for safe routes to service complete street study, Andrew.

00:23:40,800	The Comm is back for another introduction, um, over the course of the last year or so, uh again with the assistants and coordination of the Bismarck Manan NPO, the city did participate in the creation of the safe routes to services study, um, in years past, the city has approved plans such as the school crossing safety study that plan focused on providing clear and safe routes in and around um schools. This is similar, however, primarily geared towards commercial or human service.

00:24:02,130	is, uh, within the community given the need for intergenerational safe routes to services and schools and things like that in our community. Um, I’ll be introducing Mike Bittner from Bolton and Make Consulting for the presentation of the Safe Routes to services plan for which we are asking the board’s acceptance if there are any questions on this plan, I’m

00:24:20,870	happy to help with them, as can Mike Kim ripple with the NPO Jarek O’Reilly with our engineering staff. So with that, I will introduce Mike, who I believe. is online virtually, Mike. Can everybody hear me and See my screen OK? We can hear you. I And DMA is DMA is gonna fix the screen here.

00:24:58,670	Let me know when you’re able to see it. OK. See it on the screen now. Well, I appreciate it before I get started, I didn’t want to give a, a, a quick shout out to Andrew and Jared at the city, as well as Kim from the MTO work regionally all over the place and I can tell you, you

00:25:22,900	all are very lucky to have very talented and insightful folks are helping you every single day. So, uh, with that, I want to introduce the intent of this overall project, and so the tent is the safe routes to service the study intends to aid and develop. In a comprehensive integrated multimodal transportation network.

00:25:44,270	Allow for safe travel within the communities of Bismarck and Manat for all users, including those populations of a traditionally underserved, vulnerable, disabled or disadvantaged status with 3 key phases to this process, phase one was investigate issues. Phase 2, identify alternatives in phase 3 was implement strategies.

00:26:09,770	Overall, the, the groups that we had special interests to this overall study where groups that have historically not been engaged uh very well through the previous transportation planning process, not just really locally but kind of nationally.

00:26:30,800	Um, and so as we start to look at those populations, you can see a map of kind of some concentrations uh throughout the Bismarckandan area, um, but as we start to look at the actual demographic numbers and breakdowns, we see about 9% of our households are below the. poverty line Uh, regionally, so about almost 4000 households, about 10% of the population is Native American, so about 10,000 individuals and about 21%. Of households have one or more person with a disability, so over 9000 households.

00:26:52,530	So, uh, really uh important interest and a larger percentage than I think a lot of people thought that were when we first started this effort. Self-safe routes to services, you know, unsafe networks, but for who? Who are we trying to focus it on? Between 2018 and 2022, 242 pedestrian and bicycle crashes and 55%, uh, were in our highest density neighborhoods

00:27:15,900	of Native American and low-income populations, the folks that typically, uh, often required to use alternative modes of transportation more often. 26% of our bike and pedestrian crashes did result in a fatality.

00:27:35,730	And as we looked at everybody walking to and from work every morning, we found out it was about 6 times more likely that you would be involved in a crash if you walked or bike, and if you drove. On the right side of the screen, you can see a bar chart of historic crashes. And and what we found is that, you know, post 2019, we actually saw the overall crashes go down region-wide.

00:27:53,970	However, we actually saw the pet bike crashes per capita increased quite a bit. So you start to see some of those undertones of safety that we really emphasizing that trying to relieve through this process.

00:28:16,330	But a really intense stakeholder engagement process, uh, throughout this project, I’d say about 50% of our effort was engagement, 50% was technical, uh, oftentimes you see that number at closer to 80 to 90% technical and then engage in folks along the way, but we really knew that a lot of the issues were things that we weren’t going to uncover just using technical analysis.

00:28:32,800	And so lots of engagement efforts, uh, whether that be, you know, really uh an emphasis on non-technical approaches for folks that may not not have regular access to the internet, but also some technical solutions for those uh regular, you know, regional folks that want to stay engaged, really, uh, despite being focused on certain populations to to really emphasize them.

00:28:50,870	Uh, we did want to make sure this plan was really a benefit to everyone in the community as well. A huge element to this project was our community advisory group, or our CAG, uh, we worked directly with the Missouri Valley Coalition for Homeless People, Sacred Pipe Resource Center, Youth Works and ministry on the margins.

00:29:14,500	Uh, we actually dedicated 1% of our budget to these groups, so we paid them for their efforts, they helped organize really fabulous events, and we were able to engage lots of folks as we started to learn what some of those key issues are that we wanted to resolve through this process. I mean, With all the nice map, see on the right side of the screen, uh, to identify some of those problem areas.

00:29:31,530	We did complement this with the technical approach, um, really looking at what are the major activity centers, one of those destinations that we really want to get people to and from.

00:29:47,830	We also looked at amenities, where do we have sidewalks, bike facilities, transit routes, where we have major grades that make it difficult for someone that’s in a wheelchair to access. And finally we looked at barriers. What are those corridors that have really high speeds that are difficult to cross the see for that pedestrian bicycle crashes in the past and also railroad crossings.

00:30:08,500	And so heold that all together, um, and develop some what we call hotspot analysis where we identified some of those key locations that we wanted to resolve a little bit closer, uh, so we have 3 locations in Mandan and 6 locations in Bismarck. We also looked at priority strategies, and I’ll spend a little bit of time talking about those after I give an example of our Our priority infrastructure improvements.

00:30:29,170	So Shady Acres, this is a great example of the, the intent of this project. If you were to look at just, you know, just did an awesome job presenting on the MTP and those are, you know, how you spend your money for the future and one of the major corridors and you know, how do you really focus on those important routes, um,

00:30:45,700	places like Shady Acres are not typically what is under the lens of a study like that. This is a neighborhood. Um, that doesn’t have a lot of traffic that, you know, has a large arterials nearby, but what you find when you look at this from a different lens of, you know, how people connect to and from

00:31:00,600	different areas, which you realize is that this area is kind of an island. Uh, it’s disconnected on every route based either by a railroad track. The Interstatees or, you know, basically an extension of the interstate as we get on to Maine.

00:31:19,370	And so it makes it very difficult to be able to access to from there were missing sidewalks east and west. Uh, we’ve got a pediatric center that you can’t walk to to the top right of the screen, some folks walking on the grass. Uh, we also don’t have connections north and south to connect those neighborhood streets either.

00:31:38,100	So we looked at a variety of solutions and and some of these aren’t massive, you know, super highway improvements that you often think of when you think of transportation projects, but, you know, in the blue, you could see a letter A, um, just simple ideas like connecting the sidewalks.

00:31:55,800	Uh, you can see kind of a drawing uh in the top left of the screen of how do we connect that? We’ve got some right of way adjacent to uh Maine there, um, created a boulevard, so we have snow storage, but also creating a facility for people to walk east and west. So pretty simple basic solution, but in an area that really hasn’t been studied or focused on in the past.

00:32:14,500	We also included some bigger picture ideas as well, um, that we’ve bucketed under long-term improvements, recognizing that we don’t have the dollars today to resolve this, but trying to connect those to larger funny pots that was mentioned earlier.

00:32:33,600	Um, so a railroad great celebration for pedestrians that connects the park in the neighborhood to really the rest of the community is one concept that came up through this area. And then finally through the implementation, you know, the idea was not recognized that our budgets are already stretched very thin and so looking at solutions like statewide, you know, transportation alternatives grant, to be able to pay for the sidewalks or there’s a a national reconnecting Communities graph that is

00:32:54,470	really designed for communities that are disconnected, uh, to be reconnected and so looking at that as an opportunity for that, uh, railroad grade separation. I just flipping through, we, you know, just another example of 3rd Street, you know, for the sake of time, I’ll just kind of flip through this one, but, you know, trying

00:33:11,600	to think through where those major barriers are, whether that be by the gas station, and whether that be trying to cross the street, or whether that be just underutilized space, uh, from really low density parking areas. We’re looking for solutions.

00:33:31,200	To try to fix some of those smaller scale projects by looking at a short term approach with kind of lower hanging fruit improvements and a longer term approach as well. We also looked at some, you know, priority strategies.

00:33:49,630	This is when I want to spend a ton of time in, so it’s really heavily emphasized as Bismarck, it’s a a high frequency circulator route to some of those most popular destinations that kind of end up in, in a square space, uh, in the center of Bismarck. Uh, but one concept that we did recommend for Mandan was a, a microtransit study for AA. One thing we heard from a lot of folks is that, you know, our purple route is nice.

00:34:07,000	It gets us into man then, but once every 2 hours, that doesn’t really line up all the time with jobs, you know, starting and ending can be very difficult if not impossible to really reliably utilize transit through some of these key corridors throughout Mandan. And so one thing that we’re studying actively, for example, in Grand Forks is microtransit.

00:34:28,930	And what microtransit is is it’s, it’s tech-enabled, it’s Really designed to live in that space between traditional fixed route transit and ride-hailing technology. And so, for example, if you want to get, you know, from downtown Man down to Downtown Bismarck, you can call it, it’ll pick up a couple of folks and you know it’s designed to be cheap and

00:34:48,100	equitable. Um, I may have a couple of stops, but it’s designed to be able to be a little bit more responsive so you can plan for it a little bit better, um, to be able to use transit throughout Manan. So a lot of things that we haven’t.

00:35:02,530	studies, you know, an idea that we felt like would be worth studying a little bit closer as you start to think about was it that or the increased frequency on the purple eye for me.

00:35:23,870	We also looked at mobility hub options and so mobility hubs is a little bit of a catch-all term across the country is becoming very popular to develop these hubs, typically built around transit stops, but they’re often designed to really coagulate lots of different transportation alternatives. So, you know, if we want to have our bike share connected, uh, with a transit stop that’s heated or maybe you’ve got some bathrooms or you have a lockers, locker. are probably one of the bigger ones that we’ve heard.

00:35:45,830	From the unhoused community that if I’m going to my job and I’ve got some stuff and I want to put it there, but I, you know, I struggle to get all the way to my, where I need to get to.

00:35:59,800	Um, so looking at opportunities for that, um, and really bringing those together into one hub allows you to really manage those a little bit better, but also provide better opportunities as well. So is a graphical representation of some op opportunity sites. So really looking at, you know, one in the Downtown Manan area, maybe there’s more opportunities.

00:36:19,500	Um, really trying to connect those with partner agencies that would be able to, you know, maintain and operate some of these solutions a little bit better but also connected into our transit system as well. And then finally we, we also looked at our complete streets. Uh, policies is kind of the last element of the overall project.

00:36:39,700	I’m really looking at what those policies would look like, whether that be inclusive design policies, procedures, as well as project selection. That’s within the body of the report, but one of the big topics that kept coming up throughout the process was kind of four seasons complete streets, and what happens when we’ve got snow on our sidewalks and our trails, and so, um, developing a range of solutions,

00:36:55,730	you know, obviously Da. Does a good job with the golden shovel to kind of trying to build up some of that momentum, but also providing some ideas, you know, whether that be design for ice and snow.

00:37:13,070	What’s your median with uh to uh to be almost source um, what is the size of the trail that you could easily clear it with the equipment you have, looking at different opportunities for snow clearing routes, whether that be, you know, opt in assessments that you often see in downtown or HOA or maybe even municipally led priority routes and identify what those could look like.

00:37:28,870	like based on the types of services you have, um, and trying to take some examples from communities around the region. So with that, that kind of concludes a really fast high-level overview of the overall plan, um, a similar rate to Jason, this is a, you know, 100-page document that we’re trying to uh capture really fast.

00:37:46,430	I’m happy to answer any questions that I may have spurred through that conversation. Any questions? my on one of your slides you. You had looked like the Memorial Highway was highlighted in red, um, but then the next slide, the target areas were 3rd and main and I don’t, and I don’t believe that Memorial Highway was indicated as a problem area,

00:38:15,230	um. Did Well, some of the feedback that one right there, yeah. Was there some feedback on Memorial Highway specifically, and that’s tying into a pretty big project that, you know, we’re, we’re moving on uh from a safety, uh, perspective, so.

00:38:38,770	Yeah, well said, this is reporting all the feedback we have, but recognizing that a lot of the comments you received on Memorial is about the old Memorial Highway, what it is, folks not necessarily knowing what types of improvements are. So certainly an education opportunity as we went through that process, but uh this graphic still does represent all the comments that we received.

00:38:57,930	Um, so we could certainly highlight that if it’s a little confusing, but um I think people were relieved to understand some of the improvements that are forthcoming along that corridor. Any further questions for Mike? Um, Mike, um, The, the study at whole. Encompasses about 400 square miles according to some of the information that was available to us today. And about 1.

00:39:34,400	128 to 135,000 people now that encompasses, you know, the The Lincoln Bismarckandan, Morton and Burley, uh, geographic. But in Mandan specifically, um, one of the slides indicated that um. The north side of Mandan. Definitely needed some, some assistance in, in Making Enhancing the mobility of our senior citizens.

00:40:05,330	Uh, as well as the south side of Mandan and, um, I can see that, uh, our, our planner and um engineer of already looked at some of those areas, 3rd 3rd Street area, and then there was a safety issue on the east end of, of, uh, Main Street, and today we’re discussing some options for Uh, the east Mandan area where Twin City Drive, um, just south of

00:40:32,470	that shady, shady lane area. So, um, We do have areas in town regardless of the, the human demographic that, that, that need to be studied and, uh, Jerk, if you could or or Andrew, what was that terminology? We looked at this several meetings ago, I think a traffic, uh TA I think it was.

00:41:01,030	Yes, the transportation alternatives program. Yeah, that’s it. Thanks. So did, did, did those concepts that we discussed 3 weeks ago or 3 meetings ago kind of stemmed from. This, uh, safe roads program. Absolutely.

00:41:20,530	So yeah, even though it wasn’t finalized at that point, I would say our participation in the safe routes to services study gave us a really good insight on what would be competitive. Um, applications for the TA program and we put in 4 very, very competitive applications this round and. We’ll continue to put competitive applications, um, thanks to in part to this study. So Due to the city of Mandans and.

00:41:44,130	Early and timely involvement in this, we might stand maybe a little bit better chance in acquiring some. Grants from The Grant pale, absolutely. Thank you, Jarek, was there a ranking with those applications? Um, yeah, by the bike ped subcommittee, um, there were 6 applications and ours were ranked 123, and 4. And those were the 4 that we submitted, so what was the first one? It was. 0 Yes.

00:42:11,770	So, so it was the bike path. It was the bike we, we ended up exiting the meeting, um, prioritizing. The bike path along 1806 as our highest priority. Though that wasn’t how the bikead community subcommittee had prioritized them or had scored them. Yeah That was 1806 North. Uh, from Eagle Park to.

00:42:38,330	North of twenty-seventh, yeah, might have been all the way up to thirty-seventh. I can’t remember, yeah. Thank you, Jarek. Any other questions for Mike or Andrew or Jarek? Hearing none, I would entertain emotion. I’ll move to a Except the final report for the safe routes for services, complete street study. OK Of motion by Comm Schoberg is seconded by Comm Brown.

00:43:07,430	Any further discussion? Hearing none roll call, please Commission, yes, Roar, yes, Schober, Mayor Frelich, yes. Item number 2. Under new business, consider a rapid rectangular flashing beak in design budget amendment Jarek. Mayor Commissioners, good evening.

00:43:40,930	Um, yeah, kind of speaking of See, safe routes to services, um, the city had applied for a Highway safety improvement program grant in 2019 for um improvements, rapid rectangular flashing beacon improvements at 4 locations around the community. Um The locations I’m going to bring up a map here so that we can talk. Over a map a little bit. Um The 4 locations that we had landed on.

00:44:03,830	Um, through coordination with the North Dakota Department of Transportation were at. Crossing Main Street at Copper Dog. Leave here we, here we are at the copper dog. Um, corner right here, making an improvement there where there would be a rapid rectangular flashing beacon. Um, with push button controls, uh, similar to what you see further down the street. Um Like at Fourth Avenue Northwest.

00:44:31,600	I can So the improvement would Be similar, similar to this where you have the push button controls Beacon comes on and you can make crossings. Um, so there’s 4 locations that we had, um, applied for our at Copperog. At um the southwest corner. Of Saint Joe’s right here.

00:44:56,870	Southwest corner of Chaos 3rd Street Northwest, and Collins Avenue. Um Right across the street from Custer Elementary, so the corner of First Street Northeast and 6th Avenue Northeast. And then the final location. Is at uh Right in front of aging rivers to cross Forty-sixth.

00:45:26,670	Um, the, the specific improvement in each location is kind of unique to the location, some of them include bulbouts, some of them include don’t include bulbouts. All of them include rapid rectangular flashing beacons though, um. When we applied for this project in 2019, it was estimated to cost about $150,000. Um, since then, we’ve discovered that It’s going to cost quite a bit more.

00:45:49,600	And, um, along with that effort, uh, we’ve, uh, we’ve had kind of increased engineering costs on this, um, we had included $140,000 budgeted to engineer these improvements between 2024 and 2025. Um, and that’s going to end up being $8000 short, about $8000 short, but, um, for today, we are asking or requesting and recommending approval of an amendment to our contract with more engineering for the design of these 4 locations, um, along with a

00:46:17,870	budget amendment in 2025 for $7,885 if you have any questions, I can Sure, try and answer them. Any questions? So the total amount that you’re requesting tonight is roughly 16.

00:46:48,400	Did I hear that right? Um, the, the, the budget amount that or the budget amendment that we’re requesting is, um, Just shy of $8000 and the um but the engineering task order amendment is About $69,000. So increasing it from 80,000 to 1,409,000, which is 8000 higher than what we had budgeted. OK. All right, thank you. There are no questions for Jarek.

00:47:24,200	What are your wishes? I moved to approve task order number 4, Amendment number 1 with more engineering and authorized an additional $7,885 out of the city’s sales tax fund in 2025. Second A motion by Comm Brown, seconded by Comm Henon. Any further discussion? Hearing non roll call, please, Commissioners Schoberg roar. Mayor Frelich. Yes number 3. Under new business, consider approval of the 2026 budget calendar.

00:48:15,330	Greg Um, good evening, Mayor Commissioners, um, it’s hard to believe that another uh budget cycle for the city, uh, is about to begin, uh, just seem like we just finished one for 2025 and now we’re going to be. Um, starting one for 2026. Uh, before I present.

00:48:42,070	Um The details of the city’s 2026 budget calendar, I want to provide uh some background information to the city’s, uh, budget process. Uh, first of all, the city is required to prepare the annual budget in accordance with the North Dakota Century Code. The city’s annual budget process is coordinated by the finance department. Under the direction of the budget and finance committee. With the assistance of commissioners, department managers, supervisors and staff.

00:49:05,930	Uh, for, for this agenda item of the purpose of the annual budget calendar is to provide a road map for the city’s budget development process. Uh There are 3 primary steps to the city’s 2026 budget development process, uh, step one.

00:49:41,270	Um, is to prepare, present, and approve the city’s long-term plans for personnel, machinery, and equipment, public facilities and infrastructure for 2026 to 2030. Step 2 is to prepare, present, and approve the city’s long-term financial plan for 2026 to 2030. And then step 3 is to prepare, present, and adopt the city’s 2026 budget. Are the first area long term financial plans.

00:50:15,970	A long, uh, the 2026 budget roadmap is the city’s first mile marker, uh, which is fast approaching, um. On or around the middle of January of next year. Uh the city commission will be conducting a working session with department managers and engineering firms to review and discuss the preliminary long-term plans for 2026 to 2030 for personnel, machinery and equipment, public facilities, and infrastructure.

00:50:42,670	Um, in, in preparing for this meeting, city administrator Neubauer will be coordinating with, um, new commissioners and also with department managers to schedule a date and time for the working session and it’s very possible that if we can’t accomplish, um, the working session in one day we might be looking at um. 2 days.

00:51:10,370	Next, in February of next year, um, early in the month, a department managers and engineering firms, uh, will present the preliminary long term plans to the city commission. Um After the presentation or during the presentation, um, the city commission, uh, will need to prioritize and approve the final.

00:51:37,200	Long term plans for 2026 to 2030 and then direct the budget and finance committee to provide funding recommendations for the working session that will occur in March of next year. Towards the end of February, the city will conduct a public information session that will present the commission’s approved long-term plans for 2026 to 2030.

00:52:05,600	Moving on to um the preparation of the long term financial plan which will begin in March of next year, around the middle of March, the budget and finance committee, uh, will review and approve the funding recommendations for the city’s long-term plans.

00:52:30,000	And then late in March of next year, the city commission will conduct a 2nd working session with department managers at that particular working session, the budget and finance committee will present the funny recommendations for the city’s long-term plans for 2026 to 2030. Continuing on with the long term financial plan in early in early April of next year, the budget and Finance Committee, I will review and approve funding recommendations for the preliminary long-term financial plan for 2026 to 2030 and also, um, will be formulating uh guidelines for preparing the

00:53:02,000	city’s 2026 budget around the middle of April of next year, the budget and Finance Committee will present the preliminary Long term financial plan and guidelines for preparing the 2026 budget to the city commission.

00:53:25,000	After that presentation, the city commission, um, We’ll take action on that to approve the final long-term financial plan for 2026 to 2030 and also, um, approve the guidelines for preparing the cities 2026 budget. Um, want to note, um, regarding the long term financial plan after the city commission approves the final long-term financial plan for 2026 to 2030, the financial plan will be updated when the spending needs for personnel, machinery, and equipment.

00:53:55,330	Public facilities and infrastructure have been adjusted or revised by the city commission. And or if there are material or significant changes in the city’s revenue expense or fund balance projections for the same period. And now moving on to um the 2026 budget development.

00:54:24,930	Beginning in May of next year, the finance department, uh, will provide the operating budget instructions and worksheets, uh, to the department managers. Um, these instructions are for the balance of their budget. That’s not salaries and benefits related. Um And not capital outlay related infrastructure related. Because What comes from the uh.

00:54:54,730	The approved long-term financial plan that first year of that five-year plan will then fold right into the 2026 budget. So the other budgetary items that need to be, uh, completed would be the rest of the operating items for the respective departments. So that’s what, uh, this step is here, uh, beginning in May.

00:55:16,270	At the end of May, um, the operating budget worksheets will be due from the department managers, uh, back to the finance department. During the month of June of next year, the finance department will review and update the revenue expense and fund balance projections for the 2025 budget. Um, this is a necessary step in order to come up with better, um, and more accurate, up to-date fund balance projections going into the, the 2026 budget cycle.

00:55:54,400	During July of next year, the budget and finance committee, um. will review and approve the recommendations for the city’s preliminary, uh, 2026 budget. In August, um. First Tuesday in August of next year of the budget and finance Committee. Uh, will present the preliminary a 2026 budget to the city commission.

00:56:28,670	At that time, the city commission will approve the introduction and first consideration and call for public, call for a public budget hearing of the ordinance adopting the 2026 budget. And then honor before August 10th, the city is to provide a copy of the preliminary 2026 budget statement and notice of of the public budget hearing date to the Morton County Auditor.

00:56:59,130	And the last Uh, mile marker along the city’s 2026 budget roadmap occurs in September of next year. Uh the 3rd Tuesday, um, of that month, the city commission will conduct a public budget hearing and then after the public budget hearing, uh, we’ll approve the second and final consideration of the ordinance adopting the city’s

00:57:25,270	2026 budget and approve uh the resolutions establishing the rates and charges for services, uh, for that following year. Um And then finally the city is to uh submit a certified copy of the levy as adopted.

00:57:48,130	Um, and also a certified copy of the final 2026 budget to the Morton County Auditor, uh, no later than October 10th of next year. And uh with that, I will. Take any questions or comments that you may have. Mayor Greg, one thing I would suggest in looking at this. For long-term planning, budget planning process that you’re talking about a day.

00:58:07,930	You you referred to the day, whether it be 8, 10 or whatever it may be, um, my suggestion would be that due to the intensity and in a multifaceted areas here. I, I suggest it’s gonna be a day that we break into a half a day, that way you can be more focused.

00:58:27,130	I’m a little attention deficit anyway, but, uh, that you can focus and only that by that give you some time to look back and why you were you’re doing or where you have been and where you’re going and if it looks like it’s gonna be a whole *** lot. involved there. I suggest that for the uh convenience of mental attitudes and focus that we break it down.

00:58:47,870	Um Mayor Frelick, Comm Roar, those conversations, um, uh, have taken place because it will be a lengthy discussion. There’s going to be a lot of information. You commissioners will have lots of comments and questions, and with that in mind, we probably will be looking at uh more than one date for the budget working session in January.

00:59:05,700	To your point. Greg, I want, I want to go back a couple months when we approved the new policy change from a 3 year. Outlook to a 5. Correct. And if you could please. Elaborate on how that. Helps the city become more fiscally responsible.

00:59:36,570	Uh, Mayor Commissioners, um, A 3 year horizon is good, 5 is better, uh, but a 10 is really where we need to get to eventually. Uh, the city has a lot of long term needs that have been requested by departments. Not all of those needs all will occur in 1 year or 2 years or 3 years.

01:00:00,470	Um, so to, to begin with, we felt a 3-year planning horizon was not sufficient for the planning needs as submitted by the departments. Uh, while, while the city needs to really wrap up to 10 years, we really want to do well with a five-year planning period, um, And once we accomplish the goal of, uh, streamlining a five-year long-term plan, then we can graduate. Up to 10, um.

01:00:25,700	The, the advantages of doing that is um it gives the city the the foresight to be able to um. Make decisions in In future years, so as we look at 2026. Um, if the plan is to accomplish a goal that needs to occur in 2030.

01:00:52,870	The city doesn’t want to pass all of that cost or adjust rates. All at one time. So it would behoove the city to um smooth those. Cost allocations over multiple years. So you’re not impacting the, the customers or the tax base all at one time. The city has um. Um A big list of items that will need to be considered.

01:01:21,200	Um And it It will go beyond 2020 30, but we need to at least get our arms around the next 5 years. Uh, there’s a lot to accomplish. There’s, um, a lot of personnel needs, equipment needs. Um Major public building needs and infrastructure needs, the city, um. Has a light on its plate.

01:01:50,530	But in order to um Take manageable pieces of that and um coming up with a Um Financially prudent strategy. Um I think working with a 5 year planning period, um, will serve the city well. And we’ll be able to allocate those costs over um. That period without taking a leap all at one time.

01:02:19,400	So it’s good for the city to be uh proactive in this approach instead of reactive, but we do have a lot of ketchup to make in certain areas. Yeah, so we, we heard earlier from uh. The MPO Uh, that we we approved the 2050 study. And so they’re doing it already, right? And they projected the population to grow 40%.

01:02:43,470	Within that 25 years. So If the metro area planning is already doing a 25 year outlook, we should. At least to a 10, 5 to 10, and I get it, we have to build up to the 10, but I commend you for taking this on. Uh, to be fiscally responsible in these projects. That you alluded to.

01:03:06,330	Have a life cycle from start to finish of. Several years And it would be very difficult to forecast our Our budgets on a 3 year level, so. I agree.

01:03:25,700	A mayor Comm is, uh, I go back a long ways in government and I can remember the days when government was operated one year at a time, you know, for, for several decades or so, then we got into your planning and what I see happening, the difference means I’ve lived those times as there’s been a lot more players within government, you know, your grants or your federal government, your state government, we have a lot more

01:03:42,670	players that we have to contend with and look to how we’re going to develop with them over the time. Along with the changing dynamics of growth that were were there so um. You know, going to the 5 year plan is. Is Moving along appropriately. And even More so beyond that if we have to. Yep.

01:04:03,470	Uh Mayor fellow Commissioners, Greg. Um The work you guys are doing is phenomenal. First of all Second of all, Being kind of a taskmaster. Um, and I know we can’t draw a line in the sand or target a specific date when you can, I’m assuming that within the 5 years, you’re gonna kind of do some Beaten of

01:04:30,400	the bushes, if you will, to Transform your operation from a 5 to a 10 year. Do you want to finish that 5 year first and then go to the 10 year or would there be a, uh, say one year, 1.5 years, 3 years before, 5 years eclipses that you want to start.

01:04:52,870	Proactively putting stuff on paper for a tenure. Mayor Frelich, Comm Schoberg, um, I would recommend starting with a 5. We have never really put a 5 year comprehensive long-term plan together. We’ve had plants, uh, they’ve been. kind of isolated in different areas, but never, um, in one document. That collectively put together the personnel equipment.

01:05:26,270	Um, in infrastructure needs in one. Financial long term plan. Um, this is going to be the finance department’s first go around with putting this together. Um, so we would like to Take it in, in, in manageable steps. And we feel that the initial one.

01:05:47,600	It should at least be 5 years, but we can’t stay there for very long. We need to graduate to that 10 year plan. OK, thank you very much. Any further questions for Greg. Me and Commissioners and Greg, um, I did receive an email maybe some of the others here.

01:06:15,470	Uh, we did have some input from the budget, uh, hearing in yeah, September, the final consideration, there’s some good public interest, um, one thing I’d like to just draw attention to for more discussion is, is if we potentially could extend that second and final consideration to closer to that August 10th, uh, something for more discussion here in the future, but, um, to not put us out.

01:06:38,870	Uh Disadvantage not disadvantaged, uh, uh, uh, hard deadline for when we need to provide that to Martin County, but maybe some more, um, time for public discussion. That was just one note I would like to bring up for further discussion. Thank you. There Currently there are 3 public, is that correct? 2 or 3 public Opportunities to contribute.

01:07:00,730	I think I, I put a hash mark down here. I think I came up I came up with 3. Um There are those, those I think are we always publicized in the Mandan Messenger for property owners. Correct or F Frelich, Comm Schoberg, that is correct. Whenever there is public input into the city’s budgetary process.

01:07:26,400	Those are, those are advertised, those are communicated, um, and we use uh the Mandan Messenger social media, uh, all, all of the, um, avenues of communicating to the public. OK, thank you. Any further questions? not, thank you, Greg. To approve the 2026 budget calendar. Second A motion by Comm Braun, seconded by Comm Schoberg.

01:08:01,030	Any further discussion? Hearing none, roll call, please. Commissioners Schoberg Hans, Ron Roar, yes, Mayor Frelich, yes. Thank you again to the finance department. to Greg and Justin. And their staff Onto second consideration of ordinance 1458 is own change from MA industrial to CB commercial for the Helbling.

01:08:34,170	7th edition, Andrew, Mayor Freli and Comm Ordinance 1458 for a second consideration, this would rezone the Helling 7th properties. No changes have been made, no comments have received and our recommendation is to approve. Do you have any questions for me? Any questions for Andrew? Moved to approve the second consideration of ordinance 1458. OK A motion by Comm Brown is seconded by Comm Rohr.

01:08:56,000	Any further discussion? Hearing none, roll call please, Comm Hanon, Ron Roar Schoberg, Mayor Frelich. Yes, thank you, Andrew. Is there any other business before the board? Hearing none Future committee meetings, commission meetings, December 17, 2024 at 5:30. P.m. January 7th, 2025 at 5:30 p.m. January 21st, 2025 at 5 p.m.

01:09:40,330	As always, be kind to your neighbor and its onward and upward mandan. Meeting