00:00:04,730	One, this is the monthly regularly scheduled meeting of the Bismarck Board of Park commissioners. Um, I would uh like to call the meeting to order, and Julie, will you please call the roll? Comm. Jesske. Zimmerman President Gilbertson, here our next item of business is the Pledge of Allegiance.

00:00:25,370	If you could please stand. Join us And to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands nation under God. Indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Item number 3 is approval of the agenda. What are the wishes of the board? move to approve, there’s a motion by Comm.

00:00:57,670	Zimmerman and a second by Comm. Jesske. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none Julie, will you please call the roll, Comm. Jesske Zimmerman, President Gilbertson. That brings us to item number 4, which is the adjournsinya, um, to conduct the following business, so, um, at this time we would ask the two new commissioners to come forward and um Ryan Joyce from

00:01:25,870	Evanson Sanderson attorneys to come forward and administer the oath of office and then And um lead us in our reorganization. This And You would swear. That you support the Constitution of the United States.

00:02:00,930	Constitution of the state of North Dakota and that you will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of Bism Board of Commissioners. According to the best of your ability, so help you God. And I guess before you take your, before you take your seats, I guess I went through, but we need a motion to adjourn Sanyao. I’ll make a motion to adjourns motion by Comm. Jesske. .. 22 by Comm. Zimmerman.

00:02:26,830	Is there any further discussion? See none, Julie, will you please call the roll? Comm. Jesske Zimmerman, President Gilbertson. All right, Comm. Herzog. You, your seat is over here. Redman was over here so you can flip your name plate around and now uh we have uh Ryan, um. Do uh The election of the president.

00:03:01,670	All right, so we will open the floor for nominations for President of the Bismarck Board of Park Commissioners? Do we have any nominations? Comm. or President Gilbertson, I would like to nominate vice president um Zimmerman as the new board president. Can I second that? or I still the president or do one of you want to do it? I’ll second that.

00:03:26,070	We have a nomination for Comm. Zimmerman, and we have a second. Do we have any further nominations? Seeing none, nominations are closed, and we’ll have Julie take the role for nomination of Comm. Zimmerman as president of the Bismarck Board of Park Commissioners. Comm. Jesske, Herzog, yes, Redman Zimmerman, Gilbertson. Congratulations.

00:04:22,300	Which Before we move on the agenda for the items, I just wish to take a moment to thank Mike for serving as President Michael for serving as president in the last two years, I’d sit beside him and know that there’s a lot of work goes into keeping up with agendas and all the. Every daily workings of the Park district.

00:04:38,770	So thank you, Michael, for a good 2 years run as a president. Thank you very much. It’s uh It, it truly, it truly was an honor and I thank you for the opportunity so. Uh, we have an entertainer motion to reconvene as the Bismarck board of Park commissioners. So moved. I’ll look at that. Motion by Comm.

00:05:03,830	Gilbertson, seconded by Comm. Redman. Of uh Julie, please call the roll. Comm. Jesske. Herzog, yes, Redman, Gilbertson, President Zimmerman. The next item of business is the uh. Election of a vice president and that is, that will be conducted by me. Good to see you there, Mr. Redman.

00:05:37,570	Uh, we are open for election of a vice president for the board of Bismarck Park Commissioners. Do I have any nominations? Am I doing that? I take it it says by the president, OK? Uh, Comm. Redman, yes, I nominate Comm. Jeske to be vice president of the board. 2 motion by, um. Comm. Redman and seconded by Comm. Gilbertson for, uh, Comm.

00:06:03,800	Jeske for position of vice president. Any other nominations? Nominations closed. Julie, if you’d call the roll please, Comm. Jesske Herzog, Redman Gilbertson, President Zimmerman. Congratulations, Comm. Jeske. Thank you very much. The next item is the appointment of a board clerk. This position for the Bismarckboard park commissioners is currently held by the executive director, Kevin Clipfell.

00:06:38,870	Uh, Kevin has indicated he is interested in continuing to serve as the clerk of the board. If the board would so concur. I asked for an appoint a motion for appointment of uh Kevin Clipfell as the clerk for the Bismarck board of Park commissioners. So moved. Motion by Comm. Gilbertson, seconded by Comm.

00:07:03,930	Redman to appoint executive director Kevin Clipfell to serve as the board clerk. Julie, if you’ll call the roll, please. Comm. Gilbertson. Herzog, yes. Redman, Jesske President Zimmerman. I at this time I would ask our legal counsel, Ryan Joyce, to administer the oath of office to, uh, Kevin Clipfell to serve as the clerk for the board.

00:07:36,530	You Do you solemnly swear that you will support the Constitution of the United States. Constitution of the state of North Dakota and I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office. Bismar board of art commissioners, according to the best of your abilities to help you guys. Thank you, Ryan, and congratulations to Kevin.

00:08:03,670	We’ll just add that to the workload, right? The next item on the actions for the board is appointment of the legal counsel for the board of Park commissioners. It is a recommendation to reappoint the even since Sanderson attorneys as the legal counsel for the district, you will see in your uh board packet that there is a letter from the law firm expressing their uh desire to

00:08:26,670	continue in that position or in that uh position for the board. Any discussion or Moss uh entertain emotion so Comm. Gilbertson moves to a point the, uh, even since Anderson Law Firm, you’re 2 Comm. Jake seconds. Any further discussion? Julie, if you’ll call the roll please, Comm. Gilbertson. Herzog Redman, Jesske President Zimmerman.

00:08:58,670	The next item is the assignment of board members to management teams included in the board packet is information regarding the structure of the management teams for the board. Uh, to organize, to assist in the organization of the board in the following uh areas of responsibility, administration by the president of the board, operations, our two commissioners and facilities and programs are two

00:09:24,830	commissioners. And then you’ll see there are several other committees and liaison representations as well for board members. At this time, I would open it up for any discussion on these. Uh, concerns and appointments. To be appropriate. OK President Gilbert’s or I’m sorry, it just it’s 2 years, it’s an old hat here, sorry, President Zimmerman.

00:09:52,830	Yes, Commissionerjke, thank you. um. I know we are looking at committee assignments at this point and with that there is um a liaison responsibility that comes along with that and what I’d like to see is I think for the past couple of years we’ve been a little lax in having regular meetings with these groups in

00:10:11,800	which we are liaisons per our contract or agreements that we have. I know the forestry board meets quarterly, and we have a representative from the Park district as part of that, but what I’d like to see is like we have to.

00:10:29,030	BSC aquatic center and we have not met um I don’t know if you met for the past two years with anybody with the BSC Aquatic Center because that was you were the liaison for the group.

00:10:46,470	I had Sleepy Hollow, um, 2 years ago we never met either as a group, and right now I’m on the Missouri Valley complex and we are meeting on a regular basis, but what I’d like to see happen. Is that we work with or require request that the um Park district management teams set up quarterly meetings or whatever is recommended with these groups so that we start communicating with them on a little bit more regular basis as opposed to just having um an

00:11:12,670	appointment as a liaison and no responsibility or no interaction that takes place with that. Thank you, Comm. Jeske. Other comments from commissioners. President Zimmerman. Comm. Gilbertson, um, yeah, I would agree with Comm. Jesske. I think that that would be a good thing to. To get down, um. And to um.

00:11:41,000	Just to make that a priority because, you know, they’re even the last two years as the president, you know, they the ones that the president serves on those recreation council, community bowl authority, those, those do me regularly, but some of the other ones, um, you know, I too was Sleepy Hollow liaison and, and I don’t think I ever attended a meeting, so that

00:12:02,330	would be good too, and I agree that that would be a good thing to do. Other comments? Comm. Jeske, do we wish to Make a formal motion or are we looking at just in a job description for the commissioners on operations and facilities and programs.

00:12:31,270	Thoughts executive director of Clipfell, President Zimmerman and commissioners, I think Comm. Jesske and I have talked about this. I think once the board sets aside the assignments to those portfolios, uh, I would be happy to work with the commissioners that are liaisons, whether it be forestry, community bowl, aquatic center, or Sleepy Hollow to work on a schedule that we could, uh, we could

00:12:48,570	bring back to the board that at least everybody knows when we’re meeting and and can ask questions on that, but we get that flowing again. President Zimmerman, Comm., given that I would be interested in serving on um facilities and programs. If that’s an option. Other commissioners have preferences they wish to express. Uh, Comm.

00:13:25,070	Jeske Zimmerman, since I’m already on the Missouri Valley complex and we have just started to meet. Um, I would ask that I be appointed again to the operation management team so that we can continue that um conversation and I have a little bit of a knowledge base moving it forward. Thank you, uh, Comm.

00:13:44,970	Jesske, I think that’s a good one. That’s going to be an active group out there the way it sounds, so thank you for agreeing to stay on that one with operations. Comm. Galder, Comm. Gilbertson, excuse me, Director Cliffville, President Zimmerman and commissioners, the, the Missouri Valley Complex, uh, liaison is part of the facilities and programs division, so that is, that’s

00:14:08,830	that, yeah, so I just wanted to make that clear if if we appoint a Comm. Jeske to the facilities and programs and she could be that liaison. Facilities and program, not operations, OK? And Comm. Redmond, you wish to serve on facilities as well. That’d be great. And guess what you get.

00:14:30,800	Well, I think I will choose operations so. Comm. Herzog. I have one choice and operations, so so so so so I’m here to serve at your pleasure, so whatever you need. I would ask for advice. Do we need a motion to that effect? We do not need a motion to that effect. Thank you, commissioners.

00:15:00,070	Any other discussion on those assignments? You can see that they are um Listed by the either operations or facilities and programs, but I appreciate that too. I, I thought that’s a, a, a good point, Comm. Jesske, that if we have these liaison, let’s, let’s meet, let’s see what’s, uh, let’s see what’s out there. All right, Comm.

00:15:24,130	Jesske Zimmerman, just a quick question then, do we want to assign like the forestry to a person within the, um, With the operations and do we want to, well, Paul by default would be BSC I do believe, but is that something we want to handle at this time, or is that something we wanna take on later? A director of Clipville,

00:15:47,870	President Zimmer, and I, I think we should move forward with a liaison appointments also as part of the portfolio assignments at at this time, all right, let’s look at that, uh, swimming works great for Paula, yep. I’m just gonna go through them all here so folks that don’t have a copy of agenda perhaps.

00:16:06,500	Bismarck Recreation Council will be the board president. Community bold authority will be the board president. Forestry Advisory Board is one Comm. from the operations management team. Uh, Comm. Gilbertson or Herzog. Interest in forestry and I would volunteer for the Forestry Advisory Board. Thank you. Sleepy Hollow Park liaison committee one Comm. from operations. OK.

00:16:37,430	When we have you back on stage, Michael, maybe. BSE aquatic and Wellness Center Advisory Committee, one Comm. from facilities and program. I’ll take that. Thank you, Comm. Redman. And at the Missouri Valley Complex Committee would be Comm. Jeske. Thank you, commissioners, and we can work with executive director Klipfell for setting up.

00:17:09,800	Possible uh meetings of of the of the various groups. Thank you. We’ll move on to uh. Item 7 is our future partners and programs. Is Missy Hildzendeger from Bucks Stop Junction. Yes Thank you, Missy, for coming out on a hot summer day. Good afternoon. I’m Missy Hilsender. Um, I’ve been with Buckstop Junction for. Uh, 5 years now.

00:17:40,800	I started back in 2019, um. We are the small little town that’s East of Bismarck that. Hopefully will become part of a bigger complex soon, um. Basically with us, we are a historical town we have historical buildings that have been moved in since 1992 when it was established.

00:18:04,870	Um, I had the pleasure of moving quite a few of those in, working with the police department. So it’s kind of come full circle now. Uh, I hold the treasury position out at Buckstop Junction. Um, we currently have 19 acres out there that we’re looking to Improve.

00:18:27,430	Um, we are in the process of building a deck on the back of our hotel so we can. have more events out there, have bigger events out there, we, um, host Wolfstock. We host Applefest, um, and we also have 3 events of our own, um, we have one over the Mother’s Day.

00:18:47,000	Weekend one of Father’s Day and then our big one is just coming up and that’s the hoo Nanny and that will be August 17th. Um, at that event, we have vendors, we have food vendors and. Live entertainment and then we are also going to try something new this year. We have an inflatable critter race. So if anybody’s ever seen that, it’s quite funny.

00:19:04,930	So hopefully that will take off and then we’re going to have a street dance at night. So all the money that we raise out there goes right back into Buck Step Junction. All of us are volunteers. Some of us have become part of the infrastructure out there and we just seem to live out there, but um.

00:19:25,500	Yeah, so it’s, we want to hold more events, we want to have, um, a haunted town out there. We want to have like serotona Park used to have Christmas in the park, since they were no are no longer able to Find volunteers to do that. We want to do it out there, we have.

00:19:45,230	A big area where we can set up and um. Start bringing stuff back to the Bismarck area instead of everything being over in man down. So hopefully that will take off also. Commissioners, any questions or comments for uh Missy Comm. Missy, tell me about the 19 acres, what are some of your plans there? Uh, we’re looking at bringing in a barn.

00:20:10,370	We just got contacted by a family that purchased land and they want to donate their old barn. I don’t know if any of you seen it at the Yankee Barn out by Minoan. You can kind of see it from the interstate. Um, they reached out to us and want to donate that.

00:20:26,800	So that way we can bring that in. We’re gonna redo it. We’re gonna add on to it and we can have more indoor events that way. There’s also a baseball field going in if we can manage it, um, most of our board is of the older group, uh, I think their youngest one now is in his 40s.

00:20:48,200	So the younger ones are starting to come in and take over and trying to get stuff done. So, um, the baseball field will be right next to the, uh, community gardens in the back.

00:21:12,200	So Yeah Yes Miss your question, uh, I know for a couple of years there was uh the corn maze out there, I think that uh the Coleman family operated is that in conjunction with Buck stop, or is that yeah, that was all separate. That was him. He has now moved it up to Baldwin. Um, he had corn maize out there for I believe 3 years.

00:21:29,970	And you can only plant corn for so many years in a row, so I guess he leased the land and now he’s got beans on there. So, but yeah. Thank you. Commissioner’s other questions were missing? Just a note, Missy thinks. I know you recently retired from Bismarck Police Force from nearly 33 years of service, so thank you for your service and I know a lot of that time was spent with animal control.

00:21:51,300	So thanks for taking care of the critters. You appreciate it. Thank you. Could we make a motion that she has to come back to the police department during street fair because we used her to to tow a lot of vehicles. I’d appreciate that. You can make a request. I lieutenant.

00:22:06,300	I see what you can do. Thank you. Thank you, Missy. Thank you for your time. The item 8 on the agenda is a discussion regarding FEMA flood control project and impacts on Park District property. We have with us this evening Bismarck City Comm. Gabechell will, will, uh, give us, uh, some information about this project. Good evening, Gabe.

00:22:36,130	Hello, President Zimmerman, Commissioners, executive director Cliff F, thank you for having me as President Zimmerman said, my name’s Gabe Schell. I’m the city engineer for the city of Bismarck. Um, and we’re.

00:22:51,530	To a point in some projects that we’re working on here and developing them, but we want to reach out to some of the stakeholders that could be affected by those projects so that we can, uh, learn what those impacts would mean to those stakeholders and see what sort of mitigation and avoidance maneuvers that we would be able to implement, um, uh, as we develop better understandings of these projects. So if we can get the screen up. Perfecto.

00:23:12,330	So I’m here to talk about the the FEMA risk map update that we had in, in Bismarck. Uh we’re going to go through what we’ve, as the city have done as a response to that update of what those projects look like or project alternatives look like and then how we would propose to fund this project if it moves

00:23:25,800	forward. So to start aerial photo of Bismarck, Mandan area, the red hatched area is the flood plain as of 2013, so you can see that floodplain would be represented from floodwaters from the Missouri River, um, it could be Apple Creek, could be Hay Creek or even areas of of Tom O’Leary, Jackman Coley are also identified as floodplain

00:23:48,130	in FEMA’s mapping products, uh, the area hatched out in red at the bottom there is where we’ll zoom in to talk a little bit more about. So this is our floodplain in South Bismarck, so expressway is kind of on the upper part of this map here. turn my. 10 on so we can look at things. Perfect.

00:24:08,470	Uh, expressway, Kirkwood Mall, University Drive, what I will bring your attention to is the South Bismarck drainage ditch. That’s kind of the main element of this, this project, uh, this ditch conveys water from a lot of where South Bismarck and South Bismarck being, you know, from the Capitol grounds south to hear drains to this location,

00:24:28,100	uh, that is collected in the South Bismarck drainage ditch and conveys out to the Missouri River, which, um, under normal circumstances works great. It’s water flows downhill. The Missouri River is lower. Then the ditch, so it works.

00:24:45,800	There is times though when the Missouri River is flooding where that elevated flood stage at the river level would in theory backwater up into South Bismarck. So as this structure was originally or this this design was originally thought through, uh, we’re going to talk about what is circled there in yellow at South Washington Street where South Washington Street intercepts the South Bismarck drainage ditch.

00:25:05,530	Uh, at that location, we have a closure structure, so there’s a view looking from the west and a view looking from the east. The view on the east there, you can see the gate that’s incorporated into this box culvert, uh, during an elevated flood stage, uh, we would lower that gate down to prevent the water from the river to getting into Bismarck,

00:25:21,030	um, and that’s exactly what we had to do. In 2011 when we had our flood, so this was the gate in operation. There’s no pumping capacities at that gate.

00:25:38,600	Uh, this is, uh, so these are all pumps brought into this area during that, that flood stage, uh, both Burleigh County and the city of Bismarck have made other flood improvements since the 2011 flood, uh, but none of them are FEMA certified, so, uh, that’s gonna be part of this narrative of the story as well here.

00:26:00,770	So getting back to our mapping update when we look at this South Bismarck area and with now FEMA not recognizing that gate as a human intervention structure that previously they kind of stopped their mapping product at that point and said we don’t really know what happens behind this gate, but we’ll just let it be, um, this most recent iteration, they said, well, if that gate isn’t certified to our standards, we will just project the floodwaters of the Missouri River, um, back further into

00:26:17,070	your or your community. So sorry if that doesn’t show up very well. For the contrast of where that um lighter purple color is uh relative, but it does encompass much of the South Bismarck area. There’s some single family homes, commercial properties, manufactured home parks, uh, medical facilities, etc.

00:26:39,200	located within this new floodplain that was effective in 2024 and adopted by the city Bismarck in June of 2024. So it’s a relatively recent adoption of here, um, so now our landowners within these areas, if they do carry uh.

00:26:58,670	a mortgage are required to purchase flood insurance for those properties, but we have about 950 structures that are now in the flood plain in South Bismarck, uh, because of this mapping change that includes some school properties, the underserved disadvantaged communities, manufactured home parks in particular, we have medical facilities, businesses, and then critical infrastructure that we have in this area as well, uh, we have is our.

00:27:18,630	Uh, Water lift Station is in this area as well as um MDU substation and according to the FEMA projections, if they were to be inundated, uh, both of those facilities would be without power during a flood stage. Now once again, we fought the flood, we would fight floods, but as far as FEMA is concerned, um, they recognize that there’s additional risk associated with non-accredited flood protection.

00:27:36,730	So what the city of Bismarck did is we, we engaged the services of a consulting engineers as well as received funding from FEMA uh through the Department of Emergency Services at the state level to look at what options are available to us to mitigate for this.

00:27:51,530	What are things we knew it was coming, so in the last couple of years we’ve been trying to figure out what a plan would be to help solve this problem for our community. The goals of our response would be to mitigate the flood risk. That’s a number one, a number one goal, uh, to achieve that FEMA accredited flood protection which would then remove those.

00:28:07,600	properties and buildings from the 100 year floodplain. So those are kind of the main goals that we looked at when we any of the alternatives, the, the first screening criteria that were used was we have to do something at that South Washington structure.

00:28:23,100	Uh, we look at the most simple options versus there’s something we can do just there and there alone that would solve the problem. If so, great move on and we’re done, um, obviously that’s as we’ll continue talking as you’ll see in the slides, it’s not the only thing that we’ll have to do, um, the screening criteria that we also used was minimizing impacts to private.

00:28:39,530	Public property, um, there are some flood projects that uh take out neighborhoods and and do some real gnarly damage to to that community sense. So we try to find alternatives that would both work from a technical perspective but also try to minimize the impacts to property in particular private property, so we really did focus on public properties if we’re going to have an impact

00:28:55,130	somewhere, where could that be, um, and so that’s why I’m talking to you as a public board, uh, as well as uh a piece of property in the airport that we looked at initially, uh, the last piece for our screening criteria. was to have negligible downstream stage increases.

00:29:10,600	We didn’t want to solve this problem by flooding someone else out downstream along that channel and. Um, raised the flood elevation, uh, within all the properties there, uh, anything downstream that could affect properties outside of even the city of Bismarck potentially.

00:29:33,270	So we’re gonna walk through some of the concepts of the, the, the alternatives that we are analyzing all of the concepts would include some sort of improvement to that South Washington gate structures be reconstructing that, uh, putting a pump station in place so that when that gate is closed, there’s adequate pumping capacity, uh, when the gates close and the water’s high on on the the river side enough pumping capacity to drain out the ditch during a coincident rain event.

00:29:51,700	Um, that’s one of the, the kickers of this entire process is not only do we have to prevent ourselves from flooding from when the, uh, it, it flood in the river.

00:30:08,330	We also have to be prepared for when it rains during that flood stage and what’s relatively, I’m not gonna say unique, but different about flooding in the Bismarck Mandan area compared to Fargo is that when we have had a flood, even the 2011 flood, it’s a very prolonged period of time, so that means that it’s I think 60 days or something along those lines of, of flood stage in 2011, um, and the, therefore the risk that you’ll

00:30:24,770	get up. Pretty large rainfall during that time is high compared to somewhere in Fargo where that flood stage might be in March and you’re really just worried about, uh, overland flooding, other challenges obviously with that, uh, but you’re not worried about a 4 inch res uh happening at the same time.

00:30:43,430	Uh, so this is the first component of all the alternatives that we study would be improving the South Washington lift lift station. Um, this first alternative, uh, we call the South 12th Street alternative would include the Uh, aforementioned.

00:31:08,470	South Washington lift station improvements would improve other things along the South Bismarck drainage ditch to replace the Current box culverts that are along the channel with bridges to improve the conveyance capacity and then this alternative brings water, uh, along South 12th Street. Into a pond that is then all connected through another box covered along Tacoma Avenue to the ditch.

00:31:29,870	So through this additional storage capacity, we’re able to kind of do what you could have done by, you know, ripping out a neighborhood north or south of the ditch and put a detention pond there, but we just moved that pond and its infrastructure further away in an effort to minimize those private property impacts. This one would have this airport pond property, uh, and so in.

00:31:50,300	In, in that we have had now coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration on how, how they would view this process, what sort of environmental process would they need to go through to allow this this property to be turned into a stormwater pond.

00:32:08,900	Um, so more details of this stormwater pond in the airport property would be, uh, something in, you know, in the range of 15 to 20 ft deep pond, uh, that gives adequate storage capacity that allows for the pump station to be a sized appropriately so it doesn’t have to uh pump every inch of water as it’s dropping, uh, in the watershed, but it actually gives a spot to more uh efficiently store that for a period of time and drain it out.

00:32:24,800	Um, our conversations with FAA, however, have been, uh, I’d say less than lukewarm is what I would put it as they have the ability because this was purchased this, this airport property purchased with federal dollars.

00:32:42,800	Um, they have the approval of to say yes or no, and ultimately they could say no, this needs to be an airport function. It cannot be used for flood mitigation, um, and so with that, we said, OK, that’s, that’s good to know there’s other impacts, uh, there’s geotechnical concerns in this area. There’s also high groundwater concerns that we’d have to deal with, uh, but the biggest one is the uncertainty.

00:32:59,730	That comes with the FAA that we might go through 6 more steps or months or even years of project development for them to get to the end of the. Path to say no, we are not interested in this project, so that’s one of the challenges that we have on this alternative that we’re that we’re consideration.

00:33:16,300	Which is why we also have another alternative, uh, this is our expressway alternative that was also developed that does the same sort of concepts, but just in a little bit different way. So instead of bringing all of that water down into the South Bismarck drainage ditch. This alternative um still has a pump station on Washington Street.

00:33:33,870	That’s going to happen regardless, but instead of letting that water get down to the ditch, it intercepts that water still at that same point at 12th Street and Expressway, but instead of running it down 12th Street to a new pond, it runs it a long. Uh, similarly, though, to a new pond facility.

00:33:54,000	Pump station and then a series of of outlet from that pond to the river. So this one does have two pumps associated with it. Granted the South Washington pump is dramatically smaller uh by having this kind of watershed split into two instead of all that water coming to one location, uh, but as we’ll sign on our next slides, there would be impacts to the Clem Kelly Sertoma Park

00:34:11,670	Community Orchard and that’s why I’m here to talk to you today. So this was the drawing that was presented with our uh FEMA grant application uh at the time showing what, what this. Pond could look like on the expressway option, uh, if you similarly a 15 ft deep pond with pump station.

00:34:33,070	This area is still within the 10,000 ft. Of the airport operation, so there would still be FAA involvement, even out in this area if it’s within that 10,000 ft area, so that does not attract wildlife.

00:34:51,770	This is about straight out from the the runway, the, the primary runway from the airport is where this is located, uh, so with that being said and with some of the information that we’ve learned from FAA, we are still looking at other concepts that would look at different uh pump or excuse me, pond geometry to look at ways that would impact this property differently, uh, but potentially avoid some of those FAA requirements, uh, so you

00:35:09,270	can see some of those outlines where it says pond version 2, pond version 3, are, are both ways, both of those would be outside of that 10,000 ft buffer area from the airport, but would have increased or impacts to to the properties that were talking about here in. Uh, Park district property.

00:35:31,400	This last component here that we would talk about is the Missouri River outfall. So in addition to the pond location, uh, there would still need to be a way to get water from that location out to the river.

00:35:46,670	So the concept that we have shown on the screen would do so under a box culvert under the trail that within the trail could be reestablished on top of that when that is completed, um, there are also there’ll be opportunities for an open channel adjacent to the trail, uh, but in doing so, that would have obviously impacts to, uh, zoo property owned by Park.

00:36:00,800	put these to the zoo, so that would be another thing that we would want to work through is what the trade-offs of an open channel compared to a box culvert, um, in this scenario as well. So the the project funding, um, we put in a grant application for this multi-million dollar project in FEMA.

00:36:24,070	Fortunately said, sure, here, here’s some money, so that’s actually the really surprising first step that we were successful with this piece of it. Uh, this is the first project in North Dakota, uh, and really one of the first projects in the Rima Fijian based out of Denver to receive any money through either the flood mitigation assistance or the, uh, BRIC grant program which is building resilient

00:36:42,430	infrastructure, uh, program, uh, both this one and a project in Mandan area for the Hart River received funding, um, and, uh, City of Lincoln would Funding also for a sanitary sewer project they are pursuing, which is the first time that we’ve been successful in our state getting any of these FEMA dollars.

00:37:00,400	So it’s really exciting first step. Uh, they’ve had a an award announcement in August of 2023. You can see in the bottom right corner that was the photo op that they had with us so they were in town.

00:37:15,400	We’ve yet to receive the grant though we’re really the grant details, which is to be expected sometime we think this summer. But it’s summer now. It’s 100 degrees, so at some point it won’t be hunter anymore, uh, and then it’ll be fall, so this might be something we would obviously keep updating this until that that grant and the details about that grant are in our hand.

00:37:31,970	Um, but one of the grant components is typically a timeline of, um, 3 to 5 years to construct the facility once that grant is received. So once that grant money is identified in the feds signed that, it’ll be a pretty quick fuse for us to make a decision and try to move forward in a direction uh or for fear of, of losing some

00:37:48,030	of those grant funds. So that grant, the $50 million grant that FEMA. His, his announced in a press release but have not given to the city just yet, uh, was awarded based on these objectives being met on this graphic. So on the left, uh, you will see the flood plain as it exists today, pre-project.

00:38:09,300	um I do want to point out one tiny thing that’ll make a little more sense later potentially. This area here, everything south of. This line that I’m just trying to draw in here in Cottonwood Park area is floodplain, but that floodplain is from a different source from the river that’s about 3 ft lower in elevation, so

00:38:27,500	everything within here is at elevation 1636 of a river, um, like it’s projected into the community. This area here is at 1633, which is actually the backwater condition, um, south of like Sibley Park or east of Silly Park, channeling up through uh Forty-eighth Avenue. We 48th Avenue and and up through this area.

00:38:50,930	So any improvements that we do as we look at the post project you’ll see do not affect this. Park property at all because that’s still. 3 ft lower than um any of the improvements that we have north of here, but you will see a dramatic change in the flood plain elevations, um.

00:39:13,270	Post project in our modeling this option modeled the South 12th Street. Alternative, which is why this airport pond was shown as being not in the floodplain in this first picture and then in the floodplain later if we presented this same graphic.

00:39:33,600	Uh, showing the expressway option, it would look similar, but obviously the park property would be the the new red square, wherever that would would be. Uh, other funding partners we have approached and have received from the state water commission, uh, in April of 2024, some pre-construction cost share for that uh funding that that is local as far as non-federal, we are splitting that 60/40 with the state.

00:39:54,930	So this is kind of this, and this will get us this first phase will get us through the design process is kind of how this would look, uh, so that’s a. $13 million or so. Worth of work to get through design right of way, etc. uh, and up through bidding the project.

00:40:17,330	So to construct this thing, uh, this improvement we are anticipating something to the tune of $122 million with FEMA’s funding being capped at $50 million and then we would have requests through the state Water Commission or the Department of Water Resources for the costs shared that same 60/40 split of whatever is the remainder.

00:40:41,400	Um, So this is We would fund it and then our request for you today, as I said at the beginning was just to engage with you as a board or individuals within the board, uh, your staff and then community stakeholders to help better understand the impacts of this project, and to inform avoidance and mitigation strategies. And with that, I’d take any. Questions.

00:41:03,730	Thank you, Gabe and I would invite commissioners to Some questions at this time, I realize, Gabe, this is new to us as well, but we’ll take, hopefully he’ll take some questions. Comm. Jeske, President Zimmerman, Gabe, thank you for presenting to us today, obviously, I’m not warm. I’m like FFA. I’m not incredibly warm about losing the two ball diamonds at Clem Kelly, um.

00:41:27,200	And I know there’s talk that you would be replacing those, um, But it’s more than just the the ball diamonds that we lose here and I know you understand that so we lose um. Because you can’t just put two bald diamonds some place because then you really just have a sandlot.

00:41:46,570	So you really almost have to have 4 or more 8 would be better, and then you have to have. Parking and you have to have. Bathrooms and so My question to you is, can you take this back to FA FAA because I do feel that that is really probably the least intrusive alternative, and then you also talk about with one of these going underneath the

00:42:10,070	trail, um, and I know it’s still a sticking spot for me, but during the flood, um, back in 2011 we put um Uh Barriers up on the trail in Riverwood and we’re told that they would bring them back to hold.

00:42:35,600	And they did, but they charged us for it, so we had special assessments to have our trail brought to brought back to where it was originally and so very concerned about the cost to this, and I know you’re talking $122 million which is a huge price tag and you’ve got 50 million guaranteed.

00:42:57,000	Um, there is the opportunity to raise some money, but as I was going through, um, some of this other information, it appeared that you would also do special assessments, so I’m assuming. We’d be specially assessed. For some of this, and then you were talking tax, um, property tax dollars, if I’m not, um, and then maybe a. There was another funding source in there too, so like I said to me, um.

00:43:19,400	You know, who determines the values of the fields, who pays for the trail costs and all this other stuff and then really I just think if we can push back on FAA, um. I, I, I do think that would be in the best interests of the citizens.

00:43:38,800	I think it’d be the best interests of the Park district, um, like I said, there’s just, there’s a lot of funding that needs to be raised, and I understand I don’t want people to lose their homes.

00:43:57,800	I don’t want businesses to be flooded out, but there’s got to be a better alternative and a less impactful alternative as opposed to ripping up two ball diamonds and then taking those away, um, because I don’t know, I, I think the ball players would be a little. aggressive than the FAA who are less mad than the FAA, so I just, I, I would really like to see you go back and push harder with FAA on this one. Thank you, uh, Comm.

00:44:16,470	Jesske, Gabe, I’d have the. Same question. Do you have a sense from FAA and your presentation, you said it’s not definite that they would not, that they would reject alternative one, but that yours did I understand you right, that could be a ways down the road before you FAA would come back and say, you can’t do that

00:44:39,630	over on 12th Street. I mean, what’s our, what’s our timeline here? How do we How do we know when FAA would say no, you, you cannot do the 12th Street alternative, just no. I mean, where, where are we at with that? I mean, any indication, so President Zimmerman commissioners, uh.

00:45:01,400	So obviously this is, that was our first outreach to FAA at at the state level to have that conversation, um. The, the timing component would be they they laid out something into the 12 to 18 months from once they had the information that they need to then analyze on their side and and we’re to the point that say we we wouldn’t have all the

00:45:21,200	information that they need because we haven’t developed that alternative to that point because we don’t want to invest time and resources to better understand something only for it to be told no, but understand that we do need to invest enough time and resources, um, so that.

00:45:36,130	All the parties can can make heads or tails of that situation. So the short answer, they, they said it was 12 to 8 months from when they get all of their information, but weren’t very clear exactly what information they would need to make that decision, so it was, that’s why I say I don’t want to throw them under the bus to say it

00:45:49,600	was a it was a done deal, um, but it was very much that the door was, was, was not open to have the discussion or if it was, it was by a little crack and it’s probably not something that they really wanted to pursue at all, just like this board wouldn’t want to pursue

00:46:04,400	just like the. Building owner that owns a building that would have to be relocated, wouldn’t want to have that option chosen, so we’re trying to find options if possible that we could see this as a community betterment.

00:46:19,870	Um, it might lose two fields at that location, but what is the bar that felt that the park district and its stakeholders were were made whole, so it’s not just two over here somewhere else, is it 4? Is it, is it a complex of 100 ball diamonds, not to use an exaggeration, like where does the the park district feel like they would be see this as As neutral, obviously losing to it

00:46:36,470	at that location has an impact to it, but what are the types of things that we could do to mitigate for that impact we’ve even looked at what sort of underground storage options are available that we could still store the water, you have a displacement for a couple of seasons as as the project is

00:46:52,000	being constructed, but are there ways to put back what we found and still have serviceable ball fields on, on top of the stormwater infrastructure, um, when we start talking about what that mitigation would be to establish a new 4 plex. Ball diamond somewhere else, it brings a lot of other things that usually are not, you know.

00:47:09,470	Uh, usually I ruled out because they’re costly. They rule them back into the conversation or bring them back into the conversation because you’re gonna have to spend a lot of money in whatever that’s done, whether it’s by a building or make a ball complex or do some really special treatments to that stormwater, um, at that

00:47:24,570	site and really at this point in time, all of those things are still on the table. Comm. Jesske would want to respond to your comment on the local defunding piece of it that no decisions have been made apart in terms of how that would be funded, um, if, if everything goes as, as well as it possibly

00:47:38,100	could and we get the full state For it, there’d be something to the tune of $30 million that would be funded locally. We would then have to have the determination or or make the determination of where does that money come from and so I think in previous examples and even in this presentation, uh,

00:47:52,730	I might have listed, uh, sales tax or special assessments or it could be uh general property tax. It could be the prairie dog funds we have. Um, it could be some of the, the stormwater utility rates that are paid into the stormwater utility pays for this thing, um, in, in my opinion, it probably be a

00:48:08,470	combination of many. those things, there are certainly benefits from, uh, you know, a flood protection project community-wide, but there are obviously more benefits for those that are protected from that improvement more locally that that you can make that argument, so we haven’t made that decision yet.

00:48:25,470	I have nor have I even proposed it to the city commission at this point in time, but we might have to at some point in time make that determination, especially as we talk to the public so they know how this is being funded and they don’t sign up for something and then realize they’re now responsible for paying for the thing that they just signed up for. Comm.

00:48:41,270	, Comm. Jesske, President Zimmerman, one other question, Gabe, and I don’t want to get too far in front of your headlight. I understand this is, this is an ongoing thing for you, but. You know, who does or who would determine the value of. Two ball diamonds.

00:49:00,300	I mean, who, who determines that? Is there an appraisal that’s done? Do you work with a, with, with the Park district and then the question is, would we have to use that money to build new ball diamonds, or could it be used for other things within the park district? Is it specifically earmarked for the replacement of what is being Taken away. Uh, Comm., Comm. Jesske, that’s a good.

00:49:22,430	Good, good two questions there, I guess the, the aspect of how is it valued? Uh, there would be obviously ways to do an appraisal on the property.

00:49:39,530	um, I think that would get you a very economical answer of what it’s worth and its value, uh, just that financial piece only, but it would not have any of those other social components tied to it or what is the effect of losing two, fields on a complex that has 8. What, what does that mean to future tournaments? I think it wouldn’t get into that. It would just look at it’s a 4 acre site that used to be part of this 20 acres.

00:49:52,470	Site and now it’s gone. What is, what is it still worth afterwards so it’d probably just be, I mean, how, how I’ve seen appraisals like this performed before, it would be an appraisal on the entire parcel, the entire complex, and then look to see once you remove a piece of it, what is that land still worth? And

00:50:08,330	sometimes it is just the land, but then sometimes there’s damages that go with it and the damages would be the, the piece to argue that there’s. Um, lack of revenue where there’s other components that would go into removing some of the capacity that that facility has for for you. Zimmerman, Comm.

00:50:30,100	Gilbertson, and I’m all for being You know, the, the district being a team player and And being part of the solution, but, um, you know, as far as. When I look at our responsibilities, you know.

00:50:52,930	This is, and I, and I realized that there’s this is bringing us information, but this is the 2nd time in a calendar year where a project has been brought to us that would have a potential. Significant financial impact on the park district with that was not intended, you know, because if we take 4 acre plot here and put it somewhere else, well, I mean, in that is might be.

00:51:18,900	In the details, but Yep, we get, you know, a 4 acre of this, but then are we on the hook for all of the infrastructure and then pretty soon, I mean, it’s, it, it’s not just. The mitigation for or the, you know, the. Reciprocation for what is taken here, then I mean then that ends up being um.

00:51:39,800	Work for, I made a lot of work for Kevin and Kathy and the budgetary process and so there, those are some of the concerns I have that, I mean, again, you know, unless in a calendar year, this is the 2nd time that it’s been brought to this board for a project that would have a significant financial impact

00:51:59,100	that we were not anticipating, so, um, but. Again, it’s early stages of the of the discussion, but um that is something that um is in. My phone. President Zimmerman, uh, Comm.

00:52:28,900	Redman, Gabe, what happens? Next, do you say the board wasn’t super excited about losing a couple of fields and the uncertainty about replacement and location of replacement and as Comm. Jeske said, it’s not just two fields, it has to be some other things that would go with that, but what happens next when you say they weren’t excited about it and would like to see other alternatives and as, as Comm.

00:52:43,200	Gilbertson said, you know, we want to play nice and we are a team player, but I’m just I’m wondering what, what information do you want from us or? What happens next? Comm. Redmond, Comm., it’s a good question. Obviously that’s what I’m here to try to figure out what what does come next. If you would have said, great, here’s, here’s the land, go do what you want to do.

00:53:01,270	That makes it easy. We don’t want that to happen. That’s obviously not what, what I’m expecting at all. Really, what happens next for me is really to continue this dialogue so that we can figure out, like I said before, is there a package that doesn’t Make this project be viewed negatively? Like how can we turn this opportunity into

00:53:20,230	something great somewhere else and if that’s 2 diamonds here, it turns into a complex that you guys want or that the community wants and needs somewhere else, that’s good as far as I’m concerned, if the Park district has really no need for additional softball fields or baseball fields elsewhere in the community,

00:53:33,730	then I can see how this is probably just a non-starter. We got to talk about other options that we need to do to really focus in and, and find ways to minimize the impacts here.

00:53:47,800	Um, but if there is an appetite for relocations, mitig things of that nature, I would just want to know if that’s something we should be exploring to talk about what that is. Um, my goal would be to have parks and rec be able to set a bar, and then we know that if we achieve that bar, then this is worthwhile to continue and if we can’t achieve that bar, then, then that’s fine.

00:54:02,170	Then we know that that’s just a bar just like FAA set a pretty high bar, and we’ll have to figure out can we achieve that or not? Our goal right now is to set as many bars as we can to know what we’re trying to clear over and if we can’t find that either of these too clear, then we got to

00:54:14,130	talk about other options. Really no option. We haven’t accepted the money from FEMA just yet. That’s going to be our next official action is when that comes through, I’ll be reporting out on what we’ve done on the project so far in the last year or so time to my board and be able to say we’ve

00:54:27,830	done this with FAA, we’ve done this with the Park district. Here’s where we’re at. Here’s our challenges. What do we want to do right now our taxpayers are paying flood insurance.

00:54:41,270	How long do we want that to continue because once we even make a decision, there’s a multi-year process for us to even be done. Um, so every time that we’re, we’re waiting now and and the indecision does have a cost today for those for those citizens.

00:55:04,400	Commissionerjke, President Zimmerman, um, OK Are you currently working with anyone with the Park district or is the opportunity for us to have a liaison like Kevin or someone else from the district, be a little bit more involved in these conversations, and I understand it’s very preliminary for you, but this has a huge impact for us or potential impact for us. So is that an opportunity for us to engage in a little bit more conversation, so we were a little bit more educated in the process. Comm.

00:55:25,070	Jesske commissioners, I think that would be entirely appropriate. I have briefed Kevin on this project as we’ve um started and say, hey, we’re looking at an option that might take some park property out. I should go talk to someone that I know that works there.

00:55:40,470	Uh, so that’s it at that professional level, but really I wanted to engage with, with the board to see if there’s any other direction um either given to executive Director fellow or, or to me, to help facilitate what these next conversations look like, but I think it’d be entirely appropriate to um.

00:55:57,630	Allow executive director Clip F to continue with this engagement and in meaningful ways and, and report back as we need to is that conversation continues. One more question. Thank you, President Zelman. So how often, I mean.

00:56:17,800	When you plan these meetings, I mean, is there a possibility that Kevin, our executive director Cliffel, when you have one of these meetings, can we put it on the park board agenda so that we can continue the dialogue or is is it too. Too premature to be doing that. President Zimmerman Comm. Comm.

00:56:36,530	Jake, uh, depending on what Gabe and the city’s plan is, uh, we could definitely if, if there was some informational meetings that I was to attend and bring back to the board to be happy to do it as needed. Gabe, I have just a couple of quick questions and maybe they were answered so we can maybe move through them quick. I’m not clear it has FEMA said set a deadline that you must. Not much that you present your preferred alternative.

00:57:02,130	I mean, in consideration of requiring the homeowners and that to have this flood insurance package, is there a deadline? is there a date out there somewhere to say. You have to give us this alternative? Are we? So President Zimmerman, commissioners, how we approached FEMA was for a phased approach.

00:57:22,530	So we asked them and actually was at their at their recommendation that there are some projects that when they apply for funding they say this is what we want to build. It’s this flood improvement district or this this project, it’s a levee, it’s a wall, it’s this thing. Please give us the money. It’s already designed, we’re ready to go. This is not that type of project and female recognized that.

00:57:36,800	They said, well, you guys don’t really know exactly what you want to do yet, so we’ll give you this phase one funding, which is That first, you know, $10 million or whatever that number was, um, that helps us better understand the alternatives and really if this is not the right alternative, just select a different one and just continue the understanding

00:57:51,800	of this. So from FEMA’s perspective, they haven’t said this has to be done by XYZ date, um, and, and, and they’ve encouraged us to better analyze these, these situations and this um this information.

00:58:10,470	However, the money that they gave to us does have that ticking time bomb, no, I shouldn’t say time bomb, that’s, that’s not a good mental picture. Retract it, it’s gone, um, just an expiration to it, so they, they do want to make sure that when those first dollars are given that these projects don’t drag on for decades, so they do put put some some pretty short timelines associated with that.

00:58:28,100	I don’t have the details of that because we haven’t seen the grant, so I don’t know exactly if that’s just to get through the design phase or if that’s to once, once that’s completed, then there’s another time frame that gets started at the end of that phase.

00:58:41,570	Once we have some of those details, we’ll have I’d have a better answer for kind of the, the, the shot clock that we’re working against here. Gave one other question, if I might, um, you mentioned on the one slide, there’s other alternatives at the ballpark area other than those two diamonds did I not hear that right? There’s Other options, so we’re away from that 10,000 ft buffer.

00:59:09,130	And I don’t expect great detail, but is there other options in that area. So if the screen back up what I was referring to previously was was options still within the Clem Kelly ball diamond area, but would.

00:59:30,130	Um, change the, the pond geometry to avoid the 10,000 ft requirement from FAA but would still be within Pond or within Clem Kelly property, there would be other options for us to consider this same sort of concept, but instead of it, Clem Kelly move it to the west and have it in the zoo area where the, the camel area is that would be the similar concept of a spot to hold water somewhere between expressway

00:59:47,700	and the river, um, that area is lowered and is in the flood plain, so to. Build anything in that area, uh, it requires all of these embankments to be built as levees, which would then be 3 ft higher than they would otherwise need to be compared to something here that’s still in the the high

01:00:03,170	ground that’s not in the current 1% flood plain, so therefore it’s just a stormwater pond. It doesn’t have to be built as a levee system, so long answer, longer, yes, there are options, but all of them kind of.

01:00:21,430	Colus around some some sort of pond in this general vicinity, whether it’s here or east or west of here, they, they would need to be something in this vicinity. Thank you, Gabe, Comm. Herzog. Yeah, thanks, Gabe and I know you’ve you’ve been working on this. It’s been long commission meetings as you’ve discussed it with FEMA.

01:00:39,970	Is there a do nothing option that the city would consider and keeping that making homeowners pay flood insurance or they, they want to move forward with something is do nothing one of the options? Uh Comm. Herzog, Comm.

01:00:55,530	, I think the do nothing is always an option and anything that we ever do it, it’s always something that has to be a cost constrained thing that needs to know who’s going to pay for what are the impacts and and to not have a a do nothing options it’s a bad way of doing business.

01:01:10,400	So yes, short answer, there’s there’s always that option, um, at this point in time we have been directed to pursue these projects, so this would be the uh the times that I would need to visit with our board to say here here’s the do nothing option. What does this look like? What does it mean for um number of properties in the flood plain, what is their Flood insurance premium on an annual basis? What does the community dollars being spent towards flood insurance, um, uh, with that do nothing and make sure that we can adequately

01:01:26,800	assign the risk associated with that option as well. And if I could, and if it’s just me as a homeowner looking at it, if I’m gonna be paying a large special assessment for flood control or fine fine paying um. You know, flood insurance.

01:01:45,000	I, I’m not really sure what that looks like for the the homeowner as well in the do nothing scenario. Whether a huge special assessment for for flood control is going to be a lot more versus holding a Flood insurance, so understood. Commissioner’s other questions for Gabe at this time? G. Gave much appreciate your time this evening. Uh, we look forward to having the, uh.

01:02:12,470	Your office is in contact with our executive director to keep us up to date as we move on this project it certainly is going to be an impact for our groups and for the city, so we need to. Keep our dialogue going, but thank you for uh making your presentation this evening. I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks.

01:02:32,600	We’re going to move right along to our next agenda item. Um, his disposition of bids, the lighting project at the Joan Hudson Memorial for each building and at an issue Bowman Building operations director Dave Mayor will review the information in the packet provided by Apex. Good evening, David. President Zimmerman. I got it right.

01:02:58,270	Uh, good evening, and commissioners, uh, I drew the short straw for explaining John Klein’s letter, uh, to the board. Uh, as you’re aware, we uh went out for bid for replacing the the lighting upgrade at the uh aforementioned buildings in the Park District.

01:03:22,770	Uh, we did receive 3 bids, um, unfortunately, uh, due to some of the bidding requirements, they came in quite higher than was anticipated and. Uh, as staff were recommending, um, not awarding the project and looking at rebidding it in the future, hopefully for more favorable pricing and potentially resubmitting for a grant. Thank you, David. Any questions for David on this agenda item, President Zimmerman. Comm.

01:03:49,470	Gilbertson, what were some of the requirements that seemed to drive it up, I mean, because that’s a. Um A huge difference. President Zimmerman, Comm., Comm. Gilbertson, the main requirement is those buy America. So, um, as we’ve heard from some of the, the bidders that pretty much doubled the price of what other materials would have been. Comm. Jeske Zimmerman.

01:04:16,100	Why was that a requirement? May I ask, uh, Dave Zimmerman, Comm., Comm. Jeske typically um if there’s federal funding applied or associated with some of that grant money that that requirement is in there, I would assume not entirely sure, um, this is the grant money that we were awarded, potentially awarded for this project was through the state.

01:04:36,070	There may, that may have kind of been a a a flow through from the federal government. So that’s typically the reason that we see that. OK. Thank you. Any other questions for David? I would entertain a motion on this uh.

01:05:02,070	President Zimmerman, I would move that the district uh reject the bids for the Um, Lighting upgrade at the Joanne Hetzel Memorial Building and the Nu Bowman. Building. Is there a 22 by Comm. Jesske. Any further discussion? If not, Julie, if you’ll call the roll please, Comm. Gilbertson. Herzog, yes, Redman Jesske President Zimmerman, thank you, David. Next agenda item is the introduction of the 2025 operating budget.

01:05:33,070	And finance Director Kathy Fe will lead us through that. Good evening, Kathy. Good evening, President Zimmerman and commissioners, in your agenda packets is the preliminary budget for 2025 that information is a summary of the more detailed information that we had provided to you and discussed during the budget meetings and the preliminary and the proposed work plan and budget

01:05:54,400	workbooks that were discussed and then the information that I’m gonna present to you tonight or that I have on my slides as a summary of that information that’s in your packet so you won’t find those. Um, these slides specifically in there.

01:06:09,600	Um, we will start by looking at the preliminary budget um as overall for the district. The proposed budget for 2025 is $27,261,700. That would be a 4% increase over the current year’s budget, um. And then the general fund budget is just over 21 million of that 27 million and that would be a projected increase of 6.2% over the current year.

01:06:38,670	Taking a closer look at the general fund expenses, salaries, and wages for full and part-time employees compromise 41% of the overall budget. We have supplies and operations at 12%, utilities make up 10%. capital expenses are 14%, insurance is just over 2.6 million or 12% contract services is 9% of the overall budget and then we have our other category at 1% of the budget.

01:07:02,970	On the revenue side we look to see how the funds are funded on the general fund side taxes make up 53% of the funding, state aid is an additional 7% and then we have generated revenues which would be our fees and charges and interest in those types of items would be 40%.

01:07:21,430	When we look at all funds combined, property taxes fund 60% of the overall budget 5% comes from state aid and then generated revenue is 34%. Looking at the valuation of the mill. So in 2023, the mill was valued at just over $500,000. There is a projected increase of 4.66% in the current year.

01:07:46,630	So we’re estimating that the value would be valued at just over 526,000 for the current levy which would be assessed for next year’s budget. When we look at the levies for the current year. So those were levied in 2023 for the current year of 2024. There were a total of 259.9 mills levied of that, the Park District levied 32.63 mills.

01:08:10,570	The county gets 15.8%. The city is 30%. The park district is at 12.6%, and then the school district obtains 41.2% of their overall local property taxes. What that means is for every dollar of local property. Taxes that is levied, the Park District gets 12.6% or 12.6 cents of each dollar.

01:08:37,200	When we look at what the estimated mill levy is, um, in 2024 for the 2025 budget we’re projecting that the budget would be based on the 32.63 mL, which is the same level of mills that is assessed for the current year, so there would be no increase over the current year’s levy. We always consider the impact to property owners.

01:09:02,400	So this schedule here is showing that a property owner that owns a house valued at just under $330,000 which is the median property value in the city of Bismarck.

01:09:21,530	Once you work through the mouth of how the property tax is assessed, that particular property owner if they were subject to the increase of the 3%, which was the average across the city of Bismarck they would pay just about $1 more in Park District property taxes per month. Additional information, um, that were, that is included in the budget. The budget includes implementing the salary study for full-time employees and that as we talked about included two steps.

01:09:48,300	One is the classification changes, so bringing up employees to the minimum of the range, and then the second step would be equity adjustments for full-time employees. We have included one new full-time employee, we will have one new full-time employee requested for the arenas and pools area.

01:10:10,300	That would bring our total full-time employees up from 68 to 69 in the 2025 year. We also included changes to the seasonal and part-time pay plan. Uh, most of that, um, the all the the part-time pay plan is included in your agenda packet. The most of the changes are to the officials area. So we’ll have youth volleyball, youth basketball, and adult volleyball officials.

01:10:33,130	That um we are proposing changes to their, their rates and then we’re requesting that the youth basketball rates be effective the fall of 2024 when the season begins. We also added a concession coordinator position, and then we’re removing the baseball coaches and the officials since we no longer operate those programs.

01:10:55,470	In your packet is included the details of the fees and charges that we’re proposing to be changed. I’m not going to review any of those unless you have specific questions of those, but I would like to point out that we are requesting that the adult and youth basketball rates would be effective for the fall of 2024 to coincide with the. Um, rate charges for the officials.

01:11:13,070	And then the final item that I’ll talk about are the long-term liabilities, the Park district is scheduled to pay off just over 3.7 million in principal payments, and then there are no plans to issue any debt in 2025. So that concludes the brief summary that I have for the 2025 budget, are there any questions? Comm.

01:11:40,870	, any questions for Cathy at this time? Thank you, Cathy. You’ll see on the agenda, we are, uh, required to requesting the board consideration in 3 separate motions. The first motion is to approve the introduction of the 2025 operating budget as presented this evening, a second motion to approve the 2025 budget resolution and a third motion to approve the

01:12:19,730	preliminary budget statement for 2025 and set the public hearing for September 19, 2024 at 5:15 p.m. Those are three separate motions. would entertain the motions by commissioners at this time, President Zimmerman, I would move to approve the introduction of the 20025 operating budget as presented. Is there a second? Comm.

01:12:49,270	Redman, motion made and second to approve the introduction of the 2025 operating budget as presented. Julie, if you’ll call the roll please, Comm. Gilbertson. Herzog, Redman Jesske. President Zimmerman. The second motion to approve the 2025 budget resolution. I mean I mean, go ahead. I’ll make a motion to approve the 2025 budget resolution as presented.

01:13:18,070	Is there a second? Do you want to get in on? I uh. I’ve read through it, done well, but I, uh, you guys were really a part of the budget process, so I’ll let you go for it. Second by Comm. Gilbertson. Any further discussion? If not, Julie, if you’ll call the roll please, Comm. Gilbertson.

01:13:44,170	Herzog, yes, Redman, Jesske President Zimmerman. The third motion is to approve the preliminary. Budget statement for 2025 and set the public hearing for September 19th, 2024 at 5:15 p.m. President Zimmerman, I move to approve the preliminary budget statement for 2025 and set the public hearing for September 19th, 2024 at 5:15 p.m. Or 2.

01:14:15,070	Any further discussion, President Zimmerman, just a quick question just for my clarification, um, how do we get that information out to to the public, obviously it’s on our website if, have we gotten a lot of people that have come to talk about the budget at the public hearing in September or is it? No, yeah.

01:14:33,900	Not, not in historically in the past, executive director Klipville, President Zimmerman and Comm. Comm. Herzog, like you said, we put it on the website, we get that information out. The other part of that is all the political subdivisions have to have their preliminary budgets in and then the county assessor will auditor, excuse me, will send out preliminary tax statements which has all this information, including all the

01:14:50,530	public hearing dates so that if people want to comment or have questions about it. And if people want to find it, obviously it’s in our agenda packet that’s on the site right now and they can go look it over if they have questions, they should talk to.

01:15:07,470	Please let us know Cathy and I will, we will answer those questions. Thank you. Any good questions, but any further discussion on this last motion here. Not Julie, I’ll ask you again to call the roll please, Comm. Gilbertson. Herzog, yes, Redman, Jesske President Zimmerman. Next item on the agenda is the consent agenda.

01:15:40,170	And I should have practiced former President Gilbertson had that down very well, but the following items are on the consent agenda. I’ll read through those. Any of those can be removed from the consent agenda for a separate consideration, consideration of the June 20th, 2024 board minute. Board meeting minutes, consideration of Elkridge 3rd edition easements.

01:16:06,730	This project was discussed at the May 16th, 2024 board meeting and the board approved the memorandum of understanding for this project. Staff are requesting approval of the following documents which are included in the packet for a temporary construction easement. A sanitary sewer easement, storm water, and drainage easement.

01:16:32,430	And then also on the consent agenda is request for board authorization to call for bids for soccer goals and this, uh, our facilities and programs director Mike Wald has provided a memo for information on this request, and it has to do with the community grant program. Uh, any, uh, items, any Comm. wish to have removed from the agenda, consent agenda, Zimmerman, I would move to approve the consent agenda as presented. Is there a second. Comm.

01:16:55,470	Jenke seconds any further discussion? If not, uh, Julie, if you’ll call the roll please, Comm. Gilbertson. Herzog, yes, Redman. Jets ski. President Zimmerman. Final item on the agenda is approval of bills. moved 2nd. Motion made and second for the approval of bills, Julie, if you’ll call the roll, please. Missionary Gilbertson.

01:17:26,270	Her gug, yes, Redman, Jesske President Zimmerman. That concludes our meeting here for the Bismarck board of Park commissioners, the next regular board meeting is scheduled for August 15, 2024 at 5:15 in the fabulous Tom Baker meeting room, meeting