00:00:05,530	Good evening. We will call this March 20th, the first day of spring 2025, Board of Bismarck Park Commissioners to order. Julie, if you will call the roll please, Comm Gilbertson, I am here Herzog here. Redmann.

00:00:28,100	Jeske here, President Zimmerman 2nd item on the agenda is a pledge of allegiance if you would all rise, please and join us. 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 with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Item 3 on the agenda is approval of the agenda. So Comm Jeske moves.

00:00:59,000	Comm Gilbertson will second that motion. Any further questions on the agenda? Not, I’ll ask Julie to call the roll, please. Comm Gilbertson. Herzog, yes, Redmann. Jeske President Zimmerman.

00:01:25,730	Item 4 on tonight’s agenda is our future partners and program, and we’re fortunate to have with us tonight Brandon Wilkins is our specialist on the upcoming state amateur basketball tournament and you can tell that Brandon’s the man for a basketball tournament here. So, good evening, Brandon. Welcome and uh give us the update please on the tournament. Well, good evening, Commissioners. Thank you for the opportunity.

00:01:43,830	Um, as you were saying, the North Dakota State Amateur basketball tournament will be held in Bismarck this year. It’s next weekend, March 28, 29th, and 30th. So during the tournament we use Century Legacy and Bismarck High is our kind of our main courses that we use for the tournament.

00:02:01,100	And this year we also had to add in Wachter Middle School because we needed 3 more courts because we end up with 116 teams this year. So, as of As of today, yeah. So last time when it was here in 2022, I think we had like 106 or 105, so we’re up a little bit, um, this year, so, um, that’s good.

00:02:20,370	Another good thing that we did this year is we started a high school division, so this is the first year that we’ve done that. We’ve got 7 high school teams that are gonna play, um, which is very good for us. We didn’t didn’t know what we were gonna get for response for that.

00:02:36,130	I tried to get it out to as many schools and place in North Dakota where young kids could see it. So we got 7 teams, which is good for us, trying to get maybe some younger kids to start playing in our tournament, you know, kind of get.

00:02:47,400	the same people over and over again and our numbers had kind of been dropping. So we had last year, we voted on, um, trying to get a high school division just to get some younger kids playing and hopefully, They have a good experience and start telling more people and we can get, uh, Get some more people, more teams in the high school division right now it’s just

00:03:03,400	boys teams. We open it up to boys and girls. There was not any girls teams that signed up this year, um, hopefully, like I said, in the coming years, we can get some. Some girls teams and some more boys’ teams get in it and just to get experience and kind of learn what it’s all about, so.

00:03:19,470	Um, yeah, we’re excited we got, we got most of the work done, um. Getting our, getting all the brackets done and all that stuff, and I think I’m seeing brackets in my sleep right now, but, um, getting closer to getting that stuff done, so we’re getting ready to go. Questions for Brandon.

00:03:37,130	Comm Jeske. Oh, thank you, President Zimmerman. So I’m sorry. Comm Jeske, go ahead, please. Thank you. Uh, Brandon, so how many volunteers does it take to put on a tournament like this unpaid volunteers, I guess we’ll have, um, we have a site supervisor at each of our locations, so there’s then

00:03:58,000	ticket takers. So Between officials we’ll have you know 50 to 60 officials to work. We have probably 10 160-ish games to play. Um And score score clock keepers, bookkeepers. Between it’ll probably be 10, 150, I would guess between. You know, kind of in and out.

00:04:23,100	Um, we don’t have like no ticket takers will have different shifts, so obviously, um. I would say probably about 100 to 150 people will be working throughout the weekend between, you know, from ourselves to, you know, kind of in the headquarters to.

00:04:39,500	Collin scores in, putting them on our, our website to get a, a digital version of that so people can check the the brackets and stuff like that, so, um, it’s, it’s a quite a big undertaking and um, thankfully we’ve got a lot of great help from the park staff, and volunteers, and a lot of the officials that work our adult league.

00:04:56,570	We have officials coming from across the state from Dickinson, Fargo, kind of all over the place. So luckily for us, we have some guys that are still willing to do that. It’s kind of becoming a tougher and tougher job to do, um.

00:05:13,270	Officiating, especially some of the you know the Older guys and that kind of trying to hold on to the glory years it seems sometimes, but, um, yeah, we’re, we’re very lucky to have that and then we have Scorekeepers and bookkeepers that are, have come back for 30 and 40 years to help us out, so we’re very extremely lucky for those people.

00:05:29,830	And are you still in need of volunteers, Brandon, and if people are interested in volunteering, how do they go about doing so? I think we got pretty much everything covered. We were looking for a couple ticket takers as of this afternoon, but I think we got those covered. So I think we’re, we’re pretty good.

00:05:44,900	I have to check with our. I’d have a couple of guys doing our refs and, and bookkeepers and stuff, but I think they’re pretty solid too. So as of now, we are We’re good for all the volunteers that we’re gonna need. Thank you. Any, uh, Comm Redmann. Brandon, thanks.

00:06:04,370	I know it takes a lot of work, a lot of details, and I know you work with a, a team, so I just, um, appreciate the work that you and your, your crew do and then it’s, uh, long days and long hours, but I hope you have some fun too. So thank you.

00:06:16,170	It is, yes, and if I’m also going to say if anybody wants, um, if you guys want. Come and watch some games or something, let me know, we’ll get some passes and, um, you guys can come and kind of check out what goes on our headquarters up at Legacy, but any, any place you want to go check out any of the games throughout the weekend.

00:06:30,570	Start at 4:30 on Friday. Um, 4:30 till about 9-ish probably and then all day Saturday and then we start at 8 on Sunday and we’d get done probably around 4, so, um, if you guys, yeah, let us know, we can get you some, some passes and get in and

00:06:45,000	check out some games and see what’s going on. Thank you. Appreciate it. Other commissioners, Brandon and I have a couple of questions I want to check with other commissioners. Brandon, uh, you mentioned high school teams, so I’m not. Following high school sports a lot.

00:07:05,770	So I take it regular basketball season is over across the state, so they can participate in this. Are we, Are we saying let’s say double Class A team comes in and Plays a team from, say, a small town, uh, are you? Bracketing them in some way? Well, right now there are two state tournaments that are being played this weekend yet, the, the division A and the Division B are playing yet

00:07:24,500	this weekend. Um, but We let them know that hey, if you still want to play, you know, we’ll, we’ll get you in if you’re waiting for your kind of for your team to, to be lose out or wait for your season to get over, um, so hopefully, I

00:07:37,830	mean, maybe we’ll get another team or two, don’t know for sure. Um, as far as the teams like this year, we only, like we had 7 teams, so it’s kind of hard to break them up into. Different divisions we would, I mean.

00:07:51,100	As of right now, we have a lot of the smaller schools that are making teams, which is OK for us. There’s a team from like Granville, Beulah, um, Belfield, places like that. There’s a couple of Bismarck teams mixed in there too.

00:08:08,830	So, um, yeah, right now we’re just kind of putting everybody together and saying, No See what you can do And then if we start getting more popular, we’re hoping hoping to maybe break it up and do like AA teams and A or if we get enough of each division, then we can, and break them up and, and to that division.

00:08:28,770	Brandon, what is, uh, let’s say the percentage of Bismarck, Mandan teams compared to out of town teams. I would say Bismarck, Mandan, and why not probably make up 90 to 95% of the teams. Um, we don’t get a lot of teams from the east.

00:08:44,100	Um, they typically have had their big tournament out in Fargo called the Grand A, which is usually run on the same weekend, so we, in the past we’ve never gotten any teams from there, but they’ve, I think they’ve changed the weekend for that. But we still, I think we have probably 3 or 4 teams from Fargo.

00:09:00,100	A couple from Dickinson and then out West, but East is not very popular with us and then. I would, yeah, I would say probably 90 to 95% are Bismarck, Mandan, and Minot teams. Thank you. Last question, you mentioned headquarters is at Legacy High School? Yep. OK. Thank you, uh, Comm, that generate any other thoughts or questions? Well, Brandon, our thanks and uh good luck for a successful tournament.

00:09:23,630	Hopefully the weather holds and, uh, all the folks get into town, have a good time. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is a disposition of bids on some concrete projects and uh David Beyer. It has here is our finance director, but I’m not sure that.

00:09:48,730	So President Zimmerman, I don’t think I’ve been reassigned. Um, so I will, I will. Thank you present this present this to you as the operations director tonight. Uh, yes, as you had mentioned, we uh put a bid packet out for some concrete improvements in the park district on March 11th.

00:10:08,570	Uh, we opened the bids, uh, had some pretty good interest, which was favorable for us. I’m happy to see that, um, the results are that of the four projects, our recommendations are that Project one 2 and 4 be awarded to Paramount Builders in the total amount of $96,980 and project 2, I’m sorry, 3, be awarded to Brando’s concrete in

00:10:36,630	the amount of $10,00881. I’d be happy to answer any questions. Questions from commissioners. Comm Redmann, Dave, I was just wondering what are the concrete projects at each one of these places, just getting in the weeds a little bit, but I was just wondering what those projects were. President Zimmerman and Commissioners Comm Redmann.

00:10:57,100	Project one is an improvement done at General Sibley Park and Campground. Our plan is to move forward with a single site, um, trash collection like you see at. Pretty much every campground across the state.

00:11:16,230	We’re one of the few that has all the multiple garbage cans throughout the campground, we’re trying to consolidate them, so it’s all at one collection location easier for pickup, it moves the the waste away from the campers, so hopefully we have fewer Hornets and and wasps and that kind of thing in the campground and bees.

00:11:32,630	Uh, Project 2 is uh at Holland Field down at Cottonwood Park, we are adding concrete in front of the dugouts. And will be making improvements on top of that by putting some guardrails there. There’s no protection for the dugouts right now, so. 3.

00:11:52,630	5 ft tall guardrail that we’re going to have fabricated as well as adding some concrete out um outside of the field to improve the concourse for circulation for spectators. Uh, Project 3 is Sleepy Hollow Park, the large shelter that is there, the old concrete underneath that shelter needs to be replaced. Uh, this is half of the project there, the other half is to paint the underside of that shelter will um.

00:12:12,770	Excuse me, we will be putting out a quote shortly to paint the underside of the um the decking as well as the support structure for that so it give it a little face lift. And then Project 4 is done at Wildwood’s Horseshoe Complex in Sertoma Park.

00:12:33,570	We are adding some concrete slabs and in certain areas, some additional walkways to improve accessibility and to put down new bleachers for spectators for that complex. Great, thanks. Other questions from commissioners? Um Comm Gilbertson? No, uh, President Zimmerman and I would just, uh, move that the. Uh, board approve the bids, uh, for the concrete work, uh, projects 12, and 4 to Paramount Builders and the amount of 96,00380 980.

00:13:05,200	900 and that’s why it was a social studies teacher. Um, and, uh, Project 3 to Brando’s Concrete for the amount of $10,881. Total cost of 17,861. Motion made in 2nd, a motion by. Comm Gilbertson, seconded by Comm Redmann. Any further discussion? I always ask David when will these be done, whether dependent, of course.

00:13:38,800	President Zimmerman and Commissioners, uh, that’s a good question. They all vary, um, each one of these locations, partner groups, baseball, softball. Um, down at General Sibley we have to work around the schedule of each location. We’re shooting for the end of the year.

00:13:58,900	The end of construction season, uh, uh, jokingly, but, uh, most of them won’t start until after major events are done, so most of the work will be done in August. Thank you.

00:14:15,400	Any further questions? If not, we’ll call for the role, please, Comm thank you, David. Thank you. Next item on the agenda is our 2026 budget development, our finance director Kathy Feist will review our 2026 budget development schedule. Good evening, Kathy.

00:14:41,270	Good evening, President Zimmerman and Commissioners, in your agenda packet is a schedule for the proposed plan to develop the 2026 budget, um, the process will start tomorrow. I will distribute the, um, information to the managers, um, to request their input for any requests that they have to be included or funded in the 2026 budget.

00:14:58,900	That information will be due back to their director and then the directors will, um, submit that to executive Director Clip Fall and myself, um, by May 7th. We will review that information and we will then have internal meetings with staff to, um, determine additional information or, um, prioritize and put that information together on June 19th, we will present the proposed um work plan to the commissioners.

00:15:18,130	We will, um, provide that to you and your budget binder, um, for review. And then we will be scheduling with, um, each of the commissioners, um, uh, meetings with them, directors and, um, with the Comm. um, to go through those proposed budget plans.

00:15:36,230	On July 17th, we will introduce the budget, so that will be at the regular park meeting on park board meeting on July 17th and then on September 11th, the public hearing will be scheduled. That is the proposed um. Plan, timeline for the 26th development of the budget.

00:16:01,770	Are there any questions? Commissioners, any questions for Kathy? Cathy, I would ask, uh, and perhaps for folks here or or listening in, uh, impact on any pending legislation to budget considerations. President Zimmerman and Commissioners, we are aware that there are some, some pending legislation, um, or proposals, um, being considered in the legislature right now that will impact our budgeting for 2026, um, the most, um, Common one or the one that um

00:16:24,830	seems to have the most um Favorable appeal to the legislatures would be capping our property tax increase by 3%. We are well aware of those bills that are being proposed and we are monitoring those.

00:16:43,570	Um, we would hope that, or we know that um the session will be over by the time that we start to really put together our, our budget plan for 2026, so we will know what the impact would be at that time. We’ll take all the um input from the managers and the directors and, um, prioritize and make adjustments as needed.

00:16:59,570	To make sure that we’re in compliance with any legislation that does pass this session. And I thank you for that, Kathy, because I think folks may be questioning that, saying, well, you know, how can you develop a budget when That’s still pending, but the timeline’s going to work. I, I would say to all the folks. You know, we do have that September 11th date for public hearing.

00:17:19,200	I know that’s a number of months away, but, you know, if you have some concerns and you don’t want to, you know, please contact the park the park offices we start developing budget that comes quick, but uh thank you, Kathy.

00:17:40,570	Any other questions from commissioners? Comm, I guess the statement too is just that I’m in all my time in serving on the board both stints that, um, this is one of the processes that I think is, um, our district does amazingly well on um.

00:18:00,830	The staff we have, I, I, I don’t even as when I sat in that chair, I, I don’t know that I felt ever uncomfortable with what the staff, um, presented as the the staff is well aware that we present a balanced budget and, and we follow the budget and um.

00:18:24,930	And we have an amazing finance staff and an amazing finance an amazing staff all the way around that um knows what the operating. Parameters are and sticks with them. So I appreciate that, um, because it’s, it, it is, I have never felt uncomfortable, um, in getting that information, so thank you. Thank you. Comm Redmann. You, you’re lay on there. Any other commissioners? Thank you, Kathy.

00:18:56,830	Our next item on the agenda is a discussion on supporting of House Bill 1020, which is the budget for the North, excuse me. North Dakota Department of Water Resources, which includes funds allocated for the South Bismarck flood control project. This would impact could impact some park district property, so our intent tonight was to discuss the consideration for the board to uh offer support of this bill.

00:19:25,270	Uh, which, as again would include funding for the South Bismarck flood control project and, uh, I’ll give the floor to Comm Herzog. Well, thinks President Zimmerman and Commissioners, um, this had been brought up to me. Um, because it probably doesn’t fall under the state North Dakota Parks and Rec legislative.

00:19:47,300	Um, outlook because there’s a very specific water projects that are following within the state, uh, water Commission budget. Um, so I talked to, uh, the city engineer Gabe Schell, um, as we’ve obviously been talking about this South Bismarck flood control project and how it’s going to be funded.

00:20:03,000	They had mentioned, uh, Jason Tamani and Gabe had mentioned they were here. A few meetings ago that they were pursuing some state. Dollars to help offset what that would cost us locally, um, and so this is kind of what they’re, what they are supporting my remarkable is not, not working with me today, but, um, it will be section 17, so

00:20:20,200	if we did offer a support letter, um, and when I talked to Gabe Schell, he said, you know, we just stay in our lane and say we’re supportive of. You know, this Bismarck portion of this project, you don’t have to do the whole water commissions, um, budget, uh, the bill number is 1020.

00:20:36,730	I think that’s on the on the agenda. I will just uh read it cause it’s only a paragraph. So Section 17 State Water Commission, the South Bismarck, uh, stormwater and flood control project funding legislative intent, the state water commission may not approve, uh, state funding for the South Bismarck stormwater and flood control project in

00:20:57,000	excess of $73 million. getting legislative approval. Uh, it is the intent of the sixty-ninth Legislative Assembly that the State Water Commission provide funding for stormwater and flood control project in South Bismarck that is largely ineligible for its cost share program and of that $73 million.

00:21:17,270	20 million dollars is provided from funds appropriated, uh, to the Department of Water Resources for flood control in section one of that act, so essentially we would just be supporting, um, what the city has also supported and and gave Schell gave testimony on supporting, um, you know, getting. Some dollars from the state to help offset some of the. Flood control, um.

00:21:36,100	Dollars should we go that route, so. I just said I’d bring it to the board and have some discussion. I think it’s something we could. Um, support, and I think it’s probably going to pass anyway, but I don’t know that it hurts for us to say, yes, we would support, um, you know, some assistance from the state on

00:21:52,130	the flood control project. So we’d love to get your guys’ thoughts. Comm, Comm Jeske. Uh, thank you, President Zimmerman. I mean, if If Comm Gilbertilber like to go first.. Um, President Zimmerman, Comm Herzog, and. Uh, council executive Director Klipfel. I mean, obviously, I see, I mean, There’s the upside to doing it.

00:22:20,800	Is there any downside? Is there, does it? I mean, if it doesn’t pass, does that. If it wouldn’t pass, does that put us, I mean, is, is there any downside to, to us doing this. President Zimmerman and the Comm, Comm Gilbertson, you know, we’re just showing our support for the project. I, I don’t see any downside for us for that.

00:22:43,770	That’s what I wanted to know. Comm Jeske, President Zimmerman, um, So my question is, is we are not the only taxing entity that would be involved with this project, correct, because it affects us and the fact that it’s on our property, but we’re gonna probably end up having to do some type of.

00:23:07,830	You know, ill or something to finance. The project correct. So what about the school board? Why, why are they not asking the school board, and would it be a more powerful statement if we combined our letter with a letter from the school board.

00:23:28,270	Comm Herzog President Zimmerman, Comm Jesske, I think that is very appropriate to ask them to put in a letter of support as well, um, the city did put in a lot of support.

00:23:39,730	Not sure where the, where the county sits on it, but I would be fine, you know, reaching out to the school board and saying, you know, this is a, a huge project for Bismarck, um, and it’d be nice for especially the western part of North Dakota to get some flood. Assistance from the state since the eastern part of the state has gotten. Quite a bit of cash.

00:24:00,630	Comm Redmannd Comm Herzog, are you thinking this is a form of, um, All of the board like a letter in form of that would be sent email letter or uh testimony because the, the, the. Hearing has already taken place, correct? So what, what does this look like? Letter of support, if you could explain that.

00:24:17,500	Sure, uh, President Zimmerman, uh, Comm, Comm Redmann, um, I think what we would do is just put in a lot of support that goes to the committee and then our, oops, excuse me, and then our um local uh delegation so that when it does hit the floor that they know that we are supportive of that portion of the state water Commission bill budget, excuse me. Comm Jeske.

00:24:34,830	Kind of piggybacking off of that Comm Herzog, um. So should they ask come from executive Director Cliff, I’m a little confused on why you were involved in this as opposed to them asking Executive director Clip and not be disrespectful to you, but I just feel like maybe he was leapfrogged a

00:24:53,000	little bit. Somebody reached, uh, excuse me, President, uh, Zimmerman, Comm, someone reached out to me and asked me about it, and I had reached out to Kevin to ask him about if we could put it on the agenda and have the discussion so. Thank you. I’m, I would address all the commissioners.

00:25:07,630	My concern is, is, You know, we, we go in with a letter of support. I have a question. What are we supporting, uh, you know, to know that. We understand it’s just the general. Effort of the city to secure the funding.

00:25:30,900	We’re not saying I don’t want to like be cutting specifics here, but I have a concern if the project is at. You know, Clem Kelly, you know, which, which one are we supporting? I don’t know if that, if you understand what I’m saying, if it’s option 2A or whatever they were in our letter of support. It’s almost like the chicken before the egg or whatever here that we’re supporting.

00:25:50,630	This project and we don’t know what this project is. I have no problem in saying overall, yes, the Park District has an impact in this. Hopefully the school district would agree, but I don’t want us to get too far.

00:26:07,230	Ahead of it and I and again I think of our user groups as well. You know, that If, if it was noticed that, you know, say from softball folks or the tennis folks with the pickleba folks to say, why do you support this project when we don’t know. What project it is that we’re supporting.

00:26:28,170	Again, maybe we’re, maybe the intent of the letter could be or the Statement that we support. The city in applying for the funding without. Saying, yeah, this is the one we’re going to get. I don’t know if I’m making sense.

00:26:45,870	I don’t want to get too specific that then people say, well, why don’t you support that project when it’s not, that’s not the one it’s going to be. I don’t know if that makes sense. Comm Jeske. President Zimmerman, I, I, I understand what you’re saying. I’m wondering if we do anything at this point, if we would maybe make a motion to have executive director clip.

00:27:06,470	Work with the appropriate city officials and then also involve the school board if necessary and the conversation starts there and a letter being drafted from that. You’re saying, Comm Jeske to to make the action to a possible letter not to have a discussion and come back. I’m just concerned on legislative, uh Timeline? Uh, timeline. Yeah. Commissioned uh Gilbertson.

00:27:33,230	The, the city has already submitted a letter. And I mean, uh, when I guess the way. I’m Taking in and processing it is. I think that that. A letter in general support of the city’s efforts to secure funding for A project at for the flood project.

00:28:03,030	Whatever Iteration comes up and not supporting this uh specific one just supporting the, the city’s efforts to obtain the funds to move the project forward. Other discussion. And oh, go ahead, Comm Gilbertson Zimmerman, I, I think if there was a letter already submitted by the city.

00:28:29,270	If the park district submits a letter that also brings some power to Maybe encourage. The school district to say we’ve already done this, we would like you to join us, um, county, you know, the various entities that are, that are affected that, you know, We’ve done this, we would like you to join just to say in general support of the, the Um Efforts to secure the funding.

00:28:57,470	Comm Herzog President Commissioners, yeah, I think it’s appropriate that it comes from Kevin in that, that sort of way. The only reason I brought it to this commission was that we’re kind of taking a position a little bit and so I wanted to make sure, um, we had that discussion for everybody,

00:29:09,770	but yeah, I think Kevin would be good at writing a letter that is, you know, pretty, hey, the city’s already supported it. We also support it. It probably is gonna affect us in some ways, so we’d like to have, you know, some opportunities to secure the funding in case we go forward.

00:29:26,770	I will ask John, uh, some input here, please, John. Yeah, President Zimmerman Commissioners, I guess from my perspective, you know, the commissioners as the elected officials are sort of the policymakers, so I think it would make sense for, you know, Kevin to prepare the letter and then have it be signed by the

00:29:40,470	Chair of the board would be. I guess the way that I would. Feel that it’s most appropriate. Other thoughts. Thank you, John. I think that’s uh appreciate your input on it as well. Other thoughts? Executive Director C Klipfel, any input there. We have a motion.

00:30:05,730	President Zimmerman, I would move that, uh, the board of Park Commissioners would, um, direct the executive director Kevin Klipwall to draft a letter in general support of, uh, House Bill 1020 and the city of Bismarck’s efforts to secure funding for the uh South Bismarck flood control project. Very good to 2nd. I second that.

00:30:35,130	Any further discussion? Any further discussion? Comm Jeske, no. All right, if not, I’ll ask, uh, Julie to call the roll please, Comm Gilbertson. Herzog, yes. Redmann, Jesske President Zimmerman, thank you. Oh, thank you, yeah. Yes. Thank you. Now, thank you. Thank you, Comm Herzog for bringing that to the board’s attention.

00:31:00,400	I think it’s, uh, worthwhile effort on, on the part of the board of park commissioners and thank you all for your input. And John, again, thank you for giving us some insight there as well to move this forward. Executive Director Klipfel, I think it would be of, Uh, prudence to do the letter as quickly as possible.

00:31:17,470	I don’t know what the schedule is, but sooner than later to get it up there. Thank you. Item 8 is the consent agenda and please allow me to read through that. A variety of items have been placed in a consent agenda.

00:31:38,730	The consent agenda can be approved with one motion or an item or items can be removed for additional discussion and separate action. Staff recommends approval of the following items consideration of the February 20th and 24,,, 2025 board minute meetings. The meetings were included in our packet for consideration. Request board approval for apply for various grants, operations of Director David May has provided a memo. Some good information there.

00:32:07,170	Consideration of agreements with the Burleig County Companion Agreement operations Director David Mayer has provided a memo with information about the companion agreement as well as the agreement which was approved by the Burleigh County Commission. These documents are standard procedure for the North Dakota Department of Transportation transportation alternative grant that was approved for this project.

00:32:31,730	The BSC Aquatic and Wellness Center operating agreement with the Bismarck State College. A memo and updated agreement are included for the commissioner’s information and consideration. 2025 fertilizer bids of facilities and program Director Mike Wald has provided information in the packet for the board’s consideration. Request authorization to add a firm SRF to the approved list of engineering, architect and planning services.

00:33:00,370	SRF has provided the required documents. Staff recommends board approval to add them to the approved list for 2025, 2026. Consideration of consultant agreement for General Sibley Electric Project and request to call for bids. Staff recommends board approval of the consultant agreement with Apex engineers.

00:33:22,500	ing group for the General Sibley Park Electrical Project and approval to call for bids. Finally, a request to dispose of obsolete items and referred to the information provided by Operations Director David Beyer. Is there any items on the consent agenda that commissioners would wish to have removed at this time for further consideration.

00:33:43,630	Pres uh Comm Redmann Zimmerman, I just had one question if we could pull the item about uh one of the, of the approval of various grants. All right. Uh, hold on that uh Quick question, yep, please. Any other requests? All right. We can, uh, I would entertain a motion to, uh, move the consent agenda.

00:34:06,630	And with the exception of the item for further discussion on the various grant approvals. Do we have a motion? So moved. Second. Comm Herzog moved. uh, I’m sorry, Comm Jeske moved Comm Gilbertson’s 2nd.

00:34:28,500	Any further discussion? Judy, if you’ll Jeske President Zimmerman. Um, pre, uh, oh yeah, yeah. Comm Redmann if you have a question. Yes, I have a question that I’m, I’m, and Dave Mayer um, memo about, um, requesting for apply for spring grants that one about, um, the outdoor recreation legacy partnership program.

00:34:47,730	I was very excited to see about, uh, requesting a grant for some updates at Water Pool, um, when, um, you could probably answer this question for me, Executive Director C Klipfel, when would we be notified at the last sentence is the program is a 50/50 match and if awarded, The design would begin in early 2026 and

00:35:06,000	the construction would begin as early as fall of 2026. So when would we be notified if we possibly, and I realize a grant is, it’s not a promise, it’s a grant.

00:35:21,370	And so when would we possibly be notified President Zimmerman and Commissioners, Comm Redmann, the timeline for that is tentatively we would hope to hear by November or December of 25 on we get a, they call it a pre-approved letter. So our 26 budget would already be approved at that time. Dang. So Just we’ll, that’ll probably come up in our budget discussion.

00:35:43,770	So I’m just really interested in how we can move some projects forward at Wachter Pool for 26, so President Zimmerman and Commissioners, Comm Redmann, that’s something that we, as we go through the grant application and the budget process.

00:36:03,470	It’s probably a project that would be funded over 2 fiscal years, probably 26 and 27, so we’d have some flexibility there, but we could look at that in a little more detail as we go through the budget process. That’d be great. That was my only question. Thank you so much. Thank you, David, and, uh, Director Klipfel. And thank you, uh, Comm Redmann for bringing that up.

00:36:20,100	I visited with the Kevin on some of the timelines as well with the pool, so it’s good to have that discussion. Any other questions then? So we have, uh, the next agenda item. There’s approval of bills. We need to approve that. Oh, I’m sorry. Yeah. OK. We’ll approve that last, Uh consent item. We have a motion to approve.

00:36:39,300	I would move that we approve the request for board approval to apply for various grants. Second? Second. Motion by Comm Gilbertson, seconded by Comm Redmann. Any further discussion, if not, Julie, if you’ll call the roll. Comm Gilbertson. Herzog? Yes. Redmann. Jeske, President Zimmerman. Item 8 is approval of bills, so move. Motion by Comm Gilbertson, seconded by Comm Redmann. Judy, if you’ll call the roll, please.

00:37:10,230	Comm Gilbertson, Herzog, yes, Redmann. Jeske President Zimmerman. I, before we Adjourn the meeting tonight, just a couple of comments, if I may. Of course, I invite folks to get out and enjoy the parks as we, uh, come into some warmer weather. I compliment our staff. I see they’ve been out working.

00:37:30,100	There’s been some tree removals in the parks. The trails are looking good, so thanks to our staff for all of that. I would also like. To publicly recognize one of our Department staff that recently retired.

00:37:51,370	Tim Nelson, park operations, retired after 36 years, and as I understand, he did not show up for work today because he’s retired after 36 years, so we’re, we want to congratulate Tim and thank him for a very long and dedicated service to the Park District and the citizens that enjoy the parks. So, uh Make mention of our next our next regular scheduled meeting.

00:38:17,000	is April 17, 2025 at 5:15 in the fabulous Tom Baker meeting room, meeting Adjourned.