00:00:12,730	The uh monthly meeting of the Bismarck Board of Park Commissioners. I will call the meeting to order and ask, uh, uh, Julie to call the roll, please. Comm Gilbertson Herzog here, Redman here Jesske here President Zimmerman, here.

00:00:34,230	I would ask if you would please rise and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance. 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. The next item on the agenda is the approval of tonight’s agenda. So motion made and second for approval of the agenda.

00:01:07,230	Julie, if you’ll call the roll, please. Comm Herzog? Yes. Redman, I Jesske, a President Zimmerman, I Our next item is our programs and partners. Our first, uh, one on the agenda is Dakota Media Access.

00:01:37,100	Executive Director Tom Gerhart will present, and I would, I’m not sure how long Tom has been in this position, but maybe you could, uh, give us an update on that, Tom, if you would, and good evening. Good evening.

00:01:54,230	President Zimmerman, Commissioners, I’ve been in this position, I think about 6 months now, but a fun story that I’ve shared, maybe overshard, is that in high school in the 80s, I was writing for the school newspaper and my parents said you should go volunteer or see if you can volunteer at that new community access TV channel, so I recall coming down into the Tom Baker meeting room and the office was, I think, where the restrooms are now, a little remodeling’s taken place since the 80s, the 1980s.

00:02:13,970	And so I got my start in television, working for at that time, Community Access TV so circling back 38 years later, whatever it is. And I can’t see as well anymore but I wanted to share with all of you ways that hopefully we can sustain and build our partnership.

00:02:48,630	As I mentioned briefly, Dakota Media Access has been around for 38 years. We’ve been televising meetings for that entire time in, in different ways. I used to run big bulky cameras down here, and now we have them fixed in place, which is much easier. But we are of community voice, really your voice, the voice of Bismarck and Mandan.

00:03:06,330	We exist solely to amplify all the amazing things happening in our communities. and going back to 1987. Let me see if I can get this. moving along here We’ve been providing those meetings and I wanted to tell you the government meeting channel that we have, we have two channels, Community Access, which highlights community events.

00:03:31,000	and government access, which are all the government meetings 65% of our web traffic comes solely to view government meetings, archives and updates. Pretty fascinating statistic. In 2024, we televised 330 meetings and that was over 400 hours of coverage.

00:03:58,630	We do this with a staff of 5 full-time people, which includes an executive director, an accountant, so that leaves 3 and 3 part-time people. So it’s pretty amazing what we’re able to do with the limited staff Our partners are, as you can see on the screen, City of Mandan, City of Bismarck, Martin County, Burleigh County, and the city of Lincoln.

00:04:20,600	So we provide meeting coverage in one way, shape, or form for all of them. In 2024 for the city of Bismarck alone, we provided coverage of 29 Ccom Commission meetings, 21 school board meetings, and then there are 10 other entities, believe it or not, including things like the Vision fun, Renaissanceone, historic preservation and 189

00:04:45,530	of those meetings were right here in the Tom Baker meeting room. More specifically for the park district, we covered 12 meetings, one a month, and we had the one candidate form that we were able to cover as well.

00:05:13,370	So what does our coverage look like? We are able to broadcast this meeting in a number of places on cable, if you have cable, uh, if you don’t have cable and you just have antennas, that’s channel 2. If you have cable, it’s 602 online on our website, you can find it. We have an app that you can download, Dakota Media Access.

00:05:28,600	You can watch it when you’re out on your pontoon or enjoying our beautiful trails in Bismarck and uh also, we then have Facebook Live. So right now this meeting’s on Facebook Live. So a lot of streams to the same source.

00:05:52,530	We then are able to archive on YouTube, Facebook will keep the meeting for a month. They have a new rule that they’ll delete the meetings after a month. And then we also upload these to a place called Internet Archive, where they’re saved for perpetuity and can be looked back upon for reference for whatever reason, uh, that might be necessary.

00:06:08,900	We also have a video on demand system, which is what, when I said 65% of our website traffic goes to look at government meetings. Our video on demand system is accessed a lot. So, more specifically, last month’s meeting had over 500 video on demand views. Now, the analytics are very difficult to come by.

00:06:37,230	I don’t know if those are 3 2nd views, how many people watched the entire meeting. how many people scrubbed through things like that. The company that we utilize provides us with some great platforms, but not a lot of data yet and we’ve been working with them to try and find more as have other access stations across the country.

00:07:03,370	More, maybe more importantly or as importantly as all the ways that we provide meeting coverage are the accessibility options. And my previous job, accessibility, I learned is extraordinarily important. You don’t have to leave your home to watch the Park District, the park board meeting.

00:07:24,700	You can watch from your home for whatever reason, may be necessary. We provide closed captioning. So right now, any word that any of us says will be on screen for those who are hearing impaired or maybe have some other disability. We have to pay for that captioning, by the way, that’s not a free service.

00:07:46,100	So we pay basically a per word, in essence to provide that service. If you go to our archive site, we have the attached agendas, so people can find out what’s coming up And then also, if necessary, we’ll provide Zoom meeting coverage. So, and we have somebody in the back.

00:08:06,900	The door is closed right now, all the time on site to provide technical support, as I’m sure you’ve experienced is necessary. many times, and we also have somebody back at our, at our home base that is making sure the stream goes out in all the directions it needs to go. Just a couple of quick more things.

00:08:21,900	I don’t want to take up a lot of your time, but again, this is for the government access station, we have two original programs that are created right now, dealing with government access and the mayor, Mayor Schmitz does a program called Bismarck Insights, where he interviews a number of people from around the

00:08:38,370	community, perhaps all or many of you have been on that. And then every week I interview either city administrator, uh, from Bismarck Or Mandan recapping the priorn City commission meeting just to keep people up to date on what’s going on. Just quickly about the community access station. These are some of the local programs that we provide.

00:09:06,270	I’m sure many of you have enjoyed several of them. The Prairie Piers, the early families of Bismarck is exceptionally well done. Hometown history I find extraordinarily interesting. My dad was a big history buff.

00:09:26,000	And then Sunday, it’s over a dozen, uh, church services that we play throughout the day, various denominations that people can again access without leaving their homes. We just introduced our first recurring homegrown show Noak in After Hours, which is a pottery show, interview style, uh, it’s the first show that has been done in over, I think around a decade in our studio that is a recurring program. So we’re pretty happy about that.

00:09:45,000	We want to get more shows going and off the ground. and Dakota growing is uh a great show that uh NDSU extension does on a variety of things, flowers, gardening, you name it, very well done. Another, uh, thing that we offer is our community bulletin board.

00:10:10,170	You can see here, one of the graphics that Dana provided highlighting uh programs or things that are happening free of charge. You give them to us, we’ll make sure we send them out uh on either government access or community access throughout the day. multiple times.

00:10:26,230	So it’s another service we’re proud to offer and, and hold up all the happenings in Bismarck and Mandan. We also have a radio channel. Not a lot of people know this. 102.5 on your FM dial is a radio access channel. So much of the programming that uh you hear or see on TV, you can also hear.

00:10:45,800	We have original DJs and podcasts and things like that. Some meetings are live on there, not all. Right now we have 9 music programs made by local producers and 16 podcasts. We have 6 new podcasts this year alone, and including these are your Nes which maybe several of you have heard of or listened to.

00:11:06,870	Public Health Matters just started, uh, Western Plains out of Morton County, just started a podcast. We added a news podcast, The Backstory, and a new sports podcast too, which focuses on North Dakota athletes and coaches.

00:11:26,500	But why I’m here is I want to call attention to you, not only in what we’re doing, but what we hope to do moving forward. And the big challenge for us is we’re funded solely by cable franchise fee. And what I’ve been telling people is we’ve been walking into the basement for a few years now, and you can see on that blue line, and this is Bismarck only.

00:11:44,730	Man Da also has a much smaller share, 77% Bismarck, 23% man down to kind of put it in scale. But if I hover well, easier said than done, but in 2019 uh, you can see between a million and 1.2 million was the cable franchise fee provided to the city of Bismarck.

00:12:11,000	They gave us a portion of that The portion they’re giving us is indicated by the green line, keeps going up the uh portion we’re receiving keeps going down. There’s a tipping point. Those two lines are going to intersect soon. This is another look at the percentage of the collection in 2019, we got 40% of what Bismarck was allocated. 2024, 74%.

00:12:41,730	Not sure about 2025 or 2026 yet, but doing some math, uh, it looks like that cross section that tipping point is gonna come, well, I skipped in probably by 2027. And so that means we’ll still have a decent amount of funding, but we won’t be able to grow. and the average drop every year is just over 4%.

00:13:07,530	The average increase the city provides us is over 11%. Well, they can only get to 100% and then that’s the best they can do. So, what are we doing about it? I’ve been meeting with Kevin and other community partners to ask if there is any chance of or inviting the opportunity, I

00:13:28,430	guess, for some modest contributions just to help us move forward and provide the services that we provide, uh, to uplift the work that you and all the great Park District employees are doing. and who are, who have I talked to? Everyone on the board there.

00:13:50,170	Those are the partners, the that we’re looking at to see if there can be any help financially to help us continue our mission and vision and uplifting Bismarck and Mandan and, and we’re utilizing a formula of not just number of meetings, number of hours of meetings, uh, trying to look at equipment needs, um, but also the work we have to do on the

00:14:11,100	back end archive the things we have to pay for like closed captioning. and all those things and taking it all into consideration, knowing full well that budgets are tight and that everyone has tough decisions to make, so it’s not an ask or request or an invite that I make lightly, but one I

00:14:30,330	just wanted to call your attention to, uh, knowing the great work that my staff does and uh the prior director Mary Van Sickle has done for so many years in Bismarck.

00:14:52,370	and Mandan and I think you probably all know how to contact me, but if not, there’s some information, but I’d be happy to answer any questions anyone has. Well thank you Yeah. Thank you, Tom. I’m sure we have some questions. We’ll start with Comm Jeske. Thank you, President Zimmerman. Tom, I just had a couple of questions. So you talked about the 500 views.

00:15:11,470	Are those, do you know, is it a 500 single people or is it President Zimmerman going on there for 99 times watching I don’t know what. what I do know, so, we just hooked up Google Analytics when I started this spring.

00:15:28,370	And so in the last 5 or 6 months, I’ve been able to draw some, that’s why I know 65% of our traffic goes toward any of the government sites. I could break it down a little bit more, but I just wanted to stress the importance of people are really going back to watch these and find the archives.

00:15:43,970	Unfortunately, through the company Cablecast, which is based out of Minneapolis, it’s been a major frustration of mine. I recall. I want to say in 2011 or 2012, when I was working at a TV station here in town. We had a big monitor up with live analytics, and that’s 14 years ago.

00:16:01,500	And so my frustration with cablecast is, I don’t know how long people are watching where they’re watching from, if it’s the president going back and watching 10 times or if it’s if they’re all unique visitors. I, they don’t provide that and they cite some privacy laws, they say they’re working on it.

00:16:17,330	I asked the question at the National Conference this year in Boston. I can’t, can’t be the only one that wants this information, but, uh, so there’s through the app and through some of the uh sites that we have that don’t involve Google Analytics and the site that I showed with the 500 views does not utilize the Google Analytics.

00:16:34,100	That’s off the cablecast views. But I will say, I look back through the this year and it, I would say on average it’s between 400 to 500 views. whatever that means. OK. And then, you know, I, you talked about your decrease in funding, and that’s tied to cable.

00:16:53,800	Is it, is it because of streaming devices that people are not are not purchasing, yep, so the city granted right away to Mid-Continent Communications, I think it was back in the 80s to run their coaxial cable that ran into all our homes that we love to connect for so many years, and you hit it right on the head.

00:17:11,070	Now it’s streaming and that I think Midco has told me they’ll be all IP based by 2026. So, but at the same time, nobody seems to be able to explain exactly why our funding won’t go away in its entirety.

00:17:25,530	I also know there’s another negotiation coming up in a couple of years, but what I do know is that the amount of money that Midco’s giving to allocating to the cities of Bismarck andanan has been on a steady decrease. And my last question, I swear it’s my last question. So like the announcement portion.

00:17:43,970	So if you’re a nonprofit and you want to get your information out there regarding an event that you got coming up? What’s the best way to do that, Tom? To e-mail info@fretv.org. That’d be the best way, but I’d be happy if anyone contacted me and we’ll make sure that message gets up.

00:18:03,330	I would also say that if you have text and don’t have a graphic created or if you’re a nonprofit that doesn’t have a marketing or communications person on staff, like we don’t, we will create that graphic for you as well. So we’ll provide that service too Well, thank you for all you do, Tom. Oh, thank you. Comm Redman.

00:18:18,870	Thank you, President Zimmerman. You’re talking about, um, the two pieces, the community portion and the government portion. So it seems like the government portion is well covered. Community, you talked about that was interesting to me, sports and history and the podcasts that are starting.

00:18:33,100	Are there any other gaps? Any one I think they’re, like you, you’d like to fill in? What are you looking for to add to that community piece. I’d love a cooking show. for one, but I think there are a lot of gaps.

00:18:52,470	and I’ve, I know they did some strategic planning a couple of years back, I think that’s always evolving, uh, coming from a news background at Molly’s curious about people’s interests and being from Bismarck, I’m also very curious about what matters to people here in Bismarck and Vanan and so I think that needs to be fleshed out a little bit more, but we certainly have a number of gaps where, again, we are here to lift community voices, and that could be just about

00:19:13,100	anything And so, you know, I thought a great show. I was in a conversation the other day, it would be, you know, you see all these classic cars rolling down and around town in the summer. That’d be a great thing to feature one car a month or something like that. That’d be a great video feature.

00:19:30,730	So I, that’s just one a couple of examples, but the sky’s really the limit. It’s just a matter of then what can our staff handle with, as you can see, 3030 meetings that were responsible for covering a year as well. So, but we’re eager to take on more work and provide more content. to our consumers.

00:19:51,070	Well, thank you for that. Appreciate it. Comm Herzog Thanks, President Zimmerman. Thanks, Tom. 6 months you’re doing a great job. I know it’s um big shoes to fill with Mario having been there for a long time. 25 years.

00:20:11,270	Yes, don’t, we’re not going to say that out loud because she’s still a young spring chicken, but um you know, we, we talked a little bit about a government access and your funding. And is it right that it’s specifically comes from the cable television cable franchise fee. OK. Got it.

00:20:28,470	Um, cause I was curious, when you have fiber and other things or you’ve got the internet, but you don’t have TV, are you paying that fee? Right. So it would be. I’m sorry, go ahead. Go, no, go ahead. Well, I was just going to say, that’s what’s not quite clear in conversations I’ve had even with government relations representatives for Midco in North Dakota and South Dakota.

00:20:45,970	is that once all the coax is gone, how does the funding piece work? And I haven’t received a clear answer on that. I know it’s not going to go away once they go just to IP based, but it’s definitely in jeopardy and it’s the it’s projected to go down. I think Bronx TV in New York as a not really apples to apples, just laid off 13 people yesterday.

00:21:04,170	It’s a major concern nationwide and we’re a peg public education government channel. So we hit a lot of uh lanes. Not every entity is created equal. We’re the only state place like this in North Dakota. The city of Fargo, I believe, has city staff that covers the city commission meeting.

00:21:26,700	but there are few and far between in the Midwest. Um. Well, you guys do a great job and I’m, I mean, just for my own my own day job and my own curiosity, I watch a lot of the meetings that are on here and so, um, you know, having enough staff and the equipment as well.

00:21:39,970	I know there have been some remodeling in here and you have PTZ cameras and, you know, you know the you know the acronym that’s great. and tilt zoom, but it for the equipment down here, is there, I mean, are you feeling pretty solid about? everything that you have to do down here.

00:21:57,100	Yeah, we’d like to make some upgrades, and I, I, a lot of what happens in here, the city will take care of two, and then we’re also annually able to make one-time requests for maybe a major piece of equipment, nothing too significant, but you can imagine the servers we have and they’re like $300,000 apiece to

00:22:15,800	keep archives, and then we have a redundancy with this Internet archives, which is separate from us but provides free uploading services, because we think it’s important to capture this history and to provide that context for people who may want to go back and understand things fully, but it’s this

00:22:31,800	this could use an upgrade. I feel pretty confident saying I know the city is, you know. thinking about things down the road and what that could mean and and uh what the county moving to Provident life, what’s that gonna mean? So we have really, really good relationships with the cities and uh we’ll make sure that we

00:22:55,170	move forward with great equipment and cost-effective equipment. Well, I look forward to the conversations and hopefully, you know, that they are fruitful for for you in the future. Thank you Tom, I have a couple of questions. Yes. You mentioned, if I heard correct, Bismarck’s the only city. Bismarck Mandan in North Dakota that provides such a service.

00:23:14,970	the way we do. So as I mentioned, just to be clear, uh, you may have seen an article a month or two back. Dickinson was televising on YouTube and they decided live, they decided to discontinue that, but that was city staff again and Fargo has a very nice room, but city staff, to my understanding take

00:23:34,730	care of that I was just out of curiosity. Yeah, we’re the only one that has an outside. We’re a nonprofit Dakota Media Access is a, a 50C3 nonprofit, so we’re the only entity set up like this in North Dakota, I think in South Dakota too.

00:23:55,530	I’m not sure that Sioux Falls, and it’s getting too far into the weeds, but everybody’s different. Not everybody does all the things that we do. My, my last question is, and an early in any development, but we all hear of cuts in federal programming such as PBS.

00:24:16,370	Is there any connection there where you know, they would partner with you, at least on some programming, or has that not even been in a realm of discussion. That’s not been in a discussion. We have, we’re funded by a single revenue source that cable franchise feeray public to my knowledge. Had that federal funding, had some state funding. We receive neither of those.

00:24:37,270	So, I mean, if it got to the point, I mean, every, all cards have to be on the table. Would we have to change our mission or vision, uh we’d have to explore all those options, but as of now, that has not been explored. Well, thank you, Tom. I appreciate uh all all the board commissioners do for, you know, having the service to Park Fort.

00:24:55,900	I hear from people quite often. They joke and say, you know, get your hair cut or something. We, we’ve seen you on TV. So thank you, Tom. I appreciate it. Best wishes in the new position as you keep going forward. Thank you very much.

00:25:10,630	It’s a community service I’m proud to be a part of. So I appreciate all of your time. Thank you. Our next uh partner and program is from the Dakota West Arts Council and executive Director Jason Tombs, if I hope I’m pronouncing the last name correct, Jason? uh, Thombs. Thoms we’re close enough. Uh, I just first. Good evening and welcome, Jake. Well, thank you.

00:25:32,430	I just, first wanted to thank the Park board and, and, and Bismarck Parks and Recreation District for, I’m connected in so many different ways.

00:25:50,470	Um, I am also the past president of the Curling Club, and so I’ve I’ve worked with Kevin and Dylan and and it’s just, uh, the support that we get throughout our community. uh, is, is really a blessing. And so I’m here on behalf of Dakota West Arts Council. Um, we partnered together, uh, every year in the summer to offer free programming in the parks.

00:26:13,530	Uh, we have, uh, we have kids’ summerer stage, which offers 10 sessions on Wednesdays at noon in Custer Park, and we’ve been doing that for a number of years. Uh, this year we actually expanded our programming a little bit, offered almost an hour and a half worth of free programming to families and kids.

00:26:27,270	I think we had as many as 160 people at one of those events one day because it’s actually some buses from some day camps drove in from Man Dan and, and from different parts of Bismarck to come just to see Chris Kitko and, and us do our programming. And so the support that we get from the Parks and Rec. It really helps us to make that happen.

00:26:45,370	Um, the other thing we’ve been doing is doing a summer song series, and that’s happens usually once a month on a Thursday night. Um, for a number of years, we only did 3 this year.

00:26:59,230	We said, we want to do a 4th 1, because it seems like, you know, people want to be outside in May, maybe not in July as much. So we did the last Thursday in May, and we had a great, great group of folks come out.

00:27:13,630	But, uh, there’s a, a really special, uh, grant opportunity that we’ve applied for and Dana has been a part of that with us. Um, and so the Parks and Rec, uh, helped to sign on to that, uh, grant request, and that is to the Levitt Foundation or the Levitt music series, and, uh, this is a national, uh, granting organization that’s uh focuses on free community concerts in the park And uh the

00:27:39,230	they, we’ve applied for $96,000 over 3, a total of 3 summers, so $32,000 a year, which has to be matched, um, and we want to help us expand our summer songs in the park.

00:27:57,530	Um, we, we worked with the staff and we kind of came up with the idea that we would do this out at McDonald Dam. if we get the grant. Um, which would be just amazing because folks could be at the beach or riding in a paddle boat while the concert’s happening and, and, you know, the number one thing in my mind is the way we keep people excited about concerts is to

00:28:15,070	keep their children busy somewhere else. So, you know, the, the, I think a place like McDowell Dam is, is a great opportunity, but we’ve, this year we actually offered art projects to, to kids, uh, when we were out at General Sibley, uh, while their parents were, were watching the concerts And

00:28:29,500	so, I mean, always trying to find ways to make uh arts projects free, open to the community outside And so this, this grant is just I don’t know, it’s life changing. I heard about it about 3 years ago.

00:28:45,430	I almost wanted to see if we could apply for it then, but I was only a board member of DAC at the time, and it didn’t seem to fit. And so, this year, we applied 300 cities or communities is applied, and we made the cut of the top 100. And so, um, we, the next stage is voting.

00:29:07,370	and that voting will happen on text to vote and also online. And so we’re gonna, we’re trying to find is everyone who’s in our community to, uh, are going to need to vote between September 5th and September 15th, and we’re gonna Dakota Media Access and all, all the different media partners and we’re hoping that

00:29:27,170	there’s a way that that Bismarck Parks and Rec, uh, can use some of their social media to help us do that. If we make it into the top 50, then we, we will make it to the, into the very final round.

00:29:43,530	Um, and we would know by mid November, if we’re going to get $32,000 every year for three years to make this happen. And the goal would be to have 8 concerts in the park at McDowell Dam. And we have to actually, uh, double whatever we get from them, we have to double that with community funds.

00:30:02,000	Part of those funds would, would come from what we get from Parks and wreck each summer. Um, but we’re going to also be really working in the community to see if we can get some corporate sponsorship.

00:30:17,170	We’re gonna have a stage, we’re hoping that we get someone, uh, one, maybe one of our local bars or something will help sponsor the stages, uh, so that we can do this. I, I think we’re gonna need to spend somewhere between 800 and $10,000 per con c er t uh, in the park, and we’re, we’re looking at bringing regional, maybe national level folks. I’d love to see some of our North Dakota famous people come back.

00:30:32,730	Tiger Lily Gold or, you know, the Waddington brothers, uh, and they’re, they’re just amazing. So, Michael Cartwright maybe try to get him to, to come and do something.

00:30:49,230	But what we’re also gonna do if we get this grant is, uh, have a, a headline or a, a band that starts it off and that would be a local band. So we’re gonna try to highlight some of our local talent, also try to bring in some regional talent and it would be just a really great thing.

00:31:04,170	So we just need everyone to vote and, and then we’ll, we’ll have to, if we get the, the word, maybe I’ll have to come back and we’ll have to talk a little bit about some other needs, but, uh, I think that this could make uh McDowell Dam Park even more accessible, uh, give it, give it a little more flexibility in what we could do out there.

00:31:21,870	I know that the, the things like cross country meets happen and things like that. It might be a place where it would be good to have a little stage where people could get their awards or, or something like that, you know, or it might be a place that we could bring uh bands out throughout the summer, even in a different time, just so

00:31:35,800	folks can enjoy that while they’re at the beach. So, I, I’m here just to tell you about this really neat partnership, uh, that we’re, we’re doing. We’ve made it from 300 down to 100, and, uh, and Dakota West Arts Council is just very thankful for the, the many years of partnership we’ve had with the Bismarck Parks and

00:31:56,530	Recreation District, so any questions you might have? Comm, uh, Comm Redman, thank you, President Zimmerman. Jason, thanks so much. um Dakota West Arts Council has been around for a long time and I’m, I’m happy that you’re on board. You’re 45. That’s amazing.

00:32:11,170	Um, I was, I was poking around it at the website a little bit, and I know for local art groups or individual artists, um, there’s a grant from in 2025, is there going to be a granting opportunity again in 2026.

00:32:26,370	Yeah, well, this is one of the things we’re, we’ve been trying to do is really control our spending in a way that we can give more money out into the community. My, my view is that the arts are important to help build our community, help bring people together and try to offer as many free arts experiences as possible.

00:32:43,500	So one of the goals of our um granting that we did this last year, we, uh, granted almost $25,000 in grants out this year, was to try to get different arts organizations and artists in the community to figure out ways to offer free arts opportunities. to the community.

00:33:04,800	Now that might be them doing something, uh, in the, in one of the parks like Northern Plains danced has done a number of things around the community. Um, Theo Art School comes out and and they do face painting all the time for different groups. And so we wanted to try to make it so that that, you know, people wouldn’t have to pay a fee.

00:33:19,330	Maybe you can give a donation, but they wouldn’t have to pay a ticket price. So that’s what our goal is. How can we get more free arts activities into our community and the, the parks are a great way to, to partner with that. Thank you. Yeah.

00:33:38,600	Other commissioners, Comm Jesske, um, Jason, thank you so much. And we gave a little shameless plug here for Capitol City Christmas. We’re so excited to be partnering with you again and, you know, we get 6050 kiddos that come to breakfast with Santa.

00:33:57,730	We’ve got the pizza, holiday Pizza bash in the afternoon, um, you know, so excited about how we can expand on those, um, two events and then we’ve got the tree lighting, of course, but you know one group I think about at McDell Dam 2 is the Bismarck Triathlon community, and I think a stage would be fantastic for the event that they put out there, but, um, yeah, just super excited to be

00:34:16,900	working with you and Capital City Christmas this year. Well, we’re, we’re excited for Capital City Christmas really does a lot to um provide grants into the community to help, help, help celebrate the holidays.

00:34:30,970	Uh, one of the things that Dakota West Arts Council is gonna actually try to do this year is create, we created an imprint, uh, uh, summer calendar, right? Uh, it seems like crazy that we need to put anything in print nowadays, but there’s a whole bunch of folks that don’t go on Facebook. Uh, the newspaper doesn’t do quite as good a job at communicating in print events anymore.

00:34:53,000	And so we, this is really a thing. So one of the things we’re gonna try to do this year is, uh, be able to help advertise all the holiday events that are happening in our community between mid-N November and January to get, so that folks know about it.

00:35:07,700	So we’re we’re trying to do more and more to inform people about what’s happening. We had our summer arts calendar, if you totaled up all the events that we had listed in there, there was a 120 different events available, and most of them free.

00:35:24,000	So, uh, there’s a lot of exciting things that are happening in our community and whatever we can do to promote that, I think this Levitt Foundation, uh, grant could really make a big difference, bringing people from outside our community in for 3 whole summers.

00:35:41,800	And you know, Jason, I just want to, I know you’re heavily involved with Dakota Pro Musica as well, and we appreciate the fact that Dakota Promusica provides music at the holiday tree lighting, which is the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Yeah, it’s, uh, I, I wear so many different hats and all of them seemed to touch the uh Parks and Rec, including the golf courses. Jason, Comm Herz, I’ll go ahead.

00:35:59,500	I was just going to say, Jason, thanks, I appreciate everything you do and, and, you know, your point about. you know, the broader implic implications of having art in the community.

00:36:14,500	I remember when we, when we were working on Art Alley, which was a lift in Dakota West Ars console is a huge part of that, um, it was the number one Instagram spot in the community, so it is, it is an economic development tool, I think, and the more we can consider it that as well.

00:36:27,270	I think the more that we’re going to get buy in and and then it looks great as well, you know, on top of all of that. So it, it definitely is an economic development. uh indicator for for the communities of of Bismarck and Manda. Well, thanks.

00:36:42,170	Well, I, I just actually got an email from Applebee’s because they’re gonna, I guess, redesign the inside of the Applebee’s and they wanted to find out what photos they could have of the community, and they really wanted some of the art alley. And so I just to me that’s very cool. They’re like, well, this is a, this defines, this is one of the things that helps define Bismarck.

00:36:55,170	and the Art Alley, I was, I was like, well, I’ll get you pictures. Yeah. We’ll make it work, so. Jason, I have a question on the, on the grant. Is there one final winner or is there several finals I think there’s about 30. 30 final winners, and these are all cities under 250,000 people.

00:37:14,700	You can’t be near to any of the other ones, but luckily we’re in North Dakota, so we’re not near anybody. Uh, and the only other city in our region that has actually won one of these grants was Sioux Falls, uh, and they won it a couple of years ago.

00:37:30,330	So I think we’re, we’re probably the only city in the state that’s trying to do this, which was helpful because we could get people in Fargo and Dickinson all to vote for us. So we’re, we’re just trying our number one goal with this is to get as many people to just vote.

00:37:45,170	We’re gonna try to get a booth at the the street fair coming up because that’s right in the middle of the voting time and and try to get we’ll give them free water or something so they can vote for us. But um, yeah, anything that we can do to work together, and it’s really, it’s, it’s made a lot of difference to our community.

00:38:00,170	Uh, I think we saw somewhere in the area of 7 or 800 children and families at the kids, uh, events this summer. And we definitely saw over 1000 people come out to the summer songs out in General Sibley. So what we’re doing together, um, is making an impact on our community. Thank you, Jason. I was at the one at Sibley that was good.

00:38:22,070	A lot of fun. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks. The next item on the agenda is a disposition of bids. The World War Memorial roof replacement project, uh, Jeff Hubble is here from Oel Design Group. We give us an update on the project. Jeff, good evening.

00:38:43,870	Good evening, President Zimmerman, Commissioners, it’s good to see you all. I love the fact that you have the, the community partners first, cause then I get, I get to learn something when I get sit through the meeting, so I appreciate that. It’s always great info.

00:38:59,900	Um uh, I provided you a letter and recommendation on the bids for the World War Memorial Building reroof on, uh, Thursday, July 31st, at 11 a.m. Mike Wald and myself, uh, we’re at the Park District to receive the bids. Uh, at that time, uh, as I mentioned in my letter, we did not receive any bids for the project.

00:39:19,100	uh, which was a little bit surprising. And so following that, uh, I made some phone calls. We have two bidders in Bismarck Mandan that are capable of doing a project like this. I reached out to both of them. try to get a little bit of input.

00:39:36,330	Uh, the general consensus I got back was at the time of this, they were, they didn’t have the time to be able to prepare the bid, so I’m guessing that they were busy doing work. um uh, so from that, uh, I certainly questioned their ability or their interest in in considering this if we rebid it.

00:39:58,100	Uh, also following that, um, and having some conversation with some of the other local contractors in regards to projects that are happening. There are 3, roofing contractors from Fargo that are doing work out here right now. I contacted all of them.

00:40:14,170	They certainly have an interest in pursuing this project and so given our local bidders and uh the contractors from Fargo, I feel like there is some interest out there. I just think at the time that we bid this, the timing just wasn’t quite right and so, um, I’m recommending that the park board, at least at this point consider re-advertising the bid.

00:40:30,170	Uh, we have everything prepared, uh, to go out if you have the interest and we’ll work with Kevin and the staff to get this going, if you’d like to. So if you have any questions Comm Jeske, thank you, President Zimmerman.

00:40:46,230	Um, Jeff, so if we rebid this, what would be the time frame on the project? Yeah, that’s a good question because we’re kind of at an awkward time right now. Um I was thinking, so there’s enough time to do the work. It’s a question of whether that whether they have the time to get started to do the work.

00:41:03,330	And so what I think what we would do in terms of our bidding is we would provide them with a reasonable amount of time to get the work done before it snows. Um, and based on the response that we get from the bidders, if, if it feels like they need some additional time or we need to make some time adjustments, we can have those conversations with them at the time, at the same uh as that information becomes available

00:41:20,870	in a, in a, in, in some instances it’s very similar to, uh, what happened with the reroofing on, um, the 4H building, if you recall, we did that in, uh, in the summer and it actually didn’t get didn’t get done until the following, uh, the following year because of timing.

00:41:39,730	That was going to be my question. I mean, executive Director Cliffel would we be able to move the, um, I imagine this is budgeted, correct? So would we be able to move the budgeting into, um, the dollars in the next fiscal year if we have to.

00:41:57,100	President Zimmer Comm, Comm Jesske, yes, we have had to do that before and that wouldn’t be an issue. All right. Thank you, Joe Comm, uh, uh, Jeff, that was my question as well, what the timing would be on that, but thank you for that answer that we could look at. uh, moving that along.

00:42:17,630	What are the wishes of the commission? I move that we authorize staff to re-advertise the World War Memorial Building Roof Project forbid. Is there a second? A second. Any further discussion? If not, Julie, if you’ll call the roll, please. Comm Herzog? Yes. Redman, I, Jessy, I, President Zimmerman. I, thank you, Jeff. Thank you. Next item on the agenda is the channel Drive, Hague Creek. Interceptor Maine to Divide Avenue Project.

00:42:48,270	Information was in the packet, and I’ll ask the executive Director Klipfel, give us a little further information. President Zimmerman and Commissioners, uh, uh, this project was a project that the city was, uh, uh.

00:43:06,530	has been doing this spring, uh, that we were talking with the city back in 2023 and 20924 about this project and how it would affect the trail between divide and Rosser Avenues, um, as part of the project, uh, but, uh, a majority of the trail between those two sections was going to be, um, destroyed during the project and so we felt with the, the condition of that trail and

00:43:26,270	we wanted to make some upgrades to it. We thought it was a good time to maybe just replace the whole thing. And so we had budgeted 12000 $0 for this project in 204, hoping that the, the project would get done that year.

00:43:38,530	Um, it, it got pushed off to this year. And so as part of that process, we asked the, the consultant Apex Engineering, uh, to provide us with an estimate to do the remainder of the trail so that while the contractors in there replacing the trail that they had to to remove for the project that they could replace the whole

00:43:54,600	trail and you can see from the information we received from Apex Engineering Susan Hazezlett, um, the cost we received uh the quote we had received from, from S um SGL uh construction that’s doing the project was a quote of $153,220.

00:44:20,270	49 and uh visiting with Susan, she felt that this was appropriate based on the the quantities and prices that they had provided for this project for the remainder of it, so. uh staff is requesting, um, approval from the board to move forward with this portion of the project. Questions for, uh, Executive Director C Klip Fell.

00:44:41,100	Comm Herzog President Zimmerman, executive director Klipfel, is SG is that that’s the, is that the main contractor that the city’s using in there. we’re subbing them in or they’re doing our portion on the trailer. uh Does that make sense? President Zimmerman and Comm, Comm Herzog, uh, SJ Lewis is the company that is doing this project, yes, for the city.

00:44:57,800	OK, for the city. Kevin, a couple of questions, um, where would we find the additional funding here where President Zim uh, finance director Kathy Feis and I talked about this, and we do have adequate construction reserves to, to pay for the remainder of this project.

00:45:22,270	And what’s the timeline to do this? President Zimmerman, right now, the project, uh, they would hope to get it done this fall, but with some of the wet weather and you know, issues they’re having with compassion, we, uh, extended that, um, opportunity to get this, this trail done in the spring of 2026 as they need be.

00:45:39,230	So we, we just want to make sure that it’s done right so that we don’t have any issues in the, in the future Any other questions, uh, for the director on this project. If not, I would look for a motion. So moved I’ll check. All right. Any further discussion? If not, Julie, if you’ll call the roll, please. Comm Herzog, yes.

00:45:58,000	Redman, aye Dusky, a President Zimmerman, I the next item on the agenda is uh project update and executive Director Cliff Fell will give us an update on a number of 2025 projects. Uh, thank you, President Zimmerman and Commissioners.

00:46:20,070	Just wanted to give you a short update on a few of the projects that we have going on in the district this summer, and this year. Uh, the first one we started, uh, this spring, uh, was, uh, repainting at the VFW Sports Center.

00:46:38,430	Uh, we’re in Rink one in the curling rink along with the locker rooms and the lobby, uh, that project has wrapped up, uh, we’re getting everything back on the walls and, and getting ready for ice season. The ice is ice plant is up and operating and we’ll start making ice shortly, but that, uh, that has been a nice improvement if you remember Tom Brile was here, uh, partners and programs and, and, and requested this, and this was

00:46:51,630	something we already had on our radar, so it was a, it was a nice improvement. It really does look nice up there at uh at VFW Sports Center. Uh, at the BSC Aquatic and Wellness Center, uh, the video board replacement project we did get uh contractor lined up for that.

00:47:05,370	We had a couple of windows that we asked that they get that done with the early window just didn’t fit their schedule with uh trying to get equipment.

00:47:21,270	So right now, the, the plan is to get that video board replaced in uh between the girls and the boys swim season, not to conflict with any of the, the other, uh, swim clubs. The swim club that has practice and events in there. So, uh, they have a window from, uh, in, in late November, early December that they’ll be completing that project.

00:47:39,970	Um, next one is the, uh, trail project, uh, along South Washington from Meridian Drive to General Sibe Campground. If you’ve been down there, they’ve, uh completed all the concrete and asphalt work and so now all they need to do is some of the landscaping, some of the dirt work, uh, abutting the trails and some fence work that needs to be replaced down there, but that, uh, that’s going to be

00:47:55,000	definitely a nice addition to our trail system and I know a lot of people are excited to be able to go all the way down to Sibley from, from the north end of town.

00:48:10,900	Uh, the next project that we’re working on right now, uh, is making some improvements to make the Lions tennis, Lyon Park tennis courts, multi-purpose, so we had some concrete work done there, and now we’re waiting for the concrete to cure before we resurface that the tennis court lines along with adding pickleball court lines over there. So once we get that, um, those, uh, done hopefully shortly after Labor Day.

00:48:29,500	And we’ve got portable nets for pickleballs, so we’ll have some, some opportunities to, uh, really make that a multi-use facility and really ramp up the use there at that, that park’s we’re excited about those opportunities. Um, one of the projects that we, uh, we bid out this fall. I had to rebid was the Tom Oleary, uh, golf cart paths.

00:48:46,630	Uh, we did get, uh, a contractor in and, and we’re just waiting on the final contracts and getting all the information in line, but they plan to start this fall, uh, hopefully in mid to late September and get that project done.

00:49:01,730	And that is, uh, gonna be a three phase or a 3-year process that we’re going to do to get all those cart passed from TD Green at Tom Mullery. Uh, this first phase includes holes 10 through 13 and number 16 And then the last project we started working on, uh, was a Century Bark Park.

00:49:14,530	We’ve been trying to add some fill up there, trying to get rid of the low, low spots in that park and you can get the water to drain from the different areas.

00:49:27,370	Um, our staff got started and they had to take some trees down and then, I call it the, the, the common area between those old softball diamonds. It’s, it’s really low. It’s about 6 to 8 ft of fill that we have to put in there and so the trees, most of those trees will have to come out because they won’t make it, uh, when we get that fill in there, but our, our

00:49:37,730	staff did get started on that, and usually, we had hoped to use some of our mowing staff to, uh, to help with that, but with the way the weather’s been this year, we’re, we’re still trying to keep up with the mowing.

00:49:50,270	And so we’ve kind of put a pause on that, but as things hopefully slow down here in the fall, we’ll, you’ll see some more activity up there and, and, uh, hopefully get that, uh, filled in here before winter. Um.

00:50:05,170	that’s what I have to update you on if you have anybody has any questions on any of those projects, I’d be happy to try to answer them. Director Klipfel, I have a question. Um, perhaps for all of our pickle ball users out there.

00:50:27,430	How many courts would we now be able to strike at at, at, um, Hillside Lions Park with this renovation to President Zimmerman, we will have 8 pickleball courts there in addition to the, the two tennis courts, it’ll still be there. I apologize if I missed that number earlier. I wasn’t sure, but I know that. All right.

00:50:48,000	Uh, Director, uh, Comm Herzog, I’ve been, um, executive, uh, thank you President Zimmerman executive Director Cliff, I know you talked about portable nets, so, um where will those portable nets be stored and how will people access them once they we get them.

00:51:03,530	President Zimmerman and Commissioners, Comm Jesske, so as you know, the, the, the activity of pickleball is really the, the, we’ll have planned times that they’ll they’ll be set up with all the courts and then our goal is that maybe half part of the time we’ll have maybe half of them set up so we can still allow tennis to play on one side and pickleball on the other side. Thank you Other questions on, on projects, Comm Herzog and. Thank you.

00:51:23,170	Uh, President Zimmerman, um, I just wanted to say thanks again, uh the Shiloh opening was awesome in in July and then we had our first event, or DJGA had our first event there.

00:51:36,530	Tons of kids, tons of parents that were cading, sometimes two bags on one shoulder if they had 2 kids and it’s, it was just such a needed thing and so thanks to everybody that’s been up there doing the hard work and mowing. I mean, keep, I can’t even keep up with the Boeing in my yard, so thank you all for just getting out there and getting after it.

00:51:51,000	It’s humid, grass likes it, but uh, needs to be, needs to be mowed, but just wanted to say we’ve gotten so many great compliments on, um, having the Shilah back. So kudos to everybody. Thank you, uh executive Director Klipfeld for that update. I would echo what Comm Herzog said, uh, I know, um, when Kevin and I visit every week, it’s, you know, the staff is busy with mowing.

00:52:16,470	We’re mowing, mowing, mowing on top of everything else, the responsibilities of outdoor facilities, indoor facilities, now that the outdoor pools are closed, I’m sure the aquatic center sees an uptick in in use. So, yeah, I don’t uh, we say it often, and I don’t think we say it often enough to thank all the staff.

00:52:36,330	I know a number of our seasonal staff has already left back to school or, or whatever, but I want to, I personally want to thank, um, all the staff are, our managers, our directors of the various departments to thank you for I think what was it, what I believe was another good season.

00:52:56,000	The Parks looked great activities, programs that I went to were well attended, well run. I look forward to a couple. I’m sure Spencer will be in to talk to us about, uh, the luminary walk at Sibley Park at some point here. We’ll hear about that. But last I wanna just, I wanna thank, uh, our director Kevin Klipfel.

00:53:17,330	I meet with him every Thursday morning, and a couple Thursday mornings I walk out of there and I think Kevin’s juggling a lot of things here for the district. I mean, that’s his job. He’s our director, but I want to publicly thank him because he keeps me well informed.

00:53:33,900	He’s always got the information that I asked for, and we go through agendas and we, uh, discuss a lot of items, so I wanna publicly thank Kevin for that, and I know he relies on the staff to get him the information as well. So my thanks to all.

00:53:49,530	So that said, I would, uh, last item on the, uh, agenda or second to the last, I guess, is the consent agenda, and I like to read that to make sure that folks know what we’re talking about here. A variety of items have been placed in a consent agenda.

00:54:06,430	A 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 July 17, 2025 board meeting minutes and those minutes were provided for our consideration Information on an easement to the city of Bismarck for the municipal

00:54:31,500	Ballpark easement, that information is also provided for the folks if they’re watching, uh, that has to deal with some street lights and uh signage there on that corner. They’re looking for an easement.

00:54:51,370	Consideration of agreement with the University of Mary for use of the BSE aquatics and Wellness Center facilities and programs Director Mike Wald has provided a memo and proposed agreement for our consideration, a request to dispose of fitness equipment. Again, facilities and programs Director Mike Wald has provided a memo for consideration and lastly, a request authorization to apply for a 2028 Transportation, alternative grant, and a memo was uh included in our packet.

00:55:16,370	What are the wishes of the commissioners? I move for approval of the consent agenda. 2nd.. 2nd, motion made in 2nd to approve the consent agenda as presented. Any further discussion If not, Julie, if you’ll call the roll please, Comm Herzog, yes. Redman, I Jesske I, President Zimmerman, I.

00:55:39,370	Item 9 is the approval of bills Move for approval? Second. Motion made and second for approval of the bills. Any further discussion? If not, Julie, if you’ll call the roll. Comm Herzog, yes.

00:56:06,600	Redman, I Jessy, I, President Zimmerman, I the next regular board meeting of the Bismarck Board of Park Commissioners is scheduled for September 11th, 2025 at 5:15, and this will be the public hearing on our proposed 2025 budget and that will take place here in the fabulous Tom Baker meeting room.