00:00:06,570	Thank you all for your patience. It is um 10:09 on March 17th and um we’re here and assembled for the March 17th meeting of the Bismarck Mandan MPO’s Technical Advisory Committee meeting, um, I believe that we do have a quorum now, so, um, I would just like to, before we start, say Happy Saint

00:00:31,200	Patrick’s Day to those of you who may be of Irish descent or may not be even. So, um, Steven, would you like to get us kicked off with a roll call, please? Ben Ehreth Yes, Ben is joining remotely. Sounds good. Dan Schriock. Here. Deidre Hughes. Gabe Schell, John Saiki Andrew Stromme. He Jarek Wigness. Here.

00:01:01,730	Greg Feser Mitch Flanagan. Natalie Pierce. Schloss? Will Hutchins? Here And Chair Riepl Here Thank you, Stephen. I will get underway with uh the approval of the minutes, um. We had in our packet the February 18th, 2025 meeting minutes.

00:01:33,730	Are there any corrections or additions to those? If not, do we have a motion for approval? I’ll make a motion, OK. Do we have a second? I second. Greg Uh, we have a 1st and a 2nd for approval of the February 18 minutes. We’ll call please. Be Eris. Yes. Dan Shriock? Yes. Andrew Stromme. Yes. Jarek Wigness. Yes. Greg Feser, Mitch Flanagan. Yes.

00:02:05,170	Will Hutchings? Yes. Chair Riepl? Yes, I mean, it’s our approved. Item number 2 are the p.m. 1 highway safety improvement program targets and Stephen will be presenting this item? Thank you, Chair. Give me one moment to share a screen with everyone. All right, so PM one, the p.m. stands for performance measures.

00:02:46,870	So this is exhibit A in your packet. Uh, North Dakota Department of Transportation recently adopted their annual highway safety improvement program, performance targets for 2025. Federal law requires that every state DOT monitor the amount and rate of fatalities and injuries on the state roadway system.

00:03:12,930	And that they use this monitoring to assist in setting safety targets and pursuing efforts to increase roadway safety overall. The MPOs are allowed to either set their own targets or support the state’s targets and our MPO historically has supported the state targets, and so those are shown on the screen and in exhibit A.

00:03:34,300	Um, this is a resolution of adoption and it is a standard, uh, practice for our office. Does anyone have any questions? Any questions of Stephen on the performance measures. And the resolution of adoption, and this is for both the safety and for the inventory and the assets or? No, this is only for the safety.

00:03:52,570	These are PMs, so it’s safety targets only. There should be some. They update the safety targets every 2 years, but then there’s every year, but then there’s the, um, Hold on, sorry, the program, um, If the, sorry, I’m losing my train of thought here.

00:04:17,100	There are 22 more safety targets and or 2 more targets that were adopted and they updated this year, so I think we’re missing one. the PM and PM and PM three are usually on the same cycle, um, with one another, um, 22 to 26, and my understanding is that there’s a mid-year like a midpoint approval and they did not change.

00:04:36,500	OK, so you’re basically saying you continue to yeah, we are continuing to that. I think that should work. OK. OK. And so what we are looking for today is a motion to adopt the North Dakota DOT state targets that have been set for the p.m. one’s safety targets. Correct.

00:05:01,370	Are there any further comments? Or what are the wishes of the board regarding the resolution of adoption. This is I moved to approve Jarek, we have a first. Thank you. Is there a second? Ben all second. Thank you, Ben. Roll call, please. Ben Eris. Yes. Dan Schriock. Yes. Andrew Stromme. Yes. Share quickness. Yes. Greg Feser. Yes. Mitch Flanagan? Yes.

00:05:30,770	Will Hutchings? Yes. Chair Riepl Yes. The p.m. one safety targets have been adopted by resolution of adoption. Thank you. Uh, moving on to item number 3. We have Luke Champa with us online to prevent to present an update on the 2025 safety policy study. Thank you, Chair Riepl.

00:06:00,000	Can you hear me all right? Yes, you’re coming in fine, thanks. All right. Great. Uh, yeah, we’ve been busy, um. With, uh, project management meeting with BisMan MPO and Kim and team, uh, biweekly or every other week, um, going through. progress and coordination. Um, we’ve Finalized draft. Branding Options with the logo and color scheme.

00:06:29,630	Uh Stephen, thank you for your help getting a project web page. Um Developed, and I will share that shortly. We’re also um chugging along with data collection which um as many of you recall, we sent out a a data request memo we’ve uh fulfilled that, um, received everything from local jurisdictions.

00:06:52,170	So thank you for your help in getting that assembled. Uh, there is some final coordination on uh some final data items, um. Uh, all of that’s been resolved. Um, so we do have a uh preliminary data review memo. Uh, as well as a, uh, draft literature and policy review memo. The policy Uh, or the, the literature and policy review memo.

00:07:18,630	Is really intended to serve as a guide, um, To ensure that we’re building, you know, off of a strong framework both regionally um there’s some state plans in there as well as uh USDOTs, um, safety strategy.

00:07:40,670	Um, and then You know, the relevance to BisMan and MPO’s safety policy study, uh, to help guide us along the way, um, as we continue developing this this study and and report. The data review memo we’ll just be looking at the data we received and how we intend to use that.

00:08:00,000	Information moving forward and so that will be a pretty straightforward table and summary of Information that we’ve gathered. Alright, um, as far as Action plan development and draft and final report tasks, uh, we did start on a report template and, and color scheme. Um, so we have the bones there to start plugging in information and narrative. As we continue developing. Um, the safety policy study.

00:08:28,530	Our subconsultant consultant emergent strategies Group, uh, Jolene Reek is, uh, Also chugging away at setting up focus group meetings, uh, with various, uh, stakeholders and we’ve put together a group of questions and survey. For those groups and so we’re targeting April time frame for for those to be scheduled.

00:08:52,000	Ah, but that does depend on responsiveness of those focus group contact contacts and some of the logistics there. Um, I will really quickly share the uh safety policy study webpage. So that you all can see it. And this is on, uh, bizman MPO’s existing website and there’s a menu. bar in the dark blue.

00:09:20,800	And, um, there is a 2025 safety policy study, uh, page here. With you can see the, uh, the logo and color scheme that that we went with for this plan. And it right now it’s pretty simple just lays out background and objectives of the plan. Um, uh, very brief schedule and then uh at the bottom there’s an important link for folks to um.

00:09:44,800	Be able to click on and subscribe to updates, so there. Um, when you do click this link, you are able to enter your, your, uh, name and email as well as a comment if you have a general comment about the plan, uh, but really this is meant to be the, the home for important updates, um, public engagement

00:10:06,130	material, other background information as it’s developed uh through the study process, and so it’s exciting to have, have this up and uh ready to be blasted out to folks who may be interested in. this study.

00:10:25,630	Um I think that’s all I had for update, um, I mean, we’re getting into the good, the good stuff here with um. Um, being able to dive in now to the uh safety. Uh, and crash trend summary, the high injury network analysis and um really start putting together some maps of analysis and things that will help um make future decisions around this topic, so.

00:10:51,100	Oh, and we do have a the last reminder is that we do have an upcoming uh steering committee meeting that most of you will be involved with um that’s scheduled for Wednesday, March 26th. Um I can’t remember the exact time.

00:11:14,130	But, but regardless, there will be some information going out this week about that, um, including that draft policy review memo. So there, there may be some minor homework, um, and some pointed questions that will get to you this week uh for review and just, just to. To come prepared for that meeting, so just a heads up there. All right, well, thank you, Luke. Any questions for Luke on the safety policy study.

00:11:33,730	As it sits right now. Again, I encourage everybody to um head over onto the, the project website and click on that subscribe button. That’ll give you all the updates as they, um, as they occur for the study, so. OK, thank you. Um, we’ll move on to item number 4 then, and that is the 2025 ITSRA update.

00:12:00,930	Um, I do have a couple of slides that, um, Dr Sharijad Hasan with the advanced traffic analysis center in, uh, Fargo was good enough to share with me. Um, he is the lead on the update to our intelligent transportation systems, regional architecture here for 2025. Um, He has already coordinated a kickoff meeting with our stakeholders.

00:12:31,930	We have quite an extensive stakeholders group list for this particular study, um, there’s over 30 stakeholders that have been identified and at the kickoff meeting, we had a very good portion of those stakeholders, um, in attendance.

00:12:51,670	So it was a good meeting where, uh, Sherry Judd was able to provide an overview of the entire project, um, and some of the details. In that regard, uh, Stephen said that he was going to be kind enough to share slides. um, thank you very much.

00:13:12,400	I see those are up on the screen right now and the slide that you see kind of um, provides a layout of what the the physical architecture looks like, um, for our intelligent transportation systems, um, there are 5 primary service centers that, um, are identified over on the left portion of, um, This flow chart or over on the left portion of the screen down in the bottom left, um, for our identified, and those are public transportation.

00:13:38,800	Management, uh, traffic management, emergency management and maintenance and construction management, and then if you pop up to the upper left part of that, um, diagram on your screen. It does say archived data system which basically provides support for the other 4 manage, uh, service centers.

00:14:05,370	So what we want to do through the update to our regional architecture, um, is kind of, uh, displayed on the next slide. Um, which shows how we have all of these different services in our community, uh, and how they interact with each other and we use technology to make that happen.

00:14:29,400	Some of the technology is quite basic, and some of it is very, very advanced and so as part of this update to our architecture, we want to make sure that we’re defining performing functions, um, that we’re looking at all the subsystems that may be in place.

00:14:53,100	We want to make sure that uh we are identifying information flows and interface communications, um, also laying out the stakeholder responsibilities and um identifying any existing agreements that might be in place, um, and making sure that we have a, a real solid planning integration, um, kind of bringing in the goals of our metropolitan transportation plan into this whole update and then really forming that. planning framework utilizing all of those different components, um, next slide, please.

00:15:17,470	So just in the past week, um, We have been able to conduct a small group stakeholder meetings with our emergency, uh, management, our traffic management group, uh, transit Management Group and also um with our maintenance and construction management group.

00:15:47,930	So it’s been a very busy week, um, in the past week, uh, we get together with these small stakeholders groups and identify the existing service. packages that they are utilizing currently. We’re taking a look, um, in a fifteen-year horizon, what might be up and coming in the next 5 years, um, we would call those planned service packages, and then anything between that maybe 10 and 15 year horizon, uh, we would want to identify those service packages as

00:16:13,730	future and so the idea is, is that this regional architecture is kind of a living. document and we want to make sure that there’s enough growth identified so that our, our jurisdictions and our regions, um, it responds to their needs as they, they need to, uh, make improvements to our

00:16:33,670	transportation network. Uh, so right now we are in in that data collection phase, um, which will take us to about May of 2025. So as you can see on, on this slide, we’re conducting those small group and agency meetings, um, and then we’ll be, uh, coordinating any proposed changes with those stakeholders,

00:16:59,400	um, this is, uh, probably the most labor intensive part of the study, um, going into. Uh, what Sherry Chad will then develop, um, to identify the regional architecture changes and then update the inventory for us and we’ll be looking at that milestone occurring approximately towards the end

00:17:19,000	of the summer, maybe in August. Um, and then task 34 and 5 will be to review and update, uh, requirements and implement the updates, um, with finalization in about November of 2025, so we’re ready for board approvals in December, um, are there any questions on what has occurred with this update.

00:17:45,930	To date Or any comments about the process itself. OK, um, you know, I noticed that Sheed is on the call with us this morning, um, which is a pleasant surprise. Welcome, Sharijad.

00:18:05,630	Did you much covered it better than what I could have done, so thanks for that. Uh, and, uh, uh, we are still collecting some some data, uh, so for example, uh, right now we have already done the small group meeting, but there are other ways of collecting of the data collection, so just as an

00:18:27,000	example, during our uh maintenance group uh maintenance group meeting. We were missing. one of the key stakeholders like the Bismarck, um, um. Public work and the Lincoln Public Work. So what I’m going to do is I’m going to send out uh a survey form to them.

00:18:49,000	Which will essentially ask the questions that I have asked during the during the meeting, um, and, uh, obviously I’ll keep an open channel of communication with them in case they want to, uh, a small meeting or a individual meeting with with me and um and the project manager, um, if that happens, that’s actually the

00:19:12,370	best, but otherwise we, we’ll still keep collecting the data through. Uh, through the survey. Sounds like a good plan. Thank you, Sharijad. You’re welcome. All right, uh, if there are no other questions, we can move on to item number 5.

00:19:36,870	Which is the big sky passenger rail Authority government partner program update, um, and again, Steven will be sharing slides on or sharing screen for the slides on this presentation. February 27th, Big Sky passenger rail, um, had their first webinar that they provided for their government partners, um. And this was a really good webinar.

00:20:01,470	In fact, um, a lot of it was based on questions that Our our member jurisdictions had submitted and, and the MPO had forwarded on to Big Skyrail in regards to the restoration of passenger rail service in our area.

00:20:25,470	Um, we know that this is a pretty big undertaking, and there are a lot of questions, um, that everybody has, so, uh, Big Sky passenger rail was good enough to actually devote the, the first half of their webinar, uh, maybe even a little bit more than that.

00:20:47,370	Uh, to addressing the questions that were presented from our jurisdictions, so I thought this might be a good opportunity to kind of um outline what some of those questions were and what answers were provided to us through Big Sky Passenger rail. First of all, um, we did address the fact that um. Considering that we are under a new federal administration, there may be some questions regarding federal funding for our rail, uh, programs in particular, restoration of passenger rail through our area.

00:21:12,470	Um, it was made clear that the USDOT priorities state that um the economic opportunities such as increased access to jobs, healthcare facilities, recreational activities, commercial activity, or any actions or project components that will help.

00:21:38,630	Alleviate poverty, enhance safety and primarily benefit families and communities by improving the quality of their lives, raising their standard of living or enabling them to participate more fully in our economy is a major priority of the United States Department of Transportation and, uh, it is, it is a feeling that the restoration of passenger rail to our region, definitely facilitates, um, achievement of those goals. Um, next slide.

00:22:06,870	Uh, we were also assured that as far as federal activity in the next, um, immediate months ahead, um. We are fairly safe with, um, what we are pursuing in activity. There has been a pause by the federal administration in new federal grant activity.

00:22:31,100	However, um, that is a pause to enable them to evaluate programs relative to new administration policies that have been rolled out, uh, and Uh, the, the programs that the corridor ID program is operating under and also the Federal Rail Administration long distance, um, uh, service rail passenger rail service program, uh, those funding programs are secure at this time, so moving on to the next slide, they provided us a little bit of information about

00:23:00,800	where they’re at with their uh corridor ID develop. Program project, and that is the Big Sky North Coast corridor that we’ve been talking about, which will restore passenger rail service through this lower tier of North Dakota also lowers uh southern Montana going all the way through Idaho into

00:23:23,900	Washington. So it’s about a, um, 23. 100 mile corridor from Chicago to Seattle and that would, it would be proposed to uh Travel along the existing BNSF rail line, uh, through the

00:23:45,630	Bismarck and Mandan. Uh, right now they are in step one of this program, uh, they were awarded $500,000 with no local match to, uh, develop a scope, um. Regarding the the project, um.

00:24:13,470	Step 2 will be to develop a service development plan, and that’s where kind of the heavy lifting begins for them, and it also does entail uh a local match to uh the monies that are provided federally and so of course, Big Sky passenger rail is looking for um. Some, some. Supplemental, uh, local funding, um, from their, their members, um, and those affected by the restoration of passenger rail through this corridor.

00:24:39,630	Uh, step 3 would be the final design phases and we’re probably looking at, um, very, very near to 8 years in the future for phase 3 to become a reality, um, phase 3 is also met with.

00:25:00,930	Uh An elevated local match and increased local match, so it’s kind of on a, on a tier system where step one has no local match and then the local match comes into play with step 2 and it’s further increased for step 3 for the project. Next site, please.

00:25:22,370	Um, again, we just have the map that shows the uh Big Sky North Coast corridor, uh, from Chicago in the east, uh, traveling through Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, it will come down our way from Fargo and travel west where it meets uh.

00:25:47,400	The the border and Montana and continues on to Seattle, um, they are looking for the step one completion to be achieved in April or May of this year, uh, and what that does, it unlocks funding and it helps to advance route development. There are other projects along this corridor that um.

00:26:18,470	Correspond to this particular project, so while this is stand alone, there are other projects that are somewhat dependent on the, the realization, uh, um, of the, the big sky North Coast corridor, uh, again, step 2 is uh the development planning, and that is, that is a key component of this particular project and again the goal is to connect communities and states from the Great Lakes all the way over to the Pacific.

00:26:41,900	So, um, after that introduction, they did provide a um overview of the questions that were submitted by the Bismarck Mandan MPO on behalf of our member jurisdictions, um, some of those were how our cities chosen to have train stations and what are the specific criteria that might be used, such as distance to other

00:27:00,530	stations and population of, of the location area. next slide. Uh, they said, uh, this entire process is going to be very interactive, um, they will be consulting with those along the corridor, uh, that may be impacted and of course um we as government partner program members are, um, right on top.

00:27:24,530	Uh, the key factor is that they’re looking for local initiative and the commitment and cooperation with surrounding areas. They want to really create a corridor of and not, not just the, the community is that um are on the passenger rail service line, but also those that are adjacent, uh.

00:27:50,200	So they will be looking at local contributions to the route goals, um, they feel that that is very significant, uh, obviously, and um. There will be interaction with intergovernmental consultation council, um, which will represent states and tribes, there will be a formal public engagement process that will be rolled out as part of this, uh, ultimately they want us to remember that, um.

00:28:17,570	One once locations have been identified, Federal Rail Administration does have the final say on that, so. We will be working cooperatively to that goal. Looking at the list of the stations here, um, I see that there’s.

00:28:36,400	some holes, specifically in eastern Montana, and of course that’s of interest to me. I’m from that area and I I look at like the opportunity to get off, is it, is if they don’t sign on now, are they locked out of it forever, or could they be added later at some time? Yes, OK, there’s always that opportunity, but here, here’s the thing, Will, and thanks for kind of

00:28:51,870	bringing that up. The, the reason that we felt that it was important to engage early, um, is that we don’t want to be left out of those discussions and those talks that are happening now, uh, and the sooner that we can make.

00:29:08,270	our voice heard and our opinions known, um, the better chance that we have for advocating for our region’s success in this entire project so I’ve been trying to push for my hometown to get on board for quite some time, and they, they don’t want to for whatever reason, so I can see there might be some reluctance from some communities, um.

00:29:25,200	They, they did, they did in response to our question, tell us that likely sites would involve trade and service center cities, uh, gateways to major destinations such as national parks, historic rail station locations, which we do have a couple of in our, uh, Bismarck Mandan MPO area.

00:29:46,530	Locations providing operational services for passenger rail, uh, definitely communities that are committed to using passenger rail to develop opportunities for their citizens and surrounding areas and cases could be considered um on a, you know, as needed basis, uh, if communities, um, Uh, Advocating for passenger rail, uh, depots or station locations are less than 50 miles from another, so. Proximity does come into play.

00:30:13,200	Uh, next slide, please. Uh, additional questions from us included what resources such as funding or technical assistance might be available for cities who are selected to have a station, uh, we’re wondering about location analysis, land acquisition, construction, and supporting services for funding like transit infrastructure, um, including possible rapid transit service between cities in in multi-city regions, for

00:30:38,870	example, you know, Bismarck, Mandan, Lincoln, um, also transit-oriented development. Opportunities and infrastructure relocation, things of that nature. Uh, they did point us to some community resources, um, first of all, Big Sky Passenger rail authority and corridor ID staff.

00:31:03,000	They said they are there for us, so they are a phone call and email away, um, they are kind of at our disposal, so you know we can always contact them, reach out to them with questions, um, the Western Transportation Institute, uh, has been collaborating.

00:31:23,200	with Big Sky passenger rail authority, and they, they have been cited as a a good resource for us to also reach out to. Also Amtrak and other rail operators, um, they provided us, uh, the great American stations, uh, link that we can go to and there’s frequently asked questions, there’s all kinds of information. We can also reach out to them directly.

00:31:42,400	Um, also, they said webinars and conferences that they can, they intend to continue offering to their government partner program members, um, and they definitely advised us to take advantage of that along with uh BSPRA annual meeting that will be occurring September 8th through 10th, uh, in Livingston, Montana, so I’m not sure if there’s going to be remote possibilities to attend that or

00:32:03,630	if it’s going to be all in person, but there will be more information coming for that as well. Next slide. Uh, we were also wondering how cities and counties and MPOs can influence higher levels of government such as state and federal, to support and continue to support projects such as this uh this

00:32:24,000	passenger rail service project that is going to greatly influence our area, um. They suggested these, these things, um, help recruit additional government partner members, of course, um, can figure that would be the first on the list, but, um, it does stand to reason that there there is

00:32:42,900	power and there is a momentum that can be gained through vast numbers, so also to contact state officials about funding for the $2000 anticipated $200,000 per state. For corridor ID matching contribution and that would be for that 2nd, uh, development phase that we are talking about.

00:33:12,570	Um, also to reach out and uh recommend that prominent citizens serve on the Big Skyrail Foundation board for private fundraising, um, the, the more voices again that we can um engage and get active in this, um, and, and the, the more contributions that we can, um, garner uh, the, the more momentum that this this whole project can gain.

00:33:36,200	Um, also to talk to senators and Congress. man about supporting the development of passenger service on the Big Sky North Coast corridor, even though it’s a big skyrail passenger authority or passenger rail authorities project, uh, it impacts our region and so we should not hesitate to reach out to our congressional delegation and And uh voice our

00:33:57,000	support for this, um, and finally, uh, we need to stay engaged. Uh, I will let you know one thing that the MPO is doing right now and I, I, uh, will harken back to our, our update on the 2025 safety policy study, um, is to incorporate, um, some kind of recognition of restoration of

00:34:18,870	passenger rail through our our region in all of our planning studies, so, um, as part of the safety policy study. we will be looking at our at grade railroad crossings through our communities.

00:34:39,130	Um, this is, these are, you know, very vital crossings for us, but also, um, one thing that uh came out through this webinar is that uh elimination or mitigation of uh at grade rail crossings really, really, um, enhances the efficiencies of passenger rail service, um. And so while we’re not going to be working to completely eliminate all of our at-grade rail crossings.

00:35:01,100	We do need to take a look at how we can, uh, uh, develop some standardized consistent um policies to address those crossings overall through our community, so any questions on any of the information presented here through government partners program or. I’d be happy to answer them if, if they come up. OK.

00:35:31,630	If not, We will move right on to the North Dakota MPO directors meeting, item number 6. And Again, we have some slides that um Steven will be screen sharing for us on this. Uh On February 28th, uh, the spring, I guess the, the spring. MPO North Dakota DOT directors meeting was held, um, it was attended by uh oh.

00:36:07,800	Large contingency of North Dakota DOT local government um and planning and programming staff and personnel. I was attended by the 4 state MPO directors and their MPO staff and um these meetings give us all a chance to come to the table and also connect with our representatives from Federal Highway Administration and federal.

00:36:38,730	administration discuss what’s new, um, what new programs might be coming down the pike, um, some of our past, uh, processes and where those are bringing us, so it’s a, it’s a great opportunity for everybody to be in one place and talking about the same things and getting on the same page with one another.

00:36:59,670	So while we did discuss, uh, a lot of different items, the things that I wanted to bring to the. Today involved our unified planning work program and the contract that is associated with that and also um the the more more recent occurrence of having, um, Leftover consolidated planning grant or CPG funds and um how those are redistributed.

00:37:27,900	Now previously, um, before we’ve, we went on to a annual contractual basis with the DOT where our annual UPWP contract was tied to one singular consolidated planning grant year, um, We were able to roll those CPG funds over a little more fluidly and now because we are tied, um, on an annual basis to an annual CPG

00:37:58,270	that funding cycle ends at the end of the year, at the end of the calendar year, so on December 31st, whatever CPG funds have not um had expenditures incurred against them are considered on you.

00:38:26,100	And they don’t roll over automatically into the next calendar year, they actually need to be de-obligated and reauthorized and there is a process now that North Dakota DOT and cooperation with our federal partners has provided the, the uh state MPOs, and that was a big um. A big topic of our conversation at the director’s meeting this year.

00:38:50,630	So the slide that you see on the screen right now talks about our unified planning work program annual contract cycle and um we, we kind of hammered this out with our MPO coordinator, um, Will Hutchings, uh, he helped the MPO executive directors in the in the state, uh, talk this through and kind of um.

00:39:11,930	est ab li sh a reasonable timeline that we felt was going to work for everybody, and you can see that, uh, we’re right in those initial stages of this annual UPWP development and contract cycle, uh, in January, the MPO’s kind of start looking towards what studies, um, might be beneficial for the their member jurisdictions which have been identified through previous discussion.

00:39:37,230	uh, we start to loosely develop a, a budget based. Stan an increase of potentially 1 to 2% over what our previous years’ budget was. And looking at those numbers in the meantime, um, certain things are happening, uh, that are going to get us to the next step and Steven, if you could advance the slide too. One more.

00:40:05,270	There we go, where we start talking about a CPG distribution timeline. We are squarely in the midst of the CPG distribution redistribution timeline right now, so.

00:40:33,630	At the end of a calendar year, the MPOs have uh 90 days in which to get their uh requests for reimbursements submitted to the North Dakota DOT and once that is concluded, North Dakota DOT is able to assess how many, how many remaining funds through the consolidated planning Grant have been unspent, um, at that time, they provide the, the MPO.

00:41:00,270	with those numbers and the executive directors of the MPOs are tasked with coming up, um, with a formulation that they would like to redistribution, um. Uh, to be guided by And um there is a timeline set um for that as well this year.

00:41:27,530	We needed to have our redistribution suggestion or recommendation provided to DOT by February or by March 14th, which we did, um, and so right now North Dakota DOT is in the process of reworking those numbers and they will provide us um what our, uh, anticipated consolidated planning. grant for our 2026 budgets will be, um, and those will be provided by April 15th, according to the timeline, so, uh, if we take a look at the very next slide, I believe. Um, next one.

00:41:56,870	We’re gonna skip a couple, um, this is a kind of cool and funky slide that shows what can happen if the executive directors of the state MPOs can’t come to a decisive, uh, formula for redistribution of CPG funds.

00:42:23,730	It basically falls to North Dakota DOT to determine how those those unspent funds will be distributed, and they can, they can choose any one of those 4 methods. that are shown on this particular slide. Next slide, please. It can be a combination as well. Yes. Yeah.

00:42:48,370	Yes, absolutely, but at that point, basically it’s taken out of the hands of the um state MPOs and the decision becomes made by the North Dakota DOT, um, so this was um a slide that was presented to the state MPOs at the director’s meeting with the anticipated remaining CPG funding that would be available for redistribution.

00:43:16,000	However, uh, All of the requests for reimbursements had been finalized through, um, the Fargo, uh, Moorhead cog, and so those numbers were still outstanding, making this uh number of 385,000 that you see in the blue, still somewhat fluid, um, subsequent, uh, to the director’s meeting, we did get, um, an updated number and that came in around more of the 291,000 mark.

00:43:42,730	Um, because of, uh, Fargo’s ability to spend down most of their actually all of their CPG funding, so, um, at that point, once we were given that new number, then the MPOs of the state got together and uh came to uh. Uh Consensus as to how the remaining 2024 CPG funds could be distributed, redistributed in 2026.

00:44:14,900	Uh, now, again, we were working with about 291,000, um, discussions took place, uh, the, the newest MPO of the state, Central Dakota MPO felt that they really didn’t have um the local match support to um. Be able to use uh a lot of the CPG funding and they actually, um, asked to be. to actually abstain from any redistribution of this funding.

00:44:45,130	Um, and so therefore, uh, the remaining 3 MPOs of the state, Bismarck Mandan MPO, uh, Grand Forks. East Grand Forks MPO and Fargo Metrocog uh agreed that we would split the remaining 2024 CPG funding, um, equally or not equally, but based on population of our MPOs without any base, so it’s strictly population based and uh once we gave that to North

00:45:13,930	Dakota DOT, North Dakota DOT will work the numbers for us and they’ll come back to us by April 15. with uh an amount that we can base our UPWP budgets on for 2026, um, that was kind of a high level summary of what we discussed, um, and there was a lot of discussion that led to this, so

00:45:35,270	are there any questions I’ll stop right here, um. And take any questions that there might be. OK None being seen. Ben raised his hand. Oh, Ben did raise his hand. Ben, thanks a lot. Oh, that’s OK. Yeah, can you hear me OK? Yes, I hear you fine. Yeah, hey, thanks a lot for the.

00:46:02,470	For the overview of this discussion, um, one question I had Kim with the, uh, I think you mentioned this year the MPO has decided to recommend. The redistribution based on population.

00:46:21,870	Um, do, do you anticipate that I’ll be the, the case every year, or do you anticipate that the MPOs will still get together on an annual basis and and discuss the, the redistribution recommendation. Thanks, Ben. Yeah, that’s a good observation actually. We, this will be discussed annually, um, as the opportunity comes up for redistribution of CPG funds, the MPOs will, will discuss, um, the amount of funding.

00:46:44,730	that’s available and how that is to be redistributed, we do anticipate, uh, with, with the growth of the Central Dakota MPO up in Minot, um, should they have a growth in in personnel and, you know, maybe some staffing, um, maybe some, uh, local match um ability is increased, um, and as they move through some of their, their core product

00:47:09,730	development, they may be able to take advant of more of that, uh, CPG redistribution in the future, so we wouldn’t want this to be, you know, a standing, uh, formula will be taking a look at that every single year.

00:47:28,670	Well, yeah, thanks, um, Ken, for the great overview and and Ben, that’s a great question. Yeah, we, we purposely designed it so that the MPO directors are the ones making the decision. Of course we only get involved with DOT if the decision can’t be made.

00:47:45,000	I think it should be noted though that the Central Dakota MPO, uh, or with the director’s recommendation that they they brought forward to DOT this year. Uh, it was recommended that Central Dakota MPO be recognized for the fact that they forego all their um us remaining CPG balances. And so that in the next year or I believe it was just next year, they have priority if they need it.

00:48:03,000	Um and that’s it’s mainly because, you know, they’re they’re getting set up, they, they need staff, they need to look further as to what they need for work products, but they just at the time don’t have the capacity to spend it.

00:48:17,100	So kudos to them for recognizing that we don’t need this funding right now, but we may need it, and so there may be a scenario in the future where all of the ghosts of essentially Dakota MPO or or however. The director’s Jes, so. Thanks for that observation well and clarification as well. Any other questions? OK. All right, thank you, um.

00:48:44,230	And we will move on to item number 7, bicycle friendly community workshop. Uh, we’ve talked about this a little bit, but I’m pretty excited about this, this particular opportunity. Um, again, uh, the Bismarck Mandan MPO area has been awarded a bronze designation through the League of American Bicyclists, uh, in.

00:49:09,870	Uh In being recognized as a bicycle friendly community, that designation is good for 4 years and was awarded at the end of 2024. Along with that, we were contacted by the League of American Bicyclists and they said that they had some grant funding.

00:49:31,930	Uh, to, uh, send a league representative out and um in into three communities in the nation to conduct a bicycle friendly community workshop, and they were wondering if the Bismarck Mandan MPO would be interested in hosting something like that. We said, well, of course, yes, thank you for the opportunity. Um, let’s see what we can do about getting this going. So we’re getting going with this.

00:49:49,800	Uh, I’m very pleased to announce that the bicycle friendly community workshop will be held on. May 21st and 22nd, um, of this year, um, it will be a 1.5 day workshop. We’ll be holding that at uh the Bismarck Public Works building at 601 South 26th Street in Bismarck. Uh, that will start on the 21st at 9 a.m.

00:50:12,800	We’ll start off with some kind of a like basic classroom type instruction and discussions, um, and then we will have a noon lunch and which point we will. Then switch gears literally and jump on some bicycles and do a bike audit, um, the Arctic route is still being determined at this time, but that will be the remainder of the afternoon

00:50:34,730	on the May 21st workshop date and then we’ll reconvene the morning of the 22nd again at 9:00 a.m. again at public works in their conference room and um we’ll kind of discuss some of the I got observations and summaries and kind of conclude the work. S shop.

00:50:55,000	So, um, this is going to prove to be a very exciting workshop, I think for us, um, also a great opportunity to see where we’re at. It’s geared around the 5 Es that we are, are, um, That we are, um, I guess Judd on, um, and scored on as far as uh bicycle friendly community, um, and those 5s, and I always forget some of them, but I’m

00:51:19,200	gonna try and get them all this time. They’re, they’re education encouragement, uh, engineering, um. Yeah, let’s see here. Engineering, education, encouragement, evaluation. And I’m missing one. Nobody’s raising their hand. Let’s see Enforcement, that’s it, yes, thank you very much.

00:51:53,730	So those are the 5 years that the criteria that we’re scored on as far as you know, ah. Are we a bicycle friendly community, and if we are, how, how bicycle friendly are we and in what areas can we improve? So there it’s based on those five areas, um, so this workshop, uh, is intended to, um, accommodate up

00:52:12,930	to 40 or 50 participants with a 50 participant maximum, uh, we have a registration form that is live, um, we have flyers that have kind of started to be dis contributed and shared and they do have a QR code on them, which you can use, which will take you right to the registration form, um, you can,

00:52:37,200	there’s all kinds of information that you can provide us on the form, but mainly I’d like to encourage everybody to, uh, get in there and sign up for this, this great workshop, if you have the opportunity or if you think that you intend to go because, uh, that 50 participant maximum

00:52:54,530	may just fill up very quickly. We have We’ve actually had quite a bit of interest in this, this BFC workshop already, so we do want to extend this offer, um, definitely to administrative staff of our, our municipalities of our our cities and um also to our elected officials of, of our

00:53:16,000	cities and counties are um councils, um, so we’re, we’re trying to, um, kind of cast a broad nets and make this a real learning opportunity for everybody in our community. Any questions on the BFC workshop? No.

00:53:43,370	OK, um, that brings us to item number 8, 2025, 2028 tip administrative modifications and Stephen is going to present those to us. Thank you, Kim, give me just one moment. All right. This is an exhibit G in your packets, and this month we have processed 4 administrative modifications to our tip. This is to move for microsurfacing projects in Bismarck from fiscal year 2025 to 2026.

00:54:31,270	These projects involve work on Bismarck’s 9th Street from Expressway to Front Avenue. On expressway from Main Avenue to the end of the asphalt, and from Washington Street to Main Avenue. And then on ND 1804 from Expressway to Forty-eighth Avenue Southeast.

00:54:55,800	Um, and yeah, per word from DOT, these are being moved back one fiscal year, um, are there any questions on these, these movements? Any questions forti Real? Um, I believe so. Thank you. Thank you, Steven. OK. Well, that brings us to other business.

00:55:37,230	Anybody have any other business for the tack today? No, uh, well, I guess I have one item that I can conclude with, um, the, the Deadline for applications for the MPO’s transportation planner position has closed, um, I’m pleased to announce that we got 30 applications that were submitted, so it was a very pleasant surprise, um, and so right now we are in a refining process to uh kind of narrow that field down a little bit to something that’s a bit more manageable and, uh, hopefully

00:55:59,000	we’ll soon have interviews occurring and more information on uh. What who might fill the transportation planner position for us in the coming months. Uh, anything else that anybody might have? All right, well, with that, um. I guess I will call the meeting Adjourned and I wish you all a happy Saint