00:00:07,400	Well, then we better call the meeting to order. Thanks for coming today, everybody. Uh, we’ll call the meeting of the Bismarck Mandan MPO technical advisory committee to order this is June 16, 2025. And we’ll begin by having Stephen call the roll, please. OK, Ben Harris Here. Daria.

00:00:35,900	Diedre Huss And Chris, we’ll have you stand in for Gabe, so we have Quorum, if that’s OK. Chris Holzer? Oh. Oh, got you OK, excellent. Bruce Holzer Greg Faser. Here. Jarek Wigness. Here. John Zacki. Here Logan Bay. He Mitch Lanigan. Image, are you, can you give it here? Mhm Hm Mitch, are you able to hear us? Mm He’s online, but it might be.

00:01:38,300	OK We’ll continue on. Natalie Pierce. Well, Hutchings, Hutchins. Oh Mitch, could you repeat that? That’s funny. I’m, I’m here. I had my volume off. Oh, no problem. Thank you. And share ripple. Here Thank you, Steven. Even for the record, uh, Dannis Dan Trio is here. Oh, thank you, Dan. OK, oh. Well Welcome Gabab. Thank you, Chris.

00:02:23,070	OK It’s always good to have your bases covered no matter what. All right, uh, the first item of business today is the possible approval of the minutes from the May 19th meeting, uh, are there any additions or corrections to the minutes? If not, is there a motion to approve? This is Ben move approval of the minutes as

00:02:47,600	presented. Thanks, Ben. Is there a second? This is Jericho 2. OK. You get to decide. Uh, well, I kind of heard the second or the other, but I, Gabe will use your second. Uh, roll call, please. Mhm Ben Erith, Dan Shreak. Gabel? Yes Gabel Gabel? Yes Gabel Gabel? Yes. Greg Faer? Yes Jarek Wigness.

00:03:18,770	Yes, John Sacking Logan. Yes. Mitch Lanigan. Yeah. Chair ripple. Yes, minutes are approved as presented. Second item on the agenda is the public transportation agency safety plan and targets and Paulla will be presenting that information to us today. Can you hear me? Very good, thank you.

00:03:56,070	I’ll share a screen and exhibit A on page 7 in your packets. Thank you, Steven, yeah. And in your packet is a resolution of support for bizan Transit’s public transportation agency safety plan or PTASP, and it’s associated safety targets.

00:04:33,870	The Federal Transit Administration or the FTA requires public transportation operators to develop the PTA and a court and accompanying safety targets to ensure its operators and the public remain safe during transit operations. The transit board adopts or updates these targets and the P tests on an annual basis. The targets may be set by a State Department of Transportation and adopted by local transit providers or the transit provider may set their own safety targets separately.

00:04:59,100	For 2024, 2025, B man transit set its own safety targets and adopted them in December. FTA asked that the NPO support Bizan Transit’s targets and P tests, which is why MPO staff is requesting the board adopt the resolution of support in your packet. An additional note the targets for the next season for 2025, 2026 will be coming again next month in July. No questions. Thank you, Paulette.

00:05:24,100	Are there any questions for Paulette regarding the PTASP or the resolution of adoption? Mhm Hearing and seeing none, um, it’s my understanding that staff would be seeking a motion to recommend approval of resolution of adoption of Bisman Transits PTA targets, would there be such a motion? This is Gabe some.

00:05:54,700	Thank you, Gabe. I have a first. Is there a second? Oh, great feeser. One second. Thank you, Greg. Any discussion? Not Stephen call the roll, please. Ben Ereth, yes, Dan Schriock. Yes. Gabe Schell? Yes. Greg Feer? Yes Jarek Wigness. Yes, John Zacki. Yes, Logan Bay. Mitch Flanagan. Yeah And share ripple motion is approved. Thank you.

00:06:32,930	Moving on to item number 3 is a 2025 safety policy study update with Luke Champa. Do we have Luke on the line? Hey Che Ripple, can you hear me? Yes, we can. Thanks, Luke. Go ahead. Thank you and hello uh members of TA, um, quick update on the safety policy study.

00:06:59,600	We’ve been plugging away at preliminary safety analysis and this morning sent an email to most of you on the steering committee with a, with a couple critical items, um, those being the uh The crash trend, or excuse me, the crash data analysis and trend summary memo. And then a uh drafty injury network methodology and results. Memo.

00:07:27,930	Uh, I’ve also included in that email a June steering committee agenda, and there’s some discussion items highlighted on the agenda just to Prepare for that meeting on the 26th. Um, really quickly, I’ll share my screen. To supplement the information that’s now in your inbox. We have a web app. Share the right screen here. We have a web app.

00:07:54,630	Uh, this is through RGIS online, we created for the high injury network. results and I just wanted to point out a couple of critical things here, so it has a functionality like a normal uh online map tool. Zoom in and out.

00:08:23,400	Um You can change your Background And sometimes I like the imagery with with labels and then I think the most critical thing for a steering committee members would be. The map layers and we’ve set this up to include all crashes from 2020. Between 2020 and 2024. We’ve also, we also have one without the PDO.

00:08:47,570	Um, and you can see the difference here when you have PDO on it, it, it’s harder to see. Um Or focus in on the severe crashes, which is what the safety policy study will do. So, um, there’s also modal HIN or high injury network. Which is explained very thoroughly in the methodology memo that’s in your inbox.

00:09:09,930	Um, and you can begin to categorize or or look at the modal typologies of the high injury network from All modes, um, you know, without freeways, all modes with freeways. Um There’s motorized. Uh, automobile or passenger vehicle specific. Motorcycle and then nonmotorized, which is broken down further into bicycle and pedestrian high injury networks. There’s also a density.

00:09:38,670	Uh map here, but we added the points, I think the last time I showed you this, we didn’t have the crash points on there, so that has been added. And then the intent here is to um allow Syrian com committee members to take a look at the results here and um if you notice anything that you’re you’re interested in or think deserves a deeper

00:10:00,530	dive or something looks funny to you. Um, please use the editor tool to drop a point or you may also, um, You may also draw a line. At a comment um for example, Uh, let’s see, I just double clicked to complete. You just kind of have to follow the instructions here.

00:10:25,130	And then, uh, add your comment and then hit create and we’ll be Compiling those for for further uh sort of analysis refinement and um focusing in here on on some of the initial results that we’re seeing through our safety analysis. Um. I’m going to stop sharing. So there’s some critical information in your inbox.

00:10:54,630	I’ll also be, uh, attaching that information to our steering committee invite for the 26th. And in the meantime, we will be um We will be putting together the final touches on a key themes report.

00:11:23,330	And public engagement summary to date, um, we were out at uh the uh Earth Day festival in in Bismarck in late April and then uh early May, we were at the touch of truck event in in Mandan. We received a lot of great feedback from folks um on the comet map activity that we had there at both events and so that will be used as well to sort of um See how this quantitative analysis aligns with more of the qualitative or,

00:11:45,800	or the public feedback and perception of uh dangerous areas in the region. Um, so please expect that as well before the the meeting next week, um, we’ll be going through a lot of material.

00:12:08,730	And hope to have a good discussion on sort of focusing in, diving into some of the interesting areas um or interesting things that you’re also noticing in the data as you review um as time allows. Um, I think that’s the big update we’ve got the preliminary safety analysis results and Um, just looking to dive in with you all and then have a bit more discussion at our steering committee meeting next week on um.

00:12:32,500	You know, how we can start to sort and filter. some of the results as well as the um You know, how you will want to make decisions around countermeasures and specific implementation strategies, um, you know, how that tool will start to to frame up, so to speak. As the final deliverable, you know, we start to see.

00:12:58,430	A little more clearly what that should and could look like, so, um, lots to digest here. Um If there are any questions, please let me know. Otherwise, uh, lots of good information in your inbox, uh, as of this morning. All right, well, thank you, Luke for that good update, really looking forward to the next steering committee meeting.

00:13:20,270	Does anybody here have any, uh, comments or questions for Luke right now, Ben? Yeah, hey Luke, thanks for all of the presentation, all the material that, that has been developed on on this study. The web-based mapping tool that you presented on here.

00:13:43,800	Uh, will that be available to the, to the public to interact with at some point? Um, that’s a great question. I don’t know that we’ve talked about that, um. Uh, with Cheripple specifically, um, this was intended.

00:14:08,900	It is pretty um It’s high injury network focused, um, so it is very technical at this point as far as uh you know what, what you’re looking at and that the information that’s tied to it, um. But we have used or done um Similar comment Come maps in the past for the for the general public. I don’t think we’ve talked about that. Um With, with you, Chair Ripple about getting something out to the public or if we think that’s um something that we would like to do.

00:14:31,870	You know, I think that, um. Initially we had thought about this tool as something for technical staff, um, to utilize and um to inform the study itself. Now we really weren’t thinking about rolling this particular type of map out to the public and in fact have quite a quite a good toolbox of public engagement, um, that has

00:14:58,100	been going on and will continue to do so, but this might be something that we could talk about at the steering committee on Thursday and just see if, um, there might be an application to, to use this with the public like Luke said, it is highly technical, um, you know, it’s not just going in and putting

00:15:14,670	dots on maps necessarily. It’s going in and, and reading the data and and um interpreting that, so yeah, I think it would be a good topic for. discussion. Appreciate that. Anything else from anybody? All right, well, thanks a lot, Luke. Yes, thank you.

00:15:42,870	And we will move on to item number 4, 2025 monitoring report update with Jeremy Williams of HTR. All right. Am I coming through OK? Yeah. You are. Awesome. All right. Good morning, everybody. So I wanted to give a quick update on the monitoring report. And some of the work that was completed over the month of May. So first item, just some typical project management, um.

00:16:04,330	Coordination calls, things like that, uh, some data collection and documentation, so working on developing a draft outline uh for the monitoring report. And then the big milestone reached was the uh performance measures workshop.

00:16:24,570	which was held at the end of May, uh, and invited the NPO and uh member agency staff to come in and talk about the report about key topics to focus on and that are relevant for uh each of the agencies involved and then finally talk through uh potential performance measures to, uh, integrate into the report update, uh, and, you know, things like how to collect the data and how to present that information to the public.

00:16:42,700	So that uh was kind of the the major uh work accomplished through the month. So if there are any questions, I can certainly uh answer those. Great, um, thanks, Jeremy. That was a great workshop, by the way, in May, so appreciate that you, um, uh, facilitated that and offered that, uh, are there any questions from anybody regarding the monitoring report

00:17:02,970	or where we’re at with it. Hm All right. Well, thanks again, Jeremy. Thank you. We will move on to item number 5. And that will be a discussion of the 2026, 2027 unified planning work program studies and budget.

00:17:32,200	Um, I did provide everybody with a handout, a 3 page handout regarding the 2026, 2027 UPWP studies, um, and Steven. is gracious enough, he agreed to share his screen with us as well as we walk through this so that those attending remotely or viewing at home can also follow along. Just to, uh, give you a brief background, um, as to the development of the UPWP in 2025.

00:17:57,300	Uh, we are functioning under an annual, uh, budget and uh work program. Um, we’ve decided to move that back to a biennial budget and work programs, so we’ve been uh working on developing this 26, 27 UPWP uh for the last several months, uh.

00:18:23,930	Earlier in the year, uh, North Dakota DOT and the MPO executive directors throughout the state met and we um. We formalized uh UPWP development and adoption schedule, uh, in an effort to help all of the NPOs and North Dakota DOT state on track a little better with uh getting UPWPs adopted in a timely manner so that uh North Dakota DOT can get the annual contracts out in a timely manner at the end of the year

00:18:53,400	as well. So hopefully, uh, the time. timeline is going to be working well for everybody in facilitating that, uh, what that means is that by April 15th, North Dakota DOT will provide our estimates as far as our consolidated planning grant, uh, totals for the year that will be available, um.

00:19:13,700	And uh then we can use that for our budgeting purposes. Now the MPO met with uh jurisdictional representatives on April 14th prior to having that, but we had a pretty good estimate um in our own minds, uh, as to what our CPG funding would be for 26.

00:19:34,130	And so we got together and we started talking about study needs throughout the NPO area and priorities as voiced from the jurisdictions. Um, it was a it was a very good meeting, um, we covered a lot of ground and what you see on the screen and in front of you is kind of a a summary of how those studies, um, kind of, uh,

00:19:55,870	Got laid out, I guess as far as uh funding availability and um priorities that were voiced by the jurisdictions, uh, for 2026. That’s kind of my primary focus because that’s our in year, of course. Well, 2027 is a little bit more fluid, um, some of the studies for 2026 are uh typical kind of recurring costs.

00:20:23,070	We always have our $10,000 ATAC annual fee, that is for a contract that runs through 2027, so it’ll affect both the years in this budget, um, and then on this worksheet, you see the total cost on the left, uh, and then followed by that, it shows the breakdown, the 80% MPO.

00:20:46,000	portion followed by the participating jurisdictions for that particular study and um the, the cost share for each of the jurisdictions based either on a population basis or on um some other way that was determined to um. To formulate that, um, cost share for the jurisdictions.

00:21:13,430	The second item that we have on, on our 2026 list is the ATAC annual Modeling fee. This is ranged in the past from 10,000 to $40,000 we typically used to just budget $40,000 across the board, but now as money gets a little bit tighter with our federal funding, uh, we’re, we’re tightening our belts on that as well and just trying to.

00:21:37,330	Uh, maintain a number in our budget to support any additional modeling needs that might arise with some of the studies through the year, um. And of course this is always study associated modeling that would extend beyond the modeling, um, agreed to in the master contract with ATA. Uh, the next study is the fringeer Roadmaster plan update.

00:22:04,230	This is currently in our 2025 UPWP, however, it was originally envisioned as a very uh light refresh to the Fringeer Roadmaster plan, which would have entailed. basically a desktop review to make sure that um any modifications, whether they be formal amendments or administrative modifications to roadway alignments, um, that might differ from what was identified in the 2014 Fring Jerry Roadmaster plan can be identified and um accounted for

00:22:36,530	within our jurisdictional GIS, um. That was the original intent along with a few hotspot evaluations. After the discussion with the jurisdictions in April, uh. There seems to be an appetite to take a look at our Beltway concept that has been uh identified and and reiterated through many previous MPO studies, um, originally the Beltway concept involved uh

00:23:09,200	northern and southern bridge crossing and then uh uh in eastern leg from north to south on the Burley County side, a Western leg from north to south, uh, on the Martin County side and it would function as a high speed, um, low access kind of uh arterial ring road or beltway, um. That That term uh.

00:23:35,300	ended up being kind of a controversial term, and um, you know, we’ve we’ve struggled, I think. Within the NPO and, and, um, even North Dakota DOT a little bit to maintain that concept, um, in its entirety, um, we’ve, we’ve seen some changes recently to our friend Jerry Road alignments that have taken out the um curvature

00:24:07,330	alignment that was originally identified as part of the Beltway and um, I think that Our overall concept and vision of this roadway has changed, um, along with its functionality and so, you know, I think the jurisdictions really want to take a hard look at what, what are we expecting? Are we really seeing that high speed, high

00:24:31,870	traffic volume, low access road becoming a reality. We’ve had a lot of growth in the areas where this roadway was identified, so, um, there has actually been support to a in the concept as a whole, um, of course we can’t really do that and wipe that out of all of our documents without having, uh,

00:24:53,430	you know, a good reason to do so, so it seemed fitting if we’re going to take a look at our fringe area roads, um, and even those that are in our urbanized area and extending into the fringe area of Um, to also take a look at this Beltway concept, uh, at the

00:25:11,600	same time and so in the last 6 to 7 weeks, we’ve kind of been doing some investigating, talk to some consultants, gotten some, um, Uh, maybe some scope, um.

00:25:38,730	Uh Elements refined or identified and then refined, um, just to, you know, how this would look exactly, um, there would definitely be an increase to the scope of this study without saying um it would also impact perhaps what we’re envisioning with our northern bridge corridor to some extent, so, uh, there would be elements there to kind of tie in, uh, to this study, um, which ended. up with a significant cost increase.

00:26:06,530	We did have 88,500 budgeted for this, um, we were looking at taking a start at it in say July of 25 and having it run and being completed by June of 20 6 easily, uh, now we are looking at a lengthier study and increasing that budget to 181,000 total.

00:26:36,800	Um, so, We feel that the, the scope and the budget would accomplish what the jurisdictions have identified as to um their needs and their concerns, and we can get those, those concerns and needs accomplished or answered with this study, um, and so it, it’s, it’s laid out here with the cost breakdown, we would be looking at.

00:27:01,330	Uh, an amendment that would need to be approved in July, uh, should we get concurrence on, on the way this is laid out here. Um, and that would be, again, something that we would bring forward in July for approval. That amendment would have to uh pertain to our current 2025 UPW budget just because of the scope increase and the cost of the study.

00:27:26,400	Um, so then moving on, we also have a mandan signalized intersection analysis, uh, that would be performed by AA. Uh, we have identified a transit development plan update. Um, uh, also that I study that rose to the top was a passenger rail station study, uh, this would be taking a look at um potential passenger rail terminals within the Bismarck Mandan MPO region and the

00:27:57,470	feasibility we know that Big Sky passenger rail authority is moving forward with their corridor ID project and they will be entering the service development, uh, plan. Phase soon and when they start looking at identification of railway stations along their passenger rail line.

00:28:19,900	We want to make sure that we have some recommendations that we can approach uh and bring to their table. Uh, also identified by the jurisdictions of Bismarck and Mandan in particular was a parking needs study, uh, this is to evaluate areas of constrained parking, uh, manan has a few that we’ve talked about.

00:28:45,630	Bismarck has identified maybe the downtown hospital areas, capital, um, BSC, things like that, and so that would be about a 70-30 split on that with those those um. cost share amounts being noted there. And then at the very bottom is the big skyrail government partner program annual membership, even though that doesn’t come out of the studies budget in the UPWP for the NPO.

00:29:08,930	I wanted it noted so everybody, uh, all the participating jurisdictions, don’t forget about those small amounts that they are contributing to that particular effort. Um, are there any questions on the 2026 studies that have been proposed. Escape Thank you, Kim.

00:29:35,530	Maybe not a, a question more just a comment on the, the farm PE or the fringeer Roadmaster plan, uh, I know that’s a study that It has a lot of public potential impact in the sense that we’re we’re drawing lines on a map of where we might think a future road will be, so I think what I’d want to stress here and as we continue to develop that project is that those lines

00:29:53,400	that are drawn on the map or generally speaking for The point in time when the person that owns that property wants to develop it, wants to do something, wants to change, so we just have a network of roadways in that section of land, but by no means is the MPO of the cities, counties,

00:30:07,170	etc. proposing to take out that person’s house just because the road might go on top of their house, but we’re seeing that as And that house is no longer there and it’s replaced with uh the next commercial subdivision and next annexed boundary of, of the city of Bismarck or wherever it might be, that’s

00:30:22,170	how we would envision the roadway network to be. So it’s very important that we communicate that piece to the public that we’re not proposing to take anyone’s property because I think that a lot of times that gets confused. Someone sees this map and they see that.

00:30:34,470	An entity of government said there’s a line across it, and they immediately take a very negative and defensive reaction to it, so I just stress ways that we can positively identify those those sort of scenarios and and proactively, um. identify that and work with the public so they know what’s coming.

00:30:53,530	Thanks, Gabe, I totally agree and I appreciate your comment to that point, uh, that is another reason as well that the the uh study cost increased greatly because with the refresh that we were originally envisioning there really wouldn’t have been a whole lot of need for public engagement, um, with this particular study there will entail a lot of public engagement.

00:31:17,130	I mean, we’re probably looking at at least um 3 public outreach opportunities. So thank you very much. for the point. Thank you. Anything else I came to mind for the 2026 studies. All right, um, And then just a very quick overview of 2027. Uh, we have again the ATAC annual fee and the annual modeling, um, these are, are standard purchases.

00:31:40,200	We’re going to be looking at our socioeconomic data purchase for our travel demand model in 2027. Uh, we know that we’re going to have to start working on our, believe it or not, on our metropolitan transportation plan development soon, um, that needs to be adopted by December of 2029. So you know, the calendar.

00:32:00,870	is already ticking on that or the clock is ticking. So we’ll be getting our SE data purchase done in 2027. Um, that will, um. Um, enable us to move into the travel demand model update um in 2027 and have that completed by 28 so we can get going on the MTP.

00:32:28,100	Um Also then, uh, the Mandan signalized intersection analysis, uh, uh, project pilot by AA will conclude that year, um, also the transit development plan will conclude in year 2027, along with the passenger rail station study, which was uh uh split between two years, um, we note the ATA modeling for the travel demand model beginning in 2027, and then, of course, uh TDMSE MTP uh will begin

00:32:56,930	probably at the very tail end of 2027, so we can get a kickstart on that. Uh, Morton County has identified the need for a future land use plan update and a map update, uh, so we’re looking at beginning that in 2027, and then, of course, again, that nominal fee for the big skyrail government partner

00:33:16,670	program, annual membership is included. I, I have talked to all of the jurisdictions as far as the the paying partners and they’ve basically given me the thumbs up as far as the budgeted amounts again, 2027 is a little bit more fluid because that’s our out year and we’ll be reexamining that again about

00:33:36,470	this time or a little earlier next year as we, um, as we finalize our 27, 28 biennial budgets, so, uh, are there any questions on 27 or uh anything that’s been? Sing OK Kim, I think you just alluded to it, but I mean, maybe just want to confirm you’ll have 2 year UPWPs, but you’ll do them every

00:33:59,400	year. Is that what you’re proposing? Yes. OK. Thank you. Thanks. Um, OK, and then, um, Pages 2 and 3 of your, your handout just presents what this budget will look like in the UPWP. So, um, you know, it just, it’s laid out pretty succinctly.

00:34:23,930	You’ve got your overall total budget, and we um had a little bit of 2024 CPG carryover that helped us into our 2026 budgeting by about $105,000 so I mean it was kind of nice to have that additional funding available.

00:34:50,130	to us that allowed us to um slide in, um, a little bit more weight in our studies area for 2026, um, but this just lays out all of our, our costs for 26, beginning with administration and then moving into the studies area, uh, task 103 is our capital operational and travel expenses and then task 104 is just to identify what portion of our budget we’re spending on. streets and it’s just a tracking mechanism only.

00:35:16,270	So this um budget worksheet will be worked into uh an overhauled UPWP document, uh, I’ll be bringing that back to everybody in July. We’ll be looking for a recommendation of approval of the draft and at that time, uh, should we obtain that, then the draft actually goes to North Dakota DOT, uh, Federal Transit Administration and Federal Highway over Site for their review, um, once

00:35:40,870	we’ve gotten their review and comments back will incorporate uh any comments that they might have and bring that back to tack and policy board. We need an adoption for this no later than our September meetings, so that’s kind of the general outline, um, as far as our time is concerned, uh, this is an

00:36:01,670	outline as far as our budget is concerned, so, um, all the new things that are going to be brought to you in July in that document are basically narrative and text, but this will formulate the basis for the document. Any questions on that? All right. Wonderful and um.

00:36:25,170	We’ll move on to item number 6. And that is an update on the May bicycle friendly community workshop, uh. So the Bismarck Mandan MPO was fortunate enough to be offered the chance to host a bicycle friendly community workshop, uh, the League of American Bicyclists contacted us back in December of 2024 and said they had some grant money available

00:36:54,000	and would we like to take advantage of this and we said, boy, would we ever uh no cost to us and no cost to our participants, bring it on, so, uh, the bicycle friendly community. Workshop was held in May.

00:37:18,470	The focus of the workshop was really just to um uh kind of a uh identify and discuss the benefits and importance of having a bicycle friendly community, um, and what that means to us and how, how we can enhance our facilities and grow our culture to be more bicycle friendly so that our communities can actually reap those benefits that um that We see, uh, you know, there’s, there’s economic benefits, there’s health and wellbeing

00:37:41,400	benefits. There’s some. Benefits associated with reducing our, our carbon footprint. I mean, there’s, there’s a whole litany of benefits that we can go into, so what we’re trying to figure out is, is how can we, how can we make our communities more bicycle friendly so that we can uh actually uh. Get those benefits into our communities.

00:38:03,370	So this was a 1.5 day workshop in May. It was held a full day on the 21st, half a day, the morning of the 22nd, um, we had great attendance actually there were just under 30 participants at the workshop itself and uh the second half of the workshop on the 21st included a bike

00:38:28,870	ride as a bike audit through. Bismarck and Mandan, there was um a predetermined route that was selected and um that was uh uh refined over months of of work on some individuals parts, which I, I have to say, a shout out, Chris is here, Daniel Nairn, um, Karla Schultz, they worked tirelessly on this, on

00:38:52,470	this route and uh the weather was not wonderful for us that day. It was, it had been raining and cold. It was still. highs or mid-40s. It was windy, yeah, it, it wasn’t great, but we had 14 people on that ride, so we thought that was pretty fantastic, good, good turnout, um, we’re looking forward to,

00:39:17,570	um, still getting their observations turned in as far as uh some of the things that we saw and discussed on that bike got it route and then um.

00:39:36,730	Uh, we, we have some assignments, I guess, as a group and as a community moving forward, how can we, how can we promote uh bicycle friendliness in our, our communities and our in our region, uh, one of the ways is that we are getting word out to our workshop attendees on how to become bike, walk, uh members or bike walk advocates, um, for our region which will kind of inform the bike walk, um, ad.

00:40:01,330	Advocacy on a state level, um, this membership actually is nothing more than filling out a Google form and with your contact information and it puts you in touch with folks all over the nation who have the same passions and and want to promote the same things, um, and help us to learn how to do that here in our region, so it

00:40:18,870	was a very exciting opportunity. We hope that we can keep the momentum growing and uh uh you know, maybe this. Maybe this will be an inaugural workshop and then we can uh see this happening again in the future. Any questions on the workshop? No. Maria. Thank you.

00:40:40,330	Um, we’ll move on to number 7, which is our roadway projects, um, why don’t we begin with uh Martin County, John, you’re on online with us. Yep, I do not have any updates at this time. OK, short and sweet. Yeah, it’s just wet, just trying to keep things graded and passable.

00:41:02,230	Yeah, you know, the rain, it’s kind of a blessing and a bane, isn’t it? Yes, it is. Yeah. All right, thanks, John. Um, Dan, are you still on the line with us? Could you give us an update for Burley Coney. Yeah, uh, so far we have just one federally aided project with rural federal allocation, that’s supposed to start up sometime in.

00:41:24,370	Early August, so right now we had a preconstruction meeting and we’re just waiting for the contractor to start up on that project. That’s on our Highway 10 mil and overlay and chip seal project.

00:41:45,200	OK, we’ll be looking forward to updates on that in a couple of months then, thanks, um, Greg, anything going on with the City of Lincoln? Uh, we’re pretty quiet here over in Lincoln right now, so. Thanks. OK, uh, let’s see if we can jump to mound Dow, Jarek, are you online? I am. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Um, the only one that we have really an update on is our rapid rectangular flashing Beacon project. We have Three of the 4 locations, um.

00:42:10,000	With removals having taken place and those locations are at Saint Joe’s. Uh elementary Custer Elementary and then on Main Street, uh, right next to Copper Dog, so that’s about it for us though. OK. Great, thank you, Jarek.

00:42:32,930	Ah, let’s see, Gabe, how about Bismarck? Sure, from the federal aid system, the only project we have is our South Washington Street Reconstruction Pro from last year, still doing some finishing touch up, uh, landscaping, pavement markings, etc. that sort of uh related work on the state side, we did receive a flexible transportation grant for the East Century Avenue reconstruction project, so I’ll provide a little update there to uh all of the.

00:42:52,300	Existing subgrades have been removed and installing water mains, getting ready to start, um. Bleeding in some some gravel and start paving operations in the near future.

00:43:07,830	Um, we’ll note too, we did publish a drone flight and uh have the contractor provide an update of, of the status in greater detail and put all that on our website so I can be accessed at Bismarcknde.gov/streets, and then from there you can find uh the drone flight as well as the contractor method that they shared, uh, last week. Great. I’m gonna have to check out that drone flight. Thanks. Uh, Logan. Yeah, we have the uh Memorial Highway strip Pro.

00:43:29,000	They’re hoping to start paving the uh temporary road and maybe get traffic on that before the 4th. Um, the exit 161, uh, there’s certain, they started pouring the deck last week. They’re supposed to start do another deck pour today, but it rained, so tomorrow they’ll be doing a deck port on that project.

00:43:47,300	Um, we will have a seal coat project on the interstate and 194 and 810 start the week after the 4th, there will be some traffic. We’ll get a press release out for that one. It’ll have some impacts on people. OK. That sounds good. We’ll look forward to that press release too. Thanks, Logan. uh, anything else regarding roadway projects? OK.

00:44:08,530	I’ll add one other random item, the the state legislature this last, uh, session changed the, some of the roadway laws and one of them is the speeding fine in speed zones.

00:44:25,270	So we’ll see on, I’m guessing the DOT projects based on my conversations with them as well as our city projects, uh, the old plate that used to say minimum fee $80 when, when workers are present is now, uh, I believe $150. I’m looking to Logan to make sure that’s the number, but $150 will be the new fine in, in construction zones. So please drive slowly through the construction zones, or else it’ll cost you.

00:44:38,600	about twice as much as it would have last year or even today if you went speeding. So don’t speed it all, you don’t have to worry about it. We’ll see updated signs uh in all of our work zones here in August. Thanks for that Gabe, and I reiterate, don’t speed at all. You don’t have to worry about it.

00:44:53,470	Let’s keep our construction zone workers safe and are traveling motorists as well, so. OK, we’ll move on to other business, uh, I believe that. Um, Stephen had something for just a quick note that for everyone that we will be meeting in Van and City Hall next month, uh, for TA and on through the end of this year.

00:45:15,800	Uh, so yeah, don’t, don’t come here because we won’t be here. All right, thanks, Steven, uh, does anybody else have any other business? Yeah, this is Dan again.

00:45:38,930	Yes, uh, I just had a question for kind of the group, uh, Burley County has heard some rumblings about the ND DOT removing the interchange at 66th Street from their future long-range program, uh, has anybody of the MPO partners heard anything about that, to that effect, uh, I just kind of wanted to bring it to the NPO’s attention with the MTP currently being worked on. Oh, that’s a, a very good point, Dan, thank you for bringing that up.

00:46:00,670	No, I personally have not heard anything, anybody here have anything to offer? Um OK, I just wanted to maybe just bring it to everybody’s attention, kind of keep an eye out or ear out, if, if you hear anything, we may want to discuss it here and, and uh, I don’t think that would that would be a very good idea to remove that because there’s

00:46:21,570	been a lot of studies and a lot of money dumped into that being the, the interchange location at a future time. And you know, even Burleigh County, we’ve dumped. Several $100,000 into trying to raise grants and things like that for for that particular interchange, so, um, just uh wanted to put a bug in everybody’s ear.

00:46:41,730	Yeah, I appreciate that, Dan, and I’m just curiously through these rumblings, have you just heard of a total removal or um maybe a replacement, OK, OK, all right, yeah, I think that’s maybe something to try to um. Get a leg up on so uh. Maybe we can reach out to DOTL.

00:47:05,930	I’ll put some feelers out and see what we can find out. Thanks, Dan. Appreciate that. OK, um, any other, other business? Yeah. All right, well, then I have some very exciting news, uh, as you know that we’ve, we’ve undergone some staffing changes recently, and I think at the last meeting I indicated that we were On the brink of holding interviews for transportation

00:47:33,470	specialist position, and this is our final position to fill before, uh, we become fully staffed and um now I can say we are fully staffed. We have with us today Tracy Walters, who was offered and has accepted the position of transportation specialist, and she’s begun to work with the NPO and we are

00:47:53,800	super excited to have her, and she even agreed to, um, just introduce herself a little bit to you. Yeah Hi, my name is Tracy Walters. I’m an, um, I’ve been the office assistant too for the building inspections department for the last 3.5 years.

00:48:14,630	I’m excited to advance my career as I’ve recently accepted an invitation to join the MPO as the transportation specialist. I look forward to getting to know all of you and work with you as well. Thank you. Thanks, Tracy.

00:48:35,670	So, um, this, this month she’s just kind of job shadowing Steven, uh, next month, she’ll be the voice at the mic calling the roll and doing all that important stuff, so, uh, you’ll get to know Tracy here in the coming months and hopefully you’ll join me in welcoming her. We’re very excited to have her. Um, anything else for the good of the order. If not Meeting a