00:00:10,370	Am I on? Mm It’s a song. Oh. Hello, hello. I think we’re all dead. Hello Hello? No. Just That was professor at the University. I hear it out here. There’s a Guy back there from Strasburg. Please open your eyes. I Yeah, because I can hear them like through the computer.

00:01:01,000	But it’s just not amplifying. here working Hm I hear you, but I don’t know. I don’t want to break it. Nopeers in here. It Yeah DNA So Well. OK, so I got short measles. Yeah Did you hear me? Uh, yeah, I can hear him on the computer. I think so, yeah.

00:01:58,730	I can probably speak loud enough. Yeah, as long as everyone can hear you in here, we can hear you back there. Mhm Good evening. It’s uh a little after 5:15. It’s March 11th, we’re in the Tom Baker Room of the City County Building.

00:02:19,630	This will be the board of City Commissioners regular meeting, but first we’ll start with invocation and pledge of allegiance with Chaplain Lucas, please. Thank you, Mayor Commissioners for the opportunity. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, We praise you for who you are. We thank you for the many blessings and provisions that you bestow upon this community.

00:02:51,170	We are also thankful tonight for the mayor and for the commissioners that, uh, sit in effort. To guide this community. We ask your blessing upon them tonight. We also ask for your safety and provision and favor for all of those that serve this city in various capacities, protect them and guide them. Is the effort to do their jobs. We asked for direction.

00:03:18,370	We ask for discernment for the commissioners and the mayor tonight as they make decisions to move our community forward. We ask all of this in Jesus’ holy and precious name. Amen. Amen. If you would stand Place your hand over your heart for the pledge.

00:03:41,270	I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. If we can call roll to call a meeting to order, please. Comm Risch. Here. Comm Zenker. Here. Comm Connelly, Mayor Schmitz here.

00:04:05,870	At this point in time it’s opportunity for public comment. Anyone who wished to speak to an item that’s on the consent agenda or an item on the regular agenda that’s not a public hearing, which might be everything tonight. Please come forward. Say your name and which topic you’re talking to, please. Um Mr.

00:04:33,030	Mayor, members of the commission, my name is Ryan Warner, um, Tyler Parkway here in Bismarck. I come in regards to uh item on the consent agenda. Specifically, item 4 on section F in regard to the purchase of a Tyler Cooley property.

00:04:53,400	Uh, as I understand it, this is, uh, money that’s split up between the ongoing stormwater project as well as the Tyler of the proposed Tyler extension project. I’m, I’m coming here to suggest, uh, to the commission that they pull that from the consent agenda for tonight. Uh, the main reason is the timing. Currently, the city is soliciting comments, public input, uh, about the proposed extension through March 17th.

00:05:14,200	And if there’s anyone at home that would like to provide comments, you can go to Bismarckndd.gov/streets, Scroll down a little bit to where it says Tyler Parkway Extension.

00:05:31,230	There’s a really cool story map and then there’s a public input form where you can provide some commentary and a yes or no on the proposed extension. And so that comment period goes through the 17th and, uh, if the city were to, um, Approved this purchase before the public comment is closed, uh, there’s a potential uh chilling effect on um getting any more comments if the city has already decided to

00:05:51,770	go forward with the project in the terms of a purchase. So to respect the process, I’m suggesting we remove that from the consent agenda.

00:06:10,730	Uh, and then as far as going forward, Uh, I’d like to see this item be pushed back until we can have a full public hearing about the proposed Tyler Parkway Extension, uh, the reason being that this, uh, extension would impact in a well established neighborhood in Bismarck and to uh bring the scrutiny that it deserves in, in going forward with the extension, I think a public hearing would be in order.

00:06:27,370	So that would be my second suggestion if we were to pull this from tonight’s agenda, uh, to move it back, to have a public hearing to discuss. uh, the full impacts of the proposed Parkway extension. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Any questions, anyone? OK. Again, this is public comment.

00:06:43,370	Anyone wish to speak, please come forward. A second call for public comment. A 3rd and final call for public comment. Seeing nor hearing anyone public comment period is now closed. Commissioners, what are your wishes with regard to the consent agenda. I would like to pull item F. for And approve motion to approve the rest.

00:07:14,930	Is your intention to have a discussion on. F4. OK. I’ll second. Is there any further discussion? Here no will call roll. Comm Zenker. Yes, Comm Connelly, yes. Comm Risch. Schmitz, yes. Comm Connelly. OK, um, I did not speak to the person.

00:07:50,100	I believe that spoke during public comment, but um, He stated everything basically that other people have reached out to me and um mention uh so. Um I would motion that we table until April 8th. Um, that’s 2 meetings from now.

00:08:17,530	We close the comments on the 17th and then we have one meeting before then, but the close proximity of that meeting versus the comments and everything at the public input meeting, um, and revisit on April 8th. That’s a motion. Yeah, I, I, I know that. OK. OK. I’m not hearing it. I don’t have a second at this point in time. So It dies. Comm Mayor Commissioners, can we just, um, Gabe, could you come to the podium, please, sir? Thank you.

00:09:01,000	So Mayor Commissioners Commissioners um, so I just want to Gabe, could you give us the, uh, Insight here, um, because we really got more than just an expansion of Tyler Parkway going up on Tyler Parkway. I mean, there’s some corrections to watersheds, there’s other things that are transpiring, so Gabe, can you give us a history here, sir, please? Sure.

00:09:23,470	Mayor Comm, Commissioner’s anchor, uh, as part of our stormwater management regional stormwater management project in Tyler Cooley. Uh, we’ve identified some of this land and Tyler in the bottom of Tyler Cooley as a location where we would need to secure an easement to Detain water as part of that project when we engaged in discussions

00:09:40,100	with the landowner, uh, and noted that in the future, the city would want to bring a sewer line through this area as well in the future where the city may want to purchase right of way to to have a Tyler Parkway extension.

00:09:55,100	Uh, they indicated that really their their desire would be to um just offer this entire property at this point in time and not carve it up with multiple easements over multiple actions.

00:10:11,000	Um, so during that time, we probably negotiating the last year or so, uh, with this landowner, and I guess to the point now that they they’ve agreed to the the purchase price, they’ve done appraisal on the property, but even without Tyler um Parkway extension, the city would still I would still recommend the city purchases this property for the Tyler Cooley, uh, regional stormwater improvements even by themselves would still need this land. OK.

00:10:37,670	Are there any questions for Gabe? Commissioners, what are your wishes, Comm, thanks, Gabe. Um, I’ll motion to approve. Uh, the purchase agreement? I’ll second. Do we have discussion Here no will call roll. Comm Connelly. Yes. Comm Risch? Yes. Comm Zenker. Yes. Mary Schmitz. Yes. Moving to a regular agenda item A. Requests consider request to receive a report from the Downtown.

00:11:11,470	Bismarck Community Foundation, uh, Downtowners and uh Karl Slovak relating to the economic development services provided by the organization. I think it’s a 2025 call for projects. I had Kate Mayor Commissioners, how are you? OK. We’ll see if we get slides, um. Sweet. Slides, no, no sound.

00:11:30,100	I mean, you never know what technology is great. Um Maybe. Yes Um, here to give our uh quarterly update that we normally give the commission, and then we’re gonna talk a little bit about the call for projects and Carl, Dr Karl Silvak is gonna come up, um, and just talk a little bit about our timeline with that, um, it’s, we last reported to

00:11:50,370	you all December 17th. Um, just again, we, we put this up here each time and, and in addition is the transportation and steering committee, but we’re on a bunch of these different groups, uh, that works with, uh, the city and the community.

00:12:08,000	Um, what we’ve been working on with, I saw Isaac run out of here, but Isak and Lauren and some folks from community development is our year 2 for the neighborhood reinvestment initiative, um, and if you remember last year, this was something that we launched Gate City, primarily does this in a lot of North Dakota and some Western Minnesota communities,

00:12:24,030	and we wanted that to come to Bismarck, so we talked to Gate City. We also engaged Capital Credit Union to see if they would provide low interest loans for homeowners that had older homes, um, that were under a certain value so that they could make those improvements, and so, uh, your

00:12:41,000	one was, was pretty good for us. I kind of put the the differences for each year up, um, and then some of the adjustments that we have gone through and made for 2025.

00:12:56,630	So in 2024 when we launched it, um, the two financial agencies gave us a lower interest rate of 499 or 525 depending on the term of the loan, uh, then the city forwarded $873,000 in applications to those banks.

00:13:16,800	So it comes to the city first, the city checks that they meet those requirements of, um, maximum value and age and things like that, and then they move that application forward. Uh, what we found and what Lauren found was that we were missing.

00:13:41,370	Some folks that were just above that $250,000 maximum value and so for 2025, um, the financial, financial institutions and the city um worked on getting that to $300,000 as the maximum value, so 250,000 will still be eligible for the program if it’s their primary residence and it meets the other criteria, uh, but now we’ll, I think. Lawrence said that maybe we got another like 120 to 1500 properties. Does it sound right? When we increase the, the evaluation that would be eligible for the program. Another great thing for 2025, rates went down.

00:14:00,770	Um, so the banks and financial institutions, um, adjusted their rates, which they do annually, so now the rates are either 448 or 499 depending on the term of the loan, which is, which is also awesome. Um The bank and credit union are going to again give us $2,750,000 in loan capacity at those rates for this program.

00:14:21,000	So once that money is gone, generally, that, that’s it for the program. The other thing I didn’t put up here that we’re extending is just the um application window. We did close it last year, October 31st. We’re gonna close it November 30th this year, the end of November.

00:14:37,000	So things we learned from the first year that hopefully will make this program better for you too. I think the applications will open in the next week or so. Um, and they can go to the city’s website to fill out the initial application.

00:14:53,500	Um, another quarterly service that we provide with the city we’re supposed to be working on talent recruitment, workforce retention, um, and what we do there is we have a quarterly multicultural event. We hosted our last 1 January 31st. We took a bunch of um people new to this community and curling, um, which was great.

00:15:12,130	Uh, we’re all friends when we’re curling because you’re stretching and wiping out and sliding and everybody had fun. We did a potluck, which is part of the curling culture, um, and people brought some awesome stuff, so a great event for us again, we do this every quarter. We had 65 curlers, 6 languages spoken, and we um integrated it in with Vinterfest, um.

00:15:31,300	With the Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation, Northern Plains Heritage Area. Here’s just some. Curling pictures and our curling teachers. Um, we’re still providing placer analysis for the city and for um private groups or folks that want property insights.

00:15:55,400	We recently provided some information from our place or license for the city of Bismarck, uh, to include with our AARP grant that they um applied for, I think last week that Isaac applied for. Um, we use it for commercial real estate support. We’re using it to assist the city with looking at potential new parking ramps and how the existing parking ramps are working, and then just general.

00:16:10,870	Property insights. We also were able to work with the city to facilitate a finance roundtable, um, for the land development code so you all know that the city’s going through this very large process of of changing Bismarck zoning, update the zoning and land development code and one group that we

00:16:28,530	really wanted the city and the consultants to be able to talk to where our lenders that are in the community, how they kind of see the, the changes that they feel that’s something that they could finance? Do they feel like, um, you know, the changes are good, that they’re welcome, that there’s a market

00:16:42,730	for For some of those changes within the code, for instance, smaller lot sizes for homes and things like that, so we had, I don’t know, maybe like 10 lenders that were there that were able to give feedback to the consultants in terms of how a bank would look at those types of things landing on

00:16:59,400	those things, commercial ending on those types of things. Um, so that was really good. I don’t know that the lenders have a lot of interaction necessarily with, um, community development. It’s more sort of the developer and the lenders’ piece of that pie, but not a big piece of it, so.

00:17:13,870	It was cool for them to be able to um sit down and chat with community development and the consultants on the proposed changes for the land development code. And they spoke, which was great.

00:17:27,730	Sometimes bankers don’t say anything, um, and this was, we tried to get a crew together that would give some good feedback, so it was, it was a good group. But mostly tonight, we just want to talk about the call for projects, um, we’ve got that coming out. We met with you all in December.

00:17:46,400	Proposed that we do that again as a city, as you might remember, um, the city did this, 6, 6-ish years ago, and we think it’s about time to bring it back, so Dr Karl Sovak, who we work with, um, is gonna talk to you a little bit about that plan. Good evening, Mayor Schmitz and Commissioners, just a little brief uh reminder when we had the first call for projects.

00:18:05,100	These are some of the past, uh, projects that went forward and many of them were successful, even though that we may not have seen things like Friends of the rail bridge. They were still formed. They tried to make our community better, and that’s really what this was all designed to do.

00:18:21,670	Uh, so we are launching officially launching our 2025 call for projects this month. Uh, we will have a, a community development, economic development. and city plan implementation of projects.

00:18:39,830	We will take these projects from any source they can be individuals, they can be groups, uh, they can be businesses, uh, so an example would be the riverfront development plan from the first call for projects, which led to some riverfront development, uh, underway, and we will make ourselves available with an online application. Uh, they’ll be linked to, uh, Bismarcknd.gov. Uh, we have a chance for the citizens to pitch to the city.

00:19:01,800	We will take On the role of vetting those and other projects that we will bring forward for the commissioners, uh, and, and the mayor to decide on. We’ll keep those applications open for approximately 6 weeks, and we’re going to be on the uh Mayor’s insights on March 14th to talk a little bit more about this.

00:19:21,400	And so, uh, we hope that we get a good round of projects from this effort and we look to better and improve our community. And that is my report. Any questions, Commissioners? Thank you. Looking forward to see what kind of projects come forward. I just want to say thanks to Kalen too.

00:19:39,730	He’s helping us with, um, you know, getting everything up on the website and all that good stuff, so I appreciate all their work, um, helping us out. Thank you. Thank you. Item B. Consider request for resolution creating uh districts.

00:20:01,000	Part A 1, a 2, and B, resolution approving plans and specifications and authorized to advertise to receive bids for the city concrete, uh 25. Gabe. See if I can get this screen looks different, so I just throw me off here. Give me 1 2nd, please. So maybe. Well, might as well have every piece of technology not work here. Yeah, we’ll do it without a, uh, visual aids then, uh.

00:21:27,500	The item I have before you is the creation of 3 different, uh, Districts, if you will, uh, the first is our A1 district, which is all of our new sidewalk and new concrete excuse me, new driveways, new widenings, and new sidewalk, uh, specially assessed to the adjacent property owner, uh, usually use

00:21:45,630	in new construction areas. Part A2 is our GA project that we would do on a yearly basis, um, last year we sent out our first ever sidewalk suggestion tool uh to the community, uh, went live in 2024. We weren’t really able to incorporate items from that, uh, the.

00:22:05,270	data points from that tool into the 2024 plan, but we’re able to implement many of the input that we received from the public into our 2025 proposal here in front of you, uh, last year, we also went through.

00:22:20,870	A process by which to to kind of filter out the requests so we can understand at what point in time is, is it a gap? Is it something we would move forward with and, and versus how long should we wait until that sidewalk more organically appears at the time of development we’re kind of To that, to that end, we landed at a 15 years, uh, old for the roadway, and, and or areas of known potential known or potential pedestrian activity that connects parks, commercial

00:22:44,000	and residential properties. Um, so If the A2 gap project is approved, we would send letters out to those landowners, uh, all along this list.

00:23:04,730	One thing that we did change in our 2025 proposal is to add a 25% city contribution towards the construction of those gap sidewalks, um, so they can engage with that and utilize that only if they use our city contractor, we won’t be able to pay them to do the work, but if they use the city’s contractor, we would be able to give them that discount, um, towards the sidewalk construction if they elect to do this on their own.

00:23:18,530	through hiring their own contractor or um do it two years from now or some other later period of time, uh, those properties would not be eligible to receive the 25% subsidy for that work. So.

00:23:38,230	With that, I tried to lay out those pieces for the A2, uh, on the list, I’ll maybe summarize our part B as well, which is our hazardous sidewalk proposal where we do two pieces. One would be to handle requests from the public to say there’s a trip hazard located at XYZ Street at 123 4th Street, whatever it might be, uh, we look at that address and, and confirm if it was a hazard.

00:23:55,100	If so, we would then get in contact with that adjacent landowner and inform them of their responsibility to repair that sidewalk. We also go out proactively and look at certain neighborhoods that would be on a yearly rotation or say a multi-year rotation so that we are proactively finding these spots as well to improve the sidewalk conveyance, uh, connection that we have

00:24:12,500	throughout our community. So with that, uh, I do want to address the list, uh, in the agenda of the addresses that we have. We have 5 addresses on the Gap project, um, all 5 of those, uh, were, were highlighted by either the public through our our survey responses.

00:24:31,630	Um, but some of those locations, uh, do not qualify the um 10 year or excuse me 15 year time frame from the initial construction, um, but some of those, if I will highlight the Battalion Street address that was one that was approved.

00:24:50,870	Uh, they were the first construction in this subdivision and we allowed them to delay the construction of sidewalks until such time that some of their neighbors got in that area as well, and now they are the remaining piece of property that doesn’t have sidewalks and all their neighbors do.

00:25:05,030	um, so that’s the Battalion Street, uh, comment, Normandy Street is also another aspect, uh, it’s a 2. 14th Street construction, uh, but the address that we have listed here is owned by the adjacent, uh, by the, it’s a vacant lot, but it’s owned by the neighbor or the, the neighboring properties the same owner.

00:25:20,500	So it’s potentially unlikely that anything will be developed there in any short order, and this was an address that I believe we had 12 to 13 pins located on this really short stretch that really completes that neighborhood, um, the ones at the bottom of the list that was presented in the attachment uh on Nebraska Chisholm, Clair Mount Round Top Road and High

00:25:37,270	Creek Road, all were areas that were either previously identified with pins or uh represent really the last remaining segment that would then complete the block uh entirely, uh, but this does not qualify under the 15 year component.

00:25:53,870	So I want to bring that back for your consideration of 15 years from the time of initial construction is the right amount of time or if there’s maybe a different number besides 15 years that we’d want to use for that, so I offer these as our recommendation would be to all of the ones that are on this list, uh, but if you did want to follow a more strict.

00:26:06,730	Application of our the guidance that we started with last year on the ones on the, the upper portion of that list would follow that more closely and we can leave the ones on the bottom for next year or the year after 3 years from now, whatever that may be

00:26:17,370	for it to hit that 15 year mark. So I guess with that, I take any questions that you may have. Um, we’re looking for approval on these items, Comm Risch. Uh, Mr. Mayor Commissioners gave, is the 25% subsidy is that a standard um practice or is that just on vacant sidewalk for.

00:26:38,370	So Mayor’s Comm, Comm Risch, this would just be for These sidewalks that are identified as part of our GAP project or our Gap program recognizing that it’s the landowner’s responsibility when they develop their house, their shop, their, uh, commercial building, whatever it might be to construct sidewalks.

00:26:55,830	Many of these locations either already have their building constructed or it’s a vacant lot without a development, building permit in the immediate horizon. So the, the decision at last year’s commission was to include during the budget cycle a subsidy or a city contribution showing, uh, the city’s commitment to putting Some of these sidewalks in as well and

00:27:11,270	not just having it be entirely on the onus, uh, of the property owner. That answer your question, Comm Risch, but the 25%, there’s nothing magical about that number. This is the first time we’ve tried this and it was just what we’ve put into the budget in our 25 budget. There you go.

00:27:32,000	Are there Comm Connelly. Now, even when you mentioned Nebraska, it’s only the gaps at Nebraska. It’s not like the existing sidewalks at all, because along that corridor, it’s a fairly new development along those corridors on Nebraska.

00:27:49,670	I walked them a couple of times, knocked on all the doors, and it’s one of those areas to where they’ve split right down the middle. There’s a great big gap right in the middle of those big pieces that go the almost the full length, um, uh, on the, uh, east side.

00:28:08,400	Uh, where all the elder developments are and things, so when you’re talking trip hazards and different things, that’s one area that’s really. The sub-packing didn’t work on its behalf. That’s Mayor Comm, Comm Connelly, I guess at this point in time, we will respond to any complaints that we hear.

00:28:23,800	So if someone calls in with an address at XYZ Street, we would go evaluate that location as well as kind of the adjacent properties, um, but I think you’d find if you’re looking for every, you know, non ADA compliant sidewalk in Bismarck, there’s going to be a lot of them, so it’s hard to factor that all at one time. We try to just take bite-sized chunks as well as we can.

00:28:39,300	Commissions, what are your wishes? If, if there’s no other questions, I’m not trying to rush it, but. No, I’ll make a motion to approve as presented. I’ll second the motion. Do we have discussion? Harry none will call roll. Miss Nervis. Yes. Comm Zenker. Comm Connelly, Mayor Schmitz. Yes.

00:29:09,200	Next item C, consider request to discuss the river road trail closure by Burlington Northern Santa Fe, and this is Comm Risch’s topic, so. Turn it over to you, sir. Well, thank you, Mr. Mayor.

00:29:24,230	If you remember, I think it was last fall, BNSF made a presentation about the bridge construction, and I’m happy they’re building a new bridge and we need a new bridge on the railroad. I told when I was getting old, but I’m disappointed, of course, that comparing the old one down.

00:29:40,670	What struck me was they, they, they mentioned to us that that meeting that they will have to take the walking trail and river road on a service on occasion to move equipment back and forth. When I read my um February 28th newspaper just like. Eunice simply declared they’re going to take a walking trail out. 2 years. That’s a long time.

00:29:59,470	Like they said they’re gonna keep the river road open, able to keep the river road open and the river open. Well, I contacted BNSF and I said what for real people the road open and you can keep the river open.

00:30:18,100	Why can’t we keep the Bismarck’s most popular walking trail as well, fully understanding and occasionally they’re gonna have to move across that with equipment and flag and stop people from walking and this sort of thing. They just keep claiming it’s impossible. No, they, they, they, they volunteered to uh come to our next commission meeting. They said they couldn’t make it tonight, but um I’m disappointed.

00:30:35,300	I’m disappointed that they Mitigate the safety issues on that walking trail and keep that open for the most part, just like they’re going to river road and the river. Um, I’ve traveled across this country extensively. I go to big cities and they’ll be construction on a building. And what do they do? The sidewalks still open.

00:30:50,870	They’ve got a scaffling with coverings on the, on the sidewalks and people can still utilize the sidewalk. You’re gonna have shut this thing down, the walking trail down, not last Monday, the Monday before, so it’s been down for 9 days, 9 days. There was more activity whatsoever until today.

00:31:07,270	This past weekend we had 60 degree weather, a beautiful weekend for people to go on walks on that walking trail was unnecessarily blocked. For people being able to use it this weekend. Today they finally showed up at BNSF I I’m watching it every day, and they’re cutting down all our trees. So I, I’m disappointed.

00:31:25,470	I think, um, uh, BNSF is hired Ames Construction, the constructs this bridge. They’re one of the largest, most competent construction companies in the world. BNFF said the Ames construction, keep that walking trail open as much as possible and protect those that are walking underneath it. Ames construction will figure it out. You’ll get it done. They can have, they can make it possible.

00:31:43,470	So the reason I brought it up tonight is because I think it’s inappropriate that the declare they’re going to shut it down for 2 years. Oh, I’ll add one thing. I think the conversation I had with Amy Macbeth, with the BNSF.

00:31:59,030	She said they’ll try to open it back up on December through March or the first of March like they did, you know. In the wintertime when they’re not walking on it, but I’d like the instruct ask staff to look into our, our, our Options How to require that this walking trail be remain open and need to require BNSF to open and protect our citizens that are walking down that trail.

00:32:22,530	Go ahead, Comm Connelly. And I remember that meeting very well as and they did minimize the impact of that, so I would completely be on board with that. Yeah, whether it takes a formal motion or if Jason wants to reach out, I mean.

00:32:43,470	So I’m, I’m not sure where our jurisdiction is on this, to be honest, so I don’t know the answer what we can or cannot do. Probably a question we need to ask. Well, I guess my intent is to have staff evaluate it and see what our options are, um.

00:33:07,870	The idea that BNSF just declares things and it’s our walking trail, it’s Parkwood walking trail, the city’s property at least of claim with their property. I don’t. So Um, do we have an easement across it now? Don’t we have an I, I, I, I don’t know. It’s actually their property, I suspect we need to have it. Even if we didn’t have an easement, um, there’s something called um, Adverse possession.

00:33:24,570	We’ve been in possession of course for more than 20 years in North Dakota, and that’s adverse possession it’s actually ours. I, I’m beyond my knowledge.

00:33:43,630	So, it’s the only concern I, question I have is, is it, is it do we have it in our jurisdiction or authority, that’d be a question that we can ask staff to research and, and if it’s not, is it the park districts? Because the walking trail might be theistics and not ours, which then they would have the jurisdiction on, so I think if we could have that research so that when BNSF is available next meeting. To have them here.

00:34:03,630	Does that make sense, Commissioners? I OK. Staff. think Got it. OK. Comm, OK. All right. Next item is consider requests to receive legislative update and provide direction to staff and I’m not sure. Jason’s got a brief report, I believe. They’re just back in session, so. Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners.

00:34:28,630	Yes, a very brief report, uh, last week, the House and Senate came back together after crossover, most of the work that was done was without public hearings or committee work.

00:34:48,370	Uh, however, this morning, for Comm Risch and Comm Connelly, Mayor Schmitz, Comm Zenker, City engineer Gabe Schell, and I, uh, we were at the hearing for House Bill 1020. That is the bill that contains the budget for the State Water Commission. More importantly for us as the city of Bismarck, that is the bill that would have funding for the South Bismarck flood control project, um.

00:35:04,200	Schmitz did uh little bit of an introduction on the project, and Gabe came forward with the presentation that you’ve all seen here and a presentation that he shared a number of times in the recent past, uh, no real detrimental questions from any of the committee members. I think everybody understands what the ask is here.

00:35:20,730	For them, it’s a little different type of a flood project than they’re used to. I I guess one of the questions or the comments was relating to um earthen berms or flood walls, which you commonly see in other places, that’s not really the case here.

00:35:37,570	We’ve got kind of a different scenario we’ve talked about the gate structure on South Washington Street near the elementary school in a pumping system to help, um, alleviate any stormwater that backs up in that channel.

00:35:53,530	So that was kind of the primary topics there, uh, maybe just to touch on a couple of others as we’ve noted in the past, we’ve got 3 bills that came out of the house that are all dealing with property tax, 1176, 1575 and 1474. Uh, there was a hearing for 1575 today, and that was at the exact same time we were with the uh state water commission’s budget in a different part of the capital, um, so I don’t honestly know the results of the hearing from 1575.

00:36:13,730	I just looked before stepping up to the podium and there was not an update on that one, Uh As we noted with 3 property tax bills coming out of the house, it’s anticipated one of those would become the front runner for support. 1176 has been the one that we’ve focused quite a bit of attention on.

00:36:32,470	It seems to have senior leadership support, governor support as well. There’s a number of components in there that relate to the homestead tax credit, but for us locally there is the discussion of a 3% general fund property tax cap with House Bill 1176.

00:36:48,630	As you all know, we’ve not taken a position on that, however, we. We’ve had a number of conversations with local state leaders with the governor as well and sharing information, uh, sharing our concerns, but also recognizing that uh the uh the caps, property tax caps seem to be inevitable, and we’re willing to accept that so long as we

00:37:06,400	can. Live within the, uh, live within the means and maybe have a cap that is more in line with a consumer price index or something that can fluctuate on a annual or biannual basis, um, maybe just to draw your attention to the handout that was at your workstation.

00:37:23,200	I’ve added a, a new column on the far right, that is the column that notes the status at crossover. So previously the blue column was the action prior to the end of February. I’ll direct your attention to that far right column if uh if the box is highlighted in green, there’s activity.

00:37:39,630	with dates and, and those specific events, if the boxes are white or without information, it’s because that bill has not yet been acted upon. Um, so we’ll continue in this format as we trudge through the rest of the session.

00:37:55,770	And of course do our best to keep everybody up to date if you guys have any questions, thoughts or comments, I’m happy to. Listen or answer those questions if I may. Comm Connelly. Um, not so much in any of the bills that we’re watching here, but, um, the hearing this afternoon for 1168 was up and the consumer price indexing came up a lot in the conversation, whether it’s, uh, um, Percentage plus 1 point or

00:38:19,100	+ 2 points, that seemed to dominate the area of that particular and I’m pretty sure that will get to the other pills that are, that we are watching. Dr. Anything else? Nothing more for me. Thank you, thank you. Um, any other business tonight? Comm Connelly.

00:38:44,630	It’s not official yet, but, um, we are planning for the um transportation working group, a community conversation with the human relations Committee on public input for how that moves forward.

00:39:02,870	And when we list the official date and time and things, we’ll share that more, but just getting out in front of it a little bit because I’ve already been talking to stakeholders and bringing them, but we’re looking at May 8th, tentatively. Yep Comm Risch. I just want to see, uh, the Guy that sits behind me in church on Sundays is Harley Swenson, Harley Swenson was a longtime engineer.

00:39:20,030	He’s a long retired, but you can look at all the old maps and his names all over the place. But after church, he commented about how well our traffic lights are timed in Bismarck, and after we were talking about it, I said, you know, now that you mention it, I sometimes zip right up and down some of these streets and the lights are climbs.

00:39:35,930	So whoever’s doing the traffic light I mean excellent performance and Guy like Harley Swensons on the. and I notices it. We’re happy. Anything else? Anything else? If not, we stand