00:00:12,730	15 on March 25th, we’re in the Tom Baker room of the City County building. We actually have 2 meetings tonight. One will be the Board of Health and the other will be the board of City Commissioners, but first, uh, we’re going to call the meeting for the, uh, we’re gonna have a chaplain Carr come

00:00:32,500	forward with the invocation and pledge of Allegiance first. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Comm, it’s a pleasure to see you as always. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, what a privilege it is to be in this room today and uh just to be able to open it up in prayer and to look to you first, asking you for wisdom

00:00:51,230	and direction as we govern this city. Thank you for, uh, these commissioners. Thank you for our city workers. Thank you for our first responders. God, may your blessing be upon them as they serve and protect this wonderful city. Now God I.

00:01:09,300	you ask that you would give us a spirit of unity today and a bond of peace as we look to you for direction in all that we do. Thank you for this great city and thank you for all that you do for us in the name of our Savior, we pray. Amen. Join me, uh, by standing if you can.

00:01:25,470	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, Commissioners. Mr. Mayor? All right, now we’ll All the meeting for the Board of Health to order first by calling roll. Comm Risch. Here. Comm Zenker.

00:01:51,730	Comm Connelly, Comm Cleary, Mayor Schmitz. Here. So Renee, go ahead. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and, uh, commissioners. I will have a brief presentation. Just updating you on a few things. Um, this is the agenda for tonight, um, I will.

00:02:16,270	Give you, uh, an update on our priorities with community health needs assessment and then ask for your approval of our community health improvement plan. And then I have a triage center update as well. Um, so as you know, we’ve gone through our community health needs assessment process and developed our priorities, um, every 3 years we go to we work together with the local hospitals to do a community health needs assessment, um,

00:02:38,030	survey, and, um, after we’ve gone through that process. We worked with stakeholders to get our priorities, um, In line, and these are the three that we are going to work on as a local public health department, mental and behavioral health, healthy living and disease prevention and then access to

00:02:56,230	affordable health care will be the main focus areas, um, which were derived from, uh, the health assessment and then also align with the work that we do.

00:03:13,870	Just a brief overview of the plan, um, that was included in the packet, basically it’s a summary of the process of the community health needs assessment, the key findings that we were able to gather during the process, and it serves as a guide for us for future planning, uh, our priorities then will be used to shape our department’s strategic plan and that will, um, inform and align with the city of Bismarck’s strategic

00:03:29,730	plan, and that is um currently, um, underway, so it’s perfect timing for us to get through. that and get the development of that. um, I will ask for your approval of the Community Health Improvement plan.

00:03:46,770	It is a con uh consent agenda item, um, on the consent agenda, so as the commission, if you, you get Adjourned and, um, Readdjourn as the commission that I would ask for your approval under that, um, line item. Do you have any questions on the community health improvement plan. questions, Commissioners? No. OK.

00:04:13,570	Then I will move on to the community triage center, um, just to give you an update on, um, this project, our steering committee is continuing to meet to move the project forward. Uh, we did put forth a request for proposals for technical assistance and, um, actually that was to be supported from funding from the North Dakota Department of Health and Human Services Behavioral Health Division, and the purpose of the RFP was for um technical assistance to look at, um, what

00:04:34,670	a community triage facility could look like in our community, look at the model, uh, development, a governance structure and involve particular stakeholders. Look at a financial sustainability plan and budget for a project like this, and then provide us with an implementation roadmap.

00:04:57,530	Um, we did go through the interviewing and selection process and um I was going to come to you tonight to ask for, uh, your approval to move forward with a contract, um, to award to Health Management Associates, um, literally, um, before stepping foot in the room tonight, I got a phone call and unfortunately, due to actions taken at the federal

00:05:16,630	level, uh, regarding funding sources, um, we are, um, we’ve been informed that it may not be a secured funding source. To move forward with the contract. Um, and so I ask that, um, you would potentially pull that item from the consent agenda when you convene.

00:05:36,400	Um, because we would need to seek additional funding sources or see what the outcome of the federal decision, uh, making that happen today, um, how that will impact us, but I can’t, I can’t guarantee that this will happen. So that, with that, thank you, Mr. Mayor Renee.

00:06:00,500	So it was approved, but now you’re told that even though it was approved, We may not issue the money. Is that? That, that’s correct, um, Comm Risch. I don’t know if you’ve seen some of the federal.

00:06:17,630	Some of the news stories that happened today about the impacts of the federal funding, um, they’ve cut several Programs, um, relating to some of the work that we do at the local level, um, we received an email, um, today from the Behavioral Health division that some of the funding they were notified, some of their funding is being frozen as of yesterday, so the work that was supposed to um be able to go through their contract period, I believe was

00:06:36,730	through September has now been put on hold or. To basically told that it’s done as of yesterday and there’s 30 days that they have to reconcile the project and so, um, some of that funding could have been used to support this.

00:06:57,000	So without that, we’re kind of In limbo, I, I guess, unfortunately, and I literally just found that out before coming here. I called Jason, um, like at 4:45 with the information. I have the email if you want the information, um, so it just says from the state level, obviously, as it trickles down, um, that it was, uh, late yesterday, COVID-related grant funding was terminated effective March 24th.

00:07:21,000	Grant funding was originally set to expire March or September 30, 2025, uh, funding includes the MHBG, which is the mental health B block grant supplemental and substance substance use prevention treatment and recovery.

00:07:42,670	services and supplemental grants and this falls under that for us, so, um, we’ll, yeah, pull it from consent when we. When we get there. Any other questions for Renee? Do you have anything else for us tonight? I do not. Thank you if there’s nothing else for the Board of Health, we Adjourned the Board of Health. And now we’ll call to order the Board of City Commission, if we can call roll, please.

00:08:14,370	Comm Risch Here Comm Zenker. Comm Connelly, Comm Cleary here, Mayor Schmitz here. Uh, first, we have two proclamations today. One is wear blue for child abuse Prevention Month. So whereas children are vital to our cities’s future success, prosperity, and quality of life.

00:08:40,000	As well as being our most valuable assets and whereas awareness of child abuse and neglect in a community is a community responsibility affecting both the current and future quality of life in our community.

00:08:54,930	Therefore, be it resolved that I, Michael Schmitz, mayor of the city of Bismarck, on behalf of this commission do hereby proclaim April 1, 2025 is where Blue Day in the city of Bismarck and the official start of child abuse Prevention Month, I urge all citizens elected officials, staff, volunteers, faith groups, business owners and community partners and friends of the city of Bismarck to participate in any and all efforts to raise the awareness for and support

00:09:12,470	of children signed this day the 25th of March 2025. The other is fair housing. Month Proclamation, whereas one of the greatest freedoms enjoyed by Americans is the freedom to live in a home of one’s choice.

00:09:32,900	Therefore, be it resolved that I, Michael Schmitz, mayor of the city of Bismarck, on behalf of this commission to hereby proclaim the month of April 2025 is fair housing Month in the city of Bismarck and herge all citizens to honor and abide by the letter and spirit of Fair housing. Signed the 25th of March 2025. Do you want We can do sure I know Christie’s here for sure, so.

00:09:57,630	We can grab photos. Your brain Yeah Thank you Yeah. All right, we are at public comment, public comment period is restricted to items on the consent agenda or a regular agenda item that is not a public hearing, so anyone who would wish to speak, please come forward, state your name, the topic you’re speaking to,

00:11:08,300	and uh also sign in. Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners. My name is John Frazee, resident of Bismarck. I have a few comments tonight on regular agenda item 5F, which is the BNSF. construction and trail situation. First off, thank you to Comm Risch for broaching this topic.

00:11:30,830	During other business at the last meeting. I have 2 items to just keep in mind during construction, I would like to have a discussion on Keeping the trail open as much as possible while maximizing safety during construction and then also ensuring the trail is restored. To its original um status after construction’s complete.

00:11:59,100	First thing is Every party in this conversation is focused on the same thing, which is safety, whether it’s BNSF, the Commission, or all citizens. We all prioritize safety before anything. We don’t need to, you know, dive into that because there’s no disagreements. As you can see right now, the weather is getting nice.

00:12:18,300	Temperatures are slowly rising and all of us are getting anxious to get outside and exercise. The riverfront trail, in my opinion, is arguably the best amenity we have in Bismarck. And I think a lot of people feel the same way because it’s a huge part of the community and it’s a packed trail all the time.

00:12:36,630	Most nights in the summer, there’s all kinds of people walking on the trail, rollerblading, biking, running, Saturday mornings, the trail is packed as well. People, people fish along the trail, people have their senior pictures taken there and all of our local high school and cross country teams constantly use the trail as there’s dozens of

00:12:56,230	people using it all the time. We’re already cut off from the trail throughout the winter, obviously, as it’s often dark or covered with snow. And it’s actually probably the top spot in town where people take their pets to get them exercise and never get between a person and their pet.

00:13:18,030	There’s not necessarily a ton of people speaking up about this issue because it’s been happening for 3 to 5 years, this topic in general. Now, the whole bridge issue is mostly behind us because the new bridge is coming, but this issue is maybe side related to the construction of the bridge because we’re talking about the trail.

00:13:38,470	Just because there aren’t people here doesn’t mean they don’t care. And again, as the summer gets rolling, there are a lot of people that are going to get out there, try to use the trail, and notice the closures. So hopefully we can get ahead of some of this issue. By having the conversations.

00:13:55,030	Throughout the last 3 to 5 years, there were lots of groups like Friends of the rail bridge, all kinds of other advocacy groups going through these public comment processes and stuff like that. I’m not an advocate for any of those groups. I’m not representing anybody. I’m only here as a citizen.

00:14:11,100	I wasn’t part of any of those conversations. The US Coast Guard issued their final environmental impact statement report on October 24th, 2022. Page 20 of that report lists their official commitments to us post construction.

00:14:38,630	From that report on page 20 it said, The riverfront trail will be restored to a condition that is equal or better to pre-construction after the project is completed. I would ask you guys to continue to hold them accountable down the road when that construction is completed. Again, there’s not a lot of people speaking up about this now, but if you look at Appendix A of that report.

00:14:55,930	There are 46 pages of public comment from individuals, friends of the rail bridge. NDDOT and the Bismarck Parks and Rec Department. Granted many of those comments are related specifically to whether the bridge should be built in the first place.

00:15:15,030	But there were all kinds of comments in there about things like the waterway being closed, the trail closure and eventual restoration of the trail. Some of this, in my opinion, just looking through that report is a little vague. I mean, unfortunately, construction is vague in general as far as timelines, so I do understand some of that.

00:15:32,370	In that report, the Coast Guard did respond to each comment from every group. One of the common responses that the Coast Guard said when they responded to any comments about closures was this direct quote. Temporary closures of riverfront trail may occur during construction while work is completed. In the immediate vicinity of the trail.

00:15:56,100	Duration of temporary closures are anticipated to vary from hours to weeks depending on task. Post construction riverfront trail will be restored to a condition that is equal or better to pre-construction. A representative from BNSF was here on August 13th and is here tonight as well and He said it will be closed for a period of time, which is fine.

00:16:14,930	I think everybody anticipates that the trail will have some closures throughout this massive project. I don’t have any indications or accusations of any violations by BNSF with the city of Bismarck because again some of this is vague and it’s hard to know in advance exactly when and what would need to be

00:16:31,500	closed. The things I would ask from BNSF would be to continue to have a conversation with like the park district on maybe getting some numbers on how many people this will impact. During the summer months, especially.

00:16:50,630	To the commission, please continue to actively represent the public to keep this trail open when it’s safe. And ensure the trail is restored to equal or better condition post construction. Also just be enough work with our boards here, our elected officials to address citizens. Concerns safely number one. Keep the trail open while we can during when it’s safe and then restore it when we’re done.

00:17:13,030	Please listen to public comments and be transparent. And again, commissioners, the ask of you guys is to continue this dialogue with BNSF on this topic, represent us. Thank you again for Comm Risch to bring in this, bringing this up last meeting. Thank you. Any questions? Thank you, sir. Thanks. Again, this is public comment, anyone who wished to speak, please come forward.

00:17:41,300	State your name, the topic you’re speaking to and also sign in, please. Oh, OK. Uh, my name is Vernon Peterson, and, uh, I’m here in support of the The walking trail also and. He did a bang up job explaining everything, but Just to me, I think. If, uh, Burlington.

00:18:31,170	Northern can, uh, construct a bridge. We can figure out a way that we can Uh, access. This walking path. And that’s about That’s, that’s pretty much what I have to say, and And if you just think about it, we should be able to find out. A way to do this. That’s pretty much it.

00:18:58,230	Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else who wish to speak? A second call for public comment. A 3rd and final call for public comment. See or hearing anyone, public comment period is now closed. Comm, your wishes.

00:19:33,030	I’m gonna go ahead and pull E2, which is the, um, public health triage center topic that Renee referenced, um, and then moved to approve. The remainder of the consent agenda. Second, is there any discussion? Harry Dunn we’ll call roll. Comm Zenker. Yes, Comm Connelly? Yes. Comm Cleary? Yes, Comm Risch, yes. Mayor Schmitz.

00:20:02,230	Yes Item A in the regular agenda is public hearing on ordinance 6611 a zoning map Amendment from RT residential zoning to the district to the CA commercial district for Lot 3, block 1 in the Kilburn North first edition Replat. Go ahead, Daniel. Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners, I’m standing in for Ben. Commune development director today.

00:20:20,370	So DK Ventures LLC is requesting approval of a zoning map amendment from the RT residential zoning District to the CA Commercial zoning District and Lot 3, block 1. Cover North, first edition, uh, I’m sorry. Cober North edition First Replat. As you can see on the screen here, how this is located in North Bismarck, um, it’s between North Washington Street and Normandy Street along the south side of 43rd Avenue, Northeast.

00:20:36,830	Uh, the site is currently occupied with a medical office, uh, that is operated by the owner. Uh, so there really is no intention for any new development, actually no change of use even uh with this site. Um, however, it is, uh, the wish of the applicant to have the site aligned with the.

00:20:54,570	Adjacent zoning, which is also in his ownership and uh shares a parking lot. So, uh, based on the findings that are contained in your staff report, uh, staff does recommend approval of the zoning map amendment, and those are related to the health, safety and welfare of, of the community.

00:21:15,900	Uh, this area is in the neighborhood mixed-use portion of our future land use plan, uh, so this would be supported, uh, just like the lot to the West, which has a similar zoning.

00:21:31,830	Uh, so the planning and zoning Commission did hold a public hearing on this request on February of 26 to 2025, and they do also recommend approval of the requested zoning. I can attempt to answer any questions. Make sure there’s any questions of Daniel. Doesn’t look like it This is a public hearing on ordinance 6611. Anyone who wish to speak to the topic, please come forward. A second call for public comment.

00:21:58,300	A 3rd and final call for public comment. Hearing and seeing no public comment, public comment period is now closed. Comm, what are your wishes to approve. Second, Do we have any discussion? He none will call roll. Comm Connelly? Yes. Comm Cleary? Yes. Comm Risch? Yes. Comm Zenker, Mayor Schmitz, yes. Next item B.

00:22:24,230	Consider a request to hear the insufficiency of protests on the resolution of necessity for improvement district 588. Gabe. Hello, Mayor, Commissioners. Load up my PDF here. Uh, SI 588 is our concrete pavement repair project, uh, the, on 3rd Street for plan for 2025.

00:22:55,170	The protest period ended on 321 and we did not have any protest letters for this particular project, so our recommendation is to accept the insufficiency. of protest for this project and to continue development. there’s any questions. Move to approve is presented. Second. Any discussion? Harry none will call roll. Comm Cleary, Comm Risch, Comm Zenker. Comm Connelly, Mayor Schmitz. Yes.

00:23:22,400	Next item C is consider request to receive bids and award contract for highway construction project 177. Your show, Gabe Mayor Comm highway construction Project 177 is our crack ceiling project that we’ll have in our community.

00:23:44,370	We had a project budget of $198,000 of sales tax money to fund this, a low bidder was asphalt surface technologies, corporate corporation with a bit of $940,050 are Recommendation is to award to asphalt surface technologies Corporation. Um, as stated. Any questions? Move to approved is presented. I just got one question, Mr. Mayor. Uh, Gabe, it looks like it’s considerably lower than the rest of the bids.

00:24:04,630	Have we, has this company done work for the city in the past? Mayor Comm, Comm Risch, this company has done work, uh, in the past, really would, as you can see, one of the companies had pretty much a number really similar to what we thought it would cost this type of work is pretty straightforward in

00:24:19,930	nature, but is very much susceptible to their capacity to perform it. So thankfully we had 3 contractors and 2 of which were hungry to do the work and and gave us a price that reflected that. So I have a 1.2, OK. I had a kid. Do you have any other discussion? and then we’ll call roll.

00:24:39,400	Miss nervous? Yes. Comm Zenker. Yes, Comm Connelly, Comm Cleary, Mayor Schmitz. Yes. Next item D is considered a request to receive bids and provide recommendations on award of contract for street lighting and traffic signal project SV 79. Go ahead, Gabe.

00:25:04,470	Mayor and Commissioners, this project is the signal replacement at the intersection of Front Avenue and South Washington Street. We included the bid summary in the packet. We had that ready to go for our, um, the uh the agenda deadlines so that was included in your packet, but our recommendation at the time was to wait for this decision, um, on what the budget summary. look like.

00:25:18,300	We did put additional dollars in this, uh, project funded through sales tax to accommodate some of the geometric changes we were contemplating at this intersection. So we wanted to make sure that we had that piece figured out as well as then the project did come in over the CIP amount that the public works service ops, I guess the streetlight utility

00:25:37,530	had funded uh for this particular improvement. We do have cost savings on some previous projects that we’ve already awarded that we know are, you know, something in the range of $300,000 on the LED replacement project.

00:25:53,630	Um, so there’s adequate budget in this year’s budget when we looked at those two projects, um, combined, and so with the cost savings from the previous project, we feel comfortable awarding this one, even though it is above the CIP amount for this improvement. And with that, I’d take any questions that you would have. Any questions? Comm, Mr.

00:26:10,130	Mary Gabe, I’m just impressed how close they are, like $800 apart on a half a million dollar project. That’s sometimes remarkable how close those contractors can be on this, but our, our recommendation would be to award to Edling Electric to the tune of $563,807.50 to approve. Second. Any discussion He none will call raw. Comm Zenker. Comm Connelly, Comm Cleary, Yes, Comm Risch, yes, Mayor Schmitz, yes. Thank you, Gabe. Thank you.

00:26:35,030	Next item is consider request to receive a report relating to the future Fourth of July events and activities in Bismarck, Jason, good evening. Mayor and Commissioners, uh, generally when I’m at the podium, I have a whole lot of information to share and I’m glad to do so tonight.

00:26:54,500	I’m here to kind of give you some information but not all of it, and I apologize, um. I, I wanted to provide an update and I’m gonna look to Comm Cleary here for any fill-ins because she’s been a part of this project as well.

00:27:06,900	Um, if you’ll indulge me in just uh for just a little bit. How did we get here? Um, we got here. And here where we are, we’re talking about the Fourth of July, and we’re talking about the 4th of July in the city of Bismarck.

00:27:20,230	The capital city of North Dakota. Last year in. May or June. I reached out to Mike Gardner with Bismarck Mandan Symphony Orchestra. Uh, Mike is the executive director, and the reason I reached out to Mike is because as part of our annual budgeting process for as long as I’ve been a part of the budget committee for as long as

00:27:39,730	I can recall, the city of Bismarck has supported the fireworks display at the Capitol grounds on the 4th of July, and the way we have done that is through uh basically a grant. That would go towards the Bismarck Mandan Symphony Orchestra. They were the primary organizers of the event.

00:27:54,800	Those funds were used to pay for the fireworks display and several years ago, Burle County shared in that cost as well. Uh, but in the most recent past that cost of the fireworks has solely been borne by the City of Bismarck.

00:28:11,270	Symphony takes care of all the other planning, all the other events and activities. So when I reached out to Mr. Gardner and I said, Mike, can we talk about fireworks in 2025. Uh, we’re going through our budgeting for 2025, uh, will the amount be the same? Does the price change year to year.

00:28:28,830	It’s my first time talking with him in the past, it had been administrator Hunke. And what Mike shared with me is maybe something that many of you have come to learn, but in 2024, it was the, uh, it was the symphony’s intentions that that would be their final year of hosting the event at the Capitol. Comm Risch I see your expression. The cameras didn’t catch it, but I did.

00:28:48,570	That was, that was my expression as well. I, I was concerned as a resident of Bismarck who annually takes advantage of the opportunities and the activities of the Fourth of July at the Capitol grounds.

00:29:05,770	I was upset to learn that the symphony was choosing to explore other options and One of the things that Mike shared with me and, and I can appreciate this, he said the symphony was questioning. How the Fourth of July helped them achieve their mission, and their mission is to, you know, bring performing arts and symphony and uh live performances to the community.

00:29:21,730	When you think about how the event at the 4th at the Capitol grounds. takes place early in the evening. Everyone that’s there is there to hear the music and to experience the, the performance that is there.

00:29:38,300	As the night drifts on as the skies get darker and eventually, when it is dark and the fireworks go off, the mall lawn at the Capitol is much fuller than when it initially started. So I think it could be safe to say that some people may not be there necessarily for the symphony. Some might be there for the fireworks. Some might be there for both reasons.

00:29:52,770	Some might, you know, there, there’s a variety of reasons that people choose to participate in that event. Bottom line is I was concerned. To hear that we may not have that opportunity going forward and so, um, I reached out to some community partners.

00:30:09,730	Uh, these are people that you all know, these are people that we have worked with in the past, uh, people like, uh, Brenda Nagel from the Bismarck Mandan Chamber EDC. Sherry Grossman with the Convention Visitors Bureau, uh, Kate Herzog with Downtowners. Parks and Recreation District, uh, Mike Wald and Kevin Klipfel have both been a part of this discussion.

00:30:30,900	John Bollinger with Bismarck Larks, um, the Larks do a lot of things in this community and, and do a lot of things very well in this community. Uh, and Comm Cleary was part of this conversation as well. Just make sure I didn’t miss anybody along the way, Amanda Yellow with our staff joined the conversation as well, and where we are today.

00:30:51,470	What you may have seen the news release. There is a committee we’re calling ourselves a committee. We are actively looking at what can we do in 2025 to take that event that was scheduled to be or has been historically held at the Capitol for 30 some years.

00:31:10,670	What can we do as a community to continue that tradition, but perhaps in another location, perhaps with different features, perhaps more amenities. What I can’t tell you is we have it all figured out, because we don’t yet, but we are getting much, much closer, and it is my hope that within the next month there will be a big announcement of all the things

00:31:29,830	that have come together and all the partners in the community that are stepping forward to help recognize the significance of this event and to turn it into something new and different for the future. So I’m not here to ask of anything. I’m not here to ask you to uh make a direction.

00:31:48,100	I just wanted to provide an update on where we are and really just say that, you know, this, this conversation is happening, um, it’s been happening for quite some time, and I’m very encouraged that there are a number of partners that are involved, and, um, with a few fingers crossed, we’re going to

00:32:02,470	come back and have big smiles on our faces and talk about what’s really going on, what, what we hope will be going on for the future. So Comm Cleary did I leave anything out? Is there anything you’d like to add? Um, I guess I don’t know if I have anything to add specifically, um.

00:32:19,000	The, the committee has talked a lot about a committee that I forced Jason to invite me to, uh, but, um, has talked a lot about How we keep it at the Capitol, how we help the symphony cause I think the symphonies struggle with it was, it, yeah, like.

00:32:37,670	It falls in line with part of their mission, but it also is a very hard event for them to fundraise, um, the city of Bismarck covers the cost of essentially the fireworks, but there’s a lot more cost that goes into it on their end, and so that’s kind of where the conversation started, but then

00:32:52,730	obviously if you drive up State Street, there’s a big new building on the Capitol grounds, and that is usually where fireworks were let off and so then it also led the committee to a. Lot of conversation about can we still shoot fireworks off at the Capitol grounds.

00:33:14,000	Uh, the people up at the Capitol grounds were very accommodating with trying to make that work, where how could we kind of fully flip or change this event to make it still work and Frankly, I feel like our committee has had decided that.

00:33:33,170	Based off of all the different options that we could do, we wouldn’t be able to have the same caliber of event by like moving the fireworks to a different spot they it like when you look at the square footage that is needed for a firework of that size, that sort of stuff, so there’s been a ton of conversation. It’s kind of my point.

00:33:48,630	I think that that’s going to be the reaction to this press release is gonna be like, what? It’s changing because myself included have been going to that since I was a toddler, um.

00:34:05,730	So I understand that it’s gonna be kind of a bummer to see it change, but the hope is that it’ll change for the better, so that’s kind of what we’re working on now is how we can make it just as good if not better, more things to do. More stuff going on, more community partners, so, um, it’s a work in progress, but it’s been good. Go ahead, Comm. uh, Mr. Mayor, uh, Jason, so the symphony is out.

00:34:26,130	They’re not going to do it this year? No, I, Sorry, Jason, the intention is that they’re still included. It’s just that they’re getting more help from this committee so that it’s not on their backs to fully plan because they were also running into the issue with, even if they were able to. Have had the capacity to continue on with the event as is.

00:34:42,800	They were going to have the same firework issue too, so I think that that’s kind of where they originally came into the struggle as well, but they, they’re they’re still fully included, um, with the conversation and the committee, and it’s still our intention as of right now that they. Play a musical part at whatever happens, so.

00:35:05,200	Any other questions for Jason? I just, it’s good to get it out there so people know we got plans because we’d hate to have the Fourth of July not celebrated and also not disrupt what Mandan has going on at the same time. So thank you, Jason. Thank you. All right. Moving to item F.

00:35:25,830	Consider request to receive an update from Burlington Northern Santa Fe and uh Amy or who’s I had Dean. OK. Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners, uh, Amy McBeth with BNSF. It occurred to me while I was sitting here that, uh, when Mike Herzog and I first started talking to the commission about this project.

00:35:49,930	Uh, the only Comm who was around at that time was Commissioner’s anchor, um, so I, I think that’s a good sign because we’ve been here a lot, um, over the years.

00:36:10,370	I don’t know what Comm Zenker thinks about that, but, um, so, uh, tonight is um, continuation of our commitment when the project started and from before it started that we were going to keep the public up to date, um, and I know there’s some questions, particularly given that the impact is going to be felt more on the Bismarck side as the project evolved.

00:36:29,370	So I’m very pleased to have Mike Herzog come back and, um, he’s our, he’s our, um, guru on all things. He bridge at BNSF Railway. So I’ll let him, um, give an update and then we’ll be happy to take questions. Yeah. Mayor, Commissioners, good evening. Thank you for having me here Mike Herzog, Director of bridge construction for the BNSF Railway.

00:36:57,730	10 of my presentation here this evening is to hit a couple of different areas. First, to give you an update of progress on construction of the bridge to date. And then we will get into what to look at in 2025 and throughout the course of those topics, we’ll hit on some of these other, uh.

00:37:18,570	Items that are related to construction and uh present more impact to the public going forward into 2025. 1st slide we have up here represents work completed to date. It’s, uh, a plan view of the new bridge, the shading in blue represents the construction that we’ve completed to date, uh, orientation here up is north and as you’ve seen with traveling in the area, most of

00:37:42,470	the work to date has been over on the Mandan side. So very little impact, I would say has been seen on the Bismarck side And uh Put a a real life picture to it.

00:38:00,730	This is the Pier 7 is in the lower left hand corner of this slide, and that is our first river pier construction. And with this picture really gives a good visual to is what it takes to build these river piers. It’s Not a small bridge construction, I would say this rivals some construction you see on TV in modern Marvels, because this is, this is big bridge construction.

00:38:19,630	If you zoomed in on this picture, you could see that we have multiple Concrete pump trucks at multiple stages, just leapfrogging concrete to get it out to the cofferdam out in the river to get it down inside that cofferdam and start bringing it up out of the river, which is what you see today,

00:38:39,630	that portion of Pier 7 sticking above the water line. And then in the background of this picture, what I’d like to point out is the West Dock wall that comes out of the bank on the

00:38:56,270	comes out and gives us an extended footprint out into the river to facilitate marine access for construction of these river piers. And just a couple of nuggets of trivia when you think about constructing one of these river piers, we’re talking about placing almost 1 mile of piling under one of these river piers, 250,000 pounds of rebar going

00:39:19,630	into it, and 4400 cubic yards of concrete going into it, so. Again, just uh put an exclamation point on it. Big bridge construction, there’s a lot going on here. Like Yes. Mr. Mayor, thanks.

00:39:42,170	Mike, I noticed the pier on the Mandan side there appears to be somewhat underneath the existing bridge, how are you gonna make that work when you do the cutover? So That’s been a topic that was discussed during the 8 years of project development, uh, this is a conscious effort by BNSF to minimize our impact on the public and the environment.

00:40:01,900	The river piers themselves are being constructed to accommodate a second track in the future. That second track is the one that conflicts with the existing bridge. Does that make sense? And the So the track we will in service is will be offset to the north.

00:40:20,570	Oh, so, so the pier that I see underneath the somewhat underneath the old bridge is not going to be used for the new bridge. That’s just going to be in reserve for double track. Are you looking at the picture that’s on the screen right now, the bright white pier, the new one there. OK. Where it extends under the bridge.

00:40:36,630	That is the expansion footprint for a future track should we ever need it. The new track will set on the northern portion of that pier. That make answer your question? OK. So to get to this point, this, this was our first year of working in the river, our first river pier.

00:41:01,100	It adds levels of difficulty, not only constructing the cofferdam, the excavation, all those operations to get to the point where we are today, one item you may recall is in August, we shifted to around the clock operations on constructing this pier. And that was because in late July we recognized We had a lot of work to do.

00:41:21,370	December’s coming fast, and we have to have the cofferdams out of the river before ice flow. That is a requirement of our permit because of the potential to cause problems with ice stamps, so.

00:41:44,630	That was one step we didn’t plan on going into 2024 construction is recognizing that in July and shifting gears to around the clock operations to successfully get that cofferdam out before ice floe. OK, moving on, talking about what we anticipate to get complete here in 2025. Again, in this picture, the blue represents what we expect to have completed by the end of this year.

00:42:08,630	You’ll notice on the Mandan side, it’s starting to look a lot more like a bridge. We got uh. Through Pier 7 complete. We have spans up in the air. We’re working to place the deck on it.

00:42:25,900	And The real focus, the real effort, the, the blood, sweat, and tears is gonna go into constructing Piers 5 and 6, the two other river piers we have that are on the Bismarck side. That’s the demand side. That, yes, thank you for asking that question to clarify the. The left side of this picture is the Madan side. Up is north.

00:42:54,230	So During the course of this year, Piers 5 and 6 will be the focus of our effort. To answer one of the questions that’s been asked of us as far as uh Passageway for river traffic. We will have a dedicated route for river traffic. Going through the, the construction site area. It will resemble this.

00:43:18,300	Uh, on the left of the orange area is that new Pier 7 that if you’ve been out there, you’ve seen it sticking above the water. And to the right of it is the new Pier 6 that will be working on here in 25. So there’ll be a cofferdam, barges staged upstream downstream to, to work on that throughout the year.

00:43:42,930	And then upstream, downstream, we’ll have navigation buoys to help direct marine traffic to where we want them to travel as they traverse through the river or traverse through the construction site. OK. Continuing on, uh. Access for construction via BNSF right away on the east side, the on the slide you see right side you see River Road.

00:44:13,830	Immediately to the west of River Road is the show’s the center line of New Pier 4. Traversing over probably another 30 ft is the trail and then immediately off the trail, the terrain slopes down to the towards the river.

00:44:40,000	This picture shows the wavy lines is uh East Dockwa, similar to what we had on the West side. It’s to help facilitate access to construct new Pier 5 that you see there on the left side of the screen. New Pier 5. Pretty much a mirror image of what it took to build Pier 7 as far as the, the quantity of rebar, quantity of piling, concrete. And then what’s not shown on this slide.

00:45:02,470	would be another 200 ft to the west is New Pier 6, so. The footprint on the east side on the BNSF rightway between River Road and our dock wall.

00:45:28,230	That’s really being utilized to facilitate access to construct pier 4 and to facilitate construction of Pier 5 and 6 leapfrogging materials out there. To get it constructed. Comm Risch. Mayor Mike, Pier 4, how far away from River Road will Pier 4B. Looks pretty close here. It is fairly close, I would say it’s a little bit further than what you see existing. I don’t know if I’d say further.

00:45:51,370	Probably similar to what we see of existing Pier 6. On the right side of River Road or the east side of River Road. And I guess what you don’t see in this picture, I have it up here, but the construct Pier 4, the foundation of it is similar to the river Piers, a little bit smaller. It is bigger on the bottom. You have, uh.

00:46:13,030	I believe it’s a 20 by 25 ft square. So you’re talking about executing. Excuse me, excavating down to the elevation to drive pile. Place concrete, so it’s not just an isolated area of Constructing a small pier. This is also a pier that takes a decent footprint to be able to construct it.

00:46:44,900	And this last picture here just shows a couple of pictures of recent activities. There on the BNSF right away between River Road. And the, the east shoreline of the river, uh. a couple of items to hit on, uh. From the public comment section with regards to trail restoration, BNSS fully committed.

00:47:09,500	We have We are going to restore the trail to As is or better condition when we are done. So that, that’s not a question for us. We understand that’s an obligation that we fully intend to live up to it.

00:47:30,370	In addition to, as we approach the end of the project, we have intentions of working with, I believe it’s the Park District, whoever the owner of the trail is to get this papered up right for crossing the BNSF right away, soi’s are dotted and T’s are crossed and uh. We have the appropriate agreements in place. Comm Risch, we, we don’t have an easement now.

00:47:50,570	It’s, we’ve been there, we’ve got rights to go across and now. Now you’ve cut down all our trees. Um, what are your plans to all these mature trees, what are your plans to restore our trees.

00:48:09,830	Well, along the sides of the new bridge, I would say we’re not going to plant trees because we do utilize cameras on both ends of the bridge for security reasons to monitor traffic on the river. You just cut them all down, that’s it, huh? Not in that location where it obscures our ability to utilize our cameras for the sake of security of the bridge. Mr. Clery. Uh, Mike, thanks for all the information. Um, can you give us maybe a.

00:48:35,470	More specific update on the trail that is currently blocked off understanding for safety purposes, but that’s primarily what I’m getting contacted about right now from our constituents. Obviously, there were some of them here today. Mr. Frase even said that he knows other people are talking about it. He’s not wrong.

00:48:57,370	I’m, I’m, I’m hearing from them, um, it’s a big concern, I think in the summer that It, I understand why it’s blocked off for safety, but I also understand that the people that are using it constantly are going to try to use it and go around and if that leads them to River Road, we have a whole other problem with safety, so,

00:49:13,870	uh, I just, can you give us like a timeline on how long that’s closed, understanding that you’re operating close to it right now, but. Any, any kind of updates specifically on the trail use. Thank you for that reminder. I didn’t, I had intended to talk about that and slipped out there.

00:49:31,470	So when I was here last year, we did talk about concepts, looking at rerouting trail traffic into the Southbound lanes and using traffic signals to restrict vehicular traffic to one lane on the northbound lanes. And As we evaluated that further, BNSF made the conscious decision that, well, let me back up.

00:49:55,500	We talked about that as a concept. We also talked about what opportunities we may have to minimize the duration of closure because if you all remember, last year we were talking about needing to close the trail in.

00:50:15,230	Septemberish of last year, working with our contractor, we were able to put that off until this March, and With regards to the, the concept we talked about for traffic control. We did evaluate that. Thinking about the operations that would be taking place, the ingress and egress of construction traffic and Made the decision that the commingling of pedestrian traffic and construction traffic just was not going to

00:50:40,800	be a good idea. And for the sake of safety. We needed to close the trail. Now with regards to the duration, uh, we closed it here. I want to say sometime in March. And While we have committed to looking at the trail in the wintertime.

00:51:00,370	I get it, it’s a winner. It’s not popular time to walk, but Cross country skiing, I don’t know. There, there’s some use, I would say. We evaluate it to see if we can open it up during the wintertime.

00:51:19,800	During construction, we do intend to be keeping it closed during the construction time of the year through mid 27. My Well, you appeared before us last August and my remembrance was that if you’re going to keep the river road open as much as possible and the trail open and of course the river access for boaters to go through there.

00:51:39,730	And I, I just, for the life of me can’t understand how you can keep the river open. You can keep the, uh, river road open and this little narrow trail, you can’t keep open. It just doesn’t make sense to me, um. And, and we, we fully understand.

00:51:58,930	I mean, there’s nobody on this commission doesn’t understand that during construction, there’ll be times where you’re gonna have to close everything down and move some equipment across and back and forth, but um it’s an idea and I read in this paper, this 3 weeks ago in a Bismarck Tribune where Amy McBeth said the trail will be closed for the duration of the project. That wasn’t the message we got in, in August.

00:52:17,500	In August, as I just said, we committed to looking at the concept using traffic control, pushing pedestrians out into the road using signage and barrier to route them that way, which you would still have a conflict with construction traffic coming in and out of there.

00:52:35,170	The access or in and out of our Access area So you have that conflict there. And at the same time we talked about evaluating what we could do to minimize that duration. As I said, we Did not close it down last fall. We were able to push that to this spring. Well, I hope not.

00:52:50,570	You didn’t do anything last fall. You close this thing down on March 1st and in the 1st 12 days, he didn’t do anything. Then you went over there and cut down all the trees.

00:53:02,900	So you got to cut it closed down for at least 10 days, one of which was a weekend at 60 degree weather. That trail was closed and nothing was happening. And I will say That’s not terribly uncommon when you’re managing resources, trying to get a project going, yes, there are going to be days you don’t see work taking place out there, just like on a highway DOT project.

00:53:26,200	Any construction project, you have, you have times when resources aren’t aligned, your efforts are focused elsewhere. If I could get the picture back up on the screen. So you, we talk about the need for that area. That is a very small footprint on the east side between the river road. And where the terrain sloped off to the river.

00:53:46,870	You could see in this picture, how much of that area we’re using on the West side just to construct one river pier. We’re talking about constructing two river piers and it’s gonna take much more. This one we had to shift gears and go to around the clock work in August just to be out of the water by December.

00:54:06,230	This year, I’ll go ahead and tell you now, we’re looking at having to go to round the clock operations probably right out of the gate to ensure we don’t put ourselves in a paint ourselves in a corner. And not able to get those cofferdams out. So here, early April.

00:54:23,630	We’re gonna start going around the clock with constructing Piers 5 and 6, and part of it will involve staging of materials, staging of equipment. If you look at the picture and see all the, the resources on land. And with a very small footprint we have over there, which is a small fraction of what we have here.

00:54:46,000	So that is very valuable real estate with regards to construction and I will acknowledge freely. It’s a really cool trail. When I’m in town, I go out there running. I really enjoy it. We are closing a 400 ft stretch of this. For the sake of safety. And I would tell anybody that I would say you need to do.

00:55:07,400	The rest of the trail is still open. There is a 400 ft stretch. Need to change plans. For the time that the trails closed. Mr. Mayor, if I may follow up.

00:55:27,370	One of my concerns is safety as well, and I’ve already got a report of somebody going around the barrier and walking down the river road and crossing back over again. And that’s what I’m afraid it’s going to take place.

00:55:45,130	Uh, what I think the solution is for you to build something over the top of the trail to protect people that are 3 ft wide, 4 ft wide, right next to the barriers and put a protective covering over it when, when construction is taking place. Ames Construction. One of the finest construction, biggest construction companies in the world. They can figure that out. All you got to do is decree it. If we can go back to this picture again, please. I agree. Ames is a big contractor. They’re used to big bridge construction.

00:56:04,100	I would point at this you, this picture, you have. Deliveries, you have equipment, you have workers coming in and out. You’re talking about putting an awning up, probably similar to what you would see for vertical construction around buildings. We’re not talking vertical construction. We’re talking about excavating down to construct ier 4.

00:56:24,170	We’re talking about an access route to come off River Road to facilitate marine access transferring from land to barge to be able to construct those two.

00:56:46,130	So you have an intersection of the trail and this construction traffic and that’s not a good recipe right there as far as trying to control pedestrian traffic when you are trying to come and go. Well, you’re going to allow it on traffic on the highway, on, on River Road. No, because we’re not staging on River Road. We are turning off River Road onto our property where we will be storing equipment, materials, and staging them.

00:57:10,100	It’s a public road. And We’re, as I said, we’re coming off River Road, utilizing that footprint within our ride away, that 400 ft stretch. To facilitate construction.

00:57:33,170	So are your tensions now to keep it closed from now till when? till the completion of the project or possibly open it in the wintertime is all. Is that, is that what I hear? I said to Comm Cleary, our intentions are if we can open it up during the wintertime, we will.

00:57:52,830	Otherwise, during the construction time of the year, we will intend to keep it closed through completion of the project, which right now is slated for mid 2027. Wow. Mr. Curry Mayor Comm Mike, um, Just Uh, I understand why the decision was made, um, but when you’re making this conscious decision to close instead of move that trail like you were talking about, um, were, was city engineering, with Parks and Rec, were they engaged in that

00:58:17,830	conversation, or was this just a BNSF decision because it was the best option. For the project. I guess I just wanna know if that conversation happened. Obviously we have traffic engineers that could have participated in does it make sense to move the pedestrians. Into next to River Road, Parks and Rec. It facilitates that area.

00:58:43,000	So I’m just curious if that conversation happened or if it was just a railroad decision. It was not just a railroad decision. Yes, we did work with Bismarck Engineering team and Parks and Rec to talk through what we’re looking at, discuss concepts and ultimately come with the railroad was thinking

00:59:01,630	about doing. You’re welcome. Comm Connelly. I grew up in a railroad community and In the town, it was the railroad that was what the railroad does. And I kind of feels what it is here, is last year we were told something.

00:59:28,770	Now it’s changed and It would have been better off that you didn’t say it last fall. It just doesn’t pass. Well, um, and that’s fine. I, I get the safety just like everybody says, but it had just been better off to say it’s going to be done for 2 years, we can’t do it, get the project done and move on.

00:59:46,630	Do you want to take him. First, Comm Mayor, um, I understand that some people have that legacy view of the railroad, but we’ve worked really hard to be transparent and to share communication. So, um, I think if you go back and look at some of the statements that we’ve made, the project website that we’ve promoted.

01:00:11,100	We’ve been talking for quite some time, um, since last fall that the trail would have to be closed for a period of time. Um, if the railroad does what the railroad does, we would close down the trail and we would not let the trail reopen.

01:00:29,870	Um, that section of trail is on railroad property and we’re committed to restoring that trail. There are plaques there that will work with the Park District to, um, put back in place because people have, you know, trees or things that they had commemorated by a plaque. We’ll work with them. There’s an irrigation system.

01:00:46,900	There’s a lot of, a lot of things that we’ve been working with. To accommodate on our property. Um, unfortunately, For a period of time, a section of that trail will be closed for safety. Um, we have every intention of making sure that there’s an agreement in place moving forward. So we know where the irrigation system is.

01:01:10,030	So, um, there’s a clear guidelines about repairing the trail, things like that. We’re committed to working with the community on that, um, and worked really hard to try to minimize the overall impact. I get it.

01:01:28,100	That’s not the answer that anybody wants, and it has to be closed at all, but from a safety perspective, the last thing that we want is somebody commingling, um, in the midst of very heavy construction as we saw some of those from those photos. Comm Risch, I just want to make one comment, um. We’ve had that trail there for many years and under North Dakota State law, there’s something called a prescriptive easement. We have a right to that.

01:01:47,630	I don’t even believe BNSF owns the land, but certainly the state owns the riverbeded. In historical documents say that the state owns actually to the historical high watermark. So I don’t even agree with you that you own the land where the trail is today.

01:02:05,000	And even if you did, all we have to do is go to court and get a prescriptive easement because we’ve been on it for more than 20 years. You’re not going to close that trail permanently, and that kind of threat doesn’t wash. Comm Risch and Mayor and other commissioners. It was not, let me be very, very clear.

01:02:23,470	There was no threat made to close the trail in the future. I was referring to the comment that the railroad does what the railroad does. So be very, very clear. There was no threat from BNSF Rway to close the trail moving forward. You cannot divest the railroad from our corridor.

01:02:43,270	So the claims that that we somehow you could take the property. It’s just not it’s not. security either. So we can talk about that offline if you want, but the STB is ruled that you cannot adversely possess or divest of divest us of our railroad corridor.

01:03:02,470	Regardless of that, What we want to do is make sure that the community has access to the trail for the long term and that it’s put back to, to, you know, where it was before or in better condition. So we’re absolutely committed to doing that. I mentioned a prescriptive easement. That means access. That means the ability to go across. That’s what that’s about.

01:03:19,530	Now take it about, taking any land. I’m not a real estate lawyer, so I, I, I can’t get into the back and forth with that.

01:03:34,100	I just wanted to be clear that it is part of our railroad corridor, and we understand that it’s a very popular trail and we want to make sure that it’s there for the rest of the community to use. The other, um, if I could, Mayor, um, just to reiterate one of the other things to give people a heads up about that Mike mentioned is the around the clockwork and this falls into the category of things that we’ve tried to, um,

01:03:58,630	forewarn or, uh, get out there that that will happen and we’ll continue to advise us that’s about to start, but that round the clock work, um, Unfortunately, if, if we didn’t have to do it, we, we wouldn’t.

01:04:17,730	We did it on, uh, last fall, as Mike mentioned, but we’ll do our part to try to continue to raise awareness about when that’s about to start, likely early April, um, so that the public is aware. The other part that we work with our contractor on is to try to do, um, as much of the quiet work as, if you will, overnight and that overnight shift to the extent that they can do that.

01:04:34,200	There certainly will be because of sequencing some pile driving and things like that, but Um, we do work, uh, hard with them to try to accommodate that as much as possible. Are there other questions? there. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right. Next item G is a legislative report. Jason.

01:05:17,500	Mayor Commissioners, uh, I’ll try and keep this brief and maybe just stick to some of the bigger bills that we’ve been Discussing and tracking along the way. Uh, first one right on the top of your list, uh, House Bill 1020. Again, this is the bill that has the uh budget for water resources district.

01:05:36,170	This is also the bill that has noted some funding for the South Bismarck flood control project. Uh, we’re heading into committee work, uh, Senate appropriations, Education, Environment division committee work.

01:05:58,270	I just checked in with Gabe a little before and uh communications are still Going very well with our local state leaders, and we’ve switched conversations to the Senate side, obviously since this has jumped over from the House to the Senate, Gabe sent a series of emails to local senators encouraging their support on this particular bill and offering to answer any questions or provide any additional information that they were looking for.

01:06:16,770	Uh, so we’re continuing to keep an eye on House Bill 1020. On page 2, the, the big one that’s uh we’ve spent a fair bit of time talking about House Bill 1176, um, since the last time, uh, this group met, um, this particular bill has seen a little bit of traction, um, full committee hearing on Saint Patrick’s Day, March 17th.

01:06:39,200	Uh, the results of that were a, uh, to refer to Senate Appropriations Committee. We Yesterday there was committee work scheduled. Uh, however, it was canceled.

01:06:57,500	It was my understanding that the Chair of the particular committee was out sick that day, so no immediate action on 1176, but we will continue to keep an eye on this one every day as the work goes forward. Um, moving through House Bill 1389. We talked about this one last time. This is the bill that would have addressed the street utility fee, as you may remember.

01:07:18,400	Last session, the street utility fee, uh, got a little quag mired with some language that uh Didn’t work for parks and schools to pay for special assessments or to um Instead of paying special assessments, pay to the street utility fee.

01:07:37,370	It was our hope that uh there was a slight amendment uh recommended for 1389, uh, when it went through the House committee. It had a number of amendments added to it by one of the committee members as it crossed over to Senate Finance, um, I ended up attending the hearing, not in, not intention of testifying, but did offer a bunch of information at the end, um, to help clarify some things as a

01:07:57,400	result of That as a result of the amendments that were added in the House, the recommendation came back this week, 5 to 1, do not pass. Um, as amended, uh, the bill actually would have not necessarily worked for the city of Bismarck as well.

01:08:15,300	There were a number of amendments that would have caused this process to enable a protest period by citizens. It would have put a cap on the uh commercial collection over residential at 2 times over residential and it just had some really unworkable things and in, in the end, it was our recommendation as well as the North Dakota League of

01:08:35,800	Cities. To essentially kill a bill because it just had too many, too many restrictive things on it in its current format. Um, so despite all of our efforts there, we might have to take a pause and come back one more time and, and try it where it is. I should mention.

01:08:52,830	because of legislation, 2 sessions ago, we are, we as a city or any municipality could currently enact a street utility fee. However, the problem would be that schools and parks do not have a means to pay for that particular mechanism.

01:09:09,730	That’s all the amendment was meant to do this year was to adjust so schools and parks could pay through the street utility fee, um, as I mentioned, there were a number of other things added on in the House committee that just made the bill unworkable. Uh, next one moving forward, House Bill 1474.

01:09:28,370	This was a significant reform to the property tax system by replacing the traditional Advilorum property tax with the new square footage. Scenario that was defeated by the Senate 40, I’m sorry, 5 to 42 nays, so that one is no longer in contention, uh, for one of the property tax reform and relief bills, House Bill 1575.

01:09:51,300	would be the next one that is, uh, significant changes to the, uh, tax and fund management systems creates a legacy earnings, um, would allow for a full exemption from 40,000 to 50,000. Uh that was introduced and passed the House.

01:10:10,370	It was introduced first reading, uh, it’s Uh, as of March 11th, there was a committee hearing and it is waiting for more committee work. That’s the only other contender for the uh property tax reform and reduction bills. Um, and then I think on the last page, the very back page, the only other one that I had noted in my notes that to call out is Senate Bill 2307.

01:10:31,470	This is the one we had talked about 2 commission meetings ago, I believe this was the bill that it addresses obscenity in libraries, um. attended this hearing was not able to testify the the amount of testimony, the number of attendees in the room, uh, simply needed to be limited. The Chair of the committee allowed for equal times for both the supporting and the oppositional testimony.

01:10:56,000	And despite all of the time allowed, there was still not enough time for everyone to share their thoughts, uh, just a little note on this one, the, if I remember right, the amount of testimony submitted on this bill, uh, the oppositional testimony outweighed supportive testimony 6 to 1.

01:11:15,270	However, the committee did recommend a Du pass recommendation on a 12 to 1 recommendation, and as I looked this morning, um, it was referred to the House Appropriations Committee because there was a for a fiscal note, uh, through the North Dakota University system because this could cause a change to how the Odin system operates and Odin is the, uh,

01:11:37,100	the cataloging system and research system through the North Dakota University system. So that particular bill despite the overwhelming opposition did see the light of day and has been referred to the House Appropriations Committee.

01:11:55,730	Um, if you have any other questions on bills in your worksheets, I’d be happy to try and address those if you have any other urgent. general legislative topics. Happy to try and answer them. Mr. Mayor Jason, I was reading my trusted Bismarck Tribune this morning, and there’s a, um, sentencing bill, um, that the head of corrections is very much opposed to him.

01:12:16,570	Kobe Brown is the guy’s name, and he gave a presentation at the League of Cities meetings last week that I sat in on it, he gave great detail on, you know, 97% of the people you throw into jail are going to eventually get out. So we have to do things that when they do get out, they become productive citizens as much as possible.

01:12:32,200	But anyway, it’s a contentious Bill, uh, the corrections are very much opposed to the bill. And he makes the point that if in fact passes, we’re going to have dramatic increase in cost as far as incarcerating people.

01:12:50,230	So, um, I understand that our fees for our inmates at our joint a lot, um, jail is going from $75 a day to $100 a day starting next year. That’s already a big increase. And there, there’s the potential for more costs to the city if this thing passes.

01:13:04,370	It’s the League of Cities even looked at it or, or I, I should have talked to you beforehand, but I didn’t get a chance to, but Uh, Mayor and Comm, Comm Risch, uh, do you have the bill number on that one specifically? Excuse me, uh, Senate Bill 2128. It’s the front page of the Tribune today. It’s a very good article and it’s um, explains the cost, potential costs associated with it. And what Mr.

01:13:25,470	Brown says it will be harmful effect on trying to get people. Um, better suited to entering the community once they’re released from their incarceration. So I don’t.

01:13:45,830	Mayor and Comm, Comm Risch to answer your question, uh, I’ll, I’ll admit a lot of the law enforcement bills I have stayed away from primarily because there are so many other agencies that are representing law enforcement, um, but if you’d like to know where the league’s position on that is, I could certainly check and get back to you. OK. Other comments, Comm Cleary one quick one, Jason, um. But the one that’s on here for House Bill 1382, um, just.

01:14:08,170	A note on that because Steve and I have talked about it, um. It’s the one that will affect the transportation funding that we’re getting from the state, um.

01:14:27,030	It’s a little confusing because it In the wording it lists that like cities can use the funding for road infrastructure, but townships can use it for maintenance, and so I think If If we’re able, I know Steve has already tried to reach them to get some clarification on. How that’s gonna spell out for us. Um, because that’ll change how it gets used obviously when we’re budgeting so. Duly noted Any other comments? OK. Thank you. OK. Uh Other business Mr.

01:15:03,200	Mayor, if I may jump in line here. I apologize. Usually other businesses reserved for the commissioners, but I would like to maybe just talk a little bit about each of you received a Request for availability on April 29th.

01:15:21,300	OK, and you all confirmed we’ve got the date locked in, we’re going to be here 5:15, um. What is significant about that day, that is one day beyond our normal 2nd commission meeting in April. This group will meet April 8th and April 22nd in this room 5:15 as always.

01:15:38,570	What you will hear at the meeting on the 22nd will be some pretty dynamic information, and it’s going to be coming from the consultant that was hired to do the operations and management study for the Bismarck Event Center. That’s Jones Lang and LaSalle, or JLL.

01:15:55,000	You’ll also be getting a presentation from Jeff Huel and his team on the capital improvements projects that have been, that he has been evaluating and building a CIP list for us over the next 3 to 5 to maybe 8 years. Those two reports are going to have a lot of information in them, and what I don’t expect this commission to do is to make a snap decision that evening.

01:16:10,000	And so the reason we asked for your availability the week later is to have a workshop, a working session where all 5 of you are at this table and discussing the reports that you heard the week prior, digging into all the details so we don’t, I don’t want it compressed into a regular meeting with all the

01:16:25,500	other topics that we’ll have. I want to give you the time necessary to really get into all of this stuff because I believe there are some very important decisions that need to be made from these reports and to have a working discussion with all of you at the table with all that

01:16:39,770	information in hand, I think will help direct staff a little better. It’ll help you all understand what you each took away from those reports, and I think it will demonstrate our continued commitment to the advancement of the Bismarck Event Center as we continue to try and make it a better

01:16:53,870	department for the city of Bismarck. So if I just wanted to offer that in case there was any confusion. I know local media has had some questions about it as well. There’s a lot of attention on the event center and where we go from here.

01:17:08,300	And I just wanted to bring that up for a little bit of discussion. I hope that’s OK. No, and it was my request that we actually consider having the extra meeting because it’s, I think there’s a lot of topics. And We just need to have time, you know, it would be difficult to maybe get it in, you know, normal meeting. Comm Connelly, you had a comment.

01:17:25,900	Um, well, like, uh. Enlightened to it last meeting, um, it’s official, uh, May 8th, we will be partnering with the Human Relations Committee on a community conversation.

01:17:43,400	I’d mentioned last time that they’ve always been held in the library in the past, but their book that night and this room is not booked that night, so that will be occurring here on May 8th, and that’s to discuss, um, The dynamics of what we’re benefit Bismarck the most as by way of public transportation. So Comm Risch, Mr.

01:18:05,370	Mayor, I just want to announce that I noticed on the uh city website, we’ve got a new survey about chickens, like what came first, the chicken or the egg or whatever the questions are. So if anybody wants to fill that out, people out there in TV land, you might want to go to the website and try the survey out.

01:18:23,400	Is there anything else? Richard Connolly, uh, well, since Comm Risch mentioned a survey. I know the MPO has some surveys out as well and. Um, that’s Metropolitan Planning Organization, mostly road projects, um, if people are so inclined. OK, the only other thing I will mention is it’s uh mayor’s per breakfast on May 20th.

01:18:44,500	Please come out and support the chaplaincy program who will provide a great amount of support to our law enforcement and fire department personnel and all the first responders. Uh, this is the way they were able to raise money for that, so. Thank you all and have a good night. We’re