City current Produced by Dakota Media Access. In depth discussion with Bismarck and Man and city officials. Watch on Government Access Channel 602 HD or tune in to Radio Access 102.5 FM. Always local, always current. Welcome to City Current, the Bismarck Edition. Following up following up on last night's Bismarck City Commission meeting. I'm Tom Gerhart from Dakota Media Access, joined by Jason Tamani, the Bismarck City administrator. Welcome and good to have you. Thank you for hosting once again. It's always a pleasure to be here. We have a busy, uh, a busy, uh, recap of last night's commission meeting. Some highlights that we're gonna talk about include. At zoning for Misty Waters, a half cent sales tax discussion which the mayor moved to the top of the agenda last night and uh that received quite a bit of discussion, uh, an update on the Bismarck ETA discussion, and we'll talk about Bismarck Event Center operating model and a few other things. So. Uh, but jumping right into that regular agenda last night and that half cent sales tax discussion, this is pretty complicated. I mentioned to you this morning that I listened last night and then I went back and listened. Again today just to try and gain some insight, but essentially what's happening is trying to amend the Home Rule charter to do some different things with that 0.5 cent sales tax in the future. Is that kind of a real simple explanation? It's a pretty broad stroke. Um, if I can help maybe fill in a little details, home rule charter, there's some municipal jargon that we use. And so what is a home rule charter, it is essentially. The city's laws, it's the city's constitution. It is in many ways similar to the North Dakota Century Code, which is laws for all of North Dakota, but cities that have adopted a home rule charter can be, uh, slightly different in, uh, from state law. And so it is, uh, essentially it is the guiding document for municipal government here in Bismarck. A Home Rule charter amendment can be done a number of ways, and in this particular situation, we are. Talking about 5 citizens that have formed around a singular topic, uh, Commissioner Mike Connolly has been advising them on some of the, the process that goes along with developing a petition that would potentially become something that the citizens of Bismarck would vote on. That is essentially the process to modify the city's home rule charter. It would create a new law, and it's, it's not something uh that is foreign to us. We have amended the Home rule charter on occasion in the past, uh, in particular, with this topic with a 0.5 cent sales tax. Voters were asked in 2018 if they would like to amend the Home Rule charter to cause a half cent sales tax to be collected to help pay for major roadway improvements, and there was a list of projects that was identified at that time. There was a 10 year sunset on the sales tax, meaning if voters approved it in 2018, the city would start collecting an additional 50 cents sales tax in 2019. And it would automatically stop 10 years later unless it were resurrected, renewed, re-voted on, uh, in that 10 year time span. And so we're in the middle of that half cent sales tax collection. Gabe Shell, our city engineer, ran through a number of the projects that have been done through that half-cent sales tax, and today the project that we, the city, are working on using those collections is East Century Avenue. We've talked about that on this program many times. Extending it, widening that roadway, adding sidewalks, curb and gutter, traffic signals, street lighting, those are very common things with these large roadway projects. Other projects that have been done using the half cent sales tax collection include South Washington Street last year with the Burley Avenue roundabout area. Um, Forty-Third Avenue and Ash Cooley, all of those extensions east and west have been paid for using the half and sales tax. So I believe it was Commissioner Zener last night that remarked that this program has worked very well, and I think there's some very measurable results using, uh, the, the collections that are here today. What Gabe also shared in his presentation last night was the. Fairly lengthy process that city staff and elected leaders went through beginning in 2016 to get to that recommendation, to get to the point at 2018 when a number of stakeholders in the community, business leaders, uh, developers, realtors, uh. A number of professionals that have uh an awareness of economic development opportunities. They all coalesced around an idea. To identify a project list, list the roads that should be improved using the half cent sales tax, come up with the recommendation to have a sunset. And really developed a plan that was done over a almost a two-year period with staff support, commission direction, and a tremendous amount of citizen engagement. That's what led us to the successful vote in 2018. Uh, Commissioner Connelly and the group that he is advising are in many ways, it appears to be trying to replicate that process. They've proposed some potential ballot language that would initiate a 0.5 cent sales tax. Um, our city attorney has reviewed that. That is part of the role of the city attorney, but it is not for her to advise on the content. It is only for her to advise on the form. In other words, does it meet the size and shape of the regulations that are put forth by Century Code. Uh, there was quite a bit of discussion back and forth from a number of the commissioners. I believe this was the first time any of the other commissioners at the table had been made aware of this, and, um, based on the information that was shared at the table, the, the draft petition, there's some work that has gone into this by the group of citizens and Commissioner Connelly to get to this point, um. I think the, some of the comments from the commissioners expressed some concerns that staff had not been engaged in this process and that, uh, this group, although, you know, potentially working with the best intentions. Maybe could benefit from some of the input and feedback from staff, because many of us were here in 2016 when we did this process last time. We have all of those records, we have all of the, the meeting minutes, the iterations, the ideas that had been gone through at that time, the good ones and the bad ones. And, um, ultimately, where we, where the commission landed was a unanimous vote, 5 to 0, a motion made by Commissioner Cleary, seconded by Commissioner Zenker to include city staff, meaning our city engineer and, and some of his team, if necessary, city administration, myself, and legal, uh, to some degree as needed. And work, uh, including Commissioner Zenker. Uh, Commissioner Zener holds a portfolio for engineering department, which is really the group that has been done, uh, the lion's share of the work managing these projects going forward. And so, uh, we as staff, we need that direction from the commission. We cannot simply just work on a project for one commissioner because they have an interest in it or not. I mean, sure they guide some of the work that we do, but ultimately, For a project of this size and scale, for the amount of time that will be likely invested into this from the staff resource perspective, we want to make sure that the full commission is supportive of this idea that we have the support and the direction that we need to invest the time into this effort. And so ultimately the the goal or the motion was to engage the petition committee in dialogue and explore potential options on how to move this forward. Um, I think I, I heard the remarks of both Commissioner Connelly and then the gentleman, um, Carl Jung, whose name is one of the five on the petition, um, seemed pretty intentional about moving forward one way or the other, regardless, and, um, as Commissioner Connelly noted, they have that right, uh, that is the the democracy that we live within. I'm not complaining about that whatsoever, but At the same time, when staff can have information to help potentially guide the process or identify exactly what it is that would be most helpful from this effort, I think in the end we would have a much better result. And so as you said, the motion passed unanimously to have administration, engineering, legal help in that process, and I shouldn't. Ask you, and I, I know you're not gonna speak for Commissioner Connelly or the group, but, uh, and, and from listening last night and watching, it sounded like a lot of the language and although it's on paper, and I think it was included for the commission to see last night. They Commissioner Connelly, I think remarked that it's still a work in progress, so I, I guess it left me wondering how this could be different than what's in place already and again not to ask you to speak for that group, but this would the current, uh, goes to 2029, right? And then so this would be they would be trying to gather signatures for an initiated measure to amend. What's in place already for after 2029 or interrupting the current I I believe it's my understanding the intent would be to pick up after the current half cent sales tax expires in 2029, yes. And as to what that would mean, that's still a work in progress. It sounded like last night. Yes, so, um, for those that are interested, for those that, uh, read the minutes, navigate their way to the agenda center on the website, uh, because this was shared publicly with the commission last night, it will be attached to the minutes. So please keep in mind, uh, this is a draft. It has not been approved. It is not suitable for circulation or signature gathering at this time. That is again the role of our city attorney is to evaluate the the form and not the content but the form. At this point, the city attorney has not signed off on their draft, and so there will need to do some more um reworking of the language and, and the appearance of things, um, but at that point, if the, the city attorney has no objections to the form. And I guess it's their time to go out and petition 1500 I believe there's a threshold and then he said, you know, of course you'd want more because there's always yes and so Century code sets the minimum number of signatures and I believe it's 10% of the last mayoral election. So for all the people that voted for mayor, uh, in 2024. It would be 10%, I'm sorry, 2022, 2022, uh, it'd be 10% of that total vote gathered and so uh 15,000 people, 1500 signatures. Our office, city administration is the department that, um, verifies all the signatures, the addresses, legibility. Is it complete? Are there any duplicates, those types of things. So yes, very many times there are signatures that are struck through because they. They might have a Bismarck address, but it's Bismarck Rural, meaning it's outside city limits. If you're not in city limits, this petition is not for you to sign. Well, I'm glad, wanted to spend some time here because I think it is. Well, in some ways is straightforward, it's also very complicated and complex and for people maybe listening in for a first time or who needed a refresher, I think it was good to kind of walk through some of the education piece, so I appreciate the background and, uh, we'll see, uh, we'll continue to follow this as it moves forward. Following the regular agenda along, uh, the Dakota West Arts Council, Jason Thomes presented his annual report. I believe he indicated it was his first year, uh, as he's getting close to ending his first year as. Executive director and so a number of things happening in the arts community and I think uh one thing that was clear he took, he's taken uh some initiative to become kind of a home of an arts home to make Dakota West Arts Council an arts home and through various ways, uh, trying to. Kind of consolidate all the activities and and be a place people can come to find out what's happening. And they did a nice job building a brochure of the summer arts calendar, and so there's a variety of activities. Some of them kick off today with events at Custer Park downtown. And you can also look on their website for all of those activities as well. I believe it's Dakota Westarts council.org. And uh for the graphic on the screen, for those that can't see it. Every Wednesday, uh, from noon to 1 at Custer Park, which is downtown, uh, flanked by Washington Street on the east, Broadway on the south, right across from the Elks Pool. There's a small stage there. It's a free event, and it's the kids' summer stage activities with Kittyo Music. So if you've got little ones, this is your opportunity to get out, have some fun, be in the sun, uh, move, dance, sing, whatever it is. And if, if you don't have little ones, wander over to the park anyway because it's a great place to take a little break. It's Bismarck's oldest park. Kind of a neat little space and you indicated, uh, mentioned the brochure. I think you, you have one and then we have a graphic too, but a lot of good information included on this Dakota West Arts Council's summer arts calendar, which, uh, runs through the summer period, and I think Jason indicated last night this is a project they'd like to continue to keep people up to date as we continue through the seasons and, and again, not everyone can see this, but. This brochure has a number of dates and, and talks about a number of events taking place throughout the June through August of this summer. And it's not just gallery art, it's performing arts, whether it be dance or theater or different activities. I would encourage people to go check it out for sure. There's always something to do in Bismarck. I think one of the complaints I've heard over the years is there's so much going on, but it, I can't find it. I don't know how to, there's not just one central place, so I think Dakota West Arts Council has stepped up to at least fill the gap for identifying what is going on in the arts world in Bismarck, North Dakota. Continuing on the regular agenda last night, kind of, uh, jumping on to the next topic, the Bismarck Mandan Chamber EDC presented and uh they certainly provided a lot of statistics about things that are happening in the community and uh starting with workforce development. Yes. It, it very much is, and the chamber has been doing a great job for us. They are one of our two economic development consultants, and so we rely on them to promote Bismarck as a wonderful place to start a business, you know, live, work, play, all of those things. Uh, they've done some very intentional work on their website to drive people towards what are the opportunities in Bismarck and, and is, is it more than just a place to work? And for those of us that are here and call Bismarck home, it's absolutely more than a place to work. And I think that's part of what the chamber can help people realize is what are the other things that myself as a new resident or my family, what would they be doing? What, what sort of activities can they be involved in? I think the chamber does a really nice job with that. The other thing that uh Brenda Nagle mentioned last night was something we've talked about here and it's the mayor and uh Janelle Schmitz's, uh, welcome initiative, making Bismarck more friendly, more open, more welcoming. The chamber has been doing a number of events to help promote that. We're sharing a lot of their social media activity on that on that topic as well. And I just will I think we will continue to see more effort in that uh particular area. Uh, because it is such an important task and it's such an important feature for the mayor and, uh, Ms. Schmitz on this one and really interesting statistic that they did in a survey. 94% of people they surveyed said they felt that they learned more about Bismarck and became more connected to Bismarck through events like, uh, the chamber. I think they started a patio lunch series as well, so. Uh, along with the Welcome initiative and a number of other things and a lot of web traffic created around that that Brenda indicated last night too, so along with Dakota West Arts Council trying to become sort of an epicenter for the arts, uh, the Bismarck Mandan Chamber EDC is also garnering a lot of traffic, uh. Helping people find things to do and connecting connecting us to to others, uh, they also will be stopping by here later this month with their educator experience uh through their workforce programs, and she mentioned a podcast, the rewind that we will be, uh, helping produce here uh ultimately, so, uh, just a couple of other things in the community to help, uh, connect folks here with things that are happening. Uh, other things on the agenda, and it just, it's, uh, it's kind of like a smorgasbord, a little bit of everything. Uh, we jump back to Misty Waters where last night, uh. More discussion and and like a vote, a split vote, but um a motion passed to uh. I guess in some sense is put an end to something that's been going on for an awfully long time. Do you want to fill us in on the details because again it can be a little complicated to sort out what exactly has been happening. Yes, this, this has been a very challenging topic. It has been a pretty long discussion, uh, a number of years involving a number of residents, commissioners, staff. Uh, ultimately, as you noted last night, the board did vote on a 3-2 vote to approve the amendment to the zoning district as presented by staff. And so what is that big change? Uh, it really comes down to lines on a map, and, uh, talking about setbacks, we talk about, uh, easements for stormwater. We also talk about, uh, an acronym that is unique to FEMA. It's a Lomar letter of map revision. It's a term that gets into buildable area on property that's adjacent to a body of water. In the end, uh, I think Ben Erith, our community development director, did a really nice job, uh, using, uh, some visuals to help people explain and understand where are these lines in relation to the homes that are already built today, where are these lines in relation to the high water mark in relation to the stormwater easement, and, um. Ultimately, um, this is one of those situations where I don't know that there was a solution that was going to make everyone happy. Yeah. We still had some dissenting comments from residents in the area. We had a couple commissioners that didn't support the motion. I understand all of that, um, and this goes back, you know, many years to a situation where we, frankly, we have a, a home that was built that breached those lines and, and now that home is there, people are living in it. And this resolution. Essentially makes that home compliant within the zoning regulations, and it does offer uh some more clarification for the other lots going forward and for any of the, the lots that haven't been built on the standards have been set moving forward. Also, uh, a couple of topics regarding the event center, continued to discuss last night the operating model, uh, talked about an authority board, and, um, boy, this is another touchy topic that I know has a lot of history to it. Um, and a lot of emotion behind it as well. There is, and, and a lot of staff. We've got close to 25 full-time employees. Many of them have been, uh, invested their careers with the city of Bismarck, and that has been something that the commissioners have been number one, very appreciative and mindful of, but also #2, very intentional about making sure those employees are kept whole in one way or another. And so, Walking through the presentation last night again, we heard from Dan Fenton with JLL, uh, Jones Lang La Salle is the consulting firm that the city hired back in November to help us discern what is the right path forward, and there were options. Do you hire another director who is a city employee, and we basically put a square peg in a square hole and keep moving forward, or do we look at other options? And one of the options was bringing in an outside third party to operate and manage the facility. And that is a common model that we see in other places. Grand Forks, for example, the Aleris Center. It's a city-owned facility, but the employees and the operators are a third party entity that are hired to do that work on behalf of the city of Grand Forks. In Bismarck, we have always been a public model, meaning it's a publicly owned building, it's publicly supported through the city of Bismarck, and all the staff are public employees. Uh, there are occasionally some hourly staff that are brought in for events and things like that, but those, uh, for the most part, the full time, all the full-time staff are city employees, all the part-time staff are city employees. The idea of having a third party. Is is not the only recommendation that came forward. It was also to have an authority model or an authority board, essentially, and that would be a group of individuals that are selected to help guide the operations of the event center, but also to function and act as the fiduciary. And what does that really mean? Well, that authority would help develop the budgets, guide the projects, manage the resources that are there. And do it on a more intentional basis than the city commission is simply able to. The city commission sets policy. They are the ones that make the determinations, then staff goes through and enforces the work and and performs the work. In the case of an authority, they would act in the city's best interests, both in a financial capacity and managing the building as a resource, and we have an authority model today in the city of Bismarck structure. For those of us that work downtown, that rely on a parking structure, we have a Bismarck Parking Authority that has been in operation for decades, and they work very much for the city of Bismarck. They are volunteers. It's a five-person board. Dakota Media Access carries their meetings. It's the 2nd Thursday of every month at 9 o'clock in the Tom Baker room. That group of 5 has hired a management company to run the parking facilities on a day to day basis. And so the city. Essentially has asked the parking authority to manage and operate the ramps in our best interest, and the way they do that is by contracting with a third party company who has the employees, the resources, and the know-how. To keep the ramps open every day, manage the projects when they come to repairs and maintenance, and all the lights are out, and so they have staff that take care of all of those things for the benefit of the city of Bismarck. The management company is paid a portion. They are, they are paid a fee for the services that they provide, but at the same time, the parking authority has financial resources to cover those repairs and maintenance on their own. But they are existing because they are part of the city. The city owns the ramps. They manage the ramps on our behalf. The Bismarck Event Center model for an authority board would be very similar in that they are working for the best interests of the city and the event center, but they are people that are much closer to the understanding, the activities, and the awareness of what it takes to make that happen, and they are also there to support the staff and to be in between the city commission and that potential third party management company that would be brought in. And so ultimately, Long story, even longer, the motion was made by Commissioner Risch to have JLL, the consultant that we've been working with, develop a request for proposals for a third party operator to develop an employee protection plan. In other words, the employees are currently City of Bismarck employees. In the future, if this model were to be successful, these employees would transition over to being private third party employees. The request or the motion from Commissioner Risch was to make sure that the employees are #1, they all have a job on day 1. #2, their compensation is very similar or better. 3, their benefits package and healthcare are very similar to what we offer with the city. The one thing that maybe wasn't talked about, if these employees become third party employees. They have the opportunity to be incentivized. Where we as city staff, we are not allowed to accept bonuses, we are not allowed to accept gifts. We do our work and we accept our paycheck, and we continue on. Private third party, if they are able to hit some of those performance indicators, some of those metrics. There's opportunities for bonuses, there's, there's things that we as a government entity cannot do that the third party can do to incentivize the work. How does all of that work? That's, that's where we are now. So to, to finish the discussion, uh, Commissioner Risch made that motion. It was seconded by Commissioner Cleary. It was a 4 to 1 vote to support it. So the next steps will be for JLL to draft an RFP that the commission will review. The RFP will be calling all third party operators. Here are the expectations of the city of Bismarck. Here's what we need to, we need you to do. Here are the stipulations that we want you to achieve. They would have to put a proposal together, come by and make the pitch and. A selection would be made to move forward and what does that timeline look like? What does that transition look like? I don't know. I would say we're a few months from having an RFP and presentations from a proposal. What does the full transition look like? I'd, I'd be willing to bet 6 months, a year, 18 months minimum to really start to see some things changing in the facility. Meanwhile, I think it's important to note the city of Bismarck will continue to own the building. We'll continue to maintain the building. We're moving forward. It's the next thing that we're gonna talk about here. We're going to be moving forward with our capital improvements plan to fix the building and repair some of that deferred maintenance that has been neglected over the years. And so there, I guess what I'm hoping people here in all of this is that. There is a very intentional focus on the Bismarck Event Center right now. We have heard many of the comments that the residents want to have fun, exciting activities in the event center, but there's also a need for conventions and conferences because those bring people from outside the community to the hotels and the restaurants where they leave behind their sales tax dollars, which then ultimately can be reinvested into the event center because that's part of the funding source to operate the event centers through sales tax collections on. Hotel, motel, restaurant, food tax, things like that, so. A lot of changes, a lot of things happening. I understand the staff has some trepidation, a lot of questions from the staff. We met with a good number of them this morning to hear their questions and concerns, and we hope that we're able to address them. I guess what I would ask of everybody going forward is just a little bit of patience. We are a government, we move slowly, unfortunately, and if we could move on a dime. We would all love to, but we have processes, we have meetings, we have schedules that we will follow, but we are focusing on this. We are doing this with the best intentions to. Activate, further activate, invigorate the event center, make intentional improvements to the building, shine it up, fix it up, so it's easier to manage and run. It's a better experience for everybody inside. We're all trying to pull in the same direction here and just do what's right for the community. A couple other comments, it seemed like I heard the word accountability. It seemed like there's a decent level of comfort with the potential of an authority board and having some local uh eyes and ears on what's happening along with this process, and then I thought it was. something to bring up and I guess I would just invite people to go back and and watch our meeting on Dakota Media Access.org and, and, and see you, but the mayor had some strong comments about the event center last night that he really, uh, spent a couple of minutes kind of summarizing some of his concerns that have evolved throughout the years. So, uh, that'd be something that you could easily go back and not asking you to speak for the mayor or summarize what he said, but I think, uh, interesting conversation to go back and listen to. On our archive system and you did mention quickly another request for proposal for the capital improvements plan that also will move forward that came shortly after, uh, the operating model, right? And so the way we work with consultants, the way we get to, uh, to the end of those types of projects, we go through the request for proposals and we lay out our expectations, we ask, we tell people what we're looking for and if they feel that they have the qualifications to submit a a project. That becomes a proposal. And so we had a selection committee, uh, 4 individuals, the mayor, uh, city engineer Gabe Schell, assistant airport director Matthew Minzi, and Amanda Yellow, uh, acting director at the airport. The 4 of them received proposals from 5 architectural firms last week, Friday. We were very fortunate to have 5 tremendously qualified firms. This is the type of work that is very complex. It is very detailed, but at the same time, for an architectural firm to have the opportunity to work consistently with an entity like the city for 345 years in a row, you can build a wonderful relationship. There's a lot of benefit for both, both groups in there. Uh, ultimately, the selection committee recommended to move forward with Hubble Design Group, and it, frankly was just based primarily on Jeff's experience, Jeff Hubble's experience working with the Event Center for the past 15 years. Um, all the other firms brought tremendous professionalism to the proposals, but I think the, the general sentiment from the selection committee was that the learning curve is just, it's a big learning curve, and we need to work with the momentum that we have. We need to start working on implementing these capital improvements with first and foremost, a $15 million HVAC improvement on the entire arena side, so. The recommendation from the commission, or I'm sorry, from the selection committee to the commission was to select you will Design Group. Ultimately, the commission did support that recommendation as well. Finally, from the regular agenda, uh, the Bismarck ETA discussion, uh, from last commission meeting and, uh, the decision was made to try and get both the Burley County Commission and city commissioners together in early August, I think August 5th, so that's a work in progress, but that's kind of what came out of last night's meeting. It was and that was a kind of a. 2.0 discussion following the Bismarck Burley Combined missions Committee meeting, which I am a part of. The mayor is a part of for the Bismarck side, auditors Slonskowski and County Commissioner Bakin from the county side. The four of us meet once a month, uh, first Tuesday of every month at 4 o'clock in the Tom Baker room again. You can find those on media access, but at last week's meeting, there was a, a better discussion and understanding of what, what is the ask? What is the county asking for in relation to the ETA. And I think that was the mayor's point, uh, that he had made last night is that now he understands what is the intention of simply meeting and, and really the intention is to gather information, share information, but then also hear from the residents. What are your specific concerns relating to the ETA? And I think part of the discussion will also be, should we talk about the boundary of the ETA again as, as I mentioned at the combined commissions committee meeting 15 years ago, the city of Bismarck had a little bit of a different perspective on annexation and providing services and uh I'll use the word absorbing or annexing some of these large rural subdivisions. I think the staff that we have today, the staff is different, the perspective is different, the realization of the city's ability to provide some of these services is going to be tremendously challenging. And I, I'm just gonna be honest with some of the things like water and sewer, uh, providing sewer service to a rural subdivision. It's not cost feasible for these neighborhoods and the city's not looking to come in and strong arm these subdivisions and turn them into urban neighborhoods. We understand people want their elbow room. That's why they built in those areas in the first place. So with that in mind, looking at some of these subdivisions that are predominantly built out, meaning there's not a lot of green space around them, you're not gonna see much change in those neighborhoods. Maybe those are areas that we take a closer look at based on new perspectives and, and similar information to what we had before. I think that conversation has a lot of potential, um, but I think just getting in a room. And having a bunch of people upset about the ETA for various reasons and, and just mad that that's not gonna be productive, you know, so we wanna have specific concerns and how can we address those things and then maybe we can stop some of this back and forth that's been going on for, frankly, the entire time that I've been a part of the city as an organization, so. Well, this just occurred to me today, moving on that we're just weeks away from July 4th, so we wanted to remind everyone that Red, White and Boom is a new 4th of July celebration that everyone's invited to. But the big caveat, we got to make sure everybody knows it's not going to be at the Capitol. It's not at the Capitol this year and not likely in the near future going forward, the Capitol grounds have changed for anybody that hasn't been over there. There's a new building in the area where we used to set up fireworks. So a committee was formed, decisions were made. We're moving over to the MDU Resources Community Bowl on the BSC campus, and this will be an opportunity to, as they say in the fancy dining industry, we're going to elevate the experience. So it's not just the symphony and fireworks as the, as the night wanes. There will be events for families, kids, friends throughout the afternoon and into the evening, concessions available, beer garden available, but. In the end, what I want people to hear, and this is the part I'm excited for. I'm a fireworks guy. The fireworks will be bigger. They will be better. They will be longer than where you're used to seeing in the past few years at the Capitol. We're using the same fireworks vendor, but because of the location, because of the proximity to things, he has assured us that the length of the show will definitely be longer, and the crowd should have a much better experience. So I'm looking forward to that. That's a good tease, get everybody out there on the 4th of July. Finally, just a reminder that you can watch us uh wherever you are, whenever you can by downloading our apps or going to your smart TV and finding Dakota Media access. So thanks for joining us. We'll see you next time on City Current. For more information on what was discussed in this episode of City Current, visit Bismarck ND.gov or call 701-355-1300. If you have suggestions, comments, or issues you would like addressed in future episodes, contact us at info@retv.org. This program airs on government Access Channel 2 and 602 in HD or on Radio Access 102.5 FM. It's also available as a podcast on Radio Access.org and as a video viewing link at freeT.org. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of City Current.