00:00:02,800	City. Current. Produced by Dakota media. Access. In-depth discussion with Bismarck and Mandan city officials. Watch on government access channel 602 HD or tune in to radio Access 102.5 FM. Always local, always current.

00:00:25,430	Welcome to this April 8th edition of the City. Current Mandan edition recapping the April 7th Mandan City Commission meeting. We'll talk about Spring Cleanup Week, which is on the way, and how one day it feels like spring. One day it feels like winter. One day it feels like summer.

00:00:41,330	We've got all sorts of things going on and talk about growth fund recommendation for Memorial Highway and raw water intake project. Good morning everyone. I'm Tom Gerhardt from Dakota media access, joined by Jim Neubauer, Mandan city administrator. It's been a while since. Good morning Tom. Yeah, it is the weather.

00:00:58,170	We've had a little bit of a break, and I know that, Fire Chief Bitz filled in a few weeks ago to talk about the proposed new fire station and sales tax, and so I watched that. He did an awesome job. You both did a great job. Yeah. So cool. He did do an awesome job. And I learned a lot from that show.

00:01:11,130	So yeah, you can go back in our archives and need to learn about that. We'll talk about it again here in just a little bit. But a lot of good information. So you can make an informed vote this June. Last night's, meeting, a lot of announcements.

00:01:25,330	Just wanted to call attention to things going on in the city of Mandan. To start things off, it's child abuse prevention month and then wear blue day. Friday, April 10th. Yeah, wear blue day, April 10th. They used to be a competition between Bismarck and Mandan and a lot of social media photos and posts and things like that. And there was a traveling trophy.

00:01:41,570	Not quite sure where that traveling trophy is today. It's probably still traveling, Tom But again, just to bring awareness to, all of our folks that Friday, April 10th, wear Blue day, prevent child abuse, North Dakota. And, like I said, we're everybody is trying to bring awareness.

00:02:00,630	And this is an issue whether you're in North Dakota or anywhere across the nation or actually in the world. So again, please do your best to recognize it. And, we'll go from there. Right. Well, maybe next, city current Mandan will have a photo of some photos of blue, blue National safety, public telecommunications Week kind of a mouthful, but definitely these folks do important work.

00:02:21,130	Yeah, it's our 911 operator. So again, those folks have a very difficult job. It is demanding in ways that you and I can't imagine and, taking the calls from people who are, you know, not calling to check the weather out and what a nice day it is, either people in need and they need

00:02:37,370	emergency services, and they need them now. So very tough job for those folks. Want to recognize them and thank them for the tremendous job that they do. I know Mike Dannenfelser and his crew over at the CenCom, which handles Burleigh, Morton and City of Mandan Communications. They do again, do a great job.

00:02:56,330	24 hours a day, seven days a week. It's nonstop. Also, spring cleanup week. We mentioned that April 12th through 18. I threw it up on the top slate because this is a big deal. I like how you said threw it up. It says a big this is a big deal. April 12th through the 18th.

00:03:13,530	And part of this I know that we talk about celebrate 250 this summer and things like that, but, cleaning up your neighborhoods, cleaning up your own properties, getting rid of those things that you're not using. Some of us are our hoarders. We like to think we were.

00:03:28,070	Someday, as soon as we throw something out, we're going to need it the next day. Idea here is get that stuff out of the curb. Things that two people can handle, not construction debris. So if you are building a house or doing a remodel, we're not going to take your carpets and, tires and things like that.

00:03:43,600	But again, your normal household items are two people can carry. We do take appliances. We asked that those be empty. And we don't want a full freezer of, spoiled meat in the large. Yeah. So that's been in there for 20 years that you thought you would need somebody again? Get those out to your to your, curbside.

00:04:01,700	Make sure that if you have something that you think may be valuable, put it on in it and say, you know, garbage. We have run into instances where people had something right next to their curb that was really something they wanted to save. And we picked it up, and they wanted it back. It wasn't a good situation.

00:04:20,530	A good situation, no. And we also we know there will be curbside shopping going on prior to those days of spring cleanup. If you are one of those people that are looking for treasures, be respectful. Put things back. If you pick them up and you decide you don't want it, put it back in a respectful manner.

00:04:40,930	Don't just leave garbage laying around. But again, we know this happens. We're not going to pretend it doesn't. Lot of shopping goes on the night before. So again, please be respectful, put things back, and if you want something left on the curb, put it on the curb and we will take care of it for you.

00:04:59,600	Even if, you know, give us a little bit of time, because sometimes there might be appliances. We'll take everything else and we'll do a separate run to pick up the appliances.

00:05:12,900	So if your pickup time is normally six in the morning or seven in the morning, and you're calling us at 7:05 because the refrigerator from 1932 you put out there hasn't been picked up yet. Give us a little bit of time and we'll come back through and get that. If it's there for longer than a day, feel free to call our public works folks. But again, you know, be patient.

00:05:27,800	On the other hand, want to mention to spring? Yes. Community cleanup is the month of May. I wanted to call that out, too, but we were talking about this earlier. Get your stuff out there, too. So, don't get it out late. Yep. Don't get it late, because, again, our crews go through it.

00:05:45,100	Then, the day that your normal garbage pickup is occurring, that's when you should have your stuff to the curb. You mentioned to me is is cleanup month. I know that Kari Schmidt, our communications specialist, does an awesome job of organizing that and a lot of hands from our grounds maintenance crew.

00:06:01,170	Jason Herman and everybody within the city has contributed to make this happen, I think. I can't remember if we had 17 different roles. I think, yeah, I think that's right. So the month of May or, you know, sign up for a route. You can do it when it works for you.

00:06:15,500	We used to have a day when we had organize and go and go out to all these routes. But we've found that it's work much better when we get more areas of town cleaned up. Interesting. As we go through our, you know, it's 70 degrees out and golf courses are open to eight inches of snow on the ground.

00:06:29,200	And then you start to see when that snow melts, that whether it's interstate ditches, whether it's ditches along the highway, whether it's along the walking trails and things like that, there is a lot of, garbage out there. And this makes a big difference is when those get cleaned up.

00:06:45,430	So we encourage folks to sign up and make it a family outing picnic, do what you need to do. But again, a great way to clean up our community especially. And we'll talk about this in just a second to for America's 250th. A lot going on in Mandan, but, we'll get for that.

00:07:02,130	Wanted to mention that the, public open house for the Mandan Fire Department, the Sales Tax Initiative public meeting will be April 13th from 6 to 7:30 at Red trail. So this will be on the June ballot, right. But this is a chance for community members again.

00:07:20,570	We mentioned at the top of the show that I talked with Chief Bitz a couple of weeks ago. So there's a whole half hour of explanation of, what's going on here. But if you want to find out so you can cast your ballot, this is a great opportunity to learn more. I think that we are doing again April 13th at Red Trail Elementary, 6 p.m.

00:07:36,470	we are going to do a couple more of these public open houses to educate the public. And like I said, we feel that the, the proposal that has been forward that will folks will vote on in June would be just a continuation of that three quarter cent sales tax.

00:07:51,230	We know that our bonds that are related to the sports complex will be paid off 13, 14 years early. We would like to continue that three quarters. We're not adding to it. We're just continuing the three quarter, to address another need in our community.

00:08:07,830	And, you know, a couple of the things we talked about were response times right now. Yes, you know, fire station one and two, but fire Station three, with the way Mandan's growing particularly to the north and west, the response times are a big deal. We are in a long gated community along I-94.

00:08:28,370	We, you know, obviously fire station one in the, central core of our downtown, used to be housed city hall, police department, fire department, public works. Everything used to be there. It is taken up now, and we gutted that building in the year 2001. I think, to turn it into a fire station. Did a great job.

00:08:45,730	We built a fire station, too, because we saw the need down in the in the Lakewood and Memorial Highway area. And now we've seen, a lot of great growth in the northwest part of our town that we, you know, response times. And I'm sure Mitch cover this, you know, should be in the 4 to 5 minute range.

00:09:01,570	We're, approaching the 11 and 12 minute range up in this area of town, and that is just that's a long time. Another interesting thing I thought, caught my attention was right now, fire station one is in floodplain. Yep. This would be an opportunity to bring a lot of infrastructure to high ground. Yeah.

00:09:20,830	We're looking at doing, a a combination fire station and emergency operations center. We have been in discussions with the Morton County commissioners and their emergency manager, Pat Martin, about, you know, how do we make this work and fit together? I think our message to them, on April 1st, we did a presentation for the Morton County Commission and said, you know, we're going

00:09:38,900	to build this station with an EOC in it. We'd like to have you part of it, and we can work out the details later. But we think it would be good to, whether we relocate the existing emergency operations center in the basement of the Morton County Courthouse in the floodplain,

00:09:55,430	up to a different area out of the downtown and also into a, location that we think is better protected. If there were to be a flood, that this would be a better location. We'll continue those talks.

00:10:09,170	There's no hard and fast decisions that have yet, other than we are going to build it with that in mind, so we don't have to come on, you know, five years later and do an add on to a building. We think it's smart and incorporate that function into that building right now. Also last night, talked about the launch of the 2026 Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative.

00:10:24,770	And that is thanks to get city Bank and capital credit. Yeah. Kudos to, get city Bank and Capital Credit Union, both Pam Gangi Bernard and Chris Nelson, offering some loans between 10,000 and $100,000 to residents who want to fix up their, their residences. We will take those applications to make sure that they pre-qualify.

00:10:49,400	Nancy Moser and our engineering planning department kind of review them and said, okay, these qualify. We move them on to, one of the banks and they take it from there. We are not from a city making that loan. We're not collecting on that loan. We're not doing any of it.

00:11:04,430	But I think the advantage of it is the these two banks will provide those, those loans at a discounted interest rate and discounted fees. So again, a really good program. And and kudos to those two entities for providing that. We're inching closer and closer to America. 250 July 4th.

00:11:28,100	Big plans and Mandan and Matt Schneider from MPO came and talked last night about America 250 and all the things going on. Of course, we know about the rodeo. We know about the parade, all those great things. But, it's going to be a big summer. It's gonna be a big summer in town.

00:11:42,530	And, Matt made a presentation, to the commission last night about, you know, announcing that the Dakota Leathernecks will be the grand marshal of the celebrate 250 parade. You know, kudos to them. Great organization. And also kind of a kick out to say, hey, don't forget to get your parade entry in.

00:11:59,270	They kind of tighten the clamps down on that a little bit to say, we would like to see floats in the parade, not just your, 1973 Ford F-150 pickup. Driving down that Tom used to do. Probably. But we want to see them decorated and we want to see some, you know, jazzed up a little bit.

00:12:18,000	So again, I think they've limited the number of entries to I think 75. But we want to make them quality entries. So, you know, kudos and put your best face on and get ready for the parade. 250 and you can find out more visit mandan.com/america 250 250.

00:12:37,600	That numbers and I heard last night I think new this year will be a payroll musical. Yes. So things went over so well on, New Year's Eve this year. And we've been in discussions and the MPO have been in discussions trying to find a location for a July 4th, or in this case, it'll be July 3rd when there be a significant

00:12:59,770	fireworks show put to music and all those things. So again, a lot of big things are happening. So if, you know, if you can't find something to do over the 4th of July in Mandan and Bismarck, you know, you're just not looking. That's your problem.

00:13:15,370	Well, we did want to show the video that Matt and played last night, and we'll leave our mics on. So if you want to comment, feel free to, but let's take a look.

00:13:33,330	I know that a lot of times marching bands are one of those, you know, over a holiday on the 4th of July, there's really tough to get marching bands to commit to a parade. And I think Matt has worked very diligently and hard.

00:13:50,730	I think Marlo Anderson with the North Dakota music Hall of Fame, I think they're going to do, they're going to combine it, with some educational opportunities. And I've got a few marching bands coming to. That's awesome. But that's. Also the. Parades. Yep. And so from that video, yeah.

00:14:10,870	Like you said, if you can't find something to the city of Mandan this summer, that's on you because this really highlights all the incredible things going on. It is. And like I said, it is a a huge I want to give a huge shout out to all of our sponsors. And I say our I like to think of that this as a community celebration. Right.

00:14:26,730	And man to man and, and progress organization lead it. And all of the volunteers from people who donate their time and talents to all of the entities that donate cash and money.

00:14:47,570	If these events don't happen, just, you know, on the back of a napkin, there's a ton of planning, all of the planning that has gone on for last year's parade and last year's celebrations. Those discussions started relatively over a year ago on what are we going to do for the 250, and how do we make sure all of our folks that come have a good, pleasant experience and enjoy themselves and are safe? Well, let's move on to, bids and talk about street improvement.

00:15:07,930	2412 41 near Red trail. Last night. Yeah, this is a project. We've been working on some of the streets up there in need of some repair. There's some groundwater issues going on. The bids for Street two, a 41, I think, came in 4% lower than the engineer's estimate, which is a good sign. Competitive bidding environment.

00:15:27,070	And, so that's good. So we will get those contracts signed and we will start that construction as soon as, the weather is really cooperating, not giving us a little cooperation. And that kind of pulls back and just teases us, on the weather. So yeah. 241 Red Trail Elementary. Again, good bidding environment.

00:15:45,270	The bids came in about 4% other than what we had estimated. So that's good news. Where we got the new business, and this may be the longest we've gone into an episode of City Current in the last year.

00:16:05,900	Plus, without mentioning Memorial Highway, but there's a growth fund recommendation to provide some additional assistance for, the gift cards you can buy paying for fees, electronic fees, when you buy the gift cards, and also some additional dollars for marketing just to help get the word out to support those businesses during construction. Yeah. Last year, the Amana Growth Fund made a recommendation of providing $50,000 to the Manhattan Progress Organization.

00:16:23,570	Ten of that was to be used for marketing and planning and things like that. And the other 40 was to be used to, you know, augment gift cards that are being that are purchased so that you have an additional you buy $50 worth of gift cards, you'll get 60 or $75.

00:16:37,470	We try and learn from what we hear from people. And I think what we were learning is that, hey, the transaction fees are a little steep. Yeah. Whether you agree with that or not.

00:16:53,300	So as part of the ask again to the growth Fund and to the city Commission with, hey, we'd like to have some additional funds to cover the cost of the transaction fees that are involved in in these gift cards. So, Matt and his crew will be out promoting those as Memorial Highway construction has started in full gas again.

00:17:14,570	But again, if you buy the memorial gift card and go to visit Mediacom and again, the transaction fees will be covered, by the man in progress organization in cooperation with the city. Amanda. I saw I thought this was interesting. They had stats from last year, but so far this year over $4,000. At least in January. This is through January 31st.

00:17:34,970	And, just so you can see a little bit about what's going on there. But again, the whole idea is during this time of somewhat of chaos. Disruption. Disruption, just really helps support those businesses out. There. Right? We understand that. And I think our message is to the traveling public is, you can still drive on Memorial Highway.

00:17:54,200	Yes. Is the one half the north half now under construction? Absolutely. Please continue to patronize the businesses that are out there now as they need it more than ever. Entrances to those businesses will remain open at all times.

00:18:11,370	And like I said, take the time, take a little bit of extra effort to, make sure you patronize those businesses on the strip. And I know they will be very appreciative of that. Let's talk about the raw water. Intake. Yeah. Update. Change order. Yeah. Not, This is the intake that we share with, Marathon refinery. So marathon uses water from the Missouri River city, man. And residents will drink the treated water.

00:18:34,630	We couple me. Probably a year ago, we got the new intake that has been under construction, operating and functional. And then Mother Nature through us, a sandbar, a ginormous sandbar, all of our studies and past history have never shown that a sandbar has kind of moved into this area. This was the deepest part of the channel.

00:18:57,200	Always free, always open. And then Mother Nature throws curveball at us, and we have a giant homer sandbar on the north side of our new intake. Which, you know, our goal was to not have to deal with this ever again because we were dealing with it on the north location.

00:19:12,670	So change order here is to do some additional study and try and find out. Okay. Why is this happening and what can we do to mitigate it? Right now we have a throwing about a I'll call it a 2 to 300ft piece of pipe downstream.

00:19:35,000	And our bringing the water, from that location up into the new raw water intake. And in turn, that has been working well so far. But again, you can see some of the aerial photos on this. This sandbar is not not a tiny one. This is a it's. Probably continuing to grow.

00:19:51,400	And then, as we all know from living in Bismarck, man down the river. River changes. If you are a boater, you obviously you you know, there are certain channels you need to take when you're navigating the river that are good and some are not good.

00:20:08,030	And again, this is this intake under years and years and years of study and even talking to the local people who live along, the side of the river where we put the intake. We've never seen a sandbar in this area. And like I said, this is not a it's not a here today, gone tomorrow. Right. This is a massive. Nothing you can do. Nothing we can dredge.

00:20:26,230	You know, again, we're trying to figure out there could be many causes of it. We know that the Haskett station that was just north of us, a coal fired generating plant.

00:20:43,670	When that closed down, they were kicking the water in and kicking the water out, keeping, you know, part of our old intake clear and now, like I said, this is we just trying to figure out, what's why this is happening. Number two, our number one. And number two, what can we do? From an intake perspective for both men and residents, we also, treat water for Missouri West Water Systems, which serves rural Morton County and also in partnership with the refinery to try and figure out.

00:21:05,570	All right, let's we have some ideas on what we can do to remedy the situation. They want to make sure that it's the right remedy. It was interesting and makes sense, but interesting to hear too. The commercial divers have been in and will be back in and again.

00:21:22,330	Yeah, just get that best view possible on what's happening now. And this is not unique right to this location. We had commercial divers coming in on a regular basis at our old intake, clearing out debris.

00:21:40,230	You would be amazed at the amount of, whether tree branches or trees or whatever is moving along the bottom of the river that get caught and they get stuck and the commercial divers come down, and it's kind of like if you dip a straw in a milkshake and you're trying to clean the end of that milkshake out, that's in essence what they're doing to make sure that, we have potable water to drink and also to, you know, refineries a little dependent on.

00:21:58,730	The water to, yeah. Finally, considered a recommendation from the Mandan Visitors Committee. There's a lot of things that they want to do for enhancements this summer. And then also for some safety, things, as we celebrate America's 50th, not only for this summer, but, going into the future as well. Yeah, we touched on it a little bit earlier.

00:22:19,830	MPO, the men in progress were an organization put together request of, you know, some enhancements to Nature and Park. We are Matt said last night. We're seeing more food vendors wanting to be in the area and about the same number of craft vendors about it.

00:22:36,130	To be a food vendor, you're looking for electrical, you're looking for water, all of those things combined. You just don't pop a food truck in and say, we're good to go. So part of that is related to, you know, upgrading some electrical and water in the park, adding some amenities, more benches, more trash receptacles. There's some much needed improvements to the bandshell.

00:22:56,070	We know the roof is in repair, and it's kind of tired right now. And so with the help of Matt and his crew, they're looking at, some design features on the bandshell that are really going to spruce that up. And who obviously needs a new roof and things like that.

00:23:13,770	In addition, some equipment that the MPO would buy and that would really help these picnic tables we have down there, I think about 45, they're heavy. You really need a tool kit or a set of forks on up on a bobcat to move them.

00:23:30,370	Other than or 6 or 7 people to lift them up and move and, with buying pieces of equipment, that the men in progress organization folks can do really frees up some of our public works, grounds maintenance folks and other folks who will come down. And I said last night, it's the MPO. Events are evenings and weekends and things like that, which we have been very glad to help all along.

00:23:51,970	But now this will make that operation a little more efficient. Also, we want to make sure on the safety side, the last couple of years, I think we've been doing a much more significant job in planning for, visitor safety. Yeah.

00:24:10,930	And we, we see all around the country, all around the world where, somebody loses control of the car, and it might be during a celebration. We want to make sure that what we're putting in place is usable and it's safe, and it's providing that protection. To our office. And those are the departure barriers, not not what was just shown on your screen.

00:24:26,130	If you're watching, these are seven, 800 pounds, I think. Yep. I think she said last night. 750 pounds each. And one person, there's a method, I watch them, I think we have 8 or 9 of them that we have used last summer for events.

00:24:42,570	If you were at the Halloween Trunk or Treat event, you saw some of those Archer Berry set up to try to block the roadway, or the avenue, one man, one person can move. These are on wheels and you load them up on to a trailer. So part of this request is buying more of those arch barriers along with trailers, so that they're ready to go when needed.

00:25:00,300	And like you said, I think this will again, all tied to enhancing the safety of our visitors to come to events in town. Let's move along. April 6th through 12 is National Public Health Week. Western Plains Public Health, which, by the way, we're happy to help host a podcast put out by Western Plains Public Health here.

00:25:22,800	It's going to be the access thing you can, listen to as well on 102.5 FM or radio access.org, but wanted to pass along National Public Health Week. Another one of those announcements that we have in the in the queue from last night. Right. Yep. And also just wanted to touch on, local elections, more information city of mandan.com/elections.

00:25:45,970	But April 6th was the deadline for candidates to have their names on the. Yeah, April 6th was our deadline. We have two open city commission spots. We have four candidates for those spots. We have three park board members, positions that are open. I think there are four candidates for, for, those three spots.

00:26:07,000	We did a drawing yesterday out of a hat. People's names on what order they will fall in the, on the election ballot. Interesting. I think we had five of the candidates attended, which is more than I think we've ever had before.

00:26:29,130	We put the names into a a year 2000 party hat that a gentleman brought into my office several years ago, and he just didn't know what to do with it because it was from, you know, the Y2K folks. Remember that? I remember. He had the party had from that and thought it should be saved somewhere so that it has been saved in my office.

00:26:49,100	And we put the names in the hat in that hat and drew them out. It is a beautiful, fine piece of cardboard hat, if he ever wants to see it. Yeah, a couple. Of fine items we have, We have some eclectic things in the office. But again, we use that hat. We drew names out of.

00:27:04,070	Thank you for all of the candidates for attending that. It's always interesting. We we we give them some instructions on farm on how, you know, handbills and campaign signs and where they can be placed.

00:27:24,200	And this is my my shout out to, yard signs should be on the home side of the sidewalk, not in the boulevard or not in the public right of way. So I don't enjoy this part of my job where I have to call or email candidates and say, hey, we've got to complain because your campaign sign is in the public right away.

00:27:38,830	Can you please move it? If it doesn't get moved and one of us will drive up and pull it out of the ground, and in the morning, like you'll end up in the trash heap, which we don't like to do that, but it's man matter of you can't put your campaign signs in the public, right? Right.

00:27:52,300	It's that time of year or two, or we just wanted to make sure if anybody wanted to check out what's going on project wise around that. Right. Got city Amanda Duncombe projects. And you can keep up to date on all things City of Amanda. Yeah, I think folks in town will notice. I think one of the.

00:28:09,430	We've talked about our water reservoir in Collins Avenue before that that's 99% done. And now they're starting work on that intersection of Collins and Division to kind of pull back the hill and pull back better canning wall so you can have a better view. And so folks will see that going on in there. As today.

00:28:26,600	I also wanted to talk, following the city commission meeting, the Board of Equalization met. And now we start that process. If someone wants to protest or contest their, tax. The Board of Equalization, which is comprised of the city commission, got a report from Kimberly Markley. You can find that online.

00:28:47,430	What happens is that if you are if you are questioning or you have questions on the valuation of your property, it's not your property taxes, not the valuation of your property. You can call him and ask him about it sometimes.

00:29:03,830	Or maybe we have the square footage wrong, or maybe there's something that some information we may not have correct and we may not agree with you. So there are times, you know, the City Board of Equalization met last night. They will move on. If you are not happy and you don't get the relief that you seek, you can appeal to the Morton County Board of Equalization.

00:29:19,830	And if you're not getting the relief that you seek at the Morton County Board of Equalization, you can go to the State Board of Equalization. So I think Morton County meets in June, and the state of North Dakota and Board of Equalization will meet in August, usually.

00:29:35,830	So there are several steps you can appeal your valuation if necessary. Well, next city commission meeting is April 21st Tuesday. Of course. And, we'll look forward to that then. Jim, thanks for joining us, as always.

00:29:53,500	If you want to watch back the last night's City Commission meeting or any other content, you can go to our DMA app or go to Dakota media access.org, all that you can stream on demand. And if you're in the mood for some local music or local podcasts, please download our radio access 1 or 2.5 app or listen to our radio station 1 or 2.5 on your FM dial. You can also find that at Radio access.org. Until next time, thanks for joining us.

00:30:13,700	For more information on what was discussed in this episode of City Current, visit City of mandan.com or call (701)█667-3215. If you have any suggestions, comments or issues you would like addressed in Future City Current episodes, contact us at info at free tv.org.

00:30:36,470	This program airs on Government Access channel two 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 free tv.org. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of city. Current.