00:00:12,000	Today is May 6, 2025. It’s 5:30 p.m.

00:00:21,630	And we are in the Bosh please take the roll, Comm Braun Rohr.

00:00:34,230	Here Sjoberg Mayor Dietz. Lead us in the pledge of allegiance.

00:00:50,200	Please stand and of America. And to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God. With liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Daniel. OK, we have a few announcements you all have the um. Agenda in front of you. But we’ll make a couple of announcements first, uh. Mayor’s National Bike Month.

00:01:22,000	Um And May is also. Building Safety Month. So be careful when you’re on the ladder. Mowing your lawn. Um Commissioners, you have the agenda in front of you. have a motion for approval of the agenda. I’ll make a motion to approve the agenda as, as, uh, printed. Second.

00:01:49,170	We have a Motion by Comm Sjoberg, a second by Comm Heinsohn.

00:01:57,500	Any yes, Rohr. Rohr Yes. Thank you. Sjoberg. Heinsohn, yes, Mayor Froelich, yes. Looking at uh April 15 minutes. I have a motion to approve those minutes. I’ll make a motion to approve the. Minutes of the April 15th regular meeting as printed. OK Motion by Comm Sjoberg, seconded by Comm Braun. Any further discussion? Hearing no roll call, Commissioners Rohr.

00:02:43,100	Yes, Sjoberg, yes, Heinsohn Braun, yes, Mayor Froelich, yes. Approval of the April 22nd special meeting minutes. So moved. Second We have a motion by Comm Braun, a second by Comm Sjoberg, and he further discussion, hearing none, roll call Commissioners Sjoberg Yes. Heinsohn Yes. Braun Yes Rohr Yes, Mayor Froelich, yes.

00:03:14,230	Now your agenda we’ll go to item F. Public hearing. consider the resolution of determining the insufficiency of protests for street improvement district number 236. Jarek Mayor Commissioners, good evening.

00:03:42,900	Um, I do have a little bit of a presentation to uh to talk about some of the project overview and talk about some of the information that we’ve gather gathered related to the project and to the assessment district. Um, first Street Reconstruction is what this public hearing will be about, um, this is a series of projects. Sorry, keep going. We just don’t have a TV over here. Oh. You guys are all We do. No, they can’t see theirs. OK. Shall I keep moving? OK.

00:04:10,100	Um, the series of projects includes reconstructing First Street Northwest and the avenues between Main Street and 2nd Street. Um, the first and foremost, the goal is to address aging infrastructure dilapidated infrastructure, including underground utilities, um. Uh, secondary goal would be to provide a more welcoming environment for residents, visitors and businesses.

00:04:34,200	Um, the project is currently split into 3 phases. Feas one, phase one is shown in orange and that is the, the phase that we are currently talking about today. Phase 2 shown in pink here and phase 3 shown in blue. Those two phases do not have defined timelines quite yet.

00:04:50,200	Phase one, we applied uh for uh we applied for funding in 2023, and we were awarded for we awarded funding in 2025. Um, for construction in 2026. Phase two we applied in 2024 for 2027 funding, we have not found out if we were successful in that or not yet, and then phase 3 we have not made an application

00:05:09,470	for phase 3 yet if we were to make an application 2028 funding would be the earliest that we could possibly do it. Um, phase one is what we’re talking about today, that would be shown in orange here, um, with phases 2 and 3 shown in blue.

00:05:28,730	Phase one, we have uh 2025 funding for construction in 206. It includes the street sidewalks, street light, and underground utility reconstruction. dresses safety and accessibility deficiencies on the corridor. I have a picture right here showing the current geometry of the corridor, and this is kind of a rendering of what the proposed corridor would be. A lot of um.

00:05:49,470	Above ground improvements and there are below ground improvements, improvements to match. Funding sources for the phase one include the North Dakota Department of Transportation, Urban Grants Program, um, the Department of Water Resources, these, this money comes from oil and gas revenue from the state, municipal infrastructure funds.

00:06:08,730	This is also oil and gas revenue that comes from the state. We have city utility funds, um, allocated to this project and then the remainder would be paid through special assessments. Um, I put together this graph to showcase a little bit of the um funding that we have allocated towards this project.

00:06:27,500	To project cost being 6, about $6.85 million. Um, for a. Without any funding as shown on the left, a typical assessment would be about $132,000 that was based on a 7500 square foot lot. Um, the estimated yearly payment based on a 6% interest rate would be about $13,000 per year.

00:06:50,300	Um, the project as it’s currently proposed to be funded includes a $2.3 million reward from the NDDOT $720,000 from the state Water Commission or the Department of Water Resources. Um,,, $770,000 from the city utility fund,, $2.

00:07:14,000	5 million from the municipal infrastructure fund, leaving only 544,000 remaining to be assessed, um, using that same, um, Formula, I came up with a typical assessment of about $10,000,500. And since we would be accessing 2% SRF loan for this, um, assessment, the estimated yearly payment would be about $817 per year as opposed to the 13,000.

00:07:35,770	Um, I have an effective funding rate of 94%, and that is to take into account the lower interest rate as well as the sheer dollars. Um, design, right now we are at 30%. We’re at the district creation phase up in the top right-hand corner. Um, we’re far enough along to make estimates, but we are missing details.

00:07:57,170	30% to 100% would be the next step in this process, and that would be how we determine what final design is. Um, through the final design process, we would be held to industry standards including the American Disabilities Act standards for accessible design. Passed in 2010. Um Just as a general ADA design, um, conversation. We’re talking about sidewalk cross slope maximums of 2% grade running slope maximums of 5% grade.

00:08:23,300	And or a 1 to 12 for ramps and then we always have to aim for grades that are less than these maximums, because you sometimes get settlement in opposite directions and even if a sidewalk was installed.

00:08:44,570	At illegal grade, it could settle out of that grade and then you would be out of compliance immediately. So typically we’re aiming, instead of aiming for 2% and 8.3% were aiming for about 1.5% and 7%. Another kind of general ADA design guide would be that 60-inch travel width is um this acceptable, um. Uh, ADA routing.

00:09:05,900	And that would be for to travel directions and turning movements to be accommodated and 60 inches is about 5 ft. Um In particular on this corridor, I wanted to point out two locations that make ADA accessibility a challenge? One of those locations shown here would be a 1 ft or an entry that is 1 ft above the grade of the current sidewalk. Out of 7.

00:09:27,770	5% grade target that would take about 14 ft to get back down to regular grade, at which point you would have your 5 ft. Um, wide ADA accessible routing. So a total of 19 ft at this particular location. Um Across the street, we have a similar 8 inch. Um, entry. And out of 7.

00:09:54,000	5% target grade, we’re talking about about a 1010 10 ft. Um, run to get back down to the, to the road grade. Um, when you take these and combine in combination with each other, and then you map out your parking lanes and your travel lanes, we are at. We’ve arrived at what we have today at our 30% design as our proposed, um.

00:10:16,900	Cross section Which would include parking on one side or parking on both sides parallel parking on both sides and to travel lanes. Um Reiterating that we are at 30% design at this time and we are up against these physical limitations, but there are, there’s a potential for details to, um, show themselves throughout the design process where there’s

00:10:42,730	possibility that there could be accommodations, but at this stage in time, we feel that the parallel parking is a physical restriction. For ADA accessible design on this project. And I’m gonna turn it over to Riley for some of the more data-driven stuff. Good evening, American Commissioners.

00:11:08,300	Uh, so we did two different parking utilization studies on these corridors, uh, one in February and then one in April kind of prompted after some meetings we had with different business owners. So the February study area, uh, we did 4th north of 1st, 4th north of Main, and first east, no West, sorry, west of 4th.

00:11:27,500	So these are the three legs that are going to be reconstructed with phase one. So for February study times, we did a Tuesday through Thursday study trying to get the average weekday kind of utilization, and we did 15 minute snapshots in time.

00:11:46,630	So here are our February study results, um, shown in orange is the current capacity shown in gray is the new capacity, um, and then you can see that each of these graphs. Doesn’t meet except for Forest north of Main would exceed that new capacity. So kind of diving a little bit deeper at 6 p.m., which is the peak time on Forth North of Main. Here are all the cars parked on 4th north of Main.

00:12:04,170	Um, here is theization on 4th north of 1st, and then first west of Forth. Uh, so you can see there is kind of some bleed through room here where other cars could park.

00:12:19,670	So all these graphs kind of bleed into this graph, which is our total max for each day. So what this graph did is it combined all of the parking that was being utilized and then mapped it versus the new parking spots available versus the current parking spots available.

00:12:38,370	So shown here we can see that there would be a minimum of 16 empty spots, um, for any given day with the proposed parking plan. Versus today we have a minimum of 61 empty spots. So in April, we did another study kind of prompted by another meeting, uh, this study, um, included the section east of Forth, which is not going to be touched as part of phase one construction.

00:12:59,870	So for this, we kind of took some feedback and they said, well, we should really get the weekend involved. So we did a Thursday, Friday, Saturday study again, doing that 15 minute interval. So here’s kind of these results again, the only graph that is peeking over the new capacity is forth north of Main.

00:13:17,470	So again, I kind of showed that same peak time which is 7:15 p.m. in this case. Um And see all these cars parked on Forest North of Main and then looking at 4th North the 1st, again, pretty empty, uh, first east of Fourth, there’s some spots here, and then first west of Fourth is again empty.

00:13:36,130	So again, we took all these graphs and combined them into one total graph to kind of show what that would look like, and the colors swapped on this here, so that new capacity is now shown in orange, and we’d have a minimum of 31 empty spots, uh, with a new capacity versus a minimum of 76 empty spots with the

00:13:52,200	current capacity, giving us utilization of roughly 60%. So some key takeaways here are there’s a current underutilization of parking, uh, with the proposed plans we’d only be using about 60% of the parking. Um, and really what we’re trying to do here is a more efficient and accessible parking layout.

00:14:12,630	So kind of bouncing into the protest period that began on February 21st and ended on April 22nd. Uh, the engineering department received a total of 493 letters, um, and most letters listed parking is a major concern, which again kind of prompted that those parking utilization studies. So just some things about protests, uh, the protests to counter must be a property owner in the district.

00:14:34,470	They must have a date, property address, and signature. Um, protests are counted by total non-public land area. And there has to be an over 50% protest rate in order for the project to be protested out.

00:14:52,100	So some kind of recapping of the letters, um, 122 letters or for people who did not live in Mandan. 340 letters for people who didn’t, who live in Mandan, but do not live in the district. And 31 letters were from residents in the district. So we did some tabulation here. So this was by parcel. There are 149 parcels in the district.

00:15:13,300	Of that 30 parcels protested, uh, making our protest rate by parcel 20.13%. Uh, as I mentioned earlier, protests are by land area, so we did that tabulation as well. There are 26.54 non-public acres in the district of that 5.53 acres of property owners protested, giving it a protest rate by acreage of 20.85%.

00:15:34,930	Um, which is the number that really matters here. So we also have a protest map here to kind of show the parcels that protested, and we have a larger map that shows all of Amanda and if you’d like me to go to that. But We have some time for questions from the commission.

00:16:00,900	Anybody have a question? So Riley, the, the cascading effect of taking away the parking on forests. Uh, as it, it would move out into the first. Diagonal Uh, and at that we would be then at 60%. Yes. OK. Any other questions? Thank you, Riley. Jerk Are we Um, Mayor Commissioners, that is what we have, um, prepared.

00:16:38,800	For the evening, but um, if you have any questions for me, I’d be happy to answer them. Otherwise, it’s our recommendation. Um, I guess Following the protest period or public hearing to um. Passed the resolution determining insufficiency of protests. And just, uh, this project came. Under the radar What year? Um, the project in our project book is a 2019 project.

00:17:08,670	So, um, but it is, it has had many different forms over the last 6 years. OK, thank you. Any other questions? A hearing nun We’re going to open the public hearing. And I thank you all for attending. Um, your feedback has been much appreciated and it’s been fair.

00:17:30,170	Uh, the number, obviously the number one concern we’ve heard has been the parking. And as Jarek said, we’re at 30% design. We’ve got another 60 to 70 to go. And I promise you we are going to do everything we can. Uh to find any deviations from the current plan that.

00:17:54,100	might find parking for us in a different design, but Certainly we are kind of where we’re at with this and the ADA rules. Um So we will continue to review all available options. Um This is a public hearing and as I mentioned before we started, uh, we’re gonna go 3 minutes. her Speaker, when you come to the Podium, please state your name. Sign in and state your name.

00:18:22,800	And uh at the 3-minute mark, I’ll just raise my hand and we’ll go till. Nobody else wants to speak for a half hour. So, and I also like to acknowledge uh. That we have received communications from a Cairn Jordan. And we appreciate her input regarding the assessment district.

00:18:45,370	So with that, We’ll entertain the first speaker. Good evening, Mayor and City councilman. My name is Steve Mott. By now I’m sure that most of you know who I am and how I feel about the proposed changes to the parking in Mandan. I do recognize that I can get long winded, so I’ll try to keep this short.

00:19:09,100	The city planning office has told us that we need to go to Parallel parking. But hasn’t really given us other other options. Until the last meeting that was held a couple of weeks ago. Whereas I said Quietly, there might be another option for diagonal parking. In the area there. With all this talk about.

00:19:30,000	Parallel parking, safety, ADA compliance, um, I find it interesting that there’s a big building being put up by a national chain business on Main Street off of the corner of Main and 10th Avenue, Northeast, which I know does not have an eight-foot sidewalk at the current time, but it’s also blocking part of that

00:19:44,370	intersection in my personal opinion. Well I’m trying to get in and out up off of 10th whether I’m approaching Main or coming off of Main. I don’t know of anyone else, including myself, that disagrees with the need for the infrastructure updates.

00:19:59,930	Given the short time frame that the petitions were, uh, could be collected. Uh, we collected, uh, what we did was we collected. With the help of other businesses in town, I, I went and spoke with them. There is just under 400 petitions that I turned in myself. I’ve got enough here to add another 30 to 40 petitions myself.

00:20:18,630	To the para uh that opposing the parallel parking changes. While these while these may not all be Mandan residents. There are people that come to Man in the shop at small businesses. They eat at small businesses. They get tattoos and haircuts at small businesses, uh.

00:20:36,770	You’ve been told that in the in the event that you uh that you pursue parallel parking, that you’ll be attacking small businesses. I’ve said that myself. Um, I, I still strongly believe that.

00:20:51,630	I think if we, if we have other options available, uh, the other option was, uh, we had mentioned, I, I believe Jared, you mentioned at the meeting two weeks ago that we could do parallel parking with a different angle. That would be less. Uh, the, the diagonal angle, the diagonal parking would be less of a impact, an impact on our businesses itself. Uh, Mr.

00:21:12,470	Mayor and city council, you have the ability to fundamentally change the look and feel and how we do business and whether or not the city of Mandan grows or dies in the future. There are other options rather than decimate how people visit our city and whether they spend their hard-earned money in Mandan or somewhere else. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Steve.

00:21:41,800	Are there any other speakers? Ellen Williams, Mandan resident for 37 years. Now you’ve explained when the, uh, assessments were taken, how many parking spots were taken. The only time I’ve ever seen that few is Sunday afternoon.

00:22:07,000	You can drive downtown almost any time during the day, Monday through Saturday, and A huge portion of those spots are taken if you take away spots. I’m not going to be able to come downtown. One thing I want you to understand is the safety part of a parallel parking. I’m 74 years old. My boyfriend is 84. We don’t get out of cars fast anymore. If there’s parallel parking, is there going to be plenty of room.

00:22:32,630	For us to get out of a car in a safe manner when cars are coming down the street. Secondly, there’s a lot of people with more than one child. That are parked in cars. My daughter the other day had Two of her grandchildren. A six year old and a 4-year-old.

00:22:55,230	The six year old was behind the driver. The 4 year old was behind the passenger seat. The 6 year old unbuckled his seat. And crawled across the front seat to get out because it wasn’t safe on Main Street. The 42 year old obviously she took out. When they got back into the car.

00:23:22,230	She had to reach across the two year old to buckle the six year old’s seat belt. Because he’s not strong enough yet to do that. My concern with parallel parking is one. If I can’t find a spot. For the business I want to go to. Within a block I’m not walking two blocks to get to it. And 2 is the safety part.

00:23:47,300	Getting out with semis going down Main Street, and I realize we’re not changing Main Street that way. But semis going down Main Street. It is dangerous. If I’m going to a restaurant? Or any other business in town. So please consider an alternative, whether that’s one ways. Or maybe be parallel on one side.

00:24:12,530	An angle on the other side where there’s less. More people, businesses. But the businesses I use, if there’s Parallel parking. My chances of not using them anymore. Thank you. Thank you, Ellen. Mr. Mayor and Members of the commission, I am Dena Kautzmann, and I’m here as a citizen.

00:24:47,300	I’m not in the special assessment district, but I did want to speak about the parking because I have an issue with that as a citizen of Man Down. I’ve lived here all of my life. I was born and raised here. And I Try to spend My money in Mandan.

00:25:04,370	I am a big patron of the downtown businesses. And I don’t want to see them go under. So we need more parking, not less parking, so whatever can be done here to address the issue I would appreciate you looking at long and hard. I’m, I’m absolutely not in favor of getting rid of the diagonal parking.

00:25:27,670	And I’ll tell you why we’ve had an issue with parking in the city of Madan for a long time, and Comm Sjoberg and I, Go way back to the 80s and The parking authority tried to address it. Part of the problem is, and I think there are, it’s threefold. You have business owners and their employees parking and parking spots downtown.

00:25:52,770	You have tenants who live downtown, who don’t have off-street parking, taking up parking spots. You have hit downtown who conducts training, so when they have their training, they take up all the parking spots.

00:26:16,370	You have the jury who Is given a pass to park all day, sometimes weeks at a time, taking up parking spots. The city employees, the county employees do not have enough parking in the city and the county parking lots. So where are they? They are on the streets as well.

00:26:43,570	The major thing that is a problem in Mandan is the lack of enforcement of the parking regulations as well, and I don’t fault the police department for that. It is very difficult to keep that position filled? Why it is difficult to attract and retain an employee in that position. I don’t have the answer for that. But the fact of the matter is we don’t have consistent enforcement of the parking regulations.

00:27:07,100	So when you take away parking spots, what’s going to happen? People. are going to continue parking as they do past the 90 minute and people like me who come down to patronize the restaurants, the stores. I don’t have a place to park.

00:27:27,900	So it’s a real issue, and I don’t know how to address it, but taking away parking spots is not the answer. Thank you. Thank you, Denny. Um, just a reminder that if you did speak, I think Steve is that, uh, The sign in Please make sure you sign that. Hello, my name is Gerrett Hooker. I’m the owner of Black Lion Pub and Pizza.

00:28:02,630	I’ll keep this pretty short and sweet, um, as a business owner, our biggest concern is the parking. So if there’s any way. That you guys can figure out a way. Make more parking, not take away parking. We greatly appreciate it, um. We’re all on one team here so we can work together, we can figure it out. I know we can. Parking’s a huge thing for business owners.

00:28:24,730	It really is. Trust me, people are lazy. They don’t walk. I’ll tell you that I’ve been in the business 5 years. People don’t walk. So if there’s any way we can figure out something, I think we can work together and do it. No, that’s all I got.

00:28:55,900	own the Golden Comb. We also own the all building on 3rd Avenue in Main. And like for instance, at nighttime when they do their little dance classes, they have 100 and some kids that attend. Let’s say 2 kids per parent even. That’s 50 parking spots. And with little kids, you’re not gonna park two blocks away.

00:29:16,100	There’s not a chance, and she’s right about for safety for the kids. That is like. That is the number one, especially on our block. Because of the kids plus also the canteen on Main Street too.

00:29:30,100	They have a ton of people coming in there and it’s, and I have complaints. I bet I have. At least 2 to 3 a week of all the complaints about I don’t want to park in Main Street, Julie, can we come and park in the back where it’s safe. We can’t get our kids out, Julie.

00:29:40,470	Can we come in the back? You don’t mind if we park back there and the elderly people, they, they got swing the doors way open to be able to get out. So then you can’t do that on Main Street.

00:29:56,730	Plus with our ball bar on our street already, we lost two parking spots, and they keep complaining and then, of course, you know, it’s like my favorite thing is, um, people don’t know how to park. These trucks need at least a spot and a half minimum usually. Then they got, you know, you got the lines, but people don’t know what the lines are for.

00:30:09,200	So you got to count for that too in parallel. Hm, I bet 75% of Mandy and Camp Parallel Park. I would just about bet that, and that includes the young as well as the old.

00:30:24,630	And right now, if you want to go on percent, you guys, I bet right now we have about 85% here versus um 15% that don’t want. The parallel parking. And when you start talking percents, you see, you see right here, and these are just a few of the business owners. So it’s like you have to keep us alive. You don’t keep us alive. You guys don’t have a job. That’s just about what it comes down to.

00:30:42,730	As far as the money goes, I’d like to actually see. If we got all these grants, and did they all come through? And where did they go? I’d like to see it actually in writing because it says 30 here, 60 here.

00:30:58,100	It’s like, I know that’s what’s said, but I’d like to actually see it in writing, so I know where it actually went and did it really come in? And can you guys account for it? You know, we always just take it for granted that you guys do all this and we just kind of on the standby,

00:31:09,130	but I would like to see where it actually came from and, and, um. And the studies they showed up, but like I agree with her, you guys must have done them on Sundays. Cause that place like where he’s at, that’s always booked our streets always blocked. On 3rd, it’s always full.

00:31:26,470	So even with Lewis and Clark there, they need more parking cause a lot more of those people drive now. So I’m just saying I, we are the town. You don’t keep us alive, there’s not going to be a town. Thank you. Thank you, Julie.

00:32:06,030	Anyone else I, I didn’t really prepare anything and I’m not a resident of Mandan, but I am a Bismarck resident. I am a very big you state your name, please? Oh, sorry, I’m Krista Parsons. Krista? Krista Parsons, yep, um, I am speaking on behalf of My friends that own businesses that work very hard. To make a living.

00:32:32,100	And I am one of the people that likes to support those businesses, and I want them to be able to keep their businesses going. By having people come. To see them. It is very important to have The Not parallel parking because to be honest, yes. As she said too. People don’t know how to parallel park around here. They really just don’t, um.

00:33:02,030	For me I see July, you’ve got people coming in for all of the big events for the 4th of July. You’ve got during the summer on Tuesday nights, you have the program in the park where you’ve got people coming to play, things like that at Dykshorn, right? People need to park.

00:33:21,770	Most of these people that are coming to these events too are families, and you also have elderly people that like to go out. Enjoy some time listening to these bands and whatnot play on Tuesday nights. So imagine somebody that’s elderly.

00:33:42,030	Probably isn’t gonna wanna walk further because only having the option for a parallel parking and only maybe having What 30 spots on that street on 4th, and that’s really the closest option that they’re going to have available to them. I mean, yes, I come to businesses, at least. 2 to 3 times a week from Bismarck.

00:34:07,130	How often is it that you have people coming to visit Mandanw from Bismarck on a regular basis. It’s not super frequent, but. The businesses that I know and that I Go to and enjoy myself, a surprising amount of people on a regular basis are coming from Bismarck to these establishments. And like to be able to park. In a reasonable distance.

00:34:32,830	So yes, I understand that there is absolutely a need to. You know, repave to fix things, but there has to be another option because parallel parking on Fourth Street just will not work or 3rd Street or any of those side streets, it just will not work for the amount of people that need to utilize those. That’s all I have to say.

00:34:57,030	Thank you, Krista, uh, thank you. Anyone else? Mr Deitz After, excuse me, afternoon commissioners. Uh, I am Chris Dietz, uh, just a good friend and know some of these businesses. Along with all the fine words that have been spoken about keeping the parking.

00:35:29,370	I, I just think that the there should be some more study on the elevation for the entries for those buildings, and that could possibly be a good benefit to keeping the diagonal parking and that’s, that’s kind of where I’m going out with this as well, just I think some more studies should be done. For different elevation, so thank you.

00:35:48,000	Thank you, Chris. Anyone else Second call. 3rd and final call for comments. Any comments over Zoom? Mr. Neubauer 3rd and final call. Hearing none This public hearing is closed. I will say Um What we would like Uh, is, uh, citizens from that district.

00:36:43,000	The business district Uh, we will be contacting you throughout the process if this. Goes through Uh, so we have your input. Into what we can possibly do. Design-wise So we’re not There’s nothing to hide here. Um As far as money or anything else. Um, I think we all pride ourselves on being as transparent as possible with the projects.

00:37:11,930	So with that, commissioners. Comes Or I would entertain a motion. I’ll make the motion. All things considered. Now you know how tough this job is. I would encourage all of you. To run for the Next election, which coming up in a year and a half. Because this is really difficult tonight.

00:37:44,530	I know a lot of you guys and gals for a long time. Julie and Ross and I go back, Dee and I go back. Um Steve and I go back not that far, not to the 80s, but Keeping in mind that this is about the protest, um.

00:38:06,170	And all other things, specifically the parking. We fall in that 60%. Come So the 30% where we’re at now. Um I’ll move to approve the resolution determining that the protest of street improvement district 236 is insufficient. So we move on. We have a motion by Comm Sjoberg. Second We have a second by Comm Braun.

00:38:51,670	Any further discussion? Yes, Braun. Yes, Rohr. Yes, Sjoberg yes, Mayor Froelich. Yes. OK With that You’re own entitled to. Stay and tell the rest of the meeting if you and if any of you would like to leave at this point. We’re gonna take a little break and allow that to happen.

00:39:19,000	Again, thank you for participating in your city government. And All right, Commissioners. Uh, you have the consent agenda in front of you. Are there any items you would like removed from the consent agenda. If not, I would take entertain a motion to accept it.

00:40:17,130	Make a motion to none, roll call, please. Comm Braun, Rohr. Yes, Sjoberg Heinsohn, Mayor Froelich, yes. We have no old business. We’ll move on to new business consider an amendment to the Memorial Highway cause participation and maintenance agreement Jarek.

00:40:45,100	Mayor and Commissioners, um, this is a sort of minor amendment that has major implications, but something that we’ve been talking about for a while now. Um, this, uh, amendment to the cost participation costs participation and maintenance agreement that we have currently with the NDDOT would Take the Memorial Highway segment off of the state highway system and turn ownership over to the city of Mandan after completion of the

00:41:06,300	projects and would, um, be placed on the functional classification system as a non. Um Non-regional roadway it’d be classified as a local roadway. Um, it’s our recommendation to um approve the amendment as presented, um, but I can answer any questions if you have any. Any questions for Jarek? I moved to a approve the amendment as presented.

00:41:39,800	Second A motion by Comm Heinsohn is seconded by Comm Sjoberg. Any further discussion? Hearing Mayor Dennis there. I just have a one question. We don’t understand that we have the resources to continue the maintenance. Snow removal, and that we’ll be able to meet those expectations.

00:42:05,000	Is that correct? Mayor Comm Rohr, I would probably have to defer to, um, public works director Shane O’Keefe, but my understanding is that we have been acquiring equipment, and we have been anticipating this, um, for quite a while now. So, um, yes. My, my understanding is that we are prepared for this. OK, that was my question. Thank you. Any further discussion? Hearing none Roll call, please, Commissioner’s Rohr. Yes.

00:42:38,100	on new business consider an Eighth Avenue Northwest 24th Street. To complete natural gas main upsizing. Jarek Commissioners, I’m just gonna pull up some documentation quickly. Um, WBI approached the city, um, a while back, um. Asking about a potential road closure of 8th Avenue Northwest and 24th Street Northwest.

00:43:10,630	This is the area just west and just northwest of the new high school site. Um, WBI is completing a major, uh, gas transmission upsizing project. And would include um upsizing of I believe a 12-inch line to a 16-inch line. Um, they are boring this primarily, but they need the extra workspace to get the work done.

00:43:34,200	And they’re proposing a 3 week shutdown at the end of May starting at the end of May, and a an approximately one week shutdown. Um, of 24urth Street starting in the middle of June. Um, I have the exact dates in the packet here and um.

00:43:56,070	Our recommendation, these, I should mention that these both occur after the current or after the school year lets out. But they do occur after summer school starts, um, we have contacted the school district and ran the traffic control plan by them, and they, they signed off on it, um, so they are OK with it.

00:44:15,470	Um, it’s our recommendation to approve the closures as presented, but I can answer any questions, and I believe Mike Johnson is here to answer questions as well. Are we going to impede any residents from, uh, getting to their homes.

00:44:31,230	Mayor, Mayor, I do not believe that they would be impeded from getting in their homes, the only access that is being closed off is one of I believe the high school sites 5 access points. OK. Chair, could you pull up that map that was in the packet, please. Let me see if I can get that. pulled up for you. There we go.

00:44:51,770	OK, so orderer a trail would be off the screen to the left, correct? I can scroll over. It is right there the The, the, the uh Engle Street at the, at the end of the red. That’s, that’s 2/4 Street. Correct. Um So I’ve got a couple of questions. You said there’s a fellow from, um, WBI here.

00:45:26,030	Commissioners and Mayor Mike Johnson, land agent with WBI. Hey Mike. Don’t need to put you in the hot seat here because it won’t be too hot.

00:45:41,870	I just, I want to clear some stuff up, um, you guys have done a lot of background work with, uh, Uh, Jarek and Riley, from what I understand, but just for the people that are are at home watching, um, on TV. Um, One of the concerns that I know is going to come up.

00:46:04,000	For a fact is 8th Avenue between the high school and Walmart, between Old Red Trail and, um,, 2/4 Street is B brand spanking new. Um And I guess, so my questions will pertain to that, uh, brand spank a new section of roadway. Um Jarek mentioned that you’re going to push, it’s, we’re going from a 12 inch to a 16-inch.

00:46:31,470	Natural gas main, correct? And we are just a small part of a bigger picture, correct? This one’s gonna go up to my nut eventually. This is a gasta. Delivered to my aunt, yes. OK. Um, Jarek also mentioned that this is going to be a, a Boring job, uh, not boring as in, oh my gosh, is it super super super super, boring under 8th Avenue to cut to the quick, will that Brand spank and new roadway and

00:46:58,630	sidewalks are those going to be compromised in any way, shape and form, as you can tell tonight. I would like to say no, uh, but it is construction work. Um But we’ll use every precaution, um, and best practice we can to keep the integrity of the road and the sidewalks.

00:47:26,870	The, um In place The Mapping uh was a little bit confusing to me. Uh, there are several red lines that look like that that pipeline. would go. Uh Underneath The new roadway, you can see the, the red lines, uh, to the left of the red. Um, but from what. I think I understand it’s the pipeline itself.

00:47:53,370	is actually in the The ditch lane, if you will, on the east side. Correct. Of the Street Is that correct? That is correct. And if you’re boring it theoretically, everything should Maintain its current integrity. Except for maybe a chip curb or something here and there. Possibly OK.

00:48:19,900	So you guys will be working pretty closely with Jarek to. And we, and we’ll have our inspectors on site and if they see anything going wrong, they’ll do their best to stop it immediately. OK. So Thank you, Mike. Appreciate it.

00:48:40,230	So if the road bed is disrupted or the sidewalk disrupted, what’s the remedy? Give me a call and we’ll work it out. What’s up? Give me a call and we’ll work it out. I’m not, I don’t understand what that is, but uh. In the past, what has been the remedy? Um, if the pipeline is The cause of the damage. Well Do our best to repair the road.

00:49:03,000	OK. Thank you. Any other questions? Carry Dunn, I would entertain a motion. I’ll move to approve a 3-week road closure for Eighth Avenue Northwest. In a one week road closure for 24th Street Northwest to occur between May 24th. And June 24th of 2025. 2.

00:49:37,630	We have Motion by Comm Sjoberg, seconded by Comm Heinsohn. Any further discussion? Mayor, I would just add, you know, we, I, I would say as a commission. There’s been a lot of.

00:49:54,370	For people watching, there’s been a lot of things that have, you know, construction over the last couple of years up in that area we’re well aware of that, um. This would have been great if it, you know, what happened probably a year ago when all the construction was going on we’re gonna inconvenience, um, our citizens in this area again, um, so just keep it, you know, keeping an eye on that 3 week timeline is, is, is going to be important for that, for that

00:50:11,270	group again, so. Just wanted to add that. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you. No further discussion. Thank you, Mike. um, thank you, Ja. No further discussion, roll call, please. Comm Sjoberg Heinsohn Braun, yes, Rohr. Yes, Mayor Froelich. Yes.

00:50:40,630	Item number 3 under new business 2024 Mandan Me one sales tax collection update and public transportation grant program. Andrew Good evening, Mayor Froelich and Commissioners.

00:50:50,770	I’m here just to update you all on staff progress that’s been made relative to a um group. Policy and and grant applications, so In, um, and I believe May of 2024 Mandan voters approved measure one, which was the ballot measure that funded a 0.5 cent sales tax with the specific purpose to fund police and fire capital.

00:51:14,870	Expenditures, um, accessibility enhancements to the building where in Mandan City Hall, as well as create a a reliable funding source for public transportation specifically that which would serve the elderly disabled or socioeconomically disadvantaged. So in order to ensure that we were Facilitating kind of the, the granting of these funds with.

00:51:37,830	Structure and policy in mind. We did go ahead and and try and um And craft a policy so attached to the agenda document is a uh. a couple page policy and an application. That um Potential grantees would be asked to fill out in order to procure funds from the city through this.

00:52:00,770	at a high level, uh, the application kind of calls out the objectives and places the responsibility for the process of the application within the city’s administration department. Um, it spells out that applicants of a wide. I would be eligible to receive these funds provided that they, um, can clearly state how they provide reliable public transportation.

00:52:23,730	So this is really open to a variety of different modes, uh, taxi, private, other transportation, public transportation, fixed route paratransit, for example, we, we see a lot of different things being eligible to receive these funds.

00:52:48,300	The policy then covers a maximum funding amount of up to $500,000 per organization annually, and we do, we do uh requests to receive applications as part of our annual budget, we feel that organizations that apply for funds would provide their budget during our budget season as well. that we can see what they’re. Uh, what they’re, what their goals are for that. That operational year and that we can um Allocate funds during our regular budget cycle.

00:53:07,500	So, Um, it goes into what we expect for auditing and reporting and the process of renewal. So again, um, This is what we would recommend going with. Both the cities of Mandan and Bismarck are working with the sales tax now.

00:53:28,300	We are ahead of the game and and the fact that man and voters were asked to to vote on this, I believe 5 or 6 months prior to Bismarck voters, we’ve already begun collecting sales tax from this. And therefore, um, potentially eligible grantees are are asking for funds from us sooner given that that we’ve just been working on this a little bit longer.

00:53:46,470	So, Knowing that, um, grantees are expecting to be able to apply for funds soon. We are motivated to get a policy in place and be able to accept and process applications going forward. This was worked on collaboratively with um staff from planning.

00:54:03,230	I represented the city on the transit board, so I have a little bit of a of of knowledge about that, as well as administration and the finance department and it is our recommendation that this policy be approved so that we can begin with applications.

00:54:29,170	Do you have any questions? A question for Andrew? I would entertain a motion commissioners Commissioners, if I may, I believe there may be a member of the, the crowd who would, who would maybe just like to provide comments possibly, uh, it’s not a regular part of new business. However, if you would so want to hear it. It’s up to you. Thanks.

00:54:47,570	Mm If Mayor and Comm, I am a member of the transit. And uh I attend the meetings so I can always keep updated on certain elements that affect the transit Bismarckmen in transit with, with this particular. Revenue Thank you, Comm Rohr. Mr. Mayor, Commissioners, I’m Denae Kautzman. I am on the Bis-Man Transit board, but I am appearing in front of you as a citizen of Mandan.

00:55:15,630	I’m not representing the board, um, the, Policy, um, Application, uh, was reviewed by the board and there were no objections to it. I do have information that I want to share with you, and that is that money is going to be set aside.

00:55:40,730	It is not all going to be spent, and I don’t understand that as a citizen when we pass the sales tax initiative, why the city with would withhold money. And I was also told that any interest that accrues on that money will go to the general fund.

00:56:05,570	Now, typically, when there is a matter of funds that are raised for a specific purpose, the interest goes to that specific purpose because that’s what the intent of the money was for.

00:56:22,870	I don’t know if you need to pass a resolution or an ordinance to keep the money in a separate account or so that we can have the interest on that money if it’s going to be held back by the city, but as a citizen, I would hope that that money is spent as soon as it comes in. I also do not understand why there is a cap.

00:56:45,470	For the application, I accept that, but if there is money remaining that was raised, I think that the entities that wish to apply for additional funding should be given the opportunity to do so. If you have any questions for me, I’d be happy to answer them. Questions for Dena. I also want to tell you that Andrew served on our board. And we’re gonna miss him terribly. He provided great, um, advice to us.

00:57:15,370	He is a true visionary and uh he will be sorely missed by the board. Thank you. Thank you today. Andrew Commissioners, we’ve worked with Mrs. Koutsman on this, um, and, and just to be able to kind of close some loops on topics that were brought up.

00:57:39,370	We feel that um Present funding needs that we are aware of can be can be met with the funding cap that that is set in place and we do feel that the funding cap of the 500,000 that we would set per organization per year is, is strategic in a way that would allow for either uh a transportation upstart or or another provider to Access funds and ensure that they’re not all allocated to one

00:57:56,830	certain provider to make sure that there is an aspect of competition, but also an aspect of of funds being reserved in case a provider does come to the table that, that wasn’t there right away. So for that purpose also to make sure that You know, given the fact that sales tax is uh.

00:58:15,030	Kind of a, it can ebb and flow, for example, we could have a stronger economy, we can have a weak economy. Um, we could also have a situation where the sales tax could possibly go away, so we want to be able to have a little bit of a, a piggy bank,

00:58:27,370	I guess we don’t see that as a strong or as a major negative, um, public transportation is an integral part of the economy. It gets people to work. It gets them to appointments and and.

00:58:45,100	Um, and writers are already susceptible to change, so we don’t want this funding to go away immediately as it relates to the interests, I, I don’t speak to that authoritatively, however, um, we did respond to that comment it’s not consistent with city policy to To treat this interest any separately than other special funds that we have.

00:59:05,170	Um, typically if that were to be the case where interest from a specific tax or something we’re collected and and remitted back to that, that fund, it would need to have been done as part of the, the, the measure when taxpayers voted for that, so that’s not how the visitors fund operates or the growth fund or other special funds that the city maintains

00:59:21,500	operates, so. I just wanted to clarify that. How we would handle the interests with it being deposited back into the general fund is consistent with city practice.

00:59:43,630	So, Do you have any other questions for us tonight? And Andrew, um, But my set of ears is hearing from both you and, and uh Dena is that Um Competition is in is is. As far as other potential service providers, um.

01:00:08,800	May or may not be totally welcomed, but you’re, you’re not locking them out, is that right? Uh, set set up would be in theory able to provide funds to at least more than one eligible grantee, yes. OK, thank you. Any further questions? Hearing non commissioners. Entertain a motion Moved to approve the grant policy and application. In a second Motion by Comm Braun, seconded by Comm Rohr.

01:00:46,030	For the discussion, hearing none roll call. Comm Heinsohn. Yes, Braun, yes, Rohr. Yes, yes, Mayor Froelich. Yes. And number 4 Under new business, consider entering into the State Water Commission cost share agreements. Jarek Mayor Commissioners, good evening again.

01:01:17,000	Um, on April 10th, we attended a state water commission meeting that had 3 of our projects on it. Um, we had, uh, applications for the Memorial Highway Project, the 2025 reconstruction project at Monte Drive, as well as our water treatment plant phase 3 optimization project.

01:01:41,630	Um, we were awarded, we were successful in our applications for all 3 projects, um, and we were awarded nearly 1 or $11.7 million in funds to go towards the construction of these projects. And, um, before you today, we are, um, asking to enter in or to approve the amendments to the agreements that we have. With the State Water Commission to accept these grant funds.

01:02:02,530	Um, I could stand for any questions if you have any otherwise. Commissioners Jarek, um, I would just like to. Take a few moments here. Which is rare for me, but I got to stopwatch. Um, is it true that this was a team effort between State Water Commission.

01:02:37,030	are Engineering Consultants No Contract folks for several or all three projects, I’m assuming. And our city staff. Comm Sjoberg, absolutely, yes, um. The engineering consultants particularly are very um very helpful to us for acquiring these funds. I’m not going to get into details here for sake of brevity, but Just so everybody at home knows.

01:03:06,500	That The total figures That the state water Commission approved as of April 10th, 2025 meeting. Um, due to the efforts of water Commission Engineering. Consultants and city staff. Amounts to what in my mind is monstrous. It’s $15,378,319 that y’all have.

01:03:41,870	Removed from the backs of Mandan citizens, and Um As a citizen of Mandan I cannot commend you guys. High enough for taking that weight. Off of The shoulders of The hardworking people in Mandan, so thank you very much. Uh, sincerely appreciated.

01:04:06,470	Absolutely, yeah, the State Water Commission is doing a lot for us and making a lot of projects around our city possible and yeah, absolutely big shout out to them as a project partner. Any more questions for Jarek. If not, We take these uh. One at a time And it’ll start with the uh Memorial Highway. Look for a motion to approve. I moved to approve the cost share. Amendment as presented for.

01:04:41,000	Item 4A Memorial Highway. We have motion by Comm Heinsohn, seconded by Comm Braun, any further discussion? Hearing non roll call, please. Comm Braun, yes, Rohr. Yes. Sjoberg Mayor Froelich, yes. The Monte Drive 2025 reconstruction. I’ll move to a prove cost share amendment as presented. Motion by Comm Sjoberg, seconded by Comm Braun.

01:05:15,670	Any further discussion? Hearing none roll call, commissioners Rohr. Yes. Sjoberg, yes, Braun, yes, Mayor Froelich, yes. Water treatment plant phase 3. I moved to approve the cost share amendment as presented. OK. Motion by Comm Heinsohn is seconded by Comm Braun. A further discussion. Hearing none, roll call Commission Sjoberg. Hi Sean Braun Rohr.

01:05:46,100	Yes, Mayor Froelich. Yes We will move on to item number 5 legislative update, Mr. Neubauer. Mayor Froelich and Commissioners, um, this will more than likely be your last legislative update until January of 2027, so you’re welcome. The uh, if you heard the legislator convened early in January and recessed.

01:06:20,300	On last Friday or early Saturday morning about 4 a.m. A lot of significant bills were in flux up at up at that time, um, the main one we’ve talked about over and over again is House Bill 1176, which deals with the primary residence credit, um, right now, if you’re familiar with that, would be the $500 credit that uh you needed to

01:06:39,030	apply for, um, that will be moving to $1600 so an $1100 increase, which is all good news, of course. Again, same type of deal, I think you’ll always need to apply for that for your primary residence, um, the other piece of that was the 3% property property tax cap, um, which will require a

01:07:00,400	significant public education on how that works and a lot of work between the North Dakota League of Cities, North Dakota Associate of Counties, Park and Rec, and schools to figure out how that exactly gets implemented and things like that and those processes have already started.

01:07:15,300	The other one we’ve talked about many times is House Bill 1577. Um, that was our wastewater treatment plant and um collection systems grant that was originally started about $50 million went to $25 million and then went to $0.

01:07:38,870	Part of that funding was um when the grants there are a couple of federal grants that were killed at the federal level for cities such as Lincoln, um, I think $7 million I think Fessiden, North Dakota, there’s an intake project at Watford City, um, that totaled a goodly amount of money that, um, some of these funds got moved to because those communities have been planning

01:07:54,930	on those projects, um. However, the good news in that is normally um when the legislature hog houses a bill and passes a study resolution.

01:08:16,800	It usually is, well, will a study happen or will a study not happen? The language put in to this bill is that the legislature shall study wastewater treatment plant funding, so it is a step forward while there’s no money attached to that, um, that is on the positive side.

01:08:32,870	The, the other one that received a lot of attention, I think the last few weeks of the session was Operation Prairie Dog or Prairie Dog money, we kind of thought that might be going away at one point in time, and then those funds moved into a Department of Transportation bill at the end of the day, that did not happen.

01:08:50,470	Um, the prairie dog, um, there’s a stream of oil and gas tax money that comes in funds the prairie dog funds or municipal infrastructure funds. Um, that is still being worked out all of the details because I think at the end of the day there were some compromises made and to try and ensure that funds, those buckets would fill by the end of the 2020.

01:09:13,370	5 biennium, which would be June of 2027, um, so there’s some changes in there, um, but the opportunity for those buckets to fill, I think, went up with maybe some amounts being changed at that level, so those pieces are still being looked at, so again, um, session is over if you heard that there, you know, the speed limit, the governor signed that that bill that, you

01:09:29,200	know, 80 miles an hour doesn’t really affect us in town, um, hopefully no one’s going 80 miles an hour, but there may be some changes as far as point.

01:09:41,470	s and fines and things like that that again we’re still looking at those bills to make sure if we have to make any changes at our level, so. If you have any questions, would be um more than willing to try and answer them for you. Questions for Mr. Neubauer. Well, thank you, Jim. Thank you. Now we’ll move on to resolution and ordinances.

01:10:09,830	Item number 12 consideration of ordinance 1464 zone change from CA commercial to R7. Residential for lot 9 block 1 developers West Acres. 2nd edition, Andrew Mayor Freeli and Comm Ordinance 1464 is here for a second consideration. It was presented at the April 15th meeting for the first consideration and the recommendation is to approve no changes have been made. We haven’t received any comments.

01:10:29,830	Uh, do you have any questions for me? Any questions for Andrew? Hearing none. Um Go ahead. Moved to approve the second consideration of ordinance 1464. Second Motion by Comm Braun, seconded by Comm Sjoberg.

01:10:58,530	Any further Yes. Mayor Froelich. Yes And now the drum roll. Because this is Andrew’s last appearance before the city commission. Is it? I think so. It is. And we would like to thank you very much. Don’t be surprised if I come back, I guess, but yeah.

01:11:26,830	So a second consideration of ordinance 1465 is own change from E.g., agricultural to CB commercial. For lot one, block one, MDU edition. Andrew, make it a good one. Yes, Mayor Froelich, this is the zone change for the property to be the MDU lineman training center down the road from the Central Dakota Humane Society in Northland and we’re recommending approval.

01:11:49,630	It was presented for the first consideration in our April 15th meeting and you approved it then. We’ve received no comments or questions. Do you have any questions for me? Where are you going? No. Any questions for Andrew? Here and now I’d entertain a motion. I’ll move to approve the second consideration of ordinance 1465.

01:12:10,930	Second We are moed by Comm Ha Chan is seconded by Comm Sjoberg. further discussion, hearing none, roll call, Comm Braun Rohr. Yes. Has Mayor Froelich. Yes, and Andrew, thank you for your 4 years serving Mandan and you did an excellent job. And good luck in the future.

01:12:37,800	There is no other business, Future meeting dates for the Board of City Commissioners. May 20th, 2025 at 5:30. That is a regular commission meeting, May 27th, 2025 at 5:30. Special meeting, working session, long range financial planning. They’re into June, June 3rd, 2025 at 5:30 regular meeting in June 17, 2025 at 5:30 regular meeting. See no other business before