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 along with Man City Administrator Jim Neubauer. I'm Tom Gerhart from Dakota Media Access, and Jim, we're knocking on the first official day of summer, and it finally feels like summer out there. It's a gorgeous out there, Tom. So, um, for folks that have to work, sorry about that. For all of us have to work, and for those that don't get out and enjoy it because it seems like a pretty nice trail or a golf course and and. Enjoy the day. Well, uh, we're here to recap last night's city commission meeting and coming up on Current we'll be talking about city employee recognition, a pretty neat deal. You introduced new employees last night and then also recognized others for their years of service. We'll, uh, provide an update, a recap of the Mandan Art Alley project and talk about a grant application that could bring some additional, would bring some additional firefighters. To Mandan, but first, let's start with the new employee in the work anniversary recognition and announcement. So a number of new employees and then a number of employees with various years of service, but one gentleman has, uh, was recognized for 4 decades of 40 years of service and congratulations to Dwayne Freeze. He is our water treatment plant superintendent. Uh, Dwayne started working part-time, summertime in high school, um, during his. What do you call it quad. Decade here something like that but uh you know, 40 years for Dwayne does an awesome job at the water treatment plant. I think he's been through water treatment plant optimization phase 1234, 95 um I'm not sure what the count is right now, but, um, Duane's worked his way up through the ranks, obtained many certifications in that, in that world, and became the water treatment plant superintendent several years ago and, and, you know, congratulations Dwayne, 40 years in. With one entity is kind of unheard of nowadays and really, um, we started to do our employee quarterly work anniversaries to give those awards out for 35, 1015, 40 year awards along with every quarter we're going to bring in um some of the new employees that we have hired. Um, one, it demonstrates, you know, here are long term employees here so. Shows some of the newbies you can have a career with the city of Man and so it's a good combination to have and also to like I said recognize those folks and um our new hires we love to bring them in so that they can meet the commissioners. Here's what a city commission looks like commissioners can meet them and so if they see him on the street or see him out in a. You know, snowplow or uh crack ceiling, um, the various projects that we have going on within the city. So it's, it's a nice combination to have. Yeah, and the photo, uh, that, uh, I have here, Jim, just kind of shows that cross section of the employees that. Were recognized last night and as you mentioned Dwayne I guess standing to the left of Mayor Frelick and to the right of your screen, uh, again recognized for 40 years but I thought it was really cool just watching and as you mentioned we're seeing everybody from a new employee who's working in an obscure area of the city all the way up to, uh, you know, uh, everything from A to Z that was kind of fun and I can see where that's a valuable thing for. The employees and then also the commission to interact like that. Yeah, and we think that's, um, we really like doing that and, and some folks don't like getting up and being recognized for that, um, but we think it's important, um, it's not a, you have to show up, it's, it's like we'd like you to show up, we present you with a certificate. And also for the new employees to see that, you know, one interesting thing about Dwayne is I think his, uh, both of his sons have worked also part-time out at the water treatment plant, so it's kind of been a family tradition. I don't think any of them are working there now. Um, but again, super congrats to Dwayne does a great job for us and he's lived through many transitions No, no, yeah, no, no kidding, going, uh, all the way back out at the water plant. into what would that be the 80s, I guess. So, uh, like you said, he was working there, um, part time when he was uh in high school. Well, Matt Shanadoor from the Mann Progress Organization, excuse me, also, uh. Uh, spoke last night, a little recap of buggies and Blues, and as we were talking about before, uh, we were on the air here, that ended up being, uh, an extraordinarily windy weekend, but it didn't stop folks, and we heard anywhere from, I thought Matt said up to 30,000 people over the entire weekend, but you said you've had quite a story when you popped in Sunday. I was 50 mile an hour wind gusts. I was shocked, to tell you the truth. Um, we had been out at, um, Manon Airport for pancakes and planes earlier in the day. And they had all the planes were, you know, tied down and, and unfortunately, usually there's some Snoopy and the Red Baron planes that are flying around at the airport during that time. Um, that didn't happen again because of the, the 50 mile an hour winds. We left there and, and drove downtown because I just want to say, OK, who's all, what's this gonna be like? And I was totally blown away. Um, by the number of people that were downtown, so kudos to all of the folks, the, the food vendors, the bands that have been playing Friday night through Saturday and on Sunday for all of the folks that came out, um, I know I think Matt said 22,000 people roughly on Sunday. That means you had probably 4000 on Saturday and 4000 on on So great event continues to grow in popularity and, uh, Friday night. like I said, they changed a few things up with the band. In the stage location which we heard, yeah, that looked really, really cool. A lot of compliments on, hey, we get to sit in the grass and we get to, you know, we maybe we should have advertised bring your lawn chair, um, to watch the bands because a lot of people did that and and instead of having to stand in the picnic tables we had, we're all filled up with folks, so you know, congrats to the NPO. And all the sponsors that help, you know, those events don't happen without sponsorship. I mean, you talk about all those people, of course, that's a lot of business for the businesses and just recognition for Mandan and kind of a fun side too, I think Matt said the headlining band was from California. I can't remember if he said Orange County, but. It was their first time in North Dakota. So Orange County, so they got taste of the wind. Maybe not the Santa Ana wins from California, but they had North Dakota wins. And, but again, great turnout, great crowds, uh, the bands were awesome, and again, kudos to all the folks who helped put that on. Matt and, and the crew at the MPO along with and like I said, um, without sponsorships that go in there, um, these events don't, they just aren't possible. No public hearings last night, uh, and, uh, the consent agenda was passed unanimously, but I just wanted to talk about one item on that consent agenda I found interesting and that was, uh, a contract that was renewed with the Heart River Correctional Center and. And tell us what you're able to do with those agreements uh that helps the city out. Yeah, um, we have again agreement with Heart River, um correctional facility where we are able to contract with them. They will bring out folks and help weed whipping at the weed whacking, whatever you wanna call it if you're from New Jersey, like the former fire chief, it'd be weed whipping and well, that's weird. I, I've never heard that. I like that. I'm gonna use that. So, um, they help out getting the cemetery prepared for Memorial Day because of the, I think there's 8000, um, grave sites out there, and we need a little bit of help getting those prepared and ready to go, looking good. They do garbage clean up in the ditches, um, on the way out to the landfill and around the landfill and also around town they'll do snow shoveling in the in the winter time, so it's a great asset for us to have and it it's pretty economical for them to do too, so. Um, it's good to have that resource available to us, and we, we certainly do make use of it. Uh, we got an update from the Bismarck Man and Chamber EDC. New business. They appeared at the Bismarck City Commission last week, but Uh, just wanted to reiterate, I think a message there was just how critical workforce development is and how it goes hand in hand with economic development, something certainly they're working on for, uh, both the cities. Yeah, big shout out to Brendan Eagle, um, who came in and did a very nice presentation to the board. Um, we like to have them come in and, and say, here's what we're working on because we as the cities of Bismarck, Manden and Burley Morton Counties are members of the Chamber EDC. And what are you doing to help us out and talent attraction and workforce development is top of mind of everyone. If you're trying to find employees, there's a lot of programs out there that are trying to help people get people here and I, I would throw out one of those things that one of the most interesting things that we find out is if there is a family connection. Um, if you, if you know of friends or family that are living and working out of state, um, they most likely maybe want to get back to North Dakota, and there are jobs available for them here, and we find that, um, that is one of the critical key parts of talent attraction and workforce development is if you know someone who knows someone. Encourage them to go job hunting here if they're looking for a move and uh I said I think that's a big part of the talent attraction program with the Chamber EDC. So again, kudos to Brenda for coming in, uh, does that about, you know, twice a year and gives an update on here's what we've been doing and away we go. So, and you guys have a nice connection. Mayor Frelick, uh, Brenda mentioned is on the board of directors for the. Chamber and so uh he's up to speed on everything he's up to speed. We have um other commissioners and that will attend their government affairs and local issue committee meetings and things like that so there's a very good participation both from our elected officials, our staff, and also from, uh, members of the community that serve on those boards too. Want to talk about the 2025 business pitch challenge, uh, some money that available in the Man and Growth Fund, I believe, $15,000 they're looking at and. Uh, just a neat way to encourage entrepreneurs to come forward with some new ideas. Yeah, great, uh, I think I can't remember if this is the 5th or 6th year of the, of the business pitch challenge started kind of modeled after, um, a lot of people watch Shark Tank, and you know. Really what it's doing, it sets a deadline out there for entrepreneurs or well I'm thinking about starting a business. I may not, but this gives them that extra push and a lot of help will will help you um have resources available to help people get their business plans ready. Um, you'll come in and do a business pitch and then they'll be ranked and graded by members of the community and so. What's different this year is we're looking at a instead of a $10,000 1st prize award, which will continue, adding $3000 for 2nd and and $2000 for third, and these are all in a forgivable loan so that if you're, you have a certain amount of time to get your business up and going and uh you have to stay in business for a certain amount of time or that, um, forgivable loan doesn't isn't forgiven based on the number of years that you are open. Um, so it's not without some clawbacks. Some protections and there's not, uh, I'm open for a year and then I'm out, but, uh, again we talked about sponsorships for Buggies and Blues and all the events in Man and great sponsors, um, help us out in this program, and, uh, we're looking for that I think in this coming October, November, um, so keep an eye out for that, um, and again we, we heard feedback that we heard was like, hey, it'd be nice to have. You know, not just your grand prize, but 2nd and 3rd place would, would be able to share in that too. So and that's why this idea was brought forward. Yeah, I like the idea of spreading the wealth and giving others some opportunities and that, you know, that 3rd place person could end up being, uh, the most impactful entrepreneur You know, and that's how it has worked in some, in some years down the road. where their top prize winner will get going, they'll open their business, but maybe there's someone who didn't make the finals. And they have, you know, we've got a couple of examples in man and of those folks that didn't win, but they have very thriving businesses going right now, so we think it's not just the first place prize, it's you might be 5th, you might be 4th, but it gives us entrepreneurs a reason. Let's, let's get off the dime and let's do something because we've been thinking about it for 3 years and let's go for it now and, and like I said, having that deadline in there I think makes, makes things move a little quicker. Another item on the agenda aims to bring more visitors to Mandan, and that's the Mandan Heritage Valley Art Project. They're looking for, I think, $35,000 more dollars from the visitors fund and Uh, we have a lot of photos of examples of what this art alley could look like. Bismarck has one. I think Erin Barth mentioned last night this whole concept originated out of Philadelphia years ago, but really a neat opportunity to bring, I think, 14 artists to the first couple of phases of this. It'll be, um, and again, one of these grassroots projects that was spawned, I think, out of a meeting we we held, um, last May in May of 2024. You know, how do we invigorate? How do we get more people downtown? We know that a lot of people like to walk the alleys in the evenings in kind of the entertainment district and the, the idea of murals and alley art came up and Um, I know that Matt Shenando was instrumental in Andrew Strami, our former city planner, were instrumental in moving this forward and got, um, Aaron and his crew to buy in, um, in February of 2025. They came in and said, hey, we've got, we've raised the money, we're not gonna ask anything from the city. We're good to go. Awesome. They put out the call for artists and they got overwhelming response on from artists and they said, you know, we're gonna need a little bit of help financially. To do this now, um, so the visitors committee met last week and approved, you know, with up to $35,000 and the commission approved that last night. So, and these folks are ready to go and a lot of very good questions last night about, um, the artists who they were and give us some examples of that work and I think Erin did a nice job of of sharing that information while they didn't depict here's exactly that piece of art that will go on that building. It's a matter of here's an example of what we can do and here's a story that I kind of wanna tell and we'll go for them, not me personally because my stick people wouldn't really be a great, you mentioned your abilities inabilities is more like, um, and so great project, um, commission was very supportive. They wanted to know, OK, how is this going to draw more people downtown and we think just, um, yeah, the fact that It'll clean up the alleys in some ways, a lot of talk about graffiti and things like that, and I think what's been shown over and over again is that. Taggers or artists don't like to mess up other artists' work, and that is, you know, if you look through the alleys right now, it's, you know, there's some things that have occurred that aren't the best and with this additional money that's being provided. You know, the, these folks that know what they're doing are going to be doing it. It's not Jim and Tom gonna go out there with, with our stick figures and our, our can of paint that's been in the sitting in the basement for 15 years and, and try and do something. Uh, these are professionals, they know what they're doing. They know what kind of applications to put on. They know what will work. And so, and thank you to the business owners that have provided. The um the platform for those for that to be done on this and I think Erin said they've got 14 or 15 locations and they've all signed off and says yes we want to be a part of this and again we, we think it's it's great and we think that you know you're alley walking and things like that, um, we mentioned last night that, you know, put the art in the alley and then the idea is to make it a safer place to walk. So next project we'll probably be looking at some additional lighting. In the alleys to make that, make sure that happens, but you know, kudos, we're looking forward to to see what happens. Yeah, absolutely. I'm looking forward to taking that walk myself. Uh, the acronym SAFE, yep, uh, you know, uh, but that's our next item on the agenda is, uh, a grant from the Homeland, uh, Department of Homeland Security that the chief made, but, uh, utilizing some federal funds to. Bring an additional 6 firefighters to man down. It seems like a win-win proposition. It is, and that's part of our long term planning process. Um, a lot of the meetings we've held with the commission since the beginning of the year, you know, what is our long term financial plan look like, um, from a personnel from a monetary standpoint. This, um, one of the things that was key on the commission's list was how do we make sure that we have adequate staffing for the two stations that we currently have. And, uh, Fire Chief Bitt said, you know, by applying for 6 new firefighter positions, we're not assured we're going to get that grant at this point in time, but the commission approved applying for it. Um, if we get 6 more positions, and a good part of that is funded through this grant, I think for about 3 years, and then they become ours and our responsibility, but we can get those stations fully staffed with at least 3 people on each shift. And Chief Bitt said there's a plan for sustainability if people are wondering, well, what happens when the grant runs out, but it really initially gets the firefighters here and in place, uh, much more quickly. And again, it, it's a matter of, um, those discussions have been happening with the commission since, you know, the first part of January and what are the priorities and how do we fund these things and this opportunity came up and. And these opportunities aren't there all the time, so it's a matter of let's apply for them. Um, if we're successful, we'll move forward. If not, um, we will, you know, look at things again and then go to Plan B, um, but again this is a is a good, is a good opportunity for us that we don't want to pass up this interesting, uh, topic next, I think when you talk about growth of communities, uh, what's happening in Mandan Case we're talking about a second development of Lake in this. Shores Lakewood Shores, excuse me, and you know, uh, the city is working with developers and developers are working with the city to get these things off the ground and in this case a couple of bumps in the road that you guys are trying to figure out I guess I would say. Yeah, we've had many discussions with the developer of Shores of Lakewood 2nd edition and 3rd edition and 4th edition, um, on a development agreement and that development agreement really lays out the expectations on the developer. And the expectations on the what is the city gonna provide, what is the developer gonna provide? And we wanna make sure that those expectations are clear and they're all met and they're all agreed upon before projects So again, it's a really good document that we've utilized in move forward. the past, say, here's what the developers are responsible for, here's what the city is responsible for. In this case, we reached a couple of, I'll call them, uh, impasses. With the staff and the developer and needed a little bit of direction from the commission on which way they wanted to go on 3 or 4 items. We got that direction and now we will sit down with the developer again and kind of work through that agreement and make sure that, um, you know, when we bring it forward in July 1st, I think that we will have those things ironed out so that all parties can move forward. And that just shows that, you know, things just don't happen. This is a long term development. We man to make sure that the city's interests are protected for all the citizens of Madden and things are done right, and the developer knows what to expect from us, and we know what to expect from them. Yeah, I think, you know, the end result always looks easy whether you're talking about a musician or an actor or an athlete or in this case a city, but there's so much work that goes on behind the scenes to make it look easy in the end. Yeah, so. And we would, you know, from a staff standpoint, we would love to bring agreements to the commission that are all everything's worked out and it's all good to go sign it and approve it and let's go in this case, um, we were saying no from a staff standpoint to a few items that the developer wanted to do and we just said no, no, no, and it came to a point where all right, commission, um, let's let's get some feedback from you and then we can move this process forward. Just wanted to bring up, uh, something on, of course, Memorial Highway, uh, reconstruction continues and there was uh. A move for a change order last night that was approved but it would bring a more substantial uh level of asphalt and uh to a temporary roadway essentially and then just to make it a little better surface, uh, in the meantime while construction continues for this year and next year. Yep, the crux of that was that change order which there's no additional out of pocket costs for the city man and or our residents because of the funding formula on this project. But the second piece of that is giving the city engineer the ability to approve change orders um to a higher dollar amount so um so that this project can continue to move forward. And again, it's a 100 million+ dollar project. There's going to be things that are unforeseen and things that need to be changed and, um, the ability to do them quickly. And and move the project, keep the project forward versus, hey, we've got, maybe there's a change order that comes in today and we've got 2 weeks before our next meeting. Well, we've got a, there needs to be some movement and like I said, so we up the level of the change order ability for a city engineer to make and again it these are for no additional costs out of the city's pocket. It's, it all affects, you know, the federal and state highway funds. We'll have another, uh, edition of City Current July 1st, I think, as you mentioned, uh, or second before the 4th, but just wanted to remind folks about the man and Independence Day parade because it's such a significant event and with the construction on Memorial Highway, just, uh, just throwing it out there. Yeah, we're, uh, it's always good to remind folks, um, there was a change in the staging area and like I said with all the construction going on Memorial Highway. Might want to leave a little early if you're coming to the parade, and it might take you a little longer to get out, um, when the parade is done. So just a reminder for folks to, you know, plan accordingly, um, look at our uh C Manan website or Man and Progress organization or visit Manan websites, and they will have some updates on where to park and how to navigate a lot of the construction that's going on this year, and it'll be the same next year and probably the 3rd year after. Um, so again. Uh, Matt Shenando, his crew has worked very closely with our all of our emergency service providers to make sure that traffic moves as smoothly as it can, or will there be hiccups? Absolutely. Um, but again, things are gonna be a little bit different this year, so Main Street will still be filled with the parade. It's just that there's that part from the staging area. Uh, to Main Street, which will not be um available for spectators. Hard to believe we're talking about July, uh, as we all know, the faster. Yeah, we've got a lot of sunlight, I think I was about 9:45, 10 o'clock and going wow, it is. I don't, but it's. Uh, likes that summers are short in North Dakota and folks certainly need to get out and enjoy them when they can just like today. Yeah, we wanna do, uh, uh, I guess when we were talking about the Memorial Highway, but, uh, we have the QR code and phone number and website that if you want to stay up to date, uh, that's a way to do so to find out what's happening, uh, on Memorial Highway is, as you said, this is a long term significant project, but Easy access to information online by using that QR code or or you can call as well. in a lot of going on and uh you know, use caution when you're So lot's going on traveling Memorial Highway. Continue to uh participate and partake in the businesses on there. We always, you know, if you go to the man and visit mandan.com, I think the. Additional money on the on the gift card program is still there, um, so I think 25% onto your purchasing power we can say that yes correctly. And just a reminder that you can uh watch City Current. You can watch Amanda and City Commission meeting, the Morton County, all the meetings on our DMA app if you want to download that on your iPhone or Android or wherever you are, and we also have our radio access 102. 5 app and you can listen to our podcasts and all of our uh DJ producers with all their excellent music phone uh music shows so you can find us wherever you are whenever you can. Jim, great to see you. Thanks for having us as always. Yeah, have a great day and thanks for watching City Current. For more information on what was discussed in this episode of City Current, visit cityofmanan.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@retv.org. This program airs on Government Access Channel 2 and 602 and 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 freeTV.org. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of City Current.