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. Welcome to this special edition of City Current. There are three of us. Usually I'm with one or the other, but end of the year special I guess you could say the city current super show. Whatever you want to label this. Uh, we've got a lot of hot topics to pass along. I'm Tom Gerhart from Dakota media access, joined by Mandan City Administrator Jim Neubauer and Bismarck City administrator Jason Thomas. Gentlemen. Good morning. Greetings. Thanks, Tom, for having us. All right. So we all we all. Got to get along end of the year special. But I did want to say eight months into the job. I appreciate how both of you Have stepped up to the plate and helped me navigate all these things, and it's been a lot of fun doing city current. The hazing starts at month nine. Okay. That's right. So the new year, keep. Up sleep with one eye open. 20 2026. Look out! Be careful. Watch where you stand. All right, all right. Lesson learned. Well, like I said. We've. Got a number of topics. We're going to be looking back at things that happened in Bismarck and Mandan in 2025, and then looking ahead to 2026 and kind of start with the hot news, which last night at the Bismarck City Commission meeting. The Bismarck Event Center now has a third party management group. And Jason, what does that mean moving forward for events for the city and possibilities? I think the main thing is that it means a lot of optimism, a lot of enthusiasm, working with a new group to imagine how to better utilize the facility. Not to say that it isn't being well used today, but I think one of the things that I've learned over the last almost two and a half years that we've been talking about the event center and transitioning through these various phases. The event center needs a constant churn of conferences, conventions, things that are in the facility for multiple days at a time. Because what that does for our community is it brings people to the hotels, to the restaurants, to the stores, and that they leave their money in our economy. It infuses the local economy. That's a wonderful thing. But as a Bismarck resident, as a member of this community, I have also learned that this community is screaming for entertainment and excitement. And a perfect example. We had a sell out concert in early November. We need more of that too. And by partnering with this third party group, we will then be connected to their entire network of performers and talent and entertainment. And the Oakview Group is the name that was recommended by the selection committee. The Commission approved the next step, which will be the contract negotiation on how we get to working with this third party. Hopefully in the very early stages of 2026. But the Oakview Group, one of the kind of appealing things for the selection committee members is they also manage the Alaris Center in Grand Forks. And so we are far enough away from Grand Forks that the talent that would be coming here can also be booked there and vice versa. And so that kind of gets us into this buying power atmosphere, where now we have exposure to tours and performers that we may not have had contact with previously. So I think from the entertainment side of things, it's very exciting from the management side of things. This group is international. They've got over 300 facilities between Canada and the United States that they manage, and so I trust that they are going to come in with very intentional standard operating procedures and training and opportunities for the staff to learn new skills and hone the skills that they have. Because one of the questions Commissioner Zenker asked about the staff, what happens to them on day one, and all of them will be offered jobs on day one. That was part of the expectation. That was part of the request when we sought a third party to manage manage the facility. We wanted to make sure that the staff had jobs as well. And so moving forward, we'll get into contract negotiations. We hope to bring back the full contract at the second meeting in January. So a month from now and then we'd be looking at first quarter of 2026 to really start to see people in places and hopefully some changes happening in the near future. All right. Well. Quite a way to end 2025. Your last meeting of the year teeing up 2026. And both cities had commission meetings last night. Hence all of us together. Jim a couple of hot topics in Mandan too. And big events I guess is what I wanted to talk about. The Santa run extreme cold recently. Uh, now it'll take place December 20th, which as of this taping is is this coming weekend, but a big event for Mandan and just had to move things a little bit with the weather we've had this December. Yeah, kind of crazy. Last Saturday it was a tad chilly. I think we were in the zero or negative, and I don't think there was going to be a lot of people that wanted to get out and put their Santa suit out and run. And if you're interested, I think registration is still open. So this Saturday, on December 20th, the postponed Santa run will take place. Yeah. All you will see around town, all of our street closure and street markings don't park on the street here and there. So that's what that is all about on the west end of town. So again, Matt Chandler from Mandan Products Organization, as part of all of the holiday lights, come on down to Sharon Park every night of the week. Those are going encourage you to do that. And this is another event for folks to take part in. And I'm amazed. I think they have 300 plus registrants already. And again, with that registration. You get your long sleeve shirt and you also get a Santa outfit. So it should be fairly interesting. And I saw the finisher medals on line two. Those are pretty sharp. Uh, it starts at four and then runs right into the dark so you can see the lights, right? Nice pun there. But yes, it will run into the evening. No pun there either. But again, we encourage folks to register online and do all that stuff through the Internet Progress organization. So looking forward to it. Bringing people downtown, um, you know, families, friends. Come watch the start, watch the finish. Um, partake in a beverage or a meal afterwards and just kind of hang out. And again, holiday lights have been open and it has been a little chilly. So attendance has been down a smidge this year. But this last week, attendance went way up during the nice weather that we've had to date. Well, let's stay with you. And a Guinness World Record attempt will take place with fireworks December 31st, also in Mandan. Yeah, brand new event. And it kind of kicks off our the country's 250th anniversary to start out with. The location will be just to the east of the Subaru dealership, up by the newly constructed Mandan High School. We encourage folks, this is a kind of a show you need to watch from a certain angle, and it's a head on. So if you can go online and purchase parking tickets through the Mandan Progress Organization, parking will be available in the high school parking lot, different sections and things like that. So watch for traffic on the 31st. I think the show starts around 10:00, but again, a world record attempt at, I think the number of 250,000,

00:07:32,601	um, I can't remember what the term is for the, the things that they'll put off, but it's also a really good fundraiser for some of the wounded warrior things. And and also for the honor flights to DC. And again, please go online, purchase your parking passes and things like that. As many folks as you can fit into your car. So it's a per car charge. So if you harken back to the days of the movie theater, how many kids can you throw in the car in the trunk and everybody starts popping out afterwards? Encourage folks to do that online. Register and again, be mindful of traffic in this area during that time. But I think a world record, Pegasus is coming in and doing the show, so we're really looking forward to that. As a as a kickoff for the 2026 year and the 250th anniversary of our country. Well, let's stay with this two 50th theme. We had quite an event in Bismarck last July 4th. Jason and I know you have some new news you can share about the July 4th, 2026 as well. Very pleased to report that we will be back at the MDU Resources Community Bowl in 2026, thanks to PSC, of course partners there, MDU as one of the major sponsors of the Community Bowl. Bismarck Public Schools will have some activity going on in the summer, some construction activities. So we've met with them to figure out how we can all coexist. But we had a great experience in 2025, and we're super excited to be back in 2026 and this will. My hope is that this is our new forever home for Bismarck, 4th of July, year after year. And I don't know, are there any details you can talk about or at least recap from last year and other food trucks? There were games and dunk tanks and all sorts of things going on. Yes, and so we're in the planning stages now. Um, certainly very mindful of the 250th anniversary and working to elevate the experience. The Bismarck Mandan Symphony Orchestra has committed again. So that is a tremendous experience. If you haven't been to that type of a show before. That's that's a great component of it. But also planning for increased family friendly, fun activities for people to do during the daylight hours, because of course, summertime we've got light until past 10:00. So gates will look like. Yeah, gates will open early and there will be, as you mentioned, food trucks. There will be various types of entertainment. We're not quite ready to announce the big act, but we're definitely pursuing something that would be very memorable for for guests and all of that. So as we get closer, we'll have more of these events solidified, or obviously there's going to need to be some fundraising done. This is going to be a big event. The city will contribute again, as we have in the past with financial support for the fireworks. And so if you're if you're looking to learn more, please feel free to reach out. We can share some information and connect you to some people that can make some things happen. Well, Tom Gerhart trivia, I guess, conducted the symphony at one of the 4th of July celebrations. I don't remember how many years back it was. I had no idea what I was doing. I went to rehearsal, but, uh, they put up with me. But it was fun, Jim. Big fireworks, of course. Always around the 4th of July in Mandan as well. Anything that you want to share about the two 50th coming up in 2026 on your side of the river? Yeah, I think we should call the first half of this show as fireworks. Yes, it's all about fireworks. I know we're doing like we just talked about on New Year's Eve. Bismarck will have fireworks on July 4th. I think we're in progress. Organization is looking at a July 3rd show up in that same area as middle school and high school looking at, you know, shells that are going off to 2500ft in the air. So a pretty big show. I won't do my really big show. I just did right. For those of you who remember, um, Ed Sullivan, I think that really is dating me. And Jason's going, who is that? I've seen him on an infomercial once. There you go. YouTube. Um, but again, big things with the the parade, the rodeo. Um, 4th of July, art in the Park. I know that Matt Chandler, again, is doing a lot of kind of some different things with the parade this year. I think we're limiting, not we, but Matt and the MPO were limiting the number of entries to, I think 75. And you need to be decorated up as a float. You can't just drive your your tractor in with no festoons or anything else on. It needs to be an actual float decoration. So we're trying to coordinate all that. And I think he's got some pretty nice commitments so far from marching bands and other other folks that are highly supportive of of making this a really good. It's going to be a compact but a really good show. We'll have some construction activities that are we need to work around, as always, from Memorial Highway to the west end of Main Street and things like that. But again, 250, we're looking for a big celebration, also coordinating some of those activities with we get a lot of partners in for the parade from Bismarck Police Department, Mandan and Morton Police Department, sheriffs, our public works crews. There's also this little thing called a Theodore Roosevelt. Presidential Library. Or grand opening that week. So, um. This past year, we did a lot more in terms of security for our events. Because of all the things that are going on in the world, we continue to make improvements on that, and it's a very significant coordination effort. Um, with everything going on in Medora on that same week also. So all of the folks in North Dakota will be very much tasked during this time period to make sure everybody is safe and enjoying all of the activities that go on. So look forward to a lot of things to come. That's a good point. There is a lot to look forward to. Exciting to think about 2026 and all the things that will happen. Let's get back to some of the big stories, and Jason will go back to Bismarck and the police department. There's a land purchase in northeast Bismarck that will lead to a new police department down the road. That was a big story in 2025. It was it was a kind of the culmination of a several years worth of work, not just internally thinking about it, of course, but exploring where is the best location, what land is available? What would the cost be to procure and then develop upon? As you mentioned, yes, we, the city of Bismarck, purchased ten acres of land in northeast Bismarck right off Century Avenue near Centennial, and we are just now going through the process to interview architects that will help us design this facility. And we would be looking at probably construction in 2027 if everything works the way we're hoping it does. So that'll be an exciting process for the members of the police department. I know our police chief, Jason Meyer, who is the new chief this year. Another another little story there. I know he is very excited to be a part of what this new facility looks like. We also should mention that we're not just walking away from the existing police station on 700 South ninth Street. Part of the task that we will ask of the design professionals is to help us reimagine what the existing facility can do for law enforcement. So we're not talking about necessarily like a precinct, but more of a how can we repurpose this building for training or some of those types of uses? We don't have those answers yet, but we'll work through those questions as we get as we get started in 2026 with the Design Professionals. Gym, a story that is going to take up a couple of years. Memorial highway reconstruction, uh, got off to a start this year, and they were able to work late because of the nice fall until recently anyway. But, uh, pick things up again in 2026. What's the latest and what are we looking forward to? So right now we want to make sure that folks understand that you can still drive Moral highway through the end progress organization. We've done some ad bys to make sure people can see and visualize. Yeah, you can still drive there. It's fine getting into the businesses and things like that. So that's all been working. like I said, trying to encourage folks to continue to shop. Memorial highway, even though you may think there's construction going on during the wintertime. Those entrances to those businesses and those businesses continue to need your patronage to survive. Like in all construction projects. So this past year, we were hoping to have from roughly the east side of Midway Lanes through, um, the intersection at where First Federal, the credit union is. And we're hoping to have that done. That didn't happen. Um, rain delays, some other contractor issues and things like that. But, um, that should be finished up. I think there's a new July 9th, um, deadline out there that says that East half will be done. Um, bids have been awarded to starting on the west half around where Riverwood RV is and work our way coming. I think in 2026 will be kind of Main Street up to that Riverwood RV intersection. And then we want to make sure there's a lot of coordination that happens because we don't really want to have both ends of them where a highway tied up at the same time. So let's finish the east half, then we'll start on the west half. This will probably be going into a third year into 2027. Where then it's from Riverwood RV to the other side of Midway Lanes and finish that up. So it's going to be a long process. Um, I think Northern Improvement was the successful bidder on this one, on this west half of the construction projects. We're looking forward to that. Starting a lot of off highway work will be done in the spring from storm sewer improvements that we need to have in place before you start building the road and then running that water someplace. And it will go eventually out to the Hart River in coordination with the Lower Hart Water Resources District project on some levee work that needs to be done. So all kinds of moving parts. In this puzzle, we always talk about how do you put all these together. There's a significant coordination effort to make all all that work in a way that is beneficial. And at the end of the day, we know the product is going to be awesome. Memorial highway will be. Curb. Gutter. Streetlights. New. The underground power lines are going to be buried. And that process already started with MDAs cooperation. So much improved driving surface on the strip and people will look today and not really have a sense. But if you drive on the new part, it is roughly two feet lower in elevation than the old street was, so there's significant differences in there. We use caution. I think it's still 25 through there and be safe. But again, we're looking forward to that construction starting in 2026 in the spring. Yeah. Major project. Well let's talk chickens. We'll start in the side of the road. This is a story that was alive and well in both Bismarck and Mandan this year. And a revisit for chickens and in Bismarck in 2025. And ultimately the commission. Same outcome as. Before. An outcome is. A revisit of a topic, but it was not successful. Uh, the, uh, the at the time, community development department today. Now the planning department have done a little shuffling within how we structured ourselves. But, uh, staff went through the exercise stakeholder group. Lots of feedback, lots of input, lots of support. But in the end, the commission at the time, I believe there were just four commissioners at the table. We had one that was absent. And so the we didn't have an odd number, and we ended up with a bit of a stalemate and it resulted in no support for chickens. And so this is the second time that city of Bismarck has gone down this path. And, um, I guess, frankly, I'm not so interested in having a third discussion with this one. I think we probably need to let this one go. And we do still allow chickens in the extra territorial area. So if you live outside city limits, that is potentially depending on where you're at, if you're under Burley County jurisdiction, no chickens, but if you're in the ETA, yes, chickens. If you really, really want chickens, I guess I would encourage you to talk to my good friend Jim over here, because we know Mandan supports chickens, allows chickens, and continues to have people that are doing the right thing, getting their permits and having backyard. I think of all the things that Jason and I deal with on a day to day basis and a year to year basis, and if we look back in our careers and go, what did you ever think you'd be having? How many hours are spent talking about chickens? I mean, it is crazy, but it is, you know, for some people it is extremely important. They are like pets and we understand that. And for us when we pass this, oh goodness. Five, six, seven years ago, um, a lot of discussion pro and con and we it was a learning experience for many of us. Um, we have not had many issues, if any. Um, regarding chickens, we always find, you know, the chicken community I think is a chicken community, and they know who has chickens and who doesn't. And they will report someone, probably who doesn't have a proper permit or their coop is in the wrong area or they're not following the rules. But like I said, for us it hasn't been an issue. We probably spent a gazillion hours talking about how we make and do this right. And there's some pretty specific rules that you have to follow if you are going to have, um, chickens within city limits. And like I said, knock on wood for us, it hasn't been an issue and we'll continue to move down that path. So hopefully we I agree with Jason 110%. We can kind of leave that discussion and move on to other items forever. And I know it was serious and I'm not, but it it just got to a point for me watching on when the the phrase chickens at large came up in the Bismarck discussion and then images popped into my head of, you know, arrest or on the run photos of chickens. And then how funny chickens look when they're running, because they do. They don't have arms. They have one anyway. So hopefully we don't have to talk about any more chickens. But it it although serious and a lot of people really, really, uh, care deeply about them. There was a little bit of humor in it for me. That's all. Probably not for both of you. I think when we were going through our discussion in Mandan on this, it was during a legislative session and, um, Senator Dwight Cook had called me over for a the Finance and Tax Committee hearing. And unknowingly, it was during our discussion on chickens. And I walk into his committee room to a bunch of people clucking. And so, yes, a lot of humor was going on. And it was I, I said, yeah, that's good. Now what do you want me here for? Um, but I think, again, different communities around the state are having these discussions. We are not unique mandates, not unique. Bismarck is not unique in these discussions. Some communities say yes, some communities say no. And it's it's a preference. And like I said, we get you know, we get questions all the time on can you send me your ordinance and how does this work and where can the coops be placed and what's your number and things like that. But again, every community is a little different in how they see things. And, um, you know, Bismarck and and we are a community, but we have, you know, there are some differences in the two. Well, you mentioned the ETA, Jason. That was another big story this this year in Bismarck and the combined commissions and Burleigh County and City of Bismarck working together and ultimately decided to update the to the boundary. And what did we learn from that? Uh, what we learned, I guess from the city's perspective, I believe 95% of the current ETA residents would be no longer part of the city's jurisdiction. And maybe to back up. For those that aren't sure what ETA is. It stands for extraterritorial area. It is a jurisdictional zone that cities have through North Dakota. Century code state law enables this to happen and what it's meant to do. It's a planning tool for cities that are going to help plan for the growth that is coming. Where planning can be compromised is when we bump into rural subdivisions where we have large lot single family homes that are sitting on, you know, acre and a half to five acres of land. Those are not urban sized lots. Those could not functionally be a very efficient part of a city. So when cities are growing, if you bump into those existing neighborhoods, it can create challenges. Uh, there were quite a few comments from county residents concerned about the jurisdiction. Who do I go for a permit? What rules do I follow? And so after several months of discussion, a new negotiated boundary was identified. And both, I believe the city and the county have approved that map. And so the staff on both sides are working through the next steps of, you know, ordinances transferring over any sort of permits that are open as far as construction will want to make sure that those get closed out in the city before those properties transfer over into the county. And so at the staff level, there continues to be a fair bit of work. But I think at the commission's level, I believe this conversation should be pretty much buttoned up and we'll move forward accordingly. We'll still have some jurisdictional area to oversee. As far as the ETA and those are the intentional areas where we are growing, we are going to be going to continue to grow along highway 83 to the north. We're going to grow to the northwest and of course, to the northeast, out along I-94 and beyond into that Silver Ranch neighborhood area. So those areas are very important for us to be mindful that we are anticipating urban development, but outside those areas, it'll be up to the county to decide what that future land use looks like going forward. We'll hop back across the river and talk about demoing the old Mandan High School. Correct. What are the plans to redevelop that area? Well, you. Folks will see. Um, school board has awarded demolition contracts on that. They've been working in there removing some of the asbestos and other hazardous materials within the school over the last few months. We expect full scale demo to start here, probably in January or February. They will fence the entire site, so it'll be safe from having people trying to enter and exit and things like that. From what we understand, the very little material will be ending up in our landfill, so a lot of it will be crushed on site. The steel and the copper, it will all be recycled and things like that. So we're not expecting a lot of hauling of material to our landfill, which is awesome. Preserves, our landfill and things like that. So folks will start to see that this, um, this winter. And we look forward to that. And again, as part of the bond issue was included in cost to demo the existing site. And that's what we had voted on. So that that facility will come down, the all seasons arena will remain. And that is part of the Mandan Parks and Rec system, and a lot of activities going on there throughout the year. The the city, along with the schools and parks, were able to secure a placemaking grant probably 2 or 3 years ago where it was, you know, a whole study on what what can you reimagine these 17 acres to be after the school is down? And you know what? What makes sense? And neighborhoods were invited, the whole community. We had several public open houses on, you know, pick what you would like to. How would you like it to look? What would you like to see? you know, from a city of Mandan. From a transportation standpoint, we want to ensure that there is adequate roadway and infrastructure system to expand to the west. So we don't want to be blocked and have to find several other routes that are more expensive and more challenging. We want to make sure that whatever development happens on this site, that we can continue to develop, move to the West. So right now, I don't think there is anything on the table as far as concrete. We want to come in and build, you know, 300 houses or anything like that. The plan that was developed would kind of talks about transitioning from the single family to multifamily to some commercial development. So and orderly development, you've got kind of a blank slate there right now. So let's make sure that when we plan this, some green space and let's plan it in cooperation with all the entities and what's best for the future of our city. So again, we look forward to the demo beginning. And like I said, we think it'll be very a very safe site. We want to make sure that everything is protected in there and the contractor has room to move around. But again, most of that material will be recycled and not hold off to landfill, so we're happy to see that. Meanwhile, Bismarck Jason master planning for the airport eventually, as busy as it is, some additions, some big movement this 2025 on on plans there. Yes, we have been exploring basically adding on to the terminal. Uh, there's a number of needs within the terminal TSA the screening area, uh, when the airport was originally built, it was right after the 2001 September 11th attacks. And so security at that time looked tremendously different than it does today. And for anybody that's traveled through the airport, you'll know that the the TSA area gets a little congested. And, um, the other idea, the other concept here is to add additional, uh, connecting points or jet bridges for more aircraft and with more aircraft. Hopefully that becomes more destinations, more options, more competitive pricing for travelers. But we have definitely seen a continued uptick in in placements after the Covid situation where we had a record low boardings. Obviously in 2020 with everything being pretty much shut down, but we year over year are continuing to see travel, leisure travel is strong, business travel is coming back and so we are going through the process of what does that next phase look like at the airport? And it's a big number. I'll be honest. Um, we don't have all the, excuse me, all the funding mechanisms in place, but oftentimes with airports in North Dakota, it becomes a blend of revenue, whether it be state aeronautics, local jurisdiction. Of course, federal aviation will have a number of requirements, but then there would be some grant opportunities available there as well. So this is a big project. The airport was finished in 2004 I believe was when the terminal was opened. So we're 20 years passed and the place looks great. It's run very well, but we're also thinking about the next growth phase and how do we accomplish that. So that'll be something that we'll continue to talk about throughout 26. And hopefully we'll have a plan for looking at some construction in the not too distant future. Speaking of construction or demolition or who knows what Mandan City Hall. Jim, it's something you've shared a lot of talk with me about. And what's the latest there? What's what are possibilities moving forward? Yeah, right now we're having some a lot of internal discussions, which we've had several studies done on the existing. It is a 1933 34 World War Memorial building. I think you've heard me say before, the first indoor swimming pool in North Dakota is what our finance area occupies right now. As you can imagine, City Hall didn't move in there until the mid 70s. City Hall and all of its functions were at the downtown fire station, which housed everything from police, fire, public works, assessing, building inspection, um city commission chambers and things like that. So in the mid 70s, there was a renovation of the lower level as it as you know, it's it's kind of a challenging building to work with one because of it's like a split level house. It's tough to get handicapped accessibility moving. Um, obviously we do have a lift to get down to the lower level and commission chambers and all of our offices, but upstairs now, since the new star and sports complex was constructed and gymnastics has vacated the upstairs. Um, what do we do with this space? We have. We know we have needs for, you know, every window of all the rooms. Um, handicap accessibility needs. We need some more room for our folks to be able to function efficiently where some areas were kind of jammed in like sardines right now. Heating and cooling is always an issue. We've talked about summertime. Everyone has a dehumidifier next to their desk running. In the wintertime. You have your individual space heater because the the hot water, the steam and the forced air heat in one building is it's challenging to manage and like is it. We know that we have some definite needs there. So we're continuing to talk and look and say, okay, does it make sense to renovate this building? Um, we've gone through some, uh, with our brownfields assessment grant. We've done some assessments on what kind of hazardous materials we may have to deal with in there, uh, if and when we remodel. But those questions are ongoing. And, you know, what does that look like for the future? Because Covid changed a lot of things. A lot of whoever thought people were able to work remotely and do it efficiently. So we have all of our staff obviously in City Hall during Covid, we moved some folks upstairs to give some separation. So we do have room to maneuver within that facility. Just a matter of how do we, you know, it is a complete gut and remodel. Everything needs to come out and everything needs to go back in a manner. And how much does it cost and does it make financial sense? And like Jason said on the airport, what are those funding mechanisms that may be in place to to help pay for that? But like I said, it's come to a time where we know that we need to deal with this and deal with it in a financially smart manner. So right now it's possibility that you remodel or it's a possibility. I mean, everything is on the table, right? Right. We weren't sure based on the history of the building on is this a Morton County building? Is this a city of Mandan? What jurisdiction actually owns the facility? So we had our our friends attorneys look, look through that and render an opinion that yes, it is City of Manhattan's decision. There actually are a couple leases that are outstanding. The Morton County Library used to be in in the City Hall building. Apparently, there's a lease out there somewhere that we haven't been able to locate, but we need to, like, end that lease. Um, and it would be while the county doesn't have the final decision on what happens to the building, it's a matter of. Yeah, you should go tell them. Here's what we're looking at doing to get give them a heads up. And, um, like I said, I think that when the building was constructed, there had to be a place for the VFW to have meetings and the American Legion. So whatever we do, we still have to continue to have a space for them to meet. We we have a conference room in City Hall. We call the Veterans Room. Um, a lot of activity is going on there each and every day. And we know that they meet there one Wednesday a month and in the evening, and they come in and they they do their thing and they're out. And so we are providing that service for them now. So there's some couple little things, but at the end of the day, we weren't sure if it was. Can we tear the building down? Can we raise it and build new on site or what can we do? We needed to find some of those answers out. And so now we have those answers that say, you know, your options are all still available to you. So we're taking steps. Back, uh, back in Bismarck, riverfront public spaces. Jason. So down under the Grant Marsh bridge, kind of that area will be Park area, ball Park. Yeah. Thank you. Will be a lot of development in the near future. Yes. Uh, a couple of years ago, the Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation approached the City of Bismarck commission and said, hey, we've got a concept for reimagining this Gilbert Park area. And of course, many of us recognize that area as a boat launch. There was some sculptures in the area, vault toilet, but it's also along the riverfront trail system, so it gets a lot of attention. It, gets a lot of traffic. But the Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation came forward and said, we've got a concept that would reimagine the space and open it up to give more people access to the river. Not everybody in this community has a boat, a trailer, jet ski, all of those types of things. And so the city Commission at the time agreed with some stipulations. And ultimately, the land did transfer for the Abraham Lincoln Foundation as the owner of the parcel today. They have been intentionally working with a local landscape architecture firm to come up with a master plan for this facility. From what I can tell, there will be a building that will provide some community space and community options, but then also there will be some playground equipment and a bandshell performance area, a water feature, not a splash park, but more of a natural water feature. And it's all being designed in a way that is very complementary to the riverfront itself. It's not your traditional primary color playground with swings and, you know, teeter totters and that sort of stuff. But we hope to see construction get started in 2026. Obviously, there's some demolition that needs to happen with the existing asphalt, and you've seen some of the sculptures have been removed already and repurposed. The Thunderbird sculpture went to United Tribes Technical College, the Lewis and Clark and Sakakawea statues that were created for the bicentennial in 2004 were scooped up by the town of center. And so they'll be repurposed a little north of here as well. And we just wish the Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation all the luck that they need to to make this work. I know they've got some grant funds and some tourism dollars in the bank today, so that will go towards the first phase of development. And I'm really looking forward to seeing this space evolve over the next few years and re-imagining how it could look. The keelboat went north to pioneer. That's right. I should mention that too. Bismarck Parks and Recreation District was intending on preserving the keelboat, and so Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation partnered with the Park District. The park said hey, we've got a spot up at Pioneer Park. And so for the Abraham Lincoln Foundation came in and hired a crane service and contractors and found a new home on the north end. Well, Jim, you alluded to this earlier, that West End reconstruction, downtown Mandan boy, another big project that especially in a really busy, busy area. Yeah, this is a project we've been working on for many years. From a if you think about from Collins Avenue to Sixth Avenue on First Street and all the avenues in between, actually to Second Street. It's significant work needs to be done. Um, there hasn't been a lot of obviously, we've been maintaining those streets to the best of our abilities. But sidewalks have deteriorated. Streets have deteriorated to a point where there's just not enough to mail an overlay Anymore. And part of this we split the project up into, I think, one, the first phase that we'll do hopefully this summer. Um, it starts out with bids going out in February, I believe. We had a lot of issues on one of the issues there. The biggest one is trying to provide Ada compliant sidewalks and parking spaces, and that's caused a lot of consternation from the neighbors in that area. I think we have worked with our engineering firm to come up with some real, really good solutions. So I think we're able to move forward and move past that. About a $6 million project of that, I think $500,000 will be assessed locally. So there's a lot of grant money that's going into these projects. And again, it's part of our effort to move from, um, in the downtown area where we know avenues. You know, we talk about Mandan being a hub and the downtown being so many activities. We talk about the holiday lights, we talk about art in the park in the 4th of July and Bugs and Blues and pick your favorite. Everybody's walking in our downtown area, and we notice when we have businesses that are vibrant and very successful like we have now, there's a lot of foot traffic, and we want to make sure that that foot traffic is able to maintain and travel in a safe way, and also vehicular traffic. We're providing parking that is meeting all those Ada requirements that we need to meet. So bids will go out, I think in February last I heard hopefully award in March or April and construction start and again we're moving from Sixth Avenue down about two blocks to the east. And again, reconstruction from Main Street up to second Street in part of our what they sometimes called downtown proper, and where infrastructure in this area has been in need of updates and redoing for many years. It's just a matter of finding those funding sources that are available at the time to make it possible, because we realize there's some older housing stock in this area. And folks, um, it's not like a brand new development where you assess all those new costs to the brand new 4 or 5, $600,000 house. And here we don't have that housing stock, and we know that some of the limitations, and we're always trying to find as many grant opportunities as we can to make these happen. And that's what we've been able to do in this area. And so we're we're hoping that moves forward this this spring. Uh, something else, uh, moving forward. Community triage center for Bismarck. A lot of discussions this year. I know behavioral health, for instance, is a huge topic everywhere it seems, and trying to find something to address a lot of needs. Yes. The Community Trio Center has been a project that Renee Mauk, director of public health, has been a part of for, gosh, probably seven years now kind of culminated very recently. We had a health management partners, a consultant come in and evaluate what would a triage center actually do? What would it look like? How would it perform? What is its function and its intention is to address, as you mentioned, mental health, behavioral health, addiction. And ultimately many of these things are part of that formula that can occasionally lead to homelessness. And so public health has done a great job evaluating all the services in the community and recognize that there are some very core services at the foundational level of some of these problems. And and not suggesting that public health is going to be the one to run this facility, but public health is in the driver's seat to facilitate this conversation, to bring the partners to the table. We keep talking about blended streams of funding. This would be another example. We think about the hospitals and the burden that becomes on their emergency departments when people are homeless, seeking shelter, seeking treatment, seeking mental health treatment issues. If there was a place to perhaps intercept some of those individuals and get them into the care and the treatment facilities that become long term steps towards recovery, it frees up some of the situations that the hospitals would be experiencing. But also, it's no secret that Bismarck has its challenges with homelessness. And we've seen that many summers, many winters. For consistently now, this isn't. This isn't intended to be a low barrier shelter or anything of that nature, but it's intended to get people to the services to treat those underlying issues that could be leading to the homelessness that comes with it. So continue to work on this and continue to work with state partners. Myself, I was appointed to a.

00:43:40,467	Interagency Council on Homelessness by Governor Armstrong. So we'll begin to meet early next year. This is kind of a dovetail off of some of the work that Governor Burgum had been doing in this area as well. And so looking forward to partnering with not just the local service providers, but also the state on on what is the the bigger picture solution to not going to suggest that we're going to end homelessness in North Dakota, but we are going to try and get our arms around these situations and hopefully prevent people from experiencing those scenarios. Both cities have new fire stations coming online. Jim, latest on Fire Station three. Yeah. Last night, the city commission approved starting negotiations with epoch firm that had made a proposal on architectural services to start that process of what does a new fire station look like? APC has several examples of work they have done around the state of North Dakota. I think even in Bismarck. Bismarck, they're working on Fire Station six with us right now. So it really falls hand in hand with that as we continue as a community to grow to the northwest in Mandan, our response times are lagging far behind where they should be. And our commission has said, let's take that step. Let's start planning for that. We've we're starting the process of hiring additional career or full time firefighters to get us to a point where, um, you know, if we build that station, we will be able to staff it. When we did Fire Station two down in the in the Lakewood area, we built a station because we had the funding available to build a building. We didn't necessarily have that funding available to at the time, staff at adequately how it should be staffed. So we're still working on that because like I said, sometimes you can build a building, but the staffing that is the long term continual need that becomes how do we pay for things like that. So in this case, we're we're making a more cognizant effort to say, let's get our staffing to a level where we can actually put people in a building so that we don't give folks the false sense of security, that, hey, there's a fire station here, and why aren't you here in a minute when there's a fire station next door and we're going, well, we don't have staff to get there, so there's always that juggling act. But again, we started the commission, approved starting those negotiations and with in conjunction with Fire Chief Bits, we will meet with the architectural firm and start negotiating that contract and hopefully bring something back in either before the end of the year or at our January 6th meeting to move forward. So again, a big need in our northwest part of town. And like I said, one of those first steps you take and then get that in place, we'll get some cost estimates and then we'll put those funding packages together. And you already mentioned fire Station six, Jason. That's southwest Bismarck, uh. Burley Avenue. Burley. Avenue area. Yep. We're very much in the design phase right now with EBC, the group that Mandan has brought in as well. I think EPC has done work for us in other fire stations as well. And so, um, really Avenue. Jim mentioned response times. That's exactly what drives these locations. It's not just where do we need another fire station, it's why do we need another fire station? And currently the southernmost station in Bismarck is a long expressway. That's station two. It was opened in the late 70s. Response times into some of the neighborhoods, particularly south of. There are more than we would prefer. We would prefer to be able to respond to an emergency within 4 to 6 minutes from the time the call comes in. Some of our response times are exceeding eight, nine, ten minutes in those areas. And so that is a concern, which is what initially we were expecting to build a fire station in northeast Bismarck, up in the Silver Ranch neighborhood. And then some analysis and some data caused us to think differently about that. And not to say we won't build a fire station in northeast Bismarck someday we will. But for now, we are designing Fire Station six on the south side. The exact location. We're still kind of vacillating between a couple of spots, but primarily we're focusing on land that the city of Bismarck already owns. It is part of our wastewater treatment plant facility, so it would be on the north side of Burley Avenue and west of Washington Street. Well, speaking of wastewater treatment facilities, all these unique. Ways we practice. These. Nice work. Thank you. They should have seen all the all the practices we went through. Uh, huge project. Going on, right? Huge project in Mandan. Yeah. This year big. I mean, this is, uh, like. We talk about, um, this is one of our three biggies that we're looking at. And a wastewater treatment plant facility. Our current facility is was built in the late 90s. Um, population at that time, 16,500 people were now, um, 25,000. Um, it was built for expansion in mind. And at this point in time, we're looking at it's time. Um, wastewater treatment is something that everyone in the community needs when you flush, when you when that water goes down the drain, whether it's your sink or whatever, um, it needs treatment before it gets moved out to the Missouri River. And it. This isn't a boy. I wish we could do that. No one, I think, comes into our position says, I really want to do a wastewater treatment plants because it's those things that no one sees that everyone expects, you expect when you open your faucet, water will be there. You expect when you flush, things go away. And that's part of it is just an expectation. This is a very expensive expectation. We've had an engineering firm working on preliminary cost estimates and what's the proper treatment and things like that. We had a second engineering firm we hired to kind of do a peer review. And now that peer review is coming to an end and we're finding, okay, we're pretty much in the same spot, but having another set of eyes on that original engineering firms take on it is always a good thing to say. What else might there be that we can do? But you know, price tag is the plus $100 million mark. And we know that that is a significant hit. If we had to pay for that all on the backs of your utility bill, we're probably talking a 70 to $80 per month increase. So we're looking at some sales tax options to say, you know, how might we incorporate this into the expiration of the study and sports complex sales tax to kind of say, okay, that will be paid off years ahead of schedule. And I think that looks like we're in 2027, 2028. And when we do that, the potential of having another sales tax help offset part of that cost for wastewater treatment plant is again, one of those funding mechanisms we're looking for. It's interesting when you look at streets or other infrastructure projects. There are funding grants available out there, but wastewater treatment plants are kind of this thing that no one ever wants to get into. And we, you know, we were very supportive of a bill in the Legislative Assembly this year to provide some money for that. Um, federal government did some things and took some funding away from some communities where I kind of like the pot of money that was identified to help out these projects went to some other communities in North Dakota that were on the cusp of saying, we're going to do this now. Here's the federal funding available, and then federal government, you know, that money went away. And so I think the state backfilled some of those projects. So we're always looking and we will continue to look to help find some more supportive methods to pay for that. But again, it's a significant project, significant time. And it is one of those this is an expectation of like a fire station. You know, one of the things that I'm sure Jason and Chief Base talk about our you know, I'm always surprised at the number of people you need to fund a full time position 365 days a year. We all think that, oh, you've got a firefighter or a police officer all the time. Well, it really takes, I think, five humans to staff one position full time, 24/7, 365. And if you're running a crew of firefighters, you want at least three people. So you're talking at 15 people to staff a station. And that comes at that's not a minor cost. Those things are significant and they add up. But again it's an expectation in the community. And we need to figure out the funding mechanism to make those things happen. The one time cost of building the fire station itself and purchasing the fire truck and all the equipment. That's minor compared to the forever cost of having staff in this building every day, all the time and continuing to maintain it. So I think one thing that we have found out, even when you order an apparatus, is fancy terms with fire, fire truck. Right. Whatever fire truck, you have it. It's a four right now. Um, we ordered one two and a half years ago, and our fire chief and battalion chief just went out and did the final. I think they said they had 600 lines of decisions to make on that fire truck, to make sure it was built to our specifications, and we might get it a year and a half from now. So it's a four year build, or it takes four years from the time you put the order in until you're going to get your fire truck, and that's on a good day. And we're not unique in that. I think every community faces that. And even in the private industry we talk to, you know, the the marathon refinery has their own fire brigade. How long does it take you guys to get new fire truck? Four and a half years. Okay, we're not unique in that. So, um, but like I said, these, like Jason said, these are long term, forever expenditures, but you need to do those for your communities. As a citizen, just like the water, you expect the fire department to show up when you need them. And they're not pretty. They're not sexy. But a wastewater treatment plant is. You must if you need to have that. Yeah, it's an absolute. And as far as waiting for years to get a fire truck, let's not even talk about the price tag, right. It's a million and a half. 2 million, depending on what features, what components you need on these trucks. So not only is it a specialty long term process, it's unfortunately really expensive too. We're down to our final topic, uh, land development code discussions and Bismarck this year. Really? I mean, learn like, it's kind of a quality of life thing too, for residents in the community. What what discussions took place and what's the update there? So we continue to work through our land development code. Another translation other term for this would be zoning ordinance. These are the regulations that allow things to happen on certain pieces of property. It addresses residential, commercial, recreational, industrial, a variety of uses. And we have enlisted the help of a couple of different third party consultants to walk us through this. This project is much bigger than our staff are able to dedicate the time and resources to, but it's also helpful to bring in new eyes, new ideas, new perspective from other places. And there has been a tremendous amount of community involvement and engagement because ultimately, we want the residents to have a hand in what is the future of this community look like, and just seeing some of the changes as they're coming forward. I believe that the land use code will be considered more, um, more user friendly, not just looking at the ordinance online or in a book. We're going to start including images and graphics to help explain some of these Scenarios. What is a setback? What is a rear yard? What is a front yard? These are terms that the planners use and contractors and builders use throughout their normal course of business. But if you're a first time homebuyer or you're building a house, you you might have not put these nouns and verbs together in that sequence before. So having graphics, having images to help people just visualize what it is we're trying to accomplish, I think is going to be a significant improvement, but also just finding the land code to be more user friendly in the terms of, uh, smaller lots for a developer that's interested in perhaps more affordable housing approach, uh, shorter front yard setbacks, instead of having 25ft in your front yard, we're going to go down to 15ft. Why is that important? Because it can help reduce the lot size. It can help kind of narrow that street feel. So you're not in these large, wide open corridors. It all comes down to, as you said, quality of life, a sense of place. Again, maybe there's some touchy feely terms for the planner types that are out there, but in the end, it all comes down to what does your community look like, what you know, the street, the corridors coming into your community. Are these welcoming areas, are these friendly, or is it kind of driving in on the back side near an industrial park and some of those things? So it really gives everybody an opportunity to just kind of visualize, what do we want this community to look like as we continue to grow and hopefully we will continue to grow. We've added 20,000 people in 20 years. That's a very sustainable path for us. And this Land Development Code should open the door for continued growth and development as we proceed into the future. Well, that puts a wrap on 2025. Any last words of wisdom? I can say thanks to both of you for your leadership and to all of the I mean, city workers on both sides of the river. Uh, boy, I've sure gained a lot of insight into the amount of work that happens behind the scenes, day in and day out to give us the services and that make us love these two communities so much. So it's been fun. Yeah, I think from my Jason, I'm sure echo, Jason and I are friends and we work well together and when we have issues we will be texting and calling each other. What do you guys doing with it? We talk about zoning code and we're working on our zoning code. Also was in a meeting yesterday where stormwater management where does your water go when it comes off your eaves and your and your downspouts? Um, we're picking up some of the things that Bismarck is doing so that in our community you have the same builders, the same developers and all that, so that it makes it more transparent and easier to work with so that one community isn't doing something completely different than another community. And it helps us from a staffing perspective to is that, you know, we're we're working on the same things, we're facing the same challenges. And I think all of our city of Mandan staff and City of Bismarck staff worked really well together. Dakota media access is one of those entities that we we jointly fund, and we jointly have meetings together. And you all come over to Mandan and and record our meetings from parks to schools to metropolitan planning organization, all of those entities that you're working for. And like I said, I think this is one of those entities that is a great cooperative effort on both of our behalf. And like I said, I appreciate Jason and his staffs and his commissioners. I think we know all of the commissioners back and forth are free to go where we see them out and handshakes. And how are you doing, Mayor Schmitz? And and pick those things up. And I think, like I said, we are a community, and I think we do our darndest to make sure that it's seamless moving between the two. That's right. Well, gentlemen, we'll see you back here in 2026. Thanks for all the work again and thanks for watching and listening to City Current. We'll see you again next year. For more information on what was discussed in this episode of City Current, visit City of mandan.com or call (701)667-3215.

00:59:37,467	If you have any suggestions, comments or issues you would like addressed in Future City Current episodes, contact us at info at free TV. 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 and as a video viewing link at free TV. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of City Current.