00:00:14,070	At. 515 on February 24th, we’re in the Tom Baker Room of the City County building. This will be the Board of City Commissioners meeting. However, before we start, if Chaplain Stanton would be able to come forward and give us invocation and lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Father, we come before you today with thanksgiving.

00:00:36,100	We’re thankful we live in North Dakota, which you have blessed bountifully. All of the oil, gas, minerals and the farmland, the cattle, livestock. We just praise you that we can live here and we thank you for your abundant blessings.

00:01:04,300	We ask today for protection for our law enforcement, our firemen, emergency responders. Uh, we be with them today. We pray for our commissioners today. Give them wisdom and discernment as they make decisions concerning our city. And we just ask you to bless this meeting and God bless America. And.

00:01:37,900	Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you sir. If we can call the meeting to order, call roll, please. Commissioner rice here. Commissioner Zenker here. Commissioner Connolly here. Commissioner Cleary here. Mayor Schmitz here. Our first item is public comment.

00:02:06,770	Public comment is restricted to the items on the consent agenda. The regular agenda or prior city commission agenda for the regular agenda. Be excluding any public hearings. So anyone who wish to speak, please come forward and state your name. Sign in and tell us which topic you’re speaking to. You can bring it down. Break it down. Okay, perfect.

00:03:07,670	Thank you. You’re used to be on this side of the table. Um, mayor Schmitz, commissioners, thank you for allowing me to this time to share my thoughts with you this evening. Just for the record, state your name. Oh, I will. My name is Mike Schwartz.

00:03:26,470	And by way of introduction, uh, I’m a long time resident of Bismarck. My folks moved here in 1968. Um, my wife Connie tells me. Reminds me that, uh, we’re going to have lived in our house on First Street for 40 years here in May. So been around for a while. I’m an Eagle Scout.

00:03:46,670	Uh, which, um, if nothing else, signifies to you my dedication to public service. I’ve served two terms on the Bismarck Park board. And as Mayor Schmitz knows, I am starting my 14th year on, uh, planning and zoning as a volunteer.

00:04:08,970	So I volunteer, um, as a as a service to you on planning and zoning and to the citizens of Bismarck and I, I thank you all for, uh, for the service that you provide, provide to Bismarck the item that I’m here to visit with you this evening is the last item on your, uh, agenda from your February 10th meeting, which is the, uh, street utility and maintenance fee.

00:04:30,030	And I just wanted to let you know that, um, I’m here this evening because I oppose the replacement of the existing special assessments and, uh, moving it over onto the utility bill. And the reason I do that is because I believe that the current special assessment fee process allows the citizens of Bismarck a voice in that process.

00:04:57,630	They’re notified when there is a street project going on next to their property. They’re allowed to know how much what that is going to cost them. And then addition to that, they have the opportunity to protest it. If they so choose to do that.

00:05:19,570	And you know, it, it to me, it encourages public participation in the process. And it, uh, it allows people that are paying, paying for the project to actually have a voice in what’s being done. Um, I think that, um, the current, um, change the possibility of a street utility fee is, has really has two problems.

00:05:46,830	First of all, it’s a bucket that, uh, just accumulates dollars and can be used by, you know, whenever, wherever city administration sees fit with really not much without much citizen input. And then and then secondly, in addition to that, the the other issue I see is that the charge for that fee can be bumped up without any city input.

00:06:13,530	So our citizen input, it comes to you. I would expect, and that you will decide how much it’s going to be increased. Now we currently have something very similar in place and that is the, uh, streetlight. And uh, and uh, signal light. Um, traffic light fee that’s currently in place. And since its inception.

00:06:42,500	And I don’t remember when that was, because I know it’s been on my bill for quite a while. Uh, I’ve noticed in the last two years it’s gone up $5 a year. So ten bucks. And that’s for commercial property and $4 for, um, for residential. And it.

00:07:06,230	I find it interesting that, um, when I watched the, uh, the city commission meeting and it would have been back in 23, um, I don’t remember exactly when I think sometime mid year where public works came to you and asked you for a contract to finish putting the streetlights in, uh, the LED streetlights.

00:07:28,830	And one of the things, um, actually, there were three things that were asked, first of all, um, how much had been spent putting streetlights in so far, and there really wasn’t an answer for it. And then how efficient, how much was being saved by putting in LED streetlights. And there wasn’t an answer for that that I remember.

00:07:49,100	And then finally, how much the contract was going to be to complete the project. And I don’t remember that there was an answer for that either. Now, that’s to the best of my recollection. But, um, that that that’s how I remember it.

00:08:08,330	And, you know, I’m not saying there was a problem with the request for the contract or any of that, but what I see as an issue there is that, uh, it’s an accountability issue. When you’ve got a bucket of dollars there that you can spend, you know, uh, it’s good to have the answers for how you’re going to spend it and to let the folks know.

00:08:27,970	Now, I know there was a Bismarck Tribune article that came out later on that indicated that the, uh, streetlights, the LED streetlights were 60% more efficient, um, power wise, than others. But again, that didn’t come out early on.

00:08:50,300	So, um, you know, I’m left wondering when I, when I look at this and I compare it to what your, uh, have in front of you as far as a street maintenance fee, if we’re going to end up with the same situation. And I certainly hope not. I mean, I think that, uh, citizen involvement in participation in street maintenance projects is very important.

00:09:15,430	Now, I, I don’t and indicating, you know, the, the traffic light and streetlight fee, I don’t have an issue with street lights, but, uh, one thing I always wonder about is the traffic lights. And I keep thinking, you know, that’s something that everybody that drives through Bismarck uses a net. I’m not sure why individual property owners are covering that fee.

00:09:38,400	Why? It’s not part of the sales tax that gets charged. So, um, just a thought. And then, um, I wanted to to let you know that, uh, I did attend the public information meeting that was held over at Public Works. And, um, you know, I listened to the information and I voiced my opinion.

00:10:01,900	And, uh, one of the, the thing that I indicated most is that when it comes down to the bottom line for me is I don’t want it to cost me more money. So, you know, if, if, if, uh, if it costs me more money than what I’m paying for special assessments now, um, I’m going to have a real difficult time supporting that.

00:10:22,170	Uh, that measure. So, um, I went back and I reviewed the 2017, uh, steering body notes, and, uh, Commissioner Schmitz, you sat on that steering body and, uh, of course, you remember that there were a lot of, um, of options that were presented that came out of that.

00:10:44,770	Now, a lot of those I didn’t see in the information meeting from, um, from Public works, but of course, it left me wondering, uh, once this fee gets put into place, if it does, what’s the scope going to be on it? Where’s it going to go? And is it is it going to be

00:11:02,430	more than just, uh, you know, the the street in front of your house or your business? Um, I don’t know, but it makes me wonder, um, I did, you know, one of the at the information session, the reasons offered for requesting the, uh, the change from special assessment fee to the street utility fee

00:11:29,430	was that people were tired of special assessments. And I don’t think you’re going to find anybody that you talk to that’s going to say yes. I love special assessments. Please charge me. But you’ll find that most people understand the importance of street maintenance.

00:11:53,970	And, uh, because of that, they’re going to accept, um, the special assessment a lot easier than if you tack a charge onto their utility bill every month. Um, you know, and then the other the other argument, of course, was that, well, this is working in Fargo, and so we should apply it here. And, uh, I, I think that’s a weak argument at best.

00:12:16,970	So, um, most of the folks that I’ve, I’ve spoken to, um, like this current situation, they like I’m not going to say they like it, but they understand it and they, um, they, they appreciate how things are done and they think it works just fine and should remain unchanged.

00:12:39,370	So at one point in the February 10th meeting, Commissioner Risch, you mentioned that, uh, there would be substantial changes or substantial savings to, uh, having this utility fee in place in, in substantial savings and interest in finance charges.

00:13:01,830	And, you know, one of the things I wondered about as I looked at the Tribune article and the fee that was, uh, mentioned in there is how is that going to equate to savings for the average citizen? In other words, right now we’re paying those finance charges in our special assessments.

00:13:28,570	And, uh, you know, how how how does it come back to us? Um, I went out and I looked at, uh, I went down to Burleigh County and I asked them to give me some numbers for my properties and for my home. And then I have a garage that sits on a separate piece of property, and they were able to go back about 25 years for special assessments that were charged to my properties.

00:13:47,700	And I can tell you when I take the rate that was given in again, the Tribune article and figured it out, it’s it’s definitely costing me more money to go along with that.

00:14:14,430	Uh, when you when you multiply it out and, uh, um, so again, just making the point that, uh, I’m going to have an awful difficult time supporting this if, uh, if in the end, it ends up costing me more money. Um, so I guess all that being said again, commissioners, I respectfully urge you to abandon the proposed the proposed street utility improvement fee concept and direct staff to find other ways to provide cost savings.

00:14:36,400	I and other interested citizens in Bismarck are not interested in additional monthly fees and are not asking for a change for the change that you’re considering at this time. And I thank you for your time this evening. Any questions. , Mr.

00:14:56,830	Chairman, since yes, mentioned my name, um, the way you save money is when we do a street resurfacing program, we borrow money to do the resurfacing program. We pay interest on that money. When you’re special assessed. If you don’t pay it off right away, you’re going to be paying interest on that money.

00:15:12,400	With this plan, if we can get it to be equitable. And that’s a challenging part. If we can get it equitable and not assess any more money than we absolutely have to, we save money. We save money through the savings and interest.

00:15:28,100	I don’t know if you’ve been watching the news, but Mandan has got an issue right now where they’re doing some street resurfacing and some underground. It’s not just all resurfacing, and some of these residents are being assessed $20,000. We just moved to a different house last August, and I paid $1,200 in special assessments for 2025, I’ll pay $1,200 for special assessments in 2026. That’s $100 a month. Um, I don’t know.

00:15:50,270	We haven’t. We’re just discussing this. Commissioner Zenker has been a leader for a long time and working on this. And so is Gabe, our city engineer. But I’m convinced, at least on the interest side of things, we’ll save money. Bismarck. Taxpayers will pay less in the long run.

00:16:06,830	Does that mean it’s going to be equitable all the time? That’s a pretty tall challenge. And I, I, I appreciate that, Commissioner risk. I just try and figure out how, um, when you come up with the rates up front, how how do you figure in that interest savings to me? And and and you that’s.

00:16:30,700	Not an individual thing. If we went to this, it will be a citywide thing and overall less money spent on projects because of no interest. But again, commissioner risk it’s the important part is, is going to be each individual citizen is going to have to assess how it impacts them, and that’s how they’re going to

00:16:50,770	vote on this. So yeah. And for me, you know, I went and did the calculations. I did not feel comfortable with what I saw. Thank you. Commissioner Cleary. Um, Mike, I appreciate your comments. I just want to clear something up for you just a little bit on the street light project, when we switched LEDs.

00:17:12,770	I know it was a couple of years ago, and I don’t know if the numbers were set out loud at this meeting, but it is my portfolio and so is the finance portfolio. And we did crunch the numbers. We did figure out what the savings looked like and if we could do it quicker.

00:17:26,100	How much money does that save us? All of that stuff was accessible because they already knew the savings behind LED and what they cost versus the regular lights. So I just want to assure you that we weren’t just taking a stab at it, hoping it would save money.

00:17:41,570	But we did run all of those numbers. And, you know, then we had to ask ourselves, does it make sense to do it faster, even though we had to come and ask the commission about that? Or do we just stick to the replacement plan and let it be a much longer process? And at the end of the day, though, it

00:17:56,670	costs more money up front. It saves us money going forward because of how much longer they last. And all of that with the LED lights. And so we did, I promise. Look at those numbers if you want to see them. I’m sure Steve still has them. So it was a lengthy conversation.

00:18:09,900	I just don’t know how much of it was specifically spelled out for, for everybody at this table with exact numbers. So if they’re not back in the meeting notes, I certainly could find them for you. I would appreciate that. Sounds good. Commissioner Cleary.

00:18:25,400	It’s it’s one of those things where when you see something later on and you’re seeing a 60% savings in, um, in, in power, you’re you’re asking the question once again, why are my rates going up every year? And when we’re saving money and I understand that it cost it was you know, I saw the the amounts per fixture that we’re putting out there.

00:18:46,430	And I understand they’re expensive. But in the long run sure. You know, how does that how does that equate to savings. And the street lights has been a very interesting topic for me on this commission, because you have things like LED that can save you a lot of money.

00:19:02,300	And then I think all the guys that sit in those meetings would also tell you that, uh, streetlights are one of the main, like, biggest things that have been affected by the inflation. They the cost of them has gone up immensely.

00:19:16,800	I understand your point of like the citizens of Bismarck are not the only ones that drive on the streets and use the streetlights. I totally understand that, but I think there’s a lot of balance in there. But I would happily talk to you about it more.

00:19:28,830	We can get some of those numbers from Steve, because I want you to know that it wasn’t something that we just decided to do without making sure that it made sense in the long run. So I and I appreciate that. And and streetlights, I don’t have an issue with the traffic lights or the maintenance is something that I feel should be handled. Understandable. Thank you.

00:19:45,070	Just just to and I I’ll try not to take any more of your time, but, uh, one of the, one of the items that really jumps out to me is I happen to have a garage that sits on a separate lot. So, um, I have a separate there’s a bathroom in it.

00:19:58,870	So I have a separate utility billing for it. And most months my water usage, sewer usage is zero. So my bill is $62 a month, $35 of that is street light and traffic light maintenance. And and to me that seems like a lot. And and that bothers me just a little bit.

00:20:24,900	My, my property because I don’t live there is zoned commercial which is part of the the issue. But again it just doesn’t feel right. Understandable. Thank you. , Commissioner Connelly. Yeah. Mike. I really. appreciate the fact that you came. Up and talking.

00:20:42,130	The fact that you said on one of our boards and things, you’re very knowledgeable about some of the intricacies that a lot of the citizens aren’t, just because you pay attention differently once you’re involved that way. And, um, this has been an ongoing conversation for a long time. I was the citizen sitting in the room at those meetings that you’re talking about in 2017.

00:20:59,300	A lot of times I was the only citizen there. Um, part of why this item is on there. Exactly. It is as it is tonight is to ask the citizen by one vote. An advisory vote, if you’re going to allow us to continue to have the conversation, it would take a second vote to actually initiate it.

00:21:21,500	And the comments that you had since we taped these meetings are something that I’m going to be asking the questions, saying, watch this, because this might be something that you’ve been thinking about too.

00:21:38,070	As we try to negotiate and trying to find that better answer, possibly to the alternative of special assessments for a lot of people that don’t own their homes, that say, rent, say, um, colonial estates. In 2017, part of the reason for their rate increase was a purchase. But part of the reasoning behind it was is 12th streets.

00:21:58,470	Special assessments went up and they had to pay that off in one lump. So their rents were saying because of special assessments your rent went up. But after the special assessment was paid, the rent didn’t go down. In 2017, they were paying about two 3240 a month for their lot rent, and they’ve crossed $700.

00:22:18,100	So there’s that impacts you and I, because these are the people that a lot of times will work in the Walmarts or the McDonald’s. Now they can’t afford to live on $10 an hour. They need more. So if it’s going through escrow or anything like that, it’s an unseen cost.

00:22:36,370	If it moves to the utility bill, say it’s a $30 a month or anything along those rates. Now, it’s a tangible thing based on our capitalistic system. Anybody can raise rates, but now it’s not because the cost of government went up, it’s because they have to explain it to the people that are used.

00:22:55,030	Does that get us somewhere? I don’t know, but that’s one of those things to where when you’re asking, how does it benefit? That might be a side thing because we have a lot of people that can’t afford to have their own home, and that’s why I think it’s this was going to be on the ballot in June.

00:23:10,970	And I’d be getting behind everything you say. To say this is too soon, too much to overcome by June and educate the citizens. But what you’re saying is the very things that we need to keep engaging and keep talking about, see if we can’t smith that out. Does an advisory vote.

00:23:30,800	If there’s enough buy in to where can we get to that answer by November? It might be worth the civil discourse and the worthy conversation, if that makes sense. And I wrote them down because these haven’t changed since 2017.

00:23:47,230	I’m very big on citizen input, so giving up the protests, that is an angst for a lot of people. But it’s based on property. If you get up where Gateway Mall is, if Gateway Malls for the protest, the protest wins. If they’re against, they lose regardless of population.

00:24:09,700	So how much of a protest right is that? If it’s banked on one property? Um, citizens checks and balances, as far as rates go up, that’s a big thing. I’d like to pencil it in every time I say it. It hasn’t been very popular at this table, so. But I don’t mind talking about it over and over.

00:24:24,570	Um, and it’s, that’s why I like the fact that we’re looking at an advisory vote versus, um, a yes or no. And if it’s at the same status in November, then all of this comes into play too. So I appreciate your time. Thank you, Commissioner Connolly. Thank you. Thank you. Commissioners. This is public comment. Anyone wish to speak? Please come forward.

00:24:57,730	Good afternoon everyone. My name is Dodd-Frank and I am here to talk about regular agenda item letter F. So letter F is to consider the request to hear the insufficiency of protests on the resolution of necessity for Street Improvement district SI5 94 I own property in unit three, which is one of 11 units in this special assessment

00:25:36,700	district. I am not here to protest the work similar to what the previous gentleman said. I am a supporter of street improvements, especially taking care of those items now as opposed to pushing them off for later when they tend to get more expensive and require a deeper investment by the

00:25:54,830	citizens. However, I did want to bring to your attention that there is a contingency of us in that particular district who are concerned with the way that the special assessments are spread out.

00:26:15,200	Um, we own condos that are up on Grandview Lane, and there’s a disproportionate amount of the costs that are attached to that particular parcel. After talking to the engineering department, we learned that they too agree that the policy might deserve some review and potentially some tweaking.

00:26:38,770	Um, as you’re looking at all of these districts, one thing that really caught my attention that I hadn’t known prior to attending the meeting with engineering, is the fact that these special improvements include location spread out across the city, which was news to me. Now we advocate for economies of scale, which is something that we’re taking advantage of. However, what we also learned is that the costs are commingled across all of those different districts and then spread out evenly.

00:27:00,670	The challenge that we have is that the types of work that’s needed, the ground that’s underneath all of the streets, might be distinctly different than what we’re experiencing in our neighborhood.

00:27:19,230	And in fact, by running just some quick calculations, if we were to look at our district on its own to have those costs, simply special assessed, we would be charged less money than we are by having us co-mingled with all the other ten projects. Um, again, not here to protest the work. We appreciate that investment in our roads and the accessibility.

00:27:39,500	We just want to draw your attention to how these costs are spread out and the impact it has, particularly on high density residential. In addition to unit three, there’s another unit that’s in this special assessment district that features high density housing. And they too, are going to be experiencing a disproportionate amount of the costs associated with this roadwork.

00:28:03,130	So I’m here just to draw your attention to it. We are very grateful for the time that we got to spend with engineering, where they walked through the projects, they looked at the policies and how the costs are spread out amongst these particular parcels, and agreed that further review is necessary.

00:28:20,630	So I just wanted to get it on the record that this is something that you might want to take a peek at. Thank you. Miss Frank. Do you live in Bismarck? Now? I know you’re a longtime Mandan city commissioner.

00:28:35,670	Well, you’re a man in 82, but I do reside in Bismarck now and then. We also own property in both communities. But. Very good. Any other questions? Thank you. Thank you for your time. Again, this is public comment. Anyone wish to speak? Please come forward. A second call for public comment. A third and final call for public comment. Seeing no one else. Public comment period is now closed.

00:29:03,830	Commissioners, what are your wishes with regard to the consent agenda? Um, Mr. Mayor, I’d like to pull b d as a dog. Three. Okay. With regard to the balance of the consent agenda, what are your wishes? Move to approve. Second. Any discussion? Hearing none. We’ll call roll. Commissioner Zenker. Yes, Commissioner. Connolly. Yes.

00:29:33,300	Commissioner. Cleary. Yes, Commissioner. Risch. Yes. Mayor. Schmitz. Yes, Commissioner D3. Well, the reason I pulled D3 is it kind of jumped out of me.

00:29:53,430	Um, the SD dental office would like to have us issue a letter of support for a buy down or to the North Dakota Opportunity Fund loan program to buy the interest rate down on their loan. Well, my issue with it is the building’s already been built. It’s a beautiful building, a North Washington street. Um, it’s a dental building. Got nothing but here. But good things about this dental office.

00:30:11,730	And that’s all well and good. And I don’t blame them for applying for this. What amounts to almost $105,000 gift from the state government. But it just seems to me that this building has been built. They’re going to build it with or without the $105,000. Um, and they, they cover, I guess, about 5% of the dental work in our community.

00:30:33,500	Bismarck, Mandan area. So if we give them $105,000 of the state does, what about the other 95% of the dental work being done? They don’t they don’t get anything. It creates a competitive advantage per se, because they got to help with their building, and some of the others did not.

00:30:50,100	So I have a fundamental issue with after the fact, giving a direct or supporting the state to give them a direct grant of $105,000. And for that reason, I think we should not write a letter of support for SD. Um, dental item D3, and I’ll just move that. We don’t do it. Second.

00:31:11,900	Here we have a first and a second. What discussion do we have? Commissioner Connelly. I said the same thing in relation to it’s a very good restaurant in the area, and they came up to the podium at the time, and. It’s not a restaurant. Um, no, no, not this one. On a previous item before.

00:31:32,370	And that and they, they actually said, because I was on the Renaissance Authority then too. But, um, so it’s a different program. But they came up and they said that we plan to build it. Either way. It’s just we were encouraged to do this. And I was a no vote on that. And that’s why I support what you’re saying.

00:31:51,900	So so the only comment I’m going to make is this, this program, the interest on flex pace, I believe, is the program. It’s a Bank of North Dakota program, and it’s funding that comes from the state.

00:32:08,870	And they’re looking the letter of support is so that they could go actually to the North Dakota Opportunity Fund to get the additional portion of it, which is not interest free, by the way. They have to pay that back at a at a rate of interest. The North Dakota portion is interest. It’s actually a reduction in interest.

00:32:24,700	It buys down the bank loan interest from an economic development standpoint. Um, this was proposed as a potential come to the Vision Fund. And I didn’t think it was appropriate because it came too late.

00:32:38,570	Had it come prior to the building being constructed, it probably had been heard a division fund, not certain the Vision Fund would have supported it, because it may not have fit the the line. But this is where the North Dakota Opportunity Fund component actually fits it, because it’s it is, uh, you know, that incentive program is out there to encourage people to build property, build product property in various communities.

00:32:58,430	And I’m going to tell you that Bismarck has not gotten its share of that flex pace by now. It has not gotten its share. So from that standpoint, I support the letter of support. We’re not giving any money from our Vision Fund for it because it didn’t fit that criteria.

00:33:16,370	But I do support us accessing the funding that’s available through the state of North Dakota for our community. Just to follow up, it is tax money one way or the other. I mean, there’s no question about that. And again, I don’t blame them for applying for it. They might as well. It’s like free money and it’s not a lot of effort.

00:33:32,000	So I’m not I’ve got a great deal of respect for the dental office and dentists in general, but uh, they’re usually in a pretty good position. Um, dentists in general. I just had an implant put in, cost $8,000. So, you know, it’s not cheap. You wonder why people are walking around without teeth. Is there any other discussion? Here? None. We’ll call the roll.

00:33:54,770	Commissioner Connolly. Yes. Commissioner. Cleary. No. Commissioner. Risch. Yes. Commissioner. Zenker. No. Mayor. Schmitz. No. I’ll make a motion to approve as presented. Do we have further discussion? Hearing none. We’ll call the roll. Commissioner Cleary. Yes, Commissioner. Risch. No. Commissioner. Zenker. Yes, Commissioner. Connolly. No. Mayor. Schmitz. Yes. Thank you everyone. It’s a it’s a worthwhile discussion.

00:34:27,900	Regular agenda item A is a public hearing on the request for a new C1 hotel motel, full service alcohol license for Padova Bismarck hospitality. Hopefully I got that close to correct. This is a public hearing. Anyone wish to speak on this topic? Please come forward. A second call for public comment.

00:34:52,000	A third and final call for public comment. Public comment period is now closed. Commissioners, what are your wishes? Move to approve is presented. Second. Any discussion? Hearing none. We’ll call roll. Commissioner Risch. Yes, Commissioner. Zenker. Yes. Commissioner. Connolly. Yes. Commissioner. Cleary. Yes. Mayor. Schmitz. Yes. Item B is a public hearing on ordinance 6653.

00:35:18,100	Annexation of lots two through 11, block two, lots four through 14, block 11, lots one through six blocks. Block 12. Promontory point, sixth edition and the adjoining rights of way for Buckley Park Drive, Morales Drive and Moreau Drive. Go ahead. Daniel. Good evening. Mayor. Commissioners.

00:35:41,670	Uh, so this is a request for annexation. Uh, the location is in northwest Bismarck. Ah, well, we would be with the northwest Bismarck. Um, if the action is taken, uh, it is north of Interstate 94. Uh, it’s near the intersection of Claremont Road and Valley Drive. You can see on the map right here.

00:35:57,900	Uh, this is within an area that was platted as part of Promontory Point six edition back in 2017. Um, as is often the case, the plats come in and annexations are done in phases. Uh, so this would be not quite the last phase within promontory 0.6.

00:36:14,170	There’s still a little bit of an area along Frisco Way that remains outside of city limits, but it would be, uh, the majority of it, uh, this would bring in 27, uh, lots for development of single family homes. It is all currently zoned R5 for single family homes.

00:36:31,770	Uh, this area is within what we call our priority area within the urban service, um, growth boundary, which really just means it’s already surrounded by city limits. It’s an area that’s easy to annex and easy to serve with, with, uh, utilities. Uh, the annexations do have public hearings. Uh, so with the planning and Zoning Commission, they make recommendations. And they did that in their last meeting. Uh, this is an advertised public hearing.

00:36:50,000	Uh, we do send notice to the township and the county, uh, as well as the newspaper. And that was done. So this, uh, uh, upon this public hearing, uh, we do recommend approval based on the findings that are contained in the staff report. We.

00:37:07,170	Meaning, I’m sorry, staff and the planning zoning commission both recommend approval. Uh, that would be. And I’ll read this over again. Um, of the of the items being approved, the annexation of lots two through 11 block lots two through 11, block two lots four through 14, block 11 lots one through six. Block 12.

00:37:23,700	Promontory point six edition and the adjoining rights of way of McClintock drive. Morey Drive and Metro Drive. And it’s included in your packet. The full ordinance for this. Any questions of Daniel? Okay. Um, thank we’re good for now. This is a public hearing. Anyone wish to speak to this? Please come forward. A second call for public comment.

00:37:48,730	A third and final call for public comment. Seeing no one, hearing no one. Public comment period is now closed. Commissioners, what are your wishes? Move to approve. Second. Is there any discussion? Hearing none will call. Roll. Commissioner Zenker. Yes. Commissioner. Connolly. Yes. Commissioner. Cleary. Yes. Commissioner. Rice. Yes. Mayor. Schmitz. Yes. Public hearing for ordinance 6654.

00:38:16,370	Zoning map amendment from conditional are ten residential zoning district to RM ten residential zoning district for lots two through nine block one of Cottonwood Park view addition first plat Daniel. Okay. Mayor. Commissioners. So these next two public hearings are both from the same applicant. Uh, Edgewood reads and they’re similar in nature.

00:38:36,270	I’ll we’ll do each one individually and I’ll explain what the requesting. Uh, the first one is in South Bismarck, uh, south of Santa Fe Avenue. It’s just in the east side of South Washington Street. As you can see in the map. Um, the west side of Camrose Drive.

00:38:53,900	Uh, what they’re requesting is to combine these existing eight lots into one lot. Uh, and to do so, they do need to change the zoning, uh, the current zoning of our ten allows twin homes, but the way the zoning works is they really have to be an independent lots. Uh, if they combine on the one lot, they really become multifamily.

00:39:09,230	Use of multiple buildings on a single lot. Uh, so the request would be to change from R ten to RM ten. Uh, it’s important to emphasize with both this one and the next application, there are no physical changes proposed. So it will look like this.

00:39:27,030	You can see on the map it’s built off all four of the buildings all the way to the units are built. And they would intend to remain very much the same way. It’s very similar to the lot across the street, which is on one lot currently. So they would they would combine lots to be zoned similarly, and it would look similar to that as well.

00:39:43,370	Uh, so this is a request that did come to us. And uh, and so they do have the right to combine the lots and change the zoning. And that’s what we’re processing. Uh, the Planning and Zoning Commission did hold the public hearing on this request on January 28th, um, of 2026.

00:39:57,400	No comments were given. Um, at that public hearing. Uh, so, based on the findings that are contained in the staff report and the Planning Zoning Commission do recommend approval of the zoning map amendment for the conditional AR ten residential zoning district to the RM ten Residential Zoning district for lots two through nine block one

00:40:15,430	of Cottonwood Park View addition. First reply I think in a representative of the applicant is here as well. So if you have any questions that you can answer them to. Any questions of Daniel, go ahead. Commissioner.

00:40:36,830	Um, Daniel, what exactly is the difference between ten and R ten and why being the it’s already built up, why would anyone want to change it at this point? Sure. Yes, Commissioner. Thank you. And we’ve asked that question that’s been asked all along the line. So I anticipated that. So thank you. The, um. Well, first, the difference between our ten and ten is R ten is our two family residential district.

00:40:52,230	But it’s really intended for individual lots that are owned by individual entities. Um, the ten is residential, multifamily and ten dictates the density that’s allowed. So it’s it’s the lower density multifamily. But in our world, once it’s on one lot, uh, it’s one ownership becomes multifamily, even if it’s separate buildings.

00:41:12,570	So from a zoning perspective, that’s what the purpose is. Uh, now the applicant’s, I believe maybe I’ll leave the question of of what their intent was, if you don’t mind answering that one. Okay. Um, to the applicant. So. Okay, this is a public hearing. Oh, Commissioner Conley, did you have a question? No.

00:41:28,530	I they’ll probably say it in their comments because I listen to the planning and zoning Committee. So this is a public hearing. Anyone wish to speak to this item? Please come forward. Good evening. Mayor. Commissioners Nicholas Cullen, Houston Engineering, representing the property owner.

00:41:52,070	Um, Commissioner Risch, in response to your initial question, uh, the reason for this is twofold. First of all, it is a tax savings to the property owner as well as it’s an administrative cleanup. Um, a lot less parcels to take care of and address. That answered. And anything else to offer. That’s all I have at this time. Unless you have any other additional questions.

00:42:10,730	No thank you, Nick, because I heard all that at the Planning and Zoning. Understood. Thank you. Anyone else who wish to speak, please come forward. A second call for public comment. A third and final call for public comment. Seeing no one in hearing no one. Public comment period is now closed. Commissioners moved. To approve.

00:42:32,070	Any discussion. Hearing none. Roll call. Roll. Commissioner Connolly. Yes. Commissioner. Cleary. Yes. Commissioner. Rice. Yes. Commissioner. Zenker. Yes. Mayor. Schmitz. Yes. Next item D public hearing on ordinance 6655. Zoning map amendment for our ten residential to the. RM ten residential zoning district. Minor and a minor subdivision. Final plot for Edgewood. Edgewood village, seventh edition. Second report. Daniel.

00:43:02,500	Mayor. Commissioners. So this time Edgewood read is requesting approval of the zoning map amendment within Edward Village. Seventh edition. Second replay. In this case, there are 50 already built twin homes on individual lots with an AR ten zoning district. The intent would be to combine, as with the previous request, into one lot.

00:43:21,770	Uh, one difference here is there are a number of easements, um, both in access easement, stormwater easements, utility easements. Uh, so because of the complication of that, there is a replant of this lot being proposed, uh, which is in your packet for, for approval, along with the zoning map amendment.

00:43:42,570	Uh, what this plot does is it basically cleans up the site. You can see the existing plot with all all 50 of the lots and all of these units that are shown the new plat much simpler. Uh, the access easement is still there. Texas Loop is the name of the private drive, so that will remain as well as utilities.

00:43:56,670	And this is some of the other easements that are no longer necessary, because one lot will be removed from the replant. Uh, the, the 50 twin homes will not change in disposition. We are told the intent is to keep keep them as is. The change will be the lot ownership of the of the one single lot.

00:44:17,400	Uh, well, I’m sorry the ownership won’t change, but it will be one lot rather than 50 lots. Uh, the Planning and Zoning Commission did hold a public hearing on this request. On January 28th, 2026. No public comments were heard on that item.

00:44:32,800	Uh, based on the findings continuing our staff report and at the conclusion of this hearing, the Planning and Zoning Commission recommend approval of the Zoning map amendment from the AR ten residential to the RM ten residential zoning district and the minor subdivision final plat of Edgewood Village, seventh edition, second three plats. If you have any questions I can try to answer. Any questions. Doesn’t look like it. Thank you.

00:44:52,630	This is a public hearing. Anyone wish to speak? Please come forward. A second call for public comment. A third and final call for public comment. Public comment period is now closed. Commissioners, what are your wishes? Move to approve as presented. And we got a buyer. Is there any discussion? Hearing. None. Roll call. Roll. Commissioner Cleary. Yes. Commissioner. Rice. Yes.

00:45:24,570	Commissioner. Zenker. Yes. Commissioner. Connolly. Yes. Mayor. Schmitz. Yes. Next item E uh, consider a request for approval of a street name change from El Rancho Road to Golf Drive and Country West, fifth edition. Daniel. Mayor. Commissioners. This is the last item for me for this evening.

00:45:47,970	So, in this case, uh, city of Bismarck and the planning department and Centcom, uh, the Central Dakota Communications Center are requesting this change, and it’s essentially a cleanup of a of a longstanding issue. We decided to, uh, request, uh, addressing the the.

00:46:05,970	And I’ll get to some of the intent of it, but just the what will happen is the name of El Rancho Road will change the golf drive. Uh, and it’s really an historic accident, I will say, in the 1980s, it was originally platted as El Rancho Road. And that was the intent, I should say. The location of this is, um, off of Tyler Parkway.

00:46:26,070	As you can see, leading into the new Claremont Family Park, kind of into the Coulee, uh, area. Part of this is constructed. Part of this is not constructed in the 90s. The a new plat for Country West’s neighborhood was was recorded and they changed that plat name to Golf Drive.

00:46:43,030	And so that is the part of the road that has been built, uh, the part that hasn’t remains El Rancho Road. And the it’s really only five lots. They’re all owned by the Bismarck Parks District, and they’ve been informed of this and they’ve consented to this change. And there is one building, that gate City Bank, that’s addressed off of Golf Drive.

00:46:59,630	Nothing is addressed off of El Rancho Road, so no addresses will change. Um, of any buildings, at least in this process. And the only property owner impacted will be the Parks district.

00:47:14,130	Uh, so really, why are we doing this? The really the intent is if if there were ever an incident to occur in the coulee, um, it’s it would be better for emergency responders to get a call to golf drive because then they could just follow golf, drive down into it, and they know where to go. Um, if they get a call from El Rancho Road, they may be looking for that road.

00:47:28,600	And there is no orange road. So that’s really the purpose. Clean us up and have everything addressed off of Golf Drive. Um, the street name changes that we do hold. Uh, they’re not public hearings per se.

00:47:43,900	We don’t advertise them, but we do send letters to everybody directly impacted so they can come and raise any concerns if they have them. As I said, it’s just Parks District. In this case, they were informed. I’m not aware of any concerns from them. Uh, so staff do recommend approval of this resolution. It’s attached to your packet to change the name of El Rancho Road to Golf Drive. Any questions? Didn’t look like it. Thank you.

00:48:05,000	Commissioners, what are your wishes? Moved to approve of the present? Second. Any discussion? Hearing none. Roll call. Roll. Mr. vice. Yes, Commissioner. Zenker. Yes. Commissioner. Connelly. Yes. Commissioner. Cleary. Yes. Mayor. Schmitz. Yes. Next item f consider request to hear insufficiency of protest on the resolution of necessity for the Street Improvement District C 594.

00:48:44,170	Thank you, Mayor and commissioners. C 594 is our street maintenance. Asphalt reconstruction and rehabilitation project that we’ll have in our 2026 slate. Uh, the protest that you have in front of you and on the screen here, recognize the a thousand or so parcels that we sent letters to? Uh, we do collect.

00:49:03,430	And it is by the area of the, uh, representing, uh, parcel. So in this particular instance, all ten units, um, none of them received sufficient, uh, protests. We call it insufficient protests. And our recommendation would be to approve the insufficiency of protest. I would also maybe recognize miss Frank earlier, talking on the Grandview Lane condo association.

00:49:23,370	It is something that when we’re informed early enough in the process, we still have time to maybe adjust and look at what the policy ramifications would be of any adjustments. But any dollar or allocation removed from one property would have to be redistributed to other properties.

00:49:40,230	So we’re just really sensitive to not having a knee jerk reaction to fixing something, potentially for fear that it might have some unintended consequences elsewhere. Really, the drop dead date for that particular for this project, so long as this project moves forward, would be in the summer of 2027, is when the specials would actually be spread. So there is time to analyze this.

00:49:55,630	Obviously, we will try to get this resolved and come back to to the board with any changes potentially before that, just so that we can have a quicker resolution than that. So with that, I take any questions that you may have, but the recommendation would be to accept the insufficiency of protests for all ten units. Commissioner Connelly.

00:50:13,370	Could you speak specifically to the co-mingling of all of the different units and the costs predicate? More than just like the unit three, but all of them listing? Sure. Mayor. Commissioners. Commissioner Connelly. So there’s probably two components there, one being with the city of Bismarck.

00:50:36,470	Uh, subsidizing the costs associated with the project with at 25% for the Milan overlay component and then 70% for the reconstruction process within a particular unit. Uh, the costs to that resident end up being very similar by the time we subsidize both of those elements, to the degree almost intentionally, the costs, even if we even when we do allow our

00:50:54,030	contractors to bid the units differently, they can put a bid price of $10 a square foot in unit one and $12 a square foot for whatever that that element might be. In unit two. We give them that opportunity, but rarely, if ever, do they actually charge a different per unit price for those things.

00:51:09,970	So, um, in every time that we have tried to to have a non unified rate, uh, really it hasn’t shaken out of being a significant difference.

00:51:28,300	Um, so I believe that because of our, uh, city’s contribution of sales tax to buy down the specials, um, allows a little more flexibility on the commingling, if you will, of those assessments. Because really, what we are promising at the end of that is a sufficient street.

00:51:40,930	And after that mill and overlay process or after that reconstruction process, regardless if it’s on the north side of town or the south side of town, right across the street from the batch plant, or a half a mile or ten miles away, we would see similar bid prices for all of that work. Regardless. Good. Commissioner.

00:51:55,300	Um, to follow up with that then, since you’ve done it before and you’ve looked at it because it’s been asked before, obviously when you bring it back, could you show how those numbers just to back up what you just said. Mayor, commissioners want to bring it back. What do you mean.

00:52:10,300	By one? You said that if we approve this so that the work gets done because of the timing of it and that the assessments won’t hit until 27, that you’d bring it back in front of the commission if you relook at it differently, could you also pencil in the explanation of how that commingling proves what you just said? Is that it doesn’t prove to be a huge difference? Sure I can I followed Stan. Okay.

00:52:37,430	Anything else? Commissioners, what are your wishes? Move to approve. Is. Presented. Second. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. We’ll call roll. Commissioner Zenker. Yes. Commissioner. Connolly. Yes. Commissioner. Cleary. Yes, Commissioner. Risch. Yes. Mayor. Schmitz. Yes. Item G consider request received. Bids and award contract for street light and traffic signal project SV 85. Okay. Uh, Mayor and Commissioners, s.v.

00:53:09,570	project or Street Utility and traffic. Excuse me. Street light and traffic signal. Project number 85 is the replacement of the traffic signal at the intersection of Main Avenue and Airport Road. We opened bids on February 19th. Our low bidder was Denny’s Electric LLC, with a bid of $588,764.30. I will note that this is funded for both.

00:53:30,900	It’s about 200,000 or so dollars from sales taxes used in this project, as well as 400 500,000. So excuse me, I actually get the actual project budget here so I don’t have to speak out of turn.

00:53:51,170	The total funding amount would be 478,000, and some change from the street light and traffic signal fund and sales tax contributing about $235,000 to recognizing that we are using our sales tax dollars to come into our community for things like traffic signals. So I guess the comment of the earlier, uh, Mr.

00:54:07,230	Schwartz had very timely, because we were able to show that we actually are doing that here in our community. So with that, our recommendation is to award to Denny’s Electric, uh, with the price of make sure I get that again here. $588,764.30. Take any questions you may have. Commissioner. Commissioner rush. Uh. Mr. Mayor Gabe. So this is just for for single street light replacement at Airport Road and Main Avenue.

00:54:34,400	This commissioner. For polls. Mayor Schmitz and commissioners. Commissioner Risch, this is for the four poles. Uh, the electronics, the cables, the conduits, the controllers, all the innards, uh, as well as because of the polls and our requirements to make accommodations when we we alter the public right of way,

00:54:53,330	we’re also ensuring that all of this is Ada compliant and compliant. And so we’re also ripping up all the contract or the ramps in the corners and making sure that all those ramps are compliant for federal regulations. Thank you. It costs a lot of money, but it is what it is. Anything else? Commissioners, what are your wishes.

00:55:11,400	? Move to approve is. Presented any further discussion? Hearing none. Roll call. Roll. Commissioner Connolly. Yes. Commissioner. Cleary. Yes. Commissioner. Rich. Yes. Commissioner. Zenker. Yes. Mayor. Schmitz. Yes. Item H is considered request from the Great Plains Food Bank for financial support. Jason, you’re going to lead this out. Yeah. Good evening, mayor and commissioners.

00:55:38,100	Uh, earlier this year, I had the pleasure of meeting with Grace Renner and Marsha Paulsen, both representatives of Great Plains Food Bank. Um, and the request was centered around support from the city of Bismarck.

00:55:55,030	And as we do in these situations, I asked them to prepare some information for you to consider on how the Great Plains Food Bank has an impact in not just Bismarck, but in the region. And there was some information attached to your packets, and I believe, uh, Marcia and Grace will run through that presentation as well, along with a little brief video that kind of gives you a little background on who the Great

00:56:11,700	Plains Food Bank is and some of the work that they do here in our community. Um, if you have any questions for me or staff after their presentation, we’re happy to be here to answer those for you. But I will stand aside and let them get started with the their information. Go ahead. Thank you. Jason. Good evening.

00:56:32,970	My name is Marcia Paulsen. I’m the chief development officer for the Great Plains Food Bank. And, um, Grace will join me here in just a moment. I appreciate the opportunity to be with you, mayor and commissioners, this evening as we stand together and talk about those in our community here who are living with food

00:56:49,630	insecurity. Uh, we believe at the Great Plains Food Bank that together we can end hunger and that we all have a role in it.

00:57:04,070	And I’m excited to be able to share with you a bit about the food bank, who we are, how we differ from the charitable feeding network that we supply, and what we can do together to meet the needs of our neighbors.

00:57:23,700	We do have a short video that will show that really, um, cues us up for the next conversation that will have we’ll talk about some numbers, um, both statewide and here in the Bismarck, Burleigh County community, as well as share the stories of those neighbors who are seeking services and why they are needing some of the support that our charitable sector is providing, and then answer any questions that you have after we extend an invitation to the city of Bismarck to join us.

00:57:40,770	So, uh, with that, I will, um, queue up the video. 1 in 5 individuals in our communities face food insecurity. That’s also 1 in 4 children. Great Plains Food Bank is the one and only food bank in the state of North Dakota and Clay County, Minnesota.

00:58:15,170	We were set up to recover surplus food that would otherwise go to waste and get it into the hands of those individuals who need it most. The vision here at the Great Plains Food Bank is to ensure neighbors are nourished. Communities are strong, and systems ensure no one is left behind.

00:58:34,170	I get asked all the time, what’s the difference between a food bank and a food pantry? A food bank is where we recover food surplus food by the millions of pounds from our food industry donors, and then we distribute that food to our hundreds of food pantries, shelters and soup kitchens. Last year, food banks recovered £3 billion of food.

00:58:58,370	At one point was going to waste. Its product that comes to us from the food industry. So manufacturers perhaps overproduce. They donate that product to us. Growers produce acres and acres of corn, potatoes, squash, onions that then is donated to us.

00:59:20,570	Our retailers, every big box store, grocery store across our service area has surplus product. We capture that food, our volunteers repacked that food, we put it on our semi and we get it out to the pantries, who can then distribute to neighbors. It’s an incredible network. You know, the face of hunger looks like you and me. It’s the child in the classroom next to your own children.

00:59:37,200	It’s the family sitting in the church pew. It’s the neighbor down the street. These are folks who are working hard. We’re trying to meet the needs of their family. But for whatever reason, they are needing a little extra help. And so when families and children need us, we’re there. No one deserves to go hungry.

00:59:56,900	Not one, not 150,000 people. When we can nourish neighbors and build strong communities and ensure systems leave no one behind, that means that we’re going to end hunger together.

01:00:25,700	We have been supplying product into the Bismarck Mandan community for the last 43 years, and we’ve been working quietly with the food industry in order to be able to do that. We’ve been working with our volunteers who are helping us prepare this food for for distribution throughout this community and across our state. And we have been working with community champions to be able to fill gaps in service.

01:00:45,970	We play one vital role in hunger relief, and that is the only food bank in the state. But we can’t do what we do without our incredible partners. There is a document in your packet that looks like this and speaks to those partnerships in action that we rely on so generously, always keeping our neighbors at the center of our work.

01:01:07,370	Um, inside that document is a map that shows the value and the pounds that are distributed to each county across our service area. All of North Dakota and Clay County, Minnesota.

01:01:26,070	And the value of that food that is delivered by us into those counties, uh, we work with the Feeding America network of food banks across the nation. And, um, together we are, uh, feeding our, our neighbors nationwide here locally, we are touching the lives of 1 in 5 people in North Dakota. And unfortunately, 1 in 4 of them are children. Nearly 50% of those who are served across our state, our children and seniors.

01:01:51,630	Last year, uh, across the state, 12.3 million meals were distributed. Uh, £14.8 million worth of food. We had 3800 volunteers of all ages sharing, uh, 12,000 hours of their service. And that service supported 205 food pantry, shelters, soup kitchen, senior meal sites, low income child care centers who are serving those who are food insecure.

01:02:17,830	It’s in 104 communities, and together we touched 167,163 individuals. And that is 167,163 stories. Whether it’s a child going to school without without food, whether it’s a senior who’s having to make difficult choices between food and medication, whether it’s a parent who needs to skip a meal

01:02:41,230	so that their kids can eat. Um, to me, that’s that’s one too many. And certainly 167,000 is way too many. And so we are committed at the Great Plains Food Bank to continue this work. Um, locally, the numbers are just as astonishing. And, my colleague Grace Renner will speak to those. Good.

01:03:06,500	Good evening, commissioners and Mayor Schmitz. Don. Okay. Thank you for having me. My name is Grace Renner. I’m a donor relations officer at our Bismarck location, and it is an honor to serve the Great Plains Food Bank. I really get to do God’s work and ensuring that no neighbor goes hungry.

01:03:23,730	So I wanted to talk to you a little bit about the numbers here in Bismarck in Burleigh County. Last year alone, we distributed distributed £2,000,354 of food throughout the city of Bismarck. Um, that was valued at over $4.5 million. Um, we served, which equates to nearly 2 million meals.

01:03:51,800	Um, we have more than 1200 volunteers that come through our regional service center or our organization really wouldn’t be in existence without the help of our volunteers. Um, it’s such a beautiful and vibrant place to come. If anyone ever wants to come down and tour the Regional Service Center, I would love to give you a tour.

01:04:10,970	But really our organization is run off of people who are passionate about making sure people, um, our neighbors aren’t going hungry. Um, those 1200 volunteers equated to over 3800 hours of service at our regional service center. Our 30, um, of volunteer service. And within the city of Bismarck and Burleigh County. We have over 22 partner agencies.

01:04:35,570	So, um, those include the Dream Center Ministry on the margins, Heaven’s Helpers, soup kitchen. These are all entities that are receiving food from us on a weekly basis. Um, we have six school pantries throughout. Um, throughout the city of Bismarck. We have four wellness pantries. So places like Bismarck, Berlin, Public Health, um, has hosted a wellness pantry for us.

01:05:00,170	Um, for us there we work in close collaboration with Kati Janki and Renee Mock. They’re at at the Burleigh County Public Health, and then our mobile food pantry.

01:05:22,030	Um, operates on a quarterly basis, where we’re setting up one of our big trucks in a, um, in a parking lot, and neighbors are able to drive through and load up their, their vehicles with food. So we’re really grateful to serve, um, and to reach as many people as possible in the Bismarck community. Last year, in fiscal year 2025, we served 20,109 individuals, 25% of those being children and 22% of those being seniors.

01:05:45,170	Um, last year as well, in fiscal year 2025, we rescued £1.77 million of retail food from big box retailers and grocery stores. The food that would otherwise go to waste, um, that is still viable for our neighbors to eat. So we’re really proud to do that work and work really closely with our partner agencies.

01:06:09,030	Um, through throughout the city, uh, rescuing food. And then, of course, we are located, um, down off of South 20th Street. So kind of down by Dvorak Motors. We have a beautiful, um, warehouse space there that’s about 10,000ft. Myself and a team of four full time employees, um, at the regional service center, small but mighty team.

01:06:35,800	We are, um, we have a facility that holds seven semi loads of shelf stable and perishable food product, um, space for 172 pallets. And then, of course, our nice new volunteer engagement center. Um, we have two refrigerated straight trucks, um, down there. And again, I welcome and invite you all to come and visit our regional service center.

01:06:58,230	It’s a great place to be. I know Commissioner Reich has been there a few times, and I’m really grateful to see familiar faces there. Does anyone have any questions for me or what the Regional Service center looks like here in Bismarck, or who we serve? Okay, I’m going to let Marcia take it from here.

01:07:16,830	Thank you. Grace, um, we also appreciate the city of Bismarck support through Community Development Block Grant dollars. We are currently in the process of wrapping up our second award. Um, really aimed at safety measures. Uh, and enhancing handicap accessibility efforts in our facility. And, um, entering into our building.

01:07:43,070	So, uh, on behalf of our neighbors here, thank you for those past investments. You can see the list of our partners here in Bismarck, uh, that we supply, uh, everything from food pantries to meal sites to residential treatment facilities and shelter. Um, the human service zone was also a partner of ours.

01:08:09,800	In 2025, as we moved through the government shutdown and the pause and Snap benefits in partnership with the governor, we were able to mobilize with all of the social service zones across North Dakota to get an additional million pounds out across the state, and very thankful for, um, the zone here in Burleigh County to partner, uh, we

01:08:31,030	supply 93% of all the food that moves through the charitable sector every year. And so this is food that, um, is fresh, uh, a growing amount of fresh food, but also shelf stable. And, um, we’re we’re proud of the work that we do.

01:08:50,270	We’re proud of our role in that. We also know that a lot of our pantry partners rely heavily on that food that moves through the network. And so, um, we also want to help build their capacity in order to diversify the, the pounds that they are recovering in their communities as well.

01:09:07,830	And so we operate an agency enabled food rescue effort where we empower the local pantries to safely pick up product from other retailers that are truck and driver is not able to get to because of time and capacity. So it really is a massive network that is recovering millions of pounds each year beyond the charitable network that we supply.

01:09:33,530	We also operate direct service programs, and these programs are the school pantry programs. Grace mentioned, as well as wellness pantries. We know that to fill gaps, to reduce barriers, to increase access, we need to go where our neighbors are going.

01:09:52,630	And we we have a lot of prairie pride here in this community and across the state. And we’re we’re not going to want to ask for support. But if we’re talking with our nurse practitioner or we’re talking with our child’s school counselor and they know or we share with them that there’s not enough food at home, they’re an incredible resource. In order to direct to other community resources.

01:10:11,370	And so we have pantries in the schools. We have, um, pantries at the clinics. And we are going to continue to provide resources into those areas. Our seniors, we have a senior food pack program. It is the CSP, uh, government program that we add product to.

01:10:35,430	And we have 800 seniors in the central part of North Dakota, uh, hundreds here in Bismarck, Mandan that we are supplying. And then our partnership with the Bismarck Public Health in getting food that, um, uh, is preferred and required for health and well-being into the hands of families who need it. Um, so our our work is robust, the needs are great.

01:10:57,900	We conduct a study every four years called hunger on the Plains. And the data shows that people living in poverty and with food insecurity are dealing with more than just hunger. They’re dealing with lack of transportation, chronic health conditions, many having two chronic health conditions access to housing.

01:11:19,300	Uh, and so it’s just layer upon layer upon layer. And so we have to be at the table with others to do this work. So we’re in partnership with housing and legal and child care and workforce development. We are the food provider at the table. And um, we’re excited about the collaboration that happens.

01:11:38,370	And when people are having to make tough choices, it’s between paying their utilities rent, fixing their car, putting gas in the tank, or forgoing or going to their doctor. And so if we can reduce the hunger needs, it allows them to make these other difficult decisions. Uh, part of the study shows, um, who is coming to the charitable sector.

01:12:04,030	And the full executive summary is on our website. But, um, you know, it’s 1 in 5 individuals, 1 in 4 children, um, 75% reporting, um, chronic health condition, 1 in 3 do not have a vehicle that works. Uh, so relying on others or public transportation, um, 41% tended, um, higher education, uh, single caregivers.

01:12:31,230	And unfortunately, our Native American neighbors are facing hunger at seven times the rate of other communities. Uh, this data informs our work at the Great Plains Food Bank.

01:12:53,870	And, um, we will continue to ask our neighbors where we can best invest our resources in the work, our invitation to the city of Bismarck tonight is that, uh, we invite the city of Bismarck to consider an annual investment of $50,000 a year over five years, starting in calendar year 2027. In order to feed our Bismarck neighbors, uh, ensuring that food insecurity, uh, is diminished. Specifically, the funds would be used to source continuing to source, rescue, prepare, and distribute food.

01:13:20,400	We have an abundance of food. This is not a food supply issue. Um, we’d get that food in and out through our partner network here in Bismarck and through the direct service programs that we talked about, uh, in, in filling additional gaps and needs.

01:13:41,270	The investment for our neighbors, $50,000 provides two meals for every dollar. So 100,000 meals will be supplied with this gift every year. And the return on that investment, because most of the food we recover is donated because volunteers help us prepare this food.

01:14:05,770	Uh, we can turn that food into $228,000 worth of grocery product moving out across the city. Uh, four and a half to one return on investment. Um, we’re thankful for the purchasing power that we have at the Great Plains Food Bank, not only with the Feeding America network, but with local, uh, producers and manufacturers.

01:14:27,330	Um, in order to invest every dollar, uh, in, in hunger relief, 95% of every charitable dollar through the food bank goes to feed people directly. And so, um, we thank you for your consideration and, uh, happy to further explore this invitation to the city of Bismarck with you all tonight. Uh, or as the, um, as the months progress as you plan for 2027. Questions, commissioners. Commissioner.

01:14:51,400	Mr. mayor, I just want to thank you, Marcia and Grace. Excellent presentation. And thank you for all you do on our community. Well, we do it. We’ll be working on the budget in the next few months. And I don’t know what the inclination is here. Thank you. Commissioner. Commissioner Conley.

01:15:09,300	I really struggle with this being the role of government. I mean, when you mentioned Grace, and I appreciate the fact that you said it’s God’s work very specifically within the Bible text and stuff. There’s an approach to how we address the needs of people that are less fortunate.

01:15:31,200	And, um, I don’t know if the government role passes that test because it’s always a need that’s greater than the resources. Um, so for the charitable side, where it’s somebody using their own flexible money in order to give through that relationship to another person, that makes us all better. It’s there.

01:15:55,900	But when it’s government facilitating that, it’s you’re asking us to spend somebody money that might be dealing with food insecurity themselves. Yeah. And that’s a harder challenge. And that’s why I say I struggle with it.

01:16:13,030	Um, I appreciate the fact that Commissioner Rich says we’ll be looking at the budget, and I guess that should be part of our conversations rather than to for me to even make a commitment like that tonight. I appreciate your thoughts, Commissioner. We at the Great Plains Food Bank believe that ending hunger is a shared responsibility. We as individuals have a responsibility.

01:16:38,430	We, as parishioners of churches, we as voting members of this state, we receive some state dollars to help us purchase meat products, in particular. Um, and we like to purchase locally. Uh, that product, uh, we do receive private support. A large portion of our budget is private funded, very small percent is publicly funded.

01:17:03,030	Um, we did talk a bit about the CDBG grants, which is the prior primary, uh, support of public funding. And so, um, we we invite you to consider being a partner in this work as the city of Bismarck. We understand, um, the responsibility that you have in deciding where City of Bismarck dollars go. Uh, and we hope that our neighbors here in this community can can receive some of that support to feed their families.

01:17:24,900	So I also struggle because I find it hard because what other charitable organizations are going to come forward and ask for money? And I’ve been pretty clear of my stance on that in the past. Um, there are probably some services where the city will have to be involved.

01:17:41,970	When we do look at what homelessness is, but it’s probably not a direct here’s a check. Uh, piece. Um, that’s my struggle. So I mean, obviously your request is to look at it in 2027. We certainly will be heading into budget discussions then.

01:18:04,000	And, um, you know, as Commissioner Connelly said, I, I just don’t know that it’s the role of city government. We we have a limited resources ourselves. And so. Thank you. Mayor. Commissioner Connelly, or clear? I’m sorry. Okay. Um, thank you for all the information. Uh, my Renee and I had already spoken about it a little bit.

01:18:29,500	Um, when you reached out to her, but I guess to their point, um, I think this can easily be talked about more, um, in our budget committee information, um, planning, especially for a five year ask and what that looks like, where that comes from in our buckets, that sort of thing.

01:18:44,370	Um, I guess my other question for you, and this certainly doesn’t have to be something you answer tonight. I think that it would just be a question when we’re talking in the Budget committee, obviously, you’re doing a lot of great work regionally. Um, as I think a hub in that region, we get asked to the mayor’s point from a lot of entities.

01:19:03,200	Uh, we play a, a, you know, supportive role for a lot of charitable organizations, regional type of organizations. And so, I guess when we’re having that conversation with transit or with other entities where we’re we are playing a role, I guess my my question would be like, are other municipalities also playing that role? Um, because I think

01:19:23,570	that the city of Bismarck tends to get that ask a lot more than maybe some of our smaller counterparts. Um, and even though you’re very obviously helping members in our community, I know that these funds are going to Fargo.

01:19:43,270	Uh, and so, like, how how does that work? Is Fargo playing that role to, you know, I just I want to make sure that it makes sense for us. What role does government play. Are we the. You know what I mean? I’m assuming we’re not the only ones that are being asked of it, but, uh, I just it’s such a regional process.

01:19:59,170	And so that’s just more information that I would want. And it can certainly be later. Um, but if, if we’re going to be asked to step in in that capacity, like who are the other players in that role, if that makes sense.

01:20:17,230	Is there are there counties are there, you know, that sort of thing? I guess I would just be curious about, um, because to the mayor’s point, uh, there’s a lot of charitable organizations in our community as well. A lot of them are your partners that need our help to, um, and we want to be good partners to them as well. So thank you, Commissioner.

01:20:35,370	It’s a great question and one that we, um, was asked a lot when we were at the North Dakota Legislature, uh, as well, if the state is going to invest, what are the counties doing? What are the cities doing? What are the townships doing? And in good faith effort, we are visiting with counties and cities and townships and, um, letting

01:20:50,930	folks know what the need is, what a role could be. Um, we are one of a kind and that you invest in the Great Plains Food Bank, uh, you’re investing in 22 charitable feeding programs, and this, this community, and impacting 20,000 individuals.

01:21:10,630	The dollars that would be coming from the city of Bismarck, stay in the city of Bismarck. They are spent every cent of it right here. And we can show exactly how that would be done. Certainly. Yeah, I know, I appreciate it. Your numbers tonight certainly show that money is being spent here and the amount of partners you work with. So I don’t by no means.

01:21:26,700	Um, I’m implying that, but I just am curious because you are so regional, like what that looks like for you. Um, I certainly think it can be. I think the consensus, at least, that I’m starting to grasp is that we would be talking about this within our annual budget.

01:21:42,700	Um, and so I that’s where I’m comfortable. I don’t know if I’m, like, ready to make a decision that’s impacting five years tonight, but I appreciate all the information because I know when Renee brought it up to me, I had a lot of questions, and I feel like you answered a lot of my questions. So thank you.

01:21:58,830	Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you for exploring the invitation. Anything else? Thank you. Thank you. Excuse me. Uh, next item, I regular agenda consider request to partner with Bismarck Parks and Recreation District to solicit proposals for community recreation facility feasibility study. Jason. Our city engineer, was going to jump in line and grab this one.

01:22:29,100	I’m happy to hand it over, but, uh. He’s got enough. He sat back down. So, uh, mayor and commissioners appreciate the opportunity to talk about this. Um, we’re a little outside of our, I guess, traditional scope and area of focus when we talk about a community recreation feasibility study.

01:22:49,970	So what does that all really translate to? Um, it translates to, if you can indulge me just a little bit on a history jaunt, uh, back in 2019, the Bismarck Parks and Recreation District did a feasibility study that led to a community wide election in 2020.

01:23:07,200	Ultimately, the question to the voters failed, but the question at that time was, would you support an additional sales tax to create some type of public sports complex or a sports and recreation facility in the community? Uh, that’s essentially what we’re looking at again here. But this time things are a little different. Obviously, time has passed.

01:23:29,700	Much of, uh, many sports and recreation facilities have been added in the last five years, not just in Bismarck, but also across the river in Mandan. And, uh, we’ve been talking about this, we being city staff myself, uh, Assistant Administrator Doug Wiles, um, executive director of the Park district, Kevin Clifford.

01:23:52,070	And throughout the many months, not just, uh, Doug and I and Kevin, but also Daniel Naran and the planning staff. We’ve had some conversations with engineering about this on and off, but really, where we are today, uh, we are at a point where we know that Mr.

01:24:09,570	Clifford will be retiring in June of this year, and there is a, uh, there’s an interest in bringing forward a study again to look at where we are today, what are the gaps we have in the community. And essentially address a number of questions that were asked initially. But I think there’s one specific question that we would be looking at having answered that wasn’t in the original study.

01:24:26,630	And from a city perspective, I think this is kind of an important feature, and probably the point that gets us to the table with the Park district. The question that I think is important to answer with this study isn’t just what are we lacking? What could we use? What type of facility could it be? But for

01:24:42,100	us, it’s where would it be located? Uh, that was a question that wasn’t asked initially, and it was something that I think in hindsight, the voters probably struggled with.

01:24:57,100	Where did this where would this thing go and what would it look like in the future if we’re able to discern some of that collectively, in conjunction with the Park district and city staff working together with a consultant, I think there’s mutual benefit for both organizations.

01:25:18,430	The benefit for the city of Bismarck is it will help us focus our areas on growth and development, extending infrastructure, if necessary, but also recognizing that there will be a number of likely a number of private developments that would come in conjunction with this type of a use.

01:25:35,570	What does it do for the park district? Well, it answers those questions of what are we lacking? Where could it go and how do we get there? Um, why the partnership? Why? Why some type of, uh, commingled effort here? I think primarily, as I mentioned, with, uh, Executive Director Cliff Fels retirement city staff could be the continuity through this discussion as Kevin’s position becomes filled in the not too distant future. I think having city staff there to bridge that gap and work through that transition would help this project move forward.

01:25:56,900	In conversations with Kevin, we’re looking at, you know, a typical timeline of probably nine to 10 or 11 months. And so that puts us towards the end of this year. Uh, what do we know at that point? Well, we have answers to the questions and then we can have decisions on where we go next.

01:26:14,570	As I mentioned in 2020, this came to the voters as a potential sales tax. I’m not suggesting that’s the final answer. I think there are other avenues that could be explored as to how this thing could be funded, or how it could be financially supported. The term we’ve been hearing in other cases is braided funding.

01:26:30,500	That might be the case here, too. I’m not suggesting or implying that the city is going to take the lead with raising funds or paying for this project.

01:26:44,900	I’m suggesting that the city and the Park district worked together to get through the study, and then we start to look at what those answers bring forward and how we can look at supporting that going forward. Obviously, if we’re talking about the end of potentially the end of this year, there would be no election in 2027. We’re not looking for a special election.

01:27:00,000	And I’m not, again, not implying that it would only be sales tax to fund this type of a project, but I think those are conversations that we would have throughout the process. Also, in conversations with Kevin, the estimate of the project expense is somewhere around 200 to maybe even $250,000. The ask would be to share in those costs equally.

01:27:20,230	I understand that that’s a big number. And you might say, well, where does that big number come from? A lot of community engagement. The Park district has a number of community partners across all their sectors.

01:27:38,930	And I think having intentional conversations with not just those community partners, but just the general community at large, the elected boards that help make these decisions, that becomes part of what we would be tasking the consultant to do over the 9 to 10 months worth of work. Um, we’re ahead of the Park district on this one. This has not come before the park district. Their next meeting is the third Thursday in March.

01:27:55,530	So, um, I guess we’re in some ways taking the lead, but by no means looking to be in the driver’s seat entirely. We would be looking to be in the front seat with the park district as we go through this together. Uh, there was some information included in your packets.

01:28:12,730	If you have any questions, I’d be happy to try and answer them for you. Um, essentially, what would we be looking for with the study? Could it provide or what could it provide? Development of a detailed program with programmatic elements, including a business plan and potentially conceptual designs, development of an estimate of probable construction, operation and maintenance expenses.

01:28:36,070	Development of an estimate, an estimate of the economic impact to the community. Identification of potential funding sources. And as I previously mentioned, an identification of a suitable location for a community recreation facility. So with that, I’m happy to stand here and answer any questions you may have. Commissioner Zenker. Already indicated. It was a small wave.

01:28:58,870	I got a small finger. I’m not a very big guy. So. All right, so let’s just. Let’s. I understand us taking the lead. I really do.

01:29:14,430	Um, first of all, I would be fully supportive of a rec center in the city of Bismarck and have been in the past, I think the last time it happened, they came to us to put it on the ballot, and we we approved it as a commission for them. Also, they would have had to go through signatures and their their processes.

01:29:29,830	Right? I do I do have a problem with the cost of this study being, you know, a quarter of $1 million. We’ve already got some information that the Park district went through. I don’t understand why we just can’t take that. And and, um, update it, so to speak. Um, at a less expense of what’s, what’s estimated here.

01:29:51,700	Doesn’t matter if us if we pay for it as a city or the park, it still comes from the same quote unquote, pockets. Right. Um, I think the last and correct me on some of these numbers, if I’m, if I’m mistaken.

01:30:06,370	But the last time they went through this process to and voted on it, it was like a 120, $140 million building. That sounds about right. Right. So and that was, would you say, 2020? Correct. Six years ago. Throw some inflation on there. We’re probably talking about something in the neighborhood of 180 to 200 million bucks, right. Potentially depends on the design and what’s needed.

01:30:30,670	Sure. Needs always equal wants sometimes. So, um, I think you have to. We have to understand what? What that is. Right. We struggle at this table with the event center. Um, and it took a lot of cans getting kicked down the road.

01:30:51,070	Finally, before we approved some remodels for the event center, some funds for that. There’s still people out there that said, hey, tear that thing down, build a new one. But when you got a stomach of 404 or 400 million or $440 million project to to replace that, um, then all of a sudden they changed their tune, so to speak.

01:31:09,700	Right? Because again, that money still comes from the same spot, whether it’s sales tax, property tax, whatever it is, it comes from within the community. Um, so I guess my point is this, um, I would ask ourselves first and I would ask the park.

01:31:31,600	Second is what’s changed from 2020 to today? Are we still the same two conservative? Sometimes as a community to be able to get this done and that that would be the number one question. And maybe there’s a survey out there that they did or, or something. Um, because I think that’s what that’s what hinders us as a community. We’re too conservative.

01:31:49,930	We don’t we don’t want to take that risk. Maybe because of the heritage of all we are. You know, I’m a German-Russian guy, so I’ll blame it on my my grandpa and grandma and and my great grandma and grandma type thing.

01:32:06,400	But are we going to be willing to take that risk and, and, um, we can say it. And some people don’t like it. Hey, there are other communities within our state that have fabulous facilities. Fargo is working on their second, um, through my my children playing sports and things like that.

01:32:23,970	I’ve seen some of the, some of the stuff that’s in other smaller communities. I’ll, I’ll tab the Watford City, they got a fence, two fantastic facilities really up there, you know, and they have a little bit different economic environment. Um, so so that’s question one. Are we are we still too conservative to get this done? Again? I fully support this. I’m I’m all in. Let’s do it type thing. Yes.

01:32:45,370	The second thing is it’s got to have a wow factor right. I said this before when we talked about the the hotel possibility in the by the event center. It can’t just be, you know, hey, here’s a building. Cut it up with some nets, do some things.

01:33:01,830	Um, you know, if you if you look at the, the research, we we approved a letter earlier today for a group of people that are doing the next play thing, repurposing the old, um, super value slash unify warehouse. It’s a it’s going to be a great project for the city of Bismarck.

01:33:19,470	But I can tell you right now, today, it’s not enough. That is only going to fill a small void of of what we really need. Right? So so what’s the wow factor that we’re going to have that we’re going to have for this. That’s it. I’m done.

01:33:37,030	So if I can address some of the comments or maybe follow up with Commissioner Zenker. Um, I’ve had I mean, I’ve got people coming to me all, all day long that we need some facility and we need to be bold. We’ve talked about being bold, and this is one way I agree that the the estimate of the consulting cost is a lot to swallow.

01:33:56,300	I think we have to refine what it is that we’re looking for in the proposal or the consulting contract. I think that we do need to try to reuse what’s already been done. I’ve got to believe we can get done for a lot less money. I think the the point that we. Have.

01:34:10,630	We have to give some direction to staff to say, let’s go forward and see what we can get done. If it comes back with a on an RFP with some number, that doesn’t make sense, well, then it changes the tune or they’ll we go to some of these

01:34:22,630	people in the community who want it on their land and say, write a check. And they may be, may or may not be willing to do that. So, um, it does have to have some kind of a wow factor. What that is, I don’t know.

01:34:39,830	But it’s got to be, you know, we gotta look at what what’s happened up in Grand Forks, what’s happened in Fargo. And by the way, the Grand Forks project would not have gotten done had the city itself taken the lead, not the park district. The city took the lead to try to push it through.

01:34:54,430	Um, and there’s going to be the funding mechanism to it. I think there’s a whole myriad of potential items, not including sales tax that looks at it all depends on where it’s placed. So, um, my, my feel is I would like to see us give staff the direction to. Let’s proceed forward to develop the RFP.

01:35:14,770	But also knowing that it’s got to be really refined, you know, and we need to use what’s already been done in 2019 or 2020, whenever that was out there, and pull it forward. And because I think we also need to know what it is, the facility needs to incorporate with these.

01:35:30,430	There’s another there’s another recreation center going in in South Bismarck as well, not just the one in the old SuperValu warehouse. I don’t know that it really impacts. This.

01:35:46,900	I mean, I don’t know that it really impacts anything on what is needed, because I think we are also losing out on a bunch of visitors to our community is going to have a huge economic impact to us. Huge. I and I completely agree with that. That’s why, you know, I’m all in. Yeah I’m good. So since it’s more the direction we give I think to staff, I mean that’s my I think we’re on the same page. Sure. Commissioner Conley.

01:36:06,000	This is one of those topics that I’ve done a lot of research ever since the original, um, uh, consultant that they hired in the, um, 2013, I think. And I even wrote a pretty extensive history on it after the vote of or right before the vote of 2019.

01:36:26,300	And then the Park district also hired a consultant that wasn’t very. I mean, it puts citizens that voted no against it in a pretty bad light. And that doesn’t speak well. So but there are a lot of people that are conservative, that are not conservative when it comes to sports. And they want this conversation to be had.

01:36:49,230	And there’s a lot of people that have the resources in that. And I would say it kind of like you said, mayor, is that, um, step forward, pay for, have the private sector pay for the feasibility come up with the dollars to pay for the feasibility study, and we can start exploring all of those

01:37:10,170	other options after that, because the thing that has killed these projects is community buy in. That would be a great way to reach out and say, this is community buy in. I think we need to first find out the numbers.

01:37:23,970	I don’t think we’re going to go asking for money until we know what the number is. If it’s not unreasonable. yeah. Good. Commissioner Risch, Mr. chairman, um. Do we have it in our budget for 100 or $125,000? Where would it come from if we did approve this? Mayor and commissioners, we do not have the 100, $125,000 specifically identified for this project.

01:37:52,770	However, we do have commission special projects funds, which is set aside every year for potential things like this. We could also look at existing budgeted dollars that were identified for this year, and reallocate those towards this project. If it’s the interest of the commission. Okay, well, I’ve got some real reservations about it. There’s an old political adage keeping your own lane.

01:38:10,900	And this isn’t our lane. It’s a park district. Lane park. It’s good for the community. And if, you know, um, if the citizens want it, I’m all in on it.

01:38:29,630	But when you look at the 2020 vote, 63% of the citizens voted against, um, raising the sales tax by half a point to pay for the recreation facility. So that’s a problem. Um, the other problem I have is we’ve got a lot of stuff in the queue right now. We’re expanding the airport, new police station, possibly helping with the triage center, fire station, redoing this building, the event center. We’re talking $300 million worth of stuff in the pipeline.

01:38:48,300	Potential for $300 million worth of stuff in the pipeline. So I don’t know where the money would come from for this. Um, the other thing is, you know, we as Bismarck residents, we already pay park district taxes. We all do. And I’m proud to pay my park district taxes.

01:39:04,230	It might make more sense if Burley County teamed up with the Park district to, um, because they’re not paying for the facilities that they’re using right here in our community. That might make more sense. It’s a complete long shot, but it’d be more equitable. So I’ve got reservations about this.

01:39:24,030	And and in the fact that the Park district has not even voted on it as of yet, and it’s their domain. I mean, if the park board had voted yes, we want to proceed with this.

01:39:39,070	And the Park district came over here and gave a presentation to the city commission, well, that’d be a different deal than us taking the lead on the thing right out of the chute here. So I you know, I don’t I don’t know where the park district is on this as the park district. The board members even voted. And you keep saying you said that you got all these community people that are reaching out to you demanding this. I have zero I’ve not had a single person.

01:39:56,070	I mean, I don’t know, is just the members of the crowd, probably. But but I do know that the Park district has been engaged on this, and so has the park board itself has heard some information. But they haven’t voted. They haven’t made any decisions.

01:40:11,530	They have not voted. But again, I think we this is more than a park district. The park district going to end up probably operating it. But this is a true economic engine facility. If we can get it done. And that to me is where that’s why the city needs to be involved.

01:40:31,830	It’s wholly committee. I don’t know who was First Commissioner Clair. Um, yeah. I mean, I agree I’d be interested in the scope. Jason, if we’re going to like, move forward, what does that look like? I think we’ve kind of all said it’s already we’ve already done a lot of the legwork.

01:40:47,100	So does it have to cost a quarter of a million or can it be less. Um, I mean, I’m willing to say I, I didn’t have a full grasp of the ballot measure, and I did not vote yes on it the first time because my number one concern was nobody told, and there was no

01:41:00,270	explanation as to where it was going to be. So that would be my biggest question with this research is like, because I don’t feel like we had any of that penciled out in the 2021. Um, like there was no possibility of where it was going to go.

01:41:18,230	There was ideas floated around, but it wasn’t something that was built in. But a lot of the other work got done in the 2020 stuff. So I think that we can use a lot of it.

01:41:33,330	Um, I think to Commissioner Rich’s point, like, obviously this is a park board thing, but like you said in Grand Forks, sometimes things sometimes the city needs to be involved in order to get it going. It’s also, I mean, a facility that the schools will likely use, but it doesn’t mean that the city can’t play a role.

01:41:51,370	Um, especially if we can all agree that, like when it comes to economics and bringing people into the community, I mean, we we see what happens down at the event center every time there’s a state B basketball tournament. There’s tons of people around. So I think that like, that’s great for our community. I would like to see the city participate in it.

01:42:05,830	But I think that like the scope of it, I think we could work on so that we’re narrowing that down and really deciding what we need to figure out would be my point. Commissioner Conley. Um, to answer, Commissioner Rishi’s, um, portion, the the talks have always been ongoing.

01:42:28,330	The fact that they hired a consultant almost immediately after the vote to end part of one of the terms from the consultant is, um. Was it presented right, or was the education appropriate or some of the unbecoming terms, or was the citizen just ignorant to the conversation? Um, so they’ve talked about it and then they used the term voter tolerance. So they were actually talking about the wording to gauge voter tolerance.

01:42:52,530	These are things that we have to overcome in these conversations. If we’re going to get the community to embrace it. And there’s been several people that have also reached out to me about this, um, as well. Some of them voted no. Some of them voted yes. There was a whole organization, part 360 that worked on that.

01:43:09,900	90% of it was going to be covered by the half cent sales tax, 10% by private. And part 360 was working on that on the Fargo one.

01:43:26,430	And I might be a little off on the numbers that was working towards a 5050 where 50 would come from private and 50 from local. But then right after they built it, their memberships for a family went from between 4 and $500 to nearly $1,000.

01:43:45,230	And so there’s a cost to it, too, because a lot of the people that they went out and garnered buy in to build this new facility, and a lot of the people that were looking at using it now, you just priced them out of using it. So there’s some things that we really need to discuss on it.

01:44:04,930	So just some of the history I I’ll look up that article I wrote, um, back then and probably after April 6th, I’ll put it out there for people to see. So do we have direction for Jason or not? I would think we should wait until we hear something from the Park district. Um, postponed a discussion. I’m. I’m I’m going to say I. I don’t think we should, but that’s my opinion. I think we should.

01:44:31,570	If we’re going to move forward, we should try to move forward. Um, knowing that one, uh, when the new director for the Park district is brought on, I mean, they’re going to have their hands full with just getting around it.

01:44:47,570	And that’s part of why I think city staff can be the lead to that. But I do want the the I would like to see the scope of whatever the RFP is that looks like or the feasibility to be narrowed down. That’s my personal opinion. Um, and I, I’ve been pretty, pretty bold on that, I think so, Commissioner Zenker.

01:45:04,270	So could we do this? Could we could we have direct Jason to work with? Um, Kevin to narrow down the scope and bring the bring the scope, what the RFP would look like to our next meeting, and then is there a chance that the park would have

01:45:23,300	a chance to to give their opinion on it prior to our next meeting? Um, Jason. Mayor and commissioners. Commissioner Zenker, I don’t have a calendar in front of me, but I the park district meets the third Thursday in March, so help me with that date. It’s probably. Could be after the second Tuesday.

01:45:40,930	Yeah, we meet the 10th. I suppose their meeting would then be something like the 18th or 19th. Sure. And it’s not a race to get this done right. It’s probably more critical to get the RFP out there, ask the question, that type of thing.

01:45:58,670	So it would be safe to say that that we could they could define the scope. They could have input on the scope. Um, get it approved by the parks and then bring it back to us. And the last meeting. Of but I think getting that scope narrowed down is. because I’m that’s that’s the stuff that we wait to wait until after March. Whatever.

01:46:14,800	Right now we’re that much further down the road. Yeah. Because I’m, I mean, I’m with you. I’m not in for $125,000. Feasibility study. It’s got to be a better way to do this. I agree. Is that good? Yeah.

01:46:33,500	Mayor and commissioners, if I may, the the 200 to $250,000 estimate came from Executive Director Cliff fell’s conversations with the group that did the study previously. Uh, I’ll admit it sounds like a big number, but certainly we can work to, as you’ve said, narrow the scope and really pinpoint this thing. Um. Commissioner Connelly. The group that did the, um, background on the actual facility or the group that followed with the consulting afterwards, if it’s.

01:47:05,300	Mayor, commissioners, uh, Commissioner Connelly, I guess I’m not sure of the sequencing, but the group that, uh, executive director had referenced is Barry Dunn, so I’m not sure if they did the first work or if they did the work subsequent to the election in 20. Okay.

01:47:20,000	I believe they did the initial work that led to the election discussion. Okay. Commissioner Cleary. Um, I guess I would be comfortable with probably the timeline that Commissioner Zenker laid out where it’s maybe your direction tonight is that we have you work with Kevin on narrowing that scope down.

01:47:39,500	Um, and then once that happens, it kind of gets run by our board and their board, making sure it’s on their agenda for March. Um, whether you take it to them. And then we see we hear about it in our second meeting in March. I don’t see a problem with that.

01:47:56,330	Um, then that way, at least to Commissioner Rich’s point, we’ve heard from them and have some buy in from them. Um, but I think if we could work on that scope, you know, starting now and then, we’re not doing that after we talk to them in March would be my timeline. Thought I can work within those boundaries. It won’t be a problem. Commissioner Risch.

01:48:14,700	Mr. chairman, well, if it doesn’t go to the ballot at least 2028, because we’re going to miss this year. I don’t see much urgency in this at. All. But if we have some sort of ballot. Funding, if it’s if it’s a ballot fund measure, it may not need to be that, okay.

01:48:29,800	But first I heard of it when I read about it in the Tribune with your state of the city address, I it’s news to me. I’m not opposed to this. Such a thing. It’d be great. I toured the one in Gillette, Wyoming, 190,000ft facility. Unbelievable.

01:48:51,570	Um, they paid for it in cash up front and put $50 million in the bank in a trust fund to help with the expenses. They got coal money out there, just like Watford City’s got oil money. I didn’t say who did it. I just said it was funny. All right. Do you have enough? Yes, I believe I’ve got enough direction to move forward.

01:49:09,770	I can reach out to director and keep going from there. And plan to be back here at the second meeting in March with a little bit more information. Okay. Thank you everyone. All right. Next item J.

01:49:29,570	Consider a request for approval of the projected list and home Rule charter amendment language for the half cent sales tax extension for roadways. Gave. Good evening, Mayor and commissioners. Our goal for tonight to our goal that I’d like to see for tonight is to get some consensus on the project list. So I have a short presentation here.

01:49:47,300	A lot of information was in the agenda packet. I’ll try to highlight some of the changes that we’ve seen from when the public was engaged initially to where we are now, as well as even changes from what we even have in the agenda. Memo to where we are right now as well.

01:50:02,170	So as a reminder, this is kind of the the concept that we’re looking at is a revised project list that would be funded through the half cent sales tax. We have a combination of some arterial roadways, some of those being reconstructions, some of those being extensions or constructions of new roadways.

01:50:19,270	We have some balloon collectors, I believe all of those, if not the vast majority of them, are platted rights of ways today or planned easements. But there’s no road there today. So a lot of those locations are collectors, but we really don’t have any traffic on those ones. And then we have a selection of green roads or locals that are existing roadways that exist today that were constructed.

01:50:37,400	And then the city historically grew around them without really a mechanism to require the reconstruction of those facilities. You’ll see Ottawa Street is one of those types of projects that were actually have awarded at this point in time.

01:50:53,500	So some of the changes that we had from what we presented to the public one, I guess I’ve highlighted all three of the change. Excuse me, four of the changes in some yellow highlight. This was a combination of some comments from members of the public, as well as defining the the timeline, or how long this extension would last before we’d go back to the voters for for a change.

01:51:09,330	So the longer that timeline is out into the future, the longer the sunset, the the hazel or crystal ball is, but also the more projects we might want to have on a list.

01:51:26,470	So with the direction of being a ten year extension that was given at the last time we met on the subject, put some some definition on where we would anticipate the city being in that 5 to 10 years for us to even consider new improvements. So with that, one of the projects that was removed was a 64th Avenue extension up north of Heritage Park near Tyler Parkway.

01:51:42,430	We still have Tyler Parkway on the the corridor, so if there are improvements in the area and it related to intersections or capacities on Tyler Parkway, we’d still be able to use this funding to do so. If this was passed.

01:52:00,030	But the likelihood of needing an extension through, uh, the bisects the residential neighborhood and the rural subdivision to the north, as well as connecting that to the east, is probably not very likely in the next 5 to 10 years. As we move easterly, we added the 1804 slash 71st Avenue corridor between what would be Yukon Drive and 19th Street. That is a state highway. Some of it’s a state highway, some of it’s a early county highway.

01:52:15,570	We could envision at some point in the near nearer future, having some sort of improvements there and being able to utilize this funding source for what those improvements might look like, both either at the intersection of 1804 and US 83, or potentially along that corridor as well.

01:52:31,530	We also, as we keep going easterly, removed a segment of 26th Street that is in more of the rural section. Um, so it’s already a constructed roadway and we didn’t feel it was necessary to show that it’s not going to redevelop. So we just trimmed that back down to where the road currently doesn’t exist.

01:52:46,430	From Cell and Loop to the south. And then the last roadway that we added was the extension of Yukon Drive by State Street in 57th Avenue, south of Fleet Farm, north of of Bismarck Motor Company, in the same spirit as when we’re looking at some of the other connectivity issues that we

01:53:01,800	have and the Dot investment on State Street, and a lot of the feedback that we have received from them has been show us how we, as the city, have mechanisms in place to develop that the rest of the network before the Dot will want to invest on State Street.

01:53:17,070	So that’s why we have 19th Street and segments of 64th on that on the project list. That’s why we have Ottawa Street on the project list, and that’s why we would have this extension of Yukon Drive on that project list, so that we would have that ability to offload some of that traffic that the Dot might consider as non regional in

01:53:30,870	nature and show that forward with our local connections that we’d have in our community. So as we then looked at, how would we phrase this in a home rule charter amendment. This is kind of the first draft. We’ll have a couple of slides that walk through each of these.

01:53:47,900	By no means is this the actual language. It’s just kind of shows kind of a strike out underlying concept of something that you would potentially see. So as we worked the first items, I through 7 or 1 through seven, that is the original, which is the one through eight, is the original project list initially.

01:54:04,570	And in your original agenda packet, I went through the exercise of removing segments that were completed or constructed, and then using completely more red ink or some red light red lining within that segment. But on further reflection, some of these projects are still in a state of construction.

01:54:23,730	So even though you might say South Washington Street has been constructed for two years now, we have not made the final payment to that contractor until the Dot has approved the final records, which means we wouldn’t want to have something on the June ballot that then removes a list or a project that’s already under construction from eligibility.

01:54:39,730	So it’s either coming up with a clever statement that addresses that concern. My recommendation would just be to leave the project list as it is, so that those projects are still, um, eligible for reconstruction.

01:54:56,330	But in no means would we anticipate reconstructing Ash Coulee Drive when we just reconstructed that particular roadway 3 or 4 years ago, but so the rest of the changes that you’ll see on this slide reflect original corridors that we had from the original list, but now expanded, uh, termini. So maybe it’s it’s farther east, farther west, north, south, etc. or whatever it might be as a means to show those same corridors.

01:55:13,200	But now the new eligible pieces of that corridor, as we move to the next slide, this would be representing the additional locations. And these are all be, uh, as we start the first nine through. Looks like 15, I would say, um, are all categorized as arterial roadways. Those would be arterials. Section nine roadways or thereabouts.

01:55:41,030	Uh, as we work our way from 16 or got to get really good at our Roman numerals to read through this. Uh, 16 through 21, those would all be on that collector roadway network of roadways, many of them not there today.

01:56:00,200	But you’ll see, for an example, let’s say this Calgary Avenue segment, uh, we’ll see as a means to address the a segment of Calgary Avenue from lick D Place to Centennial Road and another segment of Calgary Avenue and another segment of Calgary Avenue that might be on the map that we talked about.

01:56:14,600	We might try to, um, kind of roll all those up into one statement that just says Calgary Avenue from State Street to Centennial Road without the intention intended, meaning that we’re going to reconstruct some of the existing segments that are there.

01:56:29,470	But just as a manner to make the potential ballot language easier to to right and easier to understand for the public as well, as we look to the next slide, um, this one in a similar manner would be the intent is to describe the roadways that exist without probably giving their termini or where they begin or end or the segments of them.

01:56:47,930	So we would describe their configuration of being a rural section roadway and then list the roadways themselves. I was having a difficult time explaining what segment of Arabian Avenue, because we’d have to get into west of XYZ Street, to this street, or 300ft west of Washington Street to Washington Street. And it became a problematic list. Or maybe not problematic, but even lengthier list.

01:57:07,400	So I’m trying to be sensitive to the amount of paper that we’ll be able to to utilize on this question for the public and, and try to make that as efficient and consolidate in any ways that we can. So this was my attempt at consolidating that into the roadways that are out there.

01:57:23,470	And the ditch section segments of them, to narrow the scope to, to only that type. And lastly, this is another change that we would need to figure out a way to to talk about the new sunset. We had some direction at the last time we talked about it before extending this ten years.

01:57:40,100	I interpreted that as being ten years from when it was about to expire. I guess is how I interpreted that. Uh, but as we had in the original item, it was kind of a date uncertain because an ordinance wasn’t passed yet. We didn’t know when it would start, so we couldn’t say when it would end.

01:57:56,530	So we just said ten years from when it started, my the really easy way to change this would say 20 years after the date of first collection, but I would be hesitant if that would maybe confuse the public or some members of the public to say 20 years and not understanding it’s 20 years, starting eight years ago.

01:58:10,470	So I wanted to just be real clear with the date in this instance and just give a it’s it’s more that it has to be refined in the Home Rule charter, but it gives a date, certain, um, concept for the public to, to use this actually to be just short of a ten year extension.

01:58:23,730	Um, it would we couldn’t just but I thought it would make more sense to end it on a January 1st instead of the end of that first quarter, which would be a true ten year extension. So with that, those are the the elements I would take. Any suggestions, recommendations, direction that you have.

01:58:39,270	But our goal here is to if we can finalize the project list and we’d come back to you with the actual home rule charter amendment language. If you’re finding what the changes that we would have, there might be additional sections that we’d have to address and work with.

01:58:53,130	Attorney Mes to put together a packet that would be acceptable to produce on the ballot. So with that, I’ll take any questions that you may have. Questions. I like the list. but Commissioner Zenker. Yeah. No, I was just going to echo that comment that I like the list. I like how it’s laid out.

01:59:16,100	Um, it gives good examples of the extension of it. Um, this has been fantastic for the city of Bismarck. We’ve been able to be. We were we had to be reactive, um, to get some of these projects done.

01:59:30,030	And now we can be we’re still going to be a little bit more reactive, but we can still proactively take care of some of the smaller streets that need some maintenance. That or actually some asphalt that they haven’t had in decades. So I would I don’t see any reason to change some of this unless there’s some legal jargon that Julian might need us to change. But other than that, I’m good with it.

01:59:52,330	Commissioner Connelly. Um, some of the people that were objectionable, um, uh, I know Dustin Gavrilo talked about it, and he’d mentioned he’s comfortable with the, um, smaller list than what it was potentially promoted to be on at the Public Works meeting.

02:00:25,470	And, um, I do think if you’re going for a 20 year extension versus a ten, that might be harder for citizens to consider. So it might risk it failing. Um. It’s only ten year. Okay. He said it did certain the 20 year was talking about all the way back to the 2018. Oh, right. Okay. Okay. Now I understand. Approved in November of 18.

02:00:44,630	Yeah okay. Sorry I didn’t catch that. Um, so that answers that question. Um, and I know one person that, uh, talked about as far as, like the East Main that’s protested out a couple of different times and that wasn’t included into this list.

02:01:05,130	Um, if the fee for service fails, they’re facing the same situation with high high specials along that area. And it was mentioned that, well, they’d need to show more investment on how they want to, um, develop that in a more efficient manner. But a lot of these roadways are out in areas that don’t have that answer, either.

02:01:23,070	They’re not developed yet either, but we’re including them on the map. Not all of these projects are going to get done, just like all of the projects before. And it’s going to be a case by case basis. And they’re going to come across this table to where we discuss them.

02:01:38,530	I don’t think there’s any harm in extending that Main Street corridor from ninth to 66. So we can at least have the discussion. If we exclude it, we take them off the table. And I think there’s a little inequity in that response.

02:01:58,430	And then, um, all um, like for all of the ones, because the expanding of the city comes at a price, the long term maintenance, the cost of services, taking care of snow removal and things that impacts the entire city. So could we look at something to where all projects and benefiting properties must be annexed into Bismarck city limits prior to the approval of funding for those individual projects? Because, um, of those the cost of those services over time.

02:02:26,630	If I could maybe. Address those. I’ll try to address both of those. Uh, Commissioner Conley, regarding the Main Avenue component. I’m not opposed. If it’s the board’s will or direction to include that corridor.

02:02:49,670	What? We’re real hesitant on is that there are landowners that live on other commercial corridors or concrete streets with multiple lanes, that we don’t offer the same. Um, I guess, deal. If this half cent sales tax would include a reconstruction of Main Avenue. We didn’t do that on the Century Avenue concrete pavement repair two years ago. Excuse me.

02:03:06,400	Or the Third Street concrete paved repair last year or the upcoming Main Avenue concrete pavement repair we’d find this year. So I’m hesitant to intermix those sort of things, because then if you live on or on property on XYZ Street, you have this other funding source taking care of of this issue.

02:03:23,930	And if you lived one block away on a very similar street with similar dynamics, you’re asked through the special assessment process to pay for that cost or that burden higher. So I don’t disagree. That Main Avenue is kind of an odd duck in terms of other things, but we also have other corridors that we’d want to look at.

02:03:40,330	So if we ever did a special assessment policy rewrite that brought in more properties into arterials, or if we had a street utility fee that just took care of that concern, those would be the issues or the routes that I would rather invest our solutions towards than bringing in just this one corridor into a half cent sales tax for street reconstruction, because

02:03:59,530	I would argue there’s going to be a lot more that are similar to Main Avenue. That should also be included in the if we do all of those things, we’re kind of back to square one, that we don’t have enough money to do any of the things because we’re maintaining these six roadways.

02:04:12,030	If that’s that’s the example. Um, so I guess that’s that’s my response to that one as it relates to annexing the property. Um, I would argue that if I’m just recalling them, the only project that had a 100% of all adjacent properties annexed into the city of Bismarck is the South Washington Street project, I

02:04:30,600	would say even all of 43rd Avenue, all of Ash Cooley, um, Century Avenue, all of those projects had at least some properties that weren’t annexed into the city.

02:04:48,670	Um, so I would hate for us to have some sort of policy in place that, uh, had a required annexation or a city initiated annexation before we spend dollars on sales tax dollars, community dollars on that particular facility. Um, I think that probably puts a burden. That’s just kind of odd or unnecessary, potentially. Um, when we’re just trying to look at what is that asset? That is our asset doesn’t really matter if the adjacent properties are annexed or not.

02:05:05,270	That’s our asset to maintain. And this would be the mechanism we would be using to to maintain and construct them. Great commissioners. Yeah. And if I could expand on that. So I think that would take us back. We would regress.

02:05:20,730	I don’t think we would then be reactive to a scenario instead of being proactive. And I’ll use I’ll use from Legacy High School. Would you say Liberty right to Centennial? And I’m sure if you talk to the residents that live around there, they would love to see that section of roadway completed.

02:05:37,430	So those high school kids and those people coming from out of town could come down Centennial and and hang a right or a left onto Calgary and go right to legacy.

02:05:57,070	So, I mean, I, I understand your, your concern, but, um, to get out of the the ruts, so to speak, pun intended, by the way, um, that we’re in um, if we proactively if we proactively create those roadways. Yes, there’s maintenance costs to them, but it’s a benefit to to everybody involved. Any other comments? Commissioner Risch, I just want to thank Gabe for your good work on this. I think it looks really well. I’m ready to go forward. So we’re not we’re not taking the ballot language today.

02:06:21,600	So that will be coming up in March, right? Mayor, commissioners, I’ll be attending a training conference in the first meeting in March. So I would anticipate that second meeting in March to be able to come back here with. With a. On whether or not we need to vote tonight.

02:06:34,670	We probably don’t need to vote tonight. That’s all I was looking for. Commissioner Conley. One clarification on the sunset date and the start date. Um, and I was advised during that portion, both for the transportation and working with citizens that, um, the sunset date prior to when measures like this came up.

02:06:57,930	And, Julie, you can probably confirm it with, uh, people that, um, it was listed as the same date as January 1st. The reason why the citizen measure was changed to, um, December 31st was because of that advisement. Just something to check in.

02:07:23,000	Um, because that was, um, some of the state measures that that came up. Um, and if people want to ask questions, I can explain it more later. Um, but benefit to the city commissioners. And I do appreciate what you say benefit to the city. Good roads is a benefit, but it comes at an expense and the costs keep rising. And that’s where the struggle is.

02:07:50,130	It’s not going to get any cheaper. We’ve already had that discussion. I mean, right, that if we look at our previous, our previous topics that we had with the rec center, with the parks, that that building didn’t, it’s not getting any cheaper.

02:08:06,270	It’s not going to be 90 million when they wanted 120 or 140. Right, I get it. I totally understand. But we also can’t be regressive. We have to be proactive. And anytime a city can be proactive and we can and we can, um, establish a good presence, press presence, presence. Sorry, too many bees and get and get things done in a timely fashion.

02:08:27,800	It’s only a benefit and it does come at a cost. I completely understand that. But we need to be more forward thinking instead of reactionary. And this does that for us. Okay, anything else? Gabe, I think you got the general direction. Yep. Okay. Thank you.

02:08:52,670	Next is consider a request for approval of street utility fee advisory vote language. Go ahead. Gabe. As I mentioned before, I will be out of the office on the next meeting. So I wanted to have this conversation.

02:09:09,970	Now, in case you have additional conversations that you would like to have as a board or direction regarding our street utility fee. So I have a just a real short presentation here to kind of walk through this, the same similar information that was in your agenda packet. We do have a couple more options for you to consider as we talk about an advisory vote on what a street utility fee would look like.

02:09:26,330	Really, we’re asking a couple of different questions, and we have to internally ask those. First is what what are we asking the citizens? Are we asking the citizens to advise us on the philosophy of a street maintenance, street utility fee? Are we asking them for direction to put it on a ballot, like making sure that

02:09:40,600	we put the right amount of emphasis on each of those concepts as part of this? This exercise, and then how much supporting info should be required? It could be a really simple question do you want this without telling them what is taken away or it doesn’t? Or you could ask a question

02:09:56,470	without explaining more of the process. So it’s just how much of this information should be, um, presented in the question and how much of it we will educate other matters and how much of it is just unnecessary.

02:10:12,130	So with that, uh, we have four versions of really the same question. The first version at the top was the question that was in your agenda packet, which is a should statement asking direction from the public. Should the city do something is really we’re asking that that piece of it. Uh, and it’s really, I would say soft in nature.

02:10:26,800	You know, it’s consider placing should we consider placing isn’t very, uh, active, say a voter approved home rule charter amendment. I think there might be some in the community that would not know that a home Rule charter amendment needs to be approved by the voters.

02:10:44,800	So putting some of that information, while redundant, may help communicate to the voters the intention. And then the ask ultimately is creating a street fee to be included on the monthly utility bill. I think it’s important to explain how that fee would be collected, but even that’s in some ways a redundant piece or maybe not mission critical.

02:11:01,870	Uh, to replace the current practice of street maintenance special assessments. So as we look at the second version, that’s really the same type of question, but with just more active tone.

02:11:17,970	Uh, should the city of Bismarck place on a future ballot, a home rule charter amendment to create a street utility fee included on the monthly utility bill that would replace the current practice of street maintenance special assessments. So not a lot of difference between 1 and 2, but just a little more active. And number two, as we get to number three, this is now asking. Their opinion, not asking what do they want us to do? It’s just asking what they would like.

02:11:32,930	Uh, they being the public, do you support placing on the ballot an amendment to the Home Rule charter that would create a street utility fee? Um, include on your monthly utility bill in place of the current practice of street maintenance, special assessments.

02:11:48,870	And then the last version is, do you support a home rule charter amendment that eliminates the current practice of special assessments for street maintenance projects and replaces it with a new street utility fee that would be added to your monthly utility bill. It’s probably more conversational in tone and less, I guess, formal in nature, but at the same time, we’re it’s an advisory vote. We’re just asking a question of our citizens.

02:12:04,330	And that’s really what we’re we’re after. Um, I will say that these versions were shared and Doug took this language to the Citizens Academy last week, Thursday, and gave them some options of which one they liked. And at the time it was the fifth one.

02:12:19,800	But now we removed one of these, so they liked the number four out of out of these ones. The last one was the one that was overriding or resounding support for that particular one. And by no means are these the only ways to ask this question.

02:12:35,400	There’s also any infinite number of ways that you all could, uh, revise this language to get to that same point. So my request today is if there’s one of these that really speaks to you, that we move forward with that.

02:12:50,200	And then once again come back with the appropriate language, that would be, uh, something that we could use for that advisory vote in the June election, or I’d take any other direction that you can provide at this time. Commissioner Conley. I talked with you a little bit about this in the fore, and I do like the first one better. Um, one, it gives credence that there’s going to be two votes required, even if they give permission to further the conversation.

02:13:15,870	Whatever we come out with to be transparent and out there in front of the community, it buys that time because this is a big conversation and it gives us the opportunity to do anything and everything we can to present to the citizen. Um, that on a transparent and interactive basis.

02:13:38,370	Um, and mentioning that voter approved the second time. So it’s not a one and done. When you say, do you support placing based on some other things like we mentioned, the event center vote and um, early on when the citizens voted it down, a lot of citizens took it as this is

02:13:55,870	a yes or no on the project versus, uh, do you agree that we’re going to increase the bed and boost tax versus something possibly alternative? And history is kind of told us that that wasn’t a good way to go.

02:14:16,970	So that’s why I like the first portion is, um, should we have this conversation. So we’re giving you the opportunity to learn as best you can. We’re going to give you two good options. Try to vet it, and then, um, we’ll go forward based on what the June vote says. But my $0.02. Commissioner Risch, Mr.

02:14:37,600	chairman, uh, the more I think about it, the more I don’t like the idea of advisory vote. It’s complicated. It’s not like the sales tax one. That’s pretty simple. And you see all the the streets that are going to be fixed up or some of them are going to be fixed up. This is complicated. I go to retry or regroup. I’ll be there tomorrow morning.

02:14:52,700	And I say, well, what are you going to try and take the developers off the hook and things like this. There’s a lot of misinformation out there by my church. After church on Sundays. I’m always asked about stuff like this at the barber shop and all over. There’s just a lot of confusion out there.

02:15:07,400	I wish everybody would have read, um, Zack’s article in the Bismarck Tribune explained it because he did a heck of a job, but unfortunately, not enough people have read that article and understand it like they should. Um, I would rather that we postpone it until the November ballot or real vote. But in the interim, do a real scientific survey.

02:15:28,800	So about 24% of the citizens of Bismarck will vote in June. Um, if we did a scientific survey of the whole community, we might have a better idea of where people are at on this issue rather than just putting it on the ballot at a time where people really don’t understand most.

02:15:45,900	A lot of people don’t really understand it thoroughly, and it’d give us more opportunity to talk about, well, let’s put it this way, if we did the survey, a real scientific weighted survey, and it came out one way, it came out very negative.

02:16:00,530	Maybe we just dropped it at that, but if it came out somewhat positive, well, then we have time to discuss it. Educate the public on what the issue really is and they get to make the final decision in November, when about 50% of the people vote, rather than 24%. That’s just my thought. I just said Delay did not have an advisory at all because it’s just an advisory. Anyway.

02:16:15,900	No different than a survey would be an advisory. Mr. Connelly. And I would be okay with that. When the advisory vote conversation came up, it was that this is going on the June ballot. It’s a take it or leave it or we’ll keep it the same.

02:16:37,230	And then it will, in my opinion, and the opinion of some people that have talked to me over the years is that’s just not I mean, there’s been a lot of back and forth. We’ve been circled around, um, mayor, you were in a lot of those meetings. Sometimes we were at one and three quarters of the year later, we were back at the original conversation.

02:16:52,830	So it’s gone around a couple of times. So to get the information out there and consistent is truly about it, it suits the same purpose. Either way, we can still have the discussions even if there wasn’t an advisory vote.

02:17:09,200	But we need to work diligently on what’s the black and white of it as soon as possible so we can give the citizens a chance to understand it. But one of the big things, like I mentioned to Mr.

02:17:24,200	Schwartz’s comment, when we talk about the affordable housing and I don’t need to go over that, but I used to be a landlord where I own rentals as well, and, um, when we didn’t incorporate the specials or anything, we just we chose a different way. But, um, now what we’re seeing with the corporate entities coming in because of specials, we’re raising rents, uh, $75 a month. Well, that rent doesn’t come down.

02:17:47,770	That’s placing a burden on our city. Even after the specials have long gone and paid for. Is now you got a tangible fee on the utility bill that they see every month. A landlord could still raise their rates, but it’s really hard to say. We’re raising your rent $100 because the city raised our, um, fee 30. Mr. chairman, one other thing.

02:18:12,370	If we did do a scientific survey, we could add questions in there about the recreational facility, see where the public is on that issue as well. Possibility. I think you’d ask more questions in a survey, uh, specifically around what the fee would look like.

02:18:33,670	You know, what’s intolerance level? You’d get more questions asked than what you can put in a ballot like this. I have a hard time with it being a non-binding advisory vote. I just don’t know what that’s going to gain us. I just. I mean, if it came down with a resounding, absolutely no, I guess we have that direction.

02:18:48,530	But a survey I think gets us to the same, same spot. Commissioner Zenker. So, I mean, here’s the deal. We got to give Gabe some direction. Yep. Right. The poor guy has been a yo yo for like 90 days.

02:19:00,430	What are we doing? How are we going to do it? What are we going to do to get this done? We’ve talked to we’ve we’ve done we’ve gone full circle almost. It’s like Groundhog’s Day over and over.

02:19:16,230	So, um, I think if I, if, if we’re, if you want to, if you want to November ballot issue, then we need to vote on it right here to say we’re going to take it to November. Um, which I’m not really in favor of because I just don’t I know how valuable Gabe’s time is, and staff’s time.

02:19:33,400	And to go through that big, heavy lift to try to figure out all those things, I want to make sure that it’s that it’s a worthwhile investment if we want to, if we want to, um, um, go with the the study. Um, then then let’s make a motion to go that direction and then follow the study.

02:19:53,000	If the study, like Commissioner said as it’s no, then fine then then we don’t have a lot of staff time in Gabe’s time going through this big heavy lift to get this done. You know, either way, if we had to vote in on June 9th, um, we would still have the same amount of time to do that. Or if we do a scientific study to do it right. Yep. There’s one thing I think that we need to that we need to bring up.

02:20:10,130	And Mister Schwartz acknowledge this, that, that hey, with the current special assessment scenario, you always get an option to protest out, right? So I just want to I just want to note that and if my math is correct here, um, that gave gave us for the previous item

02:20:26,130	he sent out or, or the group sent out about 835 letters, give or take, to total parcel properties, right. We received about 24 back out of those 830, 35. Right, which is about 2.5%. So I understand I understand the public input.

02:20:52,800	I respect the public input, but I don’t I don’t think when we when we get the, um, special assessment districts off the top of my head, for as long as I’ve been here, I don’t remember more than one time that we did not move forward with a project, um, based on people protesting out. And he’s right. Right. Mr. Schwartz is correct. Hey, more people need to be involved.

02:21:14,200	Um, I remember a couple being three. Two, because there’s a gentleman who was really close, and a couple of us thought we should just leave it out, and it didn’t go that way, which is fine. It is what it is. But the real reason for the street utility fee one is savings.

02:21:30,730	As Commissioner Reisch referred to. But the other thing is, so we could maintain these roads just like we maintain our our water lines and our sewer lines. We don’t we don’t special assess those. We collect those all through user fees. It’s it’s the same thing.

02:21:47,900	And we and you’re right we need to keep those those rates as low as possible. And because but we don’t know the rates yet. You know we’re using $30 um an average because basically it’s kind of what I said one day in a meeting, let’s just use this. So we so we have the same talking point. I ran some numbers at one point time.

02:22:03,270	And it kind of showed that that. that’s probably made sense. Right. Yeah. It seems practical. seem practical. And if you get a special assessment of X amount of dollars and and you stretch it out over seven years and it’s, and it’s less than that. Um, great.

02:22:17,930	It works out, you know, but if you go back, um, like Mister Schwartz said, if you go back 25 years, we know what happened in 1980 when they did special assessments is not the same cost as today. And he’s right. That’s his history. That shows the history on that property.

02:22:35,570	But I got a $100 bill that says what they did in 1980 is going to be more today, and it’s going to be more in 2035. Right. So, um, all we’re trying to do with this is, is everything we do anyways at this table is try to minimize the cost to the people who pay the taxes to fund the city.

02:22:51,800	And we might not be able to give you exactly what dollar amount you’re going to save by us doing this. But I can guarantee that there are not going to be 835 letters that go out that are going to tell you you owe somewhere between 1500 and 11,000 or $12,000, because we’re going to we’re going to

02:23:11,500	collect that money up front. So, um, whichever way you want to go is fine with me, but we need to finalize the direction that we’re going to give Gabe and staff tonight. Commissioner Clary. Um, I don’t disagree with Commissioner Risch.

02:23:35,130	I probably, after thinking about the advisory vote and then having to kind of do it all over and over on a bigger scale in November, if depending on how the advisory vote comes out. Um, I would I would be just as fine with a survey.

02:23:47,930	I think we’re going to still get an answer to the question, which is, what do people think about this? If you want my opinion on verbiage, um, I think two makes the most sense. Um, and active tone makes it more concise, but the first two are the only ones that explain that you’re actually making a vote on a future ballot ballot.

02:24:05,130	The other two kind of make it sort of feel like you’re deciding right now on it. So, um, but I would be fine with the recommendation to you being like, can can we do a survey instead? And then depending on how the survey comes out, go, go to November’s ballot. And mayor commissioners. Commissioner. Clear.

02:24:28,630	I think the biggest win for the advisory vote, or if it took the form of a survey, is just informing our organization if this is something we should continue to spend energy on. So we don’t want to get to a full fledged. Here are the actual 23,000 accounts and how much each of them will pay, and create a hypothetical utility for hypothetical question.

02:24:46,130	Unless we know that that’s the direction that there is a lot of support in going. So I think that’s that’s whether it’s through an advisory vote or through a scientifically valid survey that can help inform that. I think both accomplish that task. We just want to do that early in the process.

02:24:58,570	So we aren’t, um, saving that for for later or spending resources before we know the results of that, um, survey. I, I like the survey because I think we can ask some other questions in the survey than just one and be a little bit more pointed to try to get to, you know, if it if if you agree

02:25:18,200	it’s a good idea. Um, give them some ranges we have, we can get some ranges of what the fee might look like. And where’s that tolerance level and maybe even more succinct, the more more questions asked than a survey, as long as we do it scientifically through, we have to pay for that. I mean.

02:25:36,330	it’s it’s money. Yeah, it’s going to it’s money well worth it spent. And I think we get more questions out with better responses. Um, so that’s how I would lean rather than do it on a ballot. Do you want a motion of some sort? I think that would be appropriate.

02:25:51,230	Well, I’ll make a motion that we conduct a survey of Bismarck residents to determine whether or not they think replacing the special assessment for street improvements. Uh, with the utility, however you want to tune it all up, Jason. Mr. Connelly. Um. I’ll second for discussion.

02:26:14,970	And then the discussion points would be make sure that within that survey, we address some of the issues like citizen input, citizen checks and balances, and what possibly a protest to said service might look like. So we can encourage that input. And discourse that we enjoy in this. Part. To put the questions together for the survey.

02:26:35,030	Yep. I just wanted to highlight it. He came. To hear. That’s why I’m saying we can ask more questions, get different feedback. So we have a motion a second. Any further discussion? Mayor Chris, I would likely come back to you with the survey questions. That’s fine. Probably what we’ll end up doing.

02:26:56,470	Um, I guess I think if it’s straight on the concept of the Commissioner Rich indicated of support for your street utility, I’m pretty clear on that. Um, Commissioner Conley, if you’re asking for questions on how do we ask a question about protest ability in that side of the survey, that’s kind of a complex type of thing.

02:27:10,870	I might need you to look at that before we would send it out the door, because I don’t want to come back to a meeting in some future month with the results of this survey that don’t meet the intention of what you were searching for.

02:27:25,870	The only question, Mister Mayor Gabe, when you do the question, do you might want to engage with whoever’s going to do the survey for the city first. So, you know, they craft these questions in a way that they’re not leading and they’re fair. And so we get an accurate picture of what’s going on. So you might want to find somebody to that.

02:27:40,870	You’re going to have to do the survey with to help you with the questions. Sure. Understood. Commissioner Connelly. There’s a long meeting. So I’m just going to say this in jest. I said, I’ll certainly send something forward. I have a little bit of an idea, but you might need an oxygen tank and turn it up to three. Okay. All right.

02:28:02,130	Let’s call the call the roll, please. Commissioner Zenker. Yes. Commissioner Connolly. Yes, Commissioner. Cleary. Yes, Commissioner. Rich. Yes, mayor. Schmitz. Yes. Item 11 considered directing staff to create an application for public transportation costs to be allocated to individual entities from the half cent sales tax collection dedicated to public transportation.

02:28:29,300	I think it should be. Well, the share of the half cent sales tax. And it’s Commissioner Conley’s items. So I’m going to let you present Commissioner.. Okay. Um, yes. Um, when we were in the public transportation subcommittee meeting and things, a lot of people came forward.

02:28:52,000	There’s a lot of needs to get populations of people from one part of the community to another part of the community. And transit has been a long standing answer to some of those questions. Since 1987. But there are definite gaps.

02:29:13,600	Um, there’s been movement of services, um, as medical facilities continue to do construction, they’re moving where some of those services go in town. And it’s not where the transit authority can get to, in a very easy sense.

02:29:34,930	And it’s creating some challenges for a lot of the people that are part of the, um, homeless coalition or other services like folk rehab and other things and getting people to their jobs on time so they can maintain the jobs and people that can be actively working in our community. They’re finding out that they can’t work because they can’t get to where they need to be, or they can’t get to medical services. So as part of those discussions, ministry on the margins was an entity.

02:29:52,000	They were at one of the public input meetings, and they were asking about, um, what the where the conversation of the voucher. Um, vouchers for some of these things that transit couldn’t accommodate for.

02:30:15,070	I met with them and, um, transit used to go to the homeless coalition, and there would be a block of um, uh, vouchers that went they went through really quickly. There’s a lot of members and, um, it was really hard for them to get there because there’s some instability within that coalition. So I’ve asked it’s not fair to me to talk. Um, what your input might be on it.

02:30:39,630	So I asked for it to come forth as an item. Kudos to ministry on the margins. They’re going to talk about their needs specifically. And can we consider an application process kind of like we do for our liquor licenses to where it’s an application.

02:30:55,630	The rubric would be the same for any entity coming forward, but it’s taxpayer dollars. So the vetting of each application will come to this table. And they know that a decision specific to them probably won’t be here. They’re just going to present what they experience. And does it help us get to that possible application. Right. Go ahead.

02:31:18,500	Good evening, Mayor Schmitz, and members of the commission. My name is Raquel Richter, and I’m a social worker at Ministry on the margins here in Bismarck. And I’m also accompanied tonight by prison reentry manager Nate Mikkelson.

02:31:36,170	I’m here to speak on behalf of the many community members who are affected by the transfer, the transportation disadvantages, and to speak to the potential city benefits of a pilot project or application process that for area agencies to fund local bus passes or transportation. The premise for funding these proposals is based upon utilizing the half cent sales tax dedicated to public transportation.

02:31:58,330	As research has shown, cost to be an important barrier to transportation access. So first I would like to just share two real stories that have been experienced by individuals we serve. Um, imagine recently being released from prison trying to restart your life. You bike around town applying for jobs, carrying everything you own, in freezing temperatures.

02:32:15,900	If you’re lucky, you receive a bus pass for ministry on the margins. You finally land a job at bobcat, but your shift starts before the bus is run. You try to bike each day in the cold, but eventually it becomes impossible. You miss your shifts, you lose the job.

02:32:31,270	Or imagine being an older adult living on the streets. Your backpack with all your documents get stolen while you sleep. You need to get up north to the Social Security office to replace your card, so you’re eligible for your housing voucher.

02:32:48,130	That when you came to the top of the list, you usually have to provide identification documents, but you’re dealing with back pain, usually worn out boots and without transportation, even this simple task becomes overwhelming and you’re unable to qualify for public housing because you don’t have your Social Security card. On average, ministry on the margin serves 1358 individuals weekly, many of whom are elderly, disabled and of lower socioeconomic status.

02:33:12,800	Bus passes would benefit our population by providing transportation for work, medical, mental health appointments, and access to other critical resources. City and community anticipated benefits are aimed at furthering economic growth and cost saving via multiple avenues. So first, obviously expanding employment, educational, health and housing opportunities. The second way is decreasing encampment burden on downtown and area businesses.

02:33:41,070	Fewer calls to law enforcement and medical, and strengthening the overall social ties in the community. So if ministry on the margins were to participate in this application process, or you guys were to complete a pilot project that the ministry would receive funding for bus passes or some type of transportation voucher, we would be distributing these, um, vouchers at our open access,

02:34:01,930	which is a time where individuals who are seeking opportunity, employment, housing, all those things we offer twice a week, they would be able to come in and access these vouchers. So, um, the anticipated cost, let’s say, for a one time distribution of 150 Bozeman transit passes would run approximately $5,400.

02:34:21,130	So finally, for some additional support, I have included my handout outlining a research study, um, covering the importance of transportation and those of lower socioeconomic status. I don’t know if I’m allowed to distribute those when I’m done, but, um, yeah. So I’ll give you those when I finish up.

02:34:40,500	But overall, ministry on the margins remains committed to serving those who fall through the cracks in our community while encouraging opportunity and growth to better the city of Bismarck. So thank you so much for your time and consideration. Any questions? Questions, Commissioner.

02:35:01,230	Risch, I guess, um, would you be able to maybe negotiate with some ride service entity to get a bulk rate or a fixed rate or whatever the things may be? The vision, something like that. Maybe it’s one of the taxi service. I don’t know if, um, Uber or Lyft or something.

02:35:21,570	Uh, would negotiate with you for a set fee, but is that kind of how you envision things or what? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we have worked with, um, we’re creative, try to think out of the box. So if we have to get someone, let’s say, yeah, for example, the bobcat before the bus runs, we will try our best to use a lift, use different transportation services in the Bismarck area.

02:35:38,000	Obviously it’s just the funding is the issue. So if we’re able to, let’s say receive amount a dollar amount that we would be allowed to use that, that dollar amount, whether it’s for Uber or Bus Pass, I think we would definitely take advantage of that. Commissioner Zenker. So, um, I don’t have a problem with the doing it.

02:35:58,870	Somehow I think it’s best that transit facilitates it, manages it in lieu of, um, buses doing it at a commission. At the commission. We can finalize it at the commission level, but they know the intricacies, the details and those types of scenarios.

02:36:19,700	I get that transit might not be able to do it, um, physically with their equipment. But if they can facilitate the vouchers and those types of scenarios, I would be a little bit more comfortable. That’s kind of where I kind of feel is like transit’s got the capacity. Frankly, the city of Bismarck doesn’t have the staffing nor the mechanism to do it.

02:36:39,030	And it would be if, as I would envision it, because this was brought forth to the steering committee or the subcommittee, and it didn’t get a lot of traction there. But transit, I mean, transit’s getting the funding from us. And if they came forward with the additional funding request, that made sense.

02:36:58,670	I don’t think there’s anybody at this table is going to deny it. But I think since most of the services that come through transit anyway, they should be the ones they’ve got, the infrastructure and the staff dedicated to that kind of service. Commissioner Zenker right. Because, I mean, at the end of the day, we got to hold somebody accountable. We’re going to get held accountable.

02:37:18,530	Whoever we give this this task to is going to be held accountable. I don’t want to give I don’t I don’t want to hold somebody accountable outside of quote unquote, the, the network, so to speak. Right. I got no again, I have no issues with them using it. Coming up with something.

02:37:36,470	But together, I’m sure they can come up with some great ideas that that’s going to be feasible and practical, and then we can just move. From there and they can come up with the dollar amount. Because.

02:37:46,230	So what I’m going to say here is it’s going to be more the minister in the margins who might have some of these same people that need to be in honestly, I don’t know how we manage within our own staff here to start doling that out. And if we can look to that hub, that center to handle that for us, they can come forward to it with a request.

02:38:01,870	I mean, we’re we already know we’ve got the dollars. We also know those dollars need to go some other things within for transportation to provide some other protective devices and streets. So we have safety when the bus picks someone up and we’re going through it. There’s a study that’s being done by the Metropolitan Planning Organization.

02:38:22,170	It’s going to include those types of items, not the existing route expansion, but that whether it should be a flag stop or just the pick up anywhere along the street like they’ve been doing, or hubs. And whether we need more routes. So that would be Commissioner Connolly. I’m sorry. Well.

02:38:40,000	With transit being part of my portfolio, this has come up in the board meetings with transit as well. And they did facilitate that on a smaller basis through the Homeless Coalition. Um, it there was a challenges.

02:38:59,830	And then with all of their regulation that goes into the other grants and funding that they have, um, it’s not an easy conversation to have them do it with all of the other hoops that they jump through.

02:39:21,170	So in the meantime, when we got people that are struggling with, um, getting the services on the front side of things, are we just going to wait a longer period of time where people could be losing jobs and things? I think we can give direction. A request to transit, because what they’re doing now with the some of the new routes or expanded hours, they’re actually using purely sales tax dollars for that or local dollars and not the federal dollars, because they can’t use the federal dollars for that.

02:39:42,530	So they are actually carving that out separately. Okay. Uh, when Deirdre is here at a future date, we’ll have her explain that she as far as what goes through the board meetings and things. So we know definitively. So you can hear the same information that I was hearing so.

02:40:00,700	Well, I think I think it’s our job to ask them to do that and then them to come up with the solution, because we don’t have the staff. like we don’t have the staff within the city. So not the bad concept. Got no problem with that. Yeah, yeah. Further conversation to be had. Fantastic. Awesome.

02:40:23,030	Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay. Um, do we have any other business? Uh, Jason. Mr. mayor, I need to apologize. I failed to remind you that we were going to talk about the contract negotiations with OPG before the meeting. So I’m standing here to tell you that. Yep. So if you’d like me to. I have. This.

02:40:46,730	Group or I have. I had a note already, so. Great. Then I can sit down if you want to share the information. So. Contract negotiations are proceeding at a at a normal contract negotiating process, I guess.

02:41:06,500	I think what’s happened now is the drafts of that we sent out originally are coming back. Red line I think a lot of the terms and ideas and dollars and cents are probably within range right now. The biggest item is termination clause for us to be able to terminate their contract. And so hopefully that’s going to be coming forward in the next week.

02:41:26,000	But in the meantime, um, OPG will be on site the 9th of March for three days to begin the process of advising and figuring out and talking to staff. And and so forth. So we’re close and hopefully by next, by the next, uh, authority board meeting, we’ll actually have. the ability to have a negotiated contract. OPG, this is the.

02:41:55,370	OPG is the contractor. The internet provider. No, no third party. Oak View. Oh, view Group. Right. Okay. Yeah. Well, whoever’s watching this, we should explain who OPG is. And we will be Oakview. Group, the third party. Okay. Oakview. Yeah. Okay. So, um, that’s where we’re at. So any other.

02:42:18,470	I can answer questions if somebody’s got a question. Okay. All right. I have any other business. We are adjourned. Oh. You got I got one more thing. Okay. Go ahead. So, um, I just want to.

02:42:40,300	So I know that March 1st is right around the corner, and I know we we’ve agreed to some terms and stuff for the ETA and the and the, uh, Missouri Valley Fairgrounds. I just want to make sure that that is all proceeding as it’s supposed to, and we will meet all of our intended deadlines. So that way we will still help close the gap, so to speak. If there’s some lingering issues out there that that are city issues.

02:43:00,730	But, um, us in the county are good to go March 1st. So as of today, I had a I had a conversation with staff and with, um, particularly Commissioner Munson and the planning replanning processes the county is going to handle. They’re going to work with staff, our city staff, from make sure any ordinances are complied with.

02:43:25,330	But they’re going on that. And so by the end of March, hopefully we have the actual joint Powers agreement signed or presented to both commissioners by then. For I’s dotted T’s crossed. So we have we so we cover whatever we need for fire and police protection out there. Covered.

02:43:47,830	So I’m not sure if I’m answering the question appropriately or not, but it’s a goal. They’re taking the planning on. And we’re and everybody’s on the same page and we’re good. Well I mean, I’ve got Daniel standing over here. We need we need to get. So the goal is and Jason, you can you were part of these conversations.

02:44:06,900	So you had more conversations about the actual time. Mayor, commissioners, commissioners anchor of the March 1st date. Yes. That was something that was discussed with the, uh, written agreement back and forth. In addition to that was a joint powers agreement that both sides are continuing to work through.

02:44:23,900	Uh, will we have that buttoned up and done by March 1st? No. Uh, there’s some particular details that need to get worked out between staff. I think generally, the intent is that as I understood it in conversations with Commissioner Munson, they have concerns to be able to move forward with the replanting of the property

02:44:38,800	and and taking the first position on that, as the mayor alluded to just now, we have no concerns with them proceeding with that process. I guess some of the questions where it gets a little tricky is which process do they follow? So if the county is going to take the lead in and replant the

02:44:57,100	property, no concerns with that. Everybody agrees that that makes sense. Do they follow the process of going through the City planning and Zoning commission, or are they expecting it to go through the process of the County Planning and Zoning commission, and if so, what does that last step

02:45:12,600	look like? And if you remember back to a negotiated ETA where, I’m sorry, where we had joint jurisdiction, uh, this was a number of years ago, but the city process took precedent and the individual had followed that process with the understanding that the last step was for the Berkeley County Commission to approve the project.

02:45:32,830	Uh, in conversations with Daniel this afternoon, if the county is going to take the lead on platting their property within the Missouri Valley complex, no concerns if it follows the county’s planning and Zoning commission process with the understanding that there should be a look for the city at the very end to just review the plat, make sure the easements

02:45:50,870	are in the right places. All the issues are addressed, um, and the priorities are taken care of there. The other part of this, where we need to work through the details, comes down to site plan review, building inspections, and again, which process and who takes lead jurisdiction.

02:46:13,400	It’s my understanding Berkeley County is looking to administer that process for themselves within the fairgrounds site. No concerns with that. Provided city staff can be a part of those reviews when it comes to particularly fire protection, water and sewer connections, and stormwater, because those are all features that will impact how the city responds, and city infrastructure.

02:46:34,770	And it’s not to say you can or can’t do it that way. It’s to have awareness of what they are intending to do. So our infrastructure is protected and maintained, but also all the connections can be done in a in a efficient and particular manner.

02:46:52,270	One other topic that’s been discussed within the fairgrounds is whether or not the roads are public, and if they’re public, are they dedicated to the city as traditional public right of way, like the streets that many of us drive on? Or are they easements within the fairgrounds that are then maintained to county standards by county staff? Gravel ditches, all of those things?

02:47:08,870	Uh, from a city’s perspective, I don’t think any of these things are deal breakers or game changers, but they are pieces that are worth discussing to make sure that we’re not just simply creating an island inside city limits for the county has total jurisdiction, and we have no awareness of what’s going on.

02:47:24,870	So by no means are these things that are insurmountable, but they are things that we have not had enough time to get to the end of the discussion on. So I’ll just do it. I’ll just say it. My simple contracting terms. Just keep it simple. Yep. Right.

02:47:44,600	We got to provide them water, sewer, storm sewer and fire protection. Um, um, as long as we can handle all of those, however they want to manage their property, they can manage their property. And that’s what I said is. Right. Right.

02:48:01,230	So if that’s if that’s the case, that it’s all hands on deck and this thing is done Friday at 5:00 and we have to have a special meeting to to do that, then I highly suggest we do that. Sure. In talking with. In fact, I’m not telling you to highly suggest we’re going to get it done. Okay.

02:48:19,430	In conversations with Planning Director Aaron this afternoon, uh, looking at the dates for future county Commission meetings and future City Commission meetings, the hope was that we could have this entire thing buttoned up by the end of March, knowing that it’s got to go back and forth to a couple of different boards along the way. But I would stand here in front of all of you, pledging that city staff will continue to focus on this and request this.

02:48:33,830	The support and engagement of county staff so we can get to the end. Next deadline, I think, is March 12th or 13th. If we’re going to hit the counties meeting in March and then hit this group’s meeting, the second meeting in March, is that sufficient for everybody? I realize it’s not the timeline, the March 1st

02:48:52,570	deadline that we were anticipating, but we’ve had a we had a lot of back and forth dialogue and continue to do that. In what in my conversation with Commissioner Munson today, he was agreeable to that. Okay. Commissioner Conley. Thank you for. That. Greg. Our Commissioner Zenker, thank. You so, yeah, you’re welcome. But message received perfect.