00:00:12,801	S1:
Welcome to Bismarck Insights with mayor Mike Schmitz, a transparent and engaging conversational dive into meaningful topics impacting local government and Bismarck, North Dakota Bismarck Insights is dedicated to removing barriers between the city of Bismarck and the citizens we serve every day.

00:00:34,100	S2:
Hello and welcome to Bismarck Insights on Bismarck Mayor Mike Schmitz. And today we're going to focus on a department. That's department actually for the metro area. I have with me the Kim Ripoll, who is the executive director for the Metropolitan Planning Organization, which city of Bismarck is a major member of. But we also have other members. And so, Kim, first kind of give everybody your background. You started effectively the end of 24 as the executive director. So how did you arrive to this role? What drew you to this organization? And then we'll get into what really the MPO is.

00:01:10,467	S3:
All right. Well, thank you, mayor, and thank you for having me here today. Uh, you know, the MPO is kind of an interesting organization. And as you said, we'll get into that a little bit further on. But, um, I, I've, I'm new to the role, as you said, I've been in this executive directorship role for about a year. And interestingly enough, this was never my career path of choice. So, you know, as a young child, some of my fondest and earliest memories are of my father bringing me to the airport. I had a real fascination with airplanes. And so he would bring me there so I could see them taking off and landing. And I had a little collection of toy airplanes and rockets. And so maybe I was destined for a career in transportation and just didn't know it at the time. But interestingly enough, I thought that I was going to be a veterinarian and that was my plan for my my life's career path. Of course, life has a way of directing a path for you at times, and I spent 16 years with a family owned sign company that has regional and interstate interests, and I was very involved and active in that. And there became a time when I thought I was ready for a reset, and that's when I joined the MPO in 2008. So I've been with the MPO for a little over 17 years, going on 18 years now, and I've been fortunate enough to act in every role that every position within the MPO. And last November of 24, the executive director announced that she would be vacating her position. And it was a fairly sudden announcement. It was. It was. And so we had to react really quickly. And I was appointed interim director at that point. When the position was opened up for applications, I felt compelled to apply, even though, as I said, this was really never on my my specific personal radar. But I felt that I was probably the best candidate to provide a real seamless transition for not just the organization, but also for our member jurisdictions. And that's what brought me here to this role.

00:03:27,601	S2:
Sure. And so let's talk more what Metropolitan Planning Organization is and and the jurisdictions that you represent. Um, through this role and what it is, what it is that we do at the MPO and, you know, not not very many people really understand it, I don't think.

00:03:43,367	S3:
Sure. Well, thanks for that opportunity. The MPO is the metropolitan planning organization, as you said, we are a federally Designated actually were a state designated organization, but we are required by federal code to exist for any communication. Any community that has a population greater than 50,000. So the state governor designates the MPO. Once that population threshold has been reached and the Bismarck Mandan MPO received its designation in 1982, right now, there are currently about 410 ish MPOs throughout the nation, and the Bismarck Mandan MPO is one of four within the state of North Dakota. So our task and our role is to make sure that our local governments, our local agencies, our state agencies are engaging in a very cooperative, coordinated and comprehensive planning effort to provide improvements and and enhancements to our regional transportation system. And so what that means for the city of Bismarck. As one of our member jurisdictions, we work very closely with our Bismarck departments and also with the North Dakota Dot, who is our direct oversight agency, as well as Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration in determining where federal funding will be allocated as far as implementing and prioritizing our our regional transportation projects.

00:05:26,400	S2:
Sure. So you mentioned Bismarck and Mandan, but the two counties are also part of the organization, are members of our organization. So Burleigh County and Morton County as well.

00:05:36,667	S3:
That is correct. We have actually five member jurisdictions. So it is the city of Bismarck, the city of Mandan, City of Lincoln, and then also, um, Burleigh County and Morton County as parts of those counties fall into the MPO area.

00:05:51,267	S2:
Thank you for reminding me about Lincoln. I shouldn't have forgotten that. But yes, they are also a part. And it's important because it's the metro area and we have very much an interconnected transportation set of facilities. And so that's why it's important that all the jurisdictions have an input. If it were just limited to the one jurisdiction with 50,000 people, that would only be Bismarck. And that would really make us disconnected to the rest of the region.

00:06:18,000	S3:
Right. And that's the whole purpose of an MPO is to facilitate that regional transportation planning. We want to make sure that we have regional connectivity.

00:06:27,367	S2:
Sure. So let's talk a little bit about the actual function of the MPO, what it is that you do that helps and assist these member jurisdictions. Is it planning. Is it what what is it? It's not you're not passing dollars through to build a road directly.

00:06:45,667	S3:
Not directly okay. So yes, we are, as our name states, a planning organization, so we don't get into the design, we don't get into construction and things like that. When it comes to roadway projects. However, there's a lot of things that happen before the the public sees those orange cones or those detour signs on the roadways. And that all starts with the MPO and its member jurisdictions, along with, again, a cooperative effort with state and federal agencies. A lot of our roadway projects and a lot of our our transportation network projects in the region are funded through federal dollars, and there's a lot of federal dollars to manage. And we want to make sure, as everybody is very conscientious of right now, trying to get the most value for their dollar, we want to get the biggest bang for our buck as well. We want to make sure that our jurisdictions can really leverage those federal dollars to to maximize the benefits. And so a lot of planning goes into that. Behind the scenes. We have some core documents that are required by the federal government through the U.S. code. Such as our Metropolitan Transportation Plan, our transportation Improvement program. Those kinds of things help us to prioritize project needs within the region, and to help to get the funding to get those implemented. Um, again, the funds are passed through from the federal government to the state agency, then to the local governments or the local jurisdictions. However, the MPO is involved in the planning for those and the determining of priority projects that should receive those funds.

00:08:30,200	S2:
Sure. So let's look, I'm going to dive in in a little bit. Let's talk about a couple of plans that maybe recently have been completed or just about completed and and how that helps the MPO and our local jurisdictions kind of make a recommendation to the state, who then helps dole out those dollars. So what what what's a significant one that we've just recently. Recently completed.

00:08:54,067	S3:
All right. Well, probably our biggest plan is the Metropolitan Transportation Plan. Again, this is a core document. It's required by the federal government to be or by federal regulations to be updated every five years. We just had this adopted in in December of 24. And it is such a comprehensive plan that will be issuing the RFP in 26 already to start the update for our next MTP. So there's a lot of coordination amongst our jurisdictions that goes into this. Basically, this is a plan that lays out all of the transportation needs that are foreseeable within the next 25 years in our region. That's kind of a long ways out. So we have to, you know, we don't have a crystal ball, but I think our jurisdictions do have a pretty good handle on on what those transportation needs are. However, then public involvement also plays a huge part in this. It's a very large component in determining what what the public sees as priority transportation needs. And so we have a lot of public engagement through surveys, through open houses, pop up events and and other means to get their opinions and have them weigh in. And that helps to shape this plan of priority. Priority projects. And the other component of the Metropolitan Transportation Plan is that the it's not just a huge wish list of the things that we want to do. We need to have a fiscally constrained plan. That means that each of these identified projects has to be tied to some source of funding. And if we don't have a funding mechanism for them, they they are called illustrative, then those are wishlist projects. Um, so this this is a major plan. It's a huge effort and it's very important because it lays out our priorities for our transportation system in the region and what our what our needs are and how we're going to address them.

00:10:56,100	S2:
And that's so that's obviously the network of roads and highways, but it also will look at the other needs within those jurisdictions and whether it might need some kind of public transportation or walking or bike trails, so we can make sure we're intricately connected and safe. So, I mean, another plan we do is safety study essentially two. So some of that study tells us, well, we've got an intersection here that's a problem. How do we have to address it. And how high on the priority ranking does it land as an example? Correct.

00:11:33,400	S3:
That's exactly right. So in addition to our core documents, we also conduct studies on behalf of our jurisdictions. Um, as I already indicated, they they have identified needs within their community for transportation issues. And again, they might be safety issues. They might be gaps in the network. Um, we will facilitate studies on their behalf to further delve into those issues and find out, you know, how they might be best addressed. That helps to obtain the necessary funding through the federal channels to actually get those those projects underway and get them going, implemented in our community. Uh, you know, sustainability is kind of a pillar of, um, transportation planning, although it's really become a popular buzzword lately. But, um, you know, the form of walking or walking is the oldest form of transportation known to mankind. And so, you know, it's been around since the beginning of man. Um, we have other modes of transportation, too, that are probably a little bit more recent. I think you touched on a couple of those. In addition to walking, we also have bicycling. We have our public transit, our public transportation system that ties into that. We talk about roadway safety a lot, but, you know, it's sidewalks, it's multi-use paths and trails. You know, it's it's all part of the all mode transportation network that we tried to address through those studies.

00:13:10,601	S2:
Sure. And because the local jurisdictions don't have the staff to do all the studying that's required, the MPO helps coordinate that. And we're hiring consultants who kind of know what's going on within the area in the region, but also nationally from Trenton and so forth. And so I think even though we we're in Bismarck and we're in Mandan or Lincoln and we're kind of isolated, we still need to know what the rest of the world doing, because whatever's happening in the rest of the world is ultimately going to come here in the in the form of what type of transportation. And so I think it's good that we have this organization that can look at the whole region, knowing the local jurisdictions probably couldn't pull it off by themselves.

00:13:52,467	S3:
Certainly that's true. Um, and also our MPO staff is is quite small here. We have a staff of four. And so that's where the consultants come into play, where some MPOs are larger and they have the staff that can conduct some of these analyses. You know, in-house, we really don't have the capacity at this time to do that. So we do contract with consultants to do those things for us.

00:14:20,868	S2:
And so once those studies are done, it allows us to rank the projects between the various communities. But again, we're a region essentially. And that doesn't mean that the largest city gets everything. So how do how do we go about that process? Once we've done the studies and figure out where the needs are and rank those, what's the process for that?

00:14:39,868	S3:
Okay, well, knowing that the needs are great, we also have to understand that there are quite a number of federal funding programs that have historically been in place and continue to be funded, and some of those are things like the Urban Roads program, Urban regional program, Transportation Alternatives, Highway Safety Improvement Program, Regional or Recreational Trails Program. All of these programs offer funding, but they are also very competitive. So again, the MPO assists our local jurisdictions and our local governments in that application process and getting those applications submitted to Ddot, making sure that those applications have perhaps the supporting documentation. And, you know, some of the some of the things that can really make them a A priority not only for our our local area and region, but in the eyes of the state when it comes to selection. So, um, yes, we we definitely work that way. We also, um, conduct open houses. We, uh, as an MPO, try to facilitate some of these things that can provide, again, some support to our local jurisdictions. We may do a bike audit, a walk audit to identify gaps in the in the bicycling network or in the pedestrian network. Um, we might do a safety audit and then provide a report to our jurisdictions to help them, you know, um, get some of that grant money. Sure.

00:16:21,567	S2:
And we've talked a little bit about the transportation improvement program, maybe quite a bit, actually, but that the 2026 to 2029 was just released. What are some of the most impactful projects that that looks like will, or at least we think are going to be coming to Bismarck Mandan area.

00:16:38,100	S3:
Hey. Well, the Transportation Improvement Program is another one of those plans. It's, you know, pretty basic, pretty core to the MPO. And, um, it does. It does program projects out for the next four years. As you stated, our current transportation program is for 26 through 29. We've run into a funding situation whereby our again, our our needs locally are great. Um, not only for maintenance of our current roadway and transportation network assets, but also for capacity increasing construction and reconstruction projects. And there is just not enough federal funding available to reasonably fund all of these projects. So the prioritization becomes very, very important. And we see with the decreased levels of funding that have become available, that a lot of the projects that are getting programmed in our tip are more of the maintenance variety, so you're going to see a lot more of those Millen overlays and, and, and the roadway maintenance kind of thing than you will the major reconstruction or construction projects. And sometimes those reconstruction projects will be identified, but they will be split into phases. So you'll see maybe phase one, phase two being applied for. And within the application it's very important that they're standalone phases. And that means that if a jurisdiction gets funding for phase one, they can go ahead and implement that construction or reconstruction without needing phase two to make it complete. So each phase stands alone on its own. And then there are no guarantees that they may get that funding for phase two or phase three, or whatever it may be. So, um, what we're going to be seeing for the years 26, 27 and 28, primarily as programmed in our tip, our maintenance projects, we're going to see a lot of those million overlay keeping our assets in a state of good repair. Very, very important. But it's probably not as glamorous, you know, as those big construction projects. Like we just got done seeing the Memorial Highway reconstruction between Bismarck and Mandan. Um, that was that's a large based project, um, a three year phase project, by the way. And then, of course, the reconstruction of the interchange at exit 161 that's been ongoing for, you know, two years, and that'll finish up in 26. So, again, you know, three years phase through that project. Um, these are these are major reconstruction projects that are getting more and more difficult to fund. And we're we're finding that. So we're trying to, um, kind of create some, uh, creative funding or creative revenue sources. Um, and trying to maximize those and leverage those federal dollars as much as we possibly can. Um, we probably won't see a big construction project in our area until 2029. We've got a couple of them that are programmed around about over at Yagan Road and Lincoln Road, where the city of Bismarck will be constructing a roundabout there. And also Mandan has a fairly large project in 2029 as well, up on eighth Avenue and 27th Street. So, um, until then, we probably won't see, uh, just a whole lot going on. We've got some, some urban grants, um, money coming in for both Bismarck and Mandan. Bismarck's will take place on Front Avenue between third and fifth and Mandan will take place on their main street. Um, between. Well, I guess on various avenues there. So, you know, it's important.

00:20:33,968	S2:
I mean, knowing that there's only so many dollars in the, in the United States to go around. And I think you mentioned it. Well, learning how to leverage or finding ways to leverage the federal dollars as best we can with whatever our local dollars are, there are available. And certainly the communities have looked at those funding streams as to to try to continue to enhance that or maintain roads or, you know, city Bismarck has had a sales tax that helps with some of those expansions and reconstructs. Um, that's not a that's not a given that that will be retained. But, um, that's all we have to look at to maintain that.

00:21:10,400	S3:
And that's been very beneficial, I might add as well, we see in our tip that the, the, uh, South Washington project that was recently completed, it started from the drainage ditch on South Washington, continued down to Burley and then went on Burley from Washington to Boston. You know, that was a reconstruction project that was pretty significant for our area. And while that was advanced, constructed by the city of Bismarck using those specific dollars that you were just referencing. It's actually programmed in our tip for being funded in years 25 and 26. So that's where you're finding that in our program. Um, but yeah, it's really important to be able to find some of these alternative funding sources for getting these priority projects done.

00:22:00,067	S2:
Without putting a burden of two greater burden on our residents. So let's talk about another program that you're I know you near and dear to your heart. I know it is safe routes to services. Um, it's actually quite important for all of our residents if we stop and think about it so that we just had a study. It's maybe still ongoing a little bit, but a lot of work has been done over the summer and spring. How how are we progressing with that and what barriers did we find in that process? Right. For routes to services.

00:22:31,667	S3:
Yeah. You know, and this is something that impacts virtually everybody in our community is of Bismarck, Mandan and Lincoln. Um, of course, with limited funds, we could only focus our scope on certain areas. So we did choose to, um, focus on Bismarck and Mandan. What we did was we took a look at where areas of, um, highly concentrated populations of vulnerable residents are and vulnerable residents, um, kind of play a gamut, but they could be things like low income populations, uh, elderly populations and disabled. And so once we were able to identify those areas of concentrated, um, residents, then we looked at what types of services they need on an ongoing or daily basis. And, you know, these are essential services, things like, um, medical and health care, and maybe the grocery store is the nearest grocery store. Convenience store where they need to get staples. And so then after we identified those areas, then we took it a step further and we found out, you know, how how are they getting there, including routes. What is the best route for them to take from point A to their destination? And what mode of travel are they using? Are they, you know, driving a car? Do they have availability to a vehicle or do they need to walk, maybe bicycle, perhaps take public transit combination of all of those? Um, and how is their access in that regard? Once we know where they're going and the route that they're taking and how they're getting there, um, how accessible are those services to them? And we did find that there were considerable barriers. Um, and we can certainly get into that if we have time to talk about it.

00:24:21,167	S2:
Well, I think we should talk about it because, you know, we we know that both communities, Bismarck and Mann and have created a funding mechanism for some of that transportation related need. When it comes to public transportation. And so I'm guessing that's part of the barriers. Yeah, probably a significant portion.

00:24:39,501	S3:
Absolutely. You know, a lot of times we think of barriers as being physical barriers. And we definitely have those. We have the Missouri River that kind of separates Bismarck and Mandan. And it definitely does cause some transportation connectivity issues. Um, and then we have barriers such as the BNSF rail line that, um, travels east west through Bismarck, and that does present a transportation North-South connectivity barrier for the city of Bismarck as well. Um, we have, um, maybe wetland barriers that, you know, uh, or topographical barriers. You know, we have some pretty rough terrain up in northwest Bismarck that that presents some challenges or the wetlands and flood areas of, um, you know, East Bismarck and towards the Lincoln area. That definitely provides some challenges in regarding our connectivity with within those two communities. Um, but a lot of times, the barriers are the things that we don't see. Um, and where the populations are located. So we noticed, um, through our study, uh, we, we were able to, to discover that barriers oftentimes refer to cost. Costs are a huge barrier when it comes to transportation. Um, you know, how are people getting around? Well, not everybody can afford a car. Not everybody drives. And so what are the transportation options? Obviously, walking, you know, is probably the lowest cost. We also have bicycling. Now there's bike share. There's um there's scooter rental. We have some micromobility options, but not everybody can afford those either. Those are not free and you have to pay for them. And so maybe they're taking public transit. Now we get into the question of does the public transportation schedule accommodate their timing needs? Is it going where they need to go? Are the pickups where they need to get on? Are the drop offs? You know, the routes all of this kind of thing plays into, um, how accessible this transportation mode is to folks. Um, and again, while our fares are low for our public transit in the area, if you have low, very low fixed income or no income at all, that can also be a barrier. You bet. And so we also found that, um, safety is a barrier as you brought up earlier. Um, if there are gaps in the transportation network, a sidewalk ends abruptly or a trail stops and leads to nowhere. Um, those are network gaps that need to be addressed. Um, but also we have weather barriers here in North Dakota. I think we just discovered recently. Mother nature can can really do a number on us. And, you know, sometimes when we get a big snow event, those sidewalks and those walking areas are not available to those who need them. Um, and so some of those things need to be addressed by policy. And we're definitely looking into those a little bit further with our jurisdictions. Uh, one item is, um, we know that there is a need for additional transit enhancement enhancements in our downtown area of Bismarck and our medical areas. Um, and so we've through this, the Safe Routes to Services study identified a circulator route that could be implemented. Now, of course, it comes with a cost. Um, they've identified about a $250,000 annual cost for this service. Um, but it would be very valuable according to those who Provided input during the study. Um, and so we're looking at maybe implementing something that or getting something like that going.

00:28:25,000	S2:
Sure. And I believe, you know, the local entity that is providing our public transportation actually is making some presentations over the next few months as to how they can enhance that. And with the with the funding mechanism that gracious residents of both City of Bismarck and City of Mandan have voted in. I think we're going to be able to find a way to accomplish as long as we can finding. I guess the staff and the and the buses. But, um, and the MPO is kind of the path. Serenity is how we acquire some of that equipment. So, um, we do appreciate the work. And, uh, one last topic and we'll try to keep it as brief as possible, but there's been talk about local or to the local area rail service for passengers. Just briefly. Where is that standing right now?

00:29:12,601	S3:
All right. Well, uh, you know, it's it's looking pretty good, quite frankly. So this was probably motivated very, very largely by the business. Um, uh, sorry. The big Sky Passenger Rail Authority, um, they wanted passenger rail return to their southern tier for their Montana residents. Now, we know that we used to have a southern tier that ran through North Dakota as well. I had passed from Fargo to the western border of the state, and it ran through towns like Valley City, Jamestown, Bismarck, Mandan, Dickinson. Um, the proposal by Spira for the reinstatement of the North Coast Hiawatha, um, would use that same BNSF rail line that basically parallels I-94 running east and west. So while it was a Montana based project initially, and they are the ones that kind of got got it off the ground. It would have huge impacts to its neighboring states to the east and west, going all the way to Illinois and to the west to Washington. So we've definitely been watching this effort. We've engaged our locals on this as well. The BSP has gotten funding for a corridor ID project through the Federal Rail Administration. There are additional funds out there, and they've been they've been approved for their corridor ID project, which is a phased project. But we're definitely, uh, we're planning for the restoration of passenger rail in our area, spray as a very ambitious timeline of getting that that initiated and implemented by 2032. But if we can do it by the mid 2030 is I think that's a very realistic number. Um, we've been looking at other communities that have seen the benefits of passenger rail from transportation. Perspective. You know, the MPO just looks at the regional connectivity that this would offer. And additional benefit to our rural residents. And then, of course, there are economic benefits that would be um. First of all, residual because um, any, any transportation options that enhance travel to our area are going to. Economically benefit our communities. Correct. Even in a passive way. But it can also be embraced and marketed and. We've seen we've seen small communities like Meridian, Mississippi, down south, a population of 35,000 that have. Seen great economic benefits from passenger rail service in their area. They've had good, um, land development come through that and they've got public spaces that have been developed, cultural centers. They are now a center of, um, cultural entertainment and musical talent. Um, so, you know, it's possible and and we're looking forward to that.

00:32:28,200	S2:
So we'll see what comes. I mean, it's a big it's a big lift for not only the, the current study that's going on and whatever rail system ultimately comes through because it's a whole bunch of equipment. But it certainly would create additional options to get east and west to ultimately south and north to various other alternatives or places besides an airplane or a car.

00:32:52,100	S3:
Absolutely.

00:32:53,100	S2:
Kim, thank you for joining me today on Bismarck Insights. It's been a pleasure, and hopefully we've given some information to our citizens about what the Metropolitan Planning Organization does.

00:33:02,400	S3:
Thanks again for having me. Yep.

00:33:15,968	S1:
Thank you for watching Bismarck Insights with mayor Mike Schmitz. If you have specific topics or questions you like addressed in future episodes, email em Schmitz at Bismarck, N.D. gov.

00:33:29,501	S1:
For Call the City of Bismarck at (700) 135-5130 zero. To learn more about the City of Bismarck, visit Bismarck, N.D. gov. Or follow us on a variety of social media channels by searching Bismarck, n.d. gov. Bismarck Insights is a collaboration between Dakota media access and the City of Bismarck. You may find Bismarck Insights episodes on government access channels two and 602, as well as on Roku, Apple TV, and fire TV devices. On radio access 102.5 FM and on demand at free TV. Org.