00:00:00,000	Uh Today is January 20th, 2026. It is 5 p.m. We are in the Bosch Frelich meeting room at Mandan City Hall. Mister Neubauer, would you like to take the roll? Comm Roar Here, Schober, here, Hanschen.

00:00:46,000	Ron, here Mayor Frelich here and at this time I asked Brenda Nagel the director of the Bismarck Command and Chamber of Commerce CDC to lead us in the pledge. National Anthem if you’d like I You States of America. the Republic nation under God, invisible. litty and justice for all Thank you, Brenda OK, we’ll move into announcements. Um, Kimberly Yes, good evening, Mayor and Commissioners.

00:01:29,330	Tonight I am thrilled to announce that Apone, Abbe, Varner has joined our assessing team as the new real property appraiser technician. She’s been with us for about a month, keeping her very busy with all of the forms that we get in this time of year.

00:01:50,100	Abbie brings with her 20 years plus experience in customer service, most recently in the banking industry where she worked with primarily commercial customers. She’s excited to support the property appraisers and work with the members of the community more directly in her new position. Outside of work, she enjoys tending to her growing hobby farm and hopes to start a garden this spring.

00:02:10,000	She’s excited to meet everyone and be part of the team here at the City of Mandan. Welcome Now we will move on to the golden Shovel Award nominations. The Golden Shovel Mayor Frelich andcom Commissioners, uh, thank you for that. I wasn’t expecting that, but uh just so that you know, um, Golden Shovel Award is meant to bring attention to folks that are.

00:02:51,000	making good use of their shovels at home or their commercial businesses and shoveling the sidewalks as we know we have a little bit of snow today and some upcoming snow, so we appreciate when people are taking care of their walks and you can nominate a resident or a business, um,

00:03:07,000	that you think is doing a great job. I know in the last couple of years, the individuals have come in. We do have a beautiful gold plated.

00:03:21,900	plated or painted, I think it’s probably painted, uh, shovel that we award every year for you to display if you are the recipient of the Golden Shovel Award. So again, um, please go online to the City of Mandan.com and you can nominate your favorite business or residence for that golden shovel Award. Thank you, Jim.

00:03:44,370	Would you like to stay and do the state of the cities? I can do that February 3rd, I believe, is the state of the cities, um, breakfast, um, we encourage you to, if you want to sign up and attend, um, you’ll hear comments from Mayor Freelich and Mayor Schmitz from the city of Bismarck. There will not be a formal presentation by each of the mayors. It’ll be more of a fireside chat, format, which is a result of.

00:04:03,700	the survey results that the chamber does every year and asks the attendees what they like and how they would like to see the format change. So again that is February 3rd at 7:30 in the morning. I get that right, Brenda? Um, and. at the Bismarck Event Center, OK.

00:04:27,800	All right, thank you We’ll move on to project updates, Jarek. evening, Mayor and Commissioners. Um, the only 2 real active projects right now are Mannan proper and then the 2B project area near Roosevelt Elementary.

00:04:51,170	Manam proper last week we had our, uh, kind of kickoff open house for all four phases of Mandam proper, um, while it wasn’t super highly attended. There was a lot of good conversation and a lot of good feedback that will help us, um, make uh make design decisions. before design is even started.

00:05:08,800	So appreciate everybody at that did attend and then uh we will have a follow up meeting in uh February, on February 24th at the same location, First Lutheran Church, um, for more specifics about phase one. Jarek, could you give us some examples of the comments. A lot of people pointing out uh where drainage issues are at, where they’ve experienced a drainage drainage issues.

00:05:30,100	We had a few comments, um, regarding uh people wanting parking on both sides of the street, um, that’s something that we’ve kind of gone back and forth on whether that’s a uh uh an amenity that people want or if it’s something that people don’t want to see changed.

00:05:43,000	So, um, just, just more for us to chew on, more for us to evaluate as we move into the design phase of the project. And then, um, for the 2B project area near Roosevelt E Elementary, um, we have a public input meeting tomorrow. at Roosevelt Elementary from 6 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

00:06:04,730	We’ll have a short presentation and then we’ll, uh, follow that up with a breakout groups to have one on one conversations with those who were in attendance. Um, if, if anybody had attended meetings for this project previously, it’ll have the same type of format. And um once again, we’re, we’re doing this active community engagement very early on in the project process.

00:06:24,730	We haven’t even conc created the district yet, and this is to really get a whole, get a grasp on what the folks in the area would like to see this project to be. There’s one thing that we know we want to do for sure, which is address the uh cast iron water mains, while there’s funding available and so public works doesn’t have to respond.

00:06:44,270	constantly to the uh breaking pipes in this area, but any questions on this one for me? Any questions for Jarek Do you have a time on that, Jarek? It is um 6 to 8 p.m. at Roosevelt Roosevelt Elementary. Thank you. Tomorrow. That’s what I have Thank you, Jared. Now we’ll move on to public comment.

00:07:07,230	Mr. Neubauer, any submissions? Kate, thank you We’ll move on to the approval of the agenda. So moved. 2nd. Motion by Comm Braun, seconded by Comm Schoberg. In discussion, hearing none roll call Commission Schoberg. Yes, Heinscha. Yes, Braun, yes, Rohr, Mayor Freelich, yes. approval of the minutes from the January 6, 2026, Board of City Commission meeting.

00:07:39,330	So moved Second motioned by Comm Brown, seconded by Comm Schoberg. in the discussion, hearing none roll call, Messrs. Hancha. Yes, Ron, yes, Roar, yes, Schober, yes, Mayor Freelich, yes. And number 2, consider approval of the January 13th, 2026, Board of City Commission Special meeting minutes. Move to approve Second. motion by Comm Rohr, seconded by Comm Brown.

00:08:14,500	Discussion, hearing none, roll call. Comm Braun, yes, Rohr, yes, Schoberg, yes, Heinscha. Yes, Mayor Frelich, yes. We’ll now move on to public hearing. Consider variants for lots 1 and 2, block 1, North Prairie School, 2nd Subdivision. Jordan. Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners. This evening, uh, we have Dave online with Interstate engineering to um.

00:08:42,270	provide us this public hearing Hey, good evening, Mayor Freilich and Commissioners, um, my name is Dave Bios and I’m a planner with Interstate Engineering, um. filling in for Rachel this evening, um, and we do have, um variants request for you, uh. purpose was to consider an accessory structure variances at 5405 Highland Road North.

00:09:12,170	Uh, the applicant requests consideration of a variance to section 105-1-3. part 4 of the city code of Ordinances related to incidental uses, accessory structures. uh, the proposed structure would be larger than allowed based on code. Code regard and accessory structures in R7, that’s the zone here, reads size or R 3.

00:09:42,630	2, R4, R7, RH and RMH districts, total square footage of all accessory buildings may not exceed 10% of the lot area and the maximum size of any accessory building shall be no greater than 75% the size of the primary structure on the lot.

00:10:00,730	The proposed structure is larger than 75% of the size of the primary structure as it is proposed to be 60 ft by 120 ft, a total of 7200 square feet. Uh, in addition, this accessory structure will add an additional structure to lots 1 and 2. Uh, the zoning for this property is our 7 residential.

00:10:25,970	with agriculture to the east and other lots surrounding it are also our 7 Um, the requested storage building size is beyond what is allowed by codn R7. However, the lot is a large rural lot with much distance between neighboring properties, including a large tree row to the south. The owner intends to use the additional building to store items which are now stored outside.

00:10:50,330	The use would not be allowable on its own, on a lot, so the owner will need to sell lots, 1 and 2 together, should that uh come to pass Um uh, recommendation, the planning and zoning Commission recommended approval for this variance at the meeting on December 22nd.

00:11:17,730	um, and the suggested motion is to approve the variants for lots 1 and 2, block 1, North Prairie 2nd, subdivision or an accessory structure. And Mayor and Comm just, uh, just to add to what Dave said, this lot, in particular, he talks about between lots 1 and 2 as two separate lots, but as 11 property altogether is 6.5 acres, so.

00:11:45,900	Any other questions for Dave or Jordan? Jordan, was that is that property pretty much surrounded by mature shelter builds. Mayor Freelich, Comm Schoberg, yes, it is there in the, in the land use plan, you can kind of see it here, but there’s a, yeah, a tree row and he, he plans to be right kind of down in it and um.

00:12:07,230	to store other other things, there’s there’s other accessory structures on the the property now that one of them would come down actually and then this would take that place and, um, as he says, clean up the yard, so. Thank you. Kate At this time, we will, uh, open the public hearing for comments. First call for comments.

00:12:35,530	Second call for comments 3rd and final call for comments with that, the public hearing is closed. Commissioners. what are your wishes I’ll move to approve the variance for lots 1 and 2, block 1 North Prairie Second Subdivision for an accessory structure. OK. motion by Comm Schoberg, seconded by Comm Rohrr. Any further discussion Hearing none, roll call.

00:13:04,970	Comm roar. Schoberg, Heins. Yes, Braun, yes, Mayor Frelich. Yes. We have no bids, so we will move on to the consent agenda. Are there any items you would like removed? If not, entertain a motion to approve. A move to approve it concern items 1 through 9. Second. motion by Comm Rohr, second by Comm Schoberg.

00:13:38,000	Any further discussion? Hearing none Roll call Mister Neubauer. Messrs. Schoberg, yes, Einscha. Yes, Braun, yes, Roarr, yes, Mayor Frelick, yes. there’s no old business. We’ll move on to new business, uh, update on activities of the Bismarck Mandan Chamber, EDC, Brenda. Right Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners.

00:14:17,600	Thank you very much, uh, for allowing me once again to come and entertain you with all of the activities that we have going on at the BismarckMandan Chamber, EDC. As you are aware, uh, Mayor Frelike does sit on our board and um actually he attends all of our meetings, um, and we appreciate that and, um, we, we need his input and his insight.

00:14:36,870	He also attends as many other meetings as he possibly can, as does other members of city staff depending on, on what their availability is. In fact, Madison was at an economic development meeting earlier this morning at 7:30, so uh, we, we appreciate that.

00:14:58,730	Um, my intent today, um, to, is to give you an overview of what we’ve been up to, some of these things you may or may not have heard of before, but I don’t think it’s a bad idea to repeat some of that, um, but I do think it’s important that you’re aware of all the things that we do, uh, for the city of

00:15:12,170	Mandann. Lots of things happening and there’s a lot of things on this particular slide. In the year of 2025, it doesn’t seem like that terribly long ago but it, it, it’s passed.

00:15:32,370	Um, but we did create a, a new strategic plan, uh, where we had input from board members and many of our members of the chamber EDC in Mandan and in Bismarck, and we were appreciative of that. We did create this new strategic plan that focuses on the four quadrants, um, all surrounding the Bismarckandan community. Those are the people that we, uh, serve.

00:15:54,730	Economic development, public policy, uh, community engagement and marketing and leadership development are all the pillars, uh, or the quadrants that we are going to be focused on in 26th through 2030. Um, in that economic development, uh, quadrant, we’ve got a lot of different things, but I just narrowed it down to job shadow Week, project development and the Mandan Business pitch challenge.

00:16:11,370	What do all of those mean? Job shadow week is important to all of us. It’s important for man Da uh businesses to allow students to come into their place of business, uh, to get a look under the covers and see what sorts of jobs are available and identify whether or not they might want to do

00:16:30,000	that job. It gives those students, uh, at both, um, uh, sides of the river. So we’ll have Bismarck Public school kids coming over to Mandan and vice versa, whatever they’re interested in is where they’re able to go in and we set that up for them.

00:16:47,700	We, we pick times with the employers that have signed up to entertain the students. Um, we’ve had an incredible amount of employers on both sides of the river, raise their hand and say, Please send students our direction and allow us to, to share with them what’s going on.

00:17:06,270	Um, oftentimes we hear from students that will say, I thought I wanted to be an engineer. I don’t want to be an engineer based on what I saw. That’s OK, um, because we want them to see that and experience those things first before they pick a major at college and then decide after they’ve spent a year in college that that

00:17:22,370	isn’t what they want to do. The idea behind Job Shadow Week is again to give them experience and exposure to as many opportun ities as we can.

00:17:39,600	The other piece and probably the more important piece of that is these young people need to see what’s available to them in the name of employment in Mandan and Bismarck. We want those students to, whether they go away to get a college degree or do something in the trades. Uh, we want them to know that we have plenty of jobs and plenty of opportunity here in our community and that really exposes them to that.

00:17:58,070	Uh, project development is a little vague. Uh, that one is sometimes vague just simply because if I am in conversation with somebody who is interested in doing a project, uh, in the MandanM Martin County, Bismarck, Burleigh County area. Um, they will reach out and say that they are interested.

00:18:17,430	I can’t speak about it until they say we want to do it in Mandan and then I’ll reach out to the appropriate people in the community here, um, likely the mayor and, um, Mr.

00:18:34,370	Neub au er uh, to get some help from that perspective, but I will tell you we do have some projects that people are interested, um, in, in in, in industrial, in different kinds of businesses coming to this particular area and the moment I can tell you what they, they are about, I will certainly be in touch.

00:18:54,170	The Man Dan business pitch challenge, a huge shout out to the city of Mandan for being, um, the people who led the charge on this for the last several years because now Bismarck wants to be like Man Dan, um, and so, um, in the pardon me, always, yes, Mayor, thank you.

00:19:13,870	Um, but in all seriousness, the Mandan Business pitch challenge has been incredibly, uh, it, it’s, it’s been a great program for the last several years. It’s been a model that has been stood up and um we’ve now um pitched it to the city of Bismarck. They will be putting aside funds as well, um, to mirror the program, um, in Bismarck. It will not be a competition.

00:19:32,170	Um, they are, are going to set aside the same amount of money that the city of Mandan does, so it’s not like somebody’s going to get more money if they open a business in Bismarck versus Mandan.

00:19:49,700	We will hold the event at different times, so there won’t be a competition, um, in between those funds that are available in Mandan versus Bismarck. Uh, we’ll be pulling together a group of people from Mandan and from Bismarck, very shortly here to talk about, um, what is the timing on that? When should we do the pitch in Mandan and when should we do it in Bismarck When do we want to start

00:20:05,170	announcing it, uh, for the next round, but it’s an incredible opportunity for us to really support that entrepreneurial eco ecosystem, um, and certainly it helps in economic development, um, and so moving on to leadership development in the name of students again, we have student leadership, so we do, um, we take applications from students in Madan Public

00:20:29,630	Schools, Bismarck Public Schools, as well as the private schools, and they participate in a leadership program where we take them to different businesses in Mandan. In fact, just this last month we were at Ion Architect, um, and they had the students looking around over there at IConn and learning about what does it take to be an architect.

00:20:49,370	Again, different formats that we want to make sure that we engage with our young people in the community to help them understand, uh, what that might feel like to, to be in that position and the fact that we have those types of jobs here in Mandan.

00:21:07,000	Student, or excuse me, leadership Bismarck Mannan is a program that’s been around for well over 30 years. Uh, there are people in this room that have gone through the program. There are people who have run for public office after being in the program.

00:21:25,330	It really isn’t a civic engagement program, and it is intended to encourage people to get engaged in their community, whether it’s on a planning and zoning commission, uh, on, it’s a parking authority, uh, whatever commissions or uh hopefully running for a city commissionerer a county commission, uh, park board, school board, uh, those are all important positions that we need good business-minded people to run uh for those positions and leadership Bismarckannan, um, helps us to

00:21:49,630	get them ready for that and leads us right into that next item on they’re preparing our community’s leaders of tomorrow. Um, really focusing on who can we reach out to within our committee meetings, um, as we meet with different people throughout, uh, the, the months at, at the Chamber EDC,

00:22:07,870	we do find people who are, who would have a real good, um, I think a head on their shoulders, so to say, um, to be a particular uh run for an office and, and we do talk to them about that.

00:22:26,170	We make connections with already sitting commissioners, different people at the city and the county and so forth, um, to help them understand what it would be like to run for office.

00:22:41,530	And that rolls right into public policy and so um we’re final uh we sat on both committees on both sides of the river and, and Mandan in Bismarck, um, and so gratefully, um, land Code, um, has been, has been in the process of being changed. Candidate preparation as well as activating our military affairs committee. That one’s a really important one. we’ve not had a military affairs committee officially at the Chamber EDC for quite some time.

00:23:03,370	um, because we had to take a break, uh, from what we were doing because it, it ended up being just a group of people who were um really kind of planning the brats for the brave. That is an important event, don’t get me wrong, um, but there’s a lot of other important things that we can do, uh, to celebrate our military.

00:23:19,370	We have a lot of military in the Bismarck-Mandan area through the National Guard when they retire, they’re not retiring necessarily from working. They have amazing skills, and we know that we should be tapping into some of that retired military personnel to encourage them to to retire right here in the, in the Mandan Bismarck community,

00:23:40,800	um, and we want to make sure that we’re tapping into those opportunities and so activating the military affairs Committee, uh, will allow us better access to that.

00:23:58,530	I happen to serve on the state of North Dakota’s task force for Military and so I have a bit of access to a few more people than in Bismarck, Mandan, and I want to take some of that effort and bring it down to our local community. And then finally, community engagement and marketing.

00:24:11,370	We’ve got a lot of events, as mentioned earlier, we do have the state of the state of the cities, uh, which is a fabulous event for us to showcase the city of Mandan, the city of Bismarck, by talking to our mayors, hearing straight from them what they’ve got going on, uh, for 2026.

00:24:32,070	What, what great things happened in 2025, um, as well as hearing from an economist, uh, at the national level, um, and he’ll boil that down for us and tell us what that means um for a local um Bismarck Mand Da perspective. Lots of other activities that we encourage, um, businesses to get engaged in and involved in, um, so that we can all, um, collaborate and, and connect, um, when it’s appropriate.

00:24:52,000	The Welcome initiative was certainly something that was taking place in 2025. It didn’t go away. We continued to do that, um, by utilizing some of our make Yourmark website, um, resources, and I’ll show you in just a bit, um, of a video that we, uh, have invested, uh, actually quite heavily in some marketing materials, and some might say,

00:25:11,730	well, you know, why does it cost so much to make a video. We want them to be really well put together videos that allow us and our business community to use them, uh, to showcase why should someone live in Mandan, um, and we’ve got some really great stories to tell about people who have chosen to

00:25:29,730	come to Moundan, um, start a business here, live here uh, and be a lifelong, uh, citizen. And that leads into our workforce recruitment tool kit. So economic impacts, the top 3 contributors to growth. If you look out there, um, at, at what contributes to growth in a community, uh, like Mandan, like Bismarck.

00:25:52,270	Healthcare seems to be first on the list. Um, we don’t have any major hospitals in the city of Mandan, but you do have healthcare here and they are certainly a contributor to your economic um impact. Retail is certainly very important.

00:26:11,500	That ranges anywhere from your restaurants to your stores, and, and you’ve got some really great growth, um, in in retail and you’ve maintained, uh, some of that. And manufacturing and so manufacturing is something that the Chamber EDC is exploring an industrial park location to expand growth of the manufacturing sector.

00:26:31,230	We know that there’s room, um, in Mandan in Morton County, as well as Bismarck and Burleigh County, um, so that when someone calls we’ve got ground that is shovel ready, uh, that we can put in, in the appropriate location and we’ll work real closely, uh, with, um, with the Mayor and, and Mr. Neubauer and, and city staff when that time comes. Workforce impacts, make your mark, Bismarck bizman.

00:26:54,270	com is a website that we send people, um, if they’re looking to move their business or want to move to Bismarck Mandan. Um, through some very focused marketing efforts. We had close to 9, almost 9000 individuals that we’ve reached. Now we have their email address and we have some information that we can continue to communicate with them.

00:27:15,470	There’s 25+ pages of resources for, um, those new to the community to check things out on that, um, make your mark bizman.com. Uh, and so we want those resources to be available. It does us no good at the Chamber EDC if we just keep them to ourselves.

00:27:32,000	We want people to be aware of them and utilize them for their business and and for people they might be bringing here. And then the community testimonial videos, um, featured 4 families. Um, there are recruitment resource for all businesses in the community. Again, we’ve got businesses that have just started to use them.

00:27:52,470	If they’re talking to somebody from Rapid City, South Dakota, all the way to Newark, New Jersey, um, to Los Angeles, California, and someone inevitably is going to say, what would it be like to live in Bismarck Mandan. I don’t know anything about the community.

00:28:08,470	The job sounds great, but what is it like to live in Mandan? And so we have these very well put together resources um that kind of give them a glimpse of what that looks like. Um, we did, uh, do some, uh, focused, uh, marketing with those videos outside of the state of North Dakota in some really focused, uh, communities that are similar to ours, uh, and we reached almost a million, um, out of state impressions by

00:28:29,100	that. Now what that means is people looked at the videos um, they’re interested, they’re definitely interested. And now the next step is how do we want to take those particular areas and break them down even further and continue to get those videos out there on YouTube channels on, on all of

00:28:47,170	the different streaming TV platforms and those sorts of things. It’s a significant investment on our part, um, but one that we feel very strongly, um, that it, it’s necessary because we’ve got great people in Bismarck and Mandan, um, but we’ve got to bring more people uh, to the community and so that’s a way, um, to do that.

00:29:06,370	And so I wanna wrap up, um, by showing you a few things. We’ve got the, um, as I talked about the Mandan um business pitch challenge. It took place just this past fall. First place, um, was awarded to Pronto chore Soda drop, and the Learning Loft, um, in 2nd and 3rd place.

00:29:25,170	And so we had an amazing um competition. They did great presentations and, and that, um, is ready to, we’re ready to, uh, lather, rinse and repeat and do that again, um, in another year.

00:29:44,430	And so I am going to go ahead and play this video for you just so that you have a sense of what that might look like. Um, the code is there, uh, to make your mark, um.com and anyone that wants to, anyone that’s listening to this, if you’re a business in the Moundown area, and you think you want to tap into some of these resources.

00:30:02,170	You can get a hold of, um, Emily at the Chamber EDC, and she’d be happy to share those resources with you. So let’s hope that this, uh, technology works great for us What draws someone to live in a certain place.

00:30:18,530	Maybe it’s the clean air, endless skies, and the lack of rush hour traffic or the comfort of having everything your family needs close by Here, nature surrounds you, community welcomes you and opportunity is everywhere. Whether you’re building a career or making memories, it’s a place where life feels just right. Bismarck Vanan, make your mark in a community you’ll never forget.

00:30:43,000	So some of the other videos are very specific, um, to a, a couple of businesses in Mandan and then we have some that are very specific. It kind of drills down into actual business, uh, videos. This is the overarching video. So imagine this playing um outside of the state of North Dakota.

00:31:01,900	It would make me want to move here if I didn’t, if I didn’t live here, um, because it’s very well put together. And again, we, we had to invest in that, but it was worth it.

00:31:18,330	We feel in order to, um, do some heavy recruitment to bring new people, um, to the community of Mandan to the community of Bismarck, uh, to help fill some of those workforce gaps and, and help us with economic development. I didn’t retain any questions. Any questions for Brenda Mayor Brenda, and look at your five-year plan.

00:31:40,170	I’m sure a lot of these are carryover or continuing projects, issues and then, um, some popular modified, you have, are there some of them that you mentioned here that might be totally new? Yeah, so we, we didn’t, um, have as heavy of a focus on industrial park, um, development in the past as we do on this particular item in under economic development were very serious about that one, not that we weren’t serious

00:31:58,870	before, but we do need to do something and make a, uh, move the needle quite heavily on that. Getting a little bit more aggressive, I think, on finding, helping to find candidates, the next people to sit at at at this table, um, someday when you might want to actually retire

00:32:13,330	and, and not work so hard, um, and so we, we are spending a fair amount of time, um, on that. That, that’s a couple of them that are, uh, have quite a bit more energy behind them. As you mentioned, the military affairs Committee and the military affairs Committee revitalizing that one. Absolutely, thank you, Comm Rohr.

00:32:30,900	Any other questions Yeah, the industrial park is it has to happen to go forward, we have to have an industrial park. Correct. And you know, we’ll gather a group of the right people together. We’ve got to have people from the power industry.

00:32:49,730	Um, we’ve got to make sure that we’ve, uh, got all our bases covered and and get a committee together and and start uh looking around. OK Any other questions No Thank you, Brenda. Thank you very much for your time. Thanks for coming across the river. Any time, yeah. All right Shift gears heavily Con consider a rewrite of stormwater design manual. and ordinance update.

00:33:22,100	Mayor and Commissioners, um, this, uh, this effort was initially started in 2019 where Houston Engineering had provided the city two memorandums related to stormwater management program.

00:33:49,730	um these, uh, the effort never quite got past the finish line, and a little over a year ago this, uh, this board reinitiated, um, reinitiated reinitiated this effort to uh formally adopt a new stormwater ordinance and a new stormwater design manual. The currently adopted manuals are 18 years old and 13 years old. So Houston has been working a lot with city staff to incorporate, um, uh, evolving best practices.

00:34:14,500	Um, they’ve uh, incorporated a lot of, uh, standardization, simplification, and um they’ve, they’ve also structured it in a way that uh people who are familiar with Bismarck’s process will be, uh, familiar with ours right from the get-go, but um we have uh experts here from Houston Engineering that can give a short synopsis on some of the changes that were made and some

00:34:30,630	of the thought process that we had, um, so I’ll, I’ll turn it over to them right now. Thank you, Jarek. Um, good evening, Mayor Commissioners Nick Cullen, Houston Engineering, um, here to provide you an executive summary update on the ordinance and the stormwater design Standards manual.

00:34:50,530	It’s not going to be as fun as Brenda’s presentation, but I’m hoping that we can keep you awake a little bit. Try Nick. I’m going to try. Um, I’m first gonna start off with Michael Guns, um, he’s the project manager on the Ordinance updates, and he’ll go through those and then I will update you with the stormwater

00:35:06,470	design Standards manual. Thank you, Nick. Um, good evening, Mayor and Comm Michael Gunschuston Engineering. Um, this process started a long time ago. I was project manager back when we were doing some of the analyses for the city and the various stormwater areas, uh, came up with two specific memos, one related to the

00:35:26,000	stormwater ordinance and the second related to, uh, the design Standards manual, uh, really want to compliment staff and the ability to work with them to uh bring these to fruition. Um, first of all, on the stormwater ordinance, which is, uh, I helped write and put together.

00:35:43,100	It’s to amend and reenact Section 107. Uh, I think the important part about it was when we took a look at what was in place that was aged, obviously. Um, it’s best to re-enact and basically start over and put all the pieces together and bring it to current standards.

00:35:58,230	So what I have here is just kind of an outline. We added definitions and updated agencies and references, um, obviously, uh, uh, health departments Daw DEQ, Department of Environmental Quality, um, state Water Commission is now the Department of Water Resources, so all those elements were, were taken into account and then the references, uh, we cross referenced this very carefully with the stormwater Design Standards

00:36:20,070	Manual, as we were developing these concurrently so that the definitions and the connections between the two were consistent. Uh, oftentimes you find you have one statement and 11 statement and another causes confusion.

00:36:40,870	Um, obviously, Mandan is an MS4 community, so the ordinances divi designed around program compliance with that from DEQ and make sure that, uh, the city’s in compliance. Uh, we focused on the clarifications relative to jurisdictional authority. In other words, who was responsible for what pieces. The city engineer has this piece, planning has this piece, etc. So those are important.

00:36:59,800	Also look very closely at simplifying process and enforcement, um, Nick mentioned we kind of coordinated and looked at the city of Bismarck’s and said, how does that work? How does this work? Uh, we believe we’ve come up with a system that’s actually more efficient than what Bismarck has, uh, from the developer standpoint, move things through. Uh, so that’s important.

00:37:16,230	certification reports, when you get a project and it’s all done, obviously somebody’s got to sign off on it, uh, and the city’s going to look at it, so we took a look at there has to be by competent individuals. Uh, the enforcement officer for the overall ordinance and plan was a city engineer. Uh, again, that’s the key component.

00:37:32,070	The city reports to DEQ on a regular basis on MS4 and what they have done on an annual basis. So the city engineer is that enforcement officer, um, Compliance and feeesche, uh, you have a copy of the fee schedule in your packet.

00:37:50,870	Basically, the city’s looking at standpoint, the developers do something, they submit the fee covers the cost of what staff is. Um, it’s not a full cover of staff, but it’s a reasonable dollar amount to, uh, to go through that process. Um, then there’s a committee, uh, appeals committee process for those enforcement decisions, and I’ll talk a little bit more about that in a minute.

00:38:07,800	Uh Illicit discharges, basically you’re talking oil, some other type of chemical scenarios that is listed in the ordinance. There’s also several other areas in this city’s ordinance that address that, but this is really specific to stormwater. Um, the updates on the stormwater management plans. Obviously the ordinance has to address what’s contained within the manual.

00:38:24,870	But all it is is it’s a reference to the manual. The manual itself is Nick will point out, is really, um, a document that’s, uh, dynamic. The city engineer has the ability to change that, modify it based on current design standards, but the ordinance is fixed. and the ordinance is before you today.

00:38:44,100	Um, again, we proposed a fee schedule that you have in front of you that kind of additionally covers the cost plus compliance. You have to have a fee structure if you’re going to do enforcement that really gets people thinking, hey, if I don’t do this, it’s going to cost me this much so that I, I need to do that.

00:38:57,900	And the, uh, program coordinator in this case, again by the ordinance is the city engineer. There’s enforcement issues outlined in the in the ordinance relative to legal action relative to penalties relative to recovering the cost for damages, say the bunch of material is dumped on the city

00:39:15,170	streets. The city has to go clean that up. What are those costs and there’s a recovery process for that, um, fees again are in your agenda documentation, permit suspension and certificate of occupancy. There needs to be teeth in the ordinance.

00:39:32,430	and if the city engineer makes a decision and says, hey, this is the way this is going to happen. You now have to repair this, you now have to fix it. Like I said earlier, there’s an appeals process.

00:39:45,630	Um, there’s 3 members on the appeals committee under the definition that are not the city engineer, uh, public works director, um, city manager, and I forget the third one, I shouldn’t, but I remember what it is. Um, but they are separate from the city engineer, so if a developer has an issue, he can bring that to that appeals committee and say, hey, um this is unfair, it needs to be revisited.

00:40:02,000	Also on that appeals committee, if they want to go beyond the appeals committee, they can come directly to the city commission. So that’s a procedure and process that’s out there.

00:40:18,730	So realistically we focused really hard on streamlining the review process to make sure that, uh, from beginning to end, people know where they’re going, as well as staff knowing what their authorities and controls are. Um, some new provisions that are in the ordinance, uh, Missouri River Setback, um, what’s set right now this matches M Marin County, where there’s a 75 ft setback when you have a protected bank and a 100 ft setback where you do not have a protected bank in a number of instances, there are

00:40:37,800	easements along the river With the city of Bism or the city of Mandan that do not have this provision. So this provision is now in the ordinance and would be applied. Riverine setback.

00:40:55,000	We have a lot of discussions with various communities relative to the floodway, and people think that they can build immediately up to the floodway, um, well, that creates all kinds of issues because floodways change, uh, analysis changed, so what we did is we created a riverine setback to keep those, uh, new structures in a, in a safer location. um, noncompliance fees, which we talked about a little earlier and then redevelopment.

00:41:13,630	There are places downtown Mandan where all of a sudden we’re going to take out a whole bunch of buildings and we’re going to redo it, uh, but there are stormwater issues that are either already there or ones that might be created by that transition, so we very carefully looked at how that

00:41:28,630	scoping sheet would come to the city. The city would know about those issues, what those changes are in order to say, hey, wait a minute, we need to address this a little bit further. So that’s kind of the context, the ordinance, um, you have it in your packet.

00:41:43,730	There’s a lot there, um, but, uh, it’s a lot cleaner and a lot more efficient than the uh previous version and uh we’re very comfortable again complement city staff and working with them to uh to get to that point. At this point, I’ll hand it back to Nick relative to the ordinance or to the uh manual.

00:42:01,100	All right, so why the update? So as Michael stated, you have experienced significant growth and is you are designated as an MS4 community. So really this necessitates the um revision to the 2011 manual, uh, to update for your modern challenges and current regulatory requirements with the federal and state governments, so working with city staff, our primary goals were to provide that nearly

00:42:25,100	uniform requirements between the city of Mandan and its ETA and the city of Bismarck for stormwater permits. to reduce the confusion and create consistency between the two communities, um, we need to ensure compliance with Mandan’s MS4 general permit with the DEQ and municipal code 107.

00:42:48,000	We also need to reduce permit application, resubmittals, and decrease project delays, uh, having a straight lined. path forward is, uh, beneficial with our goals. Clarify some middletal requirements and review timelines for engineers and developers, protect public safety and property protection within or with proposed civil penalties and updates the 2011 manual based on new master plans and city growth.

00:43:11,100	So when is a permit required? There are 3 instances where a permit will have to be, uh, requested. The first one is an impervious surface. So if you have an, uh, development or redevelopment of creating more than 3000 square feet, um.

00:43:31,370	or cumulative impervious surface, for example, if you have a 2000 square foot area that’s, um, requested one year and then the next year you’re asking for another 2000 square feet on the same property that would then push you into being required to have to have a stormwater management plan submitted. Um, if you have land disturbance greater than 1 acre or part of a larger common plan of development.

00:43:46,230	and the last one is if you have any land disturbing activity, um, involving greater than 400 cubic yards. from a workflow, yes, sir. Could you define impervious surface? uh, hard pack gravel, asphalt, concrete, roofs, anything where the stormwater is not allowed to infiltrate into the ground. So we’re in place there’s runoff then kind of surface.

00:44:15,100	that provide surface runoff without going into the ground. Correct, yes, I wasn’t quite sure what that was. Yes, understood. Thank you. You’re welcome Uh, from a submittal and review workflow standpoint, um, for when you have your design engineers and your developers coming into the city of Man,

00:44:31,370	and this is the workflow that you would go through. So step one is your mandatory scoping sheet. This is where the city defines site-specific requirements to the design engineer before design begins.

00:44:50,330	We don’t want to get the design engineer 70 80% into the design process, submit the permit to the city and then have the city say, hey, hold up, this isn’t going to work and then have to go through that whole redesign process all over again. We want to make sure that the the design engineer communicates with the city up front, says, Hey, this is what we want to do from a very high level perspective.

00:45:06,800	and then the city can inform the design engineer of any existing stormwater master plans for the watershed. They could also say we have certain drainage issues within this area that we need to work around so that allows the city to communicate that with the design and engineer up front, um.

00:45:29,800	after the design engineer completes their design and their application and checklist, they, um, have to submit that within 30 days prior to construction or with their plat and sight plan. After the city has reviewed that application.

00:45:56,730	They have 21 working days to then receive that conditional conditional approval or provide that conditional approval to the applicant, um, with various conditions established by the city engineer. Maybe there’s something minor that the city engineer wants to have them. add to their stormwater management plan or make them not completely do uh an amendment. He can dictate various conditions for that approval process.

00:46:22,730	And then lastly is the post construction certification where the design engineer or architect or competent person can provide the certification report, uh, confirming that all of the BMPs, the design has been installed as designed.

00:46:46,730	Um, we don’t want the design to be completely off base from what was approved, there might be, um, issues with that if the if the storm sewers were not installed appropriately or per design, we could have impacts neighboring properties or to city property that um could be added adversely impacted. So there are 4 pillars to the stormwater design Standards manual.

00:47:09,170	The first one is the peak discharge compliance, really, the core requirement is to make sure that the post-construction runoff rates must not exceed the existing condition runoff rates for the 25, 10, and 100 year 24 hour rainfall events, or they must also may follow the existing stormwater master plan criteria that’s been adopted by the city of Mandan already, so the first focus is the 25 1000, but if there is an existing stormwater

00:47:27,000	master plan, you can follow that, and that is provided to you during the scoping process with the city engineering staff. Next pillar is the water quality compliance. This is where you have first your new development, you must utilize the prescriptive BMPs such as the detention basins, the infiltration, flow through devices as detailed in the

00:47:51,430	stormwater design Standards manual. This ensures that uh you have standardized pollution control. However, like Michael was speaking to earlier, when you have these redevelopments or retrofits, you have to still find a way to treat the runoff that may not work with these prescriptivebMPs.

00:48:12,900	So the DEQ requires you to treat the first half inches of runoff from impervious areas. from a street drainage performance standpoint. the manual, um, has these various new requirements. So for the 5 year event, this is the nuisance flows, um, all streets must not have any curb overtopping.

00:48:35,630	We don’t want the water to get up onto the sidewalks or into the right of way. Um, we want to make, make sure that that water maintains within the curve boundary, uh, on collector roads you want to leave 12 ft of clear encroachment. and then on arterial roads you want to have no more than 7.5 ft of encroachment into the arterial roadways.

00:48:51,630	We want to make sure that traffic can still get up and down these arterial and collector roadways without impacting traffic. Um, however, on the 100th year events, these are the major flow events, uh, runoff must be fully contained within the public right of way.

00:49:08,270	This is where it does get to go outside of the curve boundary, get up onto the sidewalks, but not go on to private property unless there is existing easements put into place with that initial design, um.

00:49:25,370	however, with the depth of flow at the crown of the road, you would have a max of 6 inches at the crown for local streets and 3 inches at the high point for arterials. Also high-level infrastructure, minimum standards just for storm sewers. We want to make sure that all the storm sewers installed in the city of Mandan are designed for at least a five-year event. We want to make sure that there’s very minimal water on the roadways.

00:49:46,800	We want to convey that all subsurface, and we also want to make sure that there’s a minimum cleansing velocity of 3 ft per second. We want to make sure that, um, that sediment that’s stuck in the storm sewers gets cleaned out.

00:50:00,470	We don’t want that piling up and then reducing the capacity of those storm sewer pipes, so the design engineer will be able to calculate that and make sure that it’s at least 3 ft per second. with culverts, collectors, and arterials, we want to have no roadway overtopping whatsoever.

00:50:18,700	We don’t want that perpendicular flow overtopping those roads and creating a traffic hazard, and then for open uh flow channels we want to resist erosive forces for the 100 year event. Uh, there are various different engineering options that you can do to reduce those, uh, erosive forces, and we also want to provide one year or 1 ft of free board to those excavated channels.

00:50:36,170	So when we have those larger flow events that channel is filled 90% of the way up. We had that 1 ft of extra freeboard to make sure that it doesn’t spill over onto private properties.

00:50:55,530	and then in the last pillar with the stormwater Design Standards manual is the stormwater pollution Prevention Plan. This is where, um, we want to make sure that all the erosion controls are put into place where we stabilize exposed soils within 14 days of inactivity. We don’t want to have sites that remain open for months on end, having large windy erosion, um, nuisances. We wanna have perimeter control set up with silt fence.

00:51:17,000	We want to have inlet protection, tracking pads, and making sure that that sediment does not get on to city roads and within city storm sewers. And then it also requires the developer and their contractors to do inspections of these BMPs every 14 days and within 24 hours of any quarter inch rainfall event, so

00:51:38,170	this makes sure that the contractor and developer are required to maintain their stuff to prevent any sediment from getting onto uh city roads or city storm sewers.

00:51:59,530	So for any applicants that are watching this and so the city Comm is aware, um, the biggest thing is to just to start early, provide that mandatory scoping sheet to the city engineering department, um, do not start your design before you have uh an approved stormwater scoping sheet, so you under so the city engineer and uh the developer on the same page upfront. and then address your peak flow, your water quality, your conveyance, and your erosion control.

00:52:21,500	And then lastly, certify that what you planned and designed was built as proposed or provide the city engineer an update as to what change from the approved plan and how that may or may not have impacted neighboring properties or created adverse conditions.

00:52:46,730	You are also required to provide an operation and maintenance manual and easements for all permanent BMPs, um, to make sure that those four pillars, um, exist long term. We want to make sure that the city staff, if needed, can go in and maintain these, uh, BMPs if the landowner is choosing not to maintain them in order to protect protect city infrastructure and neighboring properties.

00:53:10,000	and that is all I have for you this evening. Michael and I are open to any questions. Any questions? Nick, Nick, um, does this apply to the two mile territorial limit? Uh, Mayor, Comm, Comm Rohr, yes, it does.

00:53:28,730	It does include the ETA, and it does involve coordination with the Burleigh County, or sorry, excuse me, Morton County’s engineer. They’ll be under the auspices of this particular plan then. OK, thank you Any other questions for *** I’d just like to compliment our engineering staff and you fellows putting together an outstanding program.

00:53:50,070	It’s, uh, uh, not a short read at a little over 120 pages, but it’s concise and it’s very well laid out. So thank you. Thank you. Yeah. OK, thank you, Nick. Thank you, Mike Commissioners, what would you like to do? I moved to adopt the new stormwater Design manual as presented. Second a motion by Comm Schoberg, a seconded by Comm Rohr.

00:54:23,630	Any further discussion Hearing none roll call, please Comm Hainscha Yes, Braun, yes, Roarr, yes, Schoberg, yes, Mayor Frelick, yes. We will now move on to resolutions and ordinances. Introduction and first consideration of ordinance number 1481 relating to on-call pay. Amy? Yes, good evening, Mayor and Commissioners.

00:54:57,370	I am here tonight to introduce the first introduction in reading of ordinance 1481, which would have been section 20-6-10 under compensation in the city ordinance to include a provision related to call pay. So some background around this. We do have several city departments that rely on employees being available outside of a normal working hours, which are generally evenings and weekends.

00:55:26,730	Um, currently employees who meet the requirements for premium pay do receive additional compensation when they’re called into work, but there is no compensation for the time they are required to remain on call for those that are in rotations.

00:55:48,070	Uh, so this ordinance would address situations where employees are called or assigned to an on-call rotation that requires them to remain available and able to respond within a reasonable time frame. During the assigned period.

00:56:13,800	Uh, so this version would not be required, but staff does believe that is appropriate to recognize the added responsibility, um, that is put on those individuals in those rotations, um, where they’re required to be available within a reasonable amount of time. Um, so approving this ordinance would give city staff the authority to offer a flat, uh, daily on-call stipend to allow administration to establish consistent procedures across departments. With these provisions, non-exempt employees scheduled for on-call duty would receive that flat daily stipend.

00:56:46,270	um, employees would be expected to respond within a reasonable amount of time. Um, we do have here outlined approximately 30 minutes to respond. Um, and then, of course, they would be required to remain fit for duty and comply with all city drug and alcohol policies that are required of them.

00:57:07,170	For planning purposes, staff is evaluating a rate equivalent to about $3 per hour of non-worked hours, um, so that would equate to approximately $48 per day, and we are evaluating, uh, weekend considerations too as they have more time off on the weekends. Um, this based on the anticipated usage would be a $20,000 budget allocation per participating department.

00:57:38,730	Um, initially, the departments that we are looking at, uh, completing this for would be those that already have a rotation set up, so that would be the streets, the utilities, the water treatment plant, and the wastewater treatment plant. Um, so if approved, administration will finalize procedures and implement the program in 2026.

00:58:04,730	The total estimated annual fiscal impact is $80,000 and would require a budget amendment with this approval. Funding sources for each department have been coordinated with finance and are also displayed in your agenda packets. So with that staff recommends approval of the introduction and first consideration of ordinance 1481 along with the associated Budget Amendment as presented. and I will stand for any questions.

00:58:28,370	Mayor Amy Win with this take effect then Yes, so if approved, it would take effect as long as our policy would be approved and in place after the 2nd reading. Thank you.

00:58:53,900	Amy, is this comparable to other? municipalities Yes, so actually the city of Bismarck just implemented something very similar for to begin in 2026. So it was, uh, valuable to be able to connect with them, so we didn’t have to recreate the wheel and they’re doing something very similar to this approach. Um, I did just check in with them.

00:59:12,530	It’s only been a few weeks of 2026, but, uh, as of last week, staff are happy and it’s able to be administered, administered appropriately. And this is a common practice in private business, correct Yes, um, to some extent, uh, they have a little bit of flexibility as, like I said, it’s not required if it’s under the definition that the Department of Labor calls.

00:59:34,370	waiting to be engaged, um, then there’s more flexibility there when they have the ability to uh, take part in. what they wanna do after hours versus being available at a minute’s notice, so there’s more flexibility there, but, um, many private sector employees offer some type of compensation for on-call pay.

00:59:59,470	Amy, I want to thank you for bringing this up. I think it’s a definite advantage for employee retention. Um, my wife was on call, all of her working career in the medical field. People need to understand that it’s, it’s just there’s no overnight thing.

01:00:16,100	It could be the entire Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, uh, holiday, um, so the, the little bit that um you have recommended for our employees, um definitely goes a long way in assuaging some of the familial responsibilities during those holidays as well. So it’s a very nice of you to uh make this recommendation. So thank you. Thank you.

01:00:40,530	Any other questions for Amy No thank you, Amy Commissioners I’ll move to approve the introduction in first reading of Ordinance number 1481 along with the associated budget amendment as presented. Second. motion by Comm Schoberg, seconded by Comm Rohr. Any further discussion Hearing none, roll call, please Messrs. Braun, yes, Roarr, yes, Schoberg, yes, Hainsanan. Yes, Mayor Frelich, yes.

01:01:19,530	We’ll move on to item number 2. Introduction and first consideration of ordinance number 1483 stormwater rewrite. jerk. Mayor Commissioners, yes, this is the, uh, Ordnance Rewrite associated with the previous item, um a lot of the same informa or this is the information that uh Mr.

01:01:43,170	Guns went over, um, and we’re recommending approval of the first consideration, but I can try and answer any other questions if you have any. Any questions? I move to approve the first consideration of ordinance, 1483 as presented. second. motion by Comm Rohr, seconded by Comm Schoberg. Any further discussion, hearing none, roll call. Comm roar. Yes, Schoberg, yes, Heinscha. Bra, yes, Mayor Frelich, yes.

01:02:12,470	Is there any other business Kate? If not the future meeting dates for the board of citycom Commissioners are as follows. Tuesday, February 3rd. at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, February 17th at 5 o’clock. Tuesday, March 3rd at 5:30 and with that be kind to yourself, be kind to your neighbor and it’s onward and upward,