00:00:17,000	Good evening and welcome. Today is February 17th, 2026. It is 5 p.m. and we are in the Bosch Freilich Meeting Room in Mandan City Hall. Mr. Neubauer, could you please take the role? Commissioners Heine shown here. Braun. Yes. Rau. Here. Schulberg. Here. Mayor Freilich. Here. Let’s stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Please remove all headgear.

00:00:43,770	I 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. Okay. We’ll move on to announcements. Project updates. Riley. Good evening, Mayor and commissioners. I’ll be your filling for tonight.

00:01:17,930	Um, so project updates for this week on the right. Thank you. Uh, we updated our project website. Just have everything under just a projects page. We had it split up between infrastructure and road projects, and that was kind of confusing for some people.

00:01:31,370	So we wanted to clarify it a little bit and just kind of make a note that if you’re looking for any projects, it’s at City Mind. Com backslash projects and all the projects are in there. Um, so if you need information on there, should be good to go for that. I’ll shout out Carrie and Ashley for helping with that. And it looks really good. Now. Can you.

00:01:48,900	Click on one of those? No, this is just a picture. I can go to the website if you’d like. Nope. That’s fine. Keep. Uh, Collins Avenue, we have a short video. That old reservoir is completely demolished for the most part. I know they’re gonna start entertaining a little work here pretty soon.

00:02:14,130	They just approved shop drawings for the retaining wall work, so that’ll get kicked off here. And this project will be wrapped up soon. So looking forward to that, uh, area to B or city. 242 as it’s commonly known that we have public continuing public meeting for this project tomorrow at Roosevelt Elementary at 6 p.m.. Um, we’re hoping for a good turnout again.

00:02:33,030	We had a good turnout. The last one. Um, we’ll answer some questions that we’ve gotten frequently asked questions. Um, and we’ll be ready. Uh, Mandan proper. There was the open house for all four phases recently. Um, we were now kind of narrowing the scope down to phase one, and we’ll do our first public meeting for that.

00:02:52,000	Just phase one project on February 24th at 6 p.m. at First Lutheran Church. That’s the same spot we had the open house at a couple of weeks ago. Any questions? Nope. Thank you. Riley. We will move on to public comments. Mr. Neubauer. Er. Froehlich. Um, Dan Helbing is here.

00:03:20,570	I don’t know if he wants to make some comments on the styrofoam on the high school demolition site. If you want to step up to the mic. He had a last week or two. I’ve been noticing that all the styrofoam coming from the demolition at the high school. And it’s just littering up the yards, the streets, probably getting into the storm sewers.

00:03:50,630	And nothing has been done about it until lately. This year or this week. I finally got Ahold of a school administrator that was supposed to be in charge of the project, because the city didn’t seem to know anything.

00:04:09,870	Um, they told me they talked to the guy, and then the same day I talked with him, I called the North Dakota Environmental Quality Office, and one of those guys stopped over there. Now it seems like they’ve started to do something with it. But today, with the wind, they brought black paper that they put down.

00:04:29,130	It’s supposed to protect the styrofoam from blowing out underneath the chain link fence is not doing the job. It’s blown all over and the styrofoam is blowing out again.

00:04:50,030	Plus the chain link fence, the small pieces of the styrofoam went right to the chain link fence and into the yards again and onto the streets, which eventually was going into the yards. And they also put up a some kind of a chicken wire type to cover up the chain link. More, which is fine. Hopefully that’ll work. But today they were supposed to be there.

00:05:13,400	Before today there was supposed to be trying to get a fire hydrant opened up so they could water down the, um, dust in that area. Today I drove by and I noticed it was still dusty from the work, and no fire hydrants seemed to be hooked up, so I was just wondering if that more can be done.

00:05:32,670	Or, uh, my neighbor lady, she was out to blow on some of the styrofoam on the street, and the police pulled up and was going to give her a citation. For what? I don’t know, but they never said anything about a citation to the demolition crew. That’s littering our yards.

00:05:52,430	But if I can get an answer from somebody, then what they’re going to do, and if they’re going to keep doing what they’re doing now, or if someone can talk to them and say that that’s not doing the trick. Okay. Um, a lot to unpack here. A lot of people involved.

00:06:11,300	Um, so the city’s been on it since Mrs. Guice was kind enough to call me and, uh, express her concerns. So we got on that right away. Um, it is a school district project, so we got in touch with the school district, and they started to urge the construction or demolition company to mitigate the foam right from blowing around.

00:06:34,600	Um, we have been in contact several times with them. Uh, the public works. Mr. O’Keefe, did we send the street sweepers up to make sure it didn’t get into the stormwater? So we’ve been on this. Um, now, I don’t know about the hydrant, chief bits. Good evening. Mayor. Commissioners.

00:07:06,900	Uh, as far as the hydrant, I would assume that was a request for, like, a temporary dust suppression. Uh, measures like that. And that would be in coordination with Public Works Director Shane O’Keefe. I can I think he’s up here. He can maybe speak a little bit better to that issue. Okay. Thank you. Mayor. Commissioners. Yeah. We, uh, we made one available.

00:07:25,300	Steve Hoosier said he was calling down. He never came and picked one up, though. Um, we did Street Sweep last Thursday, like you said. And then he told us the other remediation with the geotextile, uh, on the fence and a couple of things that they’ve been doing. And they brought in a truck sweeper as well.

00:07:41,800	Okay. So have they been, Mr. Neubauer? You might know this. Have they been out in the neighborhood cleaning the yards the. Week? There was one. Guy with a backpack blower trying to blow out some of it. He was missing. A lot. And of course. With the ice, he’s got away.

00:08:01,030	From some of the health. He was blowing on it into the alley and. Well, I. Got a very good job. Okay. Thank you for, uh, appearing tonight.

00:08:26,330	And I can assure you that, uh, the city is going to stay on this and make sure that the, uh, contractor, uh, cleans up the mess. And you’re right, with this wind, um, I was under the understanding that they were going to, uh, wet it so it would freeze on top of the foam that’s already on the ground, so it wouldn’t blow. But we’ll see. They’re going to be responsible for it. Well.

00:08:49,530	If there was some kind of a way that it would, they could alert the residents too, as to what’s going on, to keep us up to date. You know, so far there’s been no contact with the ones that had to get a hold of the city or the city administrator or even.

00:09:07,700	Well, it would be the school district. And so we’ll stay in touch with the school district. It’s their project. So then they’ll get Ahold of us and keep us informed. I know that one administrator said that he didn’t know how they would even go about doing that. I thought, well, we get water bills every month.

00:09:27,700	They always get a little newsletter in there. I think, and I’ll let Mr. Neubauer speak. But this kind of caught everybody off guard. I don’t think anybody thought, oh, yeah, the building’s covered in foam until it started blowing around. But Mr. Neubauer.

00:09:50,470	Mayor and commissioners, we can certainly have those communications with, um, the Manhattan school superintendent and and those folks and have them do what they can to communicate with the residents. My understanding was they have been around several times in the neighborhood picking up pieces of styrofoam and, um, and like, um, Shane O’Keefe said, we did run street sweepers up there last week to clean up that debris that was

00:10:09,370	in the in the gutter lines. And we’ll we can do that. Until the streets, though, right? We can do that until the the weather changes like it will soon and then we can’t obviously put water down and create an ice rink.

00:10:25,200	But we will certainly be in communication with the school and let them know the future of your thoughts. That’s understood. But if there’s a way to get the residents to know more and to keep them updated, I’d appreciate it. And I’m sure the rest of the neighbors would. Yep, we will.

00:10:42,270	Um, actually, school district comes in a few hours tonight and we will have that conversation with them. Thank you. Thank you very much. Any other comments? Okay. If not, we will move to item number E, approval of agenda. I move to approve the agenda for the February 17th, 2026 meeting. City Commission meeting. Second. We have a motion by Commissioner Rogers.

00:11:11,170	Second by Commissioner Hinson. Any further discussion regarding the agenda? Hearing none. Roll call, please. Commissioners. Braun. Yes. Rau. Yes. Schulberg. Yes. Hind. Sean. Yes. Mayor. Freilich. Yes. We’ll move on to item F minutes. Consider approval of the February 3rd, 2026 Board of City Commission meeting. Minutes. I’ll move to approve the minutes of. The.

00:11:40,030	February 3rd, 2026 Board of City Commission meeting. Minutes. Second. We have a motion by Commissioner Schulberg, a second by Commissioner Hinson. Any further discussion? Hearing none. Roll call. Commissioners. Roger. Yes. Schulberg. Yep. Pine. Sean. Yes. Braun. Yes. Mayor. Freilich. Yes. Item number two. Consider approval of the February 3rd, 2026 state of the city’s quorum minutes.

00:12:08,130	Make a motion to approve the state of the city’s quorum minutes from February 3rd. Second. A motion by Commissioner Hinshaw and a second by Commissioner Rohrer. Any further discussion? Hearing none. Roll call. Commissioner Schulberg. Yes. Hi, John. Yes. Ron. Yes. Rohrer. Yes. Mayor. Freilich. Yes. Item number three.

00:12:32,330	Consider approval of the February 10th, 2026 North Dakota Department of Transportation, Memorial Highway phase one Business Owner Update meeting minutes. I’ll move to approve the February 10th, 2026 North Dakota Department of Transportation’s Memorial Highway phase one business owner Update meeting minutes. Second motion by Commissioner Solberg, second by Commissioner Rohrer. Any further discussion? Hearing none. Roll call. Commissioners. Hansen. Yes. Ron. Yes. Roar. Yes. Cobourg.

00:13:02,670	Yes. Mayor. Freilich. Yes. Item G public hearing. There are none. We have no bids. We’ll move on to the consent agenda. Are there any items you would like removed from the consent agenda? If not, I would look for a motion to approve. So moved. Second motion by Commissioner Brown.

00:13:29,530	Second by Commissioner Schulberg. Any further discussion? Hearing none. Roll call. Commissioners. Braun. Yes. Roger. Yes. Schulberg. Yes. Pynchon. Yes. Mayor. Freilich. Yes. We’ll move on to old business. Consider approval of the inmate housing agreement with Burleigh Morton detention center chief Ziegler. Mr.

00:13:52,870	mayor and commission, um, back in December, we approved the original with a caveat that we have line 16 or section 16 of the inmate housing relook at when it talks about medical services and what’s the responsibility of the city. Uh, Sheriff Lieberman and his staff did a rewrite, sent it over to us, uh, with attorney Oster.

00:14:16,870	Uh, Jim, myself and Commissioner Schulberg and Commissioner Rohrer looking at it, um, we came to an agreement that what we have is is sufficient, and I’m bringing it back to the commission. With the change of the language in the inmate housing agreement for the Burleigh Morton jail. Okay.

00:14:41,670	Any questions for Chief Ziegler? Mayor? Chief, this is a year to year agreement, is that correct? It is itself renews. Unless there’s a change. So if there’s no changes in the agreement, then itself renews from year to year. So some of the changes that do pop up periodically is the cost of inmate housing goes up. And then that’s usually when I have to bring it back in front of the commission. Thank you.

00:15:00,670	Mayor and fellow commissioners. I’d just like to take a moment to thank, uh, please, Chief Ziegler or City Attorney Amy Oster, City Administrator Jim Neubauer, Sheriff Kelly Lieben, Major Trent Wangen, both of the Burleigh County Sheriff’s Office and Burleigh County Assistant State’s Attorney. Julie Lawyer, um, for their work in helping with this item.

00:15:27,400	16 on the contract. Um, we are able to successfully streamline the language of that a bit and in my most humble opinion, make it more practical and workable for everybody involved. So thank you. Any other questions for Chief Ziegler? Move to approve the updated inmate housing agreement with Burley Morton Detention Center.

00:15:53,530	Second motion by Commissioner Rohrer, second by Commissioner Schulberg. Any further discussion? Hearing none. Roll call, please. Commissioners. Roar. Yes. Schulberg. Yes. Yes. Ron. Yes. Mayor. Froehlich. Yes. We will move on to new business. Consider an application for a build grant for Mandan proper. Riley. Uh, good evening, mayor. Commissioners, I have a short presentation for you tonight.

00:16:21,330	Uh, just kind of some history on build grants. Uh, so build stands for better utilizing infrastructure or. I can’t talk this morning. Build stands for better utilizing investments to leverage development. So this is a grant program to the US. It allows the federal government to participate in surface transportation benefits.

00:16:42,670	Um, and this isn’t the first time the USDOT has had a program like this. Uh, previously last year, we applied for a raise grant for Mandan proper. Um, and then Tiger was a similar program. So builds a grant program that’s funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure law. It provides roughly $1.

00:16:59,200	5 billion annually for the years 22 through 26. So this will be the last year of as we know it today, build grant, um, build grants are awarded on a competitive basis, meaning we compete with everyone from the rest of the 50 states. Um, the maximum grant award is $25 million, and 5% of all.

00:17:19,100	Oops, 5% of the funds, $75 million per per year must be allocated to planning projects. So some objectives are built are very similar to raise improving safety, environmental sustainability, quality of life, mobility, everything you want out of a road project, um is kind of what build is looking for.

00:17:39,400	So it really wants to have projects that have significant local and regional impact to your network and to your community. So what projects have we kind of identified this year? Everyone’s favorite Mandan proper. Um, and then the no other project we’d like to apply for this year is the McKenzie Drive Extension Planning Project. I’ll kind of dive more in each of these projects here.

00:17:59,530	Mandan Property key project elements. Um, Kastner and Waterman replacement. Street reconstruction, um Ada compliant paths, mobility hub, complete streets. This is really a neighborhood revitalization project. Um, so wagon and proper.

00:18:22,400	It has very significant environmental impacts due to water lines, storm sewer improvements, sanitary sewer spot repairs, um, public works spends, a lot of maintenance dollars annually to repair water main breaks in this area, as well as patch the failing roadways. Um, also, there’s a significantly high cost of residence when you compare special assessments in Mandan proper specifically to any other area in town.

00:18:38,470	Um, just because it is kind of that everything needs to be done in area, um, and it’s more competitive than other neighborhood projects for a few reasons. So the total cost of Mandan proper is roughly $35 million. We will be applying for a build grant of the maximum award, which is $25 million, leaving roughly $9.

00:18:54,470	2 million to be participated in the city in some way. Um, ways we could fund that would be using MAF funds, using the utility fund, special assessments, and then as a previously approved on the consent agenda, the Department of Water Resources grant. Now going switching gears a little bit and going to the McKenzie Drive extension project.

00:19:14,830	Um, one big aspect of this that we’ve talked about is setting the impact. We don’t know what the economic and regional impact of having this connection would be. Um, whether it be positive or negative, we feel a positive, but we want to make sure we’re covering all our bases and really understand the project prior to construction, which

00:19:30,400	would be a much larger investment than the planning project. Um, we want to make sure we’re future planning and thinking about what we’re going to need to do to existing intersections to handle this existing the new traffic load, um, as well as think about future development to the west.

00:19:48,930	So why McKenzie drive? Um, it’s an important connection to be made. There would be a large separation of freight and passenger traffic, um, taking a lot of that freight traffic off of third Street and Memorial Highway, allowing more pedestrian and passenger vehicles to feel a little safer.

00:20:04,670	Um, there would be a massive reduction in vehicle miles traveled daily of roughly 20 to 30,000. Um, and there’s large travel time cost savings of having this connection there also would help with emergency response times. Um, the cost it’s a planning grant. So there is it’s a rural planning grant. Since we are classified as a rural community.

00:20:20,400	So there is no local cost share required. So we would be applying for a full 100% funding. Um, estimated cost of this time is roughly $5 million at the top end. Uh, we’re working with more to kind of refine that cost to get an accurate number. It might go down, but it won’t be more than 5 million questions. Questions for Riley.

00:20:43,330	May I? I just think, you know, we live at a critical time where these projects get more costly. And unfortunately, the downtown areas, those residents, probably in the least affordable position to be able to pay high assessments and stuff like that.

00:21:01,130	So the fact that we can seek other source of funding, especially grants to that’s going to be critical to this, but it’s something that’s going to have to be done. And, and uh, I think people have been working very diligently at trying to establish sources and make good plans to get this.

00:21:17,100	And I just hope it’s nothing that goes too far in the future that we can get this addressed before too long. Um, these grants have to have funds expended by 2034, I believe is the last year. So within that, I know it’s a long time frame, but we feel strongly that we would complete this project by then. So the sooner the better.

00:21:36,200	Yeah. Riley, I’d like to echo what Commissioner Roger said to, um, we’ve all seen, um, a 20 year, 20 year history for Memorial Highway. And, uh, the cost of that jumped exponentially for multiple reasons.

00:21:57,600	So getting started on the the bridge over the heart River at this point in time, um, kudos to you and your team for doing that and your foresight and interest in helping their citizens. Um, reduce the impact to their, their properties and special assessments. So thank you. Um, one question on the build grant. So everybody’s clear.

00:22:28,600	Not every street rehab project we do in Mandan qualifies for this build grant. It’s a it’s a narrow scope, correct? Yep. So one of the the main things about it is kind of going back to the departments, the USDOT strategic goals of the improving safety, environmental sustainability, quality of life, mobility, connectivity, all those things that are on the screen there.

00:22:46,730	Um, Mandan property is uniquely positioned in the fact that it has some, uh, disadvantaged community indicators which make it a higher eligibility project than other areas of Mandan, as well as the connection to an economic hub of Main Street, um, allowing those disadvantaged communities to have resources like jobs and medical facilities along that

00:23:10,330	corridor are make it a really strong project. Thank you. Any other questions for Riley? Okay. If not, we would, uh, I would entertain a motion on Mandan proper. I move to authorize the engineering department to submit the grant application and allocate the funds as presented. Should the grant be awarded. Second.

00:23:37,930	We have a motion by Commissioner Hinshaw and a second by Commissioner Brown. Any further discussion? Hearing none. Roll call, please. Commissioner Schulberg. Yes. Hi, Sean. Yes. Ron. Yes. Rohrer. Yes. Mayor. Froehlich. Yes. Uh, Mackenzie drive extension. I move to authorize. The engineering department to submit a. build grant application for a Hart River bridge study.

00:24:06,200	Second motion by Commissioner Brown. Second by Commissioner. Hi, Chad. Any further discussion? Hearing none. Roll call. Commissioners. Sean. Yes, Ron. Yes. Roger. Yes. Schulberg. Yes. Mayor. Freilich. Yes. We will move on to resolution and ordinances. Item number one. Consider the bond resolution for $4,491,000. Water revenue bond series 2026.

00:24:37,270	And this is in regards to the lead service line replacement project. Greg. Good evening. Mayor, commissioners. Um, as you recall, um, last September, uh, the city commission approved a resolution authorizing the filing of an application with the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality, uh, for a loan under the Safe Drinking Water Act for the lead service

00:25:01,800	line replacement project. And then shortly after that, in October of last year, the North Dakota Industrial Commission approved a $4,491,000 loan requested by the city of Mandan, um, the way the funding works with this project is that under the bipartisan infrastructure law, the federal bill, uh, states that are says that states receiving

00:25:30,670	additional funding for lead service line replacement through their drinking water state revolving uh fund loan programs. A portion of these federal funds must be used as subsidies like loan forgiveness.

00:25:55,730	So therefore, the city of Mandan will have two thirds of this loan forgiven by the state of North Dakota because they have received additional federal funding for lead service line replacements through the federal legislation. Uh, so that loan forgiveness will amount to about $3 million. So even though that the loan is for 4,491,000, this city will only be obligated to repay three or about a third of that loan, or approximately 1.5 million. It is a 20 year loan.

00:26:23,630	The principal repayments will not start until 2031. Until the project is complete. Uh, what is nice about this particular loan is normally, um, the SRF loans will have an interest rate of 1.5%. Uh, the interest rate on this loan is zero. And I think that’s part of the, um, federal subsidy buy down.

00:26:47,100	Uh, the state will still have their half a percent admin fee. Um, the loan will mature, uh, September 1st of 2050. And the city share of that loan will be paid directly out of the water and sewer, uh, utility fund.

00:27:06,330	And the city, of course, is only obligated for the loan draw request of this case because the loan forgiveness, um, city will only have 30, 34% responsibility of the entire loan. Uh, the loan or the bond resolution, rather, was prepared by bond Council and is before you for your consideration and approval. And I will stand for any questions that you may have. Any questions for Greg.

00:27:30,230	Mayor. Greg. Uh, I understand the scope in in the objectives here. This is strictly for line service replacement. Right. For the lead pipes out there correctly. That is my understanding. Yeah. Now has the city pretty much mapped. I know they’ve been doing the research.

00:27:49,470	Is are the lead areas pretty much plotted out or identified at this point in time? Until we have a good scope of the city where all this replacement has to be. Mayor Freilich, Commissioner, I will yield to city engineering or public works to address that question. Mayor. Commissioner, we have mapped out most of them.

00:28:07,730	There are still some unknown ones and we are trying to track down the unknown ones. And by sending out letters, um, and staying in communication with those people who are unknowns. Okay. The other question I have and you can see O’Riley, is then we’re only talking about lead, lead, piping and lead.

00:28:22,000	That’s in the city right of ways, not on private property to the houses. Or how far does this go? It’ll be the service line into the home. So it’ll go from main to the house. The house? Um. Yep. Okay.

00:28:36,870	I, I didn’t know if it was all the way to the house within that area or just out in the sidewalk street area. Nope. It’ll be all the way. Okay, well, it’ll be quite a project. I know that. I don’t know the exact number, but we have to do a certain percentage each year, so. Riley, when we’re, uh, lead pipes out lot.

00:28:53,470	I do not know that answer, but maybe Jordan Singer knows the answer. Late 70s. Okay. All right. Any other questions? I move to approve the bond resolution for $4,491,000 for the water revenue Bond series 2026, which is a lead service line replacement project. With motion by Commissioner Rogers, second by Commissioner Hinson.

00:29:29,800	Any further discussion? Hearing none. Roll call, please. Commissioner Braun. Yes. Roger. Yes. Jo’burg. Yes. Hi, Sean. Yes. Mayor. Freilich. Yes. Is there any other business before the commission? No. So the future meeting dates for the Board of City Commissions are as follows. Tuesday, March 3rd, 2026 at 5:30 p.m.. Tuesday, March 17th, Saint Patrick’s Day. Mr.

00:30:00,200	O’Keefe at 5:30 p.m.. Tuesday, April 7th, 2026 at 5:30 p.m. and to be followed by a Board of Equalization meeting at 7 p.m. and at this time, enjoy your Mardi Gras LED starts tomorrow. Be kind to yourself. Be kind to your neighbor, and it’s onward and upward. Man