00:00:02,800	City Current. Produced by Dakota Media. Access. In-depth discussion with Bismarck and Mandan city officials. Watch on Government Access channel 602 HD or tune in to Radio Access 102.5 FM. Always local, Always current. Welcome to this April 22nd edition of City Current recap last night's Mandan City Commission meeting.

00:00:35,800	Talk about Arbor Day coming up, bike month, upcoming, lots of construction updates. It's that time of year and we'll talk about spring and community cleanup in Mandan. Thanks for joining us. I'm Tom Gerhardt from Dakota Media access, joined as always, by Mandan City Administrator Jim Neubauer. Thanks, Tom. It's a pleasure to be here. And beautiful spring day. Yeah, at least for today.

00:00:54,700	12 more hours, at least something like that. We're going to go from 80 to 1, right. In the last month or so, it has hasn't been crazy. Yes. Well, let's jump right into some activities coming up. Several announcements last night, but, looking ahead to May, we've got May 1st, Arbor Day, and kind of a couple of neat things going on.

00:01:13,900	I saw it's the 50th anniversary we heard last night of, Tree City, USA in Mandan. Yeah, I think, Mandan and I believe Grand Forks are the only two communities in North Dakota that are, have been in Arbor Day since the beginning. And so the 50th anniversary, great event for us.

00:01:32,270	Normally, I think our grounds maintenance superintendent, Jason Herman, came in last night. Yeah. Give Jason a little air time and get him in front of the commission. He does an awesome job. Usually we plant a tree at one of the great schools or things like this. Again, because of the 50th anniversary, we're moving.

00:01:48,200	I think we've got three trees that are going in the current park. This May 1st. So again, 50 years of being an Arbor Day city is is pretty cool stuff. And he did mention I did I wrote it down a little. Shout out Lakewood. Two fifth grade classes from Lakewood Elementary are going to help out with that tree planting.

00:02:05,170	Yeah, it it's good to get the students there. And Jason will give kind of a I won't call it a speech, but he'll give an informal talk on the importance of, what trees do. And I think I heard this morning that it's like every tree produces enough oxygen a day to help for people.

00:02:22,800	So, the importance of trees and our environment and things like that. And, very pleased to have, some kids coming in. They'll help. I think Jason usually will dig the hole and the kids will help fill it and things like that to make life a little bit easier for everyone. Graders are out there. Know. Well.

00:02:37,430	And it's it's not that a strenuous manual labor. But again, Jason does a great job and our whole public works career in trimming and taking care and, and, you know, a couple of things we've done this year. We have a, completed a tree inventory of all the publicly. We talked about that last year and stuff like that.

00:02:54,500	That helps us as one of the grant requirements when we ask for, federal funds to help us out. So we're on our way. And like I said, we are, planting some indication Park on May 1st, so encourage the public to come and attend. Everyone's welcome.

00:03:11,800	Yeah, I think I heard today or Earth Day is today Earth Day or I think day? I think it is. I think it is today. Yeah. So coincide with that. There we go. May 20th, 26 is also National Bike Month, right. And, proclamation. That's done. And we encourage folks to get out and ride bike. And big thing is be, have your head on a swivel for bikers and motorcycle riders.

00:03:33,170	If you're in a, in a car or vehicle, make sure you're looking out for all those, folks that are riding bike now, as you see a lot more of that when the weather gets nicer. And so encourage folks to ride bikes in May.

00:03:47,700	And keep an eye out for those that are, I think, also along that line, a real surge in e-bikes. So keep your eye out for keep an eye open out there a little. You know, if you put me on a bike, it's not going to fast me on the e-bike and will probably still not probably going very fast.

00:04:05,630	But, just a surge in those, we will be, acquiring, actually for e-bikes for our community engagement officers to help them, you know, scoot around downtown. Yeah. Events that, will do that this summer. And so but again, the, big increase in the surge of e-bikes. Big thing is make sure you're charging them safely. Or, you know, history of fires.

00:04:27,730	When those things get charged inside someone's apartment, you'll see all kinds of that stuff. But again, be mindful in what you do. And, well, let's move along to construction updates. So yeah, full swing. And we'll start with Memorial Highway. The huge reconstruction project that began last year. And, picked up again this year. Right. New some new information last couple of weeks.

00:04:46,130	Or actually, I was driving down Memorial Highway yesterday and saw the trucks rolling on Monday or Tuesday. So there's fresh concrete being poured. We do see activity and traffic has been narrowed. Narrowed down to, I think, one lane on the if you're coming from the east, entering by Culver's or, that end of town.

00:05:08,370	Work going on the intersection of Mandan Avenue and Memorial Highway. This was kind of originally planned for to start after July 9th. And because of some core permitting and some things, didn't happen in a, in a perfect world setting, then the contractor is is making some of those improvements a little bit ahead of schedule early on on that side of town.

00:05:31,070	Again, West End on Memorial Highway. Please be cognizant. It's still 25 miles an hour. Tons of activity in there. So you will see trucks going in and out. There's concrete going down. There's underground work happening. So, great bunch of activity going on there. And now the West End, Manan Avenue and, Main Street and Memorial Highway.

00:05:49,330	There's work going on there. So again, please be cognizant. Slow down. Those construction workers are doing a really tough job and the best job that they can in the conditions are pretty tight quarters. So, be cognizant of that. I had a couple of photos. I obviously misplaced them.

00:06:05,430	I think I sent them over last night, and I was going to show exactly what you were talking about with the concrete pouring going on. But, a lot of work going on out there. And like you said, let's keep everybody safe. Keep everybody safe, get this thing done. Concrete pours when they start pouring concrete, it goes really fast.

00:06:21,100	And it's a matter of getting all that underground work and the roadbed prepped. So again, please, will, we'll see lots of activity on both the east and west end of Memorial Highway this summer and the Collins Avenue Reservoir. We've talked about this obviously, for quite some time, but they have continued to peel back that intersection to keep that sight line. Yeah.

00:06:40,300	One of the, we had quite a few unsolicited comments when it was first put in like that and a lot of unsolicited comments now that we're peeling that, retaining wall that reservoir has been in and operating, I think since November or December of 2025. And I it's time to, make some improvements on that intersection for state line.

00:06:57,730	So, contractor again, tight quarters, doing a great job on, on moving the Earth back. And then we'll get the retaining wall put back. And again, it'll be a much safer intersection for folks traveling in that area and for street reconstruction. We got an update on that last night as well. Yeah.

00:07:15,900	And it is Wednesday morning on April 22nd. And when I left, come over here. There was a pre-construction meeting going on, at City Hall regarding all the contractors on that. So we don't have a start date on that quite yet. But we expect it'll be shortly. So that'll be the west end of Main Street.

00:07:34,730	Or west end of First Avenue in the, the HIT building in the, just to the north of Dykshoorn Park area. All right. Well, yeah, all this stuff's going to kick into full gear, right? So good to keep updated on what's happening. Also, it is Spring cleanup week and cleanup month. Yes.

00:07:57,230	Spring cleaning week obviously is going on in Bismarck Mandan right now. So all of your worldly, treasures can be set out on the curb. And, you know, we talked about this last time. We know people are driving around looking for things that they may want or need in their own household, that someone else is willing to give up.

00:08:14,330	Please be mindful if you are doing that. I can't say that we encourage that, but we know what happens. Put things back in a reasonable manner. Don't leave it as a mess. Make it leave it better than when you stopped. And if you do pull something out finding it any, do it. It's kind of like a massive recycling effort.

00:08:33,370	You could call it that. But again, if you see the trucks out here, crews out, a lot of this in these materials are being they have to be picked up by, by two people to get loaded on. It's a time consuming and tedious process.

00:08:51,700	If we miss something, give it a day or two because we will probably come back and pick it up. So, and it appliances, they're put out get hauled out in a separate, manner. So like I said, have some patience. If the garbage truck goes by at six in the morning and our crews haven't yet made it there, you don't need to call us that. And we'll probably be there.

00:09:09,330	You know, if you give us a couple days. And, like I said, if there's still something that, that was not picked up. We've, you know, patience and also be careful when you're driving in this area because there's a lot of activity on a lot of people, a lot of human traffic that are out

00:09:24,370	picking these things off and, getting disposed for you. And I would say, some attention is diverted by those drivers leering at, what's on the curb. So just. Yeah. Everybody be careful. Pay attention. And that's the biggest thing. And it's kind of like texting and driving. Don't do it. Yeah.

00:09:44,230	When you're out scouring the neighborhoods for treasures, please keep your eyes peeled for both adults and kids and things like that. So, lots of activity going on in those areas. And we mentioned cleanup month, community cleanup month. And this is a community wide effort. There's routes, right. People can go sign up, volunteer, keep the city clean.

00:10:02,270	As as we've talked about, we've got the two 50th coming up. So a special year in, Bismarck, Mandan, North Dakota, our country. But for routes remain that you need volunteers. Yeah. This is, this is one of those efforts that originally was spearhart, spearheaded by a couple of residents.

00:10:23,500	And, and and it has just blossomed and grown to be a tremendous event for us. It helps keep the community clean. I think we have 17 or 18 routes that we have posted on our website on the CityOfMandan.com. As of last night, only four routes were left.

00:10:41,900	So if you have a a family, a church group, a civic group, or you just want to get together with friends and pick a route and you have the entire month of May, to get that route cleaned up. And like I said, I think we have four routes last left as of last night.

00:11:01,230	We will, we will make sure that we have a, a box of garbage bags, and I think at times we have t shirts provided by Keep North Dakota clean. We have some of those available too. I'm not sure how many we have left because those go pretty fast. And there's also, a big thank you to a lot of businesses and individuals will donate prizes and things like that.

00:11:16,730	So we'll have drawings for those as we move along through the month of May. So again, big event, can't say enough. Thank you to the folks that actually go out and pick up litter. I know a question came up last night about the interstate, right.

00:11:36,000	We, you know, no, we don't do the interstate because that traffic is a completely different critter than your in-town traffic like that. And we always encourage folks, be mindful, be careful, watch for traffic, watch for and you know, there's things. Let us know if there's a dead animal or a carcass. It needs to be cleaned up. We will come and get those. If you find needles or other things out there, flag them, mark them, let us know.

00:11:52,930	We will come and pick those up. Use use caution and be careful when you're doing it. But again, a huge thank you to all the folks that are helping with that. Let's move along in the agenda last night. Bids Sidewalk Improvement project, not to mention not a real, sexy project in the world of worlds.

00:12:11,000	But we know that with the 250 celebration coming up with, 4th of July Buggies and Blues, all those activities, we want to have our best foot forward. So a lot of curb repairs and sidewalk repairs will be happening on Main Street and First Street.

00:12:29,370	And I think the goal of those are to have those all done by the end of May. Contractors will be out in full force so that we have everything shipshape, looking nice for the, for those events coming up the summer. So again, we put a special emphasis on First Street and Main Street this year from, the Burger King for Mandan Avenue on down to 10th by the Teepee Motel.

00:12:46,730	So we, you know, we did a lot of tree trimming in that area this, this fall and this winter. And again, an effort to get ready for the 250 celebration also have a micro surfacing project taking place, this year. You just wanted to follow up, especially after last year. Folks will remember this.

00:13:06,230	I am positive, I happened to be out of town for those two it two days, which was okay. But also in the fall and start starting to blow up. This was the project last year that, there were some traffic issues, between Bismarck and Mandan and the surrounding area on I-94 and and, Expressway 810, taking a couple hours

00:13:26,630	to get between the communities. There's a different traffic plan put in place this year to help minimize those delays. And so that bid was awarded last night. So again, that will, that will that's yet to happen. But again, a lot of improvements on the traffic planning on that part so that we don't run into the same issues.

00:13:45,900	And we've been coordinated with the North Dakota Department of Transportation and all that works on the City of Bismarck City of Mandan And so we're ensuring that you can still get to one community from the other community within a reasonable amount of time. Old business last night, and this was something that was on the agenda last November.

00:14:02,900	But I think you said there were some audio issues or something. So yeah, the applicant wanted to reappear before the, city commission from a November 18th, meeting and decision that the commission made.

00:14:23,730	Because we were having some technical audio difficulties at that time and they asked to be able to present again, again, the board took no action last night, but they did listen to the concerns of the applicant. They took those into advisement and said our, you know, our decision back from November, still stands. And again, so it was just a matter of the applicant again.

00:14:39,900	There was some technical difficulties last time, and then the commission was not able to hear everything that was being said. So yeah, give him another chance and away we go. So new business. One of the talk about striping taking place on Main Street. Yeah, a lot of 252 to 50 tires again.

00:15:02,700	Main Street and first Street and other, major corridors in town where we're in in lieu of kind of haphazardly going through and where we should do a project over here. Project over here. We've kind of developed a methodology to go through and, you know, grind and put new tape down and Main Street in areas that will be, you know, will last more than one season of paint or one month of paint, sometimes last.

00:15:19,230	So this was to, put those out for bids last night. And again, hopefully the the plan is to have all of that work done by the time that July 4th rolls around. So that again, we put it on our best face for the community.

00:15:34,870	And again, a lot of these things lead up to the 250 year celebration of the US and and getting getting the city manned and to looking the best that we can. And as we were talking about this morning, I mean, it's almost may this is going to is the 250 on July 4th is going to be here we are I think before we know it, I think Mayor Froelich said.

00:15:47,730	We are 74 days away last night, so we're 73 as of today. So if you don't have your, parade registration done and a float. Yeah, I know they're tightening, clamping down a little bit so that has to be a float this year again.

00:16:06,500	We have a number of, I think marching bands it'll be in and yeah, it's going to be fantastic. And a lot of I think the Dakota Leathernecks are the grand partials of the parade. And we're just looking forward to putting on our best show possible. And the July 3rd fireworks. Oh yeah. That that looks like. Oh, yeah, the fireworks duel between Bismarck Mandan will be happening.

00:16:25,270	So, like I said, just a whole bunch of things upcoming. And like we said, 73 days away, it will go very fast. Fast? Well, it's kind of a light agenda last night. So they wrapped up new business, a few other things we wanted to mention.

00:16:46,530	There will be another, public information meeting for the Mandan Fire Department sales tax initiative, and that will be May 18th at 6 p.m. at Fort Lincoln. Just wanted to remind folks about that. And that'll be something that be able to vote on in June. But we really want to get the word out so people can make up their mind. Public is invited.

00:17:01,500	And again, our job is to prevent here are the facts and here are the the reasons for the need, of what we're looking at a station three and here are all the things that we are planning on including in that again, it's to provide that public information so they can make an informed vote, when the June election comes around.

00:17:17,100	So again, we have one in May 18th at four Lincoln Elementary. And in June, the first part of June, we will have one at the main fire station, central station in downtown Mandan, and I think central Station, the the bar will be right in the fire station, fire station one on Collins Avenue and first.

00:17:36,470	So and I think it was about a month ago, Chief Bitz came over. So we do have a whole about half hour episode dedicated to, informational interview about Fire Station three. So that's, you can find that on our website, DakotaMediaAccess.org. Yep. And I think we have that information on our, our banner on our, www.CityOfMandan.com website.

00:17:59,100	You can click on there, you can view that information. You can see the slide presentation. And like I said, our goal is to have an informed public and an informed vote. I think we've talked about this five times already, but I just wanted to put this graphic up and tell people, you can go to visit Mandan.

00:18:17,900	com/America250 and find out about all the amazing things taking place in Mandan this summer, and to celebrate our 50th to go in there and we've got touch a truck, I think, coming up, we may talk about that at our next meeting in May and I think, Matt Schanandore and visiting with him yesterday from the Mandan Progress Organization.

00:18:33,270	I think we have 52 or 54, entries in the touch truck, which is up considerably from last year. So that is becoming one of those events that is really great for the kids and great for adults too. It's a good family event to to to take kids to and wanted to double down on.

00:18:51,900	I know since it is construction season, you have a website page that folks can go to CityOfMandan.com/projects to find out everything be up to up to date on what's happening. Yeah. Kudos to our, communications team and our engineering teams and our, keeping these projects available for information and up to date on our website.

00:19:13,970	So again, if you have questions on that, please feel free to go to the website. And if you have further questions you can stop in and visit us at City Hall. Or, you know, give us a call. Next meeting is Tuesday May 1st May day. So yeah, see you in a couple of weeks from now again.

00:19:29,600	Cinco de Mayo. Right? Oh yeah. The 5th of May will be, right around the corner too. And, all this will be in full swing and excited to talk about all the events coming up and man them, including touch a truck. I did see some social media on that as well. So a lot of exciting things taking place.

00:19:47,630	Give a shout out to all the sponsors for all the events that go through. And like I said, without the sponsorships and, Mandan Progress Organization and those volunteer groups that help put those on, these events wouldn't be possible.

00:20:03,700	So big shout out to all of those folks, because it means a lot to us and makes our community what it is. Yeah. And if you want to be able to find, any of our content on Dakota Media Access, make sure you download our app so you can take it with you on the pontoon this summer, you can sit up the front porch and and watch on your computer or phone the app.

00:20:19,070	You can download, just about anywhere. And we have a Radio Access app to us. If you want to listen to great local podcasts or great local music, it's all there for you. And it's all on our website. DakotaMediaAccess.org. Until next time. Thanks for joining us. Thanks everybody.

00:20:37,170	For more information on what was discussed in this episode of City Current, visit CityOfMandan.com or call (701) 667-3215. If you have any suggestions, comments or issues you would like addressed in Future City Current episodes, contact us at info@freetv.org. This program airs on Government Access channel two and 602 in HD or on Radio Access 102.5 FM. It's also available as a podcast on RadioAccess.org and as a video viewing link at FreeTV.org.

00:21:08,170	Thanks for tuning in to this edition of city. Current.