March 5, 2025 • 39 mins
Mary Van Sickle talks to Jason Tomanek about the Bismarck City Commission meeting that took place on 2/25/25.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
City Current produced by Dakota Media Access in depth discussion
with Bismarck and Mandan city officials. Watch on Government Access
Channel six oh two HD or tune in to Radio
Access one O two point five FM, Always Local, Always Current.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Welcome to City Current. I'm Mary van Sickel. We're here
in the studios at Dakota Media Access. It's kind of
a special day. We have the Chamber Leadership Class here.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Activity in the building.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, annual event for us, so we love that. But
it's special also because Jason Timonic is here. It's a
Bismarck edition of City Current. We're here always always to
talk about the commission meeting last night. But yes, Leadership
Leadership Class here is always fun. We have speakers, we
have activity in the studio, but we have a lot
(01:00):
of leadership potential leaders in a community coming forward and
learning a lot of fun things, and we get an
opportunity to tell our story. So that's it's really really nice.
So we love that and I am an alumni class
of ninety two, proud no good deal member of the
Leadership Online.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
As an organization, we are fortunate we have had participants
in the last probably three four, maybe even five years consistently. Yes,
I know it's a very competitive application process. They don't
take every single person, but we are very gracious that
they have made room for us. And I think being
in the organization that we are, I think we can
add a lot of value to those conversations regardless of
(01:41):
who from the City of Bismarck is there, because there's
such a dynamic, broad range of things that we can
be a part of.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Yeah, it's great. Yeah, it's wonderful. So we appreciate being
able to host them. So jumping into your agenda last night,
but before we even get to that consented agenda, we
won't add talk about the addition that you saw on
the screen last night.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
If you were paying attention at home, excuse me, the
upper right side of the corner, at the upper right
corner of your screen, there was a QR code. There
was and it works. Yeah, it takes you to the
City of Bismarck's Agenda Center. So that's a brand new
addition thanks to the technology that you guys can provide
and some of the work on our end with Kaalin
Oast and his skills. And I told you before I'll
(02:30):
mention this, I actually was texting my father during the
meeting last night and I said, if you're at home
watching the meeting, grab your phone, scan the code, see
what it does. And he texted me back and he
said it works.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
And I did the same though, and I got home
last night I saw it up there. Oh yeah, we
got to test it tonight.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
So what does it do. It takes you to the
city's agenda Center, where you will find all of the
agenda packets for every City Commission, meeting, advisory board, you
name it. If it's something that we staff, it will
be there on the agenda center.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
So if you're watching and you you go to the
code during the live meeting and the date is on
the bottom of the meeting. If you do that, that
agenda for that meeting will be pretty much front and
center to you. If you're watching during a replay or
when during you know you've gone into the archives and
watched the meeting, you may have to scroll back a
(03:24):
little bit to find that particular agenda because it just
populates to the more current date exactly. Okay, Yeah, that
was that was pretty cool. Good idea, Jason.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Well, thank you. It's it's great to be able to
offer more information. We know a lot of people are
at home watching these meetings, and how many of them
might have a computer or a tablet in front of them,
and they do want to see what the commissioners are seeing,
because that's exactly what you're going to get at the
agenda center, is the same information the commissioners have in
front of them to make those decisions.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Right.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Yeah, So no, that's great demonstration and transparency. Yeah, and
technology work this time for sure.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
So jumping into the consent agenda from last night, there
wasn't one item that was pulled, but it was more clarification.
But we wanted to talk about a couple of the
items on there. One of them is the aviation worker
screening services. This is a subject that came up, oh man,
maybe a year ago.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
A year ago.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yeah, So this is a federal mandate, an unfunded mandate, which.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Is never it's always more diligent.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yes, that the requirement is to screen the aviation workers
at the airport, the people behind the scenes. Seems to
make sense, but again unfunded, no support from the federal
government to do that. So City of Bismarck took some
action and said, wait a.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Minute, outsourced it to a third party is essentially what
we're doing. Because it's additional responsibilities and we don't have
the staff resources to do it. We're not able to
add additional personnel to address this effectively, so we went
do what we often do is seek the help of
a third party. And in this case, we've got a
security company that will come in and perform all the
(05:07):
responsibilities so our staff don't have to do that. The
company I'm looking for the name here, EH Investigations and Security,
and it was done on a close bid situation and
the rate for the work that they will do will
be one hundred and fourteen dollars an hour.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Again to your comment about an unfunded mandate over the
course of a year, we're talking about somewhere north of
a million dollars. Yeah, by the time it's all said and.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Done so, but we also want to talk about in
the meantime this has been implemented, Bismarck is following the mandate, correct,
But in the meantime there's also a class action lawsuit
that Bismarck has joined in with others. It's correct.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
I'm not sure of which other cities have joined this lawsuit,
but yes, it is We didn't initiate it, but we,
as you said, we joined in the class action because, frankly,
it's just a disruption to the work. Saying screening shouldn't
be done. That's not the point of my comments. The
point is, again, we just don't have the resources to
(06:07):
do it ourselves. Yeah, so this is the requirement, then
maybe there should be some incentive or some offset for
the city to help fulfill that goal.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Sure, okay, well then move forward. Last night also grant
application approval to apply for a grant. We don't usually
talk about it, but this one's kind of fun and
it is coming from the AARP of North Dakota commissioned.
Last night said yes, move forward, apply for the grant.
This would be to create an event in downtown Bismarck.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Right, It's part of the AARP Community Challenge grant, And
if the grant is awarded, the intent would be to
close Fifth Street from five thirty to eight thirty on
Tuesdays from July first to September second for a variety
of events ten events total, and it would be outdoor
(06:59):
music performances, long games, tables and chairs for the public
to gather. It's just a way to activate the streets.
You see this in a lot of communities. Streets Alive
becomes a phrase that you hear. It really just causes
people to come out and engage in a way that
they couldn't any other day because the streets open and
there's traffic, and share the things for the businesses that
are along fIF Street. I would really hope that they
(07:21):
would jump at this opportunity to engage in this as
well and continue to provide that activation of that corridor.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Yeah, So to anticipate a fairly quick answer to this application.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
You know, I don't know when the decision would be made,
but given that the program would start in July, we
would need some time to work out through all the
details if the grant is awarded, So I would assume
within the next probably six eight weeks we shared an answer.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
And if it's successful, who is going to operate this event?
These events?
Speaker 3 (07:52):
So it would run through the Community Development Department, okay,
and the planners the planning staff are the ones that
would be applying for the rant, and if they're were rewarded,
it would be twenty five thousand dollars and it would
include funds for supplies, performances and programming. So it's more
than just saying, well, my brother's in a band, maybe
I can get him to do, you know, do a show. No,
(08:12):
we're going to pay the professionals for the work that
they're doing because this is all part of a community
that's great.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Well in downtown Bismarck. Mandan has lots of events. Downtown
Bismarck has had lots of events. Urban Harvest existed for many,
many years and on Thursday nights, and I believe kafway
Are now does a food festival a truck and some
food trucks and some entertainment on Thursdays. I think, yeah, yeah, yeah,
so this will be another type of event going on
(08:40):
on Fifth Street on Tuesdays if successful. So you'll keep
us posted on that. So last item on the consent
agenda that we wanted to talk about was an award
for bids for street lights. Yeah, lots of different street
lights still being turned over into LEDs.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Yes, we've got about nine one hundred new fixtures and
then two hundred and seventy plus of they call them
the post top style, so it's kind of the like
the decorative lighting that you see downtown. We've got a
few neighborhoods where it's more of a fixture on top
of a lamp rather than a fixture at the end
of an arm or extend out, So the cobra head
(09:19):
style that would be the one that extends out over
the street nine hundred and seven of those. The post
top where it's the lamp on top of the post itself,
of two hundred and seventy two of those. Engineer's estimate
was just over seven hundred thousand dollars and seven hundred
and twelve roughly, and the good bid, the low bid
(09:40):
was for seven hundred and thirteen thousand, six hundred and
ninety eight dollars. So excited to see that. It's a
good project for us because as we transition away from
the high pressure sodium bulbs, you're seeing a cleaner, brighter light.
But for us, more importantly, it's a significant reduction in.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Energy consumption and longer lasting.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Longer lasting, less maintenance. We're putting fewer people in a
bucket truck out into harm's way to service these things.
So there's a number of good reasons for us, And
I guess personally, I've noticed the light seems to there's
not so much light dispersement. It's more cast on the
ground rather than illuminating above the light fixture and some
(10:21):
of the adjacent areas. It's more of a concentrated light
where it should be, which is along the traveling motor
rays and sidewalks for pedestrians.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
That's going to be this summer. This season, you'll see
a lot of that happening.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
And I guess I probably need to think about this
before I say it, but I know we're getting very
very close to eliminating all of the old high pressure
sodium bulbs. And I don't know if this is the
final year or if it was next year, but I
believe there were direct intentions to quicken the pace because
of the return that we are seeing on the cost
savings and the energy. Rather than do one hundred a year,
(10:55):
we said, you know what, let's just get them all
done as quickly as we can so.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Seen and this will be all over. This is a
different neighbor.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Throughout the community. Okay, there wasn't a map attached to
the agenda packet, but yeah, we're we're all over the place.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
No, not a lot of graphics last night that compation, Yeah,
for sure. So if you are just joining us. This
is City Current. I am Mary van Sikel here at
Takuoda Media Access. Today is a Bismarck edition of City Current.
So Jason Tamonic, city administrator for the City of Bismarck,
is here and we are recording this on Wednesday, February
(11:30):
twenty sixth, the day after the commission meeting. Right, So,
regular agenda insufficiency of protests for a big street improvement district.
It's that season. It's blocks, yeah, wells of and not
enough protests. So this now goes to the bid process.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Correct. So Street Improvement District SI five eighty five had
nine units. We had talked about this previously. There's a
map in the agenda packet from the previous meeting. Sufficient
protest would mean more than half more than fifty percent
of the property owners, and Commissioner Rish had asked the question,
is it exclusively if there's five hundred people, is it
(12:10):
two hundred and fifty one? And the answer is no.
It's actually based on land area. So if you have
a large parcel, a large property with street frontage that
opposes a district or protests away from the district, it
may have enough land by itself to just simply cause
that entire district to not qualify.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Well, that seems logical because that would also reflect the
amount of special assessment you're going to pay. So someone
with a larger plot of land, it seems fair that
they would have more of a voice.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
So throughout the nine districts, total number of protests received
was about twenty. The largest number in any one district
was ten protests out of a total of four hundred
and sixteen parcels, so significantly lower than fifty percent. So
short answer to all of this s I five eighty
(13:03):
five Street Improvement District fivety five for twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
We'll move forward, moves forward, and it's a variety of
as long as the bids come in correct.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Yes, well, that would be the next step. You're absolutely right.
We wouldn't be hopeful that the engineer's estimate and the
bids are very close together, and it is a project
that we can confidently move forward with this year.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
It's that season.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Pretty soon it'll be potholes season two. Yeah, temperature changes
that we can experience.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
I thought of that this morning driving in I went,
oh boy, we get some potholes.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Go started already that frees thaw cycle from day and night,
the water gets its way down into those lower spots
and it really will start causing some trouble.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Be careful ready, yeah, when you're driving. Okay, let's talk chickens.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Chicken, chicken ordon.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Its came back onto the agenda last night, this topic
that was on the commission agenda in twenty twenty one. Correct, okay,
and just kind of hit a brick wall and went away.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
So did as I recall in twenty twenty one, and
the Community Development Department staff did a tremendous amount of
work to build an ordnance, work with stakeholders, work with
local law enforcement, and worked the process through Planning Commission.
In other words, the ordinance had a public hearing at
Planning Commission. It received a favorable vote from the Planning Commission.
(14:18):
The next step was to introduce it at City Commission
on the consent agenda, and it was at that time
that then Commissioner Steve Markuort pulled the item and essentially
made a motion to stop the process. And it never
did see the light of day at City Commission. There
was no public hearing at City Commission, and that was
the end of the project. Well, fast forward four years.
(14:41):
Only one of the commissioners that was at the table
in twenty twenty one is still there today. It's Commissioner
Greg's anchor. And there was there was some smiles around
the table last night as everyone was sharing their thoughts
about chickens, and some.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Were puns manns.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Yes, there was some foul jokes here and there. Some
commissioners said, you know, I'm kind of ambivalent, kind of
fifty to fifty and others. Commissioner Risch said, you know,
I think this is a great opportunity, and I think
he's looking at it from the perspective of maybe educational
for families with young kids. Obviously, you know, if you're
buying eggs at the grocery store right now, it's over
(15:14):
seven dollars a dozen. But to know what the requirements
would be as far as fencing or a coup or
things like that, there's an investment that we need to
be made here as well. Sure, so we're kind of
getting ahead of ourselves. We're kind of talking about if
it were to pass. That didn't happen last night. The
direction that staff got from the consensus at the table
was to start the process over again and it's not
(15:37):
to say dump the ordinance that was drafted in twenty
twenty one. That's not it at all. It's come back review.
It bring that stakeholder group back together again, and if
it makes sense to move this forward, then it would
start through that process with Planning Commission with an introduction
and a public hearing with a recommendation the City Commission. Ultimately,
if this does make its way back to the City Commission,
(15:59):
just telegraphing it from last night, I don't know that
it would be a unanimous vote. I think that there
was some descent at the table, and that's great. I
don't have a problem with anything like that. But it
will be interesting to see. And I know previously one
of the concerns that was raised was this idea of
our police department, our community service officers that are out
(16:20):
doing the work for animal control would be responding to
these loose chicken calls, and we don't have a place
to store chickens at the animal impound. Typically it's dogs
and cats, and so there could be some things that
we would have to address as an organization. But in
talking with my good friend from Mandan across the river,
Jim Nubauer, City of Mandan allows chickens, and I don't
(16:42):
believe they've had a real uptick in complaints or calls
for service because there's a robe chicken running around Main
Street and Mandan or anything like that. So understand there's
lots of opinions on this particulars.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Sure well, And I mentioned I live in the ETA
and many of my neighbors have chickens as well as
goats or horses and all of that. I didn't even
know that they had chickens in their yard until I
was there and saw them. But yeah, not a problem.
And it's also mentioned that many cities in the state
(17:19):
already have this allow this, and there really isn't haven't
been a lot of complaints.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
And I think Commissioner Rish was kind of poking at
Commissioner's anchor a little bit and he said, no, one's
going to require you to have chickens. This just enables
you to choose if you want to have, Yeah, have
chickens in your yard. It'll be interesting, yes, going forward, more.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
To come yep on that one. So Doug Wils, your
assistant city administrator, is spearheading an update of your strategic
planning process came forward last night with some bids.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Right so they Doug was leading the charge. We did
a strategic plan first adopted in twenty twelve, that we
did another one an update in twenty nineteen, and so
we're due again for a refresh and this strategic plan.
For those that aren't familiar with what a strategic plan is,
in many ways, it's a roadmap. It's a guidepost for
(18:12):
us to aspire two things over the next three to
five years and goals and objectives. Generally, there's a swat
analysis strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats. All of this is facilitated
with a consultant and that was what was on the
agenda last night. Doug, in a large team I want
to say twelve or thirteen different city staff members along
(18:33):
with Commissioner's anchor, evaluated seven different proposals that were submitted
by various consultants. In the end, interviews were conducted with
two of the consultants and a consultant that was chosen
by the selection committee is a name that some of
us will remember because he helped us with our first
strategic plan back in twenty twelve, Patrick Evara, and the
(18:55):
company that Patrick owns is called the Maeharando group. I
was fortunate enough to be a part of that project
back in twenty eleven and twenty twelve. And Patrick is
He's a very dynamic individual, very very good at the
work he does, and I was glad to see his
name in the had because he's familiar with us. And
throughout my time in city administration, I mentioned we adopted
(19:17):
the first strategic plan in twenty twelve. I wasn't in
administration at that time. I started in twenty sixteen, but
throughout that whole time, mister Ribara had kept up with
Keith and I and emails periodically calling and checking in
and hey, I saw Bismarck in the headlines and how
our things and so it's he's very aware of who
(19:37):
we are and what we do. And I think we're
going to get some tremendous work out of mister Vara
and the committee. This strategic plan is different than the
last one in twenty eighteen nineteen. The plan that we
did was very public facing. We had a booth at
Street Fair, we did a lot of community engagement town hall,
and it was the city's the residents time to tell
(19:59):
us what did they want from the city in the future,
and we did some wonderful projects. We did a call
for projects that spawned a number of great ideas. We've
talked about this before with DMA moving from its location
on Fourth Street to hear this strategic plan. We're going
to be selfish. We are inwardly focused on this one.
We need to make sure as a new administrator, as
(20:19):
a new assistant city administrator, we've got a new city attorney,
We've got lots of new cases. Are we maximizing ourselves
as an organization in the right way? Are we putting
our talents to the best resources. With Doug and I,
it's been my goal to separate the work that we
do and we don't need to both be in the
(20:39):
same place at the same time. There's not a lot
of value in that. So my question for mister Ribara administration,
are we structured the right way? Should we be thinking
about a different internal organizational chart the way it is today?
As a city administrator, I'm essentially the direct supervisor of
all the department directors. Okay, that's great. I have no
(21:00):
trouble with that. That's fourteen or fifteen people with a dynamic,
diverse cross of departments of all over the place. Should
we be looking at a little differently, Should there be
different opportunities for the assistant city administrator to become more
prepared to move into that administrator role at some time
in the future. I guess thinking about succession planning, thinking
(21:22):
about just organizational structure, goals and objectives. I'm looking forward
to this one.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Yeah, and you said earlier too, this is basically an
update of the major plan, right so, and I would
think that mister Barra, because of his familiarity with the city,
this is going to be a benefit, should be able
to hit the ground running on this one. And the
timeframe for this, this planning process is shorter, a little
(21:47):
more condensed.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
It's very condensed as your previous one. Yes, previously we
had taken a year, year and a half in some cases.
In this situation, because it is a smaller scope, it's
internally focused. We're not going to need to engage with
the stakeholders, the citizens nearly as much. And so the
timeline here is hopefully by September, maybe even a little sooner,
(22:12):
thinking about when we adopt our budget for twenty twenty six.
And so, if there are projects that come from this effort,
things that we should be thinking about organizationally. The timing
will be great because then we can work that into
the budget process for twenty twenty six if there are
going to be some potential issuancees or things that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Okay, well, more to come on that one, definitely. Yeah,
so it starts pretty much right now.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
What Doug received last night was permission from the Commission
to engage in the contract negotiation. Essentially, he brought forward
the much like Gabe does the best bid. Doug brought
forward the best proposal and the Commission signed off unanimously,
and so those conversations will engage and we'll see mister
Rivara here very soon.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Sounds good. So last item on our agenda from last
night is agislation at AB update. You provided the Commission
with some tidbits and things that are happening now that
crossover is.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
It's here upon us. Yeah. I drove by the Capitol
last night after eight thirty and the parking lot on
the west side of the Legislative Wing was still full,
which tells me that the House and the Senat or
maybe just the House was still meeting. And then when
I came to work this morning down Forth Street. The
parking lot was empty, So that signals to me that
they have hit crossover, which means they get a little break.
(23:29):
They'll re engaged next week. But really what crossover is,
it's all the bills that started in the House that
survived jump over the Senate and then vice versa. Any
builds from the Senate will cross over to the House
and so that way the bicameral group has equals attempts
to look at it and make some amendments. So what
were we talking about last night? We were talking about
(23:50):
House Bill ten twenty. This is the bill that would
provide the budget for the State Water Commission. This is
a particular bill that we are very interested and as
we've talked about here in the asked with the South
Bismarck Flood Control Project one hundred and seventy two million
dollar estimate on a project that FEMA has deemed appropriate
and necessary. Through our intentional engagements beginning back in April
(24:15):
May of twenty twenty four, between Utility Operations Director Michelle Close,
City Engineer Gabe Shell, myself, meeting with state leaders at
the local issues Water Resources, all of that just presenting
this project, presenting the information fast forward to where we
are today. The state has identified a significant amount of
(24:37):
money that would go towards the South Bismarck flood control projects.
So we've got fifty million dollars grant from FEMA. The
state has appropriated I believe it was seventy three million
dollars roughly over potentially two bienniums to help pay for
that project, and then whatever the remaining amount would be
that is yet to be determined how that would be
paid for, but the broadest answer is that would be
(25:00):
born locally, meeting. The cities going to have to have
a contribution to this project as well. It can't just
be exclusively one hundred percent grant funded. So that was
one of the bills that was reported out passed the House.
I'll jump over to the sand side. We will continue
to monitor that and work with the senators that will
help us. Representative Nathan Locally has been a great champion
(25:21):
for this project. He and Gabeshell have been continuing to
communicate throughout the legislative process, so we were very grateful
for that. One of the other bills that we're watching
is House Bill eleven seventy six. This is the property
tax bill that, as written, would cause a three percent
cap on general fund property tax collections, and the City
(25:42):
Commission has not taken a formal position. Generally, it would
either be to support or oppose. We will just continue
to monitor and work with as many people as we
can to help share the information. There are some concerns
from our perspective of what a three percent cap would do,
but we understand the citizens are looking for something. We've
heard the word reform, we've heard the word relief. This
(26:05):
is a governor supported bill. It's got a lot of
the heavy hitters from state leadership on this one as well,
and as it crosses over, we're going to continue to
work with the senators to help them understand how it
would impact the city of Bismark. There's three hundred and
fifty four other communities in North Dakota that would have
similar conversations about what a three percent cap.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
A lot of eyeballs on this one, sure.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
And it's more than just a three percent cap on
property tax collections. There's a lot of homestead credit information.
The bill itself is over thirty pages, but there's just
a couple of paragraphs that are really dealing with municipal government.
There's a lot of other features in there with primary
residency and commercial tax credit things like that as well.
(26:50):
And then if I can just take a little bit
more time, we kind of broke off the script that
we've been using and we spent a little bit of
time talking about Senate Bill twenty three zero seven two
three zero seven, that one passed the Senate late last week.
I believe this is the bill that would I'll use
the word compromise the way our libraries and school libraries
(27:12):
could function. The bill essentially is dealing with materials that
would be deemed explicit or concerning, and it would enable
a patron of the library to request that those materials
be moved into a separate area of the library in
a locked cabinet that would only be accessible to patrons
that are eighteen years and older with proof of ID.
(27:33):
What it also does that if the patron requests that
book to be relocated and the library staff go through
the process and deem that it is not inappropriate and
it should remain on the shelves, that library patron could
then appeal that decision to the state's attorney. So now
we're talking about Burley County. We're talking about Julie Lawyer
(27:54):
and the staff that she has and the work that
they're doing would now be required to review evaluate this
type of material. Ultimately, a decision would be rendered at
that point. But the alarming part, and I wanted to
bring this to the Commissioner's attention last night, there is
language in the bill that could actually cause the state's
attorney to press charges against local librarians and school librarians
(28:17):
for the materials on the shelf that someone else felt
was perhaps inappropriate. So Commission Cleary was quick to note
that this bill a similar bill like this came up
two years ago and the City Commission took a position
at that time to oppose. As the commissioners individually went
around the table, most of them shared their thoughts that
(28:39):
general consensus was to oppose this bill and to support
the library, the Library Foundation and Friends of the Library,
which have already taken a position. City Bismarck City Commission
has agreed to oppose this bill, and so we will
add this one to the list. Nice we will engage
appropriately throughout the rest of the session to give our
support to either amend the bill in a way that
(29:02):
is workable for libraries, or just simply have the bill
go away.
Speaker 4 (29:08):
I think.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Commissioner Cleary also said that there are safeguards already in
place in the library. These are professional people that run
these institutions. They know how to look for this type
of content, and at this point there hasn't really been
a problem, right, So it's a solution looking for a
problem to some degree. But she did talk about there
(29:30):
are safeguards in place should they find content that's questionable.
It's reviewed extensively.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
And she noted mister Cleary noted that many of the
library staff, the librarians, have master's degrees in library science.
I mean they are trained professionals in this craft, and
I guess as a resident of Bismarck, I trust that
they will do their jobs.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
And yeah, well that's good that you brought this one
forward to.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
So yeah'd be watching this one definitely. We'll get some
attention through crossover and into the rest of the session.
I think there's a lot of voices on both sides,
and it'll be an interesting discussion as we go forward.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Yeah, for sure. So that wrapped up the meeting last night,
but we do want to mention actually it was under
other business. It was brought up. There's a big public
meeting on the Tyler Parkway correct Street project that's proposed,
So this is starting the process getting some public input.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
It's Monday night, Monday March third, from six to eight
pm at Elk Ridge Elementary, which is on the north
side of Bismarck. Every lane, I believe is the address
for the street. Yes, we are proposing to construct that
section of Tyler Parkway to connect the north section to
the south section. This is the biggest chunk of the
roadway yet to be done.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
And this is no surprise. Sorry for the interruption, but
this has been part of the master plan for since
the beginning of that area being developed, so this is
not new. But boy, it's a big challenge geographically, geography
in that areas got that big koolie, and yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
There's a reason we haven't done it yet. It's not easy.
It's not going to be easy.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
If the project moves forward as planned, this would be
one of those major arterial roadways that is funded through
the half scent sales tax collection, so there would be
no special assessments to adjacent property owners. This is all
paid for through sales tax.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Its significant.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
That's a huge, huge, huge piece to help this project
be successful, because if there were special assessments on residential properties,
it would be.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
And where we were talking earlier about this, where this
actually ends with this connection takes this all the way
north to one hundred and tenth one.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
Hundred and tenth Avenue, So Tyler Parkway in city limits
becomes fifteenth Street outside city limits. So if you get
up to fifty seventh Avenue or Highway eighteen oh four,
another mile north of fifty seven Avenue, you'll see the
street sign that says fifteenth Street northwest. That's an indicator
that you're in the county because it doesn't say Tyler Parkway.
But if you look at the map, what we call
(32:09):
Tyler Parkway starts at essentially exit one fifty seven by
the convenience store there, and it will travel north uninterrupted
two one hundred and tenth Avenue. That's a major north
south corridor.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Very big. Yeah, I would think that once completed, it
would alleviate some congestion on Washington River's State Street certainly
River Road too.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
Definitely.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Yeah, it gives just another alternative route.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
So for people that are interested, there's an open house
from six to eight at Elkridge Elementary, but there will
be a program at six point thirty and the program
will be a collaboration between city staff and the consulting
engineer APEX Engineering that we have hired to do this work.
One of the questions last night, I believe it was
Commissioner Connolly had asked if it was a public information
(32:59):
meeting or a public input meeting. I guess the difference
there is if I had to guess public information, is
the city sharing information not necessarily receiving feedback. Input implies
that the citizens will have an opportunity to share their concerns,
ask questions, learn about the project. Yes, it is the latter.
It would be a public input meeting.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Will there be options explored? Will there be part of
the presentation? Or the route is pretty well established?
Speaker 3 (33:27):
The route is pretty well defined based on topography. I
have not seen any of the presentation to this point.
I do plan to go to hear what the concerns
are and what the ideas are. And some of the
concerns relate to habitat wildlife. There's a lot of printers
that run around and as Coolie, but there's also a
lot of recreation that happens, whether it be mountain biking, snowshoeing, hiking.
(33:48):
You know, there's a lot of people that have gravitated
towards this natural amenity and it is the city's intention
to preserve as much as possible. But again, thinking about
transportation and connectivity, urgency services, firefire response, ambulance response up
to those northwest parts of town will be shortened by
this route.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
So the route's pretty well determined, and this is operating
through City Engineering Department. Do you also have a consultant
that'll be working hand.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
In hand with CPEx Engineering doing the design for us
on this one.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Well, I would think some of those nuances, whether it's
wildlife for recreation, can be incorporated. That's why the input
is important to hear some of these concerns and some
of that can be incorporated into the design work as
it moves forward because they've got the route. But I
would assume the design works.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
Not done yet. No, no, So construction on this one
would be anticipated for twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Six and there's time. Yeah, well that's five.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
We're going to be doing East Century Avenue. The extension
we've talked about that here, extension from where it terminates
today over to fifty second Street. That would be twenty
five's construction. Twenty six is scheduled for Dylan Parkway.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Okay, more to come on that one. It would be
a big one for sure. So just wrapping up our
time today, not a lot of time, but I want
to take a moment to talk about new development for us.
If I could prop the screen up. We have a
new app. We've had the Dakota Media Access apps up
(35:19):
for a year or so, and if you haven't gotten those,
please download the Dakota Media Access apps free. They're free,
and government access is available and community access is available.
On those apps, you get a live screen of whatever
is being scheduled and airing at the moment, but they
also have an archive of content. But now we've just
(35:42):
launched Radio Access the app and it is amazing. So
here on our main web page, now we've jumped to
the Radio Access web page, which by the way, is
also pretty darn new. This new Radio Access web site
as been updated courtesy of Tom Marple doing the design
(36:06):
work for the graphics, which is super fun. So you
want to get in there and move around our website.
But also our apps are now available on for Radio
Access either Android, Apple, wherever you get your apps, you
can get in there and you have immediate access into
the content of Radio Access. We had we do a
(36:29):
lot of this in house. We had a young part
time employee name of Jackson Tamonic who works for us here,
who did a lot of the heavy lift, a steep
learning curve for mister Jackson, working hand in hand with
Justin Cancellari, our radio operations manager, getting this new website
(36:50):
up and launched, and then the next step was getting
these apps in place. So we're excited.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
This is sick.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
This works really, really well.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
I put the Radio Access app on my phone last
night and went straight to my favorite podcast, which History
Hot Dish.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Of course it is mystery history.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
Yeah, but it's it's great. It's for a while there
the website was a little clunky, it didn't quite adapt
to my phone, and then I was the apps are
now ready to go, and they're so smooth.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
Yeah, yeah, it's great.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
You should jump right to the listen page so you
get whatever is scheduled in the moment, but you can
get into the archives of the podcasts and all our
great music programs that are local volunteer DJs put together
and curate their programs. So good staff, good listening. It
is a major hurdle to get this CODA media access
(37:42):
really nice. Yeah, this good content is.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
A nice alternative to listening to the radio in your car.
Given it's a low power frequency, you don't have a
huge radius. You travel west and you're very good. We're
going to lose your antenna. Yep, this way everywhere car drives.
You have city commissioned the whole way yep.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
And we've been streaming on Radioaccess dot orgs from the
beginning too. But that you have to jump through a
few things to get to that content. Whereas the app boom,
you're there. You just hit it once and you're where
you need to be. So thanks, thanks for listening, Thanks
for letting me give that little plug for our apps.
So thanks for being here, my pleasure. All Right, we'll
(38:23):
see you in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
We'll be back again, and thank.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
You for tuning into this edition of City Current.
Speaker 4 (38:32):
For more information on what was discussed in this episode
of City Current, visit bismarckd dot gov or call seven
zero one three five five one three zero zero if
you have suggestions, comments, or issues you would like addressed
in future episodes. Contact us at info at free tv
dot org. This program airs on Government Access channel two
(38:53):
and six oh two in HD, or on Radio Access
one oh two point five FM. It's also available as
a podcast on Radioaccess dot org and as a video
viewing link at free tv dot org. Thanks for tuning
in to this edition of City Current.
City Current produced by Dakota Media Access in depth discussion
with Bismarck and Mandan city officials. Watch on Government Access
Channel six oh two HD or tune in to Radio
Access one O two point five FM, Always Local, Always Current.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Welcome to City Current. I'm Mary van Sickel. We're here
in the studios at Dakota Media Access. It's kind of
a special day. We have the Chamber Leadership Class here.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Activity in the building.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, annual event for us, so we love that. But
it's special also because Jason Timonic is here. It's a
Bismarck edition of City Current. We're here always always to
talk about the commission meeting last night. But yes, Leadership
Leadership Class here is always fun. We have speakers, we
have activity in the studio, but we have a lot
(01:00):
of leadership potential leaders in a community coming forward and
learning a lot of fun things, and we get an
opportunity to tell our story. So that's it's really really nice.
So we love that and I am an alumni class
of ninety two, proud no good deal member of the
Leadership Online.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
As an organization, we are fortunate we have had participants
in the last probably three four, maybe even five years consistently. Yes,
I know it's a very competitive application process. They don't
take every single person, but we are very gracious that
they have made room for us. And I think being
in the organization that we are, I think we can
add a lot of value to those conversations regardless of
(01:41):
who from the City of Bismarck is there, because there's
such a dynamic, broad range of things that we can
be a part of.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Yeah, it's great. Yeah, it's wonderful. So we appreciate being
able to host them. So jumping into your agenda last night,
but before we even get to that consented agenda, we
won't add talk about the addition that you saw on
the screen last night.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
If you were paying attention at home, excuse me, the
upper right side of the corner, at the upper right
corner of your screen, there was a QR code. There
was and it works. Yeah, it takes you to the
City of Bismarck's Agenda Center. So that's a brand new
addition thanks to the technology that you guys can provide
and some of the work on our end with Kaalin
Oast and his skills. And I told you before I'll
(02:30):
mention this, I actually was texting my father during the
meeting last night and I said, if you're at home
watching the meeting, grab your phone, scan the code, see
what it does. And he texted me back and he
said it works.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
And I did the same though, and I got home
last night I saw it up there. Oh yeah, we
got to test it tonight.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
So what does it do. It takes you to the
city's agenda Center, where you will find all of the
agenda packets for every City Commission, meeting, advisory board, you
name it. If it's something that we staff, it will
be there on the agenda center.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
So if you're watching and you you go to the
code during the live meeting and the date is on
the bottom of the meeting. If you do that, that
agenda for that meeting will be pretty much front and
center to you. If you're watching during a replay or
when during you know you've gone into the archives and
watched the meeting, you may have to scroll back a
(03:24):
little bit to find that particular agenda because it just
populates to the more current date exactly. Okay, Yeah, that
was that was pretty cool. Good idea, Jason.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Well, thank you. It's it's great to be able to
offer more information. We know a lot of people are
at home watching these meetings, and how many of them
might have a computer or a tablet in front of them,
and they do want to see what the commissioners are seeing,
because that's exactly what you're going to get at the
agenda center, is the same information the commissioners have in
front of them to make those decisions.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Right.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Yeah, So no, that's great demonstration and transparency. Yeah, and
technology work this time for sure.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
So jumping into the consent agenda from last night, there
wasn't one item that was pulled, but it was more clarification.
But we wanted to talk about a couple of the
items on there. One of them is the aviation worker
screening services. This is a subject that came up, oh man,
maybe a year ago.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
A year ago.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yeah, So this is a federal mandate, an unfunded mandate, which.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Is never it's always more diligent.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yes, that the requirement is to screen the aviation workers
at the airport, the people behind the scenes. Seems to
make sense, but again unfunded, no support from the federal
government to do that. So City of Bismarck took some
action and said, wait a.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Minute, outsourced it to a third party is essentially what
we're doing. Because it's additional responsibilities and we don't have
the staff resources to do it. We're not able to
add additional personnel to address this effectively, so we went
do what we often do is seek the help of
a third party. And in this case, we've got a
security company that will come in and perform all the
(05:07):
responsibilities so our staff don't have to do that. The
company I'm looking for the name here, EH Investigations and Security,
and it was done on a close bid situation and
the rate for the work that they will do will
be one hundred and fourteen dollars an hour.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Again to your comment about an unfunded mandate over the
course of a year, we're talking about somewhere north of
a million dollars. Yeah, by the time it's all said and.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Done so, but we also want to talk about in
the meantime this has been implemented, Bismarck is following the mandate, correct,
But in the meantime there's also a class action lawsuit
that Bismarck has joined in with others. It's correct.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
I'm not sure of which other cities have joined this lawsuit,
but yes, it is We didn't initiate it, but we,
as you said, we joined in the class action because, frankly,
it's just a disruption to the work. Saying screening shouldn't
be done. That's not the point of my comments. The
point is, again, we just don't have the resources to
(06:07):
do it ourselves. Yeah, so this is the requirement, then
maybe there should be some incentive or some offset for
the city to help fulfill that goal.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Sure, okay, well then move forward. Last night also grant
application approval to apply for a grant. We don't usually
talk about it, but this one's kind of fun and
it is coming from the AARP of North Dakota commissioned.
Last night said yes, move forward, apply for the grant.
This would be to create an event in downtown Bismarck.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Right, It's part of the AARP Community Challenge grant, And
if the grant is awarded, the intent would be to
close Fifth Street from five thirty to eight thirty on
Tuesdays from July first to September second for a variety
of events ten events total, and it would be outdoor
(06:59):
music performances, long games, tables and chairs for the public
to gather. It's just a way to activate the streets.
You see this in a lot of communities. Streets Alive
becomes a phrase that you hear. It really just causes
people to come out and engage in a way that
they couldn't any other day because the streets open and
there's traffic, and share the things for the businesses that
are along fIF Street. I would really hope that they
(07:21):
would jump at this opportunity to engage in this as
well and continue to provide that activation of that corridor.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Yeah, So to anticipate a fairly quick answer to this application.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
You know, I don't know when the decision would be made,
but given that the program would start in July, we
would need some time to work out through all the
details if the grant is awarded, So I would assume
within the next probably six eight weeks we shared an answer.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
And if it's successful, who is going to operate this event?
These events?
Speaker 3 (07:52):
So it would run through the Community Development Department, okay,
and the planners the planning staff are the ones that
would be applying for the rant, and if they're were rewarded,
it would be twenty five thousand dollars and it would
include funds for supplies, performances and programming. So it's more
than just saying, well, my brother's in a band, maybe
I can get him to do, you know, do a show. No,
(08:12):
we're going to pay the professionals for the work that
they're doing because this is all part of a community
that's great.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Well in downtown Bismarck. Mandan has lots of events. Downtown
Bismarck has had lots of events. Urban Harvest existed for many,
many years and on Thursday nights, and I believe kafway
Are now does a food festival a truck and some
food trucks and some entertainment on Thursdays. I think, yeah, yeah, yeah,
so this will be another type of event going on
(08:40):
on Fifth Street on Tuesdays if successful. So you'll keep
us posted on that. So last item on the consent
agenda that we wanted to talk about was an award
for bids for street lights. Yeah, lots of different street
lights still being turned over into LEDs.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Yes, we've got about nine one hundred new fixtures and
then two hundred and seventy plus of they call them
the post top style, so it's kind of the like
the decorative lighting that you see downtown. We've got a
few neighborhoods where it's more of a fixture on top
of a lamp rather than a fixture at the end
of an arm or extend out, So the cobra head
(09:19):
style that would be the one that extends out over
the street nine hundred and seven of those. The post
top where it's the lamp on top of the post itself,
of two hundred and seventy two of those. Engineer's estimate
was just over seven hundred thousand dollars and seven hundred
and twelve roughly, and the good bid, the low bid
(09:40):
was for seven hundred and thirteen thousand, six hundred and
ninety eight dollars. So excited to see that. It's a
good project for us because as we transition away from
the high pressure sodium bulbs, you're seeing a cleaner, brighter light.
But for us, more importantly, it's a significant reduction in.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Energy consumption and longer lasting.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Longer lasting, less maintenance. We're putting fewer people in a
bucket truck out into harm's way to service these things.
So there's a number of good reasons for us, And
I guess personally, I've noticed the light seems to there's
not so much light dispersement. It's more cast on the
ground rather than illuminating above the light fixture and some
(10:21):
of the adjacent areas. It's more of a concentrated light
where it should be, which is along the traveling motor
rays and sidewalks for pedestrians.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
That's going to be this summer. This season, you'll see
a lot of that happening.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
And I guess I probably need to think about this
before I say it, but I know we're getting very
very close to eliminating all of the old high pressure
sodium bulbs. And I don't know if this is the
final year or if it was next year, but I
believe there were direct intentions to quicken the pace because
of the return that we are seeing on the cost
savings and the energy. Rather than do one hundred a year,
(10:55):
we said, you know what, let's just get them all
done as quickly as we can so.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Seen and this will be all over. This is a
different neighbor.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Throughout the community. Okay, there wasn't a map attached to
the agenda packet, but yeah, we're we're all over the place.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
No, not a lot of graphics last night that compation, Yeah,
for sure. So if you are just joining us. This
is City Current. I am Mary van Sikel here at
Takuoda Media Access. Today is a Bismarck edition of City Current.
So Jason Tamonic, city administrator for the City of Bismarck,
is here and we are recording this on Wednesday, February
(11:30):
twenty sixth, the day after the commission meeting. Right, So,
regular agenda insufficiency of protests for a big street improvement district.
It's that season. It's blocks, yeah, wells of and not
enough protests. So this now goes to the bid process.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Correct. So Street Improvement District SI five eighty five had
nine units. We had talked about this previously. There's a
map in the agenda packet from the previous meeting. Sufficient
protest would mean more than half more than fifty percent
of the property owners, and Commissioner Rish had asked the question,
is it exclusively if there's five hundred people, is it
(12:10):
two hundred and fifty one? And the answer is no.
It's actually based on land area. So if you have
a large parcel, a large property with street frontage that
opposes a district or protests away from the district, it
may have enough land by itself to just simply cause
that entire district to not qualify.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Well, that seems logical because that would also reflect the
amount of special assessment you're going to pay. So someone
with a larger plot of land, it seems fair that
they would have more of a voice.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
So throughout the nine districts, total number of protests received
was about twenty. The largest number in any one district
was ten protests out of a total of four hundred
and sixteen parcels, so significantly lower than fifty percent. So
short answer to all of this s I five eighty
(13:03):
five Street Improvement District fivety five for twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
We'll move forward, moves forward, and it's a variety of
as long as the bids come in correct.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Yes, well, that would be the next step. You're absolutely right.
We wouldn't be hopeful that the engineer's estimate and the
bids are very close together, and it is a project
that we can confidently move forward with this year.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
It's that season.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Pretty soon it'll be potholes season two. Yeah, temperature changes
that we can experience.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
I thought of that this morning driving in I went,
oh boy, we get some potholes.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Go started already that frees thaw cycle from day and night,
the water gets its way down into those lower spots
and it really will start causing some trouble.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Be careful ready, yeah, when you're driving. Okay, let's talk chickens.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Chicken, chicken ordon.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Its came back onto the agenda last night, this topic
that was on the commission agenda in twenty twenty one. Correct, okay,
and just kind of hit a brick wall and went away.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
So did as I recall in twenty twenty one, and
the Community Development Department staff did a tremendous amount of
work to build an ordnance, work with stakeholders, work with
local law enforcement, and worked the process through Planning Commission.
In other words, the ordinance had a public hearing at
Planning Commission. It received a favorable vote from the Planning Commission.
(14:18):
The next step was to introduce it at City Commission
on the consent agenda, and it was at that time
that then Commissioner Steve Markuort pulled the item and essentially
made a motion to stop the process. And it never
did see the light of day at City Commission. There
was no public hearing at City Commission, and that was
the end of the project. Well, fast forward four years.
(14:41):
Only one of the commissioners that was at the table
in twenty twenty one is still there today. It's Commissioner
Greg's anchor. And there was there was some smiles around
the table last night as everyone was sharing their thoughts
about chickens, and some.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Were puns manns.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Yes, there was some foul jokes here and there. Some
commissioners said, you know, I'm kind of ambivalent, kind of
fifty to fifty and others. Commissioner Risch said, you know,
I think this is a great opportunity, and I think
he's looking at it from the perspective of maybe educational
for families with young kids. Obviously, you know, if you're
buying eggs at the grocery store right now, it's over
(15:14):
seven dollars a dozen. But to know what the requirements
would be as far as fencing or a coup or
things like that, there's an investment that we need to
be made here as well. Sure, so we're kind of
getting ahead of ourselves. We're kind of talking about if
it were to pass. That didn't happen last night. The
direction that staff got from the consensus at the table
was to start the process over again and it's not
(15:37):
to say dump the ordinance that was drafted in twenty
twenty one. That's not it at all. It's come back review.
It bring that stakeholder group back together again, and if
it makes sense to move this forward, then it would
start through that process with Planning Commission with an introduction
and a public hearing with a recommendation the City Commission. Ultimately,
if this does make its way back to the City Commission,
(15:59):
just telegraphing it from last night, I don't know that
it would be a unanimous vote. I think that there
was some descent at the table, and that's great. I
don't have a problem with anything like that. But it
will be interesting to see. And I know previously one
of the concerns that was raised was this idea of
our police department, our community service officers that are out
(16:20):
doing the work for animal control would be responding to
these loose chicken calls, and we don't have a place
to store chickens at the animal impound. Typically it's dogs
and cats, and so there could be some things that
we would have to address as an organization. But in
talking with my good friend from Mandan across the river,
Jim Nubauer, City of Mandan allows chickens, and I don't
(16:42):
believe they've had a real uptick in complaints or calls
for service because there's a robe chicken running around Main
Street and Mandan or anything like that. So understand there's
lots of opinions on this particulars.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Sure well, And I mentioned I live in the ETA
and many of my neighbors have chickens as well as
goats or horses and all of that. I didn't even
know that they had chickens in their yard until I
was there and saw them. But yeah, not a problem.
And it's also mentioned that many cities in the state
(17:19):
already have this allow this, and there really isn't haven't
been a lot of complaints.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
And I think Commissioner Rish was kind of poking at
Commissioner's anchor a little bit and he said, no, one's
going to require you to have chickens. This just enables
you to choose if you want to have, Yeah, have
chickens in your yard. It'll be interesting, yes, going forward, more.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
To come yep on that one. So Doug Wils, your
assistant city administrator, is spearheading an update of your strategic
planning process came forward last night with some bids.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Right so they Doug was leading the charge. We did
a strategic plan first adopted in twenty twelve, that we
did another one an update in twenty nineteen, and so
we're due again for a refresh and this strategic plan.
For those that aren't familiar with what a strategic plan is,
in many ways, it's a roadmap. It's a guidepost for
(18:12):
us to aspire two things over the next three to
five years and goals and objectives. Generally, there's a swat
analysis strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats. All of this is facilitated
with a consultant and that was what was on the
agenda last night. Doug, in a large team I want
to say twelve or thirteen different city staff members along
(18:33):
with Commissioner's anchor, evaluated seven different proposals that were submitted
by various consultants. In the end, interviews were conducted with
two of the consultants and a consultant that was chosen
by the selection committee is a name that some of
us will remember because he helped us with our first
strategic plan back in twenty twelve, Patrick Evara, and the
(18:55):
company that Patrick owns is called the Maeharando group. I
was fortunate enough to be a part of that project
back in twenty eleven and twenty twelve. And Patrick is
He's a very dynamic individual, very very good at the
work he does, and I was glad to see his
name in the had because he's familiar with us. And
throughout my time in city administration, I mentioned we adopted
(19:17):
the first strategic plan in twenty twelve. I wasn't in
administration at that time. I started in twenty sixteen, but
throughout that whole time, mister Ribara had kept up with
Keith and I and emails periodically calling and checking in
and hey, I saw Bismarck in the headlines and how
our things and so it's he's very aware of who
(19:37):
we are and what we do. And I think we're
going to get some tremendous work out of mister Vara
and the committee. This strategic plan is different than the
last one in twenty eighteen nineteen. The plan that we
did was very public facing. We had a booth at
Street Fair, we did a lot of community engagement town hall,
and it was the city's the residents time to tell
(19:59):
us what did they want from the city in the future,
and we did some wonderful projects. We did a call
for projects that spawned a number of great ideas. We've
talked about this before with DMA moving from its location
on Fourth Street to hear this strategic plan. We're going
to be selfish. We are inwardly focused on this one.
We need to make sure as a new administrator, as
(20:19):
a new assistant city administrator, we've got a new city attorney,
We've got lots of new cases. Are we maximizing ourselves
as an organization in the right way? Are we putting
our talents to the best resources. With Doug and I,
it's been my goal to separate the work that we
do and we don't need to both be in the
(20:39):
same place at the same time. There's not a lot
of value in that. So my question for mister Ribara administration,
are we structured the right way? Should we be thinking
about a different internal organizational chart the way it is today?
As a city administrator, I'm essentially the direct supervisor of
all the department directors. Okay, that's great. I have no
(21:00):
trouble with that. That's fourteen or fifteen people with a dynamic,
diverse cross of departments of all over the place. Should
we be looking at a little differently, Should there be
different opportunities for the assistant city administrator to become more
prepared to move into that administrator role at some time
in the future. I guess thinking about succession planning, thinking
(21:22):
about just organizational structure, goals and objectives. I'm looking forward
to this one.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Yeah, and you said earlier too, this is basically an
update of the major plan, right so, and I would
think that mister Barra, because of his familiarity with the city,
this is going to be a benefit, should be able
to hit the ground running on this one. And the
timeframe for this, this planning process is shorter, a little
(21:47):
more condensed.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
It's very condensed as your previous one. Yes, previously we
had taken a year, year and a half in some cases.
In this situation, because it is a smaller scope, it's
internally focused. We're not going to need to engage with
the stakeholders, the citizens nearly as much. And so the
timeline here is hopefully by September, maybe even a little sooner,
(22:12):
thinking about when we adopt our budget for twenty twenty six.
And so, if there are projects that come from this effort,
things that we should be thinking about organizationally. The timing
will be great because then we can work that into
the budget process for twenty twenty six if there are
going to be some potential issuancees or things that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Okay, well, more to come on that one, definitely. Yeah,
so it starts pretty much right now.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
What Doug received last night was permission from the Commission
to engage in the contract negotiation. Essentially, he brought forward
the much like Gabe does the best bid. Doug brought
forward the best proposal and the Commission signed off unanimously,
and so those conversations will engage and we'll see mister
Rivara here very soon.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Sounds good. So last item on our agenda from last
night is agislation at AB update. You provided the Commission
with some tidbits and things that are happening now that
crossover is.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
It's here upon us. Yeah. I drove by the Capitol
last night after eight thirty and the parking lot on
the west side of the Legislative Wing was still full,
which tells me that the House and the Senat or
maybe just the House was still meeting. And then when
I came to work this morning down Forth Street. The
parking lot was empty, So that signals to me that
they have hit crossover, which means they get a little break.
(23:29):
They'll re engaged next week. But really what crossover is,
it's all the bills that started in the House that
survived jump over the Senate and then vice versa. Any
builds from the Senate will cross over to the House
and so that way the bicameral group has equals attempts
to look at it and make some amendments. So what
were we talking about last night? We were talking about
(23:50):
House Bill ten twenty. This is the bill that would
provide the budget for the State Water Commission. This is
a particular bill that we are very interested and as
we've talked about here in the asked with the South
Bismarck Flood Control Project one hundred and seventy two million
dollar estimate on a project that FEMA has deemed appropriate
and necessary. Through our intentional engagements beginning back in April
(24:15):
May of twenty twenty four, between Utility Operations Director Michelle Close,
City Engineer Gabe Shell, myself, meeting with state leaders at
the local issues Water Resources, all of that just presenting
this project, presenting the information fast forward to where we
are today. The state has identified a significant amount of
(24:37):
money that would go towards the South Bismarck flood control projects.
So we've got fifty million dollars grant from FEMA. The
state has appropriated I believe it was seventy three million
dollars roughly over potentially two bienniums to help pay for
that project, and then whatever the remaining amount would be
that is yet to be determined how that would be
paid for, but the broadest answer is that would be
(25:00):
born locally, meeting. The cities going to have to have
a contribution to this project as well. It can't just
be exclusively one hundred percent grant funded. So that was
one of the bills that was reported out passed the House.
I'll jump over to the sand side. We will continue
to monitor that and work with the senators that will
help us. Representative Nathan Locally has been a great champion
(25:21):
for this project. He and Gabeshell have been continuing to
communicate throughout the legislative process, so we were very grateful
for that. One of the other bills that we're watching
is House Bill eleven seventy six. This is the property
tax bill that, as written, would cause a three percent
cap on general fund property tax collections, and the City
(25:42):
Commission has not taken a formal position. Generally, it would
either be to support or oppose. We will just continue
to monitor and work with as many people as we
can to help share the information. There are some concerns
from our perspective of what a three percent cap would do,
but we understand the citizens are looking for something. We've
heard the word reform, we've heard the word relief. This
(26:05):
is a governor supported bill. It's got a lot of
the heavy hitters from state leadership on this one as well,
and as it crosses over, we're going to continue to
work with the senators to help them understand how it
would impact the city of Bismark. There's three hundred and
fifty four other communities in North Dakota that would have
similar conversations about what a three percent cap.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
A lot of eyeballs on this one, sure.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
And it's more than just a three percent cap on
property tax collections. There's a lot of homestead credit information.
The bill itself is over thirty pages, but there's just
a couple of paragraphs that are really dealing with municipal government.
There's a lot of other features in there with primary
residency and commercial tax credit things like that as well.
(26:50):
And then if I can just take a little bit
more time, we kind of broke off the script that
we've been using and we spent a little bit of
time talking about Senate Bill twenty three zero seven two
three zero seven, that one passed the Senate late last week.
I believe this is the bill that would I'll use
the word compromise the way our libraries and school libraries
(27:12):
could function. The bill essentially is dealing with materials that
would be deemed explicit or concerning, and it would enable
a patron of the library to request that those materials
be moved into a separate area of the library in
a locked cabinet that would only be accessible to patrons
that are eighteen years and older with proof of ID.
(27:33):
What it also does that if the patron requests that
book to be relocated and the library staff go through
the process and deem that it is not inappropriate and
it should remain on the shelves, that library patron could
then appeal that decision to the state's attorney. So now
we're talking about Burley County. We're talking about Julie Lawyer
(27:54):
and the staff that she has and the work that
they're doing would now be required to review evaluate this
type of material. Ultimately, a decision would be rendered at
that point. But the alarming part, and I wanted to
bring this to the Commissioner's attention last night, there is
language in the bill that could actually cause the state's
attorney to press charges against local librarians and school librarians
(28:17):
for the materials on the shelf that someone else felt
was perhaps inappropriate. So Commission Cleary was quick to note
that this bill a similar bill like this came up
two years ago and the City Commission took a position
at that time to oppose. As the commissioners individually went
around the table, most of them shared their thoughts that
(28:39):
general consensus was to oppose this bill and to support
the library, the Library Foundation and Friends of the Library,
which have already taken a position. City Bismarck City Commission
has agreed to oppose this bill, and so we will
add this one to the list. Nice we will engage
appropriately throughout the rest of the session to give our
support to either amend the bill in a way that
(29:02):
is workable for libraries, or just simply have the bill
go away.
Speaker 4 (29:08):
I think.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Commissioner Cleary also said that there are safeguards already in
place in the library. These are professional people that run
these institutions. They know how to look for this type
of content, and at this point there hasn't really been
a problem, right, So it's a solution looking for a
problem to some degree. But she did talk about there
(29:30):
are safeguards in place should they find content that's questionable.
It's reviewed extensively.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
And she noted mister Cleary noted that many of the
library staff, the librarians, have master's degrees in library science.
I mean they are trained professionals in this craft, and
I guess as a resident of Bismarck, I trust that
they will do their jobs.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
And yeah, well that's good that you brought this one
forward to.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
So yeah'd be watching this one definitely. We'll get some
attention through crossover and into the rest of the session.
I think there's a lot of voices on both sides,
and it'll be an interesting discussion as we go forward.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Yeah, for sure. So that wrapped up the meeting last night,
but we do want to mention actually it was under
other business. It was brought up. There's a big public
meeting on the Tyler Parkway correct Street project that's proposed,
So this is starting the process getting some public input.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
It's Monday night, Monday March third, from six to eight
pm at Elk Ridge Elementary, which is on the north
side of Bismarck. Every lane, I believe is the address
for the street. Yes, we are proposing to construct that
section of Tyler Parkway to connect the north section to
the south section. This is the biggest chunk of the
roadway yet to be done.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
And this is no surprise. Sorry for the interruption, but
this has been part of the master plan for since
the beginning of that area being developed, so this is
not new. But boy, it's a big challenge geographically, geography
in that areas got that big koolie, and yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
There's a reason we haven't done it yet. It's not easy.
It's not going to be easy.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
If the project moves forward as planned, this would be
one of those major arterial roadways that is funded through
the half scent sales tax collection, so there would be
no special assessments to adjacent property owners. This is all
paid for through sales tax.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Its significant.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
That's a huge, huge, huge piece to help this project
be successful, because if there were special assessments on residential properties,
it would be.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
And where we were talking earlier about this, where this
actually ends with this connection takes this all the way
north to one hundred and tenth one.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
Hundred and tenth Avenue, So Tyler Parkway in city limits
becomes fifteenth Street outside city limits. So if you get
up to fifty seventh Avenue or Highway eighteen oh four,
another mile north of fifty seven Avenue, you'll see the
street sign that says fifteenth Street northwest. That's an indicator
that you're in the county because it doesn't say Tyler Parkway.
But if you look at the map, what we call
(32:09):
Tyler Parkway starts at essentially exit one fifty seven by
the convenience store there, and it will travel north uninterrupted
two one hundred and tenth Avenue. That's a major north
south corridor.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Very big. Yeah, I would think that once completed, it
would alleviate some congestion on Washington River's State Street certainly
River Road too.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
Definitely.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Yeah, it gives just another alternative route.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
So for people that are interested, there's an open house
from six to eight at Elkridge Elementary, but there will
be a program at six point thirty and the program
will be a collaboration between city staff and the consulting
engineer APEX Engineering that we have hired to do this work.
One of the questions last night, I believe it was
Commissioner Connolly had asked if it was a public information
(32:59):
meeting or a public input meeting. I guess the difference
there is if I had to guess public information, is
the city sharing information not necessarily receiving feedback. Input implies
that the citizens will have an opportunity to share their concerns,
ask questions, learn about the project. Yes, it is the latter.
It would be a public input meeting.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Will there be options explored? Will there be part of
the presentation? Or the route is pretty well established?
Speaker 3 (33:27):
The route is pretty well defined based on topography. I
have not seen any of the presentation to this point.
I do plan to go to hear what the concerns
are and what the ideas are. And some of the
concerns relate to habitat wildlife. There's a lot of printers
that run around and as Coolie, but there's also a
lot of recreation that happens, whether it be mountain biking, snowshoeing, hiking.
(33:48):
You know, there's a lot of people that have gravitated
towards this natural amenity and it is the city's intention
to preserve as much as possible. But again, thinking about
transportation and connectivity, urgency services, firefire response, ambulance response up
to those northwest parts of town will be shortened by
this route.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
So the route's pretty well determined, and this is operating
through City Engineering Department. Do you also have a consultant
that'll be working hand.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
In hand with CPEx Engineering doing the design for us
on this one.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Well, I would think some of those nuances, whether it's
wildlife for recreation, can be incorporated. That's why the input
is important to hear some of these concerns and some
of that can be incorporated into the design work as
it moves forward because they've got the route. But I
would assume the design works.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
Not done yet. No, no, So construction on this one
would be anticipated for twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Six and there's time. Yeah, well that's five.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
We're going to be doing East Century Avenue. The extension
we've talked about that here, extension from where it terminates
today over to fifty second Street. That would be twenty
five's construction. Twenty six is scheduled for Dylan Parkway.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Okay, more to come on that one. It would be
a big one for sure. So just wrapping up our
time today, not a lot of time, but I want
to take a moment to talk about new development for us.
If I could prop the screen up. We have a
new app. We've had the Dakota Media Access apps up
(35:19):
for a year or so, and if you haven't gotten those,
please download the Dakota Media Access apps free. They're free,
and government access is available and community access is available.
On those apps, you get a live screen of whatever
is being scheduled and airing at the moment, but they
also have an archive of content. But now we've just
(35:42):
launched Radio Access the app and it is amazing. So
here on our main web page, now we've jumped to
the Radio Access web page, which by the way, is
also pretty darn new. This new Radio Access web site
as been updated courtesy of Tom Marple doing the design
(36:06):
work for the graphics, which is super fun. So you
want to get in there and move around our website.
But also our apps are now available on for Radio
Access either Android, Apple, wherever you get your apps, you
can get in there and you have immediate access into
the content of Radio Access. We had we do a
(36:29):
lot of this in house. We had a young part
time employee name of Jackson Tamonic who works for us here,
who did a lot of the heavy lift, a steep
learning curve for mister Jackson, working hand in hand with
Justin Cancellari, our radio operations manager, getting this new website
(36:50):
up and launched, and then the next step was getting
these apps in place. So we're excited.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
This is sick.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
This works really, really well.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
I put the Radio Access app on my phone last
night and went straight to my favorite podcast, which History
Hot Dish.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Of course it is mystery history.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
Yeah, but it's it's great. It's for a while there
the website was a little clunky, it didn't quite adapt
to my phone, and then I was the apps are
now ready to go, and they're so smooth.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
Yeah, yeah, it's great.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
You should jump right to the listen page so you
get whatever is scheduled in the moment, but you can
get into the archives of the podcasts and all our
great music programs that are local volunteer DJs put together
and curate their programs. So good staff, good listening. It
is a major hurdle to get this CODA media access
(37:42):
really nice. Yeah, this good content is.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
A nice alternative to listening to the radio in your car.
Given it's a low power frequency, you don't have a
huge radius. You travel west and you're very good. We're
going to lose your antenna. Yep, this way everywhere car drives.
You have city commissioned the whole way yep.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
And we've been streaming on Radioaccess dot orgs from the
beginning too. But that you have to jump through a
few things to get to that content. Whereas the app boom,
you're there. You just hit it once and you're where
you need to be. So thanks, thanks for listening, Thanks
for letting me give that little plug for our apps.
So thanks for being here, my pleasure. All Right, we'll
(38:23):
see you in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
We'll be back again, and thank.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
You for tuning into this edition of City Current.
Speaker 4 (38:32):
For more information on what was discussed in this episode
of City Current, visit bismarckd dot gov or call seven
zero one three five five one three zero zero if
you have suggestions, comments, or issues you would like addressed
in future episodes. Contact us at info at free tv
dot org. This program airs on Government Access channel two
(38:53):
and six oh two in HD, or on Radio Access
one oh two point five FM. It's also available as
a podcast on Radioaccess dot org and as a video
viewing link at free tv dot org. Thanks for tuning
in to this edition of City Current.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.