April 16, 2025 • 22 mins
Tom Gerhardt talks to Jim Neubauer about the Mandan city commission meeting on 4-15-25.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
City Current produced by Dakota Media Access in depth discussion
with Bismarck and Mandan City officials. Watch on Government Access
Channel six h two HD, or tune in to Radio
Access one O two point five FM, Always Local, Always Current.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Welcome the City Current Mandan audition with Mandan City Administrator
Jim Nubauer and communication specialist. Carrie Schmidt is a special
guest today, So so glad to have you in studio.
The commission meeting last night kind of a light agenda. Nevertheless,
we have a lot to.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Talk about, always a lot of things to talk about,
and we're awfully happy to have Carrie with us today
as her first time on City Current, I believe, so
we'll break her in nicely all the tough questions.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
She's handling, all of the questions from the meeting last night.
Is that what we agree to Carrie? No, we'll let
the subject matter O. Casper take That sounds good, well,
and they is going to be a big month for
both the cities of Mandan and Bismarck. Rich Chambers involved
and we have a proclamation to show you. But I
just wanted to bring up just an announcement last night
(01:10):
as the mayor read the Welcome Month proclamation, Jim, and
I know there's activities planned throughout the month of May, right.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
I think this is an initiative started between the mayor's
of Bismarck and man And to try and make our
newcomers to the community feel welcome. Sometimes, as North Dakotin's,
we're pretty closed in and it takes us a while
to invite someone to our garage and have a cocktail
or have a conversation. And I think that's the whole
idea of this is trying to reach out to your
(01:39):
neighbors who you might not know and introduce yourself and
welcome them to the community and continue to welcome them
and invite them to events.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
And the timing is great. I think I just couldn't
help but notice over the weekend how many people are
out and about. So if you want to invite them
to the porch or the garage, it's a great time
of year to do so.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Absolutely, And I think again, great and shi have started
and we'll see how it goes for the entire month
of May. So invite your neighbors over.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah, there's a press conference I think May first here
that will flesh out some more details about what's going
on to the City Commission meeting last night public hearing.
MDU has a request or want to build a lineman
training facility a little northeast to town. You have a
map of that area too. I just wanted to get
(02:25):
an update on that, Jim.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Yeah, needed to have some zoning changes with that, and
again alignment facility. If you're familiar with this neighborhood, it's
out near the Central Dakota Humane Society. There's also what
we might call a pole farm out there right now.
And so, like you said, they were doing to use
this as a training facility for their linemen and line women.
I guess so I write line workers is probably the
(02:49):
term now, I yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
On the consent agenda, one item of interest, we all
know how many great events the city amand And is
able to hosts each year. In the Mandan Progress Organization
has some grant requests out the total twenty thousand dollars,
but will feed a number of events.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Number of this was started I think twenty five thirty
years ago when we first introdewed in the Manet Progress
organizations first got up and running, and it's like the
intention was for new events they're coming to town. How
can we help those events get off their feet and succeed.
So the City man En provides twenty thousand dollars to
the man En Progress Organization out of our sales tax
(03:30):
funds that are used to help promote and encourage businesses
to do that, and also organizations to create events such
as Touch Truck and Bugs and Blues are still recipients
of some of those funds. So great program, a great
way for folks that are considering creating a new event
to fill out an application with the MPO. Normally that
happens during the wintertime. They are scored and ranked by
(03:54):
an MPO committee and in turn those results are given
to the City Commission for their final a. So if
we had a lot of events on there and we're
very happy to help those event organizers.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
And Carrie in your role, you get to promote all
of these things. So that's got to be a lot
of fun.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
Yeah, it's definitely fun all the different events that Mandan
has and it definitely brings a lot of people out
to our community to see you all what all Mandan
is about.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Yeah, some old business on the agenda last night, and
this has been lingering for a while, but we have
a graphic of that too. Driveway variants request and city
code don't I don't want to get into the engineering details.
It's thirty six feet as code, and this gentleman wanted
to consolidate two lots and so wondered if he could
(04:42):
double the thirty six to seventy two? Is that about
the essence of it.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
That's you're pretty much hitting the nail art there is.
The property is located down in the southwest part of
Man in just south railroad tracks and again westerly side
of town. Individual had bought a couple of lots. They
combined the lots, built a large if you call them
a barn dominium or a shome or something like that,
(05:06):
a shop and a living quarters in that shop, and
in turn is looking for a larger driveway and driveways.
In this case, they have two driveway requests on the
north side and also on the west side to accommodate.
I think there are five garage doors on the west side.
And there are certain requirements as far as driveway with
(05:28):
in a residential area, and the reasons are to protect
from you know, a lot of times someone wants a
seventy foot driveway while all you have is driveway, and
when snow removal comes and there's nowhere to put the
snow on a boulevard, and in some of these cases
it's you know, we are required I think, to keep
one eighteen foot driveway with open not necessarily seventy. But
(05:50):
again there is a residential property and the property owner
I don't think was pleased with our suggestions or engineering folks,
and was told to come back and work something out.
And our engineering team is fully aware and would be
very much willing to help you come to a resolution
(06:11):
to this issue.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Yeah, I thought that was really interesting and for people
who don't know how cities work and the inner workings.
In this case, the variance was denied last night, but
the Engineering Department of the city has said it's interested
and able to work with this gentleman on finding a solution,
a reasonable solution.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Very much interested in coming to a compromise and if
we can work one out, that's great, and I think
we will be able to work out a compromise agreement
and move on from there. But again, we are certainly
willing to have conversations in this area.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
In the New Business section, on the agenda Jim and Carry.
I thought this is neat. There's a gift card program
to help stimulate some business along the Memorial Highway and
some dollars that'll be allocated to a program to get
these digital gift cards. I guess we should be clear
these are not right, not credit cards. But tell us
about this program, what was talked about last night and
(07:09):
how again it's really going to help some of these
businesses during this construction phase on Memorial Highway.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Great conversations really have been happening for many months behind
the scenes as far as you know, what can the
City of Manan do to help encourage people to still
partake and frequent those businesses while on the east end
of the strip and in fact the entire length of
the strip while construction is going on. And so we've
(07:36):
had conversations with the former executive director of the Manned
Progress Organization, del which on you know, what did you
do in the nineties when Main Street was torn up
and redone? And we got some ideas from Dell, had
some conversations with the Mandan Progress Organization. Some ideas were
floated to the Mandan Growth Fund Committee, which funds some
economic development things in town. We met with them twice
(08:00):
and the Matt Shannon or interest in with the Men
and Progress organization presented a yift I think is what
it's called. And there would be a gift card program
so that if you purchase fifty dollars in the gifty
gift card, I think you will get whatever percentage above
and beyond that you might get seventy five dollars, you
(08:21):
might get sixty dollars back. And they're still working out
those details, but again something to encourage folks to still
participate in shop along the Strip.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
And I believe the amount is fifty thousand dollars and
it Bidener stood right. Ten thousand would go to marketing
to get the word out so people know about it.
And this program would be as construction continues to the
west and right. It looks to continue in the future,
but they want to see how things go initially in
this first round.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Interesting conversation between the growth funded asked the Man and
Progress Organization after their first presentation, you know, take a
survey of those businesses out on the strip and see
if they're interested in doing this. We commit money to it.
Matt and his crew surveyed the businesses. They were excited
and said, yes, we would appreciate the help, and so
come back with the program. Fifty thousand dollars in total
(09:12):
was approved last night. Ten thousand will be used for
marketing of that program, and forty thousand dollars would go
towards the actual cards. We want to make sure that
we aren't doing a I'm going to go buy a
thirty thousand dollars vehicle and I'll buy thirty thousand dollars
worth of fifty cards and get ten percent saving. So
we're making sure that there are some limits because we
(09:32):
want want these gift cards or gifty cards to be
able to stretch out into as many businesses as possible.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
And that kind of an aside, and I got a
smile on my face last night, but Commissioner Shoulberg was
again going back to that point, is this a physical
gift card, It's a digital gift card. But even I
think Matt said last night, hey, stop on in, we'll
show you how to get this working. And so if
anybody has any angst about not having a physical gift card,
(10:00):
people are willing to help.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
YEP, and Matt Nisker will certainly walk you through that process.
And I think Kerry and Madison are well equipped to
help out too, but we will send you too. I
don't want to put that on us, but a right,
this is a man En Progress Organization program. It'll be
run through them, and we think it serves dual purpose.
One it will help the businesses out during the construction season,
(10:22):
and two give those businesses that they may not expose
to the men and Progress Organization as much because a
lot of those events are held downtown. So let's bring
some help out to our customers and our patrons out
on the strip.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
And I guess while we're talking about it, what's the
latest on construction?
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Latest and greatest changes every day? Yep, Right, traffic is
down to I think there are on the south side
of the existing roadway east and west traffic. There will
always be a eastbound and westbound lane open along with
the center turn lane, and so that is one of
the things that we're always be there. There is stormwater
(11:01):
improvements being made on nineteenth I think carries right.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Yeah, right now, it'll move to twenty first in the
coming weeks.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Yeah, and so it is, it is moving, you will.
It's interesting over the last month or so I had
several people go, yeah, you talk about strip being redone
all the time, and now that they actually see cones
and jersey barriers, it is happening.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
It's happening.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
It's a lot of excited people out there too. I think.
Speaker 5 (11:27):
Yeah, and we're asking the public don't avoid the area,
keep taking that way, be safe when you're in the
construction area, and just visit those businesses.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Have another map for a next item that was under
New Business last night as well. And talking about the
building blocks program, the Third Street corridor, Jim, you said,
I think basically if you think of it from like
McDonald's to municipal golf course.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Right.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
What was the update last night on that building blocks?
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Yeah, I think we might have to move a different
map off the screen for I think that's our Monty,
that's the monkey. But that's okay. It might have a
lot of our we can you know, we'll talk about
building blocks first. And building blocks is a you know,
we seeman and applied for a Brownfield's Assessment grant back
to three years ago, I think, and part of being
(12:22):
allocated that money was that we also were able to
take advantage of several different study areas and the third
Street area corridor is from if you think of Mary
Stark School on the southwest part of town over to
McDonald's entering onto the strip. That whole area. We wanted
to figure out, what if folks really want to see
that area become, it can be better than it is,
(12:44):
like every area in town. But a lot of ideas
came up from a couple of working sessions we had
with stakeholders in that area. You know, when we have
a one and a half day workshop, I think with folks,
very good participation, talk about, hey, it'd be nice to
have a stormshell down here because there's a lot of
mobile home parks in that area. Can we improve the
(13:05):
sidewalks in that area for walkability. We have a bunch
of ox bows, which is where floodwater comes and stormwater comes.
Can we maybe is there another purpose for them in
addition to holding stormwater? Can we make them more functional
parts of this area. So a lot of good ideas
and now the Commission accepted that report last night. So
(13:26):
now it'll be up to everyone to say, Okay, what
kind of bits and pieces can we bite off and
chew off at a time to make this a more
attractive part of the community.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
So some exciting things moving forward. Yes, as we all know,
the legislative session is still still going. We're getting close
to the end from what I understand. We want to
save a bunch of days. But give us the updates.
I know you've been telling us about House Bill eleven
seventy six. I guess we can start there in House
Bill fifteen seventy seven.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Yeah, Property texts obviously is a huge topic every legislative session.
House Bill eleven seventy six is kind of the bill
being promoted by the governor and legislative leadership. We think
there are some changes to that bill and it'll go
into I think Conference committee soon or if it hasn't
made it there already. There was a I think what
(14:11):
I saw the other day in emergency clause attached to
it so that if they come to some resolution, they
can sign it then move it on, you know, immediately
to the governor and that would affect take effect right away.
The one we've talked about is our wastewater collections and
wastewater treatment plant. We have a need for estimates right
(14:32):
now are for city mandans wastewater treatment plant. Kind of
a redo at about one hundred and twenty million dollars
looking for additional funding on how do we reduce that
monthly cost because we financed that over thirty years at
two percent, about a seventy five to seventy eight dollars
increase per month on your utility bill, and we think
(14:54):
that's that's going to be a lot to handle. The
the bill fifteen seventy seven have put i think originally
fifty million dollars into it, and now it has been
back down to twenty five million dollars for communities to
apply for, and now it looks like it's it's kind
of been gutted and right now would become a study resolution.
(15:16):
We have encouraged our friends in the Senate and the
House to if you want to study this for two years,
that's fine, but keep the money part in because we
think that the you know, study and we understand that
we want to find a sustainable source of funding to
help out wastewater treatment facilities because that has not been
one of those areas that is there's not a lot
(15:39):
of grants out there to help with that. And we
understand that if you want to study it, find a
sustainable source of funds to keep money coming in there.
But again two years down the road, really your three
years down the road, the projects are still going to
remain there. I think the state Department of Water Resources
intended Use plan has one point five one point four
(15:59):
nine million dollars worth of needs in the Staple states.
Those needs are not going away. It's just a matter
of if we're going to push them down the road for
a couple of years and the project may or may
not get done and the price is going to go on.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
The price I was going to say, the needs to
sell there and the price is going to get us.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
So along with that, we don't want to be doom
and gloom here today. Right, We do have some really
good news for citizens of Mandan. Last week, the Department
of Water Resources did approve roughly eleven point six million
dollars worth of projects that we have on the we
call them the clean water which really is drinking water side.
So four and a half million was approved for the
(16:36):
Monty Drive project. I think we have that way.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Yeah, now we have the right right order called up, which.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Is a huge savings for folks in that area, and
normally that's about sixty percent of that project cost. We
had six point three million dollars was granted for our
water treatment plant optimization Phase three. It's a mouthful, but
in essence the two cent vers version as your water
treaming plants are always under upgrades. It's just a continual
(17:07):
thing because we our mission, our goal is when you
turn on your water at home, you've got clean, drinkable water,
and there has to be changes to that. And we
also had about eight hundred and eighty three thousand dollars
with approved for Memorial Highway on part of the underground
water infrastructure being replaced. So, like I said, not a'll
doom of blue. These are really good projects and we
(17:27):
always have to give a shout out and thank you
to our legislators and also the Department of Water Resources.
And these funds come from oil and gas tax revenue
to the state of North Dakota. And so when we
talk about, you know, the price of a barrel of
oil and things like that, those prices go down, the
taxes that are collected go down, the ability to fund
(17:50):
projects like this goes down. These moneies are not always there,
so we're trying to take advantage and get these projects
done while that funding is available. There's much be a kerrie.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
We'll let you take the microphone for a little bit.
A few things going on in the city of Mandan.
I wanted to talk a little bit about spring cleanup.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
Yeah, so next week is our spring cleanup week. This
happens annually, something our residents look forward to. You can
put bulky items out on your boulevard for collection. The
biggest thing with that is please wait to put your
your trash. You're the things you're getting rid of out
(18:31):
twenty four hours in advance. We never know what the
weather's going.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Well, yeah, I was gonna say we're tempting mother nature.
Basically they get that twenty inch blizzard or something.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
And we want to keep the community clean. That's the
whole point of this. So it's items that two people
can lift. If you're putting out appliances, please make sure
there's no food or anything in there. And you can
always check out Cityamandan dot com slash cleanup for more
information on that. The landfill is open this Saturday next
(19:00):
Saturday from eight am to four forty five pm and
you can take items up there for free. There are
some items that have a cost associated with them, but
most items will be for free.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Gotcha, and then also wanted to talk a little bit
about the cleanup month of May. And we have a
map two that shows clean up areas that we can show,
but tell us about that program.
Speaker 4 (19:25):
Yes, so this is our twelfth annual community cleanup. It
used to be one day in April and it got
to the point where we were having to move it
frequently because of snows, and so about three years ago
we had the idea of let's try it for a
month and see what happens, and we found that it's
(19:49):
easier for SHAFT to manage. We get a lot more
participation that way. Volunteers can sign up to take one
of our seventeen designated routes and they can pick any
day in the month of May to clean up they're out.
Our crews will come up and pick out pick up
the garbage bags along the route, and then those volunteers
(20:12):
are eligible for a whole host of door prizes. So
it's a great way to clean up the entrances and
exits of Mandan and just help keep our community clean.
But if people aren't able to do this, we just
ask when you're out walking as the weather gets nicer,
to take a garbage bag with you and clean up
the route that you're walking too.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Well, and I transition into our next topic. I saw
some photos from a couple of years ago that one
hundred inch snow winter. We don't want to remember, but
now we're looking at Burton Band and just wanted to
touch on that and Morton County as well.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
You totally think the Morton County Commission did pass the
burn Band and we've got information on that on our
website and also on the Morton County website. So again,
it even though we got a little bit precipitation this
past weekend, we are still it is incredibly dry. Everything
underneath is it's like a tinderbox, so to speak out there,
(21:12):
So please be careful, watch what you're doing, and like
I said, I'll throwing cigarettes out the window when you're
driving down the air state because again the air states
are very dry, and we just ask people to be very,
very careful and cautious on what they're doing.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
And it's you know, it did rain a little bit
and people think maybe there's a little security there, but
it just dries out again in such a hurry.
Speaker 5 (21:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Well, Carrie and Jim, thanks for joining me. On Carrie
your first City Current. Glad you could stop by Jim,
you're well down the road or well ever of appearances,
that is a way of saying we're old or I'm
old that how that will ask? I'm not sure and
I are we're getting up there vintage A vintage?
Speaker 3 (21:51):
I like that?
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Or that sounds expensive? Hey, if you want to watch us,
we have apps that you can download, our Dakota Media
Access app, our Radio Access one o two point five app.
So lots of ways that you can watch this show,
listen to great music, and other great programs. Thanks for
joining us.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
For more information on what was discussed in this episode
of City Current, visit Cityofmandan dot com or call seven
oh one sixty six seven three two one five. If
you have any suggestions, comments, or issues you would like
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at FreeTV dot org. This program airs on Government Access
(22:32):
Channel two and six oh two in HD or on
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a video viewing link at FreeTV 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 h two HD, or tune in to Radio
Access one O two point five FM, Always Local, Always Current.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Welcome the City Current Mandan audition with Mandan City Administrator
Jim Nubauer and communication specialist. Carrie Schmidt is a special
guest today, So so glad to have you in studio.
The commission meeting last night kind of a light agenda. Nevertheless,
we have a lot to.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Talk about, always a lot of things to talk about,
and we're awfully happy to have Carrie with us today
as her first time on City Current, I believe, so
we'll break her in nicely all the tough questions.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
She's handling, all of the questions from the meeting last night.
Is that what we agree to Carrie? No, we'll let
the subject matter O. Casper take That sounds good, well,
and they is going to be a big month for
both the cities of Mandan and Bismarck. Rich Chambers involved
and we have a proclamation to show you. But I
just wanted to bring up just an announcement last night
(01:10):
as the mayor read the Welcome Month proclamation, Jim, and
I know there's activities planned throughout the month of May, right.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
I think this is an initiative started between the mayor's
of Bismarck and man And to try and make our
newcomers to the community feel welcome. Sometimes, as North Dakotin's,
we're pretty closed in and it takes us a while
to invite someone to our garage and have a cocktail
or have a conversation. And I think that's the whole
idea of this is trying to reach out to your
(01:39):
neighbors who you might not know and introduce yourself and
welcome them to the community and continue to welcome them
and invite them to events.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
And the timing is great. I think I just couldn't
help but notice over the weekend how many people are
out and about. So if you want to invite them
to the porch or the garage, it's a great time
of year to do so.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Absolutely, And I think again, great and shi have started
and we'll see how it goes for the entire month
of May. So invite your neighbors over.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah, there's a press conference I think May first here
that will flesh out some more details about what's going
on to the City Commission meeting last night public hearing.
MDU has a request or want to build a lineman
training facility a little northeast to town. You have a
map of that area too. I just wanted to get
(02:25):
an update on that, Jim.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Yeah, needed to have some zoning changes with that, and
again alignment facility. If you're familiar with this neighborhood, it's
out near the Central Dakota Humane Society. There's also what
we might call a pole farm out there right now.
And so, like you said, they were doing to use
this as a training facility for their linemen and line women.
I guess so I write line workers is probably the
(02:49):
term now, I yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
On the consent agenda, one item of interest, we all
know how many great events the city amand And is
able to hosts each year. In the Mandan Progress Organization
has some grant requests out the total twenty thousand dollars,
but will feed a number of events.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Number of this was started I think twenty five thirty
years ago when we first introdewed in the Manet Progress
organizations first got up and running, and it's like the
intention was for new events they're coming to town. How
can we help those events get off their feet and succeed.
So the City man En provides twenty thousand dollars to
the man En Progress Organization out of our sales tax
(03:30):
funds that are used to help promote and encourage businesses
to do that, and also organizations to create events such
as Touch Truck and Bugs and Blues are still recipients
of some of those funds. So great program, a great
way for folks that are considering creating a new event
to fill out an application with the MPO. Normally that
happens during the wintertime. They are scored and ranked by
(03:54):
an MPO committee and in turn those results are given
to the City Commission for their final a. So if
we had a lot of events on there and we're
very happy to help those event organizers.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
And Carrie in your role, you get to promote all
of these things. So that's got to be a lot
of fun.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
Yeah, it's definitely fun all the different events that Mandan
has and it definitely brings a lot of people out
to our community to see you all what all Mandan
is about.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Yeah, some old business on the agenda last night, and
this has been lingering for a while, but we have
a graphic of that too. Driveway variants request and city
code don't I don't want to get into the engineering details.
It's thirty six feet as code, and this gentleman wanted
to consolidate two lots and so wondered if he could
(04:42):
double the thirty six to seventy two? Is that about
the essence of it.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
That's you're pretty much hitting the nail art there is.
The property is located down in the southwest part of
Man in just south railroad tracks and again westerly side
of town. Individual had bought a couple of lots. They
combined the lots, built a large if you call them
a barn dominium or a shome or something like that,
(05:06):
a shop and a living quarters in that shop, and
in turn is looking for a larger driveway and driveways.
In this case, they have two driveway requests on the
north side and also on the west side to accommodate.
I think there are five garage doors on the west side.
And there are certain requirements as far as driveway with
(05:28):
in a residential area, and the reasons are to protect
from you know, a lot of times someone wants a
seventy foot driveway while all you have is driveway, and
when snow removal comes and there's nowhere to put the
snow on a boulevard, and in some of these cases
it's you know, we are required I think, to keep
one eighteen foot driveway with open not necessarily seventy. But
(05:50):
again there is a residential property and the property owner
I don't think was pleased with our suggestions or engineering folks,
and was told to come back and work something out.
And our engineering team is fully aware and would be
very much willing to help you come to a resolution
(06:11):
to this issue.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Yeah, I thought that was really interesting and for people
who don't know how cities work and the inner workings.
In this case, the variance was denied last night, but
the Engineering Department of the city has said it's interested
and able to work with this gentleman on finding a solution,
a reasonable solution.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Very much interested in coming to a compromise and if
we can work one out, that's great, and I think
we will be able to work out a compromise agreement
and move on from there. But again, we are certainly
willing to have conversations in this area.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
In the New Business section, on the agenda Jim and Carry.
I thought this is neat. There's a gift card program
to help stimulate some business along the Memorial Highway and
some dollars that'll be allocated to a program to get
these digital gift cards. I guess we should be clear
these are not right, not credit cards. But tell us
about this program, what was talked about last night and
(07:09):
how again it's really going to help some of these
businesses during this construction phase on Memorial Highway.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Great conversations really have been happening for many months behind
the scenes as far as you know, what can the
City of Manan do to help encourage people to still
partake and frequent those businesses while on the east end
of the strip and in fact the entire length of
the strip while construction is going on. And so we've
(07:36):
had conversations with the former executive director of the Manned
Progress Organization, del which on you know, what did you
do in the nineties when Main Street was torn up
and redone? And we got some ideas from Dell, had
some conversations with the Mandan Progress Organization. Some ideas were
floated to the Mandan Growth Fund Committee, which funds some
economic development things in town. We met with them twice
(08:00):
and the Matt Shannon or interest in with the Men
and Progress organization presented a yift I think is what
it's called. And there would be a gift card program
so that if you purchase fifty dollars in the gifty
gift card, I think you will get whatever percentage above
and beyond that you might get seventy five dollars, you
(08:21):
might get sixty dollars back. And they're still working out
those details, but again something to encourage folks to still
participate in shop along the Strip.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
And I believe the amount is fifty thousand dollars and
it Bidener stood right. Ten thousand would go to marketing
to get the word out so people know about it.
And this program would be as construction continues to the
west and right. It looks to continue in the future,
but they want to see how things go initially in
this first round.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Interesting conversation between the growth funded asked the Man and
Progress Organization after their first presentation, you know, take a
survey of those businesses out on the strip and see
if they're interested in doing this. We commit money to it.
Matt and his crew surveyed the businesses. They were excited
and said, yes, we would appreciate the help, and so
come back with the program. Fifty thousand dollars in total
(09:12):
was approved last night. Ten thousand will be used for
marketing of that program, and forty thousand dollars would go
towards the actual cards. We want to make sure that
we aren't doing a I'm going to go buy a
thirty thousand dollars vehicle and I'll buy thirty thousand dollars
worth of fifty cards and get ten percent saving. So
we're making sure that there are some limits because we
(09:32):
want want these gift cards or gifty cards to be
able to stretch out into as many businesses as possible.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
And that kind of an aside, and I got a
smile on my face last night, but Commissioner Shoulberg was
again going back to that point, is this a physical
gift card, It's a digital gift card. But even I
think Matt said last night, hey, stop on in, we'll
show you how to get this working. And so if
anybody has any angst about not having a physical gift card,
(10:00):
people are willing to help.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
YEP, and Matt Nisker will certainly walk you through that process.
And I think Kerry and Madison are well equipped to
help out too, but we will send you too. I
don't want to put that on us, but a right,
this is a man En Progress Organization program. It'll be
run through them, and we think it serves dual purpose.
One it will help the businesses out during the construction season,
(10:22):
and two give those businesses that they may not expose
to the men and Progress Organization as much because a
lot of those events are held downtown. So let's bring
some help out to our customers and our patrons out
on the strip.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
And I guess while we're talking about it, what's the
latest on construction?
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Latest and greatest changes every day? Yep, Right, traffic is
down to I think there are on the south side
of the existing roadway east and west traffic. There will
always be a eastbound and westbound lane open along with
the center turn lane, and so that is one of
the things that we're always be there. There is stormwater
(11:01):
improvements being made on nineteenth I think carries right.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Yeah, right now, it'll move to twenty first in the
coming weeks.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Yeah, and so it is, it is moving, you will.
It's interesting over the last month or so I had
several people go, yeah, you talk about strip being redone
all the time, and now that they actually see cones
and jersey barriers, it is happening.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
It's happening.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
It's a lot of excited people out there too. I think.
Speaker 5 (11:27):
Yeah, and we're asking the public don't avoid the area,
keep taking that way, be safe when you're in the
construction area, and just visit those businesses.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Have another map for a next item that was under
New Business last night as well. And talking about the
building blocks program, the Third Street corridor, Jim, you said,
I think basically if you think of it from like
McDonald's to municipal golf course.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Right.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
What was the update last night on that building blocks?
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Yeah, I think we might have to move a different
map off the screen for I think that's our Monty,
that's the monkey. But that's okay. It might have a
lot of our we can you know, we'll talk about
building blocks first. And building blocks is a you know,
we seeman and applied for a Brownfield's Assessment grant back
to three years ago, I think, and part of being
(12:22):
allocated that money was that we also were able to
take advantage of several different study areas and the third
Street area corridor is from if you think of Mary
Stark School on the southwest part of town over to
McDonald's entering onto the strip. That whole area. We wanted
to figure out, what if folks really want to see
that area become, it can be better than it is,
(12:44):
like every area in town. But a lot of ideas
came up from a couple of working sessions we had
with stakeholders in that area. You know, when we have
a one and a half day workshop, I think with folks,
very good participation, talk about, hey, it'd be nice to
have a stormshell down here because there's a lot of
mobile home parks in that area. Can we improve the
(13:05):
sidewalks in that area for walkability. We have a bunch
of ox bows, which is where floodwater comes and stormwater comes.
Can we maybe is there another purpose for them in
addition to holding stormwater? Can we make them more functional
parts of this area. So a lot of good ideas
and now the Commission accepted that report last night. So
(13:26):
now it'll be up to everyone to say, Okay, what
kind of bits and pieces can we bite off and
chew off at a time to make this a more
attractive part of the community.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
So some exciting things moving forward. Yes, as we all know,
the legislative session is still still going. We're getting close
to the end from what I understand. We want to
save a bunch of days. But give us the updates.
I know you've been telling us about House Bill eleven
seventy six. I guess we can start there in House
Bill fifteen seventy seven.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Yeah, Property texts obviously is a huge topic every legislative session.
House Bill eleven seventy six is kind of the bill
being promoted by the governor and legislative leadership. We think
there are some changes to that bill and it'll go
into I think Conference committee soon or if it hasn't
made it there already. There was a I think what
(14:11):
I saw the other day in emergency clause attached to
it so that if they come to some resolution, they
can sign it then move it on, you know, immediately
to the governor and that would affect take effect right away.
The one we've talked about is our wastewater collections and
wastewater treatment plant. We have a need for estimates right
(14:32):
now are for city mandans wastewater treatment plant. Kind of
a redo at about one hundred and twenty million dollars
looking for additional funding on how do we reduce that
monthly cost because we financed that over thirty years at
two percent, about a seventy five to seventy eight dollars
increase per month on your utility bill, and we think
(14:54):
that's that's going to be a lot to handle. The
the bill fifteen seventy seven have put i think originally
fifty million dollars into it, and now it has been
back down to twenty five million dollars for communities to
apply for, and now it looks like it's it's kind
of been gutted and right now would become a study resolution.
(15:16):
We have encouraged our friends in the Senate and the
House to if you want to study this for two years,
that's fine, but keep the money part in because we
think that the you know, study and we understand that
we want to find a sustainable source of funding to
help out wastewater treatment facilities because that has not been
one of those areas that is there's not a lot
(15:39):
of grants out there to help with that. And we
understand that if you want to study it, find a
sustainable source of funds to keep money coming in there.
But again two years down the road, really your three
years down the road, the projects are still going to
remain there. I think the state Department of Water Resources
intended Use plan has one point five one point four
(15:59):
nine million dollars worth of needs in the Staple states.
Those needs are not going away. It's just a matter
of if we're going to push them down the road for
a couple of years and the project may or may
not get done and the price is going to go on.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
The price I was going to say, the needs to
sell there and the price is going to get us.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
So along with that, we don't want to be doom
and gloom here today. Right, We do have some really
good news for citizens of Mandan. Last week, the Department
of Water Resources did approve roughly eleven point six million
dollars worth of projects that we have on the we
call them the clean water which really is drinking water side.
So four and a half million was approved for the
(16:36):
Monty Drive project. I think we have that way.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Yeah, now we have the right right order called up, which.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Is a huge savings for folks in that area, and
normally that's about sixty percent of that project cost. We
had six point three million dollars was granted for our
water treatment plant optimization Phase three. It's a mouthful, but
in essence the two cent vers version as your water
treaming plants are always under upgrades. It's just a continual
(17:07):
thing because we our mission, our goal is when you
turn on your water at home, you've got clean, drinkable water,
and there has to be changes to that. And we
also had about eight hundred and eighty three thousand dollars
with approved for Memorial Highway on part of the underground
water infrastructure being replaced. So, like I said, not a'll
doom of blue. These are really good projects and we
(17:27):
always have to give a shout out and thank you
to our legislators and also the Department of Water Resources.
And these funds come from oil and gas tax revenue
to the state of North Dakota. And so when we
talk about, you know, the price of a barrel of
oil and things like that, those prices go down, the
taxes that are collected go down, the ability to fund
(17:50):
projects like this goes down. These moneies are not always there,
so we're trying to take advantage and get these projects
done while that funding is available. There's much be a kerrie.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
We'll let you take the microphone for a little bit.
A few things going on in the city of Mandan.
I wanted to talk a little bit about spring cleanup.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
Yeah, so next week is our spring cleanup week. This
happens annually, something our residents look forward to. You can
put bulky items out on your boulevard for collection. The
biggest thing with that is please wait to put your
your trash. You're the things you're getting rid of out
(18:31):
twenty four hours in advance. We never know what the
weather's going.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Well, yeah, I was gonna say we're tempting mother nature.
Basically they get that twenty inch blizzard or something.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
And we want to keep the community clean. That's the
whole point of this. So it's items that two people
can lift. If you're putting out appliances, please make sure
there's no food or anything in there. And you can
always check out Cityamandan dot com slash cleanup for more
information on that. The landfill is open this Saturday next
(19:00):
Saturday from eight am to four forty five pm and
you can take items up there for free. There are
some items that have a cost associated with them, but
most items will be for free.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Gotcha, and then also wanted to talk a little bit
about the cleanup month of May. And we have a
map two that shows clean up areas that we can show,
but tell us about that program.
Speaker 4 (19:25):
Yes, so this is our twelfth annual community cleanup. It
used to be one day in April and it got
to the point where we were having to move it
frequently because of snows, and so about three years ago
we had the idea of let's try it for a
month and see what happens, and we found that it's
(19:49):
easier for SHAFT to manage. We get a lot more
participation that way. Volunteers can sign up to take one
of our seventeen designated routes and they can pick any
day in the month of May to clean up they're out.
Our crews will come up and pick out pick up
the garbage bags along the route, and then those volunteers
(20:12):
are eligible for a whole host of door prizes. So
it's a great way to clean up the entrances and
exits of Mandan and just help keep our community clean.
But if people aren't able to do this, we just
ask when you're out walking as the weather gets nicer,
to take a garbage bag with you and clean up
the route that you're walking too.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Well, and I transition into our next topic. I saw
some photos from a couple of years ago that one
hundred inch snow winter. We don't want to remember, but
now we're looking at Burton Band and just wanted to
touch on that and Morton County as well.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
You totally think the Morton County Commission did pass the
burn Band and we've got information on that on our
website and also on the Morton County website. So again,
it even though we got a little bit precipitation this
past weekend, we are still it is incredibly dry. Everything
underneath is it's like a tinderbox, so to speak out there,
(21:12):
So please be careful, watch what you're doing, and like
I said, I'll throwing cigarettes out the window when you're
driving down the air state because again the air states
are very dry, and we just ask people to be very,
very careful and cautious on what they're doing.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
And it's you know, it did rain a little bit
and people think maybe there's a little security there, but
it just dries out again in such a hurry.
Speaker 5 (21:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Well, Carrie and Jim, thanks for joining me. On Carrie
your first City Current. Glad you could stop by Jim,
you're well down the road or well ever of appearances,
that is a way of saying we're old or I'm
old that how that will ask? I'm not sure and
I are we're getting up there vintage A vintage?
Speaker 3 (21:51):
I like that?
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Or that sounds expensive? Hey, if you want to watch us,
we have apps that you can download, our Dakota Media
Access app, our Radio Access one o two point five app.
So lots of ways that you can watch this show,
listen to great music, and other great programs. Thanks for
joining us.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
For more information on what was discussed in this episode
of City Current, visit Cityofmandan dot com or call seven
oh one sixty six seven three two one five. If
you have any suggestions, comments, or issues you would like
addressed in future City Current episodes, contact us at info
at FreeTV dot org. This program airs on Government Access
(22:32):
Channel two 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 FreeTV dot org. Thanks for
tuning in to this edition of City Current
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