April 2, 2025 • 39 mins
Mary Van Sickle talks to Jim Neubauer about the Mandan city commission meeting on 4-1-25.
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Episode Transcript
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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 oh two HD, or tune in to Radio
Access one O two point five f them Always Local,
Always Current.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hello and welcome to City Current. I'm Mary van Sikeel.
This is a special edition, another special edition of City Current.
You see three people at the table, and Jim Newbar
is here because it's a Mandan addition. Thank you, Mary, Yeah,
good to see you. And Tom Gerhart, our new incoming
executive director at Dakota Media Access. We're sitting together one
(00:44):
more time.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
One more time. Yeah. Well, as Jim said, we can
bring you back as a COT.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
On call. We'll be on call.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
Okay, aurselves, the old Johnny Carsner, G Lennel, you're gonna
have your guest host's or yeah you're going yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yeah, that might work.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Yeah, number there you go.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
We'll see what the offer is. Well, let's see how
we move forward on that. I was just going to
say we didn't get to meet last time after Mandan
Commission meeting, but I noted that at the meeting you
had your quarterly anniversaries celebrated and you were one of
them for your twenty five years.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
Yeah, February first of two thousand was my start date.
Kind of an interesting time after remembers the y two
k things right happened on December thirty first of nineteen
ninety nine to two thousand, all the world was coming
to an end. Yes, it was really a nothing. Burger
started a month after that, and so yeah, it's been
(01:48):
a it's been a pleasure serving the commissions and the
mayors and the citizens. So there's always something new ever
on the horizon.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
I did want to mention that you and I are
our career here are pretty darn close because I started
in January of two thousand and I know as soon
as you came on, you and I were talking fairly
frequently about what was happening in the community. I did
have a little history with Mandan when I worked with
Bismarck Mandan Development Association, so we were always in contact
(02:20):
in two thousand and nine, then finally we were pulling
in Mandan City Commission meetings and then park district and
school board and all of that, and the rest is history,
I guess the.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
Rest is history. And just for those folks that are
watching now, Mary's push for pretty much took nine years.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
It took a long time.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
See Bismarck was on live TV, and we took about
nine years to get to the point where we were
ready to go live and things like that. And I
think it has all turned out really well. Between school board,
park board, pick your favorite planning commissions and things like that.
It is I think the information that has gone out
(03:04):
to the public are much more informed and you know,
they can watch and replay and all those good things.
So again, thanks to you and your team at the
go to media access for pushing us very diligently. Yeah
and at times very you need to get on this
and let's do it now.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Well, it's interesting because times have changed and now I
think there's definitely an expectation that all these meetings should
be streaming and available and archived and available to citizens.
But back in those times, there was a lot of
resistance from commissioners and mayors and at the time that
was that we really don't need that.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
I think that was you know, if you wanted to
hear what happened at a commission meeting, then you were
having to go get a cassette tape, yeah, and play it, yeah,
and that's how things were done. And again times have changed,
and the advances and technology and the ability for folks
to go back and watch a meeting now as it's
been a game changer. We from city staff have had
(04:06):
to up our game, be honest with you, and make
sure that what we're presenting is clear and understandable, because
we're not just presenting to the commissioner or we are
presenting to the public. And so to make those things
that people can go back and watch it two years
later or five years later and go, oh, yeah, that's
what you're talking about. I think it's, like I said,
we've upped our game, and along with I think the
(04:28):
information that is going out as much improved.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
I always say, and Tom and I were having a
conversation about this last week about it's really a win
win win for everyone. I mean, it gives us valuable content,
of course, and we feel like we are providing a
great service. But it's great for the elected officials because
I think people see how difficult it is to sit
at those tables and make decisions, you know, when you've
(04:52):
got testimony coming your way and a lot of different
viewpoints to consider. It's very very difficult, and then certainly
from pers citizens, they're more informed. This is gabbled, gavel,
no editorializing. Nothing is cut, it's it's start to finish.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
It's live. Yeah, it's unfiltered exactly. We might wish it
would be filtered. But and like I said, thank you
for the anniversary note. And I would like to say
that we had several more anniversaries that we do on
a quarterly basis to recognize the folks that put time
and time and hours in for us all with I
think myself and a couple others were twenty five years
(05:31):
and you don't see that very often nowadays. I think
we've at our next quarterly anniversary recognition, we'll have an
individual with forty years wow. And Duayne Frees I'm talking
about you so likes. I think it's a really good
thing that we do, not just once a year. We
bring them in on a quarterly basis and that recognition
(05:52):
goes a long way. And like I said, kudos to
all the folks that were recognized.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
I'm going to go back to one more thing about
the two thousand and nine start with the city of Mandan.
It really speaks to the power of a grassroots effort
by a citizen in Mandan. We can. We'll mention her name,
Susan Bieler, who's very active and advocate for a city
of Mandan. She was pushing for the meetings to be
(06:17):
covered and literally came in and got a camera and
the microphones and all the equipment and went repeatedly to
grab these meetings and record them, and then she'd provide
It wasn't live, obviously, but she'd give us those recordings
and we'd put them out. And I think it was,
you know, our conversations over many years. But then Susan's efforts,
(06:39):
I think the commission at the time and the mayor
were finally like, well, I guess it's going out there anyway,
we might as well do it the right way, right exactly.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
The hesitation sometimes was the cost Mary Tom free TV. Right,
It is not free. No, it is free to the public,
but there is a cost to it. And on our end,
you know, we had to create a control room and
buy the equipment and things like that, so sometimes there's
a financial consideration of that, even upgrading, which we did
(07:12):
I think a couple of years ago. Now, there is
a cost to this, but it is very well worth
it because of the services that we the go to
media provides to us.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
So we really get your pulse on what's going on
and mann In or Bismarck and just coming in and
really paying attention to these meetings, especially the last few weeks. Yep,
I've learned a lot. And the great thing about this
show is we can you know, synthesize some of it
and dig in a little bit and dig in a
little bit. So yeah, yeah, I think the information is great.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
And on that note, that's our job is to talk
about what happened last night at the City Commission meeting
and started with some announcements and tell me you were
going to lead off here.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Yeah, I thought this just caught my attention, Jim, And
I know this is a fairly new program, but it's
a neighborhood revitalization initiative and there are some details with it.
But I think gate City and Capital Credit Union are
offering some low interest loans, right, there's some criteria, but big.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
Shout outs to those two entities for providing those. I
think there's I think gate City is looking at two
million dollars and low interest loans which are four point
four to eight percent repayment ten to fifteen years minimum
I think is ten thousand dollars macs of one hundred
thousand dollars. And I think the Capital Credit Unions is
(08:31):
allocating seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. So these are
not unlimited funds. There is a cap to them, and
we hope to reach that cap because then we can
go back and say, hey, let's pony um.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Interest rate is very similar at four point four to
nine percent again, ten to fifteen years minimum, ten thousand
macs of one hundred thousand dollars gives those homes in town,
some of the older housing stock, the ability to obtain
a low interest loan and fix up their property. So
and trying to provide some incentives to do that.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
So and was it home forty years and older yep,
And then I think there was the value camping over
two hundred and seventy five thousand dollars if I remember perfect.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
So first steps are you come in and talk to
city Hall in our engineering office and we'll be able
to tell you does your house qualify or not, and
then we kind of pass you off to whatever financial
institution you want to go. Between those two and they
take over the rest. We are not the decider on
whether you're going to get a loan or not. We
are just saying, okay, you meet the initial qualification and
(09:30):
you've got your work on your end too, and you're
not repaying the city. It is. These are again funds
try and provided by the two vanities.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Is this the second year that this program.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
A year for the city, don't quote me on that,
but it's been around for a while and the program
has been used very well, and so it's been we
advertise it in trying to inform residents who come in
and maybe looking for some help on their home. Here's
a way that we can help you.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Yeah, it's a good program.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
Yes. So again big shout out, thank you to those
two entities.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Yeah. So, a bulk of the meeting last night, I
think was occupied by a public hearing that you had
going on on the First Street improvements. And we do
have a map that Tom has up here that kind
of outlines that area that we're talking about. Jim, you
and I have talked about this project. The Commission has
been dealing with this in different phases over the last
(10:21):
few years. But this is kind of what's immediate now
and what's coming quickly.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
Yep, immediate right now is the project area really is
on the west side of the downtown area and back
to the north of Runnings and things like that, where
we're going to do full We would like to do
full street reconstruction, curb, gutter and underground utilities, the water
sewer lines, stormwater lines, things like that. Again, we've talked
(10:50):
about this before, but you kind of start at the
bottom of the hill and work your way up because
your stormwater issues need to be dealt with right away,
so that if there are rainstorms and things like that,
all of that dream gets handled at the bottom of
the basement. Here kind of we are.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
So the map that's on the screen right now, what
is the significance of the different colors there.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
We originally had proposed this project to be one project,
basically reconstructing the streets and the avenue on First Street
and all the avenues from Main Street to First Street,
from Collins Avenue on the east side to Sixth Avenue
on the west side, because we know there's a couple
of streets that we redid during the remediation project that
are all those are good to go, but most of
that infrastructure down there is really old and the streets
(11:32):
are alligatoring up and there's not much left to fix.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Alligatoring up is that a new term.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
You know, I'm sure technical engineering state, right. So if
you look at the back of an alligator, right, it's
all crinkly, And if you look at your asphalt and
that's what it looks like, that means there's not much
life left and you can oil it and do everything
you want to it, but it's still going. You put
a mill in overlay machine, the milling machine is just
going to bust it up and there's nothing left.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
So the area but on the map again is the
yellow area we're really primarily talking about to start soon.
Speaker 4 (12:05):
That wo'ld be phase one again. The originally wanted to
do it all in one phase, but the funding that
we were awarded was not enough to really make a
dent in a twelve million dollar project, I think two
million dollars. We ended up giving that two million dollars
back because we couldn't couldn't find a way to finance
the rest of it without putting special assessments that would
have been outlandish. Yeah, very hard to pay for.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
So design, some design work here up to about thirty
percent on design. The purpose last night though, was to
get some input from those property owners, obviously mostly your
business district down there, get their feedback on that proposed
design at this point.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
Correct, We had a public input meeting I think on
February fourth on this project, and in turn we the
Commission approved the creation of a special assessment district to
help pay for the local cost on this. In all
and all, we've got about six million dollar project between
(13:05):
federal and state funds, between Prairie Dog money, between city
utility fund money, between Department Water Resources grant funds. We
were able to lower that dollar amount down to about
five hundred and forty thousand, I think is what we
would be special assessing to the benefiting property. So six
million dollars project five hundred and fifty thousand be special
(13:25):
assessed locally. That's a pretty good deal in my world. Obviously, sure,
some people didn't don't like that cost. But last night
there's been a lot of talk about the reduction in parking.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Yeah, it seemed like that that was pretty much the focus.
I don't recall anyone objecting to the fact that the infrastructure, sewer, waters, roads,
curbs need attention there. As you said, they're allegatory or
something like that. But you know, that was that was
interesting and and I want to make a comment about
(13:57):
the presentation about the people who were at the podium,
you know, kudos to them. Was very informative, it was
very civil. We've seen some public hearings lately that have
been really kind of nasty on this side of the river.
We won't name names, but I think that that really,
you know, the way the Commission handled everything and the
(14:19):
presenters were they were very reasonable, they stated their concerns
and again ninety nine percent parking issues. There is a
fairly large percentage of reduction of parking. But as you
were explaining to us earlier, Jim, you said, you have
done surveys down there with cameras and other things seeing
(14:41):
what the actual occupancy of the existing parking is. So
that kind of justified some of the removal of some
of that parking. And you never want to do that,
but you had the data to.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Support that, right, We've got our engineering folks have done
a parking study on here and I think the camera
takes a picture every fifteen minutes on de utilization and
found that there is still available parking even if we
go through the reduction as planned, based on we've got
some safety and pedestrian and EIGHTYA requirements that we have
(15:14):
to deal with in this area. So we're creating a
more a safer avenue for folks to walk and cross
the streets. Right now, it's like one big, wide, open
thoroughfare as you're going through. And again, part of this
is EIGHTYA related. And in order to do that, you
need to put in some of the ball bouts, those
(15:34):
pedestrian spots where they can kind of get out into
the street safely and then cross the street in a
safer manner than is currently available. So that takes up
some of the parking, and then switching some of it
from parallel or from diagonal parking or angle parking into
parallel parking obviously takes up more room on the parallel side,
(15:55):
but again it creates a safer environment for people to
get in and out of their vehicles and things like that.
So that's the concern. We've heard the concern, and last
night that's what we heard. Didn't hear a lot about
the cost of the project. We heard about the parking changes.
Some of those we have a little bit of control
of but a lot of it is required through American
Disability exactly eighty A. Yeah, So whether we can change it,
(16:16):
whether we have federal funds or not federal funds is
I think we still have to follow the ADA to
get those things done.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Sure, and it sounded like the mayor was encouraging engineering
now to take another look to see if there's an
opportunity to do some tweaking to retain some of that parking,
and then it will what's the next step that will happen?
Speaker 4 (16:37):
Then the next step there is a protest period right now,
so I think at the end of towards the end
of April, that protest period is will come up and
will tally up the area because in an assessment district,
it's based on the area of the property that protests.
So if over fifty percent of the area protest and
the project is killed, then we go back to the
(16:57):
drawing board and okay, now what do we do. Unfortunately,
if that happens, that happens. Mayor brought up a good
point last night that the funds that we are using
to buy this project down are not always available. We
see through the state of North Dakota's most recent revenue
forecast price of oil kind of going down. The amount
(17:21):
of funds that are generated from oil and gas tax
revenue is reduced when the price of a barrel oil
goes down, which means our Prairie Dog funding for non
oil producing counties goes down. Which also means the amount
of tax money that goes into the State Resources Trust Fund,
which funds water projects and helps us lower those costs,
(17:43):
goes down. So there's a ripple effect in here. Those
funds that we have now are available, it doesn't mean
they're going to be available a year from now or
two years from now. So that's why we're trying to
strike when the iron is hot. I know it's complicated,
but it's a matter of if we have these funds available,
we can commit to them. Now we'll see what happen.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
So do the property owners now have their statement and
their estimate on what's for this? So they have this information,
you said, do you explain what happens if it's protested.
But if it isn't, then the next step is bids.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
If it isn't protested, like right now, we're at thirty
percent design because we want to get to thirty percent
design we create the district. We don't want to go
through full design because if the district gets protested out
then we've spent sure significant engineering dollars that may go
down the tube. But at this point in time, if
the project moves forward, we complete, go to final design,
(18:35):
and we go through bids, and we're probably putting shovels
in the ground the spring of twenty twenty six. Oh okay,
all right, so it's not twenty twenty five project, it's
twenty twenty six. Yeah. A lot of steps, a lot
of steps.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
A lot and lots of steps. So we'll move on.
But before we do, if you're just joining the program,
you're listening and watching City Current. I'm Mary van Sikel,
the outgoing executive to add Dakota Media Access, with Tom Gerhart,
the incoming executive director. And as always, because it's a
Mandan addition, Jim Neubauer is here a city administrator for
(19:10):
the city of Mandan. So we're recording this on April second.
Program will repeat up until next week when we sit
down with Bismarck. So, Tom, you wanted to talk about
some of the new business now, no, I guess I'm
not right.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Yeah, Okay, you're up.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
We're talking about uh.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
I was kind of excited about the tree inventory all
the things. I thought it was really interesting that that
Mannan is now approved with the Commission last night approved
an inventory of trees to happen in the community.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
Yeah, we are a tree city, USA. We are. I
think maybe next year will be our fiftieth anniversary or
it's this year will be a fiftieth anniversary of being
a Tree City USA. Pretty cool stuff. It means that
a percentage of your budget is devoted to forestry and
tree care items. What we've been finding lately is that
through the grants that we apply for, there's a checkbox
(20:03):
right that says, do you have a tree inventory? If
you do, your likelihood of obtaining grant money to help
you combat things like Dutch elm disease, the ash boar
is making its way into North Dakota. What kind of
tree should we be looking at for boulevard trees and
things like that. If we don't check that box, the
application kind of goes to the bottom of plile. Because again,
(20:25):
if we don't know what countries we have, where they're at,
what condition they're in, we need to have something comprehensive
that says how are we attacking this because we want
to A lot of the federal agencies will say, we
want to help you unless you know what your problem is.
We just don't want to keep throwing dollars at it.
So we will be engaging a firm to do a
(20:46):
tree inventory, which it sounds like doing it. You go
out and what kind of tree do you have. It's
a little more complicated than that, I guarantee you. And
so Commission said, yes, let's get this done. So that
and our ability to further grant monies to assist us
with this increases. And I would assume this money will
be paid for back over and over again. They're having
(21:08):
an updated tree inventory.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
So and what's the estimate. Well, the cost was about
sixty dollars.
Speaker 4 (21:14):
It is I think six dollars and twenty five cents
a trunk.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
Okay, So the timeline for this time I.
Speaker 4 (21:20):
Think this fall Okay, as soon as we can get
the folks here, because there is a crew that comes
in and will build be in your community and do
this kind of let's get this done. Our staff does
not have time to with all the other duties that
they have to in trees and identify them. These folks
are expert at this your committee community and get are done.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
That would take a lot of resources to use existing staff,
But I think it's kind of cool that there's a
tree team that comes in and does.
Speaker 4 (21:48):
It's something that sounds like, why are you doing this?
This isn't important, but it really is important for your
your tree canopy in your community, and also to make
sure what we have remains healthy and we can identify, Okay,
where do we have problems or where can we enhance
what we have already. So yeah, it's really it's one
of those things that seems weird, but it's a good
thing to.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
Happen, and just not the canopy I mean it was
brought up last night. Helps the value of your home. Yes,
I mean there's so many benefits that it makes a
lot of sense.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Stormwater, ren you learn about it.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
Yeah, yeah, trees are important. Also helped cool your house
in the summertime. They'll keep it warm and all that
good stuff. So and all the other benefits from active
vegetation in the community.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
We wanted to talk about a little subset I think
of the Memorial Highway project that'll be soon underway, and
we have another map too. And last night it was
announced that nineteenth Street Southeast will be closed I think
for a few weeks.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
We're looking about three weeks rough closure on that one.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Yeah, just give us an update, gym of what's going on.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
Yeah. So the it was kind of it's been kind
of humorous, for lack of a better term, that last
month or two, when people are going is more highway
really going to happen? And I'm going, yes, it will, Yes,
it will, Yes, it will. So April first, I think
we started seeing some street closures. Nineteenth is in order
to install some storm storm water infrastructure. I'd like to
(23:11):
say I say storm sewer, but that confuses even me
because I think of sanitary sewer. But it is storm
water in infrastructure going in so we can move the
water off of the streets and into the bays. So again,
that started April first. The weather last two days has
kind of put a little bit of a kink in that,
(23:31):
which weather in construction don't mix well together. But again
we can start seeing You'll see cones going up on
Memorial Highway. You will see traffic squeeze down from the
five lanes with a center turn to one lane each
direction with a center turn, and then work will be
starting in Earnest right away. So yeah, it is happening,
(23:52):
it's starting. The ball is rolling it. Here we go,
big project, big project. It will probably be we're hope
will be done in two and a half three years. Yeah,
and so again a lot of this is always weather
dependent on construction season in North Dakota.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Last week we talked with Jason from Bismarck about the
bridge update and the fact that it's kind of moving
over to the Bismarck side. I mean, that's just kind
of mind blowing the size of that project. This is
going to be another big one yep.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
So we're looking at really big in big terms, it's
the east end from midway lanes and thirty second to
going to the east in twenty twenty five and then
moving on to the westerly half in twenty twenty six
and most likely into twenty twenty seven. So the important
thing is that businesses are still open. There will be
(24:42):
entries to all businesses at all times, and in turn,
we want to make sure the traveling public is well
aware of that, you know, don't We don't ever want
to see the take Alternate Route sign anywhere because those
businesses Moral Highway are still open absolutely, so please continue to.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
And that's a great time to get you up. You're
having a public information meeting on the reconstruction project April
ninth at Midway.
Speaker 4 (25:07):
Lanes April ninth, Midway Lanes. It'll I think our city
engineer and Jeric Wakness described it last night. It's going
to be an open house if you have questions on
different items. We'll have different stations set up throughout their
meeting room at Midway Lanes and stop in and please
ask questions.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
As I understood it, you don't have to be there
from four to seven.
Speaker 4 (25:25):
No, it can come be tell me it's a three
hour long time. We'd for We understand people have different
schedules and things like that. We want to make sure
that we're accommodating. And again joint effort between City Managing
Engineering Office, between North Coda Department of Transportation, in conjunction
with Ready, which is the prime contractor on this group too.
So I think it's all three entities getting together and
saying okay, if you have questions, come in, let's talk
(25:47):
about them.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Yeah, You've already had quite a few meetings with a
lot of the property owners. This has been going on
for years years. Yeah, so these things have been talked
about primarily with the those properties affected in businesses. This
is even broader. The public is invited to come in
and take a look you nowhere.
Speaker 4 (26:08):
Luck mainly it'll affect those people that are on the
traveling roadway and kind of a one tier back from that,
but we want to make sure that if it doesn't matter,
you can stop in. It is a public open house.
That's questions.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
That's next week Wednesday, the night April ninth.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
On Wednesday evening from four till seven at midway.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Lankers at midway. Okay, sounds good. Well, you wrapped up
the meeting last night with another legislative update. You want
to hit the highlights of what you're reporting.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
It's kind of regurgitation of the last several but there's
Hospital eleven seventy six, talks about property tax issues and
increasing the five hundred dollars credit too. I think we're
at twelve to fifty right now. That seems to be
a moving target. Was at fourteen fifty, That might be
thirteen fifty or twelve to fifty. You still have to
apply for that every year. Also, another big isument is
(26:58):
the cap on the revenues or the three percent budgetary cap,
which would affect all municipalities, park districts, school school really
doesn't affect but counties and things like that. So that
went along with House Bill fifteen seventy seven deals with
storm or deals with waste water infrastructure, which is really
(27:20):
an area that state of North Dakota and the federal
government have really never kind of played in that arena
before and helped out with grant funding. We have a
significant project in our waste water drip plant coming up
in the next four three years. We're looking at potentially
one hundred and twenty million dollars. This bill is intended
(27:41):
to provide twenty five million dollars in total, twelve and
a half million dollars. Only one entity could apply for.
That's some max they could get and it would be
that would be sixty percent of the total. So you
have to spend nineteen twenty million dollars to get the
twelve million dollars grant. But only there's bill. They've cut
that from fifty million down to twenty five million and
(28:04):
communities under five thousand or another bucket in that we
hope that will move forward. It is a start. We
know that the North Dakota Department of Water Resources has
what they call an intended use plan, which means what
cronic projects do you have out there? We know there
are I think lass I heard one point four nine
(28:24):
billion dollars worth of waste water issues that need to
be addressed in the state of North Dakota. Huge need.
How can we start moving some of those state dollars
and to help the communities that are our need. So
those are the two big things we're working on right now.
All other things, you know, homestead tax credit are off
(28:44):
always good ones and now increasing dollar a months there
and things like that. So again, it's it's been an
interesting session so far.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
When do you anticipate the end of the session coming
up pretty soon?
Speaker 4 (28:55):
Is that? That's a very good question. How's that?
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (29:00):
Somewhere towards the end of the month remains.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
As a very robust legislative Council does a great job
in providing the videos of all the hearings and their
schedules and things like that. So I think I'm not
sure what day they're on. Obviously they're limited to eighty
days they can meet in session. If they gabble in,
if they don't gavel in, then it doesn't count as day,
I think. So again, I know they usually try and
(29:24):
say five to ten days, So would they meet for
seventy leave ten in case they have to be brought
back in at some point during the interim between the
two buyiniums.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Well, I know you've been really involved, not only because
you're the administrator City of Mandown, but also because you're
the president of the North Kota League of Cities. How
long is your term then? With the League of Cities.
Speaker 4 (29:46):
Term is one year so the president and like I said,
my term will come to an end I think in September, Okay,
at the League's annual conference. So as part of that,
we were in Washington, d c. A couple of weeks
ago advocating on behalf of all cities in North Dakota.
And also because I'm there representing Mandan too, you got
to throw in some wastewater ideas, and what we are
(30:09):
looking for there is to promote things that are consistent
with North Dakota. We love sustainable and consistent federal transportation funding.
The ups and downs sometimes create a little bit of
havoc in the construction industry and create havoc in our
planning industry. There was a potentially a proposed bill talking
(30:30):
about municipal bonds. Municipal bonds are tax exempt at the
federal level, but one of the ideas what they should
start taxing municipal bonds. Well, if you start taxing municipal bonds,
the interest rate is going up, which means the cost
for cities to borrow money goes up, which means it
hurts the tax payer. You know, it might be good
(30:50):
for the federal government because I think they asked rough
numbers where if they do this, the federal treasury would
gain two hundred and fifty billion dollars, big number, But
in turn, it would cost with the increased interest rates
that are charged on those bonds, it would cost the
municipalities and the taxpayers seven hundred and fifty bills. So
(31:12):
that we were sure that that was just a thought,
and we wanted to make sure that that thought is
squashed because when we sell our municipal bonds on the
private market, a lot of people buy them because they
are they have that tax.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Exempting for sure. Well, you picked a busy year to
be the president of the League of.
Speaker 4 (31:30):
City know that I picked it again. North Cote leading
Cities has some great employees and Matt and Stephanie and
Jennifer Chrisa. We've got Bill and Corey that are working
the legislature too, So again kudos to those folks. They
are up there a lot so that I don't have
to be. Yeah, and they do a great job for us.
So for all cities in North Dakota, not just the
(31:53):
large cities.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
Bord of Equalization met last night to Jim. Just quick
update on that meet.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
Quick update on Board of Equalization. We had our April
first meeting, started at seven o'clock. Our city Assessor Kimberly
Markeley presents, here's kind of the activities that happened throughout
the year. That information that presentation is out there available
in hard copy online or you can watch it. They
have replay of to code to media access. Kimberly went
through and said, Okay, here's where we're kind of at
(32:21):
this year. Here's where we see property values that we're
as set as of February. First, the board approve those
valuations and then in turn, since those valuations went out
with an increase of I think it's three thousand dollars
or ten percent more than your property value. Don't quote
me on that one. People would call in and say, Okay,
(32:44):
there might be a discrepancy in my valuation. And we
always say, people call us, we'll schedule employment, will come out.
Maybe we've got maybe you have twenty five hundred square
feet and we have twenty eight hundred square feet on
your property, which will make a difference. So Kimberly then
had some corrections that need to be made, the board
to prove those and now they go on to the
county Board of Equalization. So it's an interesting process. The
(33:07):
board meets in April, county boards meet in June, and
then goes onto the state Board of Legalization that meets
in August.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
So property owners have the opportunity to appeal some of
this as well.
Speaker 4 (33:18):
Yep, you can appeal city to counting to state. But
if you miss a step in there, if you don't
go to the county or the city and you want
to go to the state, you're out of luck. So
again you need to follow those those procedures, and again
Kimberly and her staff do a really good job of
responding and making sure that the first question is do
we have the right information in our system? Sure, and
(33:41):
sometimes we do, and sometimes it comes up and says, well,
got it wrong. We have twelve hundred square feet and
you really have twenty four hundred square feet, But we
want to make sure they're right and saluations are intacts
are equalizing.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
Makes sense?
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Yeah, well, that kind of wrapped up the actions of
the commission.
Speaker 4 (33:59):
Last night.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
We did pull out a couple of extras we wanted
to jump into and one of them was spring cleanup Week.
You do have coming at the end of the month.
It's a little early, but nineteen through the twenty six
we did have a graphic and oh, it's on the screen,
thank you, Matt. I thought it was kind of interesting
the twenty twenty four stats, all the stuff that happened
(34:21):
with the landfill and garbage pickup last.
Speaker 4 (34:23):
Year, trying to track those stats because we think that
is meaningful for people because sometimes you don't really get
a good sense of really, what do you have going on? Yeah?
Was it worth it? Was it worth it right? And
we always find that it does. And we also have
residential spring cleanup Week for folks that want to come
in and we can talk about that I think in
(34:44):
another episode, but where people can sign up for picking
up trash routes. So then we do the month of
May for that, but again Spring cleanup Week April nineteenth
through twenty six. As our public works director Shane O'Keeffe,
so definitely, I don't want to say, or definitely put
last night you can humor humor less. He said, it's
(35:11):
one time where you can leave your troubles at the
curb and we'll come and take them away.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
So it's a fun pud Shane.
Speaker 4 (35:18):
Shane did a nice job and like I said, that
is a very busy time in a very busy week
for our cruise and we will sometimes hire additional help.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
And there's some guidelines Citymandan dot com. Go on the website.
You'll find out what you can put out, what you
can't put out, you know all of those things. So
we got to wrap up pretty quick here, but just
wanted to mention you have the Heart River Correctional Center.
It's a new name for that. But there's a.
Speaker 4 (35:45):
Big grumbaking going on today at four o'clock. YEA, most
people may remember it as ciss Or the State Industrial School,
and then the name changed you y ce see the
Youth Creational Center and now the River Women's Correctional Center
will be groundbreaking today.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Yeah, lot's going on.
Speaker 4 (36:03):
We'd move forward for them.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Yeah, and you have your planner. Andrew Strami had announced
he's had to bring me sign Yeah, resigning his position,
so you have an open position.
Speaker 4 (36:13):
Yeah, Andrew is h we'll be leaving us the first
part of May. We're all sad. Andrew's done great work
for us and just a really good individual and is
willing to step in and has stepped in on any
project and taken the bull by the horns that I
think this needs to be done and we say go no,
we do, We'll do good things. Yeah, Andrew's going to
do that in the next chapter of his life. He's
going to go do to the good things in another
(36:35):
country probably, but we wish him well. We do have
a job opening for a city planner on our website
right now and our job so if you're interested, I
think we close on April eleven, but you might want
to check that out again. Oh we are. And it's
tough to replace, but we're getting some pieces in place
now to deal with his absence.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
Probably just want to remind everybody to transitioning from Andrews
from the job opening to you can watch City Current.
We have our apps DMA app that you can. In fact,
I watched last night's City Commuescial meeting on my phone
so I could listen to everything that happened when I
didn't catch up was live and then the radio Access
(37:16):
one out two point five. You can download both of
those apps to keep everything that's going on here at
to go to media.
Speaker 4 (37:23):
Access, I'd like Sam behalf the city Man and Tom welcome,
Thank you to look forward to working with you. We
know each other for a few years and it goes
way back. And Mary, huge thank you to you for
your twenty five years. Like I said, the push to
get Mandan into the live world was it was a
long one.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
And well we appreciate your support too. Jim, You've been
really supportive and a friend to us here and to
the whole team. I mean, we enjoy working with you
and the staff at at City Amandaan. As you mentioned,
there are great people there too.
Speaker 4 (37:54):
So we like I said, and again, huge thank you
to you for everything you've done and also with to
go to Media Access and also the people clear the
cube employed here.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Oh yeah it is.
Speaker 4 (38:05):
It's been a great, great team. It came over the years. Yeah, Tom,
you're stepping into a selling situation.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
So yeah, yeah, well thanks Jim, I appreciate it. And
Temm you're on your own from now on.
Speaker 4 (38:18):
There you go, Yeah, official sign up.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
Yes it is baton.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
So are you going to drop a microphone?
Speaker 2 (38:25):
Well yeah on the ground.
Speaker 3 (38:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
So anyway, and thanks to all viewers and listeners of
City Current. It's been a real honor to be here.
So just want to sign off and say again thanks
for tuning in to this edition of City Current.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
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 free tv dot org. This program airs on Government
(39:01):
Access channel two and six oh two in h D
or on Radio Access one O 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 f them Always Local,
Always Current.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hello and welcome to City Current. I'm Mary van Sikeel.
This is a special edition, another special edition of City Current.
You see three people at the table, and Jim Newbar
is here because it's a Mandan addition. Thank you, Mary, Yeah,
good to see you. And Tom Gerhart, our new incoming
executive director at Dakota Media Access. We're sitting together one
(00:44):
more time.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
One more time. Yeah. Well, as Jim said, we can
bring you back as a COT.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
On call. We'll be on call.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
Okay, aurselves, the old Johnny Carsner, G Lennel, you're gonna
have your guest host's or yeah you're going yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yeah, that might work.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Yeah, number there you go.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
We'll see what the offer is. Well, let's see how
we move forward on that. I was just going to
say we didn't get to meet last time after Mandan
Commission meeting, but I noted that at the meeting you
had your quarterly anniversaries celebrated and you were one of
them for your twenty five years.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
Yeah, February first of two thousand was my start date.
Kind of an interesting time after remembers the y two
k things right happened on December thirty first of nineteen
ninety nine to two thousand, all the world was coming
to an end. Yes, it was really a nothing. Burger
started a month after that, and so yeah, it's been
(01:48):
a it's been a pleasure serving the commissions and the
mayors and the citizens. So there's always something new ever
on the horizon.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
I did want to mention that you and I are
our career here are pretty darn close because I started
in January of two thousand and I know as soon
as you came on, you and I were talking fairly
frequently about what was happening in the community. I did
have a little history with Mandan when I worked with
Bismarck Mandan Development Association, so we were always in contact
(02:20):
in two thousand and nine, then finally we were pulling
in Mandan City Commission meetings and then park district and
school board and all of that, and the rest is history,
I guess the.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
Rest is history. And just for those folks that are
watching now, Mary's push for pretty much took nine years.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
It took a long time.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
See Bismarck was on live TV, and we took about
nine years to get to the point where we were
ready to go live and things like that. And I
think it has all turned out really well. Between school board,
park board, pick your favorite planning commissions and things like that.
It is I think the information that has gone out
(03:04):
to the public are much more informed and you know,
they can watch and replay and all those good things.
So again, thanks to you and your team at the
go to media access for pushing us very diligently. Yeah
and at times very you need to get on this
and let's do it now.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Well, it's interesting because times have changed and now I
think there's definitely an expectation that all these meetings should
be streaming and available and archived and available to citizens.
But back in those times, there was a lot of
resistance from commissioners and mayors and at the time that
was that we really don't need that.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
I think that was you know, if you wanted to
hear what happened at a commission meeting, then you were
having to go get a cassette tape, yeah, and play it, yeah,
and that's how things were done. And again times have changed,
and the advances and technology and the ability for folks
to go back and watch a meeting now as it's
been a game changer. We from city staff have had
(04:06):
to up our game, be honest with you, and make
sure that what we're presenting is clear and understandable, because
we're not just presenting to the commissioner or we are
presenting to the public. And so to make those things
that people can go back and watch it two years
later or five years later and go, oh, yeah, that's
what you're talking about. I think it's, like I said,
we've upped our game, and along with I think the
(04:28):
information that is going out as much improved.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
I always say, and Tom and I were having a
conversation about this last week about it's really a win
win win for everyone. I mean, it gives us valuable content,
of course, and we feel like we are providing a
great service. But it's great for the elected officials because
I think people see how difficult it is to sit
at those tables and make decisions, you know, when you've
(04:52):
got testimony coming your way and a lot of different
viewpoints to consider. It's very very difficult, and then certainly
from pers citizens, they're more informed. This is gabbled, gavel,
no editorializing. Nothing is cut, it's it's start to finish.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
It's live. Yeah, it's unfiltered exactly. We might wish it
would be filtered. But and like I said, thank you
for the anniversary note. And I would like to say
that we had several more anniversaries that we do on
a quarterly basis to recognize the folks that put time
and time and hours in for us all with I
think myself and a couple others were twenty five years
(05:31):
and you don't see that very often nowadays. I think
we've at our next quarterly anniversary recognition, we'll have an
individual with forty years wow. And Duayne Frees I'm talking
about you so likes. I think it's a really good
thing that we do, not just once a year. We
bring them in on a quarterly basis and that recognition
(05:52):
goes a long way. And like I said, kudos to
all the folks that were recognized.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
I'm going to go back to one more thing about
the two thousand and nine start with the city of Mandan.
It really speaks to the power of a grassroots effort
by a citizen in Mandan. We can. We'll mention her name,
Susan Bieler, who's very active and advocate for a city
of Mandan. She was pushing for the meetings to be
(06:17):
covered and literally came in and got a camera and
the microphones and all the equipment and went repeatedly to
grab these meetings and record them, and then she'd provide
It wasn't live, obviously, but she'd give us those recordings
and we'd put them out. And I think it was,
you know, our conversations over many years. But then Susan's efforts,
(06:39):
I think the commission at the time and the mayor
were finally like, well, I guess it's going out there anyway,
we might as well do it the right way, right exactly.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
The hesitation sometimes was the cost Mary Tom free TV. Right,
It is not free. No, it is free to the public,
but there is a cost to it. And on our end,
you know, we had to create a control room and
buy the equipment and things like that, so sometimes there's
a financial consideration of that, even upgrading, which we did
(07:12):
I think a couple of years ago. Now, there is
a cost to this, but it is very well worth
it because of the services that we the go to
media provides to us.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
So we really get your pulse on what's going on
and mann In or Bismarck and just coming in and
really paying attention to these meetings, especially the last few weeks. Yep,
I've learned a lot. And the great thing about this
show is we can you know, synthesize some of it
and dig in a little bit and dig in a
little bit. So yeah, yeah, I think the information is great.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
And on that note, that's our job is to talk
about what happened last night at the City Commission meeting
and started with some announcements and tell me you were
going to lead off here.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Yeah, I thought this just caught my attention, Jim, And
I know this is a fairly new program, but it's
a neighborhood revitalization initiative and there are some details with it.
But I think gate City and Capital Credit Union are
offering some low interest loans, right, there's some criteria, but big.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
Shout outs to those two entities for providing those. I
think there's I think gate City is looking at two
million dollars and low interest loans which are four point
four to eight percent repayment ten to fifteen years minimum
I think is ten thousand dollars macs of one hundred
thousand dollars. And I think the Capital Credit Unions is
(08:31):
allocating seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. So these are
not unlimited funds. There is a cap to them, and
we hope to reach that cap because then we can
go back and say, hey, let's pony um.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Interest rate is very similar at four point four to
nine percent again, ten to fifteen years minimum, ten thousand
macs of one hundred thousand dollars gives those homes in town,
some of the older housing stock, the ability to obtain
a low interest loan and fix up their property. So
and trying to provide some incentives to do that.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
So and was it home forty years and older yep,
And then I think there was the value camping over
two hundred and seventy five thousand dollars if I remember perfect.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
So first steps are you come in and talk to
city Hall in our engineering office and we'll be able
to tell you does your house qualify or not, and
then we kind of pass you off to whatever financial
institution you want to go. Between those two and they
take over the rest. We are not the decider on
whether you're going to get a loan or not. We
are just saying, okay, you meet the initial qualification and
(09:30):
you've got your work on your end too, and you're
not repaying the city. It is. These are again funds
try and provided by the two vanities.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Is this the second year that this program.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
A year for the city, don't quote me on that,
but it's been around for a while and the program
has been used very well, and so it's been we
advertise it in trying to inform residents who come in
and maybe looking for some help on their home. Here's
a way that we can help you.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Yeah, it's a good program.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
Yes. So again big shout out, thank you to those
two entities.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Yeah. So, a bulk of the meeting last night, I
think was occupied by a public hearing that you had
going on on the First Street improvements. And we do
have a map that Tom has up here that kind
of outlines that area that we're talking about. Jim, you
and I have talked about this project. The Commission has
been dealing with this in different phases over the last
(10:21):
few years. But this is kind of what's immediate now
and what's coming quickly.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
Yep, immediate right now is the project area really is
on the west side of the downtown area and back
to the north of Runnings and things like that, where
we're going to do full We would like to do
full street reconstruction, curb, gutter and underground utilities, the water
sewer lines, stormwater lines, things like that. Again, we've talked
(10:50):
about this before, but you kind of start at the
bottom of the hill and work your way up because
your stormwater issues need to be dealt with right away,
so that if there are rainstorms and things like that,
all of that dream gets handled at the bottom of
the basement. Here kind of we are.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
So the map that's on the screen right now, what
is the significance of the different colors there.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
We originally had proposed this project to be one project,
basically reconstructing the streets and the avenue on First Street
and all the avenues from Main Street to First Street,
from Collins Avenue on the east side to Sixth Avenue
on the west side, because we know there's a couple
of streets that we redid during the remediation project that
are all those are good to go, but most of
that infrastructure down there is really old and the streets
(11:32):
are alligatoring up and there's not much left to fix.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Alligatoring up is that a new term.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
You know, I'm sure technical engineering state, right. So if
you look at the back of an alligator, right, it's
all crinkly, And if you look at your asphalt and
that's what it looks like, that means there's not much
life left and you can oil it and do everything
you want to it, but it's still going. You put
a mill in overlay machine, the milling machine is just
going to bust it up and there's nothing left.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
So the area but on the map again is the
yellow area we're really primarily talking about to start soon.
Speaker 4 (12:05):
That wo'ld be phase one again. The originally wanted to
do it all in one phase, but the funding that
we were awarded was not enough to really make a
dent in a twelve million dollar project, I think two
million dollars. We ended up giving that two million dollars
back because we couldn't couldn't find a way to finance
the rest of it without putting special assessments that would
have been outlandish. Yeah, very hard to pay for.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
So design, some design work here up to about thirty
percent on design. The purpose last night though, was to
get some input from those property owners, obviously mostly your
business district down there, get their feedback on that proposed
design at this point.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
Correct, We had a public input meeting I think on
February fourth on this project, and in turn we the
Commission approved the creation of a special assessment district to
help pay for the local cost on this. In all
and all, we've got about six million dollar project between
(13:05):
federal and state funds, between Prairie Dog money, between city
utility fund money, between Department Water Resources grant funds. We
were able to lower that dollar amount down to about
five hundred and forty thousand, I think is what we
would be special assessing to the benefiting property. So six
million dollars project five hundred and fifty thousand be special
(13:25):
assessed locally. That's a pretty good deal in my world. Obviously, sure,
some people didn't don't like that cost. But last night
there's been a lot of talk about the reduction in parking.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Yeah, it seemed like that that was pretty much the focus.
I don't recall anyone objecting to the fact that the infrastructure, sewer, waters, roads,
curbs need attention there. As you said, they're allegatory or
something like that. But you know, that was that was
interesting and and I want to make a comment about
(13:57):
the presentation about the people who were at the podium,
you know, kudos to them. Was very informative, it was
very civil. We've seen some public hearings lately that have
been really kind of nasty on this side of the river.
We won't name names, but I think that that really,
you know, the way the Commission handled everything and the
(14:19):
presenters were they were very reasonable, they stated their concerns
and again ninety nine percent parking issues. There is a
fairly large percentage of reduction of parking. But as you
were explaining to us earlier, Jim, you said, you have
done surveys down there with cameras and other things seeing
(14:41):
what the actual occupancy of the existing parking is. So
that kind of justified some of the removal of some
of that parking. And you never want to do that,
but you had the data to.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Support that, right, We've got our engineering folks have done
a parking study on here and I think the camera
takes a picture every fifteen minutes on de utilization and
found that there is still available parking even if we
go through the reduction as planned, based on we've got
some safety and pedestrian and EIGHTYA requirements that we have
(15:14):
to deal with in this area. So we're creating a
more a safer avenue for folks to walk and cross
the streets. Right now, it's like one big, wide, open
thoroughfare as you're going through. And again, part of this
is EIGHTYA related. And in order to do that, you
need to put in some of the ball bouts, those
(15:34):
pedestrian spots where they can kind of get out into
the street safely and then cross the street in a
safer manner than is currently available. So that takes up
some of the parking, and then switching some of it
from parallel or from diagonal parking or angle parking into
parallel parking obviously takes up more room on the parallel side,
(15:55):
but again it creates a safer environment for people to
get in and out of their vehicles and things like that.
So that's the concern. We've heard the concern, and last
night that's what we heard. Didn't hear a lot about
the cost of the project. We heard about the parking changes.
Some of those we have a little bit of control
of but a lot of it is required through American
Disability exactly eighty A. Yeah, So whether we can change it,
(16:16):
whether we have federal funds or not federal funds is
I think we still have to follow the ADA to
get those things done.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Sure, and it sounded like the mayor was encouraging engineering
now to take another look to see if there's an
opportunity to do some tweaking to retain some of that parking,
and then it will what's the next step that will happen?
Speaker 4 (16:37):
Then the next step there is a protest period right now,
so I think at the end of towards the end
of April, that protest period is will come up and
will tally up the area because in an assessment district,
it's based on the area of the property that protests.
So if over fifty percent of the area protest and
the project is killed, then we go back to the
(16:57):
drawing board and okay, now what do we do. Unfortunately,
if that happens, that happens. Mayor brought up a good
point last night that the funds that we are using
to buy this project down are not always available. We
see through the state of North Dakota's most recent revenue
forecast price of oil kind of going down. The amount
(17:21):
of funds that are generated from oil and gas tax
revenue is reduced when the price of a barrel oil
goes down, which means our Prairie Dog funding for non
oil producing counties goes down. Which also means the amount
of tax money that goes into the State Resources Trust Fund,
which funds water projects and helps us lower those costs,
(17:43):
goes down. So there's a ripple effect in here. Those
funds that we have now are available, it doesn't mean
they're going to be available a year from now or
two years from now. So that's why we're trying to
strike when the iron is hot. I know it's complicated,
but it's a matter of if we have these funds available,
we can commit to them. Now we'll see what happen.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
So do the property owners now have their statement and
their estimate on what's for this? So they have this information,
you said, do you explain what happens if it's protested.
But if it isn't, then the next step is bids.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
If it isn't protested, like right now, we're at thirty
percent design because we want to get to thirty percent
design we create the district. We don't want to go
through full design because if the district gets protested out
then we've spent sure significant engineering dollars that may go
down the tube. But at this point in time, if
the project moves forward, we complete, go to final design,
(18:35):
and we go through bids, and we're probably putting shovels
in the ground the spring of twenty twenty six. Oh okay,
all right, so it's not twenty twenty five project, it's
twenty twenty six. Yeah. A lot of steps, a lot
of steps.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
A lot and lots of steps. So we'll move on.
But before we do, if you're just joining the program,
you're listening and watching City Current. I'm Mary van Sikel,
the outgoing executive to add Dakota Media Access, with Tom Gerhart,
the incoming executive director. And as always, because it's a
Mandan addition, Jim Neubauer is here a city administrator for
(19:10):
the city of Mandan. So we're recording this on April second.
Program will repeat up until next week when we sit
down with Bismarck. So, Tom, you wanted to talk about
some of the new business now, no, I guess I'm
not right.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Yeah, Okay, you're up.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
We're talking about uh.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
I was kind of excited about the tree inventory all
the things. I thought it was really interesting that that
Mannan is now approved with the Commission last night approved
an inventory of trees to happen in the community.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
Yeah, we are a tree city, USA. We are. I
think maybe next year will be our fiftieth anniversary or
it's this year will be a fiftieth anniversary of being
a Tree City USA. Pretty cool stuff. It means that
a percentage of your budget is devoted to forestry and
tree care items. What we've been finding lately is that
through the grants that we apply for, there's a checkbox
(20:03):
right that says, do you have a tree inventory? If
you do, your likelihood of obtaining grant money to help
you combat things like Dutch elm disease, the ash boar
is making its way into North Dakota. What kind of
tree should we be looking at for boulevard trees and
things like that. If we don't check that box, the
application kind of goes to the bottom of plile. Because again,
(20:25):
if we don't know what countries we have, where they're at,
what condition they're in, we need to have something comprehensive
that says how are we attacking this because we want
to A lot of the federal agencies will say, we
want to help you unless you know what your problem is.
We just don't want to keep throwing dollars at it.
So we will be engaging a firm to do a
(20:46):
tree inventory, which it sounds like doing it. You go
out and what kind of tree do you have. It's
a little more complicated than that, I guarantee you. And
so Commission said, yes, let's get this done. So that
and our ability to further grant monies to assist us
with this increases. And I would assume this money will
be paid for back over and over again. They're having
(21:08):
an updated tree inventory.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
So and what's the estimate. Well, the cost was about
sixty dollars.
Speaker 4 (21:14):
It is I think six dollars and twenty five cents
a trunk.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
Okay, So the timeline for this time I.
Speaker 4 (21:20):
Think this fall Okay, as soon as we can get
the folks here, because there is a crew that comes
in and will build be in your community and do
this kind of let's get this done. Our staff does
not have time to with all the other duties that
they have to in trees and identify them. These folks
are expert at this your committee community and get are done.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
That would take a lot of resources to use existing staff,
But I think it's kind of cool that there's a
tree team that comes in and does.
Speaker 4 (21:48):
It's something that sounds like, why are you doing this?
This isn't important, but it really is important for your
your tree canopy in your community, and also to make
sure what we have remains healthy and we can identify, Okay,
where do we have problems or where can we enhance
what we have already. So yeah, it's really it's one
of those things that seems weird, but it's a good
thing to.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
Happen, and just not the canopy I mean it was
brought up last night. Helps the value of your home. Yes,
I mean there's so many benefits that it makes a
lot of sense.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Stormwater, ren you learn about it.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
Yeah, yeah, trees are important. Also helped cool your house
in the summertime. They'll keep it warm and all that
good stuff. So and all the other benefits from active
vegetation in the community.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
We wanted to talk about a little subset I think
of the Memorial Highway project that'll be soon underway, and
we have another map too. And last night it was
announced that nineteenth Street Southeast will be closed I think
for a few weeks.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
We're looking about three weeks rough closure on that one.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Yeah, just give us an update, gym of what's going on.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
Yeah. So the it was kind of it's been kind
of humorous, for lack of a better term, that last
month or two, when people are going is more highway
really going to happen? And I'm going, yes, it will, Yes,
it will, Yes, it will. So April first, I think
we started seeing some street closures. Nineteenth is in order
to install some storm storm water infrastructure. I'd like to
(23:11):
say I say storm sewer, but that confuses even me
because I think of sanitary sewer. But it is storm
water in infrastructure going in so we can move the
water off of the streets and into the bays. So again,
that started April first. The weather last two days has
kind of put a little bit of a kink in that,
(23:31):
which weather in construction don't mix well together. But again
we can start seeing You'll see cones going up on
Memorial Highway. You will see traffic squeeze down from the
five lanes with a center turn to one lane each
direction with a center turn, and then work will be
starting in Earnest right away. So yeah, it is happening,
(23:52):
it's starting. The ball is rolling it. Here we go,
big project, big project. It will probably be we're hope
will be done in two and a half three years. Yeah,
and so again a lot of this is always weather
dependent on construction season in North Dakota.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Last week we talked with Jason from Bismarck about the
bridge update and the fact that it's kind of moving
over to the Bismarck side. I mean, that's just kind
of mind blowing the size of that project. This is
going to be another big one yep.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
So we're looking at really big in big terms, it's
the east end from midway lanes and thirty second to
going to the east in twenty twenty five and then
moving on to the westerly half in twenty twenty six
and most likely into twenty twenty seven. So the important
thing is that businesses are still open. There will be
(24:42):
entries to all businesses at all times, and in turn,
we want to make sure the traveling public is well
aware of that, you know, don't We don't ever want
to see the take Alternate Route sign anywhere because those
businesses Moral Highway are still open absolutely, so please continue to.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
And that's a great time to get you up. You're
having a public information meeting on the reconstruction project April
ninth at Midway.
Speaker 4 (25:07):
Lanes April ninth, Midway Lanes. It'll I think our city
engineer and Jeric Wakness described it last night. It's going
to be an open house if you have questions on
different items. We'll have different stations set up throughout their
meeting room at Midway Lanes and stop in and please
ask questions.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
As I understood it, you don't have to be there
from four to seven.
Speaker 4 (25:25):
No, it can come be tell me it's a three
hour long time. We'd for We understand people have different
schedules and things like that. We want to make sure
that we're accommodating. And again joint effort between City Managing
Engineering Office, between North Coda Department of Transportation, in conjunction
with Ready, which is the prime contractor on this group too.
So I think it's all three entities getting together and
saying okay, if you have questions, come in, let's talk
(25:47):
about them.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Yeah, You've already had quite a few meetings with a
lot of the property owners. This has been going on
for years years. Yeah, so these things have been talked
about primarily with the those properties affected in businesses. This
is even broader. The public is invited to come in
and take a look you nowhere.
Speaker 4 (26:08):
Luck mainly it'll affect those people that are on the
traveling roadway and kind of a one tier back from that,
but we want to make sure that if it doesn't matter,
you can stop in. It is a public open house.
That's questions.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
That's next week Wednesday, the night April ninth.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
On Wednesday evening from four till seven at midway.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Lankers at midway. Okay, sounds good. Well, you wrapped up
the meeting last night with another legislative update. You want
to hit the highlights of what you're reporting.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
It's kind of regurgitation of the last several but there's
Hospital eleven seventy six, talks about property tax issues and
increasing the five hundred dollars credit too. I think we're
at twelve to fifty right now. That seems to be
a moving target. Was at fourteen fifty, That might be
thirteen fifty or twelve to fifty. You still have to
apply for that every year. Also, another big isument is
(26:58):
the cap on the revenues or the three percent budgetary cap,
which would affect all municipalities, park districts, school school really
doesn't affect but counties and things like that. So that
went along with House Bill fifteen seventy seven deals with
storm or deals with waste water infrastructure, which is really
(27:20):
an area that state of North Dakota and the federal
government have really never kind of played in that arena
before and helped out with grant funding. We have a
significant project in our waste water drip plant coming up
in the next four three years. We're looking at potentially
one hundred and twenty million dollars. This bill is intended
(27:41):
to provide twenty five million dollars in total, twelve and
a half million dollars. Only one entity could apply for.
That's some max they could get and it would be
that would be sixty percent of the total. So you
have to spend nineteen twenty million dollars to get the
twelve million dollars grant. But only there's bill. They've cut
that from fifty million down to twenty five million and
(28:04):
communities under five thousand or another bucket in that we
hope that will move forward. It is a start. We
know that the North Dakota Department of Water Resources has
what they call an intended use plan, which means what
cronic projects do you have out there? We know there
are I think lass I heard one point four nine
(28:24):
billion dollars worth of waste water issues that need to
be addressed in the state of North Dakota. Huge need.
How can we start moving some of those state dollars
and to help the communities that are our need. So
those are the two big things we're working on right now.
All other things, you know, homestead tax credit are off
(28:44):
always good ones and now increasing dollar a months there
and things like that. So again, it's it's been an
interesting session so far.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
When do you anticipate the end of the session coming
up pretty soon?
Speaker 4 (28:55):
Is that? That's a very good question. How's that?
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (29:00):
Somewhere towards the end of the month remains.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
As a very robust legislative Council does a great job
in providing the videos of all the hearings and their
schedules and things like that. So I think I'm not
sure what day they're on. Obviously they're limited to eighty
days they can meet in session. If they gabble in,
if they don't gavel in, then it doesn't count as day,
I think. So again, I know they usually try and
(29:24):
say five to ten days, So would they meet for
seventy leave ten in case they have to be brought
back in at some point during the interim between the
two buyiniums.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Well, I know you've been really involved, not only because
you're the administrator City of Mandown, but also because you're
the president of the North Kota League of Cities. How
long is your term then? With the League of Cities.
Speaker 4 (29:46):
Term is one year so the president and like I said,
my term will come to an end I think in September, Okay,
at the League's annual conference. So as part of that,
we were in Washington, d c. A couple of weeks
ago advocating on behalf of all cities in North Dakota.
And also because I'm there representing Mandan too, you got
to throw in some wastewater ideas, and what we are
(30:09):
looking for there is to promote things that are consistent
with North Dakota. We love sustainable and consistent federal transportation funding.
The ups and downs sometimes create a little bit of
havoc in the construction industry and create havoc in our
planning industry. There was a potentially a proposed bill talking
(30:30):
about municipal bonds. Municipal bonds are tax exempt at the
federal level, but one of the ideas what they should
start taxing municipal bonds. Well, if you start taxing municipal bonds,
the interest rate is going up, which means the cost
for cities to borrow money goes up, which means it
hurts the tax payer. You know, it might be good
(30:50):
for the federal government because I think they asked rough
numbers where if they do this, the federal treasury would
gain two hundred and fifty billion dollars, big number, But
in turn, it would cost with the increased interest rates
that are charged on those bonds, it would cost the
municipalities and the taxpayers seven hundred and fifty bills. So
(31:12):
that we were sure that that was just a thought,
and we wanted to make sure that that thought is
squashed because when we sell our municipal bonds on the
private market, a lot of people buy them because they
are they have that tax.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Exempting for sure. Well, you picked a busy year to
be the president of the League of.
Speaker 4 (31:30):
City know that I picked it again. North Cote leading
Cities has some great employees and Matt and Stephanie and
Jennifer Chrisa. We've got Bill and Corey that are working
the legislature too, So again kudos to those folks. They
are up there a lot so that I don't have
to be. Yeah, and they do a great job for us.
So for all cities in North Dakota, not just the
(31:53):
large cities.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
Bord of Equalization met last night to Jim. Just quick
update on that meet.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
Quick update on Board of Equalization. We had our April
first meeting, started at seven o'clock. Our city Assessor Kimberly
Markeley presents, here's kind of the activities that happened throughout
the year. That information that presentation is out there available
in hard copy online or you can watch it. They
have replay of to code to media access. Kimberly went
through and said, Okay, here's where we're kind of at
(32:21):
this year. Here's where we see property values that we're
as set as of February. First, the board approve those
valuations and then in turn, since those valuations went out
with an increase of I think it's three thousand dollars
or ten percent more than your property value. Don't quote
me on that one. People would call in and say, Okay,
(32:44):
there might be a discrepancy in my valuation. And we
always say, people call us, we'll schedule employment, will come out.
Maybe we've got maybe you have twenty five hundred square
feet and we have twenty eight hundred square feet on
your property, which will make a difference. So Kimberly then
had some corrections that need to be made, the board
to prove those and now they go on to the
county Board of Equalization. So it's an interesting process. The
(33:07):
board meets in April, county boards meet in June, and
then goes onto the state Board of Legalization that meets
in August.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
So property owners have the opportunity to appeal some of
this as well.
Speaker 4 (33:18):
Yep, you can appeal city to counting to state. But
if you miss a step in there, if you don't
go to the county or the city and you want
to go to the state, you're out of luck. So
again you need to follow those those procedures, and again
Kimberly and her staff do a really good job of
responding and making sure that the first question is do
we have the right information in our system? Sure, and
(33:41):
sometimes we do, and sometimes it comes up and says, well,
got it wrong. We have twelve hundred square feet and
you really have twenty four hundred square feet, But we
want to make sure they're right and saluations are intacts
are equalizing.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
Makes sense?
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Yeah, well, that kind of wrapped up the actions of
the commission.
Speaker 4 (33:59):
Last night.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
We did pull out a couple of extras we wanted
to jump into and one of them was spring cleanup Week.
You do have coming at the end of the month.
It's a little early, but nineteen through the twenty six
we did have a graphic and oh, it's on the screen,
thank you, Matt. I thought it was kind of interesting
the twenty twenty four stats, all the stuff that happened
(34:21):
with the landfill and garbage pickup last.
Speaker 4 (34:23):
Year, trying to track those stats because we think that
is meaningful for people because sometimes you don't really get
a good sense of really, what do you have going on? Yeah?
Was it worth it? Was it worth it right? And
we always find that it does. And we also have
residential spring cleanup Week for folks that want to come
in and we can talk about that I think in
(34:44):
another episode, but where people can sign up for picking
up trash routes. So then we do the month of
May for that, but again Spring cleanup Week April nineteenth
through twenty six. As our public works director Shane O'Keeffe,
so definitely, I don't want to say, or definitely put
last night you can humor humor less. He said, it's
(35:11):
one time where you can leave your troubles at the
curb and we'll come and take them away.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
So it's a fun pud Shane.
Speaker 4 (35:18):
Shane did a nice job and like I said, that
is a very busy time in a very busy week
for our cruise and we will sometimes hire additional help.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
And there's some guidelines Citymandan dot com. Go on the website.
You'll find out what you can put out, what you
can't put out, you know all of those things. So
we got to wrap up pretty quick here, but just
wanted to mention you have the Heart River Correctional Center.
It's a new name for that. But there's a.
Speaker 4 (35:45):
Big grumbaking going on today at four o'clock. YEA, most
people may remember it as ciss Or the State Industrial School,
and then the name changed you y ce see the
Youth Creational Center and now the River Women's Correctional Center
will be groundbreaking today.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Yeah, lot's going on.
Speaker 4 (36:03):
We'd move forward for them.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Yeah, and you have your planner. Andrew Strami had announced
he's had to bring me sign Yeah, resigning his position,
so you have an open position.
Speaker 4 (36:13):
Yeah, Andrew is h we'll be leaving us the first
part of May. We're all sad. Andrew's done great work
for us and just a really good individual and is
willing to step in and has stepped in on any
project and taken the bull by the horns that I
think this needs to be done and we say go no,
we do, We'll do good things. Yeah, Andrew's going to
do that in the next chapter of his life. He's
going to go do to the good things in another
(36:35):
country probably, but we wish him well. We do have
a job opening for a city planner on our website
right now and our job so if you're interested, I
think we close on April eleven, but you might want
to check that out again. Oh we are. And it's
tough to replace, but we're getting some pieces in place
now to deal with his absence.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
Probably just want to remind everybody to transitioning from Andrews
from the job opening to you can watch City Current.
We have our apps DMA app that you can. In fact,
I watched last night's City Commuescial meeting on my phone
so I could listen to everything that happened when I
didn't catch up was live and then the radio Access
(37:16):
one out two point five. You can download both of
those apps to keep everything that's going on here at
to go to media.
Speaker 4 (37:23):
Access, I'd like Sam behalf the city Man and Tom welcome,
Thank you to look forward to working with you. We
know each other for a few years and it goes
way back. And Mary, huge thank you to you for
your twenty five years. Like I said, the push to
get Mandan into the live world was it was a
long one.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
And well we appreciate your support too. Jim, You've been
really supportive and a friend to us here and to
the whole team. I mean, we enjoy working with you
and the staff at at City Amandaan. As you mentioned,
there are great people there too.
Speaker 4 (37:54):
So we like I said, and again, huge thank you
to you for everything you've done and also with to
go to Media Access and also the people clear the
cube employed here.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Oh yeah it is.
Speaker 4 (38:05):
It's been a great, great team. It came over the years. Yeah, Tom,
you're stepping into a selling situation.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
So yeah, yeah, well thanks Jim, I appreciate it. And
Temm you're on your own from now on.
Speaker 4 (38:18):
There you go, Yeah, official sign up.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
Yes it is baton.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
So are you going to drop a microphone?
Speaker 2 (38:25):
Well yeah on the ground.
Speaker 3 (38:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
So anyway, and thanks to all viewers and listeners of
City Current. It's been a real honor to be here.
So just want to sign off and say again thanks
for tuning in to this edition of City Current.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
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 free tv dot org. This program airs on Government
(39:01):
Access channel two and six oh two in h D
or on Radio Access one O 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
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