May 7, 2025 • 34 mins
Tom Gerhardt talks to Jim Neubauer about the Mandan city commission meeting on 5-6-25.
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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 (00:21):
Thanks for joining us on this edition of City Current,
Mandan edition along with Mandan City Administrator Jim Nubauer. I'm
Tom Gerhart from Dakota Media Access and Jim. We're just
a few days from Mother's Day.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Absolutely, Tom, thanks for having us today, and happy Mother's Day.
Tall mothers out there, and hope that everyone treats you
as you is very to be treated and treated very
well on Mother's Day.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Let's go food, flowers, chocolate. Yeah, good start. Anyway, there's two.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Dudes sitting here Mother's Day and we're going thank you
to all this.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Just in case anybody has forgotten too. It's just around
the corner. Just a little bit about what we're going
to talk about today. A lot of things from last
night's Mandan City Commission meeting. But the big thing that
I know has taken up a lot of time and
efforts for the city is this first street parking issue.
So we'll talk about that. We'll give folks an update
on a road closure that will take place spanning from
(01:16):
I think one to three weeks on twenty fourth Street.
And then the legislative session is over for now. I
know theysel have a few days so they could come
back into session, but for now it's over. So we'll
get a wrap up from you and then how that
affects the residents of man Dan. But the meetings started
(01:36):
last night with a couple of announcements and of proclamation
on Bike Day.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Yeah, so I think Mayor of Faila announce it is
national bike Monks, so get your bicycles out. Obviously May
is a good time to do that. So and again
if you go to our web page or watch us online,
there's a like workshop on me twenty first and twenty
second at Bismarck Public Works. So a freebie for folks
(02:03):
who attend. But again the encouragement is there for folks
to get out and get outside.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, and boy has it been nice.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Also, I think it's building Safety month.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Building Safety month, and that is proclaimed and for May.
Also when we know a lot of construction projects are
happening out there. From a city standpoint, make sure if
you need a permit. You are coming in and to
man in city Hall and getting your building permit, and
be safe. We don't need thumbs smashed from numbers and
fingers cut off and all the other things that happened
(02:34):
at times. So again, it's just a good reminder for
folks that we are in that season where people like
to do outdoor projects, whether it's building a shed, whether
it's guarding, and whether it's mowing the lawn and things
like that. So please be safe.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Things happen, yeah, be safe. Well again, what took up
the majority of the meeting last night was the public
hearing on the First Street parking issue. And we've talked
about that in the past, but the Commission took action
last night. Give us an overview of what took place
last last evening. A lot of business owners and residents
had some concerns about parking with this project.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
In this project we're looking at, we call it Phase
one of our downtown street reconstructor reconstruction project. We're looking
at redoing water, sewer, and streets and sidewalks from sixth
Avenue going to the east, includes Fourth Avenue and up
to Second Street. So again, full street reconstruction, water and
sewer lines need to replace in several waterline breaks. We
(03:31):
know the roads are in pretty poor condition right now, and.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
We have a photo here that gives folks a little
visual reinforcement.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Yes, what's going to take on an overhead. It probably
came from a drone shot of what the condition is
today and then what it will look like if things
go as planned when the construction is complete.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
And a big part of this is the eighty A compliance.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Right and that's you know, that's one thing we've had.
We had a public in Point meeting in February third
at the more man In Public Library. We've got some
good feedback there. We asked questions of those that were
in attendance on would you like to see some of
the bullbouts that would be created, would you like to
see more hardscape or more flowers and green? Would you
(04:18):
like this project to be constructed all at once where
you've got street closures going on and then contractors can
get in and do their work and then get out.
And it's probably a little quicker and a little it
might save a little money, but also it's more inconvenient
to get to your business location should you need to.
And I think The feedback that we got on those
(04:39):
questions that we were asking was we don't really want
the streets fully closed off for long periods of time,
So okay, we'll take that into consideration. And also we'd
like more hardscape versus more greenescape. We know greenscape requires maintenance,
and sometimes that maintenance all sounds good at the beginning
of a project. Flowers look great, trees looks great, and
you come back a year later. Now we need to
(05:01):
do some gray up and some maintenance on that. And
the other big thing in here is the parking issue,
and I think that's what everyone in the tenants was.
We haven't heard many issues about the cost of the
project because I think we're looking at about a six
point eight million dollar project. With some federal, some state money,
some Prey DOUG money, some utility fund money, we're able
(05:23):
to get that six point eight million down to I
think five hundred and forty thousand would be the special
assessment costs. But again, we didn't hear a lot about
the cost of the project. It was regarding changes in parking.
And we want to stress that this is project is
that we're through thirty percent design. Yeah, on that pect, here.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
We can show it too. That give folks an idea
of where we are, Like you said.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Thirty thirty percent design. And we do that for a
few reasons. One, if a project gets protested out, we
don't have one hundred percent design into it, and we've
covered those costs. We get a good estimate on what
it may cost, what it may look like like up
through thirty percent, and then we put the district out
for whether it gets protested out or not. Last night's
action was for the board to determine whether there was
(06:10):
an insufficiency of protests. So really the action from the
board last night was to say, okay, of the area
I think there was, I can't remember the acreage fifty
five acres or something like that within this district, and
how much land area protested out this project, and we
do it. We do that calculation a couple of ways,
(06:32):
just to demonstrate, you know, by parcel and also by
land area by law is by land area, and I
think both were around twenty to twenty one percent I
had protested out, and you need over fifty percent in
order to in essence kill a project.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Right, And it was interesting listening to the meeting last
night and you can go to Dakota Media Access dot Oregon.
You can go to our archive and listen to the
thing in its entirety, or to our Facebook page. But
there was, like you said, it was all about the
change from sort of the what's the terms diagonal diagonal parking,
(07:10):
parallel parking, and some spaces. You will lose some spaces
in this project. But again, the ADA compliance, the money
that you can get coming in to help pay for
this project.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Really, tom Me, it's a matter of whether there were
any federal or state dollars involved at all. We still
have to construct our projects to be eighty A compliant.
So a lot of folks think that, well, because we're
taking I think two million dollars in federal state money
that we this is the reason that we have to
do that. Really, it's we have to construct the project
in accordance with EIGHTYA guidelines, which in this case means
(07:45):
some of those sidewalks that we have in this corridor
would be wider and as you and to match where
building doorway entrances are and things like that. I know
that our city engineer Jeric Weakness had a good graphic
up there to we kind of.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Think we've got that one too. You can take a
look at.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Yeah, kind of explain. Here are some of the doorways
that we're dealing. There's not many doorways on Fourth Avenue
between Main Street and First Street, but when there is
a I think we had a six or a twelve
inch lip to get into a business, we have to
bring that sidewalk up to be in compliance. And the
farther you have to raise that sidewalk, the more room
(08:24):
it takes to go into existing parking lanes, which in
turn means you're driving lanes, which in turn all has
a ripple effect on can you do parallel parking or
can you continue to do diagonal parking? And we want
to stress that we are at thirty percent design, and
at thirty percent design, it looks like we will need
(08:45):
to make a parking change, but between things can change,
a lot of work is going to be done. We
will involve those property owners in several discussions to help
explain maybe there's some things they can do inside their
building that would affect the width of the sidewalk outside
their building, and then there's other underground things. We have to
(09:06):
be cognizant of drainage and things like that, so we
get slopes done correctly, in the road constructed in a
way that you know, roads deteriorate from driving on them,
from just the temperature changes we have in North Dakota,
and from water. The longer water sits on a roadway,
the more it's going to deteriorate in a faster rate.
(09:27):
So our goal is to get the water off the
road as quick as it possible, which lengthens out the
life of that road. But again, a lot of the
changes that on parking issues are a result of some
of the eighty eight things we have to comply with.
And it's not a matter of well we can just
ignore them. We can't ignore them, or we put ourselves
in a position to be sued, and we don't want
(09:49):
to put ourselves in that position.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
I thought it was interesting too, you know, there's as
more detailed then someone would think. But two parking studies
were done where I think we heard that, you know,
photos were taken every fifteen minutes, and so it's it's
decisions aren't made without effort.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Correct and so we've you know, our engineering staff we
had bought some tools to put in our toolkit. We
had done a what we call a parking study where
we put a camera up and it takes pictures every
fifteen minutes. So we originally did that on a Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday to get a baseline, and then we came back
at the request you know, people said, well, that doesn't
(10:29):
include Friday and Saturday and Sunday or those aren't our
busy times. Okay, So we came back and did another
analysis doing a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and I think the
utilizations were pretty similar in the fact that there might
be a couple of times when there the parking exceeds
what's available, but overall, in general, there is still a
(10:54):
matter of there's still some excess parking, might have to
walk a little farther, and we understand that. But again,
what we to stress today and what we I think
the mayor did a good job of saying last night,
was that we're at thirty percent design. A lot of
work has to be done yet, and a lot of
there might be some changes that can happen. We're not
going to promise anything other than we're going to take
(11:17):
a really hard look now that we can dig into
a lot more details. Going from thirty percent to one
hundred percent design on how we can best accommodate if
we can accommodate some of those things and make these
things work. And again we'll grab a whole bunch more
input from residents in the area and property owners, and
a lot of folks are renting property and so we
want their input too on what the tenants are thinking.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
So the Commission unanimously passed this. There wasn't ye the
resist had to meet. The protests resolution really didn't have
anything to do with parking.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
The resolution resolution basically says, are there enough protests here
to protest this district out and they're kind of goofilly
word for a lack of a better term, So it's
determine the insufficiency of pro test in the board says
there are insufficient protests to stop this project.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
So now move forward. So what's the timeline, Jimmy said,
again you've said a couple times, right, thirty percent, Yep,
Now you can move forward. And I know this is
a three part project that will be phased in over years.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Yeah, for this first phase, this first phase, and that's
the only one that we have funding commitment for right now.
So phases two and phases three they might be combined,
they might be kept separate. We don't have funding commitments
for those two, so they might be a few years
down the road yet. So again on this project, I
think at the May twentieth meeting, we'll bring back a
contract for I think we have Catamust KLJ doing the
(12:39):
engineering work on this, so we contract with them to
continue on their work, and then it's a lot of
discussions with property owners, a lot of discussions with our
engineering team to make sure that okay, let's get this
to design. The project is done in conjunction with the
Eastate of North Dakota. So but in a big picture,
(13:01):
the say North Kota would like to have this project
bid in November of twenty twenty five, so we can
start construction in the spring of twenty twenty six, which
means design really probably has to be done wrapped up
around the end of August, so that North Koda Department
Transportation has a chance to review the plans and specs
before they put it out for bid. So we're looking
(13:21):
at several months yet before that final bid pack actually done.
You put it out for bids in November, you accept
bids probably December January, you award January February twenty six
for spring Spring construction twenty twenty six or a little
ways away. But these projects take a lot of time.
Rights you snap your fingers and we move on them today.
(13:45):
They're in the works for a long time before we
get to that point of putting shovels in the ground.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
All right, well, we'll pivot off that for a while.
New business last night, and I found this interesting as
someone newer to paying closer attention to all the city
commission meetings in Mandan and Mark. But this Memorial Highway
cost Participation amendment doesn't sound very exciting on the surface,
although mentioning the Memorial Highway, I guess right now, that's
(14:11):
construction that's exciting in itself. But I think it was
mentioned that this is a small but important amendment that
was made. If you want to describe.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
It's a like I say, it doesn't look very sexy
and exciting, But really what it means is that when
the State of North Dkota does a construction project, and
in this vein, Memorial Highway is still on the state
highway system, so it involves taking that highway because really
it's more of an urban road section. Now, what happens
is that State North Dakota then helps reconstruct that roadway.
(14:46):
So we're getting ninety percent of the above ground improvements
in general paid for through federal and state funds. I
usually call it the gift that keeps on giving. Right, So,
right now, the State of North Dakota does mobile and maintenance,
sweeping and crack sailing and things like that, And they're
out there today on my way over here. They're plothole
(15:07):
fixing what they can what's left the Memorial Highway. But
it means that after this project is done, the city
amend and then inherits this roadway and it becomes our
job to move Snow becomes our job to crack seale
and fix and sweep and keep it up. There will
still be on ninety percent money availability out there if
(15:30):
there needs to be major repairs and things like that,
but it's really ours for the maintenance after it's complete,
which we construct in twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six
into twenty twenty seven, and it's probably twenty twenty eight
before this project is done and completed, and then it
kind of falls into our our lab to start doing
our work.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
So you have to start looking down the road.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Yep, that's why I think commission Brown I think brought
that up last night, or I can't remember which commissioner did,
but they asked the question, have we been ramping up?
And yes, we've been ramping up with equipment because you know,
even though it is seems twenty twenty eight's ways away,
we're starting to say, Okay, we don't want a big
budgetary hit to say I need two or.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Three yeah suddenly people to do it.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Yeah, I needed a couple million dollars worth of snowplows
and things like that. So we've been kind of ramping
up in that van to get there.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Well, we have a map a graphic to show for
the next item, which will be a road closure on
twenty fourth for a natural gas project. And if you
can see in the bottom center of the photo that's
a Mandan High School, so it gives you an idea
of where this road is. But tell us about this
project and how long.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Yeah, the road between eighth Avenue which is between Walmart
and also the newly constructed man In High School. And
to be honest, we wish this project would have happened
while the road was being torn up last year. But
it didn't, and so right now MDU is coming in
I think, increasing from a twelve inch gas line up
to a sixteen inch natural gas line. We are doing
(17:00):
majority of the work is underground boring, so there should
be minimal if any disruption to the newly installed roadway
up there. And like I said, so, there might be
some road closures for a period of maybe a week
or two. They have been coordinating with the high school
to make sure high school is done before they go in,
and like I said, so, there will be some inconvenience
(17:20):
and some road closures along the way. But again it's
a natural gas line that I believe runs from the
Heskett area all the way up to Mine not so
it is a significant pipeline for MDU, and again some
work will be done in this area.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Another thing I wanted to touch on under new business
grant policy was approved and it dealt or deals with
the state or the sales tax question, not the state,
the sales tax cluestion under Measure one from last year
I believe, yep.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
And yeah, last spring a group of citizens has got
together and put together what we call Measure one, which
is an additional half st sales tax used to support
public transportation projects and also police and fire vehicles and
buildings and city hall accessibility needs, and so for public
(18:13):
transportation is two cents of that half cent would be
collected on sales tax basis, and that collection started January first,
And in turn, folks can apply for its grants to
if they have a entity that is dealing with public transportation,
which we know that Bisman Transit does that for the
(18:36):
city's of Bis market Man and its surrounding areas. But
they are not the sole they are not necessarily limited
by They're not just automatically this money is going to them.
It is for public transportation. That's how it was promoted,
that's how it was written. So if someone comes along
and say they have a public transportation issue, it meets
(18:57):
the guidelines that we approved last night. They could also
be a potential recipient with those funds too, So again
it moves that into a all right, we've started to
collect that half sent sales tax and of that the
two cents, and now it's time to get the application
processing and.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Moving the next item. Sounds like City staff was at
a State Water Commission meeting in April and three major projects.
I know you've been kind of tied in with the
legislature too, but tell us about three projects and what
you found out after that meeting.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Right, So sometimes he's come up, we have a project,
and I will say that the Department of Water Resources
also known as the State Water Commission, they've been you know,
their name may change. Yeah, so we've got to go
back and forth with that. They have cost share policies
where entities can apply for funding assistance for you know,
(19:55):
State Water Commission does flood control mitigation, think of water
apply from the pipeline going from bismarkmand and Watford City
all the way over to Fargo to help them in
drought situations. Money that comes really from oil and gas
activity in western North Dakota that's used to help fund
these projects. Fargo flund control min not flood control, pick
(20:18):
your favorite. But there's also a municipal drinking water part
of that. And so we had three projects that we've
been working on for Again, these projects takes years. It's
not just found about this grant and tomorrow we're apple
Pine and you know Friday, we find out we're awarded.
So at three of them, Memorial Highway and that is
again more high was under reconstruction water line, sewer lines
(20:40):
being done. This grant will help cover sixty percent of
the water line installation, So that was a big piece
Monty Drive, which we are in project process right now. Again,
sixty percent of the water lines in this residential neighborhood
being replaced or sixty percent of the funding for this
project is through the North to Gota Department of Water Resources.
(21:03):
And also we have a plant upgrade kind of at
the water treatment plant phase. We call it optimization phase three,
and I think in my time it's I ask them
how they get to three when I think we're at
about forty five. So water treatment plants and waste water
im plants are constantly undergoing. Things we're out, things need
(21:25):
to be replaced, things to be upgraded. There's really no
static time where you're not making improvements to that plant.
Because the one thing we want to make sure is
that when you turn your fast on, your water comes out,
and when you flush your toilet, the water goes away
and you don't have to think about it. And that's
part of what this I think the total amount of
these grants came to like eleven point seven million dollars.
(21:46):
So those are dollars that we don't have to in
essence put into our formula for when we come up
with how much your water bail is. And so these
are significant dollars. Usually why we say it's about six
nine or seventy cents per million dollars we would have
to borrow. So the eleven point seven million dollars here
(22:07):
is a big is a big lift. And you know,
if we didn't have that money, you'd be looking at
ten to twelve dollars probably additional on your utility bill
per month for a long time. So again, great source.
And then a shout out to our legislators and shout
out to Department Water Resources for providing these funds to
cities to access to and it is real, it is
(22:28):
meaningful money for all of us.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Well, And moving to the legislative session, yes, wrapped up
in the early hours last Saturday. I think some meaningful
tax relief for property only.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
So I think we've talked about House Bill eleven seventy
six many times, and you know, without diving into the
dirty gory details of that, it is you know right
now I think residence primary residential credit is at five
hundred dollars that will be going to sixteen hundred dollars,
So eleven hundred dollars increase there, and that's that's real
money again, that's real property tax relief. And the other
(23:02):
piece of that was the three percent caps on budgets
and expenditures and things like that for whether it's county schools, cities,
park districts. It's for everybody. It's not just limited to cities.
And that's going to be a big education piece, I
told the Commission last night. Because how that is figured out,
someone may get there. It doesn't mean the valuation of
(23:25):
your property is limited to three percent, because you may
see a ten percent increase in the valuation of your property.
You could see a ten percent decrease in evaluation for
your property. But this bill that three percent does not
change how we value properties. And so more deals with
the amount of money that we spend out of our
(23:45):
general fund. And those details are against still they're working.
They're being worked out now, and how do we interpret
what legislatives Assembly had in mind and things like that.
But those are some challenges that all of the political
subdivisions have to deal with.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
I know we talked quite a bit about that wastewater
study too. Well, it's been turned into a study, turned
into a project, turned into a study.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
But you feel I guess as good as it didn't.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
Get kick it didn't get kicked out kick Kelly. Although
a bill that started out with fifty million dollars in
appropriation in it to help whether it's cities that have
issues with their wastewater plants, which are lagoons there. For
the city at Mandan, it is our wastewater treatment plant
(24:33):
that we are looking at significant dollars. You know, last
estimate I think was one hundred and nineteen million dollars
upgrade we're needing to do. This bill would have been
for some grant money for the collection and treatment facilities.
Moved from fifty million down to twenty five million. And
then there were some cuts made in federal grants to
(24:57):
some communities in North Dakota such as Link and I
think had about a seven million dollar project upgrade at
their lagoons. I think it was feesid in and it
may have been a water intake in Washburn. Some of
those moneys got taken away and that they have been
counting on as grant money. And here's what it's going
to be. And so I think the legislator said, we
have to try and fill those coffers back up for
(25:18):
those communities that have been planning on this money. And
this bill kind of there's no money attached to it
for wastewater trim plants or collection systems. But the study
that the language that was put in was not a
may study. It was put in as shall study. So
that we think that's a positive that some steps forward
(25:39):
will be taking a look at how is there a
grant opportunity like on the clean water and the drinking
water side, is there a way for a grand opportunities
to be used for the wastewater side.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
So in the interim they'll make they'll study the issue,
and maybe by the next legislative session.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
Yeah, it'd be great if they're study of the issue
and there's a consistent funding source, because I think that
was one of the hang ups on this session is
that you know, there's an identified need of one point
five billion dollars in North Dakota for wastewater treatment and
collection systems that's there today, and so I think what
(26:14):
legislators we're concerned about is we would like to find
a consistent funding source to help those issues out rather
than just to you know, here's some money this session,
and we'll look and try and find some next year.
So again, we're happy that it made it to the
shall study stage and I'm sure we'll be involved in
that during the interim.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Some fun stuff to wrap up. May is clean up
time and the grass is green for now. But you
had a lot of cruise out in Mandan and Morton County.
We have a photo of some doing some good work.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
Yeah, it's awesome that. I think a program that we
was started by some residents that came to us and said, hey,
we should have a clean up day or a cleanup month.
We started out with a day. We've kind of transitioned
during COVID, you know, and again some of those things
that happened during COVID are sticking with us. It worked
out better to have let's do a pick up clean
up month where families, where neighborhoods, where businesses will you know,
(27:12):
bring in on a weekend five six seventy ninety ten
of their employers or family members and they'll make a
day of it and they'll pick her out and we
supply them with you know, t shirts and bags and
tools to pick garwads up with, and it's one of
those things. It's just a mind blowing experience and it
has been a very big success for us, and I
(27:33):
think people notice it around the community. It's always great
to see the orange bags laying at the side of
the road, which our public works crew and go up
and clean up afterwards. It's like there was a lot
of stuff. And I've been on some of those cleanup
crews myself. It's amazing the things you find and you
shake your head and go wow. But the again, of
the volunteers that do this, we are we are so
(27:53):
pleased and we're so grateful and thankful for the work
that they do. And they have a good time doing it,
and you register for prizes and like I said, we've
got all kind of of goodies for the folks that
do that, and again, we can't express our appreciation enough
for them.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
We talked about the Memorial Highway construction project. We thought
we'd pass along a number and a QR code and
a link so that everybody can stay up to date
on what the latest is happening.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Yeah, and it's we have been really pleased since they're
started being turned on the Memorial Highway. I think there
are a couple of flaggers out there making sure that
traffic is moving and vehicles can get in and out
of businesses at key locations during the construction project. So again,
kudos to the folks the contractors that are out there
(28:41):
doing that work. Big shout out to thank you for
people for being patient. Please go twenty five miles an
hour in the speed zone. We do have officers out
there ticketing people and we want to make sure everybody's safe.
And when we get the call from the contractors said, hey,
people are drawing forty fifty MILLI dollars down this construction
will be out there, and like I said, please be
(29:02):
respectful and continue to participate and partake in the businesses
that are out there. We know it's a challenge to
get to there, but we're doing our best to make
sure you still have access to those businesses and they
certainly appreciate you stopping in.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Also, I wanted to mention a public works open house side.
I guess we'll meet again one time before you win.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
But may I think that is a Thursday afternoon from
four o'clock till six pm where we invite, you know,
one of those things we do, and we kind of
do a fire open house in October during Fire Prevention Month.
We've started doing the public Works open house in May
because it is like Public Works Month also along with
(29:45):
Bike Month and along with Builders Safety Month and things
like that. So again we want people to come in
and take a look, get to meet our staff, get
to see the equipment. Bring your kids. We'll put them
in a snowplow, We'll put them in a maint we'll
put them in a front end loader and things like
that where they can actually see here's where our folks work.
(30:06):
They're very proud of the work that they do and
we like to kind of show it off and invite
and take a look.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Here's it's absolutely.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
And usually there's a broadwurst or a burger for you
waiting there.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Wait a minute, Okay, it'll be food.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
And like I said, our our folks, I call them
our kids sometimes, but our folks really like to show
off the things that we have and the equipment that
we have, and you know, come on in and look
and you say, well, it takes us way too long
to get to your house when it's snowing out we've
got four or five plows. We're doing several hundred miles
of streets. And but again, bring the kids in, put
(30:43):
them in a street sweeper, put them in a any
snowblow truck and things like that, and they get they
get a charge.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
On that should mention. Although the most of our lawns
are green, there's still a burnand.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Still a burn band. And please, while you know things
are greening up quite nicely, we had a little bit
of rain the last few weeks, there's still a burn
ban and in fact, and things are very dry. You
can look in fires in western North Dakota and the
natural mountains or to take state and even on the
eastern part of state where please be careful. And like
(31:15):
I said, burn ban is still there. Even though things
may look green, there's a lot of underbrush and a
lot of under things that can start on fire very easily.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Well, you mentioned getting the kids in the snowflow or
a sweeper. You have a big event coming up May seventeenth.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
Yeah, touch a truck is here again. So again the
great event put on by the man En Progress Organization,
presented by Barlain and West. Like to throw them a
shout out because former Mandan City Commissioner Amber Larson kind
of brought this event to us and said, hey, this
would be cool to have, and it's been a great success. Again,
(31:50):
when you want to see a lot of companies from
around town will bring in their big, heavy equipment. Kids
can sit in there. There is a quiet hour, I'll
give you that. Everybody wants to get in the plow
and honk the horn or the dumb truck, pick your favorite.
It can get noisy. If you want to bring headphones
for your kids or yourselves even please do so. But again,
(32:12):
the Great Event ten o'clock to two o'clock on Saturday,
May seventeenth and likes free, free of charge. And I
think normally they do a food pantry or drive or
something like that. But again you can go on the
Man in Progress Organization website and you know, bring kids,
bring yourselves down there. A lot of adults like to
come down here and look at the equipment that's being presented.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Yeah, it's fun. Well, Jim, thanks again. As always, want
to remind all of you that you can download our apps.
We have two. The Dakota Media Access app will take
you to our government access station and our community Access
station and then you can find a lot of great
podcasters and DJs shows on our Radio Access one oh
(32:56):
two point five apps. So just go in your app
store and type in Dakota Media Access find those download them,
or uh you can scan our QR code. Thanks for
joining us.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
Thanks Tom for having us. And don't forget about the
radio station too, because I.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Have that locked in on my one O two point five.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
There's always usually meeting on the evening on the way home.
Let me catch a couple of minutes of that too,
So thank you for having us.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Yeah, thanks for the plug. Good to see you, Jim yep,
have a good day.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
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
(33:46):
Access 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 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 (00:21):
Thanks for joining us on this edition of City Current,
Mandan edition along with Mandan City Administrator Jim Nubauer. I'm
Tom Gerhart from Dakota Media Access and Jim. We're just
a few days from Mother's Day.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Absolutely, Tom, thanks for having us today, and happy Mother's Day.
Tall mothers out there, and hope that everyone treats you
as you is very to be treated and treated very
well on Mother's Day.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Let's go food, flowers, chocolate. Yeah, good start. Anyway, there's two.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Dudes sitting here Mother's Day and we're going thank you
to all this.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Just in case anybody has forgotten too. It's just around
the corner. Just a little bit about what we're going
to talk about today. A lot of things from last
night's Mandan City Commission meeting. But the big thing that
I know has taken up a lot of time and
efforts for the city is this first street parking issue.
So we'll talk about that. We'll give folks an update
on a road closure that will take place spanning from
(01:16):
I think one to three weeks on twenty fourth Street.
And then the legislative session is over for now. I
know theysel have a few days so they could come
back into session, but for now it's over. So we'll
get a wrap up from you and then how that
affects the residents of man Dan. But the meetings started
(01:36):
last night with a couple of announcements and of proclamation
on Bike Day.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Yeah, so I think Mayor of Faila announce it is
national bike Monks, so get your bicycles out. Obviously May
is a good time to do that. So and again
if you go to our web page or watch us online,
there's a like workshop on me twenty first and twenty
second at Bismarck Public Works. So a freebie for folks
(02:03):
who attend. But again the encouragement is there for folks
to get out and get outside.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, and boy has it been nice.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Also, I think it's building Safety month.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Building Safety month, and that is proclaimed and for May.
Also when we know a lot of construction projects are
happening out there. From a city standpoint, make sure if
you need a permit. You are coming in and to
man in city Hall and getting your building permit, and
be safe. We don't need thumbs smashed from numbers and
fingers cut off and all the other things that happened
(02:34):
at times. So again, it's just a good reminder for
folks that we are in that season where people like
to do outdoor projects, whether it's building a shed, whether
it's guarding, and whether it's mowing the lawn and things
like that. So please be safe.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Things happen, yeah, be safe. Well again, what took up
the majority of the meeting last night was the public
hearing on the First Street parking issue. And we've talked
about that in the past, but the Commission took action
last night. Give us an overview of what took place
last last evening. A lot of business owners and residents
had some concerns about parking with this project.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
In this project we're looking at, we call it Phase
one of our downtown street reconstructor reconstruction project. We're looking
at redoing water, sewer, and streets and sidewalks from sixth
Avenue going to the east, includes Fourth Avenue and up
to Second Street. So again, full street reconstruction, water and
sewer lines need to replace in several waterline breaks. We
(03:31):
know the roads are in pretty poor condition right now, and.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
We have a photo here that gives folks a little
visual reinforcement.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Yes, what's going to take on an overhead. It probably
came from a drone shot of what the condition is
today and then what it will look like if things
go as planned when the construction is complete.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
And a big part of this is the eighty A compliance.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Right and that's you know, that's one thing we've had.
We had a public in Point meeting in February third
at the more man In Public Library. We've got some
good feedback there. We asked questions of those that were
in attendance on would you like to see some of
the bullbouts that would be created, would you like to
see more hardscape or more flowers and green? Would you
(04:18):
like this project to be constructed all at once where
you've got street closures going on and then contractors can
get in and do their work and then get out.
And it's probably a little quicker and a little it
might save a little money, but also it's more inconvenient
to get to your business location should you need to.
And I think The feedback that we got on those
(04:39):
questions that we were asking was we don't really want
the streets fully closed off for long periods of time,
So okay, we'll take that into consideration. And also we'd
like more hardscape versus more greenescape. We know greenscape requires maintenance,
and sometimes that maintenance all sounds good at the beginning
of a project. Flowers look great, trees looks great, and
you come back a year later. Now we need to
(05:01):
do some gray up and some maintenance on that. And
the other big thing in here is the parking issue,
and I think that's what everyone in the tenants was.
We haven't heard many issues about the cost of the
project because I think we're looking at about a six
point eight million dollar project. With some federal, some state money,
some Prey DOUG money, some utility fund money, we're able
(05:23):
to get that six point eight million down to I
think five hundred and forty thousand would be the special
assessment costs. But again, we didn't hear a lot about
the cost of the project. It was regarding changes in parking.
And we want to stress that this is project is
that we're through thirty percent design. Yeah, on that pect, here.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
We can show it too. That give folks an idea
of where we are, Like you said.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Thirty thirty percent design. And we do that for a
few reasons. One, if a project gets protested out, we
don't have one hundred percent design into it, and we've
covered those costs. We get a good estimate on what
it may cost, what it may look like like up
through thirty percent, and then we put the district out
for whether it gets protested out or not. Last night's
action was for the board to determine whether there was
(06:10):
an insufficiency of protests. So really the action from the
board last night was to say, okay, of the area
I think there was, I can't remember the acreage fifty
five acres or something like that within this district, and
how much land area protested out this project, and we
do it. We do that calculation a couple of ways,
(06:32):
just to demonstrate, you know, by parcel and also by
land area by law is by land area, and I
think both were around twenty to twenty one percent I
had protested out, and you need over fifty percent in
order to in essence kill a project.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Right, And it was interesting listening to the meeting last
night and you can go to Dakota Media Access dot Oregon.
You can go to our archive and listen to the
thing in its entirety, or to our Facebook page. But
there was, like you said, it was all about the
change from sort of the what's the terms diagonal diagonal parking,
(07:10):
parallel parking, and some spaces. You will lose some spaces
in this project. But again, the ADA compliance, the money
that you can get coming in to help pay for
this project.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Really, tom Me, it's a matter of whether there were
any federal or state dollars involved at all. We still
have to construct our projects to be eighty A compliant.
So a lot of folks think that, well, because we're
taking I think two million dollars in federal state money
that we this is the reason that we have to
do that. Really, it's we have to construct the project
in accordance with EIGHTYA guidelines, which in this case means
(07:45):
some of those sidewalks that we have in this corridor
would be wider and as you and to match where
building doorway entrances are and things like that. I know
that our city engineer Jeric Weakness had a good graphic
up there to we kind of.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Think we've got that one too. You can take a
look at.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Yeah, kind of explain. Here are some of the doorways
that we're dealing. There's not many doorways on Fourth Avenue
between Main Street and First Street, but when there is
a I think we had a six or a twelve
inch lip to get into a business, we have to
bring that sidewalk up to be in compliance. And the
farther you have to raise that sidewalk, the more room
(08:24):
it takes to go into existing parking lanes, which in
turn means you're driving lanes, which in turn all has
a ripple effect on can you do parallel parking or
can you continue to do diagonal parking? And we want
to stress that we are at thirty percent design, and
at thirty percent design, it looks like we will need
(08:45):
to make a parking change, but between things can change,
a lot of work is going to be done. We
will involve those property owners in several discussions to help
explain maybe there's some things they can do inside their
building that would affect the width of the sidewalk outside
their building, and then there's other underground things. We have to
(09:06):
be cognizant of drainage and things like that, so we
get slopes done correctly, in the road constructed in a
way that you know, roads deteriorate from driving on them,
from just the temperature changes we have in North Dakota,
and from water. The longer water sits on a roadway,
the more it's going to deteriorate in a faster rate.
(09:27):
So our goal is to get the water off the
road as quick as it possible, which lengthens out the
life of that road. But again, a lot of the
changes that on parking issues are a result of some
of the eighty eight things we have to comply with.
And it's not a matter of well we can just
ignore them. We can't ignore them, or we put ourselves
in a position to be sued, and we don't want
(09:49):
to put ourselves in that position.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
I thought it was interesting too, you know, there's as
more detailed then someone would think. But two parking studies
were done where I think we heard that, you know,
photos were taken every fifteen minutes, and so it's it's
decisions aren't made without effort.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Correct and so we've you know, our engineering staff we
had bought some tools to put in our toolkit. We
had done a what we call a parking study where
we put a camera up and it takes pictures every
fifteen minutes. So we originally did that on a Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday to get a baseline, and then we came back
at the request you know, people said, well, that doesn't
(10:29):
include Friday and Saturday and Sunday or those aren't our
busy times. Okay, So we came back and did another
analysis doing a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and I think the
utilizations were pretty similar in the fact that there might
be a couple of times when there the parking exceeds
what's available, but overall, in general, there is still a
(10:54):
matter of there's still some excess parking, might have to
walk a little farther, and we understand that. But again,
what we to stress today and what we I think
the mayor did a good job of saying last night,
was that we're at thirty percent design. A lot of
work has to be done yet, and a lot of
there might be some changes that can happen. We're not
going to promise anything other than we're going to take
(11:17):
a really hard look now that we can dig into
a lot more details. Going from thirty percent to one
hundred percent design on how we can best accommodate if
we can accommodate some of those things and make these
things work. And again we'll grab a whole bunch more
input from residents in the area and property owners, and
a lot of folks are renting property and so we
want their input too on what the tenants are thinking.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
So the Commission unanimously passed this. There wasn't ye the
resist had to meet. The protests resolution really didn't have
anything to do with parking.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
The resolution resolution basically says, are there enough protests here
to protest this district out and they're kind of goofilly
word for a lack of a better term, So it's
determine the insufficiency of pro test in the board says
there are insufficient protests to stop this project.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
So now move forward. So what's the timeline, Jimmy said,
again you've said a couple times, right, thirty percent, Yep,
Now you can move forward. And I know this is
a three part project that will be phased in over years.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Yeah, for this first phase, this first phase, and that's
the only one that we have funding commitment for right now.
So phases two and phases three they might be combined,
they might be kept separate. We don't have funding commitments
for those two, so they might be a few years
down the road yet. So again on this project, I
think at the May twentieth meeting, we'll bring back a
contract for I think we have Catamust KLJ doing the
(12:39):
engineering work on this, so we contract with them to
continue on their work, and then it's a lot of
discussions with property owners, a lot of discussions with our
engineering team to make sure that okay, let's get this
to design. The project is done in conjunction with the
Eastate of North Dakota. So but in a big picture,
(13:01):
the say North Kota would like to have this project
bid in November of twenty twenty five, so we can
start construction in the spring of twenty twenty six, which
means design really probably has to be done wrapped up
around the end of August, so that North Koda Department
Transportation has a chance to review the plans and specs
before they put it out for bid. So we're looking
(13:21):
at several months yet before that final bid pack actually done.
You put it out for bids in November, you accept
bids probably December January, you award January February twenty six
for spring Spring construction twenty twenty six or a little
ways away. But these projects take a lot of time.
Rights you snap your fingers and we move on them today.
(13:45):
They're in the works for a long time before we
get to that point of putting shovels in the ground.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
All right, well, we'll pivot off that for a while.
New business last night, and I found this interesting as
someone newer to paying closer attention to all the city
commission meetings in Mandan and Mark. But this Memorial Highway
cost Participation amendment doesn't sound very exciting on the surface,
although mentioning the Memorial Highway, I guess right now, that's
(14:11):
construction that's exciting in itself. But I think it was
mentioned that this is a small but important amendment that
was made. If you want to describe.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
It's a like I say, it doesn't look very sexy
and exciting, But really what it means is that when
the State of North Dkota does a construction project, and
in this vein, Memorial Highway is still on the state
highway system, so it involves taking that highway because really
it's more of an urban road section. Now, what happens
is that State North Dakota then helps reconstruct that roadway.
(14:46):
So we're getting ninety percent of the above ground improvements
in general paid for through federal and state funds. I
usually call it the gift that keeps on giving. Right, So,
right now, the State of North Dakota does mobile and maintenance,
sweeping and crack sailing and things like that, And they're
out there today on my way over here. They're plothole
(15:07):
fixing what they can what's left the Memorial Highway. But
it means that after this project is done, the city
amend and then inherits this roadway and it becomes our
job to move Snow becomes our job to crack seale
and fix and sweep and keep it up. There will
still be on ninety percent money availability out there if
(15:30):
there needs to be major repairs and things like that,
but it's really ours for the maintenance after it's complete,
which we construct in twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six
into twenty twenty seven, and it's probably twenty twenty eight
before this project is done and completed, and then it
kind of falls into our our lab to start doing
our work.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
So you have to start looking down the road.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Yep, that's why I think commission Brown I think brought
that up last night, or I can't remember which commissioner did,
but they asked the question, have we been ramping up?
And yes, we've been ramping up with equipment because you know,
even though it is seems twenty twenty eight's ways away,
we're starting to say, Okay, we don't want a big
budgetary hit to say I need two or.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Three yeah suddenly people to do it.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Yeah, I needed a couple million dollars worth of snowplows
and things like that. So we've been kind of ramping
up in that van to get there.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Well, we have a map a graphic to show for
the next item, which will be a road closure on
twenty fourth for a natural gas project. And if you
can see in the bottom center of the photo that's
a Mandan High School, so it gives you an idea
of where this road is. But tell us about this
project and how long.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Yeah, the road between eighth Avenue which is between Walmart
and also the newly constructed man In High School. And
to be honest, we wish this project would have happened
while the road was being torn up last year. But
it didn't, and so right now MDU is coming in
I think, increasing from a twelve inch gas line up
to a sixteen inch natural gas line. We are doing
(17:00):
majority of the work is underground boring, so there should
be minimal if any disruption to the newly installed roadway
up there. And like I said, so, there might be
some road closures for a period of maybe a week
or two. They have been coordinating with the high school
to make sure high school is done before they go in,
and like I said, so, there will be some inconvenience
(17:20):
and some road closures along the way. But again it's
a natural gas line that I believe runs from the
Heskett area all the way up to Mine not so
it is a significant pipeline for MDU, and again some
work will be done in this area.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Another thing I wanted to touch on under new business
grant policy was approved and it dealt or deals with
the state or the sales tax question, not the state,
the sales tax cluestion under Measure one from last year
I believe, yep.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
And yeah, last spring a group of citizens has got
together and put together what we call Measure one, which
is an additional half st sales tax used to support
public transportation projects and also police and fire vehicles and
buildings and city hall accessibility needs, and so for public
(18:13):
transportation is two cents of that half cent would be
collected on sales tax basis, and that collection started January first,
And in turn, folks can apply for its grants to
if they have a entity that is dealing with public transportation,
which we know that Bisman Transit does that for the
(18:36):
city's of Bis market Man and its surrounding areas. But
they are not the sole they are not necessarily limited
by They're not just automatically this money is going to them.
It is for public transportation. That's how it was promoted,
that's how it was written. So if someone comes along
and say they have a public transportation issue, it meets
(18:57):
the guidelines that we approved last night. They could also
be a potential recipient with those funds too, So again
it moves that into a all right, we've started to
collect that half sent sales tax and of that the
two cents, and now it's time to get the application
processing and.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Moving the next item. Sounds like City staff was at
a State Water Commission meeting in April and three major projects.
I know you've been kind of tied in with the
legislature too, but tell us about three projects and what
you found out after that meeting.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Right, So sometimes he's come up, we have a project,
and I will say that the Department of Water Resources
also known as the State Water Commission, they've been you know,
their name may change. Yeah, so we've got to go
back and forth with that. They have cost share policies
where entities can apply for funding assistance for you know,
(19:55):
State Water Commission does flood control mitigation, think of water
apply from the pipeline going from bismarkmand and Watford City
all the way over to Fargo to help them in
drought situations. Money that comes really from oil and gas
activity in western North Dakota that's used to help fund
these projects. Fargo flund control min not flood control, pick
(20:18):
your favorite. But there's also a municipal drinking water part
of that. And so we had three projects that we've
been working on for Again, these projects takes years. It's
not just found about this grant and tomorrow we're apple
Pine and you know Friday, we find out we're awarded.
So at three of them, Memorial Highway and that is
again more high was under reconstruction water line, sewer lines
(20:40):
being done. This grant will help cover sixty percent of
the water line installation, So that was a big piece
Monty Drive, which we are in project process right now. Again,
sixty percent of the water lines in this residential neighborhood
being replaced or sixty percent of the funding for this
project is through the North to Gota Department of Water Resources.
(21:03):
And also we have a plant upgrade kind of at
the water treatment plant phase. We call it optimization phase three,
and I think in my time it's I ask them
how they get to three when I think we're at
about forty five. So water treatment plants and waste water
im plants are constantly undergoing. Things we're out, things need
(21:25):
to be replaced, things to be upgraded. There's really no
static time where you're not making improvements to that plant.
Because the one thing we want to make sure is
that when you turn your fast on, your water comes out,
and when you flush your toilet, the water goes away
and you don't have to think about it. And that's
part of what this I think the total amount of
these grants came to like eleven point seven million dollars.
(21:46):
So those are dollars that we don't have to in
essence put into our formula for when we come up
with how much your water bail is. And so these
are significant dollars. Usually why we say it's about six
nine or seventy cents per million dollars we would have
to borrow. So the eleven point seven million dollars here
(22:07):
is a big is a big lift. And you know,
if we didn't have that money, you'd be looking at
ten to twelve dollars probably additional on your utility bill
per month for a long time. So again, great source.
And then a shout out to our legislators and shout
out to Department Water Resources for providing these funds to
cities to access to and it is real, it is
(22:28):
meaningful money for all of us.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Well, And moving to the legislative session, yes, wrapped up
in the early hours last Saturday. I think some meaningful
tax relief for property only.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
So I think we've talked about House Bill eleven seventy
six many times, and you know, without diving into the
dirty gory details of that, it is you know right
now I think residence primary residential credit is at five
hundred dollars that will be going to sixteen hundred dollars,
So eleven hundred dollars increase there, and that's that's real
money again, that's real property tax relief. And the other
(23:02):
piece of that was the three percent caps on budgets
and expenditures and things like that for whether it's county schools, cities,
park districts. It's for everybody. It's not just limited to cities.
And that's going to be a big education piece, I
told the Commission last night. Because how that is figured out,
someone may get there. It doesn't mean the valuation of
(23:25):
your property is limited to three percent, because you may
see a ten percent increase in the valuation of your property.
You could see a ten percent decrease in evaluation for
your property. But this bill that three percent does not
change how we value properties. And so more deals with
the amount of money that we spend out of our
(23:45):
general fund. And those details are against still they're working.
They're being worked out now, and how do we interpret
what legislatives Assembly had in mind and things like that.
But those are some challenges that all of the political
subdivisions have to deal with.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
I know we talked quite a bit about that wastewater
study too. Well, it's been turned into a study, turned
into a project, turned into a study.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
But you feel I guess as good as it didn't.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
Get kick it didn't get kicked out kick Kelly. Although
a bill that started out with fifty million dollars in
appropriation in it to help whether it's cities that have
issues with their wastewater plants, which are lagoons there. For
the city at Mandan, it is our wastewater treatment plant
(24:33):
that we are looking at significant dollars. You know, last
estimate I think was one hundred and nineteen million dollars
upgrade we're needing to do. This bill would have been
for some grant money for the collection and treatment facilities.
Moved from fifty million down to twenty five million. And
then there were some cuts made in federal grants to
(24:57):
some communities in North Dakota such as Link and I
think had about a seven million dollar project upgrade at
their lagoons. I think it was feesid in and it
may have been a water intake in Washburn. Some of
those moneys got taken away and that they have been
counting on as grant money. And here's what it's going
to be. And so I think the legislator said, we
have to try and fill those coffers back up for
(25:18):
those communities that have been planning on this money. And
this bill kind of there's no money attached to it
for wastewater trim plants or collection systems. But the study
that the language that was put in was not a
may study. It was put in as shall study. So
that we think that's a positive that some steps forward
(25:39):
will be taking a look at how is there a
grant opportunity like on the clean water and the drinking
water side, is there a way for a grand opportunities
to be used for the wastewater side.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
So in the interim they'll make they'll study the issue,
and maybe by the next legislative session.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
Yeah, it'd be great if they're study of the issue
and there's a consistent funding source, because I think that
was one of the hang ups on this session is
that you know, there's an identified need of one point
five billion dollars in North Dakota for wastewater treatment and
collection systems that's there today, and so I think what
(26:14):
legislators we're concerned about is we would like to find
a consistent funding source to help those issues out rather
than just to you know, here's some money this session,
and we'll look and try and find some next year.
So again, we're happy that it made it to the
shall study stage and I'm sure we'll be involved in
that during the interim.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Some fun stuff to wrap up. May is clean up
time and the grass is green for now. But you
had a lot of cruise out in Mandan and Morton County.
We have a photo of some doing some good work.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
Yeah, it's awesome that. I think a program that we
was started by some residents that came to us and said, hey,
we should have a clean up day or a cleanup month.
We started out with a day. We've kind of transitioned
during COVID, you know, and again some of those things
that happened during COVID are sticking with us. It worked
out better to have let's do a pick up clean
up month where families, where neighborhoods, where businesses will you know,
(27:12):
bring in on a weekend five six seventy ninety ten
of their employers or family members and they'll make a
day of it and they'll pick her out and we
supply them with you know, t shirts and bags and
tools to pick garwads up with, and it's one of
those things. It's just a mind blowing experience and it
has been a very big success for us, and I
(27:33):
think people notice it around the community. It's always great
to see the orange bags laying at the side of
the road, which our public works crew and go up
and clean up afterwards. It's like there was a lot
of stuff. And I've been on some of those cleanup
crews myself. It's amazing the things you find and you
shake your head and go wow. But the again, of
the volunteers that do this, we are we are so
(27:53):
pleased and we're so grateful and thankful for the work
that they do. And they have a good time doing it,
and you register for prizes and like I said, we've
got all kind of of goodies for the folks that
do that, and again, we can't express our appreciation enough
for them.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
We talked about the Memorial Highway construction project. We thought
we'd pass along a number and a QR code and
a link so that everybody can stay up to date
on what the latest is happening.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Yeah, and it's we have been really pleased since they're
started being turned on the Memorial Highway. I think there
are a couple of flaggers out there making sure that
traffic is moving and vehicles can get in and out
of businesses at key locations during the construction project. So again,
kudos to the folks the contractors that are out there
(28:41):
doing that work. Big shout out to thank you for
people for being patient. Please go twenty five miles an
hour in the speed zone. We do have officers out
there ticketing people and we want to make sure everybody's safe.
And when we get the call from the contractors said, hey,
people are drawing forty fifty MILLI dollars down this construction
will be out there, and like I said, please be
(29:02):
respectful and continue to participate and partake in the businesses
that are out there. We know it's a challenge to
get to there, but we're doing our best to make
sure you still have access to those businesses and they
certainly appreciate you stopping in.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Also, I wanted to mention a public works open house side.
I guess we'll meet again one time before you win.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
But may I think that is a Thursday afternoon from
four o'clock till six pm where we invite, you know,
one of those things we do, and we kind of
do a fire open house in October during Fire Prevention Month.
We've started doing the public Works open house in May
because it is like Public Works Month also along with
(29:45):
Bike Month and along with Builders Safety Month and things
like that. So again we want people to come in
and take a look, get to meet our staff, get
to see the equipment. Bring your kids. We'll put them
in a snowplow, We'll put them in a maint we'll
put them in a front end loader and things like
that where they can actually see here's where our folks work.
(30:06):
They're very proud of the work that they do and
we like to kind of show it off and invite
and take a look.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Here's it's absolutely.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
And usually there's a broadwurst or a burger for you
waiting there.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Wait a minute, Okay, it'll be food.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
And like I said, our our folks, I call them
our kids sometimes, but our folks really like to show
off the things that we have and the equipment that
we have, and you know, come on in and look
and you say, well, it takes us way too long
to get to your house when it's snowing out we've
got four or five plows. We're doing several hundred miles
of streets. And but again, bring the kids in, put
(30:43):
them in a street sweeper, put them in a any
snowblow truck and things like that, and they get they
get a charge.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
On that should mention. Although the most of our lawns
are green, there's still a burnand.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Still a burn band. And please, while you know things
are greening up quite nicely, we had a little bit
of rain the last few weeks, there's still a burn
ban and in fact, and things are very dry. You
can look in fires in western North Dakota and the
natural mountains or to take state and even on the
eastern part of state where please be careful. And like
(31:15):
I said, burn ban is still there. Even though things
may look green, there's a lot of underbrush and a
lot of under things that can start on fire very easily.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Well, you mentioned getting the kids in the snowflow or
a sweeper. You have a big event coming up May seventeenth.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
Yeah, touch a truck is here again. So again the
great event put on by the man En Progress Organization,
presented by Barlain and West. Like to throw them a
shout out because former Mandan City Commissioner Amber Larson kind
of brought this event to us and said, hey, this
would be cool to have, and it's been a great success. Again,
(31:50):
when you want to see a lot of companies from
around town will bring in their big, heavy equipment. Kids
can sit in there. There is a quiet hour, I'll
give you that. Everybody wants to get in the plow
and honk the horn or the dumb truck, pick your favorite.
It can get noisy. If you want to bring headphones
for your kids or yourselves even please do so. But again,
(32:12):
the Great Event ten o'clock to two o'clock on Saturday,
May seventeenth and likes free, free of charge. And I
think normally they do a food pantry or drive or
something like that. But again you can go on the
Man in Progress Organization website and you know, bring kids,
bring yourselves down there. A lot of adults like to
come down here and look at the equipment that's being presented.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Yeah, it's fun. Well, Jim, thanks again. As always, want
to remind all of you that you can download our apps.
We have two. The Dakota Media Access app will take
you to our government access station and our community Access
station and then you can find a lot of great
podcasters and DJs shows on our Radio Access one oh
(32:56):
two point five apps. So just go in your app
store and type in Dakota Media Access find those download them,
or uh you can scan our QR code. Thanks for
joining us.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
Thanks Tom for having us. And don't forget about the
radio station too, because I.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Have that locked in on my one O two point five.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
There's always usually meeting on the evening on the way home.
Let me catch a couple of minutes of that too,
So thank you for having us.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Yeah, thanks for the plug. Good to see you, Jim yep,
have a good day.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
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
(33:46):
Access 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 free tv dot org.
Thanks for tuning in to this edition of city current
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