August 13, 2025 • 31 mins
Tom Gerhardt talks to Jim Neubauer about the Mandan city commission meeting on 8-5-25.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
City Current, produced by Dakoda Media Access in depth discussion
with Bismarck and Mandan City officials. Watch on Government Access
Channel six oh two HD or tune in to Radio
Access one O two point five FM. Always local, always current.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
And welcome to this edition of City Current, Mandan Style.
Mandan City Administrator Jim Neubauer joins me.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Good to see you, Jim, you too, Tom. It's been
a few probably been a month since we'll be in here.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
It feels like it's been a while. Summers in full
swing and busy City Commission meeting last night. Just some
coming up talking points. We're going to talk about the
requests for a Renaissance Zone program extension, a construction update.
I know there was an update on and I believe
seven projects given last night. Of course, everybody wants to
know about the Memorial Highway YEP. And then we'll talk
(00:57):
about the preliminary approval of the twenty twenty six Mandan
City budget. But the meeting started last night. We'll start
with announcements. In August fourteenth is the ninetieth anniversary of
Social Security and Josh Askvig, the executive director of AARP
North Dakota, came and led the Pledge of Allegiance and
they wanted to honor the anniversary of Social Security.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Yeah, a nice proclamation for Josh and his crew to
show up and had a couple of friends with him.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Obviously, sociecurity is a big thing. We all know that, and.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
It's one of those things that folks depend on, whether
it's for medical reasons, whether it's for retirement income. When
you're done working, it's time to enter those golden years
as some call it, others call it another term or
many other terms for that. But great to have Josh
and his crew, and I think there was an event
on August twentieth at j C Park, I believe, So
(01:55):
if you're looking for an event on the twentieth of August,
search it and then find out all the details.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
The proclamation I'm just looking says one hundred and forty
six and twenty one residents in North Dakota currently rely
on Social Security to help in those golden years, as
you mentioned, whatever we want to call them. Construction update,
as I mentioned, there was an update given on seven projects,
but a pretty big change on Memorial Highway as traffic
(02:23):
has shifted.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Yeah, traffic has shifted lots of comments on what we
call what do we call it the Wavy Bacon the
road that's there now that folks are driving on. Again,
we remind folks that is temporary. That is not the
final project. I'd love to stand on here and mess
with you and say that's what the project is going
to be, but I'm not going to do that. The
(02:44):
Wavy Bacon Road is temporary. They need to get to
the other side of the on the south side of
Memorial Hiway and get that out, fault cleaned off, and
get ready for the paving that'll happen later. And it's
like you said, we had seven different projects that Jared
gave updates on. Obviously, we have had a few rain
days this spring this summer, so I think the number
(03:07):
was three weeks and one day behind. Obviously, when contractors
bid jobs and we all work on what's the timing
of those things, there are rain days built in to
those projects. But this has been kind of an extreme
summer for You'll have a rainstorm, you'll get things dried out,
you start to work, and then you'll have another rainstorm.
(03:29):
So there's been a multiple issues of that going on.
So things, yes, things are a little bit behind, but
they're going to work and do what they can to
catch up. As construction projects in North Dakota you rely
on summer and winter, and summer is construction season and
winter is winter.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
And in the summer, we've had a lot of bit
of rain.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yeah, we're sure having more in the forecast. It sounds
like a fun event coming up August fourteenth, and that
is mandan And Police Department's eighth annual Grill with a
Cop which will be up at the Eagles Park.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Yeah, great event. Everyone's encouraged.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
It'll be Hamburger's, hot dogs, brought chips, sodas, things like that.
Bring your family, get to know our police officers. We
also have I think all of our police staff will
be there, from the sworn officers to support staff to
I think Highway Control said they were going to bring
some folks over. We have our public works crew bring
some of their equipment up to the park and it's
(04:26):
just a it's a great time to bring our officers
to the community and say here, meet and greet them.
They'll be cooking, they'll be cooking and serving folks and
we're hoping to have one of the canines there Medvey
and Angela Black, who I think we're a big hit
last year and doing some demonstrations with MEDV who you
(04:47):
don't want to be on the No, you do not
want to be in the wrong end of Medvy because
you will know it. And so, like I said, a
great event and encourage everybody to come out on August fourteenth.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
I heard the chiefs say last night it runs from
five thirty to seven thirty. You can see this sign
or if you're listening, it is a free event. Want
to reiterate that, but she said, people start showing up
around four thirty in our earlies.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Is popular, beautiful park, great playground. There are people up
there all the time, horseshoe pit. They have a meeting
room or an event room up there too. So again,
show up early, stay late, but like I said, they
will have enough food for everybody.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Wanted to touch on moving along on the agenda last
night the newly implemented public comment area space. No one
spoke last night, but just thought we'd remind people that
this is due to some legislative change. Every meeting now
will have public comment.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
They determined school boards.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Park board, city commissions, county commissions. After August one. Everybody
has to have a public comment period. You can set
your policy. Different cities or municipalities. Entities will set their
own policies. They have to meet some criteria that was
adopted in the state law that was passed so that
those items that can be commented on are you know,
(06:05):
public hearing. Anyone can come and comment on the public
hearing and that's days the same. This is for public
comment on items related to the current agenda or the
previous agenda. And our commission took a three minute You've
got a three minute time period, and you have also
thirty minutes in total for that public comment period. And
(06:27):
we've you generally had really good cooperative residents that are
very respectful each other when they have that public comment period.
But again I think what this was our legislators saying
you have to provide that because prior to this, you
know commission meetings and park board meetings, county meeting, school
board meanings. Really it is a meeting held in public
(06:50):
other than for the public hearing poort, your elected officials
could say we're not taking any public comment on anything
else other than the public hearing portion. Legislayer said, we
would like to have a public comment period on and
everybody's agenda. So we do that and we're perfectly good
with that. And again, if you want to submit comments
(07:11):
twenty four hours in advance of the meeting, you can
certainly do that. Commissioners would then have them at the meeting.
If you submit those comments or within twenty four hours
of the meeting, they will get them after the meeting.
So again there's some rules put in place. We have
our policy on our website. Like you said, no one
showed up or no one commented last night, So the
(07:31):
first run is fine, and this will be a continuation,
will be on every agenda from now on.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Yeah, I'm sure as the public catches on that space
will be utilized.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Moving forward, one of the big issues last night was
considering the ten year extension to the Renaissance Zone program
remand And, which has had significant impact on the city.
Let's talk about some of the details of that program.
It would expire at the end of this month if
action wasn't taken, and that I think.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
The Renaissance Zone program was put in place in nineteen
ninety nine by the state legislature, allows for cities to
create blocks of contiguous property that may be suffering from blight.
Sometimes that's in your downtown areas. Those blocks, the number
of blocks you could have were dependent upon your population.
(08:25):
Mann End's renaissance zone area is quite large compared to
most communities because we have the south side of Main
Street really is two blocks where you have railroad property
and things like that, so we our renaissance zone is
significantly large and elongated. Madison cermac or business development communications director,
(08:46):
did a nice job of presenting here's a number of
projects we've was it ninety seven or ninety right in.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Front of me, ninety two projects completed and over three
hundred million dollars in private investment.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
Right which we had three hundred, but I think it
was closer to thirty So all good in that.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Thirty I'm sorry, yeah, thirty million. See there, I go, yep,
thirty million.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
Yep, nine million dollars original property, and I think it
was value. It's valued now at thirty million dollars after
the payback period. Some of folks will question, well, why
are we doing this? And that's because normally in your
downtown areas, the cost to rehabilitate projects or build new
is significantly more because you just don't have the room. Right,
(09:29):
we're out in the green field, you've got room to
stage product, you can maneuver around that site. In the
downtown area you're really working with. You've got cars, you've
got traffic, you've got things going in and out. Your
construction costs go up significantly, and how can we provide
some to assist The renaissance own project requires that you
(09:50):
invest a certain amount of dollars into that project to
be eligible.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
You can't just.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
Slap a coat of paint on a building or inside
and say that's good. You have to have magnificant investment
in that property to gain those benefits of a five
year property tax exemption. So I think the payback on
that I think was two point three years. Two point
four years after that that five year period ends, that
we would recoup those tax dollars that were forgiven within
(10:18):
that time, and then you continue to recoup that money
even after that two and a half year period.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
So we have a graph goes back to two thousand
and five three thirty three rehabilitation projects. It really revitalizes
Mandan in a lot of ways. Two ten new construction
troubles numbers today ten new construction projects, thirty eight lease projects,
but across the board, it really strikes a lot of
(10:45):
vitality into the city.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
It has and a lot of people always ask, well,
you know, if this legislation was put in place in
nineteen ninety nine, why did Mandan wait until two thousand
and five to adopt our first renaissance zone. And that's
because we were dealing with the downtown diesel fuel spill
at the time. We weren't sure where property was headed,
(11:06):
if we were going to be able to settle the
lawsuit with the railroad. Once we and the Saner Dakota
settled that lawsuit with the railroad in two thousand summer
of two thousand and four, we then we were a
big part of some legislative changes in the in the
two thousand and five legislative session that allowed more reinvestment
(11:27):
in this area. Banks were free and financial institutions were
free to loan money to folks in this area. So
that's why we waited till two thousand and five. We
got all that going and have seen significant improvements in
our downtown.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
So we have a picture of before and after from
one project and more numbers. But I think, really again,
expresses a lot of significant since two thousand and five,
retained twelve businesses, twenty five have expanded, and twenty one new.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
It's a great project and you can see some of
those projects and very visible ones right now. Or is
the Dakota Customs project on the east and southeast end
of Main Street. So great project. We're also able to
add some what we call islands. So we've got an
island out kind of by Marshall Lumber because of Excel Homes,
because we think there may be significant investment in that
(12:21):
area once probably the strip project is complete. We may
also look at adding another island where the former high
school is, and that would provide some incentives for developers
to come in and redevelop those sites. And so great program.
The extension was we had the public hearing, there's no
public input that was received on it. Commissioner past a
(12:45):
resolution that will extend that time period out to August
thirty four of two thousand and thirty five.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
That's hard to be hard to believe.
Speaker 4 (12:56):
Yeah, it's hard to believe that the program has been
in place for twenty five years.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Right, two thousand and five seems like a couple of
years ago.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
I know, and so now the process will be Madison
presented at the school board on Monday night. I've got
their sign of approval. City Commission Tuesday night. She will
be at the Man and Park Board next Monday night
and more County Commission. So we'd like all of the
entities that are taxing entities that are involved to give
(13:22):
their blessing to the program and then we move on
from there.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Excellent we heard last night from both the public library
and the airport. So two more budgets were presented and
we'd start with the airport. And that was a status
update for twenty twenty six and again some interesting numbers.
Photo of the airport from the air on the screen
(13:46):
right now, and one hundred based aircraft at the airport.
Lots of other exciting things going on out there.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Really great and if you want to look at Lindsay Gerhart,
our airport manager, does an awesome job at the airport.
We're very fortunate to have her. You'll see her filling
planes with what I can't remember, the L L fuel
or the jet A fuel or things like that, or
if she'll be out mowing the grounds or moving.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Snow or we heard she does everything a.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
One person show out there, and we're very grateful and
lucky to have.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Her airport makes a presentation. You know.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
Some of the big projects we've had going on, there's
what we call the wetland mitigation project out there.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Some folks think, why are you doing this?
Speaker 4 (14:27):
Well, usually wet areas are attractors for birds, and as
Lindsay said last night, birds and airplanes don't necessarily get
along that well and they don't play in.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
The same space.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
So that's a project that we have been working on
for several years and finally have a contractor on board
to get that taken care of, which also opens up
some additional property to potentially put a new hangar on
which will bring more least revenue into the airport.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
So a lot of good things going on to the airport.
Speaker 4 (14:56):
Interesting I think Lindsay said there are sixty activities there
a day, which means takeoffs and landings, said that that
number increases greatly when we've got the Oshkosh fly in
show or convention, whatever you call that in Wisconsin, but
and ends general Aviation Airport is a significant stopover point.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
It says we have a graphic to approximately two hundred
additional operations in July from that Oshkosh traffic and also
caught my attention planes and pancakes.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
Who doesn't like that.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Seventeen hundred and fifty people attended that annual event.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
It is a smidge windy out this year, a little
crazy this year if you remember, that occurs on Sunday
of also we have Buggies and blues going on that day.
Incredibly windy day, great turnouts out at the airport and
kind of limited the number of planes and the activities
that were going on out there, but a whole hangarful
of people having pancakes and sausage and things like that,
(15:55):
and really a good time because they've got some bounce
houses for the kids and the folks that bring their
planes in and allow and the kids and adults to
take a look. You want to come and sit inside
the plane? Do you want to walk through the plane?
Do you want to do this? It's really a good
public relations tool that demand in Airport does, and again
(16:17):
big thanks to all the volunteers at work on that.
Lindsay presented some numbers on statistics on the activity of
the pilots that fly in and their families and what
they're able to do. You know, they're taking in businesses
in the downtown area, whether that's eating and visiting and
things like that.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
So, yeah, did a nice job. Another great community event
in Mandan. Also she mentioned I thought i'd show for
those watching. They're hoping to build a new sign for
the Mandan Regional Airport lolor Field next year and it's
a pretty nice looking sign, so hopefully they can find
some money in the budget.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
To take care of that.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
When Lindsay says that we are the largest general aviation
airport between Minneapolis and I think Seattle, that's a pretty
big deal. And if actually the new building that the
Airport Authority purchased out there.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Has upped our game, yeah, quite a bit.
Speaker 4 (17:12):
So there's a lounge, there's a paid where if you
need to take a rest, if you're doing a flyover,
come in and sit in the lounge. You can make
yourself a meal and things like that. We've got a
couple of courtesy cars that can be utilized out there,
so we're doing a lot of things to cater to
those folks that are flying over and want to stop in,
and also the businesses that we have out there are
significant impacts in the community.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Also heard from the library and numbers looking back at
twenty twenty four and they had over forty thousand visitors.
That's a great number, and I mentioned that's up over
five thousand from the previous year, so a lot of
activity taking place at the libraries.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
They presented their budget.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
Yeah, Barb does a fantastic job of you know it,
when they present their budget.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
It's kind of their time.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
To shine and which when the umbarber did a great
job of that last night of making sure that our commissioners,
we do have a sitting commissioner Showberg who sits on
the library Board of Trustees along with the county commissioner,
because it is the Morton man in public library and
the activities that they have going on there are crazy,
and I mean crazy in a very good way. The
(18:21):
number of folks that come in the door. They've the
additions of the meeting rooms and the upgrade to the
library and in the whole park area have proven very.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Beneficial to attendance.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
I think it's pretty cool that she applied for a
grant and got some furniture to sit out on the
patio and you can listen to the bands just about
every night of the week during the summer and you
see people over there just stopping by and having lunch.
So again, the participation in the library activities, and we
like to say it's not a library. You can talk loud,
and you can have fun, and all kinds of areas
(18:53):
for whether you're littles are four or five six year
olds or the one and two year olds. They've got
story times and even there's activities for adults there too.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Tom So Well, this caught my attention. Two hundred and
fifty three activities in twenty twenty four. I believe there
are three hundred and sixty five days in the year,
so that's impressive, and attendance to those events were over
ninety four hundred. Another thing that caught my attention was
eight hundred twenty two new borrowers and their bookmobile thirty
(19:25):
three monthly stops. So really not just having people come
to them, but they're doing some outreach into the community.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
Their outreach and it's interesting that they're working on some things.
We had what we called the Third Street Corridor study
done this winter and this fall that or last fall,
and talk about you know, where are areas of town
they're maybe underserved and Barb and her crew have been
doing a really good job of making those identifications. And
(19:52):
how do we best get the bookmobile down to them
because book wallmal is just not running out to Aburn
and Glennell and then do sale an Almont and that
they're at Lakewood area there in the northwest part of Mandana,
And how do we get into some of those other
areas of town they may not see they made you know,
like we talked earlier, there was a railroad going through
town if you didn't know it is, and crossing the tracks,
(20:15):
You've got about two spots to do that, and sometimes
kids don't have that opportunity to cross, and so let's
bring those services to them. And like I said, Barb
and her crew at the library are awesome to work
with and they've.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
Always got smiles on their faces. And the meeting rooms.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
That have been added with the upgrades at the library
have been well used and are just a huge addition.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
And sign of the times. It shouldn't surprise me, but
the thirty nine almost forty thousand e checkouts of materials
ranging from magazines to books was also an impressive number.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
It again crazy good. They've even revamped I think they
got a grant for their game room, which is a
lot of teenagers, and we had a lead City's board
meeting there this spring, and some of them wanted a
tour of the library. And here we've got six or
seven kids in the game room at the game table.
If you haven't seen the game table, it's pretty impressive.
(21:11):
And it's I didn't think Dungeons and Dragons was a
thing anymore, but it is a thing, all right. And
you've got kids that are in it. They're not on
their phones, they're interacting with each other, and they're playing
games and they're communicating, and it's just it's really great
to see.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Moving along the shores at Lakewood. The Phase two agreement,
a few things unanimously passed last night, but give us
an update. We have a map that gives you an
idea of where this is. Nestled next to the Heart
River on the east side, and but a lot of
activity taking place, a lot of activity.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
If you are listening, you are south of the Prairie
West golf Course and kind of east of the Lakewood Subdivision,
more towards the Heart River, and in that area we
have Dutton Drive, I think are Dutton Circle camera which
name it is a development there's also created by article
to Hammer and his crew that you see a lot
(22:08):
of new houses going up in that area. And this
is phase kind of two. In phase three coming along
where we've approved the development Agreement, which we've talked before
about I think yes, may and finally was green lighted
and approved, and now it comes time for Okay, we
need to get the underground water sewer, stormwater installed and
(22:28):
things like that, and that's what the actions last night
were related to. So we'll get bids on those projects
and you probably will see some activity dirt flying this fall.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Last night also talking about preliminary approval of the Mandan
City budget, so we have some graphics that kind of
will give you a idea of what.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Was going on that.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Ultimately, the preliminary budget was unanimously approved. But some of
the highlights, I guess Or's pulling out some of the
conversation points a three million dollar increase from the twenty
twenty five budget. Talk about that a little bit, and
what the city's been looking at as you've been working on.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
This, and we've we have three new we have a
new mayor and two new commissioners and so in January
we started focusing on my long range CIP plan, capital
improvement plan and also financial plan, and so it things
worked out really well because with three new commissioners, we
(23:34):
want to make sure that they are well informed and
well in tuned. Gave them kind of six months of
a grace period and then we hit them hard in
January with meetings about every week for about eight or
nine meetings, I think, to get them up to speed
and early. It was a good exercise for all of us,
from staffers to elective officials to go through here's what
(23:55):
we have currently and here's what we're looking at in
the future. So everybody was kind of on board time
to input, comment.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
Discuss, and things like that.
Speaker 4 (24:03):
So the culmination really is a preliminary budget for twenty
twenty six. Greg Welsh, our fine Mins director, and Justin
Schultz give them a shout out. A lot of time
and effort goes into the prep on this along with
our other departments, but they are the crew that kind
of brings everything together and puts together a package for
the Commission to consider. So, yeah, three million dollars more
(24:25):
than last year.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
We've got salaries and wages are going up.
Speaker 4 (24:29):
I think the preliminary budget will increase that by three percent.
The you know, there are some new positions in there.
I think we have three new firefighter positions. Important to
note that we are we have applied for a grant
to help fund those new positions. We also have the
half cent sales tax that was passed in June of
(24:52):
twenty twenty four to assist with public transportation, police and
fire vehicle city hall accessibility. And last night we we
had the second reading of theat organs what that would
allow helping to fund new fire and police positions created
after on or after January first of twenty twenty five.
(25:12):
So we didn't want to have that pay for existing stuff.
These would be new positions to make that possible. So
by using those funds, were able to move forward with
some additional emergency personnel, which we need. We need to
get our staffing up to speed on our two fire
stations as we are now. And then obviously we've been
talking about looking at a third station in northwest part
(25:34):
of town two. So new positions, additional debt that comes on.
We've got kind of a weird abnormality that comes on
with a.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Twenty seven that really caught has.
Speaker 4 (25:46):
Happens about every ten years or so, but it's a
significant budgetary impact. So it's to the tune of I
think four hundred plus thousand dollars, So it is significant
when you look at well, you're going from three million dollars.
If you take that four hundred thousand dollars, you don't
a two point six million. And that's again really some
(26:07):
machinery and equipment and things. But we also have to
make sure that we are compliant with House Bill eleven
seventy six, the three percent property tax cap and things
like that, and make sure that we are a following
state law and in compliance, and we are. We always
need to make sure that folks understand that your property
valuation may go up by more than three percent, so
(26:29):
your home value or your business value may go up
by five or six percent. I think the average increase
was three point four percent, but that we still need
to be in climbate in compliance with what our mill
levy and what our meal dollars are able to do.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
And we have a graphic too you can see at
home if you're listening of the stuff to listen along.
But an average residential property valued at three hundred thousand
dollars plus three point five percent average valuation increase on
the city's projected mill rate res an eight dollars annual increase,
(27:05):
right eight.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
Dollars per year on a three hundred thousand dollars house.
That may change a little bit because again we have
the preliminary budget hearing or preliminary budget consideration last.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
Night August fifth.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
We will we can't increase that budget from now until
the budget hearing. In the final budget we can decrease,
So there may be some adjustments and fine tuning that
we do between now and the end of August. But
again that is the preliminary budget, and again important to
note the city makes up twenty three percent. So you
(27:37):
get your tax bill, it's one thousand dollars. This is
what the city's portion of that for police and fire
and public works is is two hundred and thirty dollars,
or about twenty three percent. So when we say that
your home value, average home value, three hundred thousand dollars
house going up three point five percent, that translates into
(27:59):
what I want, I owe more eight dollars a year,
not eight dollars a month, but eight dollars a year.
We're still doing some work on our utility rates and
things like that. Don't anticipate any major changes.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
On that end.
Speaker 4 (28:12):
But again, at the end of the day, people go, well,
how much more is it's going to cost me?
Speaker 3 (28:15):
Right? Three one thousand dollars house eight bucks a year
from our standpoint.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Yeah, so that really put it in perspective. And then
just looking ahead, it'll be early October when we'll finalize
the twenty twenty six budget.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
We will have the public hearing I think is the
second or the third Tuesday in September, and we will
hold we'll have that budget hearing. At that point in time,
public can come in and comment, tell us what they think,
and then I think the action will be too all right,
let's close the public hearing and then the final consideration
(28:50):
for the budget will be the first Tuesday in October,
so that if there's any changes that people want to
make or the Commission wants to make after that budget hearing,
there's an opportunity.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
To do that.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Well, it was a medi agenda last night.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
A lot of stuff on accomplished.
Speaker 4 (29:05):
Usually always the first Tuesday in August is the budget time,
and there's a lot of stuff there, and like I said,
I can't leave without giving a big shout out to
all of our staff all over, department heads, all of
our commissioners that have put in a number of hours
in time and meetings and going through long range financial
planning exercises beginning the first Tuesday in January, So kudos
(29:31):
to them, Kudos to our staff, Kudos to all the
consultants that have helped us bring this together.
Speaker 3 (29:35):
So it's really a good thing.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
If you miss the meeting and you want to check
it out, and I mean, you can watch the City
Current and you'll get the highlights. But all of this
is archived on to Coode Media Access dot Oregon. Please
be sure to take a look at our apps, the
d m A app and the Radio Access one to
two point five apps so you can watch or listen
to us wherever you are whenever you can. And Jim,
great to see you. Thanks for joining us, everybody, and
(29:59):
we'll see you back here next week.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
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
(30:23):
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 Dakoda Media Access in depth discussion
with Bismarck and Mandan City officials. Watch on Government Access
Channel six oh two HD or tune in to Radio
Access one O two point five FM. Always local, always current.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
And welcome to this edition of City Current, Mandan Style.
Mandan City Administrator Jim Neubauer joins me.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Good to see you, Jim, you too, Tom. It's been
a few probably been a month since we'll be in here.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
It feels like it's been a while. Summers in full
swing and busy City Commission meeting last night. Just some
coming up talking points. We're going to talk about the
requests for a Renaissance Zone program extension, a construction update.
I know there was an update on and I believe
seven projects given last night. Of course, everybody wants to
know about the Memorial Highway YEP. And then we'll talk
(00:57):
about the preliminary approval of the twenty twenty six Mandan
City budget. But the meeting started last night. We'll start
with announcements. In August fourteenth is the ninetieth anniversary of
Social Security and Josh Askvig, the executive director of AARP
North Dakota, came and led the Pledge of Allegiance and
they wanted to honor the anniversary of Social Security.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Yeah, a nice proclamation for Josh and his crew to
show up and had a couple of friends with him.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Obviously, sociecurity is a big thing. We all know that, and.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
It's one of those things that folks depend on, whether
it's for medical reasons, whether it's for retirement income. When
you're done working, it's time to enter those golden years
as some call it, others call it another term or
many other terms for that. But great to have Josh
and his crew, and I think there was an event
on August twentieth at j C Park, I believe, So
(01:55):
if you're looking for an event on the twentieth of August,
search it and then find out all the details.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
The proclamation I'm just looking says one hundred and forty
six and twenty one residents in North Dakota currently rely
on Social Security to help in those golden years, as
you mentioned, whatever we want to call them. Construction update,
as I mentioned, there was an update given on seven projects,
but a pretty big change on Memorial Highway as traffic
(02:23):
has shifted.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Yeah, traffic has shifted lots of comments on what we
call what do we call it the Wavy Bacon the
road that's there now that folks are driving on. Again,
we remind folks that is temporary. That is not the
final project. I'd love to stand on here and mess
with you and say that's what the project is going
to be, but I'm not going to do that. The
(02:44):
Wavy Bacon Road is temporary. They need to get to
the other side of the on the south side of
Memorial Hiway and get that out, fault cleaned off, and
get ready for the paving that'll happen later. And it's
like you said, we had seven different projects that Jared
gave updates on. Obviously, we have had a few rain
days this spring this summer, so I think the number
(03:07):
was three weeks and one day behind. Obviously, when contractors
bid jobs and we all work on what's the timing
of those things, there are rain days built in to
those projects. But this has been kind of an extreme
summer for You'll have a rainstorm, you'll get things dried out,
you start to work, and then you'll have another rainstorm.
(03:29):
So there's been a multiple issues of that going on.
So things, yes, things are a little bit behind, but
they're going to work and do what they can to
catch up. As construction projects in North Dakota you rely
on summer and winter, and summer is construction season and
winter is winter.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
And in the summer, we've had a lot of bit
of rain.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yeah, we're sure having more in the forecast. It sounds
like a fun event coming up August fourteenth, and that
is mandan And Police Department's eighth annual Grill with a
Cop which will be up at the Eagles Park.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Yeah, great event. Everyone's encouraged.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
It'll be Hamburger's, hot dogs, brought chips, sodas, things like that.
Bring your family, get to know our police officers. We
also have I think all of our police staff will
be there, from the sworn officers to support staff to
I think Highway Control said they were going to bring
some folks over. We have our public works crew bring
some of their equipment up to the park and it's
(04:26):
just a it's a great time to bring our officers
to the community and say here, meet and greet them.
They'll be cooking, they'll be cooking and serving folks and
we're hoping to have one of the canines there Medvey
and Angela Black, who I think we're a big hit
last year and doing some demonstrations with MEDV who you
(04:47):
don't want to be on the No, you do not
want to be in the wrong end of Medvy because
you will know it. And so, like I said, a
great event and encourage everybody to come out on August fourteenth.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
I heard the chiefs say last night it runs from
five thirty to seven thirty. You can see this sign
or if you're listening, it is a free event. Want
to reiterate that, but she said, people start showing up
around four thirty in our earlies.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Is popular, beautiful park, great playground. There are people up
there all the time, horseshoe pit. They have a meeting
room or an event room up there too. So again,
show up early, stay late, but like I said, they
will have enough food for everybody.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Wanted to touch on moving along on the agenda last
night the newly implemented public comment area space. No one
spoke last night, but just thought we'd remind people that
this is due to some legislative change. Every meeting now
will have public comment.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
They determined school boards.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Park board, city commissions, county commissions. After August one. Everybody
has to have a public comment period. You can set
your policy. Different cities or municipalities. Entities will set their
own policies. They have to meet some criteria that was
adopted in the state law that was passed so that
those items that can be commented on are you know,
(06:05):
public hearing. Anyone can come and comment on the public
hearing and that's days the same. This is for public
comment on items related to the current agenda or the
previous agenda. And our commission took a three minute You've
got a three minute time period, and you have also
thirty minutes in total for that public comment period. And
(06:27):
we've you generally had really good cooperative residents that are
very respectful each other when they have that public comment period.
But again I think what this was our legislators saying
you have to provide that because prior to this, you
know commission meetings and park board meetings, county meeting, school
board meanings. Really it is a meeting held in public
(06:50):
other than for the public hearing poort, your elected officials
could say we're not taking any public comment on anything
else other than the public hearing portion. Legislayer said, we
would like to have a public comment period on and
everybody's agenda. So we do that and we're perfectly good
with that. And again, if you want to submit comments
(07:11):
twenty four hours in advance of the meeting, you can
certainly do that. Commissioners would then have them at the meeting.
If you submit those comments or within twenty four hours
of the meeting, they will get them after the meeting.
So again there's some rules put in place. We have
our policy on our website. Like you said, no one
showed up or no one commented last night, So the
(07:31):
first run is fine, and this will be a continuation,
will be on every agenda from now on.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Yeah, I'm sure as the public catches on that space
will be utilized.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Moving forward, one of the big issues last night was
considering the ten year extension to the Renaissance Zone program
remand And, which has had significant impact on the city.
Let's talk about some of the details of that program.
It would expire at the end of this month if
action wasn't taken, and that I think.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
The Renaissance Zone program was put in place in nineteen
ninety nine by the state legislature, allows for cities to
create blocks of contiguous property that may be suffering from blight.
Sometimes that's in your downtown areas. Those blocks, the number
of blocks you could have were dependent upon your population.
(08:25):
Mann End's renaissance zone area is quite large compared to
most communities because we have the south side of Main
Street really is two blocks where you have railroad property
and things like that, so we our renaissance zone is
significantly large and elongated. Madison cermac or business development communications director,
(08:46):
did a nice job of presenting here's a number of
projects we've was it ninety seven or ninety right in.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Front of me, ninety two projects completed and over three
hundred million dollars in private investment.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
Right which we had three hundred, but I think it
was closer to thirty So all good in that.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Thirty I'm sorry, yeah, thirty million. See there, I go, yep,
thirty million.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
Yep, nine million dollars original property, and I think it
was value. It's valued now at thirty million dollars after
the payback period. Some of folks will question, well, why
are we doing this? And that's because normally in your
downtown areas, the cost to rehabilitate projects or build new
is significantly more because you just don't have the room. Right,
(09:29):
we're out in the green field, you've got room to
stage product, you can maneuver around that site. In the
downtown area you're really working with. You've got cars, you've
got traffic, you've got things going in and out. Your
construction costs go up significantly, and how can we provide
some to assist The renaissance own project requires that you
(09:50):
invest a certain amount of dollars into that project to
be eligible.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
You can't just.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
Slap a coat of paint on a building or inside
and say that's good. You have to have magnificant investment
in that property to gain those benefits of a five
year property tax exemption. So I think the payback on
that I think was two point three years. Two point
four years after that that five year period ends, that
we would recoup those tax dollars that were forgiven within
(10:18):
that time, and then you continue to recoup that money
even after that two and a half year period.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
So we have a graph goes back to two thousand
and five three thirty three rehabilitation projects. It really revitalizes
Mandan in a lot of ways. Two ten new construction
troubles numbers today ten new construction projects, thirty eight lease projects,
but across the board, it really strikes a lot of
(10:45):
vitality into the city.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
It has and a lot of people always ask, well,
you know, if this legislation was put in place in
nineteen ninety nine, why did Mandan wait until two thousand
and five to adopt our first renaissance zone. And that's
because we were dealing with the downtown diesel fuel spill
at the time. We weren't sure where property was headed,
(11:06):
if we were going to be able to settle the
lawsuit with the railroad. Once we and the Saner Dakota
settled that lawsuit with the railroad in two thousand summer
of two thousand and four, we then we were a
big part of some legislative changes in the in the
two thousand and five legislative session that allowed more reinvestment
(11:27):
in this area. Banks were free and financial institutions were
free to loan money to folks in this area. So
that's why we waited till two thousand and five. We
got all that going and have seen significant improvements in
our downtown.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
So we have a picture of before and after from
one project and more numbers. But I think, really again,
expresses a lot of significant since two thousand and five,
retained twelve businesses, twenty five have expanded, and twenty one new.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
It's a great project and you can see some of
those projects and very visible ones right now. Or is
the Dakota Customs project on the east and southeast end
of Main Street. So great project. We're also able to
add some what we call islands. So we've got an
island out kind of by Marshall Lumber because of Excel Homes,
because we think there may be significant investment in that
(12:21):
area once probably the strip project is complete. We may
also look at adding another island where the former high
school is, and that would provide some incentives for developers
to come in and redevelop those sites. And so great program.
The extension was we had the public hearing, there's no
public input that was received on it. Commissioner past a
(12:45):
resolution that will extend that time period out to August
thirty four of two thousand and thirty five.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
That's hard to be hard to believe.
Speaker 4 (12:56):
Yeah, it's hard to believe that the program has been
in place for twenty five years.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Right, two thousand and five seems like a couple of
years ago.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
I know, and so now the process will be Madison
presented at the school board on Monday night. I've got
their sign of approval. City Commission Tuesday night. She will
be at the Man and Park Board next Monday night
and more County Commission. So we'd like all of the
entities that are taxing entities that are involved to give
(13:22):
their blessing to the program and then we move on
from there.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Excellent we heard last night from both the public library
and the airport. So two more budgets were presented and
we'd start with the airport. And that was a status
update for twenty twenty six and again some interesting numbers.
Photo of the airport from the air on the screen
(13:46):
right now, and one hundred based aircraft at the airport.
Lots of other exciting things going on out there.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Really great and if you want to look at Lindsay Gerhart,
our airport manager, does an awesome job at the airport.
We're very fortunate to have her. You'll see her filling
planes with what I can't remember, the L L fuel
or the jet A fuel or things like that, or
if she'll be out mowing the grounds or moving.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Snow or we heard she does everything a.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
One person show out there, and we're very grateful and
lucky to have.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Her airport makes a presentation. You know.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
Some of the big projects we've had going on, there's
what we call the wetland mitigation project out there.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Some folks think, why are you doing this?
Speaker 4 (14:27):
Well, usually wet areas are attractors for birds, and as
Lindsay said last night, birds and airplanes don't necessarily get
along that well and they don't play in.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
The same space.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
So that's a project that we have been working on
for several years and finally have a contractor on board
to get that taken care of, which also opens up
some additional property to potentially put a new hangar on
which will bring more least revenue into the airport.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
So a lot of good things going on to the airport.
Speaker 4 (14:56):
Interesting I think Lindsay said there are sixty activities there
a day, which means takeoffs and landings, said that that
number increases greatly when we've got the Oshkosh fly in
show or convention, whatever you call that in Wisconsin, but
and ends general Aviation Airport is a significant stopover point.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
It says we have a graphic to approximately two hundred
additional operations in July from that Oshkosh traffic and also
caught my attention planes and pancakes.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
Who doesn't like that.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Seventeen hundred and fifty people attended that annual event.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
It is a smidge windy out this year, a little
crazy this year if you remember, that occurs on Sunday
of also we have Buggies and blues going on that day.
Incredibly windy day, great turnouts out at the airport and
kind of limited the number of planes and the activities
that were going on out there, but a whole hangarful
of people having pancakes and sausage and things like that,
(15:55):
and really a good time because they've got some bounce
houses for the kids and the folks that bring their
planes in and allow and the kids and adults to
take a look. You want to come and sit inside
the plane? Do you want to walk through the plane?
Do you want to do this? It's really a good
public relations tool that demand in Airport does, and again
(16:17):
big thanks to all the volunteers at work on that.
Lindsay presented some numbers on statistics on the activity of
the pilots that fly in and their families and what
they're able to do. You know, they're taking in businesses
in the downtown area, whether that's eating and visiting and
things like that.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
So, yeah, did a nice job. Another great community event
in Mandan. Also she mentioned I thought i'd show for
those watching. They're hoping to build a new sign for
the Mandan Regional Airport lolor Field next year and it's
a pretty nice looking sign, so hopefully they can find
some money in the budget.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
To take care of that.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
When Lindsay says that we are the largest general aviation
airport between Minneapolis and I think Seattle, that's a pretty
big deal. And if actually the new building that the
Airport Authority purchased out there.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Has upped our game, yeah, quite a bit.
Speaker 4 (17:12):
So there's a lounge, there's a paid where if you
need to take a rest, if you're doing a flyover,
come in and sit in the lounge. You can make
yourself a meal and things like that. We've got a
couple of courtesy cars that can be utilized out there,
so we're doing a lot of things to cater to
those folks that are flying over and want to stop in,
and also the businesses that we have out there are
significant impacts in the community.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Also heard from the library and numbers looking back at
twenty twenty four and they had over forty thousand visitors.
That's a great number, and I mentioned that's up over
five thousand from the previous year, so a lot of
activity taking place at the libraries.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
They presented their budget.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
Yeah, Barb does a fantastic job of you know it,
when they present their budget.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
It's kind of their time.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
To shine and which when the umbarber did a great
job of that last night of making sure that our commissioners,
we do have a sitting commissioner Showberg who sits on
the library Board of Trustees along with the county commissioner,
because it is the Morton man in public library and
the activities that they have going on there are crazy,
and I mean crazy in a very good way. The
(18:21):
number of folks that come in the door. They've the
additions of the meeting rooms and the upgrade to the
library and in the whole park area have proven very.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Beneficial to attendance.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
I think it's pretty cool that she applied for a
grant and got some furniture to sit out on the
patio and you can listen to the bands just about
every night of the week during the summer and you
see people over there just stopping by and having lunch.
So again, the participation in the library activities, and we
like to say it's not a library. You can talk loud,
and you can have fun, and all kinds of areas
(18:53):
for whether you're littles are four or five six year
olds or the one and two year olds. They've got
story times and even there's activities for adults there too.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Tom So Well, this caught my attention. Two hundred and
fifty three activities in twenty twenty four. I believe there
are three hundred and sixty five days in the year,
so that's impressive, and attendance to those events were over
ninety four hundred. Another thing that caught my attention was
eight hundred twenty two new borrowers and their bookmobile thirty
(19:25):
three monthly stops. So really not just having people come
to them, but they're doing some outreach into the community.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
Their outreach and it's interesting that they're working on some things.
We had what we called the Third Street Corridor study
done this winter and this fall that or last fall,
and talk about you know, where are areas of town
they're maybe underserved and Barb and her crew have been
doing a really good job of making those identifications. And
(19:52):
how do we best get the bookmobile down to them
because book wallmal is just not running out to Aburn
and Glennell and then do sale an Almont and that
they're at Lakewood area there in the northwest part of Mandana,
And how do we get into some of those other
areas of town they may not see they made you know,
like we talked earlier, there was a railroad going through
town if you didn't know it is, and crossing the tracks,
(20:15):
You've got about two spots to do that, and sometimes
kids don't have that opportunity to cross, and so let's
bring those services to them. And like I said, Barb
and her crew at the library are awesome to work
with and they've.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
Always got smiles on their faces. And the meeting rooms.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
That have been added with the upgrades at the library
have been well used and are just a huge addition.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
And sign of the times. It shouldn't surprise me, but
the thirty nine almost forty thousand e checkouts of materials
ranging from magazines to books was also an impressive number.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
It again crazy good. They've even revamped I think they
got a grant for their game room, which is a
lot of teenagers, and we had a lead City's board
meeting there this spring, and some of them wanted a
tour of the library. And here we've got six or
seven kids in the game room at the game table.
If you haven't seen the game table, it's pretty impressive.
(21:11):
And it's I didn't think Dungeons and Dragons was a
thing anymore, but it is a thing, all right. And
you've got kids that are in it. They're not on
their phones, they're interacting with each other, and they're playing
games and they're communicating, and it's just it's really great
to see.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Moving along the shores at Lakewood. The Phase two agreement,
a few things unanimously passed last night, but give us
an update. We have a map that gives you an
idea of where this is. Nestled next to the Heart
River on the east side, and but a lot of
activity taking place, a lot of activity.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
If you are listening, you are south of the Prairie
West golf Course and kind of east of the Lakewood Subdivision,
more towards the Heart River, and in that area we
have Dutton Drive, I think are Dutton Circle camera which
name it is a development there's also created by article
to Hammer and his crew that you see a lot
(22:08):
of new houses going up in that area. And this
is phase kind of two. In phase three coming along
where we've approved the development Agreement, which we've talked before
about I think yes, may and finally was green lighted
and approved, and now it comes time for Okay, we
need to get the underground water sewer, stormwater installed and
(22:28):
things like that, and that's what the actions last night
were related to. So we'll get bids on those projects
and you probably will see some activity dirt flying this fall.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Last night also talking about preliminary approval of the Mandan
City budget, so we have some graphics that kind of
will give you a idea of what.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Was going on that.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Ultimately, the preliminary budget was unanimously approved. But some of
the highlights, I guess Or's pulling out some of the
conversation points a three million dollar increase from the twenty
twenty five budget. Talk about that a little bit, and
what the city's been looking at as you've been working on.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
This, and we've we have three new we have a
new mayor and two new commissioners and so in January
we started focusing on my long range CIP plan, capital
improvement plan and also financial plan, and so it things
worked out really well because with three new commissioners, we
(23:34):
want to make sure that they are well informed and
well in tuned. Gave them kind of six months of
a grace period and then we hit them hard in
January with meetings about every week for about eight or
nine meetings, I think, to get them up to speed
and early. It was a good exercise for all of us,
from staffers to elective officials to go through here's what
(23:55):
we have currently and here's what we're looking at in
the future. So everybody was kind of on board time
to input, comment.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
Discuss, and things like that.
Speaker 4 (24:03):
So the culmination really is a preliminary budget for twenty
twenty six. Greg Welsh, our fine Mins director, and Justin
Schultz give them a shout out. A lot of time
and effort goes into the prep on this along with
our other departments, but they are the crew that kind
of brings everything together and puts together a package for
the Commission to consider. So, yeah, three million dollars more
(24:25):
than last year.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
We've got salaries and wages are going up.
Speaker 4 (24:29):
I think the preliminary budget will increase that by three percent.
The you know, there are some new positions in there.
I think we have three new firefighter positions. Important to
note that we are we have applied for a grant
to help fund those new positions. We also have the
half cent sales tax that was passed in June of
(24:52):
twenty twenty four to assist with public transportation, police and
fire vehicle city hall accessibility. And last night we we
had the second reading of theat organs what that would
allow helping to fund new fire and police positions created
after on or after January first of twenty twenty five.
(25:12):
So we didn't want to have that pay for existing stuff.
These would be new positions to make that possible. So
by using those funds, were able to move forward with
some additional emergency personnel, which we need. We need to
get our staffing up to speed on our two fire
stations as we are now. And then obviously we've been
talking about looking at a third station in northwest part
(25:34):
of town two. So new positions, additional debt that comes on.
We've got kind of a weird abnormality that comes on
with a.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Twenty seven that really caught has.
Speaker 4 (25:46):
Happens about every ten years or so, but it's a
significant budgetary impact. So it's to the tune of I
think four hundred plus thousand dollars, So it is significant
when you look at well, you're going from three million dollars.
If you take that four hundred thousand dollars, you don't
a two point six million. And that's again really some
(26:07):
machinery and equipment and things. But we also have to
make sure that we are compliant with House Bill eleven
seventy six, the three percent property tax cap and things
like that, and make sure that we are a following
state law and in compliance, and we are. We always
need to make sure that folks understand that your property
valuation may go up by more than three percent, so
(26:29):
your home value or your business value may go up
by five or six percent. I think the average increase
was three point four percent, but that we still need
to be in climbate in compliance with what our mill
levy and what our meal dollars are able to do.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
And we have a graphic too you can see at
home if you're listening of the stuff to listen along.
But an average residential property valued at three hundred thousand
dollars plus three point five percent average valuation increase on
the city's projected mill rate res an eight dollars annual increase,
(27:05):
right eight.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
Dollars per year on a three hundred thousand dollars house.
That may change a little bit because again we have
the preliminary budget hearing or preliminary budget consideration last.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
Night August fifth.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
We will we can't increase that budget from now until
the budget hearing. In the final budget we can decrease,
So there may be some adjustments and fine tuning that
we do between now and the end of August. But
again that is the preliminary budget, and again important to
note the city makes up twenty three percent. So you
(27:37):
get your tax bill, it's one thousand dollars. This is
what the city's portion of that for police and fire
and public works is is two hundred and thirty dollars,
or about twenty three percent. So when we say that
your home value, average home value, three hundred thousand dollars
house going up three point five percent, that translates into
(27:59):
what I want, I owe more eight dollars a year,
not eight dollars a month, but eight dollars a year.
We're still doing some work on our utility rates and
things like that. Don't anticipate any major changes.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
On that end.
Speaker 4 (28:12):
But again, at the end of the day, people go, well,
how much more is it's going to cost me?
Speaker 3 (28:15):
Right? Three one thousand dollars house eight bucks a year
from our standpoint.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Yeah, so that really put it in perspective. And then
just looking ahead, it'll be early October when we'll finalize
the twenty twenty six budget.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
We will have the public hearing I think is the
second or the third Tuesday in September, and we will
hold we'll have that budget hearing. At that point in time,
public can come in and comment, tell us what they think,
and then I think the action will be too all right,
let's close the public hearing and then the final consideration
(28:50):
for the budget will be the first Tuesday in October,
so that if there's any changes that people want to
make or the Commission wants to make after that budget hearing,
there's an opportunity.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
To do that.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Well, it was a medi agenda last night.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
A lot of stuff on accomplished.
Speaker 4 (29:05):
Usually always the first Tuesday in August is the budget time,
and there's a lot of stuff there, and like I said,
I can't leave without giving a big shout out to
all of our staff all over, department heads, all of
our commissioners that have put in a number of hours
in time and meetings and going through long range financial
planning exercises beginning the first Tuesday in January, So kudos
(29:31):
to them, Kudos to our staff, Kudos to all the
consultants that have helped us bring this together.
Speaker 3 (29:35):
So it's really a good thing.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
If you miss the meeting and you want to check
it out, and I mean, you can watch the City
Current and you'll get the highlights. But all of this
is archived on to Coode Media Access dot Oregon. Please
be sure to take a look at our apps, the
d m A app and the Radio Access one to
two point five apps so you can watch or listen
to us wherever you are whenever you can. And Jim,
great to see you. Thanks for joining us, everybody, and
(29:59):
we'll see you back here next week.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
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
(30:23):
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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