September 3, 2025 • 18 mins
Tom Gerhardt talks to Jim Neubauer about the Mandan city commission meeting on 9-2-25.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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 FM, always Local, always CURRCT.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Welcome to City Current. I'm Tom Gerhart from Dakota and
Media Access along with Mandan City Administrator Jim Neubauer. Welcome in, Jim.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Thanks Tom, A little chill in the airing it even
right now?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Well, yeah, I'd put down the light jacket this morning
for the first time after this warm summer. Hey, if
you didn't have time to watch the City Commission meeting
last night and Mandan, We've got you covered. A few
of the topics will be highlighting today. Talk about Free
Landfill Week coming up in September. Weok over that twenty
twenty four audit, give you results from that, and an
(00:55):
update on the cigar lounge that was talked about last night.
And a little nugget that you passed along to me, Jim,
that is of interest Mandan will.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Be Yeah, I believe we are the only cigar lounge
now cigar pipe be able to smoke a pipe in
the cigar lounge in the state of North Dakota as
far as I know as a party, we'll just leave
it at that as of September third.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yes, all right, well, let's start things off with announcements
and pre landfill week that's coming up September fifteenth through
the twentieth.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Right, we do the fall or the spring cleanup where
we will pick up items off of the curb that
folks will set out and in the fall, it's really
a heavy lift for our works folks, and we bring
in other crews to help us out. So in the
fall we open the landfill up and I think the
times are from eight o'clock till eight forty five pm,
so we're open a little bit in the evening to
(01:47):
help those folks that bring your items and an ID
so that we can make sure you're a Mandan resident
out to the landfill. We also want to mention that
tires and appliances that normally will we charge for we
will still charge you for them, but for a lot
of your other miscellaneous items. If you have paint cans,
we want you to make sure those paint cans are empty.
(02:08):
Put a little sand or a little dirt in them,
and away we go. But again April think think it's
the next spring already September fifteenth through the twentieth. And
like I said, we've got information on our website and
check social media, and we encourage folks to do their
fall clean up at this time.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, and of course we can't go over everything here,
but you mentioned that website. It's on the graphics Cityofmandan
dot com right slash landfill weeks.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
So if you want to.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Get all the details, then get into the weeds on
what's happening.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
You can no pun intention check in their no pun
intent there. And like I said, our dumpsters will remain
out until the snowflies and things like that. When people
are cleaning up their gardens and clean them out their yards,
those will still remain. But again, for your household items
that you want to take to landfill, please feel free
to do so during that.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
With such an abrupt change, isn't it just going from
thinking about the summer and labor daid and suddenly we're
thinking about preparing for.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Forty five ninety degrees into oh, it's only fifty four today.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Crazy, which also leads us to talk about what do
they call it? In North got to the fifth season
construction seasons, we have an update on a number of
projects taking place in Mandam, starting with like Memorial Highway.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Yeah, Jeric, our city engineer, gives us an update every
Commission meeting on major projects, Memorial Highway being one of
the largest in the community right now, and a lot
of work is going on to get the underground work
done before we can start seeing the above ground concrete
go on. We know that there are I think the
(03:43):
contractor may plan on bringing in a couple other underground
contractors to make sure that they can get this done.
We had a meeting with North got to Dot representatives
and also the president of Rety was in town last
week where we expressed, okay, we've we don't have that
much time left and you know what we can expect
and when we can expect those kind of things. We
(04:05):
know that there will be a hard driving surface no
matter what comes, snowfly and things like that. So we
don't want to think all the concrete will not be down,
because we've been assured that it will be down and
we'll have five lanes of driving. If it's not concrete,
it'll be as temporary asphalt surface down for the winter time.
(04:25):
So it won't be on the sloppy, gravelly mud mess.
Now we've got a little bit of a roller coaster,
or as it's been dubbed as the Wavy Bacon Way
and the Wavy Bacon Road. Right now, people are I'm surprised.
People are, Hey, that's kind of fun to drive one.
It might be fun now water time, I don't think
it's going to be so enjoyable. But again, construction work
continues on Moral Highway and we're looking forward to having
(04:47):
that one completed.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
All right.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
We'll keep our eyes on that the next couple of
months as we prepare for winter. Some other projects the
latter treatment plant, the Phase three jerk touchdown as.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Well Phase three optimization, which has a lot to do
with the CO two process that our water tream and
goes through pouring slabs of concrete out there. And actually
I think we need a new room for the CO
two because it's a little bit of dangerous stuff that
we may need to make sure that that is in
a safe environment. And some other updates are going on
(05:18):
on of the plant.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
And then tell us about the Collins Avenue Reservoir. We
can see a footprint there.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Yeah, interesting, this is a drawing shot taken by the contractor.
It's one of those projects that you don't see until
you see it. And right now there's been a whole
lot of work been going on on the Collins Avenue site.
The existing river reservoir will remain operable until our new
reservoir goes online. People are starting to see some of
the concrete walls go up on the sides, and also
(05:47):
there will be some changes to that intersection of division
and Colins to improve siteline distances as you're coming from
the east to the entering Collins from the east. So
we can look forward to that that may be into
the spring. But again, work on the reservoirs is actually
going pretty well. And then we think we found some
(06:08):
old remnants of a previous reservoir, so this might be
the third or fourth reservoir on this site. It needed
to be removed today.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
So well on that drone shot super interesting too, and
it's but the perspective, I just wonder, that's a big
piece of concrete.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
It's substantial. We'll go that's say I believe a two
million gallon reservoir. We have another reservoir that our last
one we built was on the south side of town
up on the fourteenth Street. That was a four million
gallon reservoir compartmental life so that we could do two
million gallons at a time. We built out with the
(06:47):
in the looking forward, so we knew we'd need four
million eventually, so let's build that four million right away.
But we're we were only using two million to start
out with. This will be a two million gallon reservoir
just because it's site what print will allow for that,
And like I said, we're looking for the completion of that.
But it's fun to watch. Yeah, these actually go up
(07:07):
this huge.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
And ultimately this helps the citizens.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Amanda, Yes, it's a you know, this reservoir will act
in conjunction with the south Side reservoir where they're both
pretty much at the same elevation, so we all of
your pressure ranges in there stay the same. Again, the
old reservoir I think was seventy five years old, and
they do deterior over time, just a matter of no
matter how much maintenance you do to it, there becomes
(07:31):
a point in time where that we just there's nothing
left of that reservoir, and we certainly want to make
sure that we don't have a catastrophic failure, right, anything
like that.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
So last night, no public comment, no public hearings, no
old business. So moving down on the agenda under new business,
you had Brady Martz come and give results of the
annual twenty twenty four added in this case.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Right, So Mindy Piats from Brady Martz gave a gave
the commission an update on here is where the city's
financial position in the audit. We received a I'll call
it a clean opinion or unqualified opinion, which means that
there were no changes that need to be made. And
we are that is the best opinion that we can get.
So we're very please our finance department, with Greg and
(08:15):
Justin leading the leading the charge there, they always have
some suggestions for us that we can do to implement.
But again we have an unmodified audit opinion, which is
the best that you can get.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
And yeah, the highest level of assurance CPA firms can provide,
as you can see right there on your screen. So
things are looking good financially.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Yeah, financially, and then goes through and says the process
and controls that we have in that place. They test,
you know, federal grants that we receive and we need
to make sure that we're following all of those guidelines
and we are and therefore, like I said, that's part
of the big that's a big part of that audit
is them coming in and providing an independent review on
what we're doing and what this says. Is it, you know,
(08:56):
we're doing things right.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Heard about and infant at work policy route last night
that the board the Commissioners ultimately passed unanimously.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Yeah, very interesting. We passed a few years ago. We
have a mother's room at work now and we're able
to apply for some grant funds to make that happen.
Infinite work is a way to encourage folks, you know,
if you're having a baby and you need to bring
that child to work at times. This is a test
(09:28):
phase that we're going through right now to make sure
that this actually works. We modeled it after the State
of North Dakotas and some input from all of our
directors and all of our employees to make sure that, hey,
we want to do something that encourages folks to stay,
make sure we are a family friendly environment. We always
say that family comes first, and we want to make
sure that we're putting that into practice. So again, very
(09:51):
there's very good checks and balances in this. So it's
not a hey, if things aren't working out, then maybe
there's too much of a disruption or that that this
just isn't working for either the employee or the employer.
We can say, Okay, it's not working, let's try something else.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Yeah, and I was going to mention that it's not
like just some clear across the board policy, those checks
and balalty of are important. And then was a commissioner hinshean,
somebody brought up a good point for you guys to consider.
You know, are there changing table? Yes, that's something you
look in and accommodate if they're not there.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Yeah, we had that conversation this morning and said, okay,
where do we buy changing tables because we're going that's
something that we hadn't thought of. So very good input
from the commission And you were looking and you're putting
some of those in in both male and female restrooms
and things like that at city Hall. So again it's
a it's a we fully understand this will not work
(10:45):
for all jobs. You know, very difficult for a police officer,
very difficult for a firefighter, very difficult for a public
works operator. You're not going to be driving a snowplow
with your infant right in the plow with you. These
are compatible and some of those jobs that we do
are just not compatible. And we all fully understand that.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Yeah, we touched on this at the beginning of the program.
But discussion about a cigar lounge, yes, again, the Commission
unanimously passed that last night. But give us an update
on that. And again, as far as you know this
is will be or it took effect immediately.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Is that after the second consideration last night, the board
voted to approve the ordinance. So the organs is in
the books if you have pipe tobacco that can be
smoke in a cigar lounge. Not like I said, it's
something that you know. Man is the first in the
state i think, on the cigar lounge and will be
(11:42):
the first in the state to adopt the pipe smoking
in that cigar lounge. So again, you have to make
sure you have adequate ventilation and all those requirements are
there for a cigar lounge. And we were approached by
a business owner that said, hey, let's do pipe tobacco also.
So in essence, the board to prove that last night
with we've received very little, if any feedback from it.
(12:05):
We did make sure we reached out to our public
health partners and let them know here, here's what is
going on the agenda. And in the public health world,
of course they're going to say smoking's bad, right fully,
get that. But at the end of the day, I
think the Commission said, all right, if that's your choice,
you can do it in a cigar lounge and a
way we go. So and like I said, I think
(12:25):
the owners of the cigar lounge are very pleased, and
I think they have seen this as a thing. You know,
it may not be my thing, may not be your thing,
but people want to go enjoy a cigar. They can
go enjoy some pipe tobacco also.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
In there, and you mentioned this, but I think you
mentioned it last night too. Didn't receive any public but
obviously the public has the opportunity and.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Nobody really needs no comments. And so it's like, Okay,
this will be a very quiet issue. And this is
a result of some state law that was changed in
the last legislative session, and so we'll implement that in
a way we go.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
And speaking of state laws that were updated in the
last legislative session, you had to do the same as
far as some traffic and vehicle laws in the city.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Amanda, Yeah, it's one of those things that the Legislative
Assembly made some changes as far as what we can
and can't do. One of the things that we were
allowed to do several years ago was, you know, cities
were given the option of if you can double the fine, right, so,
if it's a twenty dollars ticket for speeding, whatever that
would be, you could, if you adopt your ordinances, to
(13:35):
double that fine, so you go to forty dollars in
this case. One of those changes was you can't do
that anymore. So you didn't like that, But you know,
the thing, going from seventy five to eighty miles an
hour doesn't really affect us because we don't have any
seventy five or eighty mile hour speed limits within our
corporate boundaries. But one of those important changes was in
(13:58):
a construction zone, like we talked to earlier, we've got
Monty Drive, we've got Memorial Highway, We've got a lot
of areas that are under construction right now and that
will be every summer, and moving those fines from eighty
dollars to one hundred and fifty dollars. So if it
is twenty five on Memorial Highway in the construction area,
and it is, so, we encourage you to slow down
(14:18):
and please be safe for yourself, be safe for all
the workers that are out there. It's twenty five. If
you're speeding through there, you're fine, rather than eighty dollars
would be one hundred and fifty dollars.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
And I said this too off camera and City of
Bismarck had to adjust as well. But one item that
caught my attention was we don't have to signal because
there are signals anymore in the roundabouts.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
So what are your world issues? As we said that,
so you know you don't have a signal when you're
going through a roundabout. I don't know that we've ever
I can honestly say, I doubt that we've given anyone
a ticket for not signaling when they're exiting the roundabout.
But in this case, as roundabouts become more popular, you know,
we look at the one that we have on Collins
Avenue and Old Red Trail and that has worked extremely well.
(15:06):
A lot of naysayers at the beginning, where oh, you
can do change it hard and figure out change is difficult.
But in fact the compliments that we get, thank you
for putting that in. It works really well. You know,
I've been up there in the mornings, I've been up
there in the evenings, and it moves sometimes a little
slower than other times. Everybody just be smart when they're
going through. But you know that you don't have to
(15:27):
single signal. You might not get honked at by someone
behind you or to the side of you.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Right, we already talked about Memorial Highway, but I thought
we could put this website in QR code up again.
If anybody wants to scan it or find out the
latest keep tabs on what's happening out there. I thought
I'd just popped this up and pass it along. I
know that's again such a significant project, is going to
be such a great thing. Please drive the speed limit.
(15:54):
But we also of course want to encourage people to go.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Down continue to patronize those businesses. We know that the
intersection of forty sixth Avenue on Memorial Highway is closed
down right now. Our minimal traffic through there, and it'll
be like that for a month. On my way over
here this morning, a couple of large back hos in
that area, working very diligently. We want to get that
(16:19):
put back as soon as we can. We know that
it affects those neighboring businesses, so please do your best
to continue to patronize them. Still go to their stores.
Still go boat shopping, Still go vehicle shopping. Still go
have a have a meal at a couple of the
restaurants that are along that route. We know it is inconvenient,
but at the end of the day, I think it
will turn out to be a really great project and
(16:39):
we're looking forward to its completion.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
We have another QR code to run by you, and
that is to download our DMA app or end or
our Radio Access one h two point five app. And
of course you can even find us on your smart TV,
whether you use Apple TV, Roku fire stick which I
have at home, and you can find a code of
(17:02):
media Access watch all the meetings, or we have all
this on video on demand, including City Current, and we've
found that over half of our web traffic goes to
find and watch old government meetings. So there is significant
interest in both Bismarck and Mandand and what's happening in
Burley and Morton County as well, and I.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Think it's a great thing. I know that we personally have.
Even last night, we had two meetings going on at
the same time, right we had the Bismarck and Burley
Counties kind of them together to meet and our regular meeting,
and both of those were being aired live. I believe
on the code of media access, and I was trying
to get one up on my phone. I said, Okay,
(17:42):
start paying attention to the meeting and leave that way alone.
So yep, I would say, multitask, not when you're in
the car, not when you're in the commission meeting, but
if you want to get a highlight of what are
what's going on in the community, this is a great
place to be.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Yeah, well, I appreciate it. Jim. Thanks to all of
you for joining us. The next Mandan City Commission meeting
is September sixteenth, and we'll see you next time on
City Current.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
For more information on what was discussed in this episode
of City Current, visit Cityofmandan dot com or call seven
oh one sixty six seven three two one five if
you have any suggestions, comments, or issues you would like
addressed in future City Current episodes. Contact us at info
at FreeTV dot org. This program airs on Government Access
(18:27):
Channel two and six oh two in HD, or on
Radio Access one oh two point five FM. It's also
available as a podcast on Radioaccess dot org and as
a video viewing link at FreeTV dot org. Thanks for
tuning in to this edition of City Current
City Current, produced by Dakota Media Access in depth discussion
with Bismarck and Mandan City officials. Watch on Government Access
Channel six oh two HD or tune in to Radio
Access one O two point five FM, always Local, always CURRCT.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Welcome to City Current. I'm Tom Gerhart from Dakota and
Media Access along with Mandan City Administrator Jim Neubauer. Welcome in, Jim.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Thanks Tom, A little chill in the airing it even
right now?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Well, yeah, I'd put down the light jacket this morning
for the first time after this warm summer. Hey, if
you didn't have time to watch the City Commission meeting
last night and Mandan, We've got you covered. A few
of the topics will be highlighting today. Talk about Free
Landfill Week coming up in September. Weok over that twenty
twenty four audit, give you results from that, and an
(00:55):
update on the cigar lounge that was talked about last night.
And a little nugget that you passed along to me, Jim,
that is of interest Mandan will.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Be Yeah, I believe we are the only cigar lounge
now cigar pipe be able to smoke a pipe in
the cigar lounge in the state of North Dakota as
far as I know as a party, we'll just leave
it at that as of September third.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yes, all right, well, let's start things off with announcements
and pre landfill week that's coming up September fifteenth through
the twentieth.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Right, we do the fall or the spring cleanup where
we will pick up items off of the curb that
folks will set out and in the fall, it's really
a heavy lift for our works folks, and we bring
in other crews to help us out. So in the
fall we open the landfill up and I think the
times are from eight o'clock till eight forty five pm,
so we're open a little bit in the evening to
(01:47):
help those folks that bring your items and an ID
so that we can make sure you're a Mandan resident
out to the landfill. We also want to mention that
tires and appliances that normally will we charge for we
will still charge you for them, but for a lot
of your other miscellaneous items. If you have paint cans,
we want you to make sure those paint cans are empty.
(02:08):
Put a little sand or a little dirt in them,
and away we go. But again April think think it's
the next spring already September fifteenth through the twentieth. And
like I said, we've got information on our website and
check social media, and we encourage folks to do their
fall clean up at this time.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, and of course we can't go over everything here,
but you mentioned that website. It's on the graphics Cityofmandan
dot com right slash landfill weeks.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
So if you want to.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Get all the details, then get into the weeds on
what's happening.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
You can no pun intention check in their no pun
intent there. And like I said, our dumpsters will remain
out until the snowflies and things like that. When people
are cleaning up their gardens and clean them out their yards,
those will still remain. But again, for your household items
that you want to take to landfill, please feel free
to do so during that.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
With such an abrupt change, isn't it just going from
thinking about the summer and labor daid and suddenly we're
thinking about preparing for.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Forty five ninety degrees into oh, it's only fifty four today.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Crazy, which also leads us to talk about what do
they call it? In North got to the fifth season
construction seasons, we have an update on a number of
projects taking place in Mandam, starting with like Memorial Highway.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Yeah, Jeric, our city engineer, gives us an update every
Commission meeting on major projects, Memorial Highway being one of
the largest in the community right now, and a lot
of work is going on to get the underground work
done before we can start seeing the above ground concrete
go on. We know that there are I think the
(03:43):
contractor may plan on bringing in a couple other underground
contractors to make sure that they can get this done.
We had a meeting with North got to Dot representatives
and also the president of Rety was in town last
week where we expressed, okay, we've we don't have that
much time left and you know what we can expect
and when we can expect those kind of things. We
(04:05):
know that there will be a hard driving surface no
matter what comes, snowfly and things like that. So we
don't want to think all the concrete will not be down,
because we've been assured that it will be down and
we'll have five lanes of driving. If it's not concrete,
it'll be as temporary asphalt surface down for the winter time.
(04:25):
So it won't be on the sloppy, gravelly mud mess.
Now we've got a little bit of a roller coaster,
or as it's been dubbed as the Wavy Bacon Way
and the Wavy Bacon Road. Right now, people are I'm surprised.
People are, Hey, that's kind of fun to drive one.
It might be fun now water time, I don't think
it's going to be so enjoyable. But again, construction work
continues on Moral Highway and we're looking forward to having
(04:47):
that one completed.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
All right.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
We'll keep our eyes on that the next couple of
months as we prepare for winter. Some other projects the
latter treatment plant, the Phase three jerk touchdown as.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Well Phase three optimization, which has a lot to do
with the CO two process that our water tream and
goes through pouring slabs of concrete out there. And actually
I think we need a new room for the CO
two because it's a little bit of dangerous stuff that
we may need to make sure that that is in
a safe environment. And some other updates are going on
(05:18):
on of the plant.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
And then tell us about the Collins Avenue Reservoir. We
can see a footprint there.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Yeah, interesting, this is a drawing shot taken by the contractor.
It's one of those projects that you don't see until
you see it. And right now there's been a whole
lot of work been going on on the Collins Avenue site.
The existing river reservoir will remain operable until our new
reservoir goes online. People are starting to see some of
the concrete walls go up on the sides, and also
(05:47):
there will be some changes to that intersection of division
and Colins to improve siteline distances as you're coming from
the east to the entering Collins from the east. So
we can look forward to that that may be into
the spring. But again, work on the reservoirs is actually
going pretty well. And then we think we found some
(06:08):
old remnants of a previous reservoir, so this might be
the third or fourth reservoir on this site. It needed
to be removed today.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
So well on that drone shot super interesting too, and
it's but the perspective, I just wonder, that's a big
piece of concrete.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
It's substantial. We'll go that's say I believe a two
million gallon reservoir. We have another reservoir that our last
one we built was on the south side of town
up on the fourteenth Street. That was a four million
gallon reservoir compartmental life so that we could do two
million gallons at a time. We built out with the
(06:47):
in the looking forward, so we knew we'd need four
million eventually, so let's build that four million right away.
But we're we were only using two million to start
out with. This will be a two million gallon reservoir
just because it's site what print will allow for that,
And like I said, we're looking for the completion of that.
But it's fun to watch. Yeah, these actually go up
(07:07):
this huge.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
And ultimately this helps the citizens.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Amanda, Yes, it's a you know, this reservoir will act
in conjunction with the south Side reservoir where they're both
pretty much at the same elevation, so we all of
your pressure ranges in there stay the same. Again, the
old reservoir I think was seventy five years old, and
they do deterior over time, just a matter of no
matter how much maintenance you do to it, there becomes
(07:31):
a point in time where that we just there's nothing
left of that reservoir, and we certainly want to make
sure that we don't have a catastrophic failure, right, anything
like that.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
So last night, no public comment, no public hearings, no
old business. So moving down on the agenda under new business,
you had Brady Martz come and give results of the
annual twenty twenty four added in this case.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Right, So Mindy Piats from Brady Martz gave a gave
the commission an update on here is where the city's
financial position in the audit. We received a I'll call
it a clean opinion or unqualified opinion, which means that
there were no changes that need to be made. And
we are that is the best opinion that we can get.
So we're very please our finance department, with Greg and
(08:15):
Justin leading the leading the charge there, they always have
some suggestions for us that we can do to implement.
But again we have an unmodified audit opinion, which is
the best that you can get.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
And yeah, the highest level of assurance CPA firms can provide,
as you can see right there on your screen. So
things are looking good financially.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Yeah, financially, and then goes through and says the process
and controls that we have in that place. They test,
you know, federal grants that we receive and we need
to make sure that we're following all of those guidelines
and we are and therefore, like I said, that's part
of the big that's a big part of that audit
is them coming in and providing an independent review on
what we're doing and what this says. Is it, you know,
(08:56):
we're doing things right.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Heard about and infant at work policy route last night
that the board the Commissioners ultimately passed unanimously.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Yeah, very interesting. We passed a few years ago. We
have a mother's room at work now and we're able
to apply for some grant funds to make that happen.
Infinite work is a way to encourage folks, you know,
if you're having a baby and you need to bring
that child to work at times. This is a test
(09:28):
phase that we're going through right now to make sure
that this actually works. We modeled it after the State
of North Dakotas and some input from all of our
directors and all of our employees to make sure that, hey,
we want to do something that encourages folks to stay,
make sure we are a family friendly environment. We always
say that family comes first, and we want to make
sure that we're putting that into practice. So again, very
(09:51):
there's very good checks and balances in this. So it's
not a hey, if things aren't working out, then maybe
there's too much of a disruption or that that this
just isn't working for either the employee or the employer.
We can say, Okay, it's not working, let's try something else.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Yeah, and I was going to mention that it's not
like just some clear across the board policy, those checks
and balalty of are important. And then was a commissioner hinshean,
somebody brought up a good point for you guys to consider.
You know, are there changing table? Yes, that's something you
look in and accommodate if they're not there.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Yeah, we had that conversation this morning and said, okay,
where do we buy changing tables because we're going that's
something that we hadn't thought of. So very good input
from the commission And you were looking and you're putting
some of those in in both male and female restrooms
and things like that at city Hall. So again it's
a it's a we fully understand this will not work
(10:45):
for all jobs. You know, very difficult for a police officer,
very difficult for a firefighter, very difficult for a public
works operator. You're not going to be driving a snowplow
with your infant right in the plow with you. These
are compatible and some of those jobs that we do
are just not compatible. And we all fully understand that.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Yeah, we touched on this at the beginning of the program.
But discussion about a cigar lounge, yes, again, the Commission
unanimously passed that last night. But give us an update
on that. And again, as far as you know this
is will be or it took effect immediately.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Is that after the second consideration last night, the board
voted to approve the ordinance. So the organs is in
the books if you have pipe tobacco that can be
smoke in a cigar lounge. Not like I said, it's
something that you know. Man is the first in the
state i think, on the cigar lounge and will be
(11:42):
the first in the state to adopt the pipe smoking
in that cigar lounge. So again, you have to make
sure you have adequate ventilation and all those requirements are
there for a cigar lounge. And we were approached by
a business owner that said, hey, let's do pipe tobacco also.
So in essence, the board to prove that last night
with we've received very little, if any feedback from it.
(12:05):
We did make sure we reached out to our public
health partners and let them know here, here's what is
going on the agenda. And in the public health world,
of course they're going to say smoking's bad, right fully,
get that. But at the end of the day, I
think the Commission said, all right, if that's your choice,
you can do it in a cigar lounge and a
way we go. So and like I said, I think
(12:25):
the owners of the cigar lounge are very pleased, and
I think they have seen this as a thing. You know,
it may not be my thing, may not be your thing,
but people want to go enjoy a cigar. They can
go enjoy some pipe tobacco also.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
In there, and you mentioned this, but I think you
mentioned it last night too. Didn't receive any public but
obviously the public has the opportunity and.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Nobody really needs no comments. And so it's like, Okay,
this will be a very quiet issue. And this is
a result of some state law that was changed in
the last legislative session, and so we'll implement that in
a way we go.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
And speaking of state laws that were updated in the
last legislative session, you had to do the same as
far as some traffic and vehicle laws in the city.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Amanda, Yeah, it's one of those things that the Legislative
Assembly made some changes as far as what we can
and can't do. One of the things that we were
allowed to do several years ago was, you know, cities
were given the option of if you can double the fine, right, so,
if it's a twenty dollars ticket for speeding, whatever that
would be, you could, if you adopt your ordinances, to
(13:35):
double that fine, so you go to forty dollars in
this case. One of those changes was you can't do
that anymore. So you didn't like that, But you know,
the thing, going from seventy five to eighty miles an
hour doesn't really affect us because we don't have any
seventy five or eighty mile hour speed limits within our
corporate boundaries. But one of those important changes was in
(13:58):
a construction zone, like we talked to earlier, we've got
Monty Drive, we've got Memorial Highway, We've got a lot
of areas that are under construction right now and that
will be every summer, and moving those fines from eighty
dollars to one hundred and fifty dollars. So if it
is twenty five on Memorial Highway in the construction area,
and it is, so, we encourage you to slow down
(14:18):
and please be safe for yourself, be safe for all
the workers that are out there. It's twenty five. If
you're speeding through there, you're fine, rather than eighty dollars
would be one hundred and fifty dollars.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
And I said this too off camera and City of
Bismarck had to adjust as well. But one item that
caught my attention was we don't have to signal because
there are signals anymore in the roundabouts.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
So what are your world issues? As we said that,
so you know you don't have a signal when you're
going through a roundabout. I don't know that we've ever
I can honestly say, I doubt that we've given anyone
a ticket for not signaling when they're exiting the roundabout.
But in this case, as roundabouts become more popular, you know,
we look at the one that we have on Collins
Avenue and Old Red Trail and that has worked extremely well.
(15:06):
A lot of naysayers at the beginning, where oh, you
can do change it hard and figure out change is difficult.
But in fact the compliments that we get, thank you
for putting that in. It works really well. You know,
I've been up there in the mornings, I've been up
there in the evenings, and it moves sometimes a little
slower than other times. Everybody just be smart when they're
going through. But you know that you don't have to
(15:27):
single signal. You might not get honked at by someone
behind you or to the side of you.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Right, we already talked about Memorial Highway, but I thought
we could put this website in QR code up again.
If anybody wants to scan it or find out the
latest keep tabs on what's happening out there. I thought
I'd just popped this up and pass it along. I
know that's again such a significant project, is going to
be such a great thing. Please drive the speed limit.
(15:54):
But we also of course want to encourage people to go.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Down continue to patronize those businesses. We know that the
intersection of forty sixth Avenue on Memorial Highway is closed
down right now. Our minimal traffic through there, and it'll
be like that for a month. On my way over
here this morning, a couple of large back hos in
that area, working very diligently. We want to get that
(16:19):
put back as soon as we can. We know that
it affects those neighboring businesses, so please do your best
to continue to patronize them. Still go to their stores.
Still go boat shopping, Still go vehicle shopping. Still go
have a have a meal at a couple of the
restaurants that are along that route. We know it is inconvenient,
but at the end of the day, I think it
will turn out to be a really great project and
(16:39):
we're looking forward to its completion.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
We have another QR code to run by you, and
that is to download our DMA app or end or
our Radio Access one h two point five app. And
of course you can even find us on your smart TV,
whether you use Apple TV, Roku fire stick which I
have at home, and you can find a code of
(17:02):
media Access watch all the meetings, or we have all
this on video on demand, including City Current, and we've
found that over half of our web traffic goes to
find and watch old government meetings. So there is significant
interest in both Bismarck and Mandand and what's happening in
Burley and Morton County as well, and I.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Think it's a great thing. I know that we personally have.
Even last night, we had two meetings going on at
the same time, right we had the Bismarck and Burley
Counties kind of them together to meet and our regular meeting,
and both of those were being aired live. I believe
on the code of media access, and I was trying
to get one up on my phone. I said, Okay,
(17:42):
start paying attention to the meeting and leave that way alone.
So yep, I would say, multitask, not when you're in
the car, not when you're in the commission meeting, but
if you want to get a highlight of what are
what's going on in the community, this is a great
place to be.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Yeah, well, I appreciate it. Jim. Thanks to all of
you for joining us. The next Mandan City Commission meeting
is September sixteenth, and we'll see you next time on
City Current.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
For more information on what was discussed in this episode
of City Current, visit Cityofmandan dot com or call seven
oh one sixty six seven three two one five if
you have any suggestions, comments, or issues you would like
addressed in future City Current episodes. Contact us at info
at FreeTV dot org. This program airs on Government Access
(18:27):
Channel two and six oh two in HD, or on
Radio Access one oh two point five FM. It's also
available as a podcast on Radioaccess dot org and as
a video viewing link at FreeTV dot org. Thanks for
tuning in to this edition of City Current
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.