00:00:18,430	Um, We’re in the Ed Bosch room or Ed Bosch Frelich meeting room in Manun City Hall, uh, before we start our meeting, though, we’ll have the Pledge of allegiance United States of America. to the Republic which stands. nation God visible with liberty and justice for all. We can call the board to order, please, by calling roll.

00:00:56,870	Mayor Bergland here. Mayor Frelick here. Comm Bakken He and Cha Cha Schmitz. First item on our agenda is public comment. Public comment is restricted to the current agenda. or prior policy board meeting agenda excluding any public hearing items because there will be separate hearings or comment on those. Anyone wish to speak, please come forward or online.

00:01:26,730	I don’t see anybody in the audience. I’m not hearing you on online. I will close public comment. Next item is approval of the minutes or review and possible proof of the minutes from the November 18th meeting. Make a motion to approved.

00:02:00,900	Any discussion Hearing none will call roll Um Mayor Bergland Yes Mayor Frelick, yes Comm Bakken, and Chair Schmitz, yes. Item 5 is the 2025 ITSRA I believe final report, correct? uh Sharajat online. Oh Uh, thank you, Chair. Uh, can you hear me? We can. Thank you. And I would like to share my screen. Please confirm if you can see my screen. Thank you. So, good afternoon, Honorable committee members.

00:02:37,800	Uh, it’s both a privilege and a pleasure to be here with you today. I’m excited to present the final report, which is included in your meeting packet and uh respectfully request your approval for its adoption. Um, your insight and guidance have been instrumental throughout this process, and I look forward to uh discussing the results with you.

00:02:59,170	Uh, as a quick recap, uh, this slide displays the list of tasks and the corresponding timeline that I presented, uh, uh, or that I presented last month and uh I’m pleased to share that the last task uh on preparing a comprehensive feedback, uh, for the, uh, draft report for, for our

00:03:17,370	stakeholders was completed on schedule and uh these structured approach, um, actually ensured that we captured all the relevant feedback systematically and efficiently.

00:03:40,270	Uh, here you will see the table summarizing the feedback received from our four different uh different service areas, and these responses were in direct reference to the draft report that I that I presented last month. Uh, here you can see we have, um, uh, a, a lower number of uh feedback from the emergency side, but um considering the uh participant in the maintenance and the traffic.

00:04:01,100	We have more than, uh, we have a good representation on the feedback for the maintenance traffic and obviously transit has 100% uh feedback from, um, from the stakeholder, and most of the feedbacks were based on the some of the technical details, uh, so I have, I made sure that we, when all those feedbacks have been, uh, recorded within the final report.

00:04:19,800	and uh I’m, uh, even, even before that recording, I went through a very, um, uh, brief discussion about, uh, each of those, uh, feedbacks. So those have been already included in the final report and uh so now this is the time I would like to take this time to um, uh, acknowledge the individuals

00:04:41,100	listed on this slide and the next one for their uh feedback expert guidelines, and valuable input, uh, that have been, uh, really pivotal to our progress and I deeply appreciate the time, dedication, and collaboration throughout this project.

00:05:04,600	Um, with this, uh, this slide, uh, outlines the structure of this of the report and each chapter has been carefully organized for clarity and each of different, uh, and the ease of references. So, um, chapter 1 and 2 talks about the, uh, talks about the project itself, what is the ITS architecture and all, and uh on chapter two, we talked about the, uh, we, uh, identified the region, the service boundary, and the

00:05:21,170	timeline of the architecture update. Uh, chapter 3, recognize all the stakeholders, um that we have, uh, we have discussed, uh, to update this, uh, ITS update. Chapter 4 talks about different elements, Chapter 5 and some Appendix section, uh, talks about different services that have been, uh, that, that is available from the ITS context in this

00:05:42,100	region and uh how, uh, what kind of information flows are over there and uh chapter 6 talks about different roles and responsibilities that um goes for different stakeholders.

00:06:04,070	Chapter 7 outlines some agreements that we identified in this region, uh, chapter 8, and again, it also have, have an appendix part which talks about, uh, different, uh, functional requirements or what, uh, capabilities of those ITS elements that we are, um, adopting these regime. and Chapter 9 talks about the national communication Standard, which, uh, which is a, uh, very, uh, which is essential to ensure that, uh, the security of all these ITS elements, uh, prevail, uh, um, under the, uh, service, um, concept.

00:06:27,370	Uh, based on the feedback that we have received from Tacac over the time, we have included a couple of new chapters, um, uh, and those chapters of the project architecture and the conclusive remarks, but I have included the chapter 10 planning aspect over here because we have included the arrive 2050, the, uh, Metropolitan Long-term, um,

00:06:48,900	Planning document, uh, and we aligned our report with, with that one, and we identified all the uh performance metrics that, uh, we have adopted, uh, for this report And also project architecture we have provided as a guideline, uh, uh, for future users or even the consultants and the contractors, uh, who will be working, uh, in the, within

00:07:11,170	this region, uh, they will have a guideline on how to use this architecture, uh, when they are adopting any kind, uh, any, um, ITS, uh, projects, uh, in this region.

00:07:32,000	And uh also in the conclusive remarks section we provided some suggestions, uh, that would be, um, that we, uh, identified beneficial, uh, for the, uh, development for the future development of uh transportation in this region.

00:07:55,530	And uh here you will find a final overview of the region covered in our report and uh this comprehensive snapshot brings together some key data like, uh, you can see the uh increase of number of stakeholders, um, in from 2021 to 2025, uh, and the, the total number of service packages, although it looks like we have decreased them, but if you compare it with the 6 future status, um, um, that, that we had.

00:08:14,270	in 2021 and uh we haven’t seen that uh it has been, uh, at work yet, but, uh, we can see that all the plant status from 221 has been completed. So this, uh, indicates that the region has made significant strides in, uh, executing its planned initiative, particularly in relation to the ITS components.

00:08:35,730	and uh, um, obviously shows the commitment on, of all the stakeholders to completing these, uh, ITS elements, and it is really recommendable. Uh, lastly, if the committee kindly approves the final report today, the next step will be to, uh, either, uh, finalize the Reddit, which is a nationally identified tool for the ITS architecture update and, uh, I already have that, uh,

00:08:58,430	section ready, um, and, uh, um, based on, uh, based on the decision that we get today, we will update the website and uh um uh for, uh, for any further, uh, discussion, I would like to request, um, MP Director, uh, Kim Reel.

00:09:19,230	Uh, if she wants to add something uh to my presentation, um, and so that’s all from uh uh from my side as of now. And if you have any questions, I’ll be here to answer those. Mm Thank you very much, Sherry Judd. I appreciate the opportunity to provide the MPO’s perspective on this.

00:09:37,900	We are very satisfied with this update to the ITS Regional architecture and Kim, you need to pull the mic in a little bit. Is it on? Yes. Am I not coming through? Not real loud Hm OK, I’ll get closer. How’s that? All right. Thank you very much.

00:09:58,900	Um, I seem to have a problem with volume somehow, uh, we would like to take this time to thank Dr Hassan for providing our jurisdictional stakeholders with ample opportunity to engage in this project, um, and to provide their input and their feedback.

00:10:23,330	He listened and responded to their concerns regarding, uh, data sharing, uh, barriers that are created by cybersecurity measures and also their concerns of ways to tie implemented projects to goals and objectives of the plan, um, such as in the creation of that new Chapter 11 within the report. So MPO staff does support tax unanimous vote yesterday to recommend approval of the final report for the 2025, um, Intelligent Transportation Services, regional architecture.

00:10:52,730	Are there any questions what are the wishes of the policy board? I would move to approve the ITSRA final report? Any discussion hearing none will call roll OK. Mayor Berglund, yes. Comm Zachmeyer. Mayor Frelich? Yes Comm Bakken, and Chair Schmitz. Next item 6, the 2025 Safety Policy study and Luke is in the room, Saul. go ahead, sir. All right, good afternoon. I will, uh, quickly share my screen.

00:11:38,000	Entire screen. That’s not the right tab. Here we go. All right, uh, Luke Chaampa, you’ve seen me a lot virtually, um, thank you for letting me be here, Chair Schmitz, and the, uh, policy board, uh, will be presenting the final report of the safety policy study, um, we go through quick

00:12:16,270	acknowledgments and then give a quick overview of the final report, uh, with discussion and action at the end here. I do want to acknowledge, you know, that we have been working on this study for some time since late last year in 2024.

00:12:31,970	Uh, it’s hard to believe we’re, we’re here at the end, but I, I did want to give a a big shout out and thank you, uh, to your local technical, uh, planners and, and engineers, uh, among others, um, that helped guide this study and get us to this point.

00:12:53,370	uh, from the, the consultant team, yours truly served as a project manager, um, we partnered with the emergent strategies Group Jolene is here with me today to present uh the public engagement summary and then uh those listed, um, others at SRF and technical support. We’ll dive right into the final report.

00:13:17,370	There’s a lot of content here including 8 chapters, uh, the chapter number one is an introduction, uh, to safety in the region and why the safety policy study, uh, in particular, it sets up the national and statewide trends on on safety that we’re seeing, uh, and then introduces the modern approach to traffic safety, um, which is called the National Roadway Safety Strategy and Safe System approach.

00:13:45,070	Chapter 2 provides a deeper dive into the historical crash trend summary, uh, diving into the crash data itself. Uh, this chapter also lays out the vision and goal for the region, uh, as it relates to traffic safety, and this is accompanied by Appendix A, which is a technical memorandum, uh, of the full safety analysis, um. as part of this report.

00:14:08,100	um, we analyzed 5 years of crash data. I, I do want to note that we broke things out by mode, so it does include transit-related incidents and, uh, railroad incidents, um, but we’re talking in those five years, 2020 through 2024.

00:14:31,370	We’re talking about 281 severe crashes, um, and I like to think of that as 281, uh, at least lives changed, um, sometimes lost. or permanently impacted by traffic safety within the Metropolitan planning area. The vision and goals are uh laid out here. The vision being uh a vision er so zero traffic related deaths and life changing injuries on streets within the Bismarck Mandan region. Uh, that’s the vision.

00:14:56,870	The goal is a 50% reduction in annual fatal, and life-changing injury crashes by 2050 that’d be 35, uh, severe crashes or fewer by 2050. and we’ll come back to that at the end. Chapter 3 provides an overview of safety practice.

00:15:21,900	This looks at, uh, state, regional and local, uh, plans and policies that pertain to safety and traffic safety in the region, really that solid foundation that this this study builds upon and then it also outlines, uh, the policy and process changes that this study, uh, forwards, including a Vision Zero, the establishment of a high injury network which we’ll discuss among other things.

00:15:45,270	This is accompanied by a technical memo Appendix B, uh, which overviews the, the studies policies and plans that we looked at. And for chapter 4, public engagement. I’ll kick it over to Jolene to present these slides.

00:16:08,800	Thank you, Chair, members of the, of the committee, uh, my name is Jolene Reek with the emergent Strategies Group, and I was responsible for public outreach and engagement. We followed the MPO’s public participation plan. Our goal was to have a broad, uh, way to solicit data, um, from our community members. Uh, we had several different formats that we collected it.

00:16:28,000	I wanna give a shout out and thank you to the Mandan Progress Organization for allowing us to have a pop-up booth at the Touch a Truck event, and also, uh, the Earth Day activities over in Bismarck for that, those community conversations.

00:16:45,070	Through those two events, we actually had quite a diverse amount of people participate and give us their feedback on safety. I always said, like at the Earth Day event, if you want to talk about safety, no better audience is moms toin around their little kids, um, hyped up on sugar and everything from that type of activity.

00:16:59,600	And in fact, the touch of truck event, we actually not only collected input from people who live in our planning area but also we had people who were visiting, um, and attending that event as well. So it was nice to get people’s perspect ive s who come from outside our community and the perceptions of safety. We also use focus groups. Uh, we talked to first responders, active transportation advocates.

00:17:18,730	Um, we had really great discussions there. uh, stakeholder interviews, the freight industry was really great to give us some good perceptions, and they have some best practices and I’ll mention after a bit, um, we also reached out to the uh state’s OHB manager to talk about, uh,

00:17:34,870	those issues and for the youth, we tried to, um, get into the schools to have some face to face with students talk about that, um, that occurred at the end of the school season, weren’t able to get in, but we were able to issue an online survey that they all participated in.

00:17:50,730	So the key findings that we got out of that, um, of course, distracted driving was pretty much the most common thing that came out through this. Um, in fact, you know, law enforcement mentioned that they will actually pull up at a stoplight, have someone in a car right next to them, visibly on their

00:18:04,370	phone, and they’ll honk the Horn at him and be like, hey, and then the person kind of look at him and keep on their phone and honk it again and be like, put the phone down, um, so there’s lots of things that distracted driving, um, pedestrian and bicycle safety, these are things that we

00:18:21,270	want to integrate earlier, um, into people, so you know, starting at the grade school level, junior high, high school, when those people are most vulnerable. Um, we talked about infrastructure, of course everybody has their favorite um intersection or roadway to pick on. And we were able to collect that through, um, through the different things.

00:18:40,370	Um, the freight and commercial vehicle operations. One thing we, we had never thought about was when we have inclement weather, our truck drivers need safe and secure places to stop and get off our highways and our roadways.

00:18:58,000	Um, so the addition of additional truck stops further east of our planning area was seen as a very welcome change, and we talked about, um, ways for that to occur within our planning area. The off highway, I know is probably a sore spot with some of you in the county.

00:19:15,600	Uh, we also, we brought those up and then also micromobility, not only talking about um scooters which we have kind of in the Bismarck area, but also e-bikes and people’s perceptions of that. Some nice things were seasonal conditions and maintenance. Um, most people were very favorable about the work that your, uh, jurisdictions are doing and trying to get roads cleared, trails cleared very quickly.

00:19:33,730	And then, of course, the education and enforcement component, um, just trying to get into that school system’s a little bit earlier was a common theme that we heard across, um, the findings. Thanks, Jolene. I’ll keep things rolling. Chapter 5, overviews the data and analysis.

00:19:54,700	This is setting up the methodology that we use for the crash analysis and it introduces the high injury network. It also provides a demographic analysis, uh, and this is tied to Appendix D, High Injury Network Methodology. Chapter 6 dives into the high injury network results.

00:20:19,100	This is broken out by mode and what the high injury network is, is it is a corridor, uh, prioritization of severe crash locations, so it will identify, for example, 1 mile stretch of road, uh, where there’s, there may be a concentration of severe crashes, you know, spread along that corridor.

00:20:35,630	They may be at a single intersection, you know, once you take a look at it, but it’s taking a more holistic corridor approach, uh, to identifying some um hot spots if you will, for severe crashes. This is broken out by pedestrian, bicycle, motorcycle, automobile, or passenger vehicle and uh there’s also an all mode high injury network.

00:21:04,530	Um, so just for another example, pedestrian high injury network identifies corridors in the BismarckMandan MPA, uh, where the highest concentration of pedestrian involved crashes are recurring, so it’s starting to pinpoint, uh, to some specific locations and specific modes. This is accompanied by the high injury Network one pagers, Appendix E, which takes a look at the each individual uh high entry network corridor.

00:21:26,530	Uh, it maps out the crashes that are occurring and provides uh the characteristics that we analyzed of the street of the crashes of the adjacent land use, uh, to describe, um, you know, what’s, what’s occurring at that location. Chapter 7 is the safety strategies and, and tool kit.

00:21:49,900	This is one of the more robust chapters of the report Uh, it starts off by identifying priority engineering strategies based on our safety analysis and high injury network, uh, so for example, vulnerable road users include bicyclists, pedestrians, motorcyclists, uh, listing out some specific engineering, uh, strategies to address those types of crashes. Uh, there’s also intersection related, uh, improvements, speeding, single vehicle runoff road, and impaired driving.

00:22:22,370	And then there’s two tables in chapter 7 that list each safety countermeasure or engineering strategy, uh, there’s a rural for rural roads and in urban, uh for urban roads. uh, they’re described there’s an estimate of costs provided and an estimated effectiveness or crash reduction expected after implementation.

00:22:49,730	And then we do have the safe system hierarchy tier, uh, which are shown on the left hand side of the screen, uh, 1 through 4. Um, each strategy is tagged with with what it’s intended uh to do there. There are also non-engineering strategies, Jolene, if you want a quick hop hop back in here.

00:23:09,370	So this is addresses that driver behavioral, uh, thing through education enforcement and awareness. I think the biggest thing that we heard again I mentioned was um trying to uh target our youth to help them understand traffic and transportation safety at an earlier age. Uh, so that was really an important one.

00:23:29,170	we just actually saw a press release yesterday where Century High School has, um, brought in the first ever, uh, transportation safety program. So thank you to them to do that. Like I said, but we want to bring that to all of our public schools and our private schools to help doing that.

00:23:47,500	Um, the motorcycle, safety and awareness, motorcyclists are disproportionately represented in, uh, in the transit mode for high injury. Um, so that’s more of a helmet thing and that’s a group that we were unable to, uh, get into a room together to brainstorm ideas on that.

00:24:05,600	And then, um, some coordination with emergency services, how we, um, file reports when there are injury crashes, and then also policy and legislative changes, uh, that you guys may want to help support either other agencies who may put forth, um, some changing upcoming legislation in the state law or support, um, throughout within the local community.

00:24:28,430	ne Other multimodal strategies, uh, we pulled out specific strategies for transit and for uh at grade railroad crossings. and then this is accompanied by Appendix F, which is the safety strategy tool kit, which is a tool that local jurisdictions may use to start filtering uh these strategies.

00:24:47,230	So on the, on the right hand, uh side uh on the right hand page here, um, we, we start to apply these filters by clicking the corresponding button. And in this example, I’m gonna click, um, you know, the street cross section is urban. It has curb and gutter underground utilities and urban land use.

00:25:05,430	Um, then on the left hand page it’s gonna ask what is the location typology. I’m looking at a mid-block location, uh, away from an intersection, um, so I’m gonna click segment. So it takes me to this table, uh, with urban segment strategies and let’s say I’m concerned about vehicular speed. So I’m gonna click on that tier 2 hierarchy, vehicle speeds, uh, and it’ll filter further on the left-hand side.

00:25:27,730	Uh, so I can start to click on the specific strategies, or I can apply additional filter. I’m looking at a local neighborhood street. So what’s appropriate for a low classification road, um, you see on the right hand side, it narrows it down even more and I’m going to select, finally, horizontal chicane, and for

00:25:48,700	each countermeasure, both urban and rural, listed in Appendix F a, uh, a summary sheet is provided, uh, which shows a picture of the engineering countermeasure. It provides the cost estimate, the purpose, and, uh, any special considerations in this case, horizontal chicanes are traffic calming strategy that should only be used on local

00:26:09,530	and collector roadways, um, the effectiveness is 29% reduction of all crash severities and types, and then the tier is also listed again. Chapter 8 gets into implementation and the road to zero, this is, uh a critical chapter describing, you know, prioritized locations based on the high injury

00:26:32,330	network and public comment and some of the key data points by mode. It also details, prioritized implementation actions, uh, not only infrastructure actions but behavioral actions and growing safety culture within uh the Bismarck Mandan MPO and then explores potential funding opportunities, uh, the cultural actions vary uh in their timeline, uh, for example, the,

00:27:01,730	a critical first step as part of this study is to uh commit or set that vision zero. um for the region uh, and there’s long term things such as uh establishing, you know, eventually establish a specific. multimodal traffic safety uh committee or subcommittee of TAC that is focused primarily on safety.

00:27:29,470	Uh, we also list how the MPO will evaluate and track, uh, you know, the, the performance or the, the um performance related to the vision and goal of this if this study, um, that’s listed in this chapter as well, uh, as well as where this can be incorporated into the MPO’s current processes, such as through, uh, performance, uh, measure one, safety tracking,

00:27:54,100	which is required by uh the federal government for the state and NPO and then through the monitoring report, which will be updated annually. So those things are listed here Uh, implications of this study is um there’s 7 different eligibility components for, uh, the program, uh, Safe Streets and Roads for

00:28:17,000	All, uh, SS4A and uh on the right hand side you’ll see how those relate to this study, the biggest thing, um, or one of the last things that. would, would lead to eligibility is a leadership commitment to that Vision Zero and goal of 50% reduction, which is listed here again, uh, so the commitment involves, uh,

00:28:42,630	through a formal resolution, you know, adoption of a Vision Zero and setting a 2050 goal and uh we did a lot of research digging into this, um, it’s really intended by the federal government to to to be a planning tool, uh, used to track the performance of of safety uh for the MPO and

00:29:03,470	evaluate how things are going, uh, they do not list any repercussions for committing to the vision, setting the goal, and for example, not, not meeting it, um, the high injury network is new and when is referenced and implementation grant submittals and then that tool kit will help um guide decision making and project selection, so essentially all

00:29:26,970	the tools are, are within this plan, uh, for local jurisdictions, um, to pursue SS4A, uh, HIP, and additional funding that uh that that impacts safety, um, to identify locations and potential strategies and with that I’ll be quiet and uh open it up for any questions you may have, uh, off the bat, otherwise I have listed the uh

00:29:53,100	potential actions for today. Questions So, so I have one because 2050 is a long time out. We’re gonna have more population and to ask for a 50% reduction in serious accidents might be a bit of a stretch. if we have 50% more population, 50% more drivers, or 150% of what we’re doing now.

00:30:18,470	I mean, I don’t know how you can even. that should reasonably attain that since we probably don’t have a significant number of right now. Right That’s a great question. Um, we, we did not factor population or uh traffic growth into into the goal, um, and I think for, for a couple, uh, a couple of reasons, uh, primarily being that that 50% reduction

00:30:50,730	is based off of a 2021 peak of uh. was it 770 or 71 severe crashes, um, for example, in, in 2024, I believe your severe crashes were at 46, so we wanted to set something that felt attainable, um.

00:31:14,230	even with, you know, even with the growth, although we didn’t, you know, calculate it into our, our formula for setting that, um, we also are seeing a lot of emerging technology in in vehicles in fleets that could have a drastic, you know, impact on, on safety.

00:31:40,330	So we felt like the 50% was yes, ambitious, uh, but, but more realistic than, for example, setting a, a, a full, you know, we want to get to 0 by 202,050. I think er would be unrealistic.

00:31:59,100	I unfortunately, I, I, I agree with that sentiment, yeah, but I’m just like, I realize there’s no, we’re not our hands aren’t tied, but I’m saying, I think it’s, it’s a goal given the city of Bismarck alone is growing at roughly 1000 new residents a year. We’re gonna have 1.5 times to maybe double the number of vehicles running around our community. That’s, that means your goal of 50% reduction if we forecast it out, OK, but this is now and would make more sense to me, but that’s just.

00:32:20,900	my my accounting brain function And I do think, um, you know, 11 thing we glossed over, Cha Cha Schmitz, is that high injury network, we saw the all modes high injury network was 9% of the metropolitan planning areas. system. The 9% of the streets, but it accounted for 74%.

00:32:48,170	of severe crashes, so it’s, I, I would, I would just, uh, say we do remain optimistic that this this can be that’s, this can be done, especially with some focus on well known, you know. dangerous or, you know, severe crash locations. Just my comment. I don’t Thank you. No, it’s a good go ahead, Comm.

00:33:13,170	Is the rationale behind this kind of a little bit behind. Vision Zero is that setting up a good foundation for better practices is, is kind of the rationale going into reducing those numbers and then focusing in on some of the key areas that are high impact areas and improving those, OK.

00:33:34,270	Yep, that’s exactly right. And kind of compiling uh, a comprehensive or holistic resource foundation and build off of that. Yep, exactly. Any other questions for Luke Jim? Thank you, Chair Schmitz, if I may, um, I would just like to take one moment on behalf of the entire MPO to thank Luke,

00:33:56,000	Jolene, and the entire SRF staff, uh, and team for their considerable effort in developing a product that will really help to promote the, uh, priority of safety in our communities, um, on a variety of levels for years to come.

00:34:19,430	The safety counter measure tool kit created for use by our jurisdictions is a really intuitive and straightforward product, um, that really gets to the heart of their request for a tool to assist in determining appropriate safety countermeasures, uh, while the identification of the high injury network through this study and the leadership commitment actually equips us to pursue not only newer discretionary funding programs

00:34:42,370	such as the Safe Streets and Roads for All Grant, but also establish safety programs that are out there, such as the highway Safety Improvement Program.

00:34:56,870	So, um, we’re, we’re very happy with the outcome of this study with the products that have been delivered to us at this point and just to let you know that TA did vote unanimously yesterday to recommend approval of the final report and also adoption of the leadership commitment, uh, MPO staff would support that and request the same of the policy board today. Thank you.

00:35:15,000	Any other questions, members? We have two actions I think we need to take them separate, so um, would be at your discretion. tac combine them into one action item.

00:35:35,270	OK, well, if we can do that, I guess it would be that, that’s fine if the policy board wants to do that, I guess it seems a little strange to me, but I’d move to approve the safety policy, study final report. Second. Any discussion Here none will call a roll Mayor Berglund, Yes. Comm Zach Meyer, Mayor Frelich? Yes. Comm Bakken, and Chair Schmitz, yes. with regard to the leadership commitment. I motion to adopt the leadership commitment resolution.

00:36:16,370	2 any discussion He none will call roll Mayor Berglund, Yes, Comm Zachmeyer, Mayor Frelick. Yes, Comm Bakken. and Cheer Schmitz. Yes. Next item 7, the 2026 to 2029 transportation improvement program amendments. Steven. thank you, Chair. Give me just one moment.

00:36:59,630	Um All right, so this is exhibit C in your packets this month, the MPO processed 5 amendments to the 2026 through 2029 transportation improvement program We advertise the amendments for the required 15-day public comment period. We did not receive comments, nor did we receive any comments during the public hearing held at yesterday’s Tacac meeting. They’re pretty straightforward, simple amendments. The first First Amendment removes a project, uh, for the reconstruction.

00:37:22,530	of the 19th Street and Century Avenue turn lanes in Bismarck from the current tip, because DOT indicated the project is being funded in 2025, which puts it in the 25 through 28 tip. The three amendments after this are adding new microservicing projects, uh, to on I-94 and one on Bismarck Expressway.

00:37:48,730	Those are DOT-led projects, and then finally, DOT is also requested we add a new project for right of Way evaluation and preliminary engineering on Interstate Avenue, um, they’re all pretty, it’s a very small scale project, 25,000 cost, um.

00:38:11,730	so those are the five amendments that we have moved forward with, uh, to bring these our tip into line with the new DOT step, uh, and, uh, Tacac recommended approval of those amendments as presented yesterday. Are there any questions? It looked like it moved to approve. Second. Any discussion He none will call roll Mayor Berglund. Comm Zachmeyer. Mayor Frelick, Comm Bakken, and Chair Schmitz.

00:38:45,370	Yes. Next item 8, the fiscal 2026 urban Rail highway crossing safety program project, Steven. Thank you, Chair. Uh, this year we received one project from the city of Bismarck for the fiscal year 26, urban Rail solicitation. Uh, we do not score these projects.

00:39:09,330	We do determine that I did determine the project was consistent with the goals of our current MTP, uh, DOTs, solicitation for this program is far less formal than their other grant programs. They do not require an application form. They are basically just soliciting for project concepts that they then move forward with or not at their discretion.

00:39:29,600	Uh, so one note is that this year will be the last year in which urban rail projects that are awarded funding can be funded 100% federally. Uh, the new transportation bill will set new funding levels for this program going forward. So the project Bismarck submitted is for uh railroad panels at the Morrison Avenue crossing just west of Yegen Road.

00:39:53,630	So there is a sidewalk project planned for calendar year 2027, east of the crossing on the south side of Morrison, so these new railroad panels added to the crossing would complete the sidelock project at this location and ensure there’s no gap in pedestrian infrastructure here. And there are illustrations of where the project would be located, included in the packet.

00:40:15,630	Are there any questions? Tack did recommend approval of the project, I should add. doesn’t look like it moved to arouf Second is there any discussion Harry none will call roll Mayor Burkland. Comm Zachmeyer. Mayor Frelich? Yes. Comm Bakken, and Char Schmitz. Yes, item 9 is the SFY 2026 Bisman Transit 59 or 5339 and 5310 grant applications.

00:40:55,070	Thank you Chair Schmitz Uh, the applications begin on page 27 in the packets. The end of DOT has again this year has solicited for their state fiscal year 2027, sections 5339 and 5310 grant programs. Section 5339 is a bus and bus facilities program in Section 5310 is the enhanced mobility of seniors and individuals with disabilities program.

00:41:22,270	Bisman Transit is requesting approval to submit the grant applications for both of these programs. Exhibit F is Bisman Transit’s 5339 application. There they are applying for two fixed route buses and one facility cleaning machine. if awarded, the federal share would be $1,216,560. Transit would provide a local share of $215,040. totaling $1,431,600.

00:41:59,100	and exhibit G scroll down here for a minute here. Is there 5310 application. right there and they’re applying again for the after-hour service Sunday service, Ho service, early morning service. and the salary for their existing mobility Man position.

00:42:37,530	The application also includes a request to purchase 4 new cutaway buses to replace existing paratransit vehicles that will have exceeded their FTA defined useful life by the time of the grant award. There are 9 projects total for this application. If NDDOT approves all the projects, the total federal share would be $884,364 and transit would provide a local share of $357,276 tolling $1,241,640. The application here is scalable.

00:43:13,530	So NDDOT could be awarded any or all of the projects could award any or all of the projects in this application. Both transit application programs will be presented at the Bismarck City Commission meeting this evening. Staff is seeking a recommendation for the approval of the 5339 and 5310 applications contingent upon the BCC approval.

00:43:32,530	Ah, yesterday tac did vote to approve and recommend approval for both applications as presented contingent upon the Bismarck City Commission approval. Any questions Any questions OK. Given we’re trying to see Bisman Transit expand services, I think it’s a good thing to support. Well, they are replacement vehicles.

00:43:55,100	I understand that, but they’re going to be a request for more money, right, right. Expanded services as well. in time So the match comes completely from the cityside. or the two cities between their mill levees and their sales tax revenues.

00:44:24,900	or whatever or our general fund dollars correct, Comm? I wasn’t sure what, uh, the reserves for transit look like, so. Well, they have some reserves, but they’ve been eating into them pretty significantly. So actually they have a request to both commissions tonight to backfill their deficit from the sales tax that was passed. So what are your wishes, policy board members? I would make a motion to approve the uh 5339 application.

00:44:55,800	How about the 5310 Did you want them separate or together? I think they can be together, OK, and, and the 5310 application. Second is there any go ahead contingent on Bismarck City Commission. Approval this evening? Yes. um, and we do have a second Any discussion I’ll roll, please Mayor Berglund, yes. Comm Zachmeyer.

00:45:28,900	Mayor Freelich, Yes, Comm Bakken, and Chair Schmitz. Yes. Item 10 is the fiscal 30 urban regional applications Kim Thank you, Chair Schmitz Um, exhibit H in your packet starts on page 59, and that provides a summary for the FY 30 urban regional Program and I’ll see if I can get us there real quick. and apparently not Hm.

00:46:14,800	OK I don’t know if I’m in the wrong packet or what. I’ll just scroll down very quickly. Um, and while I’m scrolling down to hit that, I’ll give you a little information about this program for the, uh, fiscal year 30 Urban Regional Program, the MPO did receive a total of

00:46:33,470	4 applications, 4 of those were submitted to us by the city of Bismarck, and one was submitted by the city of Mandan. Uh, the MPO and its member jurisdictions met with representatives from the North Dakota Department of Transportation to discuss the FY 30 regional program and the regional project priorities for the MPO area for fiscal year 30.

00:46:57,600	Uh, the MPO staff had previously scored these projects against the goals and objectives of the Arrive 2050 MTP, and those were provided to the prioritization committee for their consideration, and there were also attached as part of this exhibit in the packet.

00:47:23,730	So exhibit H um brings us to the summary and to the prioritized ranking of the projects as based on the discussion between the jurisdictions and the direction received from North Dakota DOT and the final consensus that was reached at that meeting.

00:47:42,600	Uh, the number one ranking project, it was submitted by Mandan, and it is a maintenance project for chip sealing on an asphalt reconstruction that was done in 2021, Old Red Trail or North Dakota Highway 1806. They are referencing the, um, extents from mild post 71.69 to 75.50 and it’s approximately 1.18 miles. The total cost is 1 0498 $7.

00:48:11,270	They’re asking for a federal, um, participation of 83,990, and it is consistent with the MTP as are all those projects that you see on the summary sheet. Uh, the second ranked project was submitted by Bismarck. It too is a maintenance project to, um, include the asphalt overlay rehabilitation of the multi-use trail on the west side of State Street between Divide Avenue to Calgary Avenue, uh, that does have an extent of approximately 5700 linear feet.

00:48:33,630	The total cost is projected to be $464,000 and the city of Bismarck is asking for 371,200 in federal participation. The third project submitted, um, and ranked for priority was submitted by the City of Bismarck.

00:49:03,100	Uh, this is um an evaluation of stormwater mitigation, um, to include either improvements or driver warning systems to mitigate the current deficiencies which result in flooding during large rain events at the 7th and 9th Street underpasses under the BNSF Railroad. Um, the total federal cost of this project could be as high as $1.3 million and so the City of Bismarck is asking for that federal match of $1,040,000 and this is consistent with the MTP as well.

00:49:26,530	The 4th ranking project was also a Bismarck submission for the replacement of citywide signs along US Highway 83, North Dakota Highway 810, 94 business sloop, um, which are all on the regional highway system in the city, uh, and the idea is to replace the signs that are noncompliant at this

00:49:46,270	time. Total cost of this project would be estimated at $250,000 with 200,000 being provide d as the federal portion. So with that, staff does recommend that the 4 submitted applications be considered and recommended for approval to be forwarded to North Dakota DOT for their fiscal year 30 funding consideration, and by the way, those applications are

00:50:11,430	due to DOT by December 31st of the year. Uh. the policy board does have 3 options at this point. You can either approve with the acceptance of the recommended priority or you can approve with the rejection of this recommend recommended priority and reprioritize or you can approve with the rejection of the recommended priority and

00:50:40,100	send to North Dakota DOT with no prioritization. We have historically prioritized our regional transportation needs for North Dakota DOT. It helps them very much in their selection process and so we would recommend um at all costs forwarding to DOT with a prioritization.

00:51:01,530	Any questions on any of the projects, the um project details were included as exhibits I through J in your packet in case you needed more information, but this was just the summary of them. Any questions moved to approve as prioritized. A second Any discussion Mary Nunn will call a roll Mayor Berglund. Comm Zachmeyer, Mayor Frelich, Comm Bakken and Chair Schmitz.

00:51:32,500	Yes. Next item 11, the fiscal 30 urban roads applications, Kim. All right, thank you very much, Chair Schmitz. Again, yes, this is the fiscal year 30 Urban Roads, um, program that we’re talking about and the MPO only received one application for this particular program. It was received from the city of Bismarck.

00:51:54,500	Uh, that was included in your packet, um, but, uh, we have included a, a bit of a summary for that in Exhibit M of your packet, um, because it was the only project that was submitted.

00:52:15,170	It has attained our number one priority ranking for the region, um, and there’s a brief description that will tell us a bit about this. Um, it is a reconstruction type project. It is for concrete pavement and asphalt shoulder reconstruction along Main Avenue beginning from the Memorial Highway framed barracks Road intersection, extending east to Washington Street.

00:52:41,330	It would potentially include a roundabout installed at the main and Rosser Avenue Bell Street intersection and possible 4 to 3 lane reduction and addition of a new multi-use trail from Bell Street to Washington Street along that northern side. Also, it would include valuation of appropriate rehabilitation or replacement for the grade separated pedestrian crossing, um, that currently extends from North to south across that West Main Avenue and also landscaping considerations along the corridor.

00:53:04,870	The proposed project is on a 1 mile stretch of Main Avenue, um, the rehab of this area of Main Avenue is identified in our metropolitan Transportation plan currently. Uh, the city of Bismarck, uh, estimates the total cost of this project if, um, all components of the projects as listed are completed to be 7.

00:53:27,730	1 million dollars. However, um, they are only requesting at this time $5.2 million which is only 73% of that total cost, whereby the urban roads program typically will match up to 80%. The reason that the city of Bismarck is only requesting that $5.

00:53:52,530	2 million is because that is the authorized amount or the oblig amount of, um, obligational authority that actually is available to us in this urban program. Um, however, when we met to discuss our regional priorities with North Dakota DOT in our jurisdictions.

00:54:16,900	DOT did indicate to us that it would be very helpful for them to, um, know how much the city of Bismarck would require for this project in the event that additional federal funding became available, and they encouraged the city of Bismarck to apply up to the maximum 80%. So that is why on this summary sheet, um, you do see the, the total project cost remaining static at $7.1 million.

00:54:49,070	However, they are also requesting up to an amount of $5,680,000 in the event that additional urban roads funding would become available, and that would allow North Dakota DOT to program those funds directly into that project and expedite that process. Um, again, this, this request is being made at the suggestion of North Dakota DOT.

00:55:08,730	When we met, um, this was forwarded or recommended for the region’s number one priority in fiscal year 30. I’d be happy to answer any more questions, otherwise, the policy board does have the same 3, approval options as we outlined with the urban regional approved as number one priority. Reject the prioritization.

00:55:29,270	In this case, I don’t know that you could, um, come up with uh another one other than no priority, um, so I’ll leave that to the discretion of the board. Any questions? Mr. Bakken Um, what’s the rationale for the lane reduction? Uh, currently with the available right of way, um, if, if you can envision the way that the, the four lanes, um, converge and start heading into West Main Avenue, where there

00:55:50,370	are 3 lanes. Right now there’s a slip lane. So, um, you have two eastbound lanes and then you have one lane that automatically slides you into that eastbound lane. Uh, so that’s taking up additional right of way.

00:56:10,730	There is a foot trail on the north side in the dirt or in the grass, um, on the north curb side of the roadway, and they would take that additional, um, right of way and create a multi-use path on that north side. So then the, uh, I, I’m more concerned about the Westbound then. Where would that, would it all come to a head at the proposed roundabout then? Yes, exactly.

00:56:34,100	So that roundabout would really facilitate number one, it would, there’s probably 3 um, real beneficial impacts from having a roundabout at that intersection right now, the geometry of that intersection is not good at all.

00:56:55,530	Um, neither for Westbound nor for eastbound, um, or for people coming off and taking that, um, rosser Avenue exit, um, a lot of the times in the peak morning hours, there is, there’s a very lengthy queue that backs up, um, all the way like to that pedestrian bridge. It’s quite lengthy, and it creates some real safety issues, um, and so heading east in Bismarck. Yes, exactly.

00:57:14,330	So it’d be 4 lanes out of the roundabout going to the west. Going to the West, there would be two lanes. There would be 2 lanes coming in, um, one would take you directly into the roundabout, one would take you into West Main on uh on was there’s two lanes going west out of the roundabout.

00:57:33,370	Two lanes going west out of the roundabout. Yes. I think that’s what you’re asking, isn’t it, Comm? OK. My apologies the addition of the layoff a er plus the one lane. would, yes, and in fact it too then.

00:57:57,100	Let’s see, um, they do, I think, provide some good indication of that on some of their graphics that they provided, um, that shows existing conditions right now. They show where the roundabout would be constructed. Let’s see. Um, this does show the queuing. that happens in the a.m. mornings, the peak a.m., I’m sorry. And then, uh, this will indicate your lane configuration coming in.

00:58:28,330	You have the two lanes coming in, uh, from the west, eastbound, one will take you right into the roundabout and then one will bring you over to, um West Main Avenue.

00:58:47,600	You also have, uh, your, your Westbound lane coming out of West Main Avenue from city center, um, that will bring you into this roundabout and then you can either, uh, obviously take the roer exit, or you can merge into that. Westbound traffic, which is 2 lanes. Any further questions What are your wishes I move to approve the uh Urban roads application All right. Is there any discussion? A and Mall role Mayor Berglund, yes Comm Zachmeyer. Mayor Frelick, Comm Bakken? No.

01:00:00,170	and Chaer Schmitz. Yes. I’m 12, government partners, Covenant partner program membership. Jim. Thank you again, Chair Schmitz, um. uh I’m really gonna try and get my packet pages figured out here Exhibit O in your packet is the um memorandum of agreement for the Big Sky passenger rail Authority government partner program membership, uh, this 2026 government partner program

01:00:39,170	membership was vetted through the MPO jurisdictions and approved for inclusion in the 2026 budget and work program with the adoption of the UPWP back in August. Uh, this memorandum of agreement details the roles and the responsibilities of the MPO and the participating jurisdictions.

01:01:01,100	This MOA is identical to the one that was entered into for the 2025 GP membership. However, because the memorandum of agreement follows with the membership term and the current membership term expires on December 30th. Uh, a new MOA must be signed for the 2026 membership as well. Staff is seeking approval of the MOA as presented and tact did recommend approval at their meeting yesterday.

01:01:23,470	I’d be happy to answer any questions. Any questions moved to approve. Second, any discussion? He none will call roll Mayor Berglund. Yes. Comm Zach Meyer. Mayor Frelick, Comm Bakken, and Chaer Schmitz. Yes, item 13, the Farm Pep uh update. I’m not Joe is he online? Good afternoon. Um, can everyone hear me OK? Yes.

01:01:56,530	I’m going to go ahead and share screen here. I have a very quick little set of slides just to guide us through this update, which is brief. um let’s see here All right. Does everyone see this We do not see what I think you’re trying to present. Let me try that again. My apologies.

01:02:25,370	It’s always a little bit different with every platform and try again, Joe. I think we got you. OK, how about this time OK. Thank you. There’s, there should be a title slide. OK.

01:02:46,270	Uh, to give a quick update of where we are right now, um, your packet shows that we are at 3% completion, so it’s still very early in our process overall, and most of the work we have done to date, um, reflects data collection, um, some, some initial organization of stakeholders and our steering committee, but we have had one meeting with the steering committee and then significantly last week we had our first public outreach

01:03:07,070	activities one of which unfortunately we did have to cancel due to inclement weather. This was the same day. This was Tuesday of last week and the same day that Mandan City schools were closed, so, um, we, we decided to err on the side of caution and and follow suit, but uh staff, MPO

01:03:26,800	staff and our team are working on rescheduling that meeting in Mandan that was canceled, um, probably to sometime in the first part of January. Um, we are also in the middle of our early stages of technical work, and I’ll talk about that a bit more in a second. That’s going to be an ongoing activity.

01:03:43,330	Uh, in terms of where we are in the overall project schedule, uh, like I said, still fairly early in the process. We spent the first couple of months just getting kind of administrative structure worked out for um uh how we would be doing the work, uh, reporting back, um, setting up systems for file and data

01:04:02,170	sharing so that our team could dive into the technical analysis, but this public outreach activity that we had last week will be the first of two kind of principal phases of our outreach with another to come in the spring when we have more findings and results from the

01:04:17,000	study work to share with the community. So we’ll be looking at um additional outreach then and of course before that time, you’ll have other updates on how the work is moving forward.

01:04:34,100	I did want to take a moment though to share a little bit about the um the public outreach activity itself because we used a format that’s not typical for some of these. These are usually, you know, uh, presentation to an audience of people, maybe you have some display boards around the room, and it’s more of an open house, but we structured this activity to be a little bit more um participatory for the people who were there.

01:04:52,270	not only to try to make it fun, you know, and a little bit more, um, you know, engaging and enjoyable then these meetings might be sometimes on on kind of technical topics like roadway plans that don’t, you know, factor in most people’s daily thinking, but we also did this so that people could

01:05:07,730	understand the different perspectives and the different points of decision making processes that go into implementing plans like this, so that, you know, maybe it’s a little bit less mysterious as to why transportation, you know, actions are taken or why a road happens the way it does and where it does.

01:05:26,900	So we had set up a scenario-based exercise that was intended to allow participants to move around the room and work in these different kinds of planning challenges that needed to be resolved, and each participant was to have a role that they were playing representing a different agency or community um perspective, they would be a concerned citizen or a landowner or a

01:05:46,170	city engineer or a DOT engineer, and in each case there was a, you know, a kind of problem to solve or a challenge to overcome, and they were supposed to work together to find consensus on that. Um, our turnout was small, um, probably a consequence of the weather of the week.

01:06:02,800	Overall, it can be tough, you know, when you have schools canceled and roads closed one day to get people out, the next, but I will say of our participants, they were very engaged and interested in this activity and, and left with, you know, really positive feedback for how they felt this was and what they had learned

01:06:18,730	from it. You’ll see in this picture here on the right there’s Man d an Comm S Soberg there who, um, you know, was was very engaged in this and, and shared with us after the workshop ended that he felt this was a very positive and helpful way to engage the community in a

01:06:34,470	study like this. So we definitely look forward to bringing this back to Mandan sometime next month and setting up a similar structure and look forward to similar opportunities to keep the community engaged in ways that are informative and hopefully kind of fun, you know, that showed that planning processes like this,

01:06:52,330	uh can really bring a lot of information to the community and, and everyone has a part in them. Uh, so next steps beyond this are that we’re moving into more detailed technical analysis, which is really taking a look at the existing fringeer Roads plan and just doing kind of a second look

01:07:10,000	through with various um planning factors or or technical features to understand basic feasibility and constructability of some of these connections, but this will be run through a more scenario-based, um, kind of land use based process that we’ll be sharing updates more on in coming months. We are also inaugurating two different outreach tools here.

01:07:32,330	One of them is intended for the agencies, and we’ve already been using that to collect some of our technical data, but another tool is a public facing kind of uh digital or um like a spatial survey tool that lets people place points on maps and share um with some guided prompts or or types of comments

01:07:51,100	they could make, um, particular challenges or opportunities they see so that that can help augment the technical analysis to give us a community grounded perspective in plan findings and later recommendations. So that’s our update for now.

01:08:11,370	Again, we’re we’re still pretty early in the process, but look forward to sharing, um, some more detailed work, um, outcomes with you in the coming months, and I’m happy to answer any questions you might have. Are there any questions It doesn’t look like it. Thank you. Item 14, 2025 monitoring program update, Steven. Thank you, Chair, really quickly. Um, this will be the last update that we have for this project.

01:08:38,070	So HDR provided MPO staff with training, uh, on the monitoring report document, uh, and data uh on December 2nd to help support us as we look to conduct future updates in-house and final deliverables were have been uh started to trickle in for this. Uh, we have most of them.

01:08:58,870	I will be working with HDR yet this week to kind of finalize a couple of things. Uh, but the, uh, we would like to thank uh the HDR team, uh, for a successful update, and we encourage everyone to visit our website, the, uh, final report is live and accessible for any of you or any of the public to view and we have started to

01:09:16,600	promote that on our social media and website, so. Any questions Any questions OK, thank you. Um, I think these are out of order, so I’m gonna flip them because I think other business should come at the end. So we’ll go to item 16’s notice of the 2026 to 2027 UPWP administrative modification, Kim.

01:09:38,870	Thank you, Chair Schmitz. So this is an item that we talked about a couple of months ago and it’s um notification of administrative modifications for, for core documents like our tip and our UPWP, um, the tack had indicated initially that they, they really don’t care to have staff present on

01:09:56,100	these particular items, and so last month we came to the boards with some kind of a, a solution to that in that we would include the items in the packets, uh, but not present and so we put that into the agenda beyond the other business, so, um, as to uh, just make it more for an

01:10:21,100	informational purposes. Of course, it can always be called out by any of the board members for further discussion, but, uh, if it belongs before other business, we, we’d be happy to place it there for your reference.

01:10:38,870	We just thought that maybe it um provided less confusion, um, as a discussion item, if it were after other business, um, since it really isn’t, uh, being presented for for discussion unless called. I don’t know if that makes sense or not. It does. I might consider it.

01:11:01,070	Maybe it could be on a consent agenda or be the alone consent agenda item or the minutes could even be part of a consent agenda and we can take those two items as one motion. to how we handle it at the city commission level. So that way if somebody wants to call it out we can call it out Yes, and we could certainly make the change to our agenda format.

01:11:19,330	We’ve, we’ve not had the, the consent or regular agenda separation before, but I think that’s certainly worth, worth moving forward with everybody else has OK, thank you, Kim. Is there any other business? Go ahead actually have 11 very quick item.

01:11:41,100	This board did approve last month at your meeting, uh, the 2026 uh contract for the UPWP between the North Dakota Department of Transportation and the Bismarck Mandan MPO that contract has been fully executed at this point as of last Tuesday, in fact, and the, the majority of the funding for our 2026 work program has been authorized, so we are good to start work right

01:12:00,470	away when we return on January 2nd, so just for your information, and Merry Christmas to. Thank you. Happy holidays