00:00:13,000	Um, I guess we’ll call this meeting to order of the Vision Fund Committee. Vision fund committee? Uh, May 2028, 2026 meeting. Um, I’ll take a roll call, please. Member Scherr here. Petersen. Here. Stugelmeyer. Here. Schmitz here. Mayor Frohlich here. Um, first item up on the agenda will be a public comment period.

00:00:44,000	So if we have anybody, um, that has anything to address for this meeting or the previous meeting, you have the time to speak now. Public comment. Second call. And seeing. We have no one in a public comment. We’ll close the public comment period. I’ll move on to agenda item number three.

00:01:03,930	Approval of the meeting minutes. And I’m assuming everybody got the minutes via email. Any discussion or. Move to approve as presented. Second. And a motion and a second. Um, approval of the minutes. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Um. Received. Vision fund financial statements. I think Eric’s here for that. Welcome. Hello. Thanks for having me.

00:01:32,000	Um, chair. Mayor, Committee members, looking at the the vision fund balance sheet. There’s not a lot of change. Um, from last month. Um, the the real significant difference that you’re going to see is the committed cash for, um, shoot 360, which was approved at the April 23rd um, meeting for the

00:01:56,600	107 692. And so you’ll see that reserve cash, if you will, um, has increased from last month. And then there was a slight uptick. Um, 2002, 29 we did receive the Cloverdale, uh, payment, um, in April for that.

00:02:18,930	Um, and then as far as on the income statement goes, there was a couple of smaller other income type payments that we got. Um, we periodically will receive some money back from Bank of North Dakota when the Pace loans, um, close earlier. Um, and some of our by down or unused interest earnings for the buy down processes then returned back to the city.

00:02:43,600	Um, there really insignificant amounts. You know, less than 2000 bucks. Generally. Um, typically less than 100 bucks. Um, so that that is recognized in that, uh, um, miscellaneous other income type line.

00:03:05,470	Um, the third page for the notes receivable, you’ll note at the bottom the the addition of the sheet. 360 um, loan that’s approved but not yet drawn. And I will note, um, in your packet information on that loan receivable for Cloverdale. I had a technology glitch on it. That number still believe says on your guys’s number 4459. It’s actually, um, 6000 688.

00:03:28,530	It did not update appropriately to recognize that last payment from April. Um, but other than that, really no significant changes. Um, Joel, you had had a question in April about that difference column on the notes receivable. Um, column really there.

00:03:51,330	And what we’re trying to demonstrate here is just simply the amount of change from the year end before to current day to day. And so that 94,000 to 74, for a late spring Suria LLC, that’s just recognizing that previously they were approved but hadn’t drawn it. And we made that disbursement in the 26 calendar year. Perfect. Thank you. Yeah. Any other questions? Questions? Thank you very much. You bet.

00:04:16,970	Um, any discussion on the financials? Can I get a motion to approve. Motion? I’ll second. I have a motion and a second to approve the financials. All in favor, say aye. Aye aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries on to the next, uh, agenda item. Uh, maximize chiropractic flex. Pay by down interest by down application. Noah. Thank you.

00:04:49,770	Chair. Mayor. Uh, Commission members of the committee. In your packet, you have a vision fund application from Maximized Chiropractic. The loan, it would be structured as a loan up to 70,070. Give me one second to actually find the actual amount. 107,692 and $0.36.

00:05:22,830	Um, the project will be for the purchase and remodel of 1720 Burnt Boat Road. Uh, project will occupy a majority of the building from the onset of the project. Um, increasing to close to 100% over a five year period. As the practice is able to hire more staff.

00:05:43,800	The lead lender and the owner, doctor Alex Coleman, are in attendance today. Alex will have a brief presentation for y’all about the project and the business. If you have any questions for me, I’m happy to stand now and I’m also available after he has a chance to present. Any questions for Noah at this time. All right, I guess let’s hear the presentation. Just right here. Yeah. Okay.

00:06:11,270	Hello, everybody. I’m doctor Alex Coleman. I am one of the owners of Maximized Chiropractic with my wife, Whitnie. We’re both here. We’re both, um. Bismarck. Uh, I was born in Bismarck. She was not born in Bismarck, unfortunately, but we were both raised here.

00:06:28,330	Graduated from century, graduated from Ndsu, and we both moved back after moving away to school. Started her practice in 2013, and we wanted to bring our kind of our passions and our talents back to Bismarck. This is where we’ve called home our whole life, and we love it.

00:06:48,700	So we started in 2013 and we very quickly outgrew our original space. We moved into our current space in 2019, and we’ve just kept experiencing that growth since day one. We are now in the top 2% of clinics in the entire United States, and we’re wanting to continue that trajectory.

00:07:12,130	And as we continue to expand the last few years, we’ve expanded into other modalities that we’ll talk about in a minute. Um, that’s allowed us to double our staff load the last couple of years. And this growth is rooted in consistent long term relationships with our Bismarck families. So the culture of our office just briefly here, we these core values support education, empowerment and community.

00:07:38,870	This every visit, every interaction, every decision that we make for our business is rooted in those core values. And just today, I asked a patient for just kind of a quote for this for you guys, because it’s not for me.

00:07:55,330	Um, she said it’s about the feeling you get from the moment we walk in, I feel safe, I feel heard and supported. They know us by name. We’re always ready to lend a helping hand. I can’t express the gratitude I have for this team of people. They have changed our lives for the better. They aren’t just a clinic. We are a family.

00:08:14,800	So I’m incredibly proud of the people that I get to serve and our community. And being a part of this community, and that’s always been our dream, is to have this business in this place and be able to have the opportunity to serve more families. But now we’re in the current problem.

00:08:33,430	We six months ago, I reached out to a close patient who is an occupational therapist, because we’ve always had the dream of expanding into therapy and the the the day that we had our interview with her for the last seven years, I’ve driven by this building, and for the last seven years I’ve told my kids, kids, someday that’s going to be our

00:08:51,000	home. It’s not not making that up. Drive by it every day. I mean, I’ve been in love with the building for seven years. I told my realtor five years ago, hey, if this ever comes on the market.

00:09:01,900	Hey, can we talk to the owner? Can we just convince him to sell it to us? He wanted to keep it. He’s got it paid off. He’s got oil money, and he’s good with it. He wanted to keep it. So we’re on our way to this meeting with the OT. The very first one that we had to launch things with her.

00:09:14,500	And Scott texted me that the building came on the market, and I felt like that was a sign from God saying, hey, this timing is working perfectly, because I knew going to that meeting that I had to tell her, like, we want this to happen, but I don’t have the room. I don’t know where I’m gonna put you.

00:09:30,000	You’re gonna have to be in a closet or something. We just don’t have the space. So on top of our business needing the space, where our. Our offices are crammed into little tiny nooks, our break room is being used as an office. Every every nook and cranny of our building has three units.

00:09:46,400	Three uses right now. And on top of that, we have other, other issues. Over the last few years, we’ve been seeing this disconnected care loop in patients, in families across Bismarck. Our office specializes in family care, so we see mostly kids, young moms, moms with 1 to 10 kids, and we’re helping them navigate parenthood.

00:10:10,100	The journey to from getting pregnant to how do I breastfeed this kid? My kid won’t sleep. What’s going on? They’re scared. They’re confused. They’re bouncing from one office to the next, and they’re basically having to play project manager for their kid. Most of their postpartum, postpartum stages spent scheduling appointments.

00:10:29,670	And is my kid fed at the right time to get to this place at the right time? And when four offices are involved, the doctors and the care providers can’t communicate effectively. So things get messed. Care gets delayed, results get completely stopped sometimes. So we’ve seen that this this disconnected care loop is, is making our young families suffer a little bit.

00:10:53,670	The wait times for therapies in a lot of these clinics, for the things that we specialize in, have been 6 to 9 months to even be able to get in. And when a brand new baby needs care, they need it now. They don’t need it nine months from now.

00:11:10,330	So there’s a very large demand for our specific niche of therapies, combined with the chiropractic care that we do for our kids. So combining this, our goal is to be able to allow these kids and these families to have better results and be able to do that all under one roof. So they’re done with the telephone game and bouncing from office to office.

00:11:26,800	So the building right now, these are both renderings. The the the building right now on the outside if you’re driven by it, if you know the building, um, Bill Clairmont built this for his personal office back in 1979. And it’s a little past its glory days.

00:11:44,400	It’s kind of getting rough on the outside, and our vision is to restore it back to what it once was. It’s a beautiful mid-century modern building that’s filled with office space right now, but we’re trying to liven up that corridor, renovating the outside.

00:12:03,730	We’re planning on replacing all of the damaged siding, all the windows, all of the soffit and the gutters, all the things that are making it look pretty dated. Um, the interior build out on the left. The goal is to have a Scandinavian modern interior completely renovated. We’re absorbing about 4500ft immediately.

00:12:27,730	And then over the next few years, as the remaining leases expire, there are some leases in place for the next couple of years. As leases expire, we will continue to grow into the remainder of the building. We would likely take over most of the building off the bat, but there are leases in place that don’t allow that.

00:12:44,370	So tax base, tax base growth, that’s one thing that you guys are the most interested in. We have a we’re massively expanding our retail footprint. We offer a lot of products that young families and new moms use on a daily basis. So obviously sales tax generation goes up with that.

00:13:04,470	Investing into the physical property will help to stabilize the just the commercial tax values of the property of ours, and hopefully some even around it, just kind of livening up the whole burnt boat, burnt boat corridor. But the largest is going to be in the new jobs. We hired our our first occupational therapist two months ago, and she’s already at 80% of capacity. By the end of this year, she will be likely over capacity.

00:13:28,930	We have the next therapist that is finishing school that will join us in the spring, and then starting with this renovation, we will be growing into four more therapists and supporting staff roles immediately. The new space will allow us to size and the rooms to physically do that.

00:13:49,570	After the first upgrade and renovation, we have two two more stages of renovation that we will do. The first stage will include a whole new therapy division that will include a therapy gym and many more treatment rooms for therapists. So our plan is to expand into into that even more in 2028.

00:14:09,600	So new job creation is quite substantial, especially because these are skilled, high paying jobs. The therapists are all six figure plus jobs, and the supporting staff roles are all not quite six figures, but getting close. So our goal has never been to make a big, successful business.

00:14:31,070	That’s been kind of a side effect, and we’re lucky to be able to have that. But our our real vision has been to be able to help families. We have four kids of our own and we’ve been through this.

00:14:50,030	We’ve been through the struggles of wanting to raise kids in a in a natural health care world, and when we were first parents, we didn’t have that. So we are trying to fill that niche and fill that need, and we feel like we’ve done that. Being granted access to some of these funds will help us reach these goals and help more of our families. That’s all I have. Thank you.

00:15:10,970	Does anybody have any questions for me? I have a couple. Just because as I was scanning through the application like I, I have a little confusion because in one place it talks about a half $1 million in investment. But reality, I think it’s more like two something million. That well, half a million is the renovation budget.

00:15:28,730	The to the building purchase plus. So the building purchase plus the renovations is over 2 million. But just the renovations is half a million. Okay so and that’s fine. Yeah. I thought that’s probably what it was. Yeah.

00:15:46,930	But just for clarification, I would say that if this gets moved forward to the city commission, you might want to more succinctly lay that out, okay. Because the funding for the pace buy down is, on the whole purchase price. Okay. And so maybe, you know, identify your purchase price and what the improvements are. I’m not sure that it’s going to necessarily drive value of the property.

00:16:06,730	It probably will because you’re going to do some things that have affect the exterior, which will improve value. But that’s probably a minor component here. I think the bigger thing that you’re going to bring is job creation. Yep. Um, which is many more people buying new homes or different homes in Bismarck. Yeah.

00:16:24,130	Um, but you also mentioned one of the documents, the unmet need. I need to understand what that unmet need is, because there’s lots of chiropractors. Yeah, that was a question. I had lots of TS. There’s lots of OTS there. I’m not sure. That that’s where the collaboration and care comes.

00:16:43,970	So I’m one of the only pediatric certified chiropractors in the area. There’s only a couple others. We are the by far the biggest pediatric clinic. There’s plenty of chiropractors, plenty of chiropractors for Joe back pain, and my neck hurts. Our our style of practice is very different and unique. So. And that helps. I just needed to understand what that is.

00:17:01,000	Yeah. Because unmet need I don’t know what that means. Yeah okay. Obviously that’s my passion I would love to talk about that all day, but I’d bore you if I did that. Well no it’s just my question. So I’m done with my questions. I got one on job creation.

00:17:19,670	So you have on the scoring matrix 8 to 14 full time jobs created. What’s the time period in which. So you plan to get to those numbers. So immediately it will be six jobs after two maybe three years.

00:17:39,400	It depends on when the construction for the first stage would be finished, because we can’t hire six new employees if we don’t have the room for them, we’ll be in the same boat then as we would be now. Once the leases expire, which are the end of 2028, once construction is done on that part of the building, roughly then so early 2029, that’s when we would hire. We would double that therapy division again. Okay.

00:17:55,430	And then one other question on the on the sources of the application here. It’s so the the main loan that we’ll be helping with the buy down on would be 1.1 million. And then it has other $880,000 and BND. But isn’t that 1.

00:18:16,400	1 with BND? So is that I’m just curious, is this an SBA? This is SBA financing okay. Yes. Okay. Perfect. Thank you. I just know we we denied a project last week or last month about, um, a salon upgrade and remodels and stuff. So I’m just not sure.

00:18:36,000	And that one was expanding and adding more jobs, but we said no to that one, so I’m not sure as a committee like where we are with all these expansions and how we’re going to keep deciding, well, this one’s fine because this one’s chiropractic care.

00:18:52,530	But that one wasn’t like I struggle with the differences in trying to decide, like which one passes and which one doesn’t. I guess I’m just I’m I’m not sure what your guys’s opinions are. Yeah.

00:19:05,330	I’m curious to hear from others that have more experience on it, but thinking of the one from last month, I the scoring matrix, I felt like felt felt different with what the size of investment was. And so that’s where when I was looking at this, had the same thought, but this one fell into the more likely category. Where is that application was in the minimal.

00:19:21,870	And I know that’s just a reference point, but I know project size and number of job creation were factors in that versus just is this an expansion as a whole? Um. I’m curious what others think on that though. So I think that’s a different topic discussion. Don’t disagree with that. I think that comes up maybe when we get to some things that NOAA has to bring to us later this year.

00:19:37,400	Um, but I did have another question. So you in your, in the application that says occupying 50% of the building, but you just described 4500ft immediately. So how are you going to get to that 50%? So the. Others within. I should clarify that two years.

00:19:55,470	So because the building is two floors and the current leases that are in place are the spots that I want in the building, but I can’t take it from them because there’s leases, the spaces in the basement that are open is going to be our massage therapy division, and we have a sauna on cold plunge and a red light.

00:20:09,530	So we’re expanding our massage therapy division also. And that will be kind of in like an annex. So it’ll have its own entrance. It’ll be a different vibe. It’ll be calmer. The main clinic is very high energy with kids.

00:20:24,970	That will be the 4 to 5000ft on the main level, and then the massage therapy division will be in another. It’s roughly 25 to 3000ft in the back. Okay. That’s how you’re getting there. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Just clarification. When is this project being completed? Like your first initial like occupancy of that. When does that happen.

00:20:44,700	So we close on the building on August 1st and the construction is, he said, roughly 160 days. But you know how that is. So I’m guessing it’s going to be roughly. I’m just planning for a year from now, because if I get my hopes up and it being earlier, I’ll probably be let down. So sometime in 9 to 12 months.

00:20:59,030	And and you stand out in care from other chiropractors. Yes. Like because you have a collaborative joint effort. Is there any other way that you would say, how do you stand out from. That is for sure the biggest one. Our team approach.

00:21:15,300	So my credential is obviously as a certified pediatric chiropractor, but we have an IB, SCLC. My wife is an IB, SCLC. I’m also a CLC, which I’m sure you guys don’t understand. They’re just different levels of lactation consulting.

00:21:33,930	And and we also have another nurse and a massage therapy on staff who helps us with, with, um, doing therapies in the room with us. And then we have multiple massage therapists and other assistants. So our team approach is what makes us great. Every single day we’re collaborating with each other. We’re working with each other’s patients. We’re talking about each other’s patients and making sure that everything is going smoothly.

00:21:51,800	When one doctor works on a patient, it’s easy for things to get missed. It’s easy for things to get overlooked, and our team approach allows them to keep everything in one building and simplify it. But adding the PTO and street therapies is the collaboration component. Yes. Yeah, because those would be something probably other.

00:22:15,930	Well, I know of one other clinic that has one component of those probably. But yeah. Yeah, I can speak as a parent a little bit that like have had that same situation where there’s you’re on a waitlist for a very long time.

00:22:31,070	So I do see that there’s a need my mind goes to I’ve heard a lot that PTSD ot hiring for those positions and that like that there’s a lack of people here. Do you have a concern with being able to actually get those employees? Yes. Yes and no. We have a lot of them already in the pipeline.

00:22:46,930	We have a lot of them that are in school, and we have many that are in jobs, in therapy clinics that are being overworked, underpaid, overly stressed, that are, that have that are our patients. And we talk to them and they’re jumping for joy at the thought of being able to come work in our settings.

00:23:02,330	So we provide a great, positive place to work where they’re they’re paid very generously. They are very, very free. They’re very respected, and they tend to want to stick around because of that. So yeah. Mike. Didn’t you say when you got yours, did you have to like, prove you weren’t.

00:23:20,500	Taking business from someone else or something like that? Yeah. I mean, we were on a flex pace, so we actually had to get letters of support from our competitors. Uh, different brewing companies in town to say we weren’t going to be competing with them on our canning line and things like that.

00:23:36,070	So but that may be a different time and a different it was a primary sector that pay salon. So, um, that might be a little bit different. And yeah, things aren’t made me done that way like they were ten years ago. But, um, so I’m definitely hearing the concern of, of competing industries with. Yeah. No, I totally get it.

00:23:56,830	So any more questions? So just clarification. You’ll only occupy 50% for like the first five years. No, for the first, um, whenever we start occupancy to the end of 2028, okay, that’s when the first branches of leases expire. And we will start our expansion expense. For the next five years. Yeah. Over the five years. After that, over.

00:24:15,730	The five years and five was just an estimate in that it’s going to be likely to 2 to 3. Because otherwise we’re finding like just being a landlord for a while. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions for. Um.

00:24:35,070	I guess to your point of funding, being a landlord for that period, aren’t you occupying the bottom level so that that would be adding income, or is it not expected to increase revenue? Sorry. Remind me, um, acquiring the building will massively decrease the revenue because we’ll be there will be leases in place now and people that are paying rent now, that will be that will be leaving.

00:24:54,030	But you’re you’re exchanging rent payments. You’re making now for ownership. So that’s I mean and it probably is going to be rent from one entity to another. Yeah. So I don’t know that that’s the I don’t think it’s a revenue reduction per se.

00:25:14,730	It’s how much of how much of the building will the purchaser actually occupy. And it’s going to be right around the 50% number. In the beginning. In the beginning it will be like right at exactly 51%, because that’s all that we legally can because of leases. But again, as soon as those are done that we’re. So you’re 100% occupancy after 2 to 3 years when the leases.

00:25:32,370	That’s my goal. Yep. Gotcha. And to get to their SBA financing they probably need to be at 51%. Yes definitely. And that that was part of the deal.. One 500 for program, I’m guessing. Yeah. When I looked at the rent roll, that was my first biggest stressor.

00:25:47,200	I’m like, if there isn’t 51% in the floor plan that we can occupy, then we can’t do this. So that was a big selling point. I do appreciate you reusing a building, um, instead of all brand new construction. Yeah, kind of nice. Yeah. And it came back to the love for that building, like, I. I’ve loved that building.

00:26:03,330	I love the location in the parking lot. It’s perfect for us as as a business. And when it came on the market, it felt like it was meant to be. So here we are. All right. Any more questions? I do have one last question.

00:26:17,430	This would be for you, I guess, if for some reason this committee chooses not to fund as your plan, then to go to the North Dakota Opportunity Fund for the. Yes, yes. Local share. Okay. Okay. Thank you. All right. Okay. Thank you guys. Thank you very much. All right. We have a application on the docket here.

00:26:49,130	Does anybody have any questions for the committee and discussion? Or thoughts? I should say, I guess you know your thoughts on it. If you. I, I want to make sure we’re consistent and trying to figure out when we’re helping with expansions and when we’re not, and trying to value the different businesses.

00:27:05,870	I’m I struggle, I’m not an expert in any of these areas, the salon industry or the chiropractic care. So I’m not sure. I guess. Sure. And your your point is noted. And and I’m somewhat struggling on that, on that level, I think there is a bit of a difference here from most of the other chiropractic offices or for that matter, unless you’re a

00:27:29,870	Essentia or Sanford, you’re not actually providing this larger base of medical treatment in one location. And that maybe swings me, um, to it. I also look at our scoring matrix, and this is the one that’s at the top of our list that we haven’t had.

00:27:53,070	Those other ones necessarily that are competing salon, office space, whatever. They haven’t been at the they’ve been at the minimal or inadequate number. So I do look at that scoring matrix as being a positive on that side. So yeah, I would agree with that. I think that it does, um, meet an unmet need.

00:28:11,530	My one concern, um, that I do think that gets bypassed is just from that. Like is it getting positions that we’re not just taking from others locally? That would be my only concern.

00:28:25,500	But otherwise when I’m looking at the scoring matrix, it does like fit the need and I think it fits it different than those other ones were because like you just said, those were at a minimal standpoint. And this is at score to 12 instead. And so I know that’s not the only factor, but it does have the key indicators that like this is meeting an unmet need in our community and is going to bring that taxable income. Go ahead.

00:28:42,430	I would make a motion that we recommend to the city Commission to fund this. We have a motion. Do we have a second? I’ll second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion on that.

00:28:58,470	The only comment I have is I’m still supportive of this, but I do. This does bring to light the question that we’ve been discussing as to what industries this fund should be particularly focused on, doesn’t mean those are the only industries, because I think this does bring a project, even if it wasn’t one of our industries that has legs to it,

00:29:17,700	because if, for example, they take an OT from somebody else, guess what? That organization is going to go hire another OT, which is probably going to bring someone into town, or they’re going to keep somebody from the University of Mary from going outside of town and staying here.

00:29:34,200	And so I think, you know, those are positions or positions that, um, generally speaking, are are above minimum wage. Uh, people. So we’re probably adding to the employment base. Um, but I do think it will get to our later discussion, but it’s not necessarily today, but down the road. Um, this year. Um, any any other comments or.

00:29:56,630	Then I guess, could I get a roll call, vote? Member Meyer. Yes. Sure. Yes. Petersen. Yes. Schmitz. Yes. Mayor Frohlich. Yes. Motion passes. So I’m just going to give a recommendation when you come to the city commission. A your presentation was great.

00:30:30,800	You might want to shorten a little bit, but be succinct on the unmet need piece and the presentation on the true economics of what you’re actually doing from. It’s more than just the I mean, I get it, you’re $500,000 going in as new, but explain the whole economics of the transaction in a more succinct manner. Otherwise it could get somewhat confused.

00:30:53,430	But the the yeah, the unmet need will be the critical component going to the city Commission. I’m going to tell you that, and I think Jason would agree with me on that one. Yeah. That’s the part that I think our committee struggled with the most on. That is is it an unmet need or is it not.

00:31:08,900	Do we have these things here? So yeah, I would agree with the mayor on that. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Yep. All right. Next item on the agenda. Uh, Bismarck pitch. Uh, Bismarck business pitch. Challenge. Noah got an update on this? Yeah, on your packet. Thank you. Chair.

00:31:32,700	So, Mike, and Jason were able to attend a meeting that we had over at the chamber EDC a couple weeks back, um, with the city of Mandan and the Mandan. A representative from the Mandan Growth Fund to discuss how the Bismarck business pitch challenged the Mandan business pitch challenge will coexist at the same time, and how that

00:31:52,630	will work on a semiannual basis. Um, we determined Mandan would prefer to have the spring 2027 slot for their pitch challenge, and that would mean Bismarck would go fall of 2026.

00:32:13,000	Ideally, if we were on the same timeframe that the city of Mandan operated on, we would have applications out in the next couple of weeks or open in the next couple of weeks, do sometime in early August, with finalists being decided soon after that and then have a few weeks, 5 or 6 weeks to work with the North Dakota Small Business Development Center to kind of tone and, uh, strengthen their application

00:32:35,270	presentation. And then a pitch night presentation, project night in May, early October. Um, so I put the kind of modified application more so a completely modified rule set in your guys’s packets, ideally, this afternoon, we would give approval to the EDC to make final changes on the application and publish, just

00:33:02,470	so we don’t have to wait until late June. The rules. Uh, we have time for the rules on the judging and selection committee, because that wouldn’t be used until August or October, respectively. I also have a couple of other items on here about location, prize and timeline.

00:33:25,500	Um, just kind of went over our timeline location. Mike and I talked about doing it at the eclipse, but with a backup being the gateway to science building. Um, we’d have to work out scheduling with either of those locations, but I wanted to have the full committee here to discuss what they thought was right.

00:33:43,100	Yeah. Any questions for Noah or any discussion? So my only question is because the timeline is somewhat tight. Yep. I’m I’m making the assumption that you utilized some of the tools from what Manan has been using for their pitch program to develop the application. Yes. And the rules.

00:34:08,670	Is there anything in particular that you changed from Mandan? Um, not that that’s necessary because I think the concept is still the same. If there were any, it would be updates. There. Um, that would be done for Mandan regardless, just for making this a bit more evergreen. Okay, let me see.

00:34:35,870	But in an effort to keep this similar between the cities so there’s not a difference in competition, I wanted to use the same. And I’m. I’m saying. Yeah, I’m totally fine with that. I just was wondering if we’d added anything.

00:34:50,030	I know we we had discussed changing that to 50 gross revenue for the first two years to 500, but I think we left it at 250 just to start this thing. But just as a as a note that we should probably increase that in the future. Okay. So I know that’s one thing that I thought, I mean, $125,000 a year is is not a lot of revenue.

00:35:08,470	If you’re if you’re in a company and you have any employees, that’s, that’s a you’re going to have a tough, you know, so. Okay, um, I don’t have any concerns. The city has already said we would go forward. I think the prize levels were I don’t know if we got that out of the city commission yet or not. I don’t remember if we committed that. Mr. chairman, Committee members, I believe. No.

00:35:30,830	Mister chairman, correct me if I’m wrong. I think we had talked about just having one prize rather than three separate prizes, because second and third place were kind of inconsequential dollar amounts. And the preference was to just make one large prize at the end rather than three. And I think that was 15,000. The group.

00:35:51,730	That we had was 15. Plus there was a or there was discussion about, um, marketing and, you know, bringing in businesses these people could talk to. So that prize list could include services that are maybe not just monetary, but. From some sponsors. Right. Yep, yep.

00:36:10,930	So whether how we valued that because I thought that was you know, there’s a lot of value in having consulting from another business whether, you know, they have expertise in whatever you’re looking for, there probably should be a value assigned to that, not just, hey, we have $15,000 prize money and maybe we don’t get enough applicants because that’s not enough.

00:36:26,300	But if you have a package of here, we can give you this. We can help you learn how to do this, and we can consult on a couple of things that should be included as a and I don’t know how we monetize that or whatever, but.

00:36:42,400	The chamber EDC for Mandan historically has thought between 5 and 10, usually around the ten um, types of in-kind or even monetary um prizes from other businesses in the community that would be the same on the side of the river. Okay, good.

00:37:00,070	Additionally, mayor, I did find a couple spots, so we were we changed some of the some how the applications will be submitted. Um, it used to be that you could submit them physically in a packet. Um, we decided that that would no longer be, um, expedient. Um, they tend handwritten, tends to be hard to read and hard to judge. So electronic. Submission.

00:37:19,270	And we’re going to work on trying to get like a portal of some sort. So it’s not even like a PDF. PDF or something for, for the application and. At least to fill a PDF. But if we get it to just be like a website and like you have to like fill out like a, I’m gonna say a form online that way there’s like a it fills nicely.

00:37:33,130	Whereas sometimes those fillable PDFs kind of get clunky. Depends. Someone prints it out and then fills it out and sends it back to you. So. Okay.

00:37:48,600	Um, and then the other question that I guess I probably have, and this is only because I want to make sure we don’t run any conflicts of interest is the location. If it if there’s an arm, is there a rental decision? What how is that going to be handled from an arm’s length standpoint? Or. Because I don’t know if Gateway to Science is free either for utilizing I’m. I or hasn’t even been discussed and I wouldn’t.

00:38:10,830	Yeah, I would recuse myself out of that for sure. I do see my point that, you know, and to the chamber EDC is you have to work through those things. Um, however that works. And I guess it’s probably the chamber is coordinating that anyway. So yes, that would be a chamber. Um, the chamber has historically dealt with the rentals.

00:38:31,300	Um, so laws, I just want to make sure we don’t have Mike get conflicted out somehow. Yep. That’d be good. I guess if Mike wonder accuse himself quick. Did you have a preference between those two? I have no preference between the locations. Okay, I, I would tell you that, um, I’ve been in the eclipse. It’s gorgeous.

00:38:54,270	But so is the gateway to science. Yeah. No, absolutely. And I support gateway science 100%. So if that’s where it’s at by no. So I just. Think. With that your team work on perfect. Yeah. We can start looking at what we historically have looked at Thursday nights.

00:39:08,670	Um see at the both locations if there’s a Thursday in early October. Okay. Um, yeah. My mind two questions. So first, are you asking for clarification on approval of, like, what prize level should we be at, or is that not what we’re talking about? Right. I believe our president CEO Brenda, did talk about this at City Commission during the chamber.

00:39:31,030	EDC is like semiannual or annual presentation, but I don’t know if it’s ever actually been entered onto the financial sheet, which. I thought we’d approved it already. I recall 15,000 being part of, as Noah pointed out, the last time director Brendan Engle was here for an update, which was three. Yeah, a couple of meetings ago.

00:39:53,830	So we can look back on the minutes from that meeting. I believe the city Commission has already approved the funding. I’m not 100% positive, but I and I, as I recall, I think it was all for one prize. First break. And reason I ask is just wanting to clarify.

00:40:13,300	Like what specifically you’re wanting feedback, motion for or clarification on today of like if that’s off the table, great. What do we need feedback on? I think we need feedback on the application itself and the rules. Whether we get to the rules today in our 5:00 deadline or not, the application would be the most important thing to make sure.

00:40:29,000	That and that we’re to go for the fall of this fall, that it’s for this fall probably is most important. Within two weeks. We have to have this ready. So what if we only get one applicant? If I get to the point in July where there’s one applicant, I need to push it a lot, like fast.

00:40:45,600	And how are you planning to promote it, I guess. Um, so we’ll use our weekly and then our, our weekly newsletters and then our monthly connection magazines.

00:41:03,500	We have the ability to do, um, dedicated like emails to all of our membership and not so much to our membership for farming this. But people they know, um, employees that they have, they’re thinking about doing something of this nature, and then it will have to be something that, like the chamber EDC does push at our. Well, if there, they’ll have to be some news releases probably. I mean. And we’ll coordinate with the city.

00:41:17,300	On demand and normally had more than one applicant. So yes, Mandan historically had somewhere between 6 and 10. Now I think we’re gonna we talked about having to generate a little bit more of that ecosystem, because now we’re going to have two of these every year.

00:41:32,600	And while there might be some that didn’t apply in the past because of the river, I think that people are pretty fairly easily able to drive over. And I can’t remember.

00:41:48,830	Are you allowed to apply at hours? And then if you don’t get it, can you apply at Mandan in the next cycle? We’ve never had someone. Well, this would be different because there’s two different ones now. Um, historically, I don’t think finalists could reapply, but people that were not selected to.

00:42:09,800	My hope is that not that I like the river to be a dividing line, but in this particular case, just because man’s got their pitch and Bismarck has their pitch, I think to somewhat geographic should be somewhat respected. Now, I’m okay with it being entire of Burleigh County. You know, or. I think the current rule set does have ten miles into Burleigh stated. So if that was something you guys wanted. To ten miles radius within Burleigh County.

00:42:33,500	Yes, it’s the rule of how it states. So it would qualify it in Burleigh County. And you have a ten mile. That’s a good point. Out of Bismarck. The business would have to be located in within one year, Bismarck or within ten miles of Burleigh County to receive to be eligible to receive the payout.

00:42:48,670	The payout historically and Mandan has been structured as a forgivable loan, so it’s given to the company. They have to be in business for either 4 or 5 years. A certain percentage is forgiven every year, and if they complete five years, it’s completely forgiven.

00:43:05,800	But if they were to close before that, they would still be on the books for part of the loan, depending on where they were at. So my biggest, um, maybe concern when looking at it is to your point earlier of like the $250,000 in cumulative revenue, I’m wondering if that should be higher.

00:43:20,200	And I don’t know how much of a concern that is to you guys, but I’m just thinking that is pretty low. And I’m like, one of the points is on preference given to companies that bring teams of talented, diverse and value add individuals. And I think at that revenue point, that’s hard to have. Hard to have a team.

00:43:35,800	Hard to have a team. So you’re gonna get very, very premature startup, which I think they’re still value in. I’m just like, does it make sense to open that up a little bit to businesses that are starting to get more established and have an employee or two and have some of that base?

00:43:51,630	That was my concern at the beginning of that 250 mark for two years isn’t a lot. So I am meeting with some a meeting over at the city of Mandan tomorrow. This was something we tabled at that small group. Um, and I will meet with the Mandan Growth Fund next month. At some point.

00:44:08,400	If y’all wanted me to try and speed along that process and maybe try and increase that high line. I would have no problem if we said we want 500,000. And if Mandan chose to go to 50, they just do that. But yeah, I would, I would.

00:44:29,130	My suggestion was 500 to 50 a year. That has a team. You could have a team with that a small team, you know it would be, it would be open it up for a lot more businesses to this pitch challenge rather than just a pure startup or something like that. So, I mean, we’re not limited.

00:44:41,870	They have to have at least 500,000, right? But it would eliminate those who are running out of their garage, though. And to your point, Andrea, the rules here say if you if you did it all, but the winning people are allowed to re-enter. So just if you’re a winner, you can’t do it.

00:45:04,200	But um, so any any more questions for no or discussion. So I would make a motion that we make the attempt to have our first Bismarck pitch business challenge pitch for the fall of 2026 timeline. You can pick the date in October, but October is probably reasonable. Um, and to change the revenue to be at least 500,000 over the first two years.

00:45:31,500	So I think there might be some disconnect. Um, Mandan. It’s no, believe me, if I’m wrong, it’s no more than five. No more than five, no. More two. 50 is your limit in Mandan on the well, according to this application, if we copied it all over, it says you have 250, uh, revenue.

00:45:50,170	That you can have up to 250. Up to two. Up to. 250, not at least. So we would be looking for up to 500. Okay. That’s got to be at least that I would, I would be willing to go to a million. Well yeah I mean. I also would be I feel like that’s very reasonable.

00:46:04,670	Um, like especially when we think of businesses that have a good like standing to be able to pay for a loan and have that sustenance of like future. You’re at far less of a risk if they’re between even that 500 to 1 million. And so.

00:46:18,570	I think we would want to put a bound on it, just so we could talk to Mandan about having a low bound in a high bound. Um, would you like me go? Yeah. I mean, I think. The changes in time to.

00:46:33,400	Them, um, up to $1 million, if that’s good with the group, would you like to adjust your motion? My motion? Before anybody seconds it. Yeah. Okay. We have a motion, um, to accept the the application as it is with the change of up to $1 million. And if the timeline of October for the fall pitch, do we have a second. Second.

00:46:54,230	And we have a second? Do I have any discussion on that? Jason. Committee members, just for verification. So Brendan Nagel did request 15,000 from the Vision Fund to launch the Bismarck business Pitch program, modeled after Mandan. Successful initiative. That was at the December 16th, 2025 city Commission meeting, and it was unanimously approved.

00:47:18,770	Thank you. Okay. Funding is there or had been approved. So coming out of the Vision Fund. So no question, are we going to provide funding then for like the rental and all that or is that come out of your chamber that’s out of your money? I think that was all the intention was, that’s all the

00:47:32,430	chamber because we are giving. That’s what I thought. Yeah. Okay. $200,000 giving us a bad word. We are providing $200,000 to the chamber EDC for Economic Development. This is part of economic development. Are you guys going to get sponsorships? Yeah, that’s. Part of you. Are you are.

00:47:49,600	We will coordinate with city just to like if they have any ideas or not contacts. But my only discussion to Andrea’s point, do we want to put a minimum just in case you don’t get like, you know, if we get one application or two, do we think it’s worth it? Do we

00:48:06,200	want to put a number on there or not? I would like to give a little discretion to the chamber EDC. You know, they only get one applicant. Then they can make the call that we’re just not going to do it. Okay. I mean, I think. Yeah, could be a great applicant. Could be not.

00:48:21,230	And that’s what part of the selection process. There’s a whole scoring matrix. And then that would go to the committee. If you had only one person on that at one application, you could deny that application as a finalist if it wasn’t good. Yeah. Okay. There you go. So any further discussion? Good question.

00:48:43,630	Okay. We have a motion and a second on the application process. Um, and a dollar amount. Um, could we get a roll call vote winning. Member Scherr. Yes. Petersen. Yes. Schmitz. Yes. Stugelmeyer. Yes. Frohlich. Yes. Motion passes.

00:49:11,400	Do we want to? So I would actually make a motion that we would defer to our next meeting. The item seven and eight, because I want to respect the room for the school district meeting. That’s going to be because they’re already here. And I’m not sure if we can get through in ten minutes. Totally agree.

00:49:29,030	I was going to bring up do we need to, um, finally continue the Rules committee or on the rules on that, or did that? I think I’m fine with the rules. Is they are I anybody they may get tweaked as we go down the road, but let’s get this off and rolling.

00:49:46,170	I just had a quick question, um, about some of the applicants that we’ve approved in the past. Are they still operating just fine, like activities for learning or. I mean, obviously you’re doing fine, but I just haven’t heard. That was a long time ago that I remember approving that one. Are they still operating and succeeding.? The now you’re talking about, um. Any of those that have been funded.

00:50:06,470	Division fund, not so much. Pitch challenge. Sorry. Yeah. Sorry. Six, seven, eight years ago. Yeah. I mean. Um, to the best of my knowledge, yes, most of them, if not all of them. I don’t know that we’ve been notified of any who have. Yeah. Defaulted.

00:50:26,330	If the vision wanted me to, I could do a quick check through our systems. I, um, I can’t disclose, but I’m aware there one. There might be one that’s in trouble. Okay. We’ll deal with that. When we deal with that. Yeah. Okay, well, table item seven and eight.

00:50:54,470	Does anybody have any further? Noah, do you need anything from us further on that application process or do you have enough to go. To the application? Motion was great. That’s what I needed. Okay. Does anybody else have any further discussion for the committee at this time? With seven and eight being moved to next meeting? Yeah. Might we do I need a second? You made a motion.

00:51:12,200	I made a motion to continue. So we should second. Yeah. I’m sorry. To defer the. We have a motion to push item seven and eight to table it to the next meeting. Do I have a second that we have a second. Any discussion? All right, all in favor, say aye. Aye aye.

00:51:28,630	Motion passes. Any other business anybody would like to bring. To any other businesses? I’m looking forward to what the chamber EDC brings to us for some industries drivers. Absolutely no.

00:51:47,570	That’ll be good because it would be nice to have a focus for our committee to if we have a industry we’re looking at. So that will be exciting because then it could also maybe get us instead of having three this time and two next time, and zero for the next two meetings, we have a little bit more of a pipeline of applications that are more consistent. So all right, thank you for your time. Uh, meeting