00:00:08,600	Good evening. I would call the March 19th, 2026 Park Board meeting to order, and I would ask Julia to call the roll, please. Commissioner Gilbertson here. Herzog here. Redmond. Here. Jesse. Here. President Zimmerman here. Second item on the agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance.

00:00:33,270	I would ask those who wish to please rise and join us in the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is approval of the agenda. Oh. Second. Motion by Commissioner jetski. Second by Commissioner Gilbertson.

00:01:05,400	Any further discussion? Julie, if you’ll call the roll, please. Commissioner Gilbertson. Herzog. Yes. Redmond. I jet ski, I president Zimmerman. I our featured program and partners this evening is the capital curling Club. We have with us Ryan Legacy, president of the Capital Curling Club. He’s going to provide an update on the tournament here in Bismarck. Good evening. Ryan.

00:01:30,830	Yeah. Thank you for having me. I’m excited to be here to tell you about the upcoming junior national championships. We’re going to be hosting. In just a little update on the curling club in general.

00:01:43,400	So, um, sorry I didn’t send this out to you ahead of time, but I’ll kind of talk through this, um, Capital Curling Club. Um, just so you know, we’re, uh, we are 100% volunteer club. Uh, so junior nationals happens with a whole lot of people doing a whole lot of work. Uh, we have about 250 adult members.

00:02:01,270	Uh, we have leagues Monday through Thursday night, and then on Saturdays, uh, if you’ve had the chance to be down there, we turn the club over to our kids, and it is coordinated chaos. Uh, we have 72 youth curlers this year. Um, they are the heart of our club. And that’s really the reason that we’re hosting junior nationals to show an event for those kids to aspire to.

00:02:18,870	So, junior national championships. Um, when is it? What is it? We are hosting March 30th through April 4th. Will be in the Wachter Arena at the Capitol Ice Complex. The event is for the top curlers in the country and in the world.

00:02:36,830	Actually, uh, for those competitors under the age of 21, uh, the winners will advance to the 2027 World Junior Championships. That site has not been announced yet, but the 26 event was held in Denmark. So, um, there’s some excitement around this event. Um, I get asked a lot. Why are we doing this at the Wachter Arena? Um, this is unique.

00:02:58,970	Most junior national championships are held in their respective curling clubs, but the viewing in our curling club in most is tough. And coming off the Olympics, I the boost in curling that we get from the Olympics time, we want to show off what we can do as a capital curling club.

00:03:14,670	We want to show off your facilities at the Wachter Ice Complex. Um, so we have some abilities to do that with our volunteer staff. Um, our ice makers are known across the country, throughout Canada as being some of the best. Um, so we have the ability to turn, um, a hockey arena into a world class ice facility. So we’re going to showcase that.

00:03:33,830	We want to show off for the kids and those families that are coming to play national exposure. Um, every game that is played, um, will be streamed by USA Curling and Stadium Sports Network. Uh, Bec TV will also be there.

00:03:51,570	They’re going to pick up select games for some of our local athletes to be broadcast. And it’s again, it’s just an opportunity to show off what we can do as a curling club and what you can do as a as Bismarck Parks and Rec. So who is participating? We have 16 total teams, eight men’s and eight women’s.

00:04:11,470	These teams qualified through national qualifying events held throughout the country this year. Um, a unique situation on the women’s side. The defending champ from last year will be back. Team Johnson. Uh, they’re out of the Minneapolis area. Uh, they finished fourth in the World Championships in Denmark. Uh, they competed in the last Olympic trials to represent the USA.

00:04:30,970	Uh, they they just missed out, actually, on representing the United States. On the men’s side, we also have the defending champions. Uh, Team Hebert from the Eau Claire Curling Club in Wisconsin. Um, those guys have a resume. Too long to list, but they are the defending world champions.

00:04:50,000	Um, they are only the fourth American team to win World Junior Championships, so it is really exciting to have them come down and compete. But we also have some local competitors that are, uh, right there with them on the women’s side. Uh, Heidi Holt and Riley Kraft are from Bismarck. They’re going to be playing on Team Hagenbeck. Uh, these two have competed in multiple national championships.

00:05:11,270	Uh, Heidi has competed in the world Mixed doubles championship. These two are special. They are an incredible, talented duo. Um, we need people down there to cheer them on and give them some local support on the boys side. Miles and Connor Graber will be playing. Again, a resume. That’s.

00:05:30,070	That’s too long to list. These two are special young men. Um, that really represent the Capital Curling Club very well. Um, they have won multiple bond spills this year. Um, including the men’s international in Saint Paul, which is a 48 team, um event for adults to win. That is a huge, huge accomplishment.

00:05:49,870	Um, these two will be competing for championship, and when they’re right behind the defending world champions, it’s pretty cool. So we need to get out there and support those guys. Um, Heidi, Riley, Miles and Connor, they are just great representatives of the curling club and the community themselves. Um, I talk about all our junior programs.

00:06:08,570	They came through our junior programs. They started when they were seven and eight years old at Kids Curl in our little rocks. They are now down there helping those kids learn. It is really easy to cheer for them and root for them. I want to invite all of you commissioners, Director Cliff.

00:06:26,270	Phil, please come to our opening ceremony on March 30th. It’s at 5:30 p.m.. This is open to the public. We’ll do a parade of athletes and pending scheduling. The governor will be there to throw out the ceremonial first rock. We want to make the special and really promote, um, you, your facility and our sponsors for the event.

00:06:48,000	And lastly, I want to say thank you. Events like this do not happen without your support. Uh, Mike Wald. Dillon time have been so good to work with. Um, when I brought this idea to Mike two years ago, it wasn’t even a question. He said, yes, let’s do it. Let’s show off.

00:07:04,700	Let’s have an awesome event. It has been great. A dance set of other facilities, crew. They’ve just bent over backwards and said, yes, how can we help? It’s been wonderful. Uh, Convention and Visitors Bureau has have really helped promote the event. They’ve been great to us.

00:07:21,800	Essentia health stepped up to be our title sponsor for the event. Um, and then we also had a number of other local sponsors. It’s been great. People want to help out. And finally, if they’re watching, I want to thank everybody at the Capitol Curling Club. We have probably 40 volunteers helping out.

00:07:36,070	This is a big event for us, and, uh, we couldn’t do it without them, so thank you. Now stand for any questions. Thank you Ryan. We’ll start with Commissioner Gilbertson. Thank you, President Zimmerman. Ryan, I’m just curious.

00:07:54,730	I plan to go down there, but how does it look in there? I mean, did you guys take the hockey boards down? Is it is it going to look like we see on the Olympics with walkways in between the, the the sheets and and all that? Yeah, the hockey boards stay, but we actually have the equipment that just came from Charlotte for the men’s and women’s national championships.

00:08:10,330	It’s here. So we’ll have carpet and arena. It’s going to look like a true national championship similar to what you’ve seen on the Olympics. Uh, it will look just like that. And how many sheets? Four sheets. Four sheets. Wow. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. I want to jump in. You said 14 rinks or sheets.

00:08:29,930	? Four sheets. There’s four. Yep. Are you using both sides of the or just one side? We’re just in the water. Just in the water. Thank you. Commissioner Redmond. Thank you, President Zimmerman. Ryan. And thank you to the entire curling club. It’s certainly a team effort.

00:08:46,500	And that’s so nice of you to talk about what happens during the entire year, too, with the club. But certainly the excitement of the tournament coming up. Tell me a little bit about etiquette, because I certainly know that curling and golf came hand in hand from our friends at the Scots from Scotland.

00:09:00,330	But is it, you know, gallery applause or are people cheering in the stands? Or so I don’t want to embarrass, you know, our community. Actually. It would be great to have spectators there with cowbells and cheer for every major shot. We never cheer for a miss, but every major shot, yes, we want it to be allowed. Yep.

00:09:15,330	Because this other brackets are online. Yep. Capital Curling Club so people can look there and especially look for certainly everyone. But our certainly our Bismarck team really excited about that. So we can watch that. And that will be updated to know when they play again. Correct. Yep. That’d be great. Thank you so much. And congratulations. Thank you.

00:09:32,900	Commissioner. Jetski. Thank you, President Zimmerman. Um, Ryan, so very excited to witness this. I love to clean. So to me, the idea of sweeping a broom right up my alley for for curling.

00:09:52,330	So where do a majority of the teams come from? So I know we’ve got 16 teams, but where are most of them coming from? They are nationwide. We have teams from the state of Washington. We have teams from the East Coast near the Boston area. They are truly nationwide. Most curlers are still in North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin. That’s really the hub, but it is expanding. Okay. And then Paula alluded to this.

00:10:12,130	So if we want to find the information it’s going to be on a website. Which website are we going to go to to find out who’s playing when? I want everybody to go to Curl Bismarck. That’ll send you right to the event website. Okay. And then, um, yeah, I’ve already got the, um, opening ceremonies in my calendar.

00:10:28,930	Awesome. So I’ll make sure to be there. And we just appreciate you bringing this to Bismarck, North Dakota. I think it’s fantastic. I know you and Gillian have worked very hard on this, along with the rest of the people for the capital City Capitol Curling Club.

00:10:45,530	So thank you for all that you’re doing to, you know, to showcase our wonderful community and our facilities with the Park district. Oh, thank you. Commissioner Herzog. Thanks, President Zimmerman, commissioners. And thanks, Ryan and Jillian. I know you got a few other curlers in the audience here.

00:11:02,070	Um, I don’t have a question, but I have an anecdote from a couple weeks ago. So your your group very graciously helped us with a learned a curl for some, uh, new Americans, our community and the WDA hockey thing was going on as well. And they were staring in the window like this, wanted to know what was going on.

00:11:17,070	And of course, Tucker from your team was like, come on over. There’s kids in, like, flip flops. He just grabbed everybody up and and it was just fun to see, you know, they’re so excited about. You all are so excited about welcoming a lot of people into curling. So it was just it was just super cool.

00:11:32,230	I was like, who are those kids? Where did they come from? And you had already pulled them in and was teaching them to curl, you know, just right there on the spot. So you guys do a fantastic job. Thank you. It’s great to hear, Ryan. I’d have a couple questions.

00:11:42,130	Perhaps I missed it. What are the ages of this division or this group? All competitors have to be under the age of 21. Um, I believe our youngest coming is 14 years old. Okay.

00:11:58,200	And I know this is a, you know, private club, but do the schools have curling at all? Do we, uh, you know that the a school district is bringing it in? Uh, the Bismarck schools do come. Um, they do learn to curls with their part of their curriculum. Um, Mandan. We don’t. I work for the Mandan public schools.

00:12:15,530	Maybe I could work on a certain principal at the middle school to get kids over there. Um, we, uh, I’ll be honest, we struggle a little bit with ice time. We are. We’re full. We’re kind of bursting at the seams. Um, so my daughters compete, but not for a Mandan high school team.

00:12:30,730	Uh, they compete with kids from Bismarck. And we do have a number of teams that compete in the state high school championships, but they’re not specific to a Bismarck High or Mandan high. Gotcha.

00:12:47,370	Well, I would add that, like Commissioner Herzog, an anecdote I remember when Bismarck hosted what a world, a world curling event here in Bismarck. And it certainly generated a lot of interest. I even tried it for a year, and one of the long time club members even put, uh, uh, what am I trying to say? Tape on my pants so I could slide? But that student still didn’t help in John said, yeah, Mark,

00:13:06,630	maybe. Maybe one season is enough for you, but but congratulations. I’m sure took work to get the tournament secured in here. And I look forward to coming down there Monday night and and joining in on the opening. That’ll be fun. So thank you. Thank you so much I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank.

00:13:25,170	Yeah folks if you’re not doing anything next Monday night, if you’re watching online, stop down there to the Capitol Ice complex. That’d be kind of fun. Be kind of fun to see.

00:13:41,200	Our next item is some disposition of bids, and our first one is on the World War Memorial Building roof. And Jeff is here to give us an update on that. Jeff Hubbell from Louisville Design Group. Good evening Jeff. Good evening, President Zimmerman. Uh, Park Board commissioners. Good to see you all. Uh, I’m thrilled.

00:13:59,330	This is was our this is the third time I’ve been here to talk about this specific topic. The first two weren’t quite as fun, but. So I’m thrilled to be able to say that we did receive bids on Tuesday at 130 at the Park District office. Um, we’ve reviewed those bids and we’ve submitted copies of that in your packet.

00:14:18,730	Uh, at the time we received two bids, uh, one was from Twin City Roofing for 374,980, and then a second bid from Tech to America, which was 382,698. Uh, the Park district had a budget of $380,000 for the project. And so at this time, we are recommending that the park board consider accepting the bid from Twin City Roofing for $374,980.

00:14:45,430	If you have any questions, I’d be happy to answer those. Thank you. Jeff. Commissioners. Some questions. Commissioner Jesse. Thank you, President Zimmerman. Jeff, when when is this project expected to begin and when’s the completion.? They are going to start as quickly as they can, and they’re supposed to be done by August 1st. Okay. Thank you. Jeff.

00:15:07,630	Yep. You’re welcome. Jeff, is it any change to the design? It’s a flat roof, correct. Is that we staying with that? Just out of curiosity. It is a low slope roof. It’s not. A flat. It is. Yep. We don’t do flat roofs. We do low slope roofs. So. Well, thank you for clarifying.

00:15:25,500	I thought it was a flat roof. Yeah. No, I’m just that I’m joking a little bit, but that’s that’s technically what we refer to them. No. Roofs are flat. So this one is essentially the same, same style as it is right now. Um, it’s just being improved and we’re adding some additional insulation.

00:15:40,770	Do you know offhand, Jeff, what was the last year that roof was just out of curiosity? I mean, that’s a that building’s been there a long time. I’m sure this isn’t the original roof, but just out of curiosity. I don’t know.

00:15:56,000	I don’t know if Executive Director Cliff fell would know that or not. I know there’s a few times that I’ve been up there. It is quite old. It is very old. Well. Commissioner, Commissioner Gilbertson. A lot of people don’t realize that that’s the war memorial. So that was built before. World War two. So yeah. Yeah. I don’t think it’s quite that old.

00:16:13,600	But but it’s, it’s. It’s up there. For sure. Well certainly it’s a great building. It’s an icon I think in downtown Bismarck. We certainly want to keep it up to date. So thank you Jeff, and we look forward to that project being finally done. Yeah. Started and done. We are looking. Forward to it. Thank you.

00:16:30,430	What are the wishes of the commission? I’ll make a motion to accept the bid from Twin City Roofing in the amount of $374,980 for the War Memorial, world War Memorial Building reroofing. Second motion by Commissioner Jessica, second by Commissioner Redmond. Any further discussion, if not Julie, if you call the roll, please. Mr. Gilbertson, I. Herzog. Yes.

00:16:58,200	Redmond. Hi, Jesse. Hi. President Zimmerman. I the next bid for discussion is on the General Sibley Day use road project. And Brad Krog start from clay will give us an update on this project. Good evening Brad. Good evening, President Zimmerman. Commissioners. Thanks for having me here tonight. Um.

00:17:24,330	We’re here I’m here to talk about the general Sibley Park Roadway improvement project that had bids due on March 11th at 230. Uh, just a little bit about the project. This project had a base bid that was to overlay the existing asphalt roadways within the day, use park.

00:17:48,400	I installed some new asphalt pavement for the boat ramp access road, as well as the parking lot for the boat ramp, and then do some striping and re striping, as well as some Ada accessibility improvements on some of the sidewalk accesses.

00:18:10,270	Now there was also an alternate bid, and that alternate bid was to replace some of the existing wooden wheel stops with concrete wheel stops. Most of the wheel stops out there today are concrete, and there’s just a few that are wooden. And so that’s why we bid that alternate. There were two bids received for the project, uh, one from strata and one from Northern Improvement Company.

00:18:30,530	The low bid was from Strata Corporation for a base bid amount of $587,289.10. The alternate for the wheel stops was for $4,386.20, for a total of $591,675.30. Uh Northern Improvements bid was really competitive, just slightly above that.

00:19:07,330	Uh, this project has a number of different, uh, restrictions with the schedule, in order to accommodate both the day use park and not cause any disruption to campers that might be in the area. And so, uh, the work on the boat ramp, access road and the parking lot for the boat ramp that can start right away, we’ve limited them to three weeks, uh, to complete that construction, but have told them it has to be

00:19:28,070	done by September 3rd. Uh, there is also some restrictions after May 1st that they can only work Monday through Thursday. Now, on the rest of the project, we’ve limited that to starting after Labor Day, September 8th, and be complete by November 5th.

00:19:48,800	So we’ve given them two months at the end of the season to do that overlay work on the rest of the roads. That has a restriction of only working Monday through Saturday, basically leaving the entire park open on Sundays. And with that, I guess our recommendation is to award the base bid and the alternate to Strata Corporation in the amount of $591,675.30. I’ll stand for any questions.

00:20:19,430	Commissioners questions for Brad. Commissioner Gilbertson. I guess I don’t have necessarily a question about this, but in bidding in general, are you guys starting to see, um, I mean, like after Covid, we saw a huge spike in and nothing came in on budget or or even close to it.

00:20:40,930	Or are you guys starting to see effects of what’s happening in the world on prices and such? Yeah. President Zimmerman, commissioners, Commissioner Gilbertson, um, you’re exactly right. That’s kind of the trend that we’ve been seeing. If you saw the bids in our estimate, they were all very, very close.

00:21:05,530	Um, we’re able to estimate more accurately because that bidding environment has become a little bit more consistent lately. Um, we’ve seen not just on, on your projects, but other projects that bid prices are a lot more competitive. We’ve seen more contractors bidding on them and seen prices that maybe aren’t what they were coveted pre-COVID, but they’re they’re starting to get back down.

00:21:30,500	They’re closer, a lot more competitive than they were a couple of years ago. Do you anticipate prices going up in the future with. Uh. Petroleum based things and such? Yeah, there’s there’s always that chance with fuel escalation. Um, hasn’t affected you guys in your bidding yet? Not yet. No. Thank you. Commissioner Redmond. No. Commissioners. Brad. Question.

00:21:59,300	Um, I look at the map to make sure I know when I’m down there in the day use area. There’s what I’ll call, like, little turnouts by some of the playground areas for maybe 4 or 6 vehicles. I see that’s highlighted in yellow. That will be overlaid as well. All those areas. Commissioners, President Zimmerman, you’re correct.

00:22:22,230	The all the asphalt down there in the day use park area will be overlaid. And so all the I don’t know if there’s map available, but all the little turnouts on the map that you see that are colored gray and you might see some yellow striping on that exhibit, those those are all being overlaid.

00:22:43,570	All right. Thank you. Any other questions for Brad? If not, what are the wishes of the commissioners? I move that we award the, uh, project for the base bid and alternate A in the amount of $591,675.30 to the Strata Corporation.. Second motion by Commissioner Gilbertson, second by Commissioner Redmond.

00:23:14,600	Any further questions? If not Julie, if you’ll call the roll, please. Commissioner Gilbertson I. Herzog. Yes. Redmond. Hi. Just see a president Zimmerman. I thank you, Brad. Thank you. I enjoyed the evening. You as well. Thanks. The next item on the agenda is a update on the Tyler Coulee Regional Stormwater Project.

00:23:39,730	And we have with us this evening Bismarck City engineer Gabe Schell. Gabe, good evening. Good evening. What’s a Dracula? Good evening, President Zimmerman. Commissioners. Executive director. Uh, thank you for having me. We’re here for an update on our Tyler Cooley stormwater improvements.

00:24:06,500	Have a couple of slides to go through here, but our main goals are just to provide an update on the project where we’re at. And then particularly looking for approval on some easements that the city of Bismarck is requesting from Bismarck Parks and Recreation District and then answer any questions that you may have on this project. I last spoke to you. I believe it was in 2022 on this project as an update.

00:24:21,970	And it’s we’re we’re getting real close to actually building the thing. So but as a general, uh, refresher course, this is a project in the Tyler Coulee watershed, which is in northwest Bismarck, about 1900 acres mostly developed.

00:24:38,230	All the green property within there is green space, and a lot of that green space is owned by the Park District. In this particular watershed. We’ve had master plans dating back as far as 22,002. And then this Tyler Coulee drains eventually out through Pioneer Park, uh, to the Missouri River.

00:24:57,230	The project goals is we want to eliminate any high hazard dams, both existing and some of the ones that were programmed as part of those earlier master planned projects. So we don’t want to have master excuse me, high hazard dams within Bismarck. And so changing our master plan most recently, um, required um, smaller but more frequent embankments.

00:25:13,500	And we’ll get to that here in a second. But the goal is to provide peak discharge of that stormwater. So when it does rain it doesn’t all come gushing out at the same time. We’re able to detain some of that and release it in a more metered rate.

00:25:27,130	Uh, through this process, we will fund the project through special assessments to properties within that watershed. And we’ll talk a little bit more about that as well. So specific to the improvements that. we’re we’re proposing here, it’s kind of twofold. The first are detaining water behind new embankments that would be constructed upstream of a couple of the roadways that we have.

00:25:44,630	So upstream of Claremont Road, upstream of Valley Drive and upstream of what will be now Tyler Parkway, and then a standalone, uh, embankment up, I should say upstream just in the Eagle Crest sanitary sewer lift station area.

00:26:00,900	I want to stress that the map up here shows some blue areas, but there’s no permanent pool, so we’re not holding water in any of these. It’s just attaining that water. Uh, after the rain event occurs. And within 48 hours, all those pools would be dry. So. But it’ll take that 48 hour period of time to draw that water down.

00:26:15,370	But when that does happen, uh, what you’d see is that blue shape is what would be inundated with water during that period of time. So in addition to those embankments, we would also be increasing the capacity of some of the existing crossings. So the one that goes underneath River road will be replacing that box.

00:26:28,070	Culvert system will be, uh, stubbing in a new pipe parallel to the existing one under Claremont Road. Excuse me. Claremont. Yeah. Claremont Road. And then replacing the one under Valley Drive with a larger structure. And when I say embankment, I want to kind of give an image of what that means. This valley’s deep.

00:26:44,170	It’s over 100ft to 200ft in some areas. We’re not filling the entire valley. These embankments are 12 to 25ft high in size, so we’re not filling the entire valley with a dam. Once again, we’re trying to avoid high hazard dams, and that means it limits the amount of water we can impound behind these embankments.

00:26:58,800	And that’s kind of one of the controlling factors on resizing these facilities. Now specific to the Park District property, have a red highlight in the corner there upstream of, uh, Claremont roads crossing that is in the Claremont Conservation Claremont Family Conservation Park. The next slide will show more detail about what we’re proposing there.

00:27:22,330	Um, it’s an engineering drawing, so if you like engineering drawings, you’ll love this slide. If you hate engineering drawings, I have colored on it. So it’s going to be even better. So get ready. Uh, but within Claremont Basin, what we would be proposing is a pipe system. And we start first with the existing ground. That’s like a cross sectional view on the bottom.

00:27:37,500	So if we’re looking at, uh, kind of within the ground, looking through the pipe here as we then talk about that embankment, this is about a 17 foot tall embankment from the top of the embankment down to existing ground.

00:27:53,300	And then within that embankment, we would put a ten by eight, ten foot by eight foot box culvert and then a restricted end on one side that would then restrict that flow so that it does impound water behind there. There’s always an overflow. There’s a higher discharge structure as well, so that we’re not always using that 36 inch pipe.

00:28:10,400	That 36 inch pipe is the main thing that will be, uh, flowing water and that sprinkle, that’s all. It’ll get used in the downpour. The overflow will get used in the deluge. Uh, even the entire embankment will just be overtopped, and it will just go over the spillway at that point in time.

00:28:24,730	One thing I did want to note on the top of this embankment, there will be a 14 foot wide graded top that is wide enough to accommodate a future, uh, trail connection.

00:28:42,800	As we’ve worked with your master plan within the master plan recommendations and your staff to ensure that this crossing at one point or at some point in the future, um, could be modified to have that paved trail go on. On top of that, with the required widths. But for the initial state, it would just be restored to to grass. The other improvement that I’d want to highlight is down in Pioneer Park.

00:28:59,630	So this I’ll highlight in red is the approximate location of a three foot high berm that would be adjacent to, but not touching the existing shared use path. So by putting an adjacent berm, there, increasing the elevation going on the other side of the property as well, and increasing that elevation, we’re able to analyze the flow

00:29:14,930	of the creek as it makes its way to the Missouri River, which will reduce the amount and the frequency at which Pioneer Park floods during those events. So what we see here on this map in yellow is the 10% chance, or a ten year inundation of what gets wet.

00:29:32,130	Um, typically during that ten year event, after the improvements, which was includes the conveyance improvements as well as all the upstream detention, those working in tandem, uh, we’ll find what is in green would be that area that would be inundated during that ten year event. That’s the design event that we’re looking at.

00:29:47,030	If we have an event larger than that now, obviously there’s still a chance and it’s a likely chance because it’ll always be something greater than a 10%. Definitely in this area or in our areas that could occur that you’ll still find some water making its way or overtopping the berm, but the frequency and duration should be far less than what you see today.

00:30:04,670	So as we talk about funding and phasing this project, we have this into two pieces. The first there are two parts. The first part is part A that’s highlighted in red. That includes the Eagle Crest Basin and the Tyler Parkway basin. Both of those will be constructed with the same construction contract as Tyler Parkway Extension.

00:30:21,200	So when we have a contractor in the area hogging in 100,000 yards of dirt to build Tyler Parkway, we’re also have them under contract to haul in the 10,000 yards of dirt for each one of these smaller embankments, getting a good economy of scale by doing this all at the same time, and in limiting the

00:30:35,300	disturbance to just one area and not having multiple contractors working. So that will be completed. The stormwater components in part A will be completed in 2026. The Tyler Parkway extension will carry over into 2027 itself.

00:30:53,130	When you look at part B, the areas highlighted in yellow, that’s all the other, um, conveyance improvements underneath the existing roadways as well as the, uh, Claremont Basin and the Valley Drive basin. Those will be bid in 2026. And then we’ll look at construction parts of that in 26.

00:31:09,670	But the majority of that taking place in 27 and maybe even into 28, some of those, all those elements all together, part A, part B, we’re anticipating a $9.7 million special assessment for the the entirety of that watershed. Once again, that 1800 1900 acres. Gabe, I’m going to interrupt. How much was that? What was the assessment? The the assessment amount would be $9.7 million is what we were anticipating.

00:31:28,900	Then. I also before can you go back one slide, please. Sure. I don’t mean to interrupt, but. Well, yeah. What are the purple looks purple to me. What are those. Is that the boundaries of the. We have a purple on either side of the screen there. What does that delineate? Sure. President Zimmerman.

00:31:49,470	Commissioners. That is the boundary of the watershed. So those are the properties that are draining towards Tyler Coulee. The rest of that drains away from Tyler Coulee. Excuse me for interrupting, but that’s I thought thank you, Gabe. Thank you.

00:32:05,900	So specific to the request that I have one would be for an access easement for the Eagle Crest lift station area, and the second would be for a stormwater easement to construct the actual embankments on Park District property, as well as build that dike system and secure the existing coulee system as a stormwater easement.

00:32:25,170	It’s an unplanned area in Pioneer Park so that I’ll talk more in depth here, but the first is an access easement. Uh, it’s kind of zoomed in here. This is off Eagle Crest area, lot 31 on the corner here. I’ll turn. My. Laser pointer on. Uh, this is the city’s lift station for Eagle Crest. This all of lot 20 is owned by the Park District.

00:32:45,800	Lot 50, in Elk Ridge, third edition is encumbered with the stormwater and drainage easement. So that’s grants the city the right to build a stormwater improvement within that property. What we don’t have is a convenient way for us and our contractor to access that area.

00:33:04,230	So what we’re requesting is an access easement from the city’s lift station, uh, across Park District property to connect to the Eagle. Excuse me. The Elk Ridge third property. Um, to do so.

00:33:21,070	So, you know, other improvements in here besides carving in a an access road that we would restore back to grass, but it would be a ten foot wide or so, um, facility that would use for the contractor to use as well as the city to use in the future when we have to go down and dredge out or clean or perform maintenance activities. We did look into making this, um, accommodating the, uh, for a future trail.

00:33:37,070	But the the slopes here are pretty steep going down this area. So it’s going to be real slow in your vehicle in four wheel drive, as you’re trying to get down to it. Um, which means it’s probably not a good facility to try to take your bike or wheelchair or rollerblades or roller skates in the future.

00:33:50,970	So we looked into that, but it was not feasible, both here as well as some of the other locations. As we try to switch back our way down to the Eagle Crest Bank. But, um, we also want to know most of this are part of this area is already encumbered with a sanitary sewer easement.

00:34:07,730	Everything from the lift station out across this embankment. As you can recall, was secured in an easement from a couple of years ago when I approached this board requesting the ability for the city to put a sewer line there at some point in the future. So it’s the same land for what you granted previously to the city was a sanitary sewer easement.

00:34:21,930	And that’s not what this what we would be using the land for. So we’re looking for an additional easement, really on top of a lot of the same property that was already encumbered with that sanitary sewer easement. I’m sorry, Commissioner Chesky. Thank you. President, I just have a couple questions here.

00:34:40,070	So looking at that diagram, are the homeowners impacted at all? Uh, commissioners, president Zimmerman, Commissioner, jetski, to the extent that the land owners and their property are impacted, I would say no, they’re not. We won’t be on any of their property.

00:34:55,800	If we would, we would be requesting an easement from them. And then the contractor and the city would be able to build and maintain the facility without impacting anything. Now, I will say that there are some locations. This is one of them, that there’s people that build things outside of what their property boundary is.

00:35:08,230	I can’t guarantee that there might be a sprinkler head that’s unknown that we don’t even know about, because it’s not on their property. There could be some things like that, and we’ll try to work as well as we can to to avoid those as much as possible.

00:35:23,830	And how are you communicating with the employer with the landowners? So with the landowners, uh, commissioners, Commissioner Jessica, we will be sending out a mailing to all the adjacent landowners. I really all the landowners within the watershed, uh, with their anticipated special assessment amount as well as their, um, what to expect during construction and some frequently asked questions.

00:35:39,930	Um, that will be sometime in the next month or so. We’ll send up that mailing. I can’t recall directly, but all the adjacent parcels as part of the US Army Corps permitting PA. Excuse me, are U.S. Army Corps permitting process would have also been notified as part of our getting our Army Corps permit.

00:35:57,070	I can’t recall if that particular property was notified during that process, but many were notified during that process. And then I’m just looking at the 9.7 million that this is going to cost. Are there any funds available throughout the federal government to help, you know, keep this cost effective, or is that just not a not a question? Commissioners Commissioner.

00:36:18,870	It’s always a question, but it’s it’s probably not a viable one for us to be able to be successful in finding grant funding for this sort of improvements. Um, there’s not a lot of grant funding available for stormwater management. There’s grant funding, mostly for water systems, even sanitary sewer systems. There’s very limited funding for that.

00:36:33,830	So the funding that we receive or try to receive very much is in the potable water, um, arena of things and not very much, if any, in the stormwater management unless there’s a larger project, um, like a flood control project, than there could be something here.

00:36:50,430	But if we’re just doing normal stormwater management as every other watershed is doing, we’re not looking for for additional grant opportunities there. Can we flip back just a little bit to look at Pioneer Park again? So my biggest concern is like typically I’m trying to think about where you’re putting that levee.

00:37:07,530	I’m going to call it, um, is it going to be closer to the river or is it closer to the trail? Because I always think about the trees that, you know, get flooded almost every year down there. So is that are they going to impact the trees down there? Commissioners.

00:37:24,700	Commissioner? Jetski. Yes. There will be tree impacts as part of this. Um, some of those trees are trees that are identified because of some health reasons to be removed anyway.

00:37:37,330	So it’s actually been kind of an ongoing annual conversation about is the project ready to go and remove some of these, or does the park district should they do that before the project gets there to do it? But long answer shorter is yes, there are tree impacts, but on the berm or the levees, I’ll call it a berm.

00:37:52,270	Uh, is all um, on the, I’d say the northwesterly side of the trail. So from the trail you would have walk out access to the volleyball and everything else, but towards the water side is where you would have that elevation change. Because we also have a pet cemetery down there. Uh, commissioners, I believe that’s down. in this general vicinity.

00:38:09,830	I want to make sure that that’s not been. We. Don’t want to call it. Final floating around. Or uncover any pets either. Yeah. Thank you. Gabe.

00:38:25,900	Gabe, while you have that slide up on the other side, you know, for the green color on this slide, then the yellow, which was what we experienced. Now with the ten year is that I’m going to ask either you or our director Cliff is that Park District property or is that another private landowner that experiences that flood as it now is? President Zimmerman the the area north of the property that

00:38:44,770	you own is owned by a private individual, and we’re working with them on securing a similar easement to extend and build up the berm on their side to. We want to make sure that the berms are the same elevations and not yours, the half a foot lower and floods all the time, or is. A half a.

00:38:57,100	Foot lower floods all the time. We’re trying to make sure that that’s just equal, as they both have a fair shake. Getting that water out to the. River.

00:39:10,000	While we’re in that discussion for this berm, and the berm that you said are the date, that would be what I don’t know how many feet high that has a ten foot top to it. Who has responsibility, say, to control weeds and such.

00:39:29,970	On on that project? Does that then come back to say it’s on the Park district side? The park district takes care of that? Or is that part of the project that the city’s out there taking care of weed control or such on a three foot embankment? President Zimmerman, commissioners, I would say that the project would be responsible to restore anything during the life of that that project.

00:39:48,600	But once the easement has, I’d say once the grass has been established and the satisfactory to to the park district, we would then just need to maintain the stormwater facilities component of it. And we would gladly do that if there’s erosion or anything along those lines.

00:40:03,270	But if it’s a, um, a patch of noxious weeds there, but also throughout the entire Park District property, we would continue to work with your staff, as we do on the rest of these joint endeavors that we have stormwater facilities on Park District property to figure out what the best strategy is for eradicating, or at least eliminating and minimizing that. Thank you. Commissioners. Any other questions for Gabe on it? I know you wish to continue, Gabe, so please do.

00:40:20,130	Thank you for allowing us to question as we go along. Yep. My pleasure. Um, so my my last piece here would be the stormwater easements. That would. be requested for the actual embankment upstream of Claremont Road crossing, as well as Pioneer Park.

00:40:35,630	Uh, so this shows in proposed easement one and two on this kind of zoomed out view showing Burnt Boat Road and River road. As we move to our next slides, we’ll kind of zoom in to that proposed easement. Um, kind of harder to tell with what the background is. But just adjacent to Claremont Road, as was how we would look at that.

00:40:50,000	Once again, we’re just securing the area for that embankment and pipe and access the detention that is is needed is already, I guess, there today. Or in terms of the drainage way.

00:41:03,100	We just kindly request that you don’t put a house or a structure or anything like that in there, because it will get wet today as well as it would get wet in the future. Uh, off to the right, the stormwater easement for Pioneer Park.

00:41:18,330	We thought that was more critical at this point in time to secure both the rights to build that three foot berm, as well as really secure that entire area and note it and cover it with a stormwater easement so that there isn’t a shed placed in there or some other piece of infrastructure that is likely to be inundated. Even now, it will still be inundated.

00:41:34,000	But we just want to make sure that us, in future versions of us are keenly aware to not put anything inside this, this box or this boundary. And with that, that is all I had for slides. Um, and the request is for the two easements, as well as in answering any questions that you may. Have questions for. Gabe. Commissioner. Thank you, President Zimmerman. I just have one more question.

00:41:53,530	Gabe. How many homeowners do you feel will be impacted by the special assessment. Commissioner? Jesse. Commissioners, I don’t have that number in terms of the the number of parcels or homeowners within there, but it’s in the a couple of thousands or something along those lines as well. I think is our number.

00:42:14,530	We’re working on our attribute table. Uh, that’s the, the, the information that we have when we take those costs and run it through our special assessment policies, uh, reduce our stormwater facilities, you know, do apply various policy, um, procedures.

00:42:31,500	And we want to make sure that that’s as close as we can in terms of the policy application, knowing that the cost still might fluctuate because we don’t know what the cost will be, but we want to know how we will, um, spread those costs so that we can we send a letter out to the landowner. We can say this is based on our estimate.

00:42:43,970	This is what we believe. Your contribution or your benefit would be for the project. So we want to make sure that we’ve worked through as many of those angles as we can. Because if we forget something on this side, those costs just have to get re spread or reallocated to everyone else.

00:42:55,370	So we try to do as much as we can before we get to that point and try to think of all those as many of those scenarios as possible, so that we can have an accurate number when we share that information with the public. Thank you. Commissioner Herzog, thanks. President Zimmerman. Commissioners. Gabe, I was just curious.

00:43:13,700	Um, how much Park I know you don’t have your attribute table, but what are you know, will we be a special assessor or how many of our properties are or acres or would be in that assessment? I have a bonus slide. It’s not in your packet. That may come up. So okay.

00:43:29,900	Here’s more of a breakdown on how we came up with the cost. So it’s $6.3 million in actual cost for our contractors. What we anticipate part A is awarded. So we feel real comfortable with that part of it. Part B will award later. So that’s still an estimate at this point in time. Uh, we have construction contingencies. We have right of way.

00:43:46,030	We have the wetland purchasing and mitigation. We have our engineering costs for our consultant design. We have cost two specialists. So that’s administrative legal cost bonding. And then interesting construction. With every special assessed project we pay the contractor on January 1st.

00:44:02,970	But we don’t get to special assessment until maybe the next year. So there’s a carrying cost during that period of time. So all of that adds up to about $10 million of that. Our estimate, uh, 17% of all the land is parks and RECs land. But the percentage of the assessable land, we believe would be about 5% is assessable.

00:44:23,600	We have 12 properties that would benefit from this improvement. And 19 of your parcels, we’ve 100% excluded from the improvement because they’re a drainage way. They’re a steep slope. There is something that would be excluded from the benefit calculation by policy. So the number that we come up with is about 400 to $450,000.

00:44:40,770	Right now is what Park District um, estimate would be based on those things. But once again, 17% of the land, but about 4 to 5% of the. Cost. And and gave us that a ten year over a ten year assessment. This would. Be a 15 year assessment for a stormwater improvement is how the city would assess that typically.

00:44:56,630	Thank you.. Gabe, I’m going to ask a question here. I know there’s discussion in the city to look at a utility fee in this whole effort, if that. Would that impact us in any way? If that would be instituted? Uh, President Zimmerman, commissioners, the utility fee that the city would be considering would be just for

00:45:18,730	street maintenance, not for stormwater or water or sanitary sewer sort of thing. So this would be if there was a street utility fee, it would not impact regional stormwater improvements that we have in the works. Thank you for clarification.

00:45:35,130	I thought about the time we approve this and then comes back and say, oops, now you’re in a different situation for pavement. So thank you for that clarification. Any other questions for Gabe. So we are asking for the board’s approval to, uh, enter into the easements with the city.

00:45:57,970	I move, uh, we approve the access easement with the city of Bismarck as well as and Gabe, tell me if I’m saying this right for you. And. Well, as the storm sewer drainage and grading easement. Perfect. Is there a second. Second? Motion by Commissioner Herzog? Second by Commissioner Gilbertson? Any further discussion? President Zimmerman I just know I’ll hear from my father in law because he looks out on this from his from his deck.

00:46:20,130	So you might too. But I mean, it is needed. And and, um, you know, I try to assure him that you’ll still be able to see coyotes run through there and hear your pheasants. So. Well, I think we all know that as more development up on that part of Bismarck, that’s certainly putting more impact on that whole drainage system.

00:46:44,030	Again, Gabe, I’m not putting you on the spot, but I see that every time I walk up that trail that you can tell there’s more and more water coming down. That way.

00:47:00,630	President Zimmerman, commissioners are hope is when this is constructed that that that peak flow that we’re seeing that’s scouring out that coulee, which is a natural phenomenon with that coulee existed before any development occurred. But obviously, that additional development is increasing that rate. So we’re hoping that by doing this project, we’re able to slow down that erosive process and keep some of that land in a more natural state. Then thank you.

00:47:17,270	Any further discussion or comments? If not Julie, if you would call the roll, please. Commissioner Gilbertson, I Herzog. Yes. Redmond a. Jet ski I president Zimmerman hi. Thanks again, Gabe, for attending tonight’s meeting. The next item on the agenda is in the same area. Is that the Claremont Road Sidewalk project.

00:47:41,470	And we have with us this evening, operations Director David Mayer will give us the information. Good evening. David. And all kinds of presentations tonight. Mr.. Good evening, President Zimmerman. Commissioners, I don’t have a fancy PowerPoint presentation, but I have a couple of sheets of paper printed out. There you go. That works. For references. Those are also in your packet.

00:48:11,030	Uh, thank you for the time. Um, as I mentioned in the memo to the board, uh, we’re looking to make an incremental step towards pedestrian improvements in the Claremont Conservation Family Conservation Park area, in particular, uh, the blue line that you see on the illustration is the sidewalk that we’re talking about tonight.

00:48:36,070	Um, the city is working to make some improvements. They have a street project to, I believe it’s to overlay Bridgeport Road to make some improvements at the intersection of Claremont and to add the little red line you see at the bottom of the illustration is to add a sidewalk from River Road to

00:48:52,600	Claremont Road. Um, which would tremendously help us for access to the Riverfront Trail from that part of the community, as well as if we did the sidewalk that’s shown in blue on that illustration would continue that pedestrian access up to to Promontory Point. And then in the future. Voila.

00:49:23,070	Uh, tie into our master plan for Claremont Family Conservation Park. Uh, that blue line is. That red dashed line on the left side of the illustration that’s up right now. So we have master planned that sidewalk into our project for Claremont Family Conservation Park.

00:49:49,770	Um, presently, we also have a grant application in for the East West trail that will go across that berm that you just approved the construction of, uh, in that easement with the city right there, I shouldn’t say you approve the construction of, but you prove the easement for the construction of, uh.

00:50:09,000	So if that happens and that falls in place, we’re starting to see some progression and some pedestrian, some formalized pedestrian access being built in Claremont Family Conservation Park. Uh, but specifically tonight, I wanted to talk with you about that sidewalk along the east side of Claremont Road. And that’s what the memo is for. Um, executive director clip.

00:50:28,730	Phil and I have with some other staff have been having multiple conversations with the city about the potential of doing something like that, because we’ve always wanted to increase that access. Um, when they said that they were going to do the improvements to the roadway in the area, we said, hey, could you kind of feel out? Some contractors put that in the bid. We can always they can always add it or deduct it.

00:50:43,800	Um, so we we’ve got some fairly firm prices. Um, and uh, with that, uh, I had an estimated cost from the city that the, the sidewalk. It’s a fairly long sidewalk.

00:51:03,470	I think we’re talking somewhere in the neighborhood of 3200ft or something like that, adding a six foot sidewalk along that east side. That is what we feel. The staff is the most reasonable width that we can fit in there. It’s not just a narrow 4.5ft sidewalk or a it’s not definitely not a shared use path with which I don’t think is necessary from our standpoint. Uh, at the Park district, this is a sidewalk.

00:51:22,070	This is to get people up and down that and then we have the shared use paths. As you can see in this illustration, still up on, on the the screen, the north south heavy red line and the east west heavy red line on that illustration would be

00:51:33,870	where we want to put the ten foot shared use paths. But this is to get people to the park to provide that opportunity. Right now it’s a curb and gutter and it’s grass.

00:51:47,200	Uh, so if we can increase that and I always look at this saying that if we can get that sidewalk in on the east side of Claremont Road, and then the city does that little stretch from Claremont Road down to to River road. Now we’re now we’re really we’re talking uh, that’s pretty exciting from my standpoint to get people down to River road.

00:52:01,530	Uh, the other option is that they have to park up at, uh, Chief Looking Village and walk down that that shared use path, which many people do. But this, this gives people an opportunity to, to come right from that neighborhood. So just wanted to give some background on that.

00:52:18,730	Um, we’re looking for board approval to, uh, to have this specially assessed, um, with construction, obviously, you know, as we always talk, there’s variable, you know, some variability in construction.

00:52:34,500	It may come in a little bit less, may come in a little bit more, but roughly, um, we think it’s about $143,000 project to put that sidewalk in. Uh, there is a CD available from the The Sea Trust, which was some money that was put in in a trust by the Claremont family to put a sidewalk in there at some point when that time came.

00:52:52,100	Now that time is here. So now we have some money that would help pay down some of that. That dollar amount. Uh, but we don’t know the exact amount what the assessment would be until after it’s constructed. Just like, um, Gabe Shell was talking about. They know. They don’t know exactly until it’s completely done either. So.

00:53:10,970	Any questions for David? Commissioner? President Zimmerman? Um, thank you, David. So I’m glad you explained why we’re only doing a six foot as opposed to a ten foot, because that was one of my questions here, why we weren’t doing a shared use.

00:53:26,530	My question is, would this special assessment are I mean, when are we looking to potentially put this in place? And how many people is it going to impact? I know we don’t know the exact numbers, but you know, we just talked about a special assessment for some other things.

00:53:43,070	And now we’re special assessing this I just got my property tax. My house value went up $60,000. So just kind of wondering, you know, how hard are we hitting people right now? President Zimmerman and commissioners, Commissioner Jesse, the special assessment would be just to the park district. This is just impacting. And the the sidewalk is just on our property.

00:54:03,900	So this is a specially assessed just to the park district. And just like when we get our special assessments on our properties, we have to pay that. This is just the park district that’s paying that, um, in conversations with finance director, finance director Feist, we know that we can we can absorb that special assessment. Um, and it should be fine.

00:54:23,630	Okay. I just want a clarification on that because like I said, we talk special assessments just a few minutes ago. And for those that are listening, I thought, wow, I just don’t want them to think that we’re special. Assessing them out of their homes. Yep. This would not apply to them. Okay. Thank you David.

00:54:39,070	David, in that discussion, that other part of the trail that would go from Claremont Road down to River road, that it was the red line on the map. Yes.

00:54:59,400	Whose property is that? Is that the city’s or is that due in there or who? Who do we know would pay assessment on that? We, you know offhand who that who has that property. President Zimmerman and commissioners, I don’t know the answer to that one. I think that the city has that in their construction project budget. Okay. Um, I’m not sure exactly where that one falls.

00:55:16,530	One other thing I’d like just to mention, in visiting with director Cliff fell, he mentioned, and I, I find that I’m glad we’re doing it is that the trail is not going to be just are the sidewalks not going to be just a straight shot sidewalk? We’re going to put a little curve. However, and.

00:55:36,500	Damien terminology to make it a little more, I don’t know, a aesthetic, I guess, than just a straight sidewalk up the hill. Exactly. President Zimmerman and commissioners, uh, what we had talked about was trying to meander the sidewalk where we can it may it typically is sidewalks within the right of way.

00:55:53,330	Uh, we had talked about, you know, there’s extra room on the top of that before it drops off into into the park. Uh, there may be some room to kind of zigzag it a little bit. Um. It’ll be gradual, but. So it’s not going to be choppy. Uh, and then also in the future, we do plan to to put some trees along that street. Right.

00:56:09,300	And thank you for thinking of that. It’s better just a straight sidewalk up the hill. Any other questions for David? Commissioner Redmond? Thank you, President Zimmerman. Dave, mostly just a comment. Not only access to to the conservation park, but also just safety along both of these roads. So I’m just really excited to to see that happen.

00:56:28,600	So if there’s any other comments I would move to, um, to proceed with the sidewalk project along the east side of Claremont Road and have the city assessed the final cost to the to the Park district. And I’ll second that motion. Motion by Commissioner Redmond, second by Commissioner. Any further discussion? President Zimmerman? Yes, Commissioner Herzog.

00:56:48,900	Just a quick question, Dave. Where the the blue meets the red or red at that intersection that that three point intersection? Um, and I’m I don’t know if they’ve designed the city’s designed it or what our design looks like, but just whatever the pedestrian safety measures would be there, people are usually going at a pretty

00:57:06,930	good clip. And now you add a sidewalk and you might be crossing a couple streets. Just I don’t know if it’s going to be a continental crosswalk or there’s going to be some signage that there’s, you know, people coming.

00:57:23,100	But when it’s dark and fast, um, just to make sure that it no one’s getting hit by a car as much as possible. Please. And thank you. I would, I would agree. I hope that that’s in the plan to for some striping or whatever. Both there and then down on River road. Any further questions or did you have a comment, David.

00:57:41,400	On President Zimmerman and commissioners? Commissioner Herzog I guess the only comment I have is that, uh, I’m sure that Gabe Shell, he’s pretty, you know, pretty thorough with his plans. I’m sure they’ve thought about how that that crossing is going to happen, but I can relay that conversation. Thank you. If no further questions or comments, Julie, if you’ll call the roll, please.

00:57:57,230	Commissioner Gilbertson, I. Herzog. Yes. Redmond. I. Jet ski I president Zimmerman. I thank you, David. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is the recreation center feasibility study. There is a memo in our packet on that, and we have with us. He was here earlier.

00:58:21,200	Uh, City Administrator Jason is I don’t okay. There he is. Okay. Jason. Thank you. Thanks for attending this evening. Good evening. President. Commissioners, nice. To see you. So the. Question of the, um, sports complex feasibility study, it came up at our what would have been February 24th city Commission meeting, I believe.

00:58:49,470	And of course, our commissioners are asking, why are we talking about a Parks and Rec study? And from our perspective of the city, we are interested in, certainly, the results of the study feasibility and sports related complex, but also, uh, maybe this time, what would be different from the study that was performed in 2019 that led

00:59:06,000	to the 2020 election? Uh, we would request that the location of the sports complex would be identified as part of the study. And why would that interest the city? Because that’s what’s going to be driving the growth in the infrastructure.

00:59:22,070	And it will help us understand where that site would best be suited, and it will give us direction to then focus our efforts on whatever infrastructure extensions might look like. And when I say infrastructure, I’m typically talking water and sewer. Obviously street network, roadway connections and things like that.

00:59:41,930	Um, but realizing that in any community you create a sports complex and you will have ancillary uses coming along with it, typically hotels, restaurants, uh, hopefully some, uh, accommodations for housing as well in and around these facilities. So it’s not just something out on the edge of town.

01:00:00,000	There would be supporting features for potentially families that would be traveling here for sports tournaments or the activities like that, but also depending on the uses and the results of the study, there would very likely be, uh, uses for the locals as well.

01:00:18,000	For those of us that live here and appreciate all the factors in the features that Parks and Recreation delivers throughout the community. So when we presented this to our commission, uh, it was based on some information that Kevin had accumulated. And Kevin and I have been talking about this on and off for quite some time.

01:00:35,730	And initially the, uh, when our commissioner said, well, what the price tag look like, of course, that’s always part of the question. Uh, the the response was initially, estimates were somewhere between 200 and 250,000.

01:00:53,870	And our commissioners, uh, kind of balked a little bit at that and said if there was a way to help narrow the scope and focus, the study, the focus, the project area or the overall results that could help bring it down into a a range that our commissioners expressed would be more comfortable for a cost share. And when I’m talking about that, it would be 50 over 50.

01:01:10,400	The number that our commissioners throughout as a comfort level would be for the city’s portion of it, somewhere between 50 and $75,000. So now we’re talking about 100 to $150,000 study. Uh, I haven’t had any personal conversations with the past consultants, but I know executive director has.

01:01:31,800	And, uh, clearly there would have to be a process, an RFP, proposals, submittals, all of that the way both of our organizations do for any large scale project. But based on some of the the narrowing of the scope and kind of the focusing of the efforts, I believe some of the responses that Director Phil received were, yeah, we could probably get a pretty reasonable study that would give you the

01:01:46,630	information you’re looking for in a period of I think it was 8 to 9 months over the course of 2026. And so I guess, uh, from the city’s perspective, uh, our commissioners said if we can find a way to do this collectively, there’s value in some of this information for us.

01:02:05,570	Clearly, there’s a lot of information that would be valuable for the park district. Looking ahead at what are we lacking, what are we missing in the community? Is this a community center? Is this a recreation complex? Is it a place for tournaments? I don’t know, I’m not the entity that would tell you that answer.

01:02:22,800	I’m the guy that’s interested in where it would go ultimately. And so if that would be something that is amenable to this group, um, it should be noted to with the director Clifford’s impending resignation, I believe having city staff as part of this, there may be some continuity.

01:02:43,370	So the project doesn’t, uh, get staggered along the way or knowing that there will be a a steep learning curve for Kevin’s replacement. City staff could help guide some of that work that’s going on while the new person is transitioning into this very important role, leading your organization as well.

01:03:02,530	So if there would be a way to, uh, pair and couple on this city of Bismarck would like to be a partner with you on this important project and very interested in the results that would come forward as a after all the work is done. So if you have any questions, I’d be happy to try and answer them.

01:03:17,000	If there’s things that you would like me to take back to our board. Uh, we are meeting next week, Tuesday. Our agenda was just posted, but, uh, of course, like you guys, we have other business as well. And so I’d be happy to carry back any questions, comments or thoughts from you to the Board of City Commissioners or answer any questions you might have of me tonight.

01:03:35,100	Thank you Jason. Mike, for I’ll ask, is it on the agenda for next week if I if we take action, if we take action this evening to move it along, to take to the city commission next week, and we still, um, is that still available.

01:03:58,000	President Zimmerman yes, we did put a kind of a carryover memo reminding our commissioners. We talked about it in February. I did let them know that I would be here this evening, and we would report back next week. So if there is action, that or a recommendation or anything that I could carry forward, it would be at next week.

01:04:12,270	Tuesday’s commission meeting with hopes that our commission would be comfortable acting on that recommendation as well. Thank you. I would ask commissioners if we can do this. Questions direct to Jason. I know we’re going to have discussion amongst ourselves here to allow Jason to not have to stand here the whole time.

01:04:32,800	If we have questions specific to Jason and his, you know, liaison now with the city commission, any questions to that? Can I have one question, president? Commissioners Jessica will start here. President Zimmerman, thank you.

01:04:55,300	So I just I would just like to ask Kevin, our executive director, do you think it would be best for us to put together a memorandum of understanding as we move forward with the city so that we have a guideline? I mean, I understand that your retirement is impending, but I you know, I’m all about control.

01:05:16,730	So I don’t want to have the Park district feel less of a partnership with this because we’re going to be a little in a little bit of flux with the new executive director. Excuse me. President Zimmerman, commissioners, Commissioner. Jesse, uh, if the board decides to move forward with the partnership, I would recommend or ask that we we ask that we set up a committee.

01:05:35,270	Um, I think two staff in the commissioner from either organization that they could review the proposals if we decide to move forward and then could interview any finalists. That may if if the 2 or 3 are rise to the top and then to make those recommendations back to the specific board so that we both have a share in that. Thank you. Commissioner.

01:05:58,700	Commissioner Herzog, Thanks, President Zimmerman, commissioners. And thanks, Jason, for coming in and bringing the message. Um, it was interesting to listen to the city commission. A couple of commissioners wanted they wanted a wow factor.

01:06:18,070	And I’m curious, um, if we can afford a wow factor, but I think we absolutely, definitely need more indoor, particularly turf space. And we’re probably I mean, we’re sort of busting out the seams with the indoor turf that we have. So it’s it’s definitely something I think we need to move on quickly. Whatever’s in it, obviously we’ll figure that out through, you know, the work that’s happening here. But I don’t know about the other commissioners.

01:06:34,000	That’s probably one of the top things I hear from community members is we need more indoor turf. We need more indoor space. You know, um, so to me, it’s it’s something that I think we, we do need to do and probably move quickly on.

01:06:48,230	But, um, in a, in a smart manner as well. So I don’t know about a wow factor, but I’d be happy with a this this works and we can afford it factor. And, um, we definitely need it factor for sure. Thank you commissioners.

01:07:09,200	My question and um or comment in the discussion in visiting with Kevin as he keeps me informed with the meetings with, um, Jason and others in the city. The timing, I think, is of some is of importance here that, as Jason mentioned, the city commission meets next week, so they take action.

01:07:29,470	Then we’re looking at a committee of, you know, the of the two entities they meet and would come back to the respective boards again for approval. I think we need to move along here. Otherwise we’re going to be, you know, several months off if we wish to get to this point of an RFP. Uh, but ask either Jason or our director, Kevin, of a time frame, if everything went right, we would get an RFP out.

01:07:51,470	When if I’d asked that question. President Zimmerman and commissioners, uh, Commissioner, President Zimmerman, the. Uh, so, as Jason mentioned, you know, we had an initial scope of work that we presented to a couple of consultants for their review so that we could kind of look, get some ideas of what the

01:08:07,470	proposed cost would be. As Jason mentioned, we went to the city commission and they had a little bit of sticker shock. And so we we went back and we refined it. We we were focused more focused on it and really explained the information that we had already garnered from the 2019 study.

01:08:24,230	And what of this information can we provide to you to make your job easier? And I think that’s where, um, it helped us get that, uh, get a more focused project. Our RFP.

01:08:39,030	Um, and that’s where we kind of get to the budget that we think that we can put this RFP out and ask for a cost of not to exceed about 150,000 and get it done.

01:08:54,870	But to your question of a timeline, if we if we can if our board takes action tonight, Jason takes us back to the city commission on Tuesday and they would approve working together. Uh, we feel that we could get the RFP out. Um, we could have them back toward the end of April if we had to, if we wanted to if the committee decided to conduct some interviews, they could wrap those up.

01:09:15,200	And our hope would be to bring it back to the respective boards to get them approved by the end of May. At the May May board meetings. Thank you. Kevin, did anything you wish to add to that? Jason. No, thank you. Thank you. Commissioner Jeff. Just a quick comment here. President Zimmerman.

01:09:38,600	So, you know, location was one of the reasons some people decided not to vote in favor of the sales tax initiative. Other was the price of the sales tax initiative. Other people felt that because we did a survey afterwards, another felt that, um, we should have more private people giving as opposed to public funding.

01:09:58,500	And then the other thing was it just was on the tip of my tongue location, location, location. But, um, yeah, it’ll come to me later. But those were oh, it was Covid. How could we forget? I mean, we we couldn’t pull it back and we were voting during a Covid year and most people were very insecure or unsure of their job.

01:10:19,430	So I think that had a real impact on the fact that this did not pass, didn’t mean that it wasn’t wanted. But that those were some of the factors that led to it not passing. Commissioner Redmond. Thank you, President Zimmerman. Jason, thanks for coming tonight. And I watched the city commission meeting, too. And thank you for doing such a great job in presenting it and answering questions.

01:10:39,570	Um, collaboration is is key, and it’s really nice to have somebody else come to the party. So welcome to the party. Um, happy to have another, um, entity join us in this.

01:10:54,000	And it’s really nice to see that partnership, because the Park District has built many of our facilities, parks and trails and collaboration. It’s much easier to hold hands and cross the street together.

01:11:08,600	So, um, I appreciate that you’re coming here and asking for our support, and I’m happy that, um, that people have eyes have been open to say, as Mike Gilbertson said, when people say, why don’t we have a Fargo or West Fargo? And he’s like, don’t talk to me about this, because we have tried a couple times to get this done. So it’s nice to have somebody else say, yeah, we should have something, as Bismarck deserves something like this, and it takes other people join us and say, we believe that we should do so.

01:11:23,400	I’m excited that you’re here and I can’t wait to get things done. So thank. You. Thank you, thank you for that. If I may add, commissioners, I should have mentioned this earlier. Uh, partnerships. Collaboration. Absolutely. That’s how I operate. But what I should have said, this is about economic development, too.

01:11:39,870	This isn’t just about knowing where infrastructure and streets are going to go. This is about spurring development in areas that we know can support that type of activity. And for me, economic development means when you’re bringing outsiders to our community and they are staying here in our hotels, eating in our restaurants, shopping in our stores, they’re leaving

01:11:57,030	their money in Bismarck no different than our families who are traveling to all of these various sports facilities are doing the same thing. It’s our turn to invite them to Bismarck and help infuse our economy as well. So. Like the US Curling national. Absolutely. Coming next weekend. So yes, taken. Good plug, Commissioner. Absolutely. Very nice.

01:12:15,630	Thank you, Jason, for those comments. Any other comments direct to Jason? If not I think we can if we unless we’re ready to make a motion, I would ask certainly. Uh, allow Jason to move on to I’m sure he’s got a desk full of stuff he could do this evening. Yeah. So.

01:12:36,430	President Zimmerman, I, I would make a motion that we, um, move forward with the city of Bismarck. Um, and as a not to exceed $75,000 on our portion for a request for proposals for the feasibility study.

01:13:00,770	Um, and just that, like Commissioner Jesse said, that that we’re a partner in it, whether it’s an MOU or however that is put together, as, I think, important.. I’d second that. Julie. Pretty long. On emotion. Motion by Commissioner Herzog, second by Commissioner Redmond. Any further discussion? President Zimmerman I if if there’s a chance or whatever, I would be very interested in helping on this project.

01:13:23,470	As one of the commissioners, we work with a lot of the construction management firms and things like that. So if you need someone, I’d be happy to to do that as well. I’d be interested in helping as well. I think you. Yeah, okay. Well we’ll take Commissioner Gilbertson.

01:13:39,970	Um, I guess the last the only comment I’d like to make is I just want to thank Commissioner Redmond and Mr. Tomonaga as well, because this project is something. As we’ve all said, it is needed in this community. And we both benefit.

01:14:02,400	I mean, that’s that’s that is the the number one thing is everybody in the city of Bismarck benefits from this, even if you never step one foot in it, you benefit from having having it in our community. So thank you. My pleasure. Thank you. Thank you, commissioners, for voicing the support of our efforts.

01:14:22,730	Without any further discussion, I would ask Julie to call the roll, please. Commissioner Gilbertson I Herzog. Yes, Redmond. I jet ski I President. Zimmerman I and again thank you, Jason, for taking time this evening and we’ll get back to you quickly. I’m next on the agenda. You are next time. You’re not. Going anywhere. Jason. You can’t. get rid. Of me.

01:14:43,930	That easily. I can’t stay away. I looked at I’ve even got it highlighted that it’s you. All right, the next item on the agenda is the city of Bismarck. Excuse me. Fire station proposal. And our city commissioner, Jason Tammany has provided information in the board packet, and he’ll review this this evening.

01:15:04,330	So again, thank you, Jason, for taking the time. And the floor is yours. You bet. Thank you, President Zimmerman. Uh, commissioners, if I could just offer you a little bit of context, uh, in recent months, uh, dating back into the middle of 2025, it has been it has become apparent to us that we need to construct a

01:15:24,130	new fire station in South Bismarck. And we don’t just build these things willy nilly because there’s forever a cost to operate these things. So when we do this, we need to be very intentional and strategic about our locations. What is driving the need for an additional fire station in South Bismarck is, frankly, response times.

01:15:43,270	For those of you that are familiar with Fire Station two, that is the station on expressway. If you think about the travel time from expressway to the far reaches of South Bay, whispering Bay, South Port, you’ll know that it’s a little bit of a time. It’s a little bit too long of a time for us.

01:15:58,930	And that that’s just the first team to respond. There’s also a second fire crew that would come and potentially a third or even others from other stations. And so the travel times are even longer.

01:16:13,900	And so we started looking at potential locations in South Bismarck that would be suitable for a new fire station. And when we’re doing this, we’re using our team of GIS staff doing all the mapping. Of course, getting all the data from our firefighter personnel. I’ve got, uh, Fire Chief Joel Pflug with me tonight.

01:16:31,400	If you have any technical questions on how response times and and mapping look, but ultimately. we determine that there is a new a need for an additional station in South Bismarck. So we started looking around at available properties. And the first piece that really came forward is a piece that’s already owned by the city of Bismarck. It’s part of the larger facility that is the wastewater treatment plant.

01:16:49,530	The southern boundary of that large, undeveloped property south of the wastewater treatment plant is right up to the northern edge of Burley Avenue, and it extends to the west, essentially over to Fox Island. It kind of creates the western boundary of city limits. And so for us, it’s an interesting parcel because it’s in a pretty good location.

01:17:10,330	Burley Avenue gets good access to the east for Washington Street. 12th Street, also access to the west to get to Southport, whispering Bay and to the south, of course to South Bay. But what was most attractive is we already own the land, so there’s no upfront cost to purchase the property.

01:17:26,970	Uh, when we looked at that site, we talked to the neighborhood, primarily South Bay to the south, and we got a lot of feedback from the neighbors, mixed reviews. Some people said, welcome, City of Bismarck. We would love to have a fire station down here. Others said, really? We live in a quiet neighborhood.

01:17:44,230	Lights and sirens, three in the morning. I’m sure you all understand the concerns. And we went to the I guess it would be the neighborhood summer gathering. Last year we took some of our firefighters, some of the equipment. We were welcomed by the neighborhood and just answered a lot of questions during that evening.

01:18:01,600	And I think for a lot of people. it helped kind of quell some of their concerns because some of our firefighters even went so far as to say, we don’t like the lights and sirens either. We don’t use these things every single time we leave the facility.

01:18:17,730	And so I think that gave some people some perspective to realize that it’s not going to be a complete, life altering change to the neighborhood. Others said, you know, we’re getting older in our years, and it would be really great to have some emergency response in a short period of time right across from our neighborhood.

01:18:30,530	So we took all of that into context. What has changed since our initial beginning of this discussion last spring and summer? We, the city, have identified areas in and around the Bismarck airport that may be suitable for industrial park development, and we’ve had good experience with the city led Northern Plains Commerce Center, which was an industrial

01:18:50,300	park just near the airport in and around the Bobcat Acceleration Center. We are considering something along those lines again, and when we are talking about industrial development, then we really need to be thinking about emergency response and particularly emergency response times.

01:19:08,070	So if we’re looking at areas in and around the airport, we want to get closer to those areas to shorten those response times. And so that’s what leads me to this group tonight. You are the proud owners of 18 acres that are yet to be developed in an adjacent to the Cottonwood Sports Complex. Um, if I can use the right computer here. Thank you.

01:19:28,070	Um, this information was included in your packet as well, but the the site in question is highlighted. The generic address for the property is 3101 Boston Drive. It’s at the intersection of Austin Drive and Burley Avenue. So this would be the southwest corner of the extents of the Cottonwood Sports Complex.

01:19:51,600	What the city of Bismarck is interested in is about two acres. And what does two acres actually mean? It’s about 300 by 390,000ft. So just to help visualize what two acres looks like on an 18 acre site, this gives you a rough estimate of of the size and shape.

01:20:13,400	Now, is this the exact parcel? No, but through conversations with our firefighters and our leadership staff within the fire department, two acres is a comfortable site. And this is based on existing facilities that we have. And we’ve got stations in industrial areas, we’ve got stations in residential areas.

01:20:31,730	And so we’re very mindful of the appearance of these facilities being complimentary to the neighborhood. But quite frankly, having a park facility as a neighbor would be a great opportunity for us as well. What this really does, though, is it gets us closer to those potential development needs that would be coming in and around the airport, in those industrial park uses.

01:20:48,800	If we were to look at the Calypso, the site near Calypso again, the the peace west of here along Burley Avenue, I don’t want to throw out a percentage, but that I would say a high percentage of those calls would likely be traveling east because most of the area west of Southport or South Bay,

01:21:07,130	excuse me, has already been developed. The areas that are rural will continue to stay rural. That would be Fox Island predominantly. We don’t provide service in Fox Island because there aren’t fire hydrants. So again, it’s Southport, whispering Bay and South Bay.

01:21:23,670	And then of course all the neighborhoods north of Burley Avenue on both sides of Washington Street. With this location, we can still go west. There would be no issues with getting over to South Bay, Southport, whispering Bay from this location, but it positions us even 60s closer can make a huge difference in some of these emergency situations.

01:21:46,870	And so, um, I’m not here to offer money. I’m not here to do anything other than to ask for your consideration. I know you may have some master plan uses intended for those remaining 18 acres. Again, not to put pressure on anybody, but we are hoping to have a decision sooner rather than later so we can start construction in 2026.

01:22:06,070	Um, we are working very closely with EPC, local architecture engineering firm, uh, working on the interior design of the building. We’ve got a pretty good footprint of what it’s going to the site it would occupy, how the building would function.

01:22:23,730	I don’t believe we’ve moved to the exterior design yet, because that will be informed by the location. And if we’re closer to South Bay and more of a residential neighborhood, you might see more of a residential character, pitched roof lines, different types of accents to the building.

01:22:39,730	Whereas if we’re closer to more of a parks or a commercial site, you might see a flat top, a flat roof building that has more of a civic presence than a residential presence. So we’ve got work to do. But in order to make the most informed decision we can on its exact location, we’re really kind of down to two sites.

01:22:57,030	The site that I’ve referenced here, and then the other site that we have ownership on the west side of Washington Street. So what we do know is that it would be best for us if the fire station was along Burley Avenue.

01:23:15,330	Then it comes down to, are we west of Washington Street or east of Washington Street? I’m going to look to my right to see if I missed anything. I’m going to check in with the fire chief. He gave me the A. Okay, look at that. So if I can answer any questions or help you process this request, I am happy to do that. I will thank you, Jason, and we’ll start with Commissioner Gilbertson.

01:23:34,170	Uh, thank you, President Zimmerman. Um, Jason, when you said not the exact parcel, but I don’t know how like the how it’s all parceled out, but that is this is the exact location on that corner, and it would be that corner.

01:23:57,730	So if we say, sure, we’re going to sell two point, you know, whatever acres, it doesn’t come and be, oh, we’re going to move over here. Really. Understood. Yes. And one of the things that’s driving our interest in these different sites is the availability to infrastructure, again, water and sewer. And so in this case, it’s in Boston, it’s in Burley Avenue.

01:24:15,370	So that really works well for us. Now, if there’s a portion of this site that would work better for you, for us, for two acres, I guess we’d be open to that discussion as well.

01:24:31,330	But in my mind, this preserves the predominant land use for the Park district to give you the opportunity to continue your, uh, incremental extensions of those sports facilities. And it kind of tucks us into the corner where we would have, if needed, direct access under Burley. But we are at this time anticipating access would be on to Boston Drive, and the site would be designed in a way.

01:24:45,870	So it would have two driveways so the trucks can come in. There’s not a lot of backing up and, you know, beeping noises that go along with some of these things. And so maybe the closest design to think about would be Fire Station five, which is at Lockport on the north side of Bismarck.

01:25:02,270	If you think about there’s a couple driveways, there’s kind of a looping, uh, apron in there for the trucks to move around, and then that way they can just do what they need to do without impacting the public right of way and keep it primarily contained on site. I know our managers and staff in our management meetings.

01:25:18,870	We talked about this and and they did a very nice job explaining and kind of showing how, you know, we could we can still adequately accommodate if we need soccer fields, pickleball, whatever in there. So but thank you. My pleasure. Commissioner Redmond. I’m just kind of piggybacking. Thank you, President Zimmerman.

01:25:41,300	What Commissioner Gilbertson has said that 2.2 acres on this lot that still gives the Park district, um, opportunities for future planning. But my question would be, would the next step if we proceed with this, obviously, then executive director Kleinfeld will get probably an appraisal of what this land would be. In order. To come up with a price.

01:25:59,000	President Zimmerman, commissioners. Commissioner Redmond yes, that would be our recommendation. Commissioner Herzog thanks. President Zimmerman. Commissioners Jason, and maybe, chief, you were talking about two points or, you know, ingress egress.

01:26:21,330	You don’t do you see or foresee that there would be a signalized intersection needed at some point? And would would the Park district be special? Access for a fancy. Um. signalized intersection? So it’s a fair question. Commissioner Herzog. Uh, Park board members, um, at this time, there is no direct intent to have a traffic signal. Now, our our safety guy, Mr.

01:26:43,730	Schell, left a little early so we could have asked him that question, but typically, traffic signals are driven by traffic volumes. So if there were a need at some time in the future, and this would likely be when the south side of Burley Avenue is nearly built out. That’s the neighborhood known as Paradise Valley.

01:26:58,730	Obviously, there’s a lot of growth to the west of Boston Drive that would need to happen as well. I don’t want to say it would never happen, that there wouldn’t be a traffic signal there, but it would likely be in in the future when most of this land is built out and we’re starting to see those impacts and challenges getting on to Burley Avenue from Boston

01:27:16,470	Drive or any of the other roads that are to the west. Thank you. Commissioner Jesse. Uh, President Zimmerman, Commissioner Herzog brings up a really good question, Jason. So when it comes to funding this fire station, how is it funded? Is it special assessed to the neighborhoods? Because obviously we would be special assessed.

01:27:37,770	Certainly. Thank you for that question, Commissioner Chesky. Board members, the fire station six was actually anticipated two years ago, but we thought it was going to be on the northeast side of town in Silver Ranch.

01:27:55,270	And so based on all the master planning and the growth that was happening in that area, with some of the changes that have happened with East Century Avenue and the the number of rooftops in Silver Ranch isn’t quite there to that point yet. So we’re not taking that one off. The the potential, we’re just sliding it down to not yet.

01:28:15,000	Kind of a long answer to tell you that in 2025, city budget, uh, led by mayor Mike Schmitz, we reduced some of our reserves. And by doing that, we earmarked certain amounts for certain projects. And so we have funding set aside to build this fire station today.

01:28:38,000	The ongoing cost after building the fire station is, of course, staffing it. Typically when you build a fire station, we’re looking at staffing up 15 firefighters and support to go with that. We don’t just add all 15 at once, we add them incrementally. So it isn’t a huge burden on the budget year over year.

01:28:55,230	So if I heard your question correctly, would there be special assessments as a result of the construction of this fire station? No, because we’ve got the funding identified for that today. Jason, my question along that line, I go on Burley Avenue. That’s not very wide. They’re coming out.

01:29:18,530	You know, if we’d have a driveway or a egress to Burley Avenue, is there a plans for the city to widen Burley from Washington Street over to, say, 12th or 19th Street? I believe it. Is 12 12th Street would be the next section line road. That’s the boundary on the east side of Cottonwood Sports Complex. Yep. Uh, at this time, I don’t believe we have any direct intentions to widen that road.

01:29:37,930	And we we run into some right of way issues because the east side of 12th Street is outside city limits. And it becomes a burden, it becomes a bit of a barrier. So, um, what I can say is today we’re using Burley Avenue and we’re using it to respond to emergencies efficiently.

01:29:56,670	Again in the future. If traffic demands were to increase and there became burdens on that two lane section of road, certainly we would have to look at potential improvements to that roadway. But again, I don’t see that in the immediate future. And I really wish Gabe was here to back me up on this one. So.

01:30:14,030	Any further questions for Jason at this time? If not Jason, thank you, Commissioner Raymond. I believe we need a motion and I would move that. We take this necessary steps to move forward to sell two acres.

01:30:39,270	202 acres of land to the city with a with a proper steps of getting the land appraised and the proper steps, and then would come back to the board with that with that answer. So I’ll. Second that. That was you’re starting to sound like me. No. Yep. I’ll second that. Motion. Any further discussion, if not before I ask to call the roll. Thanks to the fire chief. Thank you so much.

01:30:57,230	Thank you for your. Service for being here this evening. And thank you, Jason, for taking the time again for another agenda item. So thank you both. Thank you all. And, Julie, I’d ask you to call the roll please. Commissioner Gilbertson, I. Hertzog. Yes. Redmond I jet ski. A president Zimmerman.

01:31:16,500	I. All right. Our next item on the agenda is the proposal for red, white and boom proposal. And gentlemen, they’re there. You got a smile like we’re finally, finally on. The agenda. Yeah. Fall asleep. Commissioner. Is this your Jacob? That’s Jake. That’s Jake. He’s asking me to fill in. Yeah, he’ll be available for questions.

01:31:41,000	And, Jason, thank you both for coming out. Thank you. Cool. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean. You’re okay, commissioners. Commissioners, president Zimmerman, my name is Wil Sattler. I’m the general manager for finance events. I don’t know about you guys.

01:31:56,470	I don’t know if it’s the 70 degree weather today or that spring starts tomorrow, but it is time to start thinking about summer. And I know I’m certainly excited for the amazing things that this community has planned for the 4th of July, which is going to turn out to be a pretty big deal. So yeah, I’m here today on behalf of the Bismarck 4th of July celebration.

01:32:10,930	As you mentioned, Red, White and Boone to ask for some of your support this year. As you know, this is America’s 250th birthday that will celebrate, which is a once in a lifetime milestone that none of us will be able to celebrate again.

01:32:26,470	Uh, last year was the first year that this event made its way to the MDU Resources Community Bowl. Uh, it previously had been at the state capitol grounds for many years. Construction, uh, moved it to a new location and it was super successful.

01:32:41,930	Uh, visitation data showed that over 9000 people were on campus, not necessarily all at the pole at the same time, but, uh, on campus throughout the time of the event, 74% of those people were from Bismarck. And the average stay was just over two hours. So people spent some time there, not just there for the fireworks display at the end or the music provided by the Bismarck Mandan Symphony Orchestra.

01:32:59,670	Um, but for the activities that were going on as well, uh, one of the things that Phoenix Events has tried to do is we’ve worked with a very awesome volunteer committee of leaders from across the community is to keep this celebration completely free for the community. There’s no tickets, there’s no admission.

01:33:16,600	Every family is able to attend, regardless of their income. Um, so with that being said, we’ve we’ve, uh, understood what happened in 2025, how the event went over, and we’ve got some awesome additions that are planned for 2026 that would include a, uh, a performance or a finale. That’s not just fireworks.

01:33:32,730	It also include a drone light show this year that it is timed up in synchronized with the Bismarck Mandan Symphony Orchestra and Expanded Family Zone. The these activities expand well time. That’s why people will spend more time. They’re more active and they’ll feel more of a sense of community for these activities.

01:33:51,470	Um, as well as increased safety and security, which is a big focus for us as we plan, um, the funding for this event, as mentioned, this is a big deal. It’s 250 years. The total budget for this is just over $200,000.

01:34:10,330	So the majority of this is funded by private sponsors, Jake, who’s of course in the room, goes out to private businesses from across the community and meets with them for sponsorships, where they get recognized at the event. We’ve had some awesome supporters in 25, and continuing to see that support in 2026, not just private sponsors, but also a couple of public dollars.

01:34:25,170	The city of Bismarck has increased their support of this event, as well as Burleigh County as well. Um, the event is not dependent on public funding. Uh, it’s certainly community partners that make it better. And all sources of funding allow us to keep this free and accessible and an awesome event.

01:34:42,600	So today, my ask is for a one time additional funding from this, uh, commission of $3,000 that will go directly towards providing expanded entertainment, family activations and new experiences specific to America’s 250th anniversary.

01:35:05,130	In recognition of that additional funding, we are proposing that, uh, you would be recognized as a community partner, uh, through event signage, announcements at the event, social media beforehand, any print materials, and on the event’s website, which people are actively visiting. Um, as mentioned, 9000 people attended last year. It could be even more this year, as we expect. These are families, veterans, kids, grandparents. We want to continue to keep this free. Um, and we’d love that you’d be able to support.

01:35:22,800	I’m happy to answer any questions about the event or the ask that you might have. We’ll start. Thank you. And we’ll start with Commissioner Jesse. Thank you, President Zimmerman. Um, well, thank you for coming. I think this is a great idea. I just have a couple questions.

01:35:38,630	So what the city’s level of commitment is it $65,000? That’s correct. I’d be happy to break it down further if you have further questions, but. Yeah, and then the city, um, the Burleigh County Commission has committed to. $35,000. 5000. And then you are asking for an additional 30,000 or 3000 from the park district. So you say additional.

01:35:54,830	So is there other funding that we’re already providing at this point? No, I misspoke there. 3000. Is the funding asking okay. And then, um, I know you’re out there actively because $200,000 is a lot of money to raise. So is there, um, because there’s also a $6,000 sponsorship. Is that not correct? Yeah, I would lean on Jake. They’re 8000.

01:36:14,970	Eight, 8000 is the correct amount of funding. There’s eight and there’s three. Are they limited to the number of sponsors that you get? So if you get 40 people at 8000, you know, and then the question and this was actually asked to me from somebody, if there’s additional money that’s

01:36:31,670	raised over the $200,000, where does that money go? Does it go on to the coffers for next year? Does it go to the fanatics? I mean, where does where does the money go? That’s a great question.

01:36:47,000	I’ll answer the the first one first on the number of sponsors or partners we do at certain levels, limit that at the next level, that presenting level, we we limit it. And I don’t want to Jake would know the number better than I would, but we limit that so that the partners that are providing those funds are they get that exclusivity.

01:37:01,500	If we continue to add sponsors, then, um, you’re sharing more airtime essentially. And ultimately that at that level, there is specific naming rights that come with that. That is the food truck area. That is the the stage, different things like that.

01:37:20,200	As for the question about funding, uh, one, if funding continues to go over $200,000, that allows us to look into other potential entertainment, more activities that we could bring in. In the case that that doesn’t happen and there’s still additional funding. This event partners with the fiscal agent, the Bismarck Chamber Foundation, a 501 C3 nonprofit, so that money does not go to a management company like finance events, that goes back into the event for future years.

01:37:37,400	So while this is a one time ask for funding, if that funding is not spent or if there’s leftover money in the account that just goes to continue, the event is in retained earnings, essentially. Okay, perfect. Those are just questions I had. And again I think it’s a wonderful event. It sounds like a lot of fun. But uh, yeah.

01:37:54,770	Looking forward to Bismarck doing something to celebrate the 4th of July. And our 250th. Uh, other commissioners questions. Commissioner Herzog thanks. President Zimmerman. Well, thanks so much for being here.

01:38:14,000	I know Mike Walden myself sit on this group, but could you just talk a little bit about there will be some construction at at the bowl, but we’re we’re working around it and everything is going to go hunky dory. Yeah, absolutely. Commissioners. President Zimmerman, thank you for the question. Commissioner Herzog. Um, we’re certainly very aware of potential construction going on.

01:38:31,170	Our experienced director from our team, Rachel Birx, I think, reaches out once a week to the group that is working on it. I know there’s lots of different stakeholders in the construction project and in the MDU Resources Community Bowl. So in that budget for um funding, we’ve provided some initial additions.

01:38:49,200	They had requested additional safety, uh, some additional security over there as well as some fencing. So we’re prepared for that as well as the with ongoing construction, there would be limited parking spots. I believe that’s a south parking lot there at the Community Bowl.

01:39:07,500	Um, which we’ve already started working with similar stakeholders in the area that gateway to science building as well as, um, that general area of how we would address it. But we’re certainly aware of it. We’re it’s top of mind for us, and we’ll make sure that it’s that it doesn’t affect the attendee experience. Other questions for Will. Just a comment. No, I was just going to make a comment as well. Go ahead, go ahead. Um.

01:39:23,370	It’s wonderful that we’re having a community event and we are a community player. And so I’m just I’m glad that someone’s having a party in Bismarck. So thanks. Yeah. Hope you can. Make it.

01:39:40,100	My comment is I attended the estate of the cities, uh, breakfast, and if I remember correct, uh, the mayor of Mandan said. And with the mayor of Bismarck, Mandan will do their fireworks display on the third. Correct. And Bismarck will do theirs on the fourth. So that could hopefully the attendance at both events. So, yes, I I’m glad we’re working on it.

01:39:58,070	I think hopefully the district will agree to be a partner, and we hope we have a great weather and a great event with. Yeah, not the two cities not competing. That will be a lot of fireworks going on. So what is the wish of the commission? I move, do we support the red, white and boom.

01:40:14,170	Um, community celebration with a $3,000 sponsorship? I’ll second. Motion by Commissioner Redmond, second by Commissioner jetski. Any further discussion? If not Julie, if you’ll call the roll, please. Commissioner Gilbertson I Herzog. Yes. Redmond. I jet. Ski a president. Zimmerman I. Thank you. Will thank you.

01:40:36,870	Thanks, gentlemen, for hanging in there as we move through the meeting here. All right. The next item on the agenda is the consideration of a gift for a Mahatma Gandhi statue. And I’m going to ask our executive director, Kleinfeld, to fill us in on that request. Thanks.

01:41:02,370	President Zimmerman and commissioners, um, like the information in the packet you said we had we had an opportunity to partner with the city and the state, the state of North Dakota and the city, um, Mayor Schmitz and, uh, some of the city staff were meeting with the Consulate General of India. That’s out of Seattle.

01:41:20,930	They have an office in Seattle that they just opened, and they were in town talking about all kinds of different opportunities that they could work with our community and our state. And the discussion came up that they wanted to donate a statue of Mahatma Gandhi, uh, to the city of Bismarck, the state capitol. Um, we I was contacted by city Administrator Thomas.

01:41:38,030	They had some ideas about where they’d like to plan a plan, place this statue. And so we went to and looked at a location and lo and behold, we talked about Peace Park. And we already have a peace pole in in Peace Park that was was placed and dedicated, uh, years ago. Uh, that has a quote from Mahatma Gandhi.

01:41:56,770	And when we brought the consulate general over to that location, uh, he got very excited and thought that was a great location. And, uh, and said, hey, when can we do this? Um, they’re very excited about it, you know, I said, well, we gotta we gotta take it next step to move this forward.

01:42:14,430	But, uh, they’re very excited about it. They’d like to place a statue there and have a ceremony sometime in October. And they’ve been working with the North Dakota Trade Office, along with the governor’s office, on the best date and time at this time. But it really are excited about this and want to continue to work with us. Thank you. Kevin. Questions.

01:42:35,100	Commissioner. Jetski. President Zimmerman not a question, just a comment. So when I was on the park board in Grand Forks, we received a gift from the Japanese consulate and it was a beautiful lantern and then some Japanese stones. And they went into, a certain park there. And that was one of my favorite places to to run by.

01:42:53,200	So I think this is a wonderful opportunity for us. And I think putting it in Peace Park makes total sense. My question, Kevin, or clarification, the total cost of this is there.

01:43:13,670	Can you make sure we’re squared on that where cost of the statue, cost of a base, all of those things, rather than someone questioning, well, why is the Park district now incurring cost for. a statue? President Zimmerman? Commissioners, there will be no cost to the park district. The statue will be donated by the Consulate General, and we’re working with Drew Combs and the State Trade Office to procure to get a pedestal to put the statue on.

01:43:37,500	Thank you for that clarification. Uh, Commissioner Gilbertson. And, uh, President Zimmerman, thank you. And I just want to say, and I’m sure if citizens go on our website and look at the the packet that is presented, they will see the letter from the governor.

01:43:56,200	And I just want to say that I agree with everything that Governor Armstrong says in this letter, and it’s nice to see that, um, it that the office of the governor is supportive of this as well. So thank you. I believe, uh, Jason, tomorrow Jason would like to add something. Go ahead. Jason.

01:44:20,900	Commissioners, I didn’t mean to jump in on the conversation here. I was curious to see where this would go because, as director Cliff noted, Mayor Schmitz and I had the pleasure of meeting with the Consul general in late February. Admittedly, we didn’t have much of an itinerary for that day.

01:44:35,200	We had some time planned and we were welcome and glad to receive them and hear what their thoughts were. This conversation started that day and that it initially we had explored some potential locations and other site that I had suggested was Sonali Garden. Recognizing its location up on Chief Looking Village and you’ve got the beautiful overlook.

01:44:55,070	The Consul General was very interested in seeing that location. After we looked at it on Google Earth and the aerial photos, I just want you to know that your executive director made it happen. So the gates are still closed to chief looking village. There was snow that was here and there. It was kind of melting, kind of not.

01:45:07,370	I sent Kevin a text and I said, here’s what’s going on. Can we make this happen? No questions asked. So on a Friday afternoon, these types of things come together. And I’m so glad to hear that Peace Park is the right location because of all the other things that you’ve talked about.

01:45:20,670	But Kevin needs some accolades on this too, because not everybody’s just going to jump when somebody else sends a text to make this happen. So thank you to Kevin for that as well. Well, thank you, Jason, for that acknowledgement. Now. Well, I suppose we’ll have to retroactive a pay raise. for director Cliff fell. But but thank you Jason.

01:45:38,200	Other questions or comments from the commissioners. If not, what is the wish of the commissioners? Does a need board action at this time? Okay. Okay, I’ll make a motion that we accept the, um, statue of Mahatma Gandhi. Sorry, Mahatma Gandhi. It’s been a long day from the Consulate General of India. And the placement to be at Peace Park.

01:46:02,170	A second. second motion by commissioner, second by Commissioner Redmond. Further discussion, if not Julie, if you would call the roll, please. Commissioner Gilbertson I Herzog. Yes. Redmond. I just I President. Zimmerman I. Our next item on the agenda is the 2027 budget development schedule. Thanks again, Jason, for your time this evening.

01:46:27,370	And, uh, our finance director, Cathy Feist, has also been a trooper here to sit almost into our second hour of the meeting. Good evening, Kathy. And if you would give us a update here on our budget proposal for 2027. Good evening, President Zimmerman.

01:46:47,670	And commissioners, in your agenda packet is a proposed schedule for the development of the 2027 budget. The process started today. The budget packets were distributed to managers and directors that information, those information requests and proposals will be distributed to the directors by the end of April and then during the period of May 4th through the 22nd, there will be internal meetings with staff to

01:47:08,400	review that information on those requests, and we’ll be putting that together in a proposed budget and work plan that will be distributed to the Park Board commissioners after the June 18th Park Board meeting.

01:47:28,900	And then we will schedule meetings with each of the commissioners, as we always do individually, to go through those budget, um, work plans and budget binders. Those will occur between June 22nd and July 2nd, and then we will have take any input that we receive at that point, and we will introduce the budget at the July 16th. Um, regular park board meeting.

01:47:49,000	Then on September 17th, we will have the public hearing for the final adoption and determination of the annual tax levy so that we can submit our budget to the county auditor by the required deadline of October 10th. Are there any questions on the schedule? Thank you. Kathy. Any questions on on the budget timeline or. No. All right. All right. We do not need a motion there.

01:48:15,670	We thank you again, Kathy, for hanging in there with us. Again, I appreciate that. Our next item on the agenda is the consent agenda. And I will read through that.

01:48:36,670	Allow me to a variety of items have been placed on a consent agenda, a consent agenda can be approved in one motion or an item, or items can be removed for additional discussion and separate action. Staff recommends approval of the following items. Consideration of the February 19th and February 23rd, 2026 board minute meetings. Those minutes were included in our packet. Request approval to submit a recreation Trail Program grant application. Uh Operations Director David Mayer provided some information.

01:49:02,630	Satchel Paige statue request to call for bids. And there’s a memo in that included in your packet as well. And then a request to dispose of obsolete equipment. And there’s a memo as well from Operations Director David Mayer is the wish of any of a commissioner to exclude any of those items from a consent agenda.

01:49:28,770	President Zimmerman, I move adoption of the consent agenda as presented. Second, I’ll give it to Redmond. Motion by Commissioner Gilbertson. Uh, second, by Commissioner Redmond. I would add that I am visiting with Kevin. I think I can hopefully say that we have good news on the Satchel Paige statue that they have realized through the Bismarck Recreation Council.

01:49:54,970	Several last, last couple of days and sizable contributions. In fact, as I spoke to former Commissioner Schwarz today, he also just received another pledge from a family here in Bismarck. I don’t think it’s proper for me to say that at this time, but he’s another $10,000 pledge.

01:50:18,070	So the project is going to move along. So we have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda as presented. Any further discussion, if not Julie, if you’ll call the roll, please. Commissioner Gilbertson. I Herzog. Yes. Redmond. I jet ski. Hi. President Zimmerman hi. Next item on the agenda is approval of bills. So moved. Second.

01:50:42,970	Any further discussion? If not Julie, if you’ll call the roll, please. Commissioner Gilbertson, I Herzog. Yes. Redmond. I Jesse I president. Zimmerman. I the next item on our agenda is consideration of executive director applications and the consideration of a executive session.

01:51:09,670	The board must approve a motion to go into executive session, and I will read that statement. The next item is on the agenda is executive Session. Under the authority of North Dakota Century Code, section 4204 18.27. For consideration of Executive Director applications. This item shall be discussed in Executive Session.

01:51:36,930	The legal authority for closing this portion of the meeting is that section of the North Dakota Century Code. The topic or purpose of this Executive Session is for the board to review applications for Executive Director and designate three or more of the qualified applicants as finalists for further consideration before the board or other person who may issue an offer of employment to fill

01:51:59,070	the position. However, the board does not wish to consider any of the applications further. Excuse me. Let me read that. However, if the board does not wish to consider any of the applications further and decides not to make an offer of employment for the vacant position, the board need not

01:52:18,530	designate any finalists at this time. A motion will be in order to discuss the next topic in executive session, rather than in an open meeting. Is there such a motion? President Zimmerman, I move that we move into executive session. Is there a second? Second.

01:52:41,070	Any discussion of the motion, if not, Julie, if you will call the roll, please. Commissioner Gilbertson I Herzog. Yes. Redmond. I. Just president. Zimmerman a motion carried the executive session will be recorded and all members of the governing body are reminded to limit their discussion during the executive session to the announced topic.

01:53:03,970	We will now ask members of the public who are attending this meeting to please leave the room. The minutes will show that the executive session began at 708 and is attended by commissioners. Our legal counsel, John Ward, and staff members, Julie Shell and Executive Director Kevin