00:00:11,870	I will call the August 10th, 2026 Mandan Park District Board Meeting to order any additions or deletions to the agenda. None. Okay. Uh, any public communication from visitors? If so, please step to the podium. Seeing no one will close the public communication. Uh, next, uh, order of business here is minutes.

00:00:39,670	Uh, July 13th, regular meeting minutes and July 30th budget retreat. Special meeting minutes. What are the board’s wishes? I’ll make a motion to approve a July 13th, 2026 regular meeting minutes. And July 30th, 2026 budget retreat. Special meeting minutes. Second. Okay.

00:01:09,700	We have a motion from Commissioner Froehlich and a second from Commissioner Scott to approve the July 13th and July 30th meeting minutes. Uh, any further discussion? Hearing the hearing? None. Um, all those in favor say aye, I, aye aye. Those opposed same sign. Meeting minutes are approved. Item number one 2027, budget presentation. Terry. Good evening, president Mehlhoff and commissioners.

00:01:44,300	Tonight I’m going to be presenting the preliminary 2027 budget as approved at the board’s budget retreat on July 30th. So, first of all, I have the recap by fund of the 2027 budget. And if you look at the general fund, we are showing a balanced budget of 7.4 million in the revenue, as well as 7.4 million in expenditures, all funds combined, we have 10.

00:02:05,070	4 million in revenue and just about 9.9 million in expenses, leaving a net of 577,100. This surplus is made up of a variety of a different a few different things in the Raging Rivers Fund, the excess of 145,000 is, um, money set aside for deferred maintenance and upgrades and improvements at

00:02:29,600	the park in the future years, and in the construction fund. The difference of 274,150. Those are dollars that have been previously pledged towards construction projects. And then in our vision fund, you’ll see a difference of $282,500.

00:02:53,400	And those are funds that are set aside, designated for long term repairs and replacements at our facilities, as well as funds for future park development. Looking at our full time salaries and benefits here, they’re shown with comparative numbers for 20, 25, 26 estimates and 27 budgeted figures. Total salaries and benefits for 2027 are 3.

00:03:20,330	1 million, with the majority of this paid out of the general fund and a small portion paid through the Raging River’s water park fund. Budgeted capital outlay for 2027 includes the following list of equipment purchases. These are at our park and golf operations. Starion Sports Complex, and a van for our after school program, for a total of $394,000 in equipment.

00:03:43,600	Also within the Capital Improvement Fund, we are budgeting an additional 371,500 for maintenance and improvement projects at the All Seasons Arena. The old Park Operations Building, the Mandan Municipal Golf Course, Starion Sports Complex, and both Eagles and Legion Park. These projects are budgeted at at 371,500. Then our annual debt service for 2027.

00:04:12,130	We have a loan payment for the Mandan Tennis Center for 273,700. This is funded completely by a lease from the LLC organization that runs all of the facility operations at the Tennis Dome. Also, our loan for the park maintenance shop is $141,900, and that is for the shop that was built in 2023.

00:04:42,600	In special assessments, we have a payment of $491,000 budgeted on Park District owned properties and then in our Geo bond fund, 106,854 special assessments that were refinanced. Then, looking at this chart showing the breakdown of where your property tax dollars are distributed. Of course, the primary recipients are the city, county schools and parks.

00:05:04,670	Within the current year’s budget, the Mandan Park District share property taxes is at 11%, which means for every dollar in property taxes that are paid by an individual or business, the park district receives $0.11. Now, looking at property tax levies, as you’re aware, we are subject to the 3% cap on property tax dollars levied.

00:05:25,600	This applies to our general fund and our capital improvement fund. However, in the Special Assessment Fund, we are not subject to the cap, nor are we in the general obligation bond fund.

00:05:46,200	So looking back at the top of the general fund, we are allowed in calculating the levy to include new growth in residential and commercial properties. So by following the formula to calculate that our general fund tax levy has increased by $124,534. And then looking at our capital improvement fund at the bottom here, our levy there with the cap is increased by $29,956.

00:06:10,800	So with the special Assessment fund not subject to the cap, we are increasing by 169,826 for the payments that we are projecting for the coming year. And in our Geo bond fund, the levy has gone down slightly because of the payment due in that fund.

00:06:30,700	So, as required by law, I’m going to state what each of our levies are by the funds for the general fund. It’s 3,081,809. Special Assessment Fund Levy is 525,500. General Obligation bond Fund Levy is $110,500, and Capital Improvement Fund Levy is 741,304, for a total levy of 4,459,113. Then we’ll look at how this correlates in mills.

00:07:06,200	The value of a mill in 2025 was 143,393, and it has increased by almost 7% to an estimated 153,250 for 2026. So with this increase in the value of the mill, our property tax levy is actually decreasing in the general fund by half of a mill. And you’ll see an increase in the special assessment fund at 0.95 bond fund slight decrease at 0.

00:07:29,670	06, and the Capital Improvement Fund slight decrease at 0.12. So the net effect of all of these is a total increase in mills by the park district of 0.26 over last year’s.

00:07:51,630	So with the park district’s quarter of a mill increase in levies or I’m sorry in in mills and existing property owner with a $300,000 home if they do not have any, um, market value increase this year, that individual would see an increase in park district property taxes of $4 a year. However, the average increase in residential homes this past year was at 5%.

00:08:15,000	So the individual with a $300,000 home who does have a 5% market increase on their home, which brings it up to $315,000. We’ll see an increase in park district property taxes of approximately $23 for the year. Then, looking at the budget calendar for the August 10th deadline, we have already provided our preliminary budget statement and notice of our public hearing, which will be held on September 14th.

00:08:40,800	That will be here at City Hall at 530. And at that time, the Park Board will pass our ordinance approving the 2027 budget. We are then required by law to submit a certified copy of our levy and budget to the Morton County Auditor by October 12th. Tomorrow I will be posting this information on our website for the preliminary budget. So this concludes my presentation.

00:09:03,200	Do you have any questions for me? Thanks, Terry, and thanks for all the work you do on the budget. Any other comments or questions for Terry? I don’t have any questions for Terry because we went through all this a couple of weeks ago, but I just want to and this

00:09:19,600	concludes the board. I just want to thank everybody for, well, Doll job well done. Um, we we had a lot of discussion and stuff like that, but I really appreciate everything that everybody did. So thank you. Thank you. Yes, I would echo that. Terry. Wonderful job.

00:09:40,070	And, um, it can get pretty deep at times as far as understanding all the numbers and where they all come from. But you, you make it seem easy, but it’s not easy. So thanks for all the work that you and your staff do. Thank you very much. Anything else? Thank you Terry. Moving on to item number two, a facility update. Mister free. Good evening, President Mehlhoff commissioners.

00:10:09,800	Um, tonight I’m just going to, um, briefly discuss a facility update. Uh, mainly on raging rivers. Um, just to let you guys know how we’ve been doing. As you know, the June weather wasn’t the greatest, and we didn’t have the greatest attendance.

00:10:27,500	But July really turned around, and, uh, was probably one of the best July’s we’ve had in quite some time. Um, just looking at the numbers, I think I put my board report. We did over 26,000 people attending the park in the month of July, and we did a little under 10,000 in the month of June.

00:10:41,870	So that just shows you what the weather can do for the raging rivers. Um, if it’s hot, people are coming. I mean, this last weekend we were slammed on Saturday. I mean, just, you know, people trying to get in the last few few days of the summer and stuff like that. So.

00:10:58,400	And then we’ve discussed this year, if we could staff and we’re going to extend the season another week. So we’re going to be open till August 23rd. Um, we were we were tentatively going to close and it’s on the 16th. That’s our normal closing date that week. Um, but we decided that we could staff it.

00:11:14,000	So we’ll be open till the 23rd of August this year. Um, we did get enough staff, and hopefully the weather holds out and people can come and enjoy the park. Until that Sunday. So, um, just a couple other items on the facilities.

00:11:31,100	You know, we’re switching gears at Starion Sports Complex into the fall sports, which is, um, high school soccer, which is high school football, those kind of things. So those will be kicking off. We got our first game, uh, for soccer on August 20th. Then we have that region for jamboree football.

00:11:46,500	Um, there’s five games there on August 22nd, and the first varsity football game would be August 28th. So it’s going to get busy up there. Um, everything seems to be in working order. We test everything out, so we’re sitting pretty good. So. And then we’ll be putting ice on the week of September 21st and, uh, Buick rink. So that’ll start going on.

00:12:00,700	So we’re ready for the hockey season which starts on October 5th this year. So just a quick update there. And anybody have any questions comments on the facilities. Dave can you tell everybody how many people it takes. Um for staff for lifeguards and stuff during the crazy July up there.

00:12:18,970	So each day, I mean, we have uh, each shift, we have nine lifeguards, we have a supervisor, two leads, and then we have a grill person and then two concession people. We sometimes run mid shift concession people on weekends.

00:12:34,800	We’ll add another grill person if we’re looking at the hot weather. So that’s just one shift. And then take that times two. Um when we’re open till 8:00. So that’s kind of what you need for for staffing for each day. And then when you run noon to five, which you are right now, then you just need the one shift.

00:12:52,670	So so you’re looking at around that 30 mark of staff right around there. Um, if you run two shifts. So I just want to thank you for taking care of dealing with all of those people and have done so. Yeah. And Sam, our new supervisor, which he was going to be here, but he’s taking the lifeguard class right now.

00:13:08,800	Um, so he can come and certify lifeguard, but he’ll come next month. And I’ll introduce you to Sam. And he’s done a great job for us, so we’re happy to have him on board.

00:13:23,200	One of the other compliments that I’ve heard about Raging Rivers this year was the I can’t remember what you called it, but where the, um, toddlers or whatever, kid. Todd. Time tot time. Yeah. Yep. Um, heard a lot of good things about that and how it was very enjoyable for the the youngsters. Yeah. Every Monday, Wednesday in the month of July, we offer the young kids to come from 10 to 1130 in the morning.

00:13:41,330	So they get the park to themselves and stuff like that. And we had some good weather in July for that. So it was well attended. So yeah. We’re good.

00:14:01,270	Anything else? And then I’ll go into the RFP for the adult beverage, uh, sales at Starion Sports Complex for U of Mary Adult men’s league tournaments. Um, you in your packet, you have the both of the RFPs that were sent back. Um, my recommendation is to go with Mandan Hockey Club and with the 18% of the gross sales would be given back to the park district. Um, for our commission on them selling the adult beverages. Oh, yeah.

00:14:24,470	Then we have RFPs were sent out and then posted on our website, and then we received two of them back. So this will be the first time that Mandan Hockey Club has that right? Yep. This will be the first time that they have it.

00:14:42,130	They’re going to get all their permits in place, and then they’ll open up here in September with the University of Mary starts their games. We’ll be their first sales. Okay. I, I personally think that that’s probably a good thing because they’re already running the concession stand and there’d be some synergy there. Yeah. I agree with. I think a little odd when there was two entities in there.

00:15:00,200	Right. So what are the board’s wishes? Dave, real quick question before I make the recommendation, and I know this was an RFP, but I’m still going to ask question 18% gross of adult beverage sales.

00:15:23,730	Um, I know we’re picking the the top, and I know it’s the Mandan Hockey Club. Are they will they be able to staff it properly and stuff like that. So it’s. Yeah, I talked to Matt Stockard, who is the executive director for the hockey club. And there’s no issues there. I’m sure they’ll use dibs hours or they’ll get volunteers because the volunteers get tips and things like that.

00:15:43,570	So, um, on that kind of stuff. Okay. Thank you Dave. I recommend approving the Mandan Hockey Club proposal for adult beverage sales at U of Mary games and men’s league tournaments for 2026 through 2029. I’ll second. Thank you.

00:16:08,230	We have a motion from Commissioner Mudder and a second from Commissioner Froehlich to approve Mandan Hockey Club for the adult beverage sales at Starion Sports Complex. Any further discussion? Hearing none. Roll call. Vote. Commissioner Scott I Commissioner Froehlich I Commissioner Mudder I. I also vote I motion carries. Thank you. Thanks, Dave. Item number three update on city ordinance. President, president. Mehlhoff and commissioners said Meschke.

00:16:34,430	I gotta get used to that. To two M’s. Um, before you, it’s been a lot of time and research between the Mandan police department, deputy Chief of police Jason Bier and myself.

00:16:50,800	I’ve shared some comments in previous board meetings about a coalition across the state about addressing an e-bike ordinance, and that ordinance is really put into place to hopefully put some parameters for kids under the age of 18 that are going to be utilizing them.

00:17:05,670	I saw one today on a scooter that was going down the middle of third Street on the way to Memorial Ballpark, and four cars were held up behind it, and so Mandan Police Department will be addressing this again. The Park district doesn’t create this ordinance, but we’re here tonight to get your support. So that motion of support then would take it to the city Commission, which would be next week.

00:17:20,670	There are two readings to the ordinance, so next week will be the first reading of the ordinance. At that time, I will attend and give our support if the board chooses to tonight. But I just wanted to highlight a few of the items in this ordinance and jump into page three.

00:17:37,800	If you’re in your packet is talking about operations on sidewalks and operations on shared youth paths and trails, and that seems to be where we have a lot of mini bikes or gas powered vehicles on our trails, which they are not allowed. So that’s being spelled out there on sidewalks, obviously, and multi-purpose. Anything over 30 miles an hour is prohibited.

00:17:59,170	Those are usually what’s referred to as class three e-bikes. It is hard to tell the difference between a class three versus a class one and class two. They do have to have that stamp of that certification, what type of bike they are. Um, the Mandan PD will enforce this. Um, the intent is not to give tickets out.

00:18:16,230	The intent is to educate first, hopefully be able to curtail and prevent injuries. And as it continues to progress, and if we see repeat issues and complaints, then they have another step as far as entering some type of citation. We hope it doesn’t get to that.

00:18:33,030	The maximum speed in our trails is 15 miles an hour. It seems very fast, but if you’ve seen some of the pedal bikes and some of those high end, ten speed, um, mountain bikers, they are traveling at a high level of speed. But for now, that’s what we set it at. That’s kind of what we’ve see in across the state.

00:18:45,700	If for some reason we need to address or reduce that amount, we can at a later date, and then the only other comment that I wanted to state would be in regards to safety, um, anyone under the age of 18 is required to wear a properly fitted and safety helmet. That’s what you’re seeing.

00:19:05,270	A lot of injuries across the state. Um, there’s been some deaths of aged 14 year age. Um, kids out in the West that’s taken place. There’s been a couple out in the Fargo area.

00:19:23,400	So we understand that it’s going to be hard to enforce, but we hope parents see the longevity of the safety of this as hopefully providing that safety opportunity, opportunity to them. Um, no one in the age of 12 will be able to operate, um, any type of these e-bikes. So anyone over 13 and older will be able to operate the class one and class two. You have to be 16 years of age to operate a class three.

00:19:40,830	And again, that’s the one that can go the fastest that we’re trying to address. So we’re trying to kind of have a fine line balance between no, you can’t ride them and yes, you can. There’s got to be some give and take. And again, I’m sure there will be things that we’re going to have to change that we go through this.

00:19:54,930	Um, we are looking at adding some signage throughout our park system. The difficult part of all of our trails. We’re pushing over 22 miles of trail, different access points from different aspects.

00:20:08,930	Where do we place a sign? Where don’t we? So we’re trying to figure out if we just place them on our website and or at certain designated areas, like where there’s a parking lot where a family may stop by a bench or something? We haven’t quite figured that out yet. Um, but we will work through that.

00:20:24,300	Um, there is some, some parental responsibilities in there that if for some reason, the child under the age of 18 is utilizing these bikes, and there’s again continued, um, issues where there is a fine potentially in place, the parent could be held liable because we assume they’re the ones buying the bike and or others. So we wanted to make sure that was built into there.

00:20:38,730	But at the end of the day, we don’t want to have to have an accident in our community. Um, we’re hoping that this can curtail it. The education, I think, is important that all families understand that you’ve seen them around town. I mean, they’re zipping on trails there in parking lots.

00:20:52,470	We had one at Raging Rivers, um, zipping through the parking lot, and a guy was back in his car out, and luckily he had the alarm on his backup where it stopped him. Where I think the individual probably would have been in an incident that we don’t want to have a conversation about.

00:21:05,530	So the whole goal here today is to get something in writing. Um, again, the city of Mandan will address it next Tuesday. Um, and that’ll be the first reading. And then obviously from there we’ll see comments and things of that nature.

00:21:20,870	But tonight before you is the draft that has been presented by Deputy Chief of Police Jason Bier. If there’s any comments or thoughts that you would like change, or at least addressed, I can make sure those comments are put in before the reading next week. Cole, is this also for and I I’m looking at it again. I’m double checking more than anything else.

00:21:40,100	These include scooters, correct? Correct. Any type of electronic device okay. Yep. Thank you. Uh, one thing to consider would be, uh, we could paint speed limit on the pavement itself. Might be cheaper than signs. And, uh, um, that’d be an option to consider for our trails. Anyway. I would agree with that.

00:22:03,200	And, um, reading through it, it was well worded and, and it addresses most of the areas that I could think of. So it was I think it was well written and looked like there was a lot of good intent, which is I think the purpose of it, not like you said, not to be writing a bunch of tickets to people that don’t understand

00:22:20,670	the rules. It’s trying to get them to understand when they’re writing something, that their safety is the most important part to us, not the the, the violation itself. And we’ve had communication from from Bismarck PD and we’ve he’s that individual is on the coalition.

00:22:37,930	We know people go between Bismarck Mandan on our trail system. So we don’t want to have a policy or an ordinance that’s completely different from theirs and vice versa. We want to have some synergies so that we’ve had them from Grand Forks.

00:22:51,230	Dickinson, uh, Fargo’s e-bikes ordinance, trying to use those as examples to see. And then that, um, chief deputy chief of police, uh, Jason Bier had reached out just to see if there needed to be any tweaks that maybe other cities were thinking about. And so it’s been a good coalition, a lot of input from the community.

00:23:07,270	Um, the issue that everybody’s bringing up is that there seems like to be one major injury in every community before something actually gets implemented. So we’re just trying to get ahead of that. We’re not aware of an incident in our community. I’m sure there have been some accidents that haven’t been reported, but nothing fatal.

00:23:20,470	Cole, I got one more quick question, and I don’t know how to I know what the answer is, but I’m still going to ask it.

00:23:36,800	Is there any safety programs or anything that we can do to help help with these e-bikes and stuff like that? I know I made a phone call to abate a friend of mine who runs it, and they don’t have anything. And there there are, they are looking into it. But is there anything we can do to for future safety instead of waiting for the accident, try to help promote safety. Yeah. So at our after school care program.

00:23:55,970	We actually worked with the Mandan PD. They sent some officers up there to educate for some outreach program and talk about the e-bikes and the importance of helmets and things of that nature. So that’s the first step that we have.

00:24:08,000	Um, I think that’ll just continue to be on social media that we can push out, help educate the individuals. We started this back in February of this year and finally got to where we’re at a process in here. And now the city is reviewing it. Their attorneys reviewed it. So hopefully we’ll be able to get this implement.

00:24:21,100	But I agree the outreach program is who is able to present that to the youth, especially the elementary type age kids. Thank you. Uh, any other comments and what are the board’s wishes? I would recommend approval of the e-bike ordinance as presented. I’ll second. Thank you.

00:24:48,600	We have a motion from Commissioner Scott and a second from Commissioner Froehlich to approve the e-bike ordinance. As presented. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed. Same sign motion carries. Next item three. Uh, land dedication. So. Commissioner, is a land dedication process started going back in the timeline. 2012 is when we first presented it, and then it was tabled at that time.

00:25:12,770	And then it was been backed up numerous times between now and 2024. 2024 is when the discussions with the ordinances, we’re going to get updated. Um, staff changes here at the city have allowed it to kind of get taken off a little bit longer than we probably wanted to.

00:25:29,600	As you know, the city of Mandan is doing their land development and public services as far as changing all their ordinance and updating them. And that includes the land dedication. I have presented this land dedication to you in the past. Um, I don’t necessarily going to go through it all entirely unless you have specific questions, that there is no motion needed for this.

00:25:44,670	Um, more informational, but just want to let you know that that is going to be going before city commission too. So we’ll have both ordinances, um, transparent and getting approved here hopefully in August and September for final readings. Thank you. Anything. Anything on that for Cole. All right. Hearing nothing.

00:26:10,770	We’ll move on then. Item number four are consider for approval. Park district variance. So at our retreat end of July. It was tabled for discussion on that item to bring it back before us tonight I put the ordinance excuse me the variance form in front of you.

00:26:25,300	I also put a copy of the email that on Commissioner Meschke, who’s unable to attend tonight. Um, I just put his comments in there, so I thought it’d be beneficial to the commissioners to understand where he’s coming from. Um, again, the variance has not changed a whole lot from the discussions we had previously.

00:26:42,900	The only comment I would have from the board, if this is what the format you would like that section four on the last page talks about appeals, process. Um, internally, I think that should be removed if the board chooses to go forward with the variance.

00:26:58,800	The idea of the variance, obviously, is to present some type of change in our policy or rules that we have to regulate, and we would make that decision. I don’t necessarily think once it comes to this board level that we would change that, but seeing Commissioner Meschke comments in his email and what I shared with you tonight, um, may or

00:27:15,870	may not change what your thought process would be. So I will stand for any questions you may have and. Uh, thank you. Uh, any questions for Director Haglund? So, uh, uh, some background here.

00:28:15,200	So the variance form was brought up as a way to, um, take the citizens, uh, requests to, uh, stray from our existing policy on a on a temporary or whatever basis, and then kind of have a a paper trail so we could, uh, consider any, uh, potential future changes or, you know, just know how it went. And so that was that was kind of where we were going with this.

00:28:40,970	I think, uh, Commissioner Meschke had some real good points here that he emailed. Um, so I guess the board still feel we we need something like this.

00:29:17,070	Do we want to, continue, uh, changing it and morphing it, or do we want to go elsewhere with this? My personal opinion is that I just feel like our staff has done a good job in the past of making good, solid decisions and I really don’t know if it’s a necessary item to have. Um, the steps are there for the process already. Um. I agree we’d make some good points in the in the email, but is it a necessary document? I’m not sure about that.

00:29:53,900	Yeah, I think I tend to agree. Are we looking for a solution for a problem that doesn’t really exist? But. I was one who was for it. But I’m also willing to save the rest of the board. Doesn’t want this. I’m willing to go back up and and continue to do what we’re doing.

00:30:21,330	Because one of the things I, I guess I wanted it to to back the, the managers and the employees of our staff, and if the staff doesn’t feel like they need it and at the board doesn’t think we need it, well, then I, I’m for not doing it, then.

00:30:46,300	And I truly believe that through training that our staff receives that documentation is is the critical part of this. And if if they’re doing the the critical steps of the decision making and then documenting what they’re doing, it’s basically the same thing as what we’re asking them to do on the variance form. Um, without having the variance form. So that’s the way I look at it. Anyhow.

00:31:19,300	Yeah, I don’t know. I mean, they put together a good farm with good information on there. And maybe we just keep that as it is for now and, and don’t take action.

00:31:37,030	And, and when we still have the work, if we, if we start seeing people asking for changes in our, in our rules or, or policies or whatever, then we could maybe bring it back up if we don’t want to act on it now or, or, uh, I’d be comfortable with that personally. But. So call if no action is taken, not nothing happens. It stays the way it is, right? Yep. That is correct, Commissioner Scott.

00:32:00,030	If there’s no motion on the table, it’ll just stay the way we are. And I appreciate everybody’s comments. And I would echo in the fact that we have good relationships with our user groups and our citizens. We’re approachable.

00:32:12,970	And we talked about at our leadership meeting this morning that if there’s something that comes before us, we are going to work it out before it gets to this level. I think that’s our job as staff is to work well with our citizens and user groups to make sure we can use common sense, and you have common ground and if there is a agree to disagree, then we bring it

00:32:25,430	before the portfolio holder and use that as an extra layer. And then if obviously from there we bring it to the board. And it’s worked well in my years.

00:32:41,230	I understand that the smoking cigars and selling cigars on our property was probably where this kind of started, and we had a policy in place that didn’t allow it, but we wanted to be a good steward of citizens in our community and businesses and be able to give an opportunity. And, um, I think we should have did a better job on our end from the Park district side to following up with the board about how it went.

00:32:55,000	We got busy and unfortunately we didn’t come back and give an update to the board. And that’s kind of where I think we came at. So we’ve learned from that and we’ll make sure that doesn’t happen again. Okay. Thank you. What are the board’s wishes? I guess I’m going to ask the question.

00:33:25,470	Do we table it or or do how do we. I think President Mehlhoff, if there is no motion on the table, the item dies, and then just we can move the next item. That’s what. We want. If the motion not to do it, we just, uh. All right. Well, I’ll open it. If anybody wants to make a motion.

00:33:46,830	Hearing none. Um, item number four, consider for approval for Park District variance form. Uh, dies. Moving on to item number five, consider out-of-state travel to attend the NCPA conference. Commissioners, we had brought before you an opportunity to attend our NCPa. Um, Commissioner Scott was interested. Unfortunately, he was not able to attend.

00:34:08,770	So then we asked additional managers if they had any interest to attend. Um, did not get any interest. And so there is availability for an additional person to attend. And President Mehlhoff has expressed his interest to attend. So in order to do out-of-state travel, we require board approval.

00:34:27,370	And as I mentioned before, if there are other commissioners that would like to attend, we can do that. We just would need to amend the budget and obviously get everything taken care of. Thank you. Anybody else want to go? In Rapid City. Halfway there. Uh. All right. Any further discussion? I would recommend approval for President Meschke to Miss Meschke. Sorry.

00:35:05,200	I would recommend approval of President Mehlhoff to attend the national conference in Philadelphia. I’ll second for Mehlhoff. All right. Thank you. Uh, Commissioner Scott, who has a motion and a second by Commissioner Mudder. All those in favor for approving state travel to attend the conference for president. Myself. Uh, all those in favor say I.

00:35:31,800	I oppose same sign. Motion carries. Uh, item six, authorization of payment of monthly bills. I’ll make a motion to authorize payment of the monthly bills. I’ll second. We have a motion from Commissioner Froehlich and a second from Commissioner Mudder to approve payment of the monthly bills. All those in favor say aye. Aye, aye.

00:36:01,300	Opposed? Same sign. Motion carries item number seven. Commissioner. Staff reports. Director Higlin. So, commissioners, as you know, diamonds 11 and 12 are under construction. We had our second meeting. Um, a lot of the excavation has been completed. Agra lime topsoil have been removed.

00:36:19,300	If you have a chance, go down there. You’ll see a lot of survey stakes that are out there. That’s where the drain tile will be. Um, installed the next 2 to 3 weeks. Um, the next big project that you’ll see is the nailer board around the perimeter of the fence.

00:36:32,200	When we did phase one on diamonds nine and ten, we actually did the nailer board behind the backstop. So that saves us some construction and not having to demo the areas that we’ve already completed.

00:36:47,370	So that nailer board is basically a concrete curb around the perimeter of the field, so that the synthetic turf can tie into and then, um, keep it in place. So that’ll start next week is what we’ve been told on diamond 11. And then diamond 12. You’ll be shortly three weeks after that. So the stone and everything that comes in for the subgrade material has been approved as of today.

00:37:06,000	Um, they’ll start hauling that and you’ll see it on the. They’re going to put it on the parking lot on the west side of Memorial Ballpark. Um, and then that will be dropped off as time allows and then be transported onto the diamonds. We’re still on schedule.

00:37:20,270	We haven’t had any rain days until this week, so we’ll see how that impacts. But you got we should be fine. All the water lines have been relocated. There was a water line that would underneath, um, diamond 11 that connected over to Lower Heart Building. And all of our softball fields.

00:37:36,930	Um, so we had to remove that out of left field, relocated to the alleyways, and then unfortunately, there was some water line cut to the Lower Heart building for a few days, but we got it reconnected and there is no fee to them. If you hear anything on more on that in front of you.

00:37:50,200	I mentioned it when we sent out the board packets. There’s a potential change order that we’d like to add on to the project that the Mandan baseball club is going to take upon their board on excuse me, Wednesday night. So in front of you is kind of a summary of where parking would be added.

00:38:08,100	That area that I’m showing, if you look at your document and then where the parking stalls at the bottom of your page, that’s that parking lot just to the south of the McClellan property, we’d be looking at adding around 42 paved, um, asphalt paved parking stalls, along with the ability to park for buses in there.

00:38:25,930	And that cost is around $171,000 for a change order. To add that on to the project, the baseball club will address it on Wednesday. If they give approval at that time, then we would have to come back as a park board. Even though the man in baseball club is paying for this project.

00:38:42,600	We are the owners of the project and so the before you is just if we would like to have a special meeting later, if they approve it or tonight, we could make a motion to approve the change order contingent on the Mandan Baseball club approving it at their board meeting on Wednesday. And that would avoid having to have another meeting.

00:38:57,200	Otherwise we would have a meeting after Wednesday. Um, the contractor needs to know on Friday if it’s going to happen so that he can start the demo work and the expansion of the irrigation system, not impact in that area.

00:39:11,400	So I guess I present to the board if you would like to address it tonight, contingent on their board meeting, or would you like to wait until they’ve actually taken action? Sure. Thanks. I have one question. Maybe for Dave. Uh, how susceptible are these vehicles to being struck by homerun balls, etc.? If they put these spaces in, are they going to be used? I guess.

00:39:29,900	, I mean, at that level, baseball, I mean, probably not as much as the other place. We want to see them spend the money. If nobody’s going to park there because they’re going to lose a windshield. , right? Okay. Any other communication from the board.

00:39:44,370	Um, on that, would that be part of I suppose we’ll have to put that on the list of asphalt projects. Um, as far as repairs in future delays or anything. Oh, you’re talking down, you know, ten year overlay. Yeah, potentially. Yeah, that would be added on. But okay.

00:40:01,970	As far as construction, I thought you meant a part of our improvement district. No, that would be part of the be part of this construction project. I was thinking about the future more than anything else.

00:40:14,470	And then the second question is, is will that asphalt going to be needs. And this may be more for miles than anything, but um, it doesn’t because we’re going to buses on there and stuff like that. This is going to be different type of asphalt or anything. The thickness of that area will be thicker compared to what the regular vehicle, vehicular parking. Thank you. Any other.

00:40:36,770	Discussion? Miles, going back to your question, people park all the way around those fields all the time. So I don’t think that really changed the the danger of any home run balls hitting the.

00:40:57,270	It’ll just be nicer because, um, number one, it’s always it’s rutted out and water doesn’t drain out of there very well. So it’ll just help with with that. And Dustin and his staff won’t have to deal with the trying to mow those unlevel areas of grass. Uh, there. Always seemingly wet from when they used to have to water the fields. Yeah.

00:41:17,270	Looking at the diagram, I feel like people are parking there right now. You know, just in the grass area. So concrete would clean. It up. Well, I’ve, I’ve only hit one home run in my life and I would have just missed that car. All right. What are the board’s wishes? So this estimate is pretty accurate. Then. That is correct. Yep.

00:41:52,500	And again, we could not take any action and we could wait till the baseball meeting on Wednesday. And then we could get together as we would want to do it as a special meeting, because there. Because of the dollar amount, we would have to have a special meeting and, um, get a motion and a second to.

00:42:11,670	And the timing. We wouldn’t want to wait till next month. Yeah, we know we’d have to do it probably this week. If not, we can do it or resume or something. But the reality is that the baseball club approves it.

00:42:25,800	We’re not paying for it, but it’s a formality for our contracts with the engineer and the contractor that we’d have to approve it. Yeah. So if we do have a motion, we’d be contingent on approval at the Wednesday baseball meeting. Correct? The board’s wishes. I’ll make the motion to approve, contingent on the Mandan Baseball Board’s meeting on Wednesday. In the amount of $170,896.80. Is that right? Motion Commissioner Froehlich.

00:43:22,170	Anybody carried a second? I’ll second. We have a motion commit from Commissioner Froehlich and second Commissioner Scott. Any further discussion? I have a question. Um, they don’t want to do the concrete, do they. Know due to the cost we just got, whenever we do a parking lot or any type of expansion, we always get a cost.

00:43:41,470	Sometimes concrete and asphalt, they’re pretty close. Right? So we and then you can see in these cost estimates it was pretty much double. I know. But they they’re using their money. So I thought maybe I’d ask anyway. So okay. Thank you. Thanks for that clarification. All right. Any further discussion. Okay.

00:44:01,200	Again we have a motion, Commissioner Froehlich and a second Commissioner Scott, uh, approving the baseball parking contingent on the results of Wednesday’s baseball meeting. Uh, roll call. Vote. Commissioner Mudder. I Commissioner Froehlich I Commissioner Scott, I, I also vote I motion carries. Uh, additional commissioner. Yep. In the report.

00:44:26,200	So in the email when I sent out the packet, we talked about RFQ for engineering services for that splash pad. Um, August 25th is when those proposals are due back. We sent it out to five engineering firms. Um, we’ve heard from all of them back that there is some actually six.

00:44:41,430	We sent them out to, um, five have shown interest. Um, I will have a committee of obviously Commissioner Froehlich, um, park operations manager Dustin Fleck and myself will review the packets and determine who we’d like to either interview. If needed. We’ll limit it to two. If we don’t feel an interview.

00:44:59,000	As far as for this is available, then we’ll just award accordingly. We are requiring that they’ve done. I think it was five, um, splash pad or aquatic type facilities in the last three years. Um, they have become quite popular over the state of North Dakota and outside area.

00:45:14,500	Some of these larger firms were able to go outside their region. And so hopefully we can get some of that information back. So what we’re hearing from some of the groups is that you cannot, uh, solicit if you want to get designs from a certain, um, provider of a splash pad, you have to pay for those designs. Otherwise they’ll spec it.

00:45:33,530	So to get an actual design, um, we can get conceptual drawings of what a splash pad would look like for us and put that on there. But actual specific specs to keep it generic enough to get bids from other vendors.

00:45:49,230	Some concerns that we have that we’ve been hearing from other park districts is making sure that you can get warranty work done and or parts some of these splash pad providers are from outside the US, and so trying to get materials and things that are always difficult. And then we do have a contractor over in Bismarck that specializes in pools.

00:46:06,800	And we like the fact that they can do the installation and warranty work so that we are able to have someone in the Bismarck managed area. So we’re taking all that into consideration and how this process would work. Um, we did have four sites picked of those. Not necessarily. We picked four sites.

00:46:20,130	There are four sites in that RFQ that we would designate for them to kind of do the pros and cons of those sites, and then we would do one final site for a topo survey.

00:46:35,130	So after we hire the engineer, then we’d bring it before the commissioners to approve, and then we would start the planning process with them. So four different sites with conceptual drawings of where it be located. Pros and cons of feasibility associated with it. Finalize one site and then bring that before the board to move forward with. Again, we did not dedicate dollars for this.

00:46:50,470	We talked about transferring a half million dollars out of the general fund to the Vision Fund, and then in 27, potentially transferred another quarter million over there. And then the other quarter million, we’re estimating is about $1 million project for this to complete, depending on location, of course, and size of the amenities that we want. Stan, for any questions you may have on that.

00:47:08,570	Thanks. Cole is on, and this is maybe, um, do we know what? Will they be able to tell us what our yearly cost will be? Because I know it really ranges from what we get and how we do things.

00:47:25,970	So yeah, so what we’re hearing, there’s quite a few now that have been out in the community and recirculating, not using fresh flow water. They called every time bringing in fresh water rings your water bill up quite a bit to the tune of about a million gallons or more. Not a not in a month like a week or two. It depends on the usage.

00:47:42,400	So recirculating the water and repurposing it is what we’re probably going to lean towards from a cost standpoint. Um, things have gotten a lot better as far as how we would, um, monitor it and track it, not having to have staff be on site three times a day to test the water.

00:47:54,530	We’d have to test it daily, like we do at all of our aquatics. But there’s better things. And when we go to this conference, we’ll hopefully learn at a there’s a lot of splash pad opportunities there to look at.

00:48:08,270	And we have our state conference two weeks earlier that we’ll be able to talk to some vendors and get some information out there and hopefully get something. But I think for our standpoint, having somebody in our state that can monitor and maintain it when we have repairs, I mean, it’s been beneficial to Raging Rivers, having a contractor that’s in the pool

00:48:20,530	business, that makes it a lot easier. But we are open to bids and we have to, you know, award accordingly based on what’s best for interest for the Park district. Thank you. Call. Very good. Uh, any other questions for call regarding the splash pad? Anything else with your report, Terry? Nothing. Dave.

00:48:45,700	Commissioners. Um, just a couple things in a Raging Rivers. We’re going to be wrapping up the season here. Like I mentioned, I’ll bring back some preliminary numbers in September for attendance and things like that, and then we’ll have all the hard numbers for our annual report here in

00:49:00,170	February. So just kind of put some stuff together for you guys so you can just kind of see before. So don’t have to wait till February and then we’ll just talk a little bit about the fall sports and things like that. So. Thanks attorney rough Commissioner Mudder.

00:49:17,170	August 23rd is the last day of raging River. So everybody go on and enjoy Raging Rivers a couple more weeks. So go and enjoy it. Thanks. Commissioner Froehlich. I’ve got nothing. Commissioner Scott. Uh, just wanted to mention that, uh, my golf spiked, uh, had a piece on that.

00:49:42,430	The best municipal golf course in every state. And Prairie West Golf course was listed as the best municipal golf course in North Dakota. So very proud of that. Even though we have two very nice municipal golf courses in Mandan, Prairie West was listed as the best in North Dakota. Good. Thank you. Uh, no report for myself.

00:50:03,870	Uh, future meeting dates for park board commissioners. Uh, September 14th, we’ll have our September park board meeting right here at City Hall. That’ll be the final reading of the 2027 budget, including the ordinance. Uh, October 12th will be our October park board meeting here. 5:30, also at City Hall. And October 13th.

00:50:25,670	Uh, there’s a portfolio meeting for fee and facility assessment at noon at park admin building at Raging Rivers. Any further discussion tonight? All right. Seeking a motion for adjournment. Move. We adjourn. I’ll second. We have a motion to adjourn by Commissioner Scott and a second by Commissioner Froehlich. All those in favor say aye. Aye,