00:00:03,320	S1:
City Current. Produced by Dakota Media Access. In-depth discussion with Bismarck and Mandan city officials. Watch on Government Access channel 602 HD or tune in to Radio Access 102.5 FM. Always local. Always current.

00:00:26,080	S2:
Welcome to this May 27th edition of City Current. Topics on the agenda today include. Historic Preservation Award awarded at last night's Bismarck City Commission meeting. Talk about the downtown beautification project that Chamber Leadership Group is looking to do, and provide an update on the Land development code. I'm Tom Gerhardt with Dakota Media Access. Thanks for joining us. Joined as always by Bismarck City Administrator Jason Tomanek. Good morning.

00:00:55,360	S3:
Good morning. Great to be here. Thanks for hosting.

00:00:59,040	S2:
Uh, we're pushing 90, 95 degrees outside.

00:01:02,690	S3:
Yeah.

00:01:03,010	S2:
And you got a bit of a break for time, I should say. In last night's Bismarck City Commission meeting. I'm 45, 50 minutes.

00:01:11,010	S3:
45 minute meeting. We don't always see them so succinct. So we'll definitely take them one week and get them. But we had no shortage of good.

00:01:19,730	S2:
Interesting topics.

00:01:20,570	S3:
To cover. Absolutely.

00:01:21,610	S2:
Yeah, we'll jump right into it. The first thing was the historic preservation award that went to Bismarck firefighter Chris Anderson. And it was actually something that we teamed up with him to. We recorded the Bismarck Historical Society's program. We air most of them back. And so we were able to capture that last week. But, uh, really nice job. And he was recognized last night for all the research and work that he put into the history of the Bismarck Fire Department.

00:01:51,930	S3:
He did a great job digging into not just, you know, the history of the department, but also some of the equipment, some of the firefighters, some of the significant fires, the program that he gave at the library. It was in October of 2025. October is always the fire Prevention and preparedness month, so the Bismarck Historical Society had invited Captain Anderson in to to share some of what he had learned. And this was right around the same time that the city of Bismarck was working to purchase the 1926 Seagrave Fire truck. So I think he he had teased some of that in his program as well. But, uh, certainly grateful for the Historic Preservation Commission and recognizing the work that, um, Captain Anderson did just a tremendous amount of research. And I think the programs available.

00:02:39,060	S2:
Yeah, I've got the URL. It's a little bit long, so we'll leave it up for a second if you're able to watch at home. And I'll mention it a couple of times if you go to Dakota Media Access.

00:02:53,780	S2:
So just one more time. Dakota Media Access.

00:02:58,360	S2:
Slash hometown dash history. And I think that firetruck you were just talking about is used in that background image. That was something you sent me last fall. Uh, yeah. When this was, uh, or maybe over the winter.

00:03:11,040	S3:
It's a great photo. It's a almost like an action shot, basically, of the 1926 fire truck. And just an update. I love talking about this. We'll talk about it a little bit when we get to the mention of Public Works Day last week, but the 26 fire truck is still going through some of the improvements to make it road ready again. It's still got a couple of leaks in the coolant system, but they've replaced the spark plugs, the wires, the the starter and all this type of stuff. So it's it's reliable, but it's not 100% ready to go. So they're going to continue to work on it. But when it's not seeing action in the shop, it's on display at Fire Station two which is down on expressway. If you drive by one of the you can see garage bays.

00:03:53,480	S2:
Has.

00:03:54,000	S3:
Glass panels on it. That was intentional. So people when they're hopefully stopped and eastbound on expressway. They can look to their right in and see that lovely old fire truck on.

00:04:07,090	S2:
When you told me about this the first time, and when it was announced, one thing stood out to me and you talked about what it did for firefighter morale. And you think about the history of firefighters, uh, you know, in Bismarck through all these decades. And I'm sure that it does really boost that fraternity, uh, knowing how many have come before.

00:04:27,010	S3:
I had several firefighters reach out and, you know, just say, you know, this is how cool this was. Thanks for bringing the truck back home. But, um, that truck responded to the 1930 Capitol fire at in Bismarck here and obviously a number of other fires. I think it saw action for, uh, well into the 50s, if I'm not mistaken. So, um, we're not looking to restore the truck, right? We're just looking to preserve it. Um, but part of all of this, I mean, we're really kind of taking away the spotlight here from Captain Anderson and the work that he did and the award that he received. But I can't help but fire truck too.

00:05:04,380	S2:
It's so cool. On the regular agenda. Last night, the Bismarck Mandan leadership team talked about their downtown beautification project. You were able to send me a photo of part of that leadership group, so we can show that as you talk about it. And then we have a number of slides that'll walk through what they'd like to do.

00:05:21,660	S3:
Yeah, we had a group of six that came forward. And this is part of the annual chamber leadership group. The Bismarck Mandan Chamber EDC offers this program kind of in the fall and then the spring of two consecutive years. Uh, this group consisted of Alex Koski, Sidney Helgeson, Whitney Olson, who works in our office. She's often the one whose voice you hear calling role at city commission. Emily Shepard, Matt Ford, and Charles Reichert and most of those individuals were on hand during the commission meeting to talk about the project, but we met with them several times throughout their project development because as they as the participants in the leadership program come together in the fall there, it's well aware that they'll have to pick a community project, develop a project, and then hopefully see it through to its implementation. And this group looked at a number of different projects initially and kind of coalesced around this idea of a downtown beautification program. And we've talked about this at the city many times over the years. Probably the first idea or the first iteration of downtown beautification starts with landscaping flowers. And this group was no different. They came forward and said, you know, we see other communities that are hanging flower pots off the decorative street lights downtown. Can we do that? And the answer, unfortunately, had to be no, because the streetlights that we have downtown that are the shorter ones, they're they're decorative. They're ornamental. They were never designed to hold the weight of flower baskets, especially when they get larger, full of water. There's a pretty significant amount of weight on those. So the group pivoted very quickly and came up with a different concept that really brought forward this idea of planter boxes that would be placed along the Main Avenue corridor. And within these planter boxes there's a water reservoir. So it really saves on the labor. If you've got hanging flower baskets and it's 90 degrees and windy, you need to be watering. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. And so for us to have a dedicated staff person from the forestry division and then we're talking about equipment, you know, a vehicle with a water tank and a pump and all these things to water on a daily basis. That becomes a pretty significant cost. So the group identified a different system that will still allow flower pots to be, you know, decorated and flowers on display, but a little less of the maintenance that will go into it on a regular basis because of the water reservoir. So they came forward with a kind of a map that showed, I think it was from sixth Street. If you head west down to Mandan Street. Along Main Avenue corridor. Um, they did come forward with a bit of an ask there. There would be a budgetary impact for the city to take this project on, and that would be, you know, first to acquire the the planters, but then also, of course, the maintenance that goes into it. And so the general consensus was to send the request through the budget Committee, which is meeting very soon here, to develop the budget for 2027. So we would anticipate some of the members of the team coming forward and giving the pitch one more time talking about, you know, the cost, the expectations, the the maintenance that would go into it. And then this becomes part of the formula that we go through to develop what the budget looks like for 2027. So we got to give them a lot of credit. It's uh, it's something that a lot of groups have talked about over the years, but obviously we haven't seen come to fruition. We do have a number of pollinator gardens that are primarily maintained by the downtown ERS, and they do a great job. This would amplify some of the work that they're doing. I should also mention, in addition to meeting with city staff from various departments, this leadership group did meet with the Bismarck Mandan Garden Club, and the Garden Club. Members were very helpful when it came to design and recommendations for flowers that will tolerate, you know, hot, dry conditions downtown, but then also plant material that wouldn't be toxic for pets. Or somebody decides to, uh, take a bite of a flower. I guess there's no harm in in chewing on a petunia, apparently. So it kind of joking, but at the same time, it is a it is a significant thing to be mindful of when you've got pedestrians and people all around the downtown area. You want to make sure that there aren't any unintended consequences of something that was done just to, you know, beautify the neighborhood.

00:09:50,830	S2:
And there's the exact information on the super Royal Velvet two, Petunia, the Bordeaux two, and the Blue Mohawk. So those would be the three flowers that have been through the process that would eventually make it. You mentioned those partners, those stakeholders that really helped bring this project to fruition.

00:10:14,480	S3:
Yeah, yeah. Good. Good job. Good work by all the members of the committee. It was kind of fun watching them proceed and progress through this. Of course, as I mentioned, Whitnie and our office was part of this, so we were getting regular updates from her throughout the entire leadership course. And again, I, I don't know that I said it, but I should certainly thank the Bismarck Mandan Chamber EDC for putting this program together year after year. We as the city are very fortunate. We've had a number of alum go through the program, and we will continue to encourage our staff to apply for this, because it is a great way to network with other organizations, other individuals in the community, and it really starts to help just build that sense of community, because if you know more people, you can get more things done. You can work more collaborative, collaboratively together, and in the end, it just means a better Bismarck Mandan.

00:11:06,250	S2:
And we heard last night, you know, this is a doable project, these leadership groups annually. So what can you do in a short amount of time? I know everybody I'm sure would like to think bigger and bolder, but you have to identify projects that you can, you know, execute. So if this makes it through the budget committee and into the budget, we could see this next year.

00:11:28,370	S3:
We could and then see it in years into the future, because we're not just going to invest in these planters one time and then hide them in the back of public works. They would be year after year. It would be part of our annual program. So thanks to them with the group for bringing the idea forward. And I guess we'll see what the budget forecast looks like for 2027.

00:11:49,250	S2:
Let's talk about the appeals process for the Board of Equalization, which met in April, and that gave property owners the opportunity to contest their 2026 assessments. We heard about, uh, what's happened in the last couple of months.

00:12:04,660	S3:
Yeah. Alison Jensen, our city assessor, came forward and provided a bit of an update for those that were part of the Board of Equalization meeting or watched it or listened to it back in early April, you'll know that there were a number of individuals that had questions about their valuations. And one of the common responses is, well, I haven't made any improvements to my home in a number of years. Why does the value keep going up? The simple answer that I can offer is because similar properties in the community are selling for a value that is similar to, or in line with, what the home could be worth. And so we're when we're talking about assessments or valuations, I should say we're talking about, you know, the number of bedrooms, square footage, bathrooms, finishes, lot size, all of these.

00:12:50,740	S2:
Updates that you may have made.

00:12:52,340	S3:
Yep. All of these components go into what evaluation could, could result in and for an assessor. The true way to do it is to physically inspect the home, to take the measurements, to verify what we may or may not know about the home. And so folks that had a valuation that they seemed to to believe was too high. In several cases, our staff followed up with those individuals and either visited the home or discussed the concerns with the property owners and made sure that all everything was, um, on the level. Everybody was comfortable. Um, some chose not to have an appointment. They just wanted their questions answered. But then, as I mentioned, some did share information to help the assessors really put an accurate dollar valuation on the the overall property. Uh, for those that are still interested in pursuing a different valuation, the next step would be with Burleigh County. They follow a similar process. And then the final step would be the State Board of Equalization. And I believe those meetings are in June and August, respectively, between the county and the state. Um, I think if I heard Alison correctly, of the 26,700 plus parcels that we have taxable value on in the city of Bismarck, 171 of those appealed their valuation. So that's a very minor percentage to me. That indicates that our assessors are doing doing a great job there within a very close range where everyone is is fairly comfortable. But understand you can't be perfect. And with 20, nearly 27,000 parcels, right. There's a there's an easy explanation to why some people may have questions.

00:14:36,290	S2:
Yeah, she did the math for us. She said 6/10 of 1% is what that equals to. It's very.

00:14:42,490	S3:
Low. So refer to that as decimal.

00:14:44,050	S2:
Decimal.

00:14:45,050	S3:
Yeah, exactly. It's a pretty small number, but still worth noting. Not not trying to trivialize any of the requests or any of the appeals that were made, but to be able to address those individually between April and now. I trust that most folks are satisfied with the information that they've been offered, or the revaluation or the the lower valuation upon inspections.

00:15:08,500	S2:
The Land Development Code and Zoning Map Ordinances Commission passed last night. This is a rewrite of zoning subdivision regulations that basically date back to the early 80s. I think I.

00:15:21,180	S3:
Saw it does. And Bismarck, if we go all the way back. Bismarck was one of the very, very first cities to adopt a zoning code. And we recently celebrated 100 years of zoning in Bismarck and over the lifespan of our zoning code. I believe this is the fourth major overhaul. I mean, obviously, amendments are made periodically as necessary, but this was a comprehensive start over rewrite, total new look to everything. And well done to the planners that got through this Daniel Nairn, our planning director leads a strong team of land use planners and community planners, but then also in this case brought in some consultants. This work just couldn't get done in-house. Commissioner Zenker noted that this was 20 years in the making. Before the meeting, I had shared with him that when I started working for the city in 2006, I was told that my position then was a brand new position. I was the third planner in the planning department. The reason that position was created was so the then planning manager could spend the time to rewrite the code in-house. It never got done. In 2008, when the rest of the nation experienced a pretty significant economic downturn, oil started popping out west in 2008 910. We just started rolling and we never really slowed down after that, and we just didn't have the staff resources dedicated to available to dedicate to this project. And you bring the consultants in just the length of time it took them to get through it with multiple staff, with all the public meetings, the public engagement, the the sit downs with developers and property owners and all of the work that went into this, I think it's a it's a pretty dynamic process. It's also a really wonderful document to have. Of course, it's a living document. It's not just going to be etched in stone, but, um, going forward, I think the land development code will provide a little more adaptability in certain cases. In older neighborhoods, many of the homes were determined or deemed to be non-conforming, meaning their lot sizes are smaller than what a new lot would be. This zoning code recognizes that. So if there were some sort of a cause of nature or catastrophic fire or something like that, that would cause a home or a piece of property to be demolished. The new code would make it easier to rebuild on that property. So then we don't have vacant Empty lots in the middle of neighborhoods and things like that. Kind of another unique change in the zoning code going forward. Street trees. Street trees will be required to be planted in residential neighborhoods. Why is that a big deal? Well, it's an aesthetic thing. It's a it's an environmental thing. Trees provide a lot of benefit, but it's also it will help us with snow removal, believe it or not. If you think about the older neighborhoods where we have an established tree canopy, the snow doesn't drift and gather the way it does on the edges of town where we're out in the prairie and we're growing into these new neighborhoods. So having street trees, having boulevard widths that can accommodate large scale trees is going to help people long into the future. In addition to the heating and cooling with summer and winter climates and things like that, um, I think one of the unique things that I like about the code is that there are images, there are graphics part of the text, and it's much easier for some people to understand the meaning when you can just simply look at a picture. When you're trying to describe a setback, particularly a setback on a corner lot. Is it which side is the front yard? Which side is the rear yard? Now we've got images that really convey some of that work. So it's going to be for someone, for me personally who's been dealing with the land use code for 20 years. I'm an old dog. I'm gonna have to learn a new trick here. But I think the the way it's been written, the way it's available to consume, it's going to be much easier than what we had before. So looking forward to kind of kicking the tires on this one and seeing how the planners adapt. We've got a lot of new different names for zoning districts, different types of land uses in some of these districts. But by and large, I mean, Bismarck is not going to change overnight. That's not what this is about, but this is about being able to adapt and evolve. Absolutely.

00:19:47,310	S2:
So a guide for the growth of Bismarck and.

00:19:50,120	S3:
Predictable land uses into the future. Absolutely. So it dovetails right into the together 2045 master plan. Now we've got a land use code that supports that. So I'm anxious to see how this will unfold over the next several decades.

00:20:07,280	S2:
And did I hear this correctly? Uh, this would take effect October 1st, I believe.

00:20:12,760	S3:
So I think they were going to do one more, just overhaul, make sure all the typos and edits and notes throughout were nice and clean. And then the consultants will be handing over the word document. Is it a file. And we'll be ready to go from there. So high five to the planners. High five to the consultants that got this done. And thanks to all the community members that were engaged, I think we counted the last time there were somewhere close to like 40 public meetings, um, public input meetings, public hearings. And we saw some people in the crowd last night that were engaged very early on in the process and for them to dedicate time throughout this entire length. I think it was over a year plus that they worked together on this.

00:20:59,010	S2:
We heard Heavy Lift a few times.

00:21:00,570	S3:
Yeah, yeah, it was well done. I think the planners are going to take a nice sigh of relief and then start over and keep going.

00:21:09,290	S2:
Wanted to have a little fun and look back at the public works open house, tip our hats to the Public works folks. And just some fun images that came from that event.

00:21:21,330	S3:
Public works day, public works. This was last week, I believe last week Tuesday, and we opened up the shop, put a bunch of equipment on display, had a bunch of staff out there to answer questions. There were a ton of interactive things for kids to do, and just a great opportunity to see some smiles on some faces. Let the kids crawl around some of that big equipment. You can see the old fire truck. It was on display, and I actually coaxed my wife into going as well because she hadn't seen it yet. And so I said, hey, I think we need to go check this out. And it was just a lot of fun for people to get to walk around and, you know, going through the Citizen Academy program, we're we're fortunate that we can introduce new people to the shop. And one of the common responses we'll hear from the public Works day when we're part of Citizen Academy, is how clean and well-maintained the shop is. And I heard that again and again and again during public works day when the when the place was open. And it. I think it's important to note that we don't just clean it once a year when the public is invited. The shop is always well kept, very well maintained. It the folks out there, the staff, the leadership, everybody within the public works, both the utility operations and service operations do a great job, and it's fun to see all that equipment on display. It's it's interesting how some of these things are very specialized, but then it's also just some of the rudimentary tools, like a dump truck. You know, those are out there as well, I think. Last count, we had somewhere north of 700 pieces of rolling stock, as they call it, 700 assets. That's everything from a trailer all the way up to the big ladder truck for the fire fighters.

00:23:06,270	S2:
Cool stuff. Yeah. A lot of smiles on faces in those photos. Uh, haven't done this before since I've been here, but I noticed we have some new police officers, so I thought I'd, uh, just, uh, show, I think five new police officers along with the chief there. So hopefully, if you see them out and about, it's, uh, you know.

00:23:24,870	S3:
In a good way.

00:23:25,470	S2:
A good.

00:23:25,710	S3:
Way. It's a good experience. Yep. It's always nice to see new recruits. Um, definitely some young looking faces in that crowd, but that's great. That means their enthusiasm is high, their energy is equaled. And, uh, we're so grateful when people choose to take a career in law enforcement, we understand it's not for everybody. Sometimes the shift work can be challenging, not to mention the encounters that you'll have throughout your day. But without a doubt, any successful community has a very strong law enforcement presence, and we're grateful for the officers that we have within the Bismarck Police Department.

00:24:00,130	S2:
June 9th is just around the corner. Of course, we'll head to the polls. Just wanted to mention the half cent sales tax extension that will be on the ballot. And you can find out more. If you go to Bismarck and Gov streets, you can read more about it. But just wanted to mention that's, uh, gosh, it's almost June.

00:24:18,730	S3:
It is almost June. And the half cent sales tax for us is it's an extension, meaning it was already approved by the voters back in 2018. We're asking for another ten years and some might say, well, what have you done to this point? Uh, to this point, we've done a lot. We've reconstructed and expanded South Washington Street, East Century Avenue, a significant corridor between Ash Coulee Drive and 43rd Avenue in the north part of town, the turn lane that many people enjoy using to get to Fleet Farm on northern side of State Street. That was all part of this work we're doing today is the Tyler Parkway connection, making sure the South and the north points of Tyler Parkway are connected, and there are a good number of projects that were on the original list that have yet to be completed. So that was part of the ask. But then also the project list was modified significantly. The first iteration of the half cent sales tax was predominantly identified for collector. I'm sorry for arterial roadways. So the roads I mentioned were all the big streets, the section line roads where you're going to carry large volumes of traffic. The new project list is some of the projects that didn't get completed from the first one, but then a good number of new projects that are added and the new projects are things like making that connection of Calgary Avenue. We've got two sections of Calgary that really need to be filled in. One of them is on the east side of town, near Legacy High School. And then we have another section of Calgary Avenue that's interrupted because of the DMV rail line that runs north and south through Bismarck. And so we'd have to build a bridge to get over the rail line. We'll have to build the connection to to make that full entry in and out of legacy high school a little easier. But then there's a variety of other streets, whether it be Divide Avenue, 52nd Street on the north side of town, we've got the map back to the URL that you gave out. Bismarck, MnDOT, gov streets. There's a we call it a one pager. It's actually two pages. But there was a an informational flyer included with your May monthly utility bill. So anybody that lives in Bismarck that still gets a paper utility bill, you would have seen a glossy document in there as well that had all the information, including the ballot language. And it's just a simple yes or no. If you support the idea of a ten year extension on this half cent sales tax for major roadway projects. The answer is yes. If you do not it. If you do not support the half cent sales tax extension, it's a simple no. And we are different than the school district. We just need one more than 50%. So we're not looking for 60% supermajority or anything like that. It's just the simple majority. So June 9th. Get out and cast your ballot. There's a number of local issues, both at schools, county city parks. And then we've got statewide primaries. We got a lot of stuff going on in June. So June 9th, I think early voting begins June 3rd at the Bismarck Event Center if you want to get it done early. Of course, absentees are already coming in and our office has been busy with lots of people dropping those off to the auditor's office on the first floor. So June 9th is the day. If you're a traditionalist, if you want to go out on the second Tuesday of the month, your local polling places will be open that day as well.

00:27:42,160	S2:
Quentin here has put together a great resource on Dakota Media Access elections. You can find a lot of information there and see the debates that the League of Women Voters hosted. They weren't able to get everything, but there is a lot of information there and a lot of other links that should help people make up their minds. Come June 9th, or if they vote early. So on to call attention to that. We mentioned information. If you want to know where all the latest projects are taking place around Bismarck, there's that Bismarck Gov website again. Then you can keep up to date on everything. And the next meeting will be June 9th of the Bismarck City Commission. And that is election day.

00:28:27,770	S3:
That will be Election day. And so our commissioners that are not seeking re-election, Commissioner Greg Zenker, Commissioner and Cleary, they have two meetings left. They will attend and participate in both meetings in June. And then the way state law is worded, their term ends June 30th. The new elected people will be sworn in by July 1st. And then their first meeting, I think for us is July 14th is our first regular meeting, but we hope to have a special meeting for the new commission, the new composition of the commission. That first full week of July. So we can kind of do some orientation for the new folks, and maybe we'll be talking about portfolio assignments, and it just helps to get everybody up to speed very, very quickly. There's a steep learning curve for anybody new to the table, but staff is here. We are glad to provide support and answer questions and we've done this before. We'll do it again. And best of luck to everybody that's seeking election in one way or another.

00:29:24,910	S2:
To watch City Current on Demand or any of the past Bismarck City Commission meetings or a number of other community or government based programs. You can download our apps. We also have Radio Access 102.5. If you don't find it on your radio dial, you can listen online and you can find us on your smart TV as well as Midcoast TV. So until next time for Jason Tomanek. I'm Tom Gearhart. Thanks for joining us.

00:29:50,800	S1:
For more information on what was discussed in this episode of City Current, visit Bismarck or call (701) 355-1300.

00:30:00,720	S1:
If you have suggestions, comments, or issues you would like addressed in future episodes, contact us at Info at Free TV. This program airs on Government Access, channel two and 602 in HD or on Radio Access 102.5 FM. It's also available as a podcast on Radio Access. Org and as a video viewing link at FreeTV.org. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of City Current.