00:00:06,900	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. Coming up on this episode of City Current will recap the Bismarck City Commission meeting from August 25th.

00:00:38,070	Talk about potential City Hall renovation and emergency management agreement between Lee County and the City of Bismarck, and what could be on the horizon there. And it looks like we have a new fiber company coming to town. Thanks for joining us. I'm Tom Gerhardt from Dakota Media Access, joined as always by Bismarck City Administrator Jason Tomanek, Good to have you.

00:00:54,530	Thanks for having me. Glad to be here. Lots to talk about, as usual. Kick things off on the regular agenda mentioned quickly at the beginning. Another fiber company was before the City Commission last night talking about bringing some more competition to town. More competition. More options for the consumer.

00:01:17,470	Why did the commission consider this? Because these companies need permission to operate in public right of way and in the easements that are in people's yards or property owners yards, I should say. So who is it? It's Metronet. There are fiber optic internet and phone service provider.

00:01:39,970	I if I understood correctly, they're currently operating in 19 states and the closest community to Bismarck is just east of here in Moorhead, Minnesota. It's owned by T-Mobile. And as you mentioned, a little competition for some of the other providers in town. Of course, we've had kind of the old tried and true Co for many, many years, but now this year there's a new company in town, Gateway Fiber.

00:02:00,730	This will provide Metronet the opportunity to do business in Bismarck as well. So options for the consumer. And it sounds like I mean they've been around I think he said 19 states and I think they've been around a couple of decades, it sounds like. So not somebody necessarily new to the business but new to the region. New to the region.

00:02:19,870	New to Bismarck, new to the community, for sure. Moving on. We have the chamber, EDC report and lots of topics. I mean, we always hear about just the impact that economic development obviously brings to a community. Quality of life, tax base, things like that.

00:02:41,570	And Brenda Nagel, as she always does, did a nice job talking about what's happening at the chamber. She did. And they're they're busy. And why does this matter? Why is the city asking for information from the Bismarck Mandan Chamber EDC? Because the city of Bismarck provides the chamber EDC with $200,000 a year.

00:03:00,270	That is a fee that we pay for the service that they provide back to us. And the service that they offer is economic development support. We, as the city, do not have a position or positions for economic development. So we rely on partnerships and and services of local groups.

00:03:20,400	And so what does the chamber do for that $200,000 annually? They're doing a ton of stuff. They are working on, of course, workforce development talent and new business attraction, bringing people to the community, helping graduates from the three local colleges and universities choose to stay in Bismarck Mandan because they can fill jobs and provide growth in this community.

00:03:44,200	How are they doing? Business retention and expansion through the first ever Bismarck Business Pitch Challenge. Now, we took a cue from mandolins playbook, and we are basically replicating a very successful program that they have had over there in Bismarck. In October of this year, we will have our first ever business pitch challenge.

00:04:01,770	And as Brenda talked about, it's really an opportunity for new business owners, young business owners, small business owners to bring their ideas forward. And ultimately, it's a grant that is available for that person to help incentivize their business and grow their business. In Bismarck and Mandan, their participate in 1 Million Cups.

00:04:22,500	They have an Empowering Women in Business program. Of course, the annual leadership is Mark Mandan, where they're taking new leaders, young leaders, familiar leaders from our community and putting them in a cohort and putting them through almost a nine month program. They come by here every year, and they come to our organization every year.

00:04:42,030	And it's just exposure and networking and getting people connected throughout the community. But then a bigger part for the chamber and the work that they do for the city of Bismarck is support for the Vision Fund.

00:05:00,670	And what is the Vision Fund? It is the city's cash resource that we help by down flex Pace loans through the Bank of North Dakota for select businesses that are growing or expanding in the community. Those city dollars help by down the interest that those businesses will be paying back to help grow their offerings in the community.

00:05:19,370	The Vision Fund Committee is made up of a volunteer group, just like many of our other advisory boards. In. The chamber's role is to help walk these applications, walk these business owners through the process, vet their projects to ensure that they align with the goals and the objectives of the Vision Fund itself, and then bring those applications to the Vision Fund Committee,

00:05:37,470	where they are reviewing them and making sure that they align, like I said, with the goals and objectives, but then also scoring and evaluating based on what type of business is it in the community? Is it bringing new opportunities? Is it bringing new money to the community? Because that's ultimately what economic development really is,

00:05:54,900	is causing businesses and Bismarck to be successful through an export of their goods and services, meaning selling goods outside of the community or causing people to come here to do business with them. And ultimately, that's taking money from other cities and bringing it back to Bismarck and growing the local economy.

00:06:12,700	So that at its foundation is really economic development. And the chamber does a great job. And Brenda shared all those different ways last night. I should note, we have had some interesting conversations at the commission table lately, and Brenda noted it as well.

00:06:32,800	We've had letters of support, requests for letters of support, and these are from local businesses that are going through a process to grow or expand or add staff or renovate or a variety of things. And these letters of support are simply that it is a letter from the city that goes into the application of these growing businesses and ultimately goes to the Bank of North Dakota.

00:06:50,630	It is not a request for dollars from the city. It is not a request for for anything other than just acknowledging the the opportunity to grow. Where our commissioners have struggled a little bit is when some of these businesses are not unique or not unlike other businesses in the community.

00:07:10,270	And the one example that was shared last night was dental offices. We've had a couple of dental offices that have grown and expanded, and they've used the tools in the chest to help make that project become successful. Where our commissioners struggle is that not all, like businesses, have the same advantage or the same opportunity. And I can understand that.

00:07:31,000	But I think we're the mayor. And the other side of that conversation were is that if Bismarck businesses aren't competing and applying for these resources that the state is making available, those funds will go to other cities. Those funds will go to Fargo, Minot, Jamestown, wherever those other businesses are.

00:07:49,230	Because when those dollars are available through the state, through the Bank of North Dakota, it is a first come, first served basis. And so if these groups are able to get in and compete and find success, that ultimately increases the valuations, increases the tax base, increases employment opportunities and services in our community.

00:08:06,570	And so it's a very philosophical conversation. And everybody's right. Nobody's wrong. I understand all the sides here. But I also understand the importance of our community continuing to grow. And I say that with the mindset of House Bill 1176 from the 2025 legislative session caps local budgets at 3% year over year.

00:08:31,100	But it opens the door for new growth, new construction, new additions, things like that. So when businesses are growing and they're adding on to their properties that first year, it's 100% tax collection for the city, which then also goes to the schools, the county and the parks. So everybody's benefiting from this growth.

00:08:47,670	We need to be able to continue to support that growth. And along the line of philosophy, I would suppose to it's regardless of a specific business. It's a philosophy of a community. You want to be known as open for business or some common phrase. You're absolutely right.

00:09:09,970	And it is important to signal that we support business growth and those types of adventures. And the mayor did note there can be risk with some of these things. Not everything is 100% successful, but current practice, current projects that we have on the books, there are no defaults. Everybody is still moving forward. And so the program is working.

00:09:29,800	Brenda did note where there was a bit of a lull in activity. It's when interest rates were so affordable and lots of banks were happy to lend money, and there was very little need for other additional incentives. Well, times have changed.

00:09:47,000	Interest rates are where they are today, and any little bit of help can make these projects successful or not. So I understand the need where we have it available and people are asking to use it. It comes down to what the five commissioners decide for that particular time and place.

00:10:07,970	Let's move along and talk about potential renovation of the city county building, which will soon be just the city of Bismarck. Just building City Hall County moves into the Provident Life Building is in progress. City Hall last or about a month ago, I suppose we had five options, I think, that were presented to the commission. Right.

00:10:29,270	We had two come back to the table last night, which were options B and D, which maybe don't mean anything to somebody listening or watching right now. But interesting conversation as as the commission deliberated between these two options and potentially what's going to happen in the future. It it was it was great to be a part of it.

00:10:48,070	It was fun to see the conversation where we were a month ago. As you mentioned, we had five options and there was a range of project estimates. And some of the remarks back in July were, you know, those numbers are a little high.

00:11:04,600	Can you tighten them up a little bit? And the number that was high was around 34 to $38 million for option D. Option D is would involve an expansion to the building. It would be an addition to the South. That addition would accommodate a first floor commission chambers and then renovations throughout the building as well.

00:11:28,830	The estimates that we received last night from the architectural team at Endeavor North Design, they were able to trim some of the numbers. And how do they do that? They do that by working with local contractors, asking about material costs and rates and things like that.

00:11:45,470	How close are we on our estimates to what you're seeing in the field today, but then also kind of softening some of those contingencies and just really taking a hard look at it. And so they were able to reduce the estimates. Option B went originally from a range of about 26 million, up to about 29.5. That number dropped down to about 23.4 million to 25.5. So they trimmed about 3 to $4 million.

00:12:04,170	And then option D, which is the the larger option, the expansion option that went from a range of 34 to 38 million, down to 29.5 to about 32.2. And. It was kind of an interesting discussion. We told the commission at the beginning, we, you know, we really don't need to make a decision today.

00:12:26,800	We just wanted to come back and provide that, but then also provide a funding option, because the one of the comments from the July meeting was, well, how this is great. How would we pay for this? And we wanted to bring that information back as well.

00:12:43,630	And essentially we do have cash reserves on hand that could pay for this. So there would not be a bond, there would not be a tax increase or anything like that. We would have to look at some existing reserves to be able to pay for either option.

00:12:58,970	But we did let the commissioners know that in the not too distant future, the architects will need to know, are we going with option B or option D so we can focus in on the the intricate parts of the design? And before the discussion was over, we had a unanimous vote to move forward with option D, which again is the expansion that would we could show

00:13:16,930	some position us to the here if you're watching. Yeah. If you could see the screen, you'd be looking from kind of the south westerly direction of the intersection of Fifth and Broadway, looking north.

00:13:36,400	The larger building in the back is the existing parking garage, which you're seeing here is a conceptual design that involves not just in addition to the building south side, but then also a nice reinvest reinvention of a parking lot. This would become a public plaza in the new front door to City Hall and in the plaza area. It opens up a lot of opportunities for community engagement, for activities to spill out onto the plaza.

00:13:56,170	There could be a band shell, performance space, light, sound activity. We don't know at this point. All of this, these images are conceptual that that the Commission has directed there. The attention of the architects to focus on. Option D will start to get into the reality of what these design concepts really can become.

00:14:13,530	And so in the future, we'll come back with a much more comprehensive design that has looked at all the parts and pieces and how they can all fit together. I would imagine we'll see new cost estimates to go along with those efforts at the time.

00:14:30,800	And I would imagine before the end of the year, we're going to want to finalize these design concepts and get ready to go to bid in late winter or early spring of 2027. And just for backing up for a little more context, mentioned Burleigh County's moving out of the building, but there are definite needs that need to be addressed. Good point.

00:14:51,770	Why this is happening? Yes, thank you for that. So even the the bare minimum do do as little as you can option is really north of $15 million. And what are we talking about with the bare minimum. It's primarily the HVAC systems that are in the building.

00:15:09,230	Our building today is a composition of three different buildings, three different additions over the lifespan. And parts of the building go back over 100 years. Unfortunately, some of the HVAC system is nearly that old as well. And we've got a lot of really Band-Aids. And we've got a great, skilled team of building maintenance professionals that keep the building working.

00:15:27,700	But to be honest, the HVAC system is really it's a maintenance nightmare, and it's on its last leg and we're having a lot of problems. We also have the unfortunate distinction of owning the oldest elevator in North Dakota, and that is the which is not which is not a good thing.

00:15:46,200	And we're not we're not embellishing, not exaggerating notes. It is a reality. It's an old elevator, but it is reliable. But it is the only elevator. And if it were to fail, now we've got staff and citizens that can't get to portions of the building.

00:16:04,100	And the other part of this is our commission chambers, the room that city of Bismarck, Burleigh County, the Parks and Recreation District, the school board and all the other government entities use DMA is in there nearly daily. That room is in the basement of this building and it is compromised. There are issues with the support columns to hold up the building. There are sightline obstructions throughout. Never mind the accessibility.

00:16:25,470	It's not great for access and then just flat out safety and security. It causes some concerns for for people to be in there. So with those ideas in mind, how do we re-imagine City Hall? How do we put a commission chambers on the first floor? How do we make it more accessible?

00:16:41,030	How do we secure that the staff that are there every day are safe and able to do their jobs without having any complications from all the things that are going on in our world today. And so a lot of those concepts have been the driving features in some of these design decisions as we go forward.

00:16:57,000	So thank you for mentioning that. This is not just a simple, hey, we should make City Hall look fancy, right? There is a true need to address the building's infrastructure, and if we don't, it's going to end up just costing us more in the future.

00:17:14,170	So as you mentioned, moving forward, we'll see some more discussion and refinement of option D and see where it goes. You also mentioned and it's as we know it's so true. The longer something goes on the more expensive obviously it's going to get in the future. Yes. So it unfortunately costs just continue to rise.

00:17:33,770	It doesn't take too many years in a project that was one time, $3 million is suddenly $6 million, and I don't see the trend changing anytime soon. Well, let's move along and talk about the Burleigh County Emergency Management Agreement. They're asking for a termination of an agreement.

00:17:57,370	I think that dated back, if I heard right last night to 2004, and they're leasing space in the current city county building and wanted to reduce the amount of that payment as well for the remainder of the agreement, which was a pretty significant amount of money. Right.

00:18:18,900	So maybe to just set the stage a little bit in not too many years ago, the city of Bismarck, the city of Mandan and Burleigh County collectively worked on, in addition to the to the Dakota Carrier network building in North Bismarck. And the intention of that edition was to occupy the space as our send comm facility. That's our 911 dispatch center, but then also to have a dedicated space for emergency operations and emergency operations occur. 2011 Missouri River flood.

00:18:42,500	The EOC at that time was located out on the airport grounds in a small building that really became the hub, the epicenter of activity. It was a 24 over seven operation at the beginning of that flood, and it was a constant evolution and revolution of people from various agencies working together to deal

00:19:02,970	with the emergency situation that was coming forward. That building had its shortcomings, and it we simply outgrew it. And that's when the addition was added on at Dakota Carrier Network.

00:19:26,300	And this joint agreement was put together between the three agencies that really provided a secure facility for emergency operations centers, but then also a permanent location for our dispatch center that not only dispatches for Bismarck, but also Burleigh County Mandan Metro Area Ambulance, some of the rural providers as well. It's it's a really it's a very important and almost often forgotten component in emergency response.

00:19:46,530	But the first floor where the emergency operations center was, with recent information that has come forward, it's been made known to us that Burleigh County had intentions of leaving that space and relocating into the Provident Building, which they are currently renovating. Same scenario where they're leaving the city county building, taking their offices and going over to the Provident Building. I understand all of that.

00:20:06,630	The situation, though, that presented itself, Burleigh County is committed to this lease through 2040. And if you amortize out the valuation of the lease and Burleigh County's portion of it, it's over $1 million before the end of the contract expires.

00:20:33,100	In what Burleigh County was proposing was a very small portion of that amount, and then also went so far as to say, well, if you use it for anything else, then we're not going to pay you for that anymore either. And it's really, I guess our commissioners kind of took issue with it as a fairly one sided situation, considering this lease isn't that old.

00:20:50,900	It was a joint decision that was made somewhere 20 1720. No, I'm sorry, not 2017, 2019, 2020, somewhere in there. I don't have the lease in front of me, but at the time the mayor of Bismarck signed it. That was Steve Bakken, the chairman of the county commission signed it. That was Brian Bitner.

00:21:10,870	And the mayor of the city of Mandan was Tim Helbing. He signed it at that time. So all entered into that contract in good faith with the understanding that for the next 20 some years, they were going to co-locate in this very secure building and utilize it for emergency operations purposes.

00:21:31,830	Burleigh County has reconsidered their position and offered a small amount, and our commissioners discussed it for quite a while. And in short, essentially, Commissioner Risch made a motion to reject the offer in its entirety, and that was the unanimous decision at the end.

00:21:56,700	So where do we go from here? I guess early County State's Attorney Julie Lawyer, who presented the the offer from Burleigh County, did note that the Joint Powers Agreement that is really the binding document for all of this is set to expire in, I believe, 2028. And so at some point, Burleigh County would give notice to vacate that and go on from here. But we're not done talking about this.

00:22:21,500	It looks like Burleigh County is going to have to come back with a different proposal. But I think ultimately we need to get some decision makers at the table and sit down and and figure this thing out, because I think it was Commissioner Risch that asked the question, what would happen if Bismarck had decided to leave

00:22:36,870	and really left early in Mandan behind? And of course, that's a hypothetical question that didn't happen, but I think it's a fair question from our commission, because the million plus dollars that is needed to fulfill the lease for the portion that the city of Bismarck and Mandan rent, that money has got to come from somewhere.

00:23:00,030	Yeah, well, you could feel it was a bit of a contentious issue. So we'll see what happens moving forward. Wanted to talk about by the time some people see this next topic this will the issue won't be have expired, but this meeting will have expired.

00:23:18,930	But this evening, Wednesday, August 26th, from 630 to 8, there will be a discussion about the proposed indoor recreation and sports facility. So they're having an open house. So correct. If you see this or if you've seen it on social media. I know the Park district wants all the input, and I'm sure the city does as well that it can gather.

00:23:34,530	We have partnered with the city of Bismarck and the Bismarck Parks and Recreation District, two separate entities. We have partnered 5050 on this project. What are we trying to do? We're trying to determine what type of activities should go in a facility, but also where this facility should be located in the community.

00:23:50,730	And so the open house tonight, it's the first kind of the kickoff for this project. There have been stakeholder meetings, there have been focus group meetings. Those groups were identified through a collection of efforts by city staff and then also parks and rec staff.

00:24:08,700	But the open house tonight, it's just that there isn't a singular presentation or any sort of formalities. There are informational boards set up. There will be staff on hand. Where is it? It's the only thing we haven't said. It's at Public Works, 601 South 26th Street. Just parking lot. Come in. Right at the front door. There's a large public meeting room. We'll be right there. 630 to 8 tonight.

00:24:24,730	There's an informational website about this. There will be more public engagement as we go forward. There will be surveys mailed to a good number of residents. And then also there will be an online survey available to the general public as well. But the mailed surveys are paper form. Of course we're looking for a statistically valid survey response.

00:24:44,970	So if you happen to get one in your in your mailbox please take a few minutes, fill it out, share your thoughts. Feedback. We need to know some answers. So we're not just building something. We need to build what the community expects and wants. And back to economic development.

00:25:02,700	That's a huge part of this conversation is how do we attract tournaments, sports teams to Bismarck that will stay in the hotels, eat in the restaurants, shopping the stores and leave their valuable cash resources in our local economy, that's a part of this component. How do we how can the city of Bismarck host more sports tournaments that bring teams to our community? Yeah.

00:25:24,900	Also, you know, it's August, almost September, but still always like to remind people construction season continues Bismarck, ND slash streets to find out what's happening where in the city. And also if you want to watch last night's City Commission meeting, go to our website. We just did a remodeling. We upgraded our website.

00:25:47,130	Dakota Media Access should be easy to find. Last night's City Commission meeting. Let us know if you have trouble doing so. You can also download our app. And we've also integrated Radio Access 102.5 underneath the Dakota Media Access umbrella, so you can find everything we do in one one place.

00:26:06,400	Can we mention two things from the consent agenda? Oh, I got them down and I was ready to move on. Glad you brought a vote. I just wanted to let everybody know that last night, August 25th, it was the introduction and the call for the public hearing of two fairly significant ordinances. One is our annual budget process.

00:26:25,270	So the full budget is online. It is part of the agenda packet. If you are familiar with our website, navigate to the agenda center. If you're not sure, give us a call. We'd be happy to send you a link or help you find it. So the public hearing for that will be Tuesday, September 8th.

00:26:40,100	The other part of it is something that has become very topical lately in a lot of communities, and it is the discussion surrounding electric bicycles, scooters, electric motorcycles, e-bikes, that whole umbrella, that whole thing. Man, Dan's got kind of a catchy name for it.

00:26:57,800	I forget what they call them, small mobility devices or something along those lines. Yeah. Bismarck leadership, Bismarck police, Bismarck legal department. We're all talking about this as well. There's an ordinance drafted proposed. Go to the website again. Feel free to review that public hearing for that will also be September 8th.

00:27:19,270	Our police department has been out educating, trying to help people understand some of the risks that come along with these various types of bikes that are out there, but we've been getting complaints. We we live here, we see these things.

00:27:37,900	And I think I share a concern when you've got a possibly 12 year old child driving an electric thing that goes 28 miles an hour on a sidewalk, and I can't hear them coming, that that can be a concern. And not just for the rider safety, but pedestrians and pets and anybody else that could get in the way of some of these things. And so I get it. They're great. They're a good way for kids to get out and people to be active.

00:27:53,700	But some of these things are going really fast. And I think that's what we're looking to try and kind of get our arms around some of these things. And it should be a good discussion. Well, thanks. I skipped over that on my my sheet. I managed to remember, you know, it's all good. Thanks for the conversation.

00:28:14,400	And until next time, have a great rest of your day. For more information on what was discussed in this episode of City Current, visit BismarckND.gov. or call (701) 355-1300. If you have suggestions, comments or issues you would like addressed in future episodes, contact us at info@freetv.org This program airs on Government Access channel two and 602.

00:28:39,770	in HD or on Radio Access 102.5 FM. It's also available as a podcast on RadioAccess.org and has a video viewing link at FreeTV.org. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of City Current.