00:00:04,700	At. 5 p.m. in the Tom Baker Room meeting of Burleigh County Commission will be following the county Weed Board. First off, we’re going to start with, the Invocation and Pledge of Allegiance. Already standing. Look at that, I like that. Go ahead. No. Stay standing. You have him trained. Well, I know. My wife would be proud.

00:00:27,130	Yeah. Let’s stand as we pray. And then, as we say, the pledge. Heavenly father, we just come before you today. And thank you for the weekend and the moisture that we needed so desperately, especially in the county.

00:00:43,700	Uh, the grass is so dry and things just seem to ignite things so easily out there. And so we just are grateful for, uh, how you just blessed us. And, uh, I pray God, you just continue to pour your blessings down upon our, our, uh, our, you know, our county and all the cities that we have.

00:00:59,730	And, uh, bless this, uh, into the school year, some of the county schools have already graduated and, and, uh, we just pray, God, you’ll just be with those that are heading out and, uh, going to schools and those kind of things, uh, continue to be with our commissioners as they meet tonight and as they, uh, tackle some tough issues.

00:01:16,830	I pray, God, you just guide them. Thank you for our emergency responders out there as they continue to tackle, uh, uh, the things that we need to do to be safe in our county. And, uh, we do this all in your son’s name, Jesus. Amen. Amen.

00:01:33,630	I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Uh, with that, I call to order the county we board. And can we get a roll call, please? Commissioner Schwab here. Commissioner Woodcox. Commissioner. Munson. Commissioner Bitner. Chairman.

00:02:00,030	Bakken here. Uh, approval of agenda. Motion to approve. Second motion and second. Any discussion. Hearing none. Call the roll, please. Commissioner Munson. Yes, Commissioner. Bitner. Yes, Commissioner. Schwab. Yes, chairman. Bakken. Yes. Uh, consideration of the December 1st, 2025 Weed Board minutes. Move to approve. Second motion and second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. Call the roll, please.

00:02:30,570	Commissioner Bitner. Yes, Commissioner. Schwab. Yes, Commissioner. Munson. Yes. Karen. Bitner. Yes. Um. Chairman. Bakken. Yes. Uh, next item up. Is public comment restricted? Burleigh County residents and landowners concerning the county Weed Board. Anyone wishing to come up and speak, do so now. Please. Second call for public comment.

00:02:51,470	Third and final call for public comment. Public comment is now closed. Moving on to our county Weed Officer, Darren Johnson. Darren. Evening, members of the Board Chair, Bakken uh, Springs here, I guess so I figured I’d better show up and see. You know, I made the winter so, uh, I just make it. I gotta make it short.

00:03:14,100	Like Steve Bakken was saying, I got in some threats. You know, if I go on with. As long as they have been in the past. So, um, we can just start with number five there. It’s just some the updates and discussions, um, sales on the chemical we started. I started that on April 30th.

00:03:28,900	We’ve got some people coming in for that. They’re not procrastinating as much as they did last year. So we’re getting some out there so they’re ready for it.

00:03:42,200	Um, we’re going to be doing the, uh, milestone high noon Felix Plateau and talk on the board on only for those that have the chemical certifications. Uh, plant growth is a little bit slower. Right now. We’re seeing a little bit of wormwood. The spurge is starting to come around, but as it gets warmer, it’s going to go fast and start growing quicker.

00:03:58,200	Um, I just put a little bit in there on like May 15th, I checked, um, where the temps were ranging at two inches and, um, it was anywhere from 34 to 38 throughout the state. And today I checked it’s 42 to 59. So we’re getting a little more heat in the ground there. Um, spurge is starting to show up.

00:04:12,700	Uh, got a couple guys that are, uh, letting me know that. And I did find a few plants out when I was doing some of my inspections on certain roadways that I was that we had a little problems with last year, so I wanted to make sure. So that’s going on.

00:04:28,970	Uh, number two, um, just basically we’d like to see more landowners applying for these for this, uh, the contracted stuff so that we can get out there and make their Weed problems better. Uh, number three, um, much the same as last year.

00:04:48,370	We’re going to run with the high noon at 20 ounce acre, 16 an acre on the Torridon, and then liberate was caught per hundred. So we’re going to run that same, same run that we had. Good luck with that last year. We’re going to we’ll look at probably changing up for next year to keep the chemical change. Uh, so the plants don’t get smart to what we’re doing. Um, let’s see here. Yeah.

00:05:05,530	We’ve got some areas that I’ve marked out for this year for some, uh, cattails areas. Um, not water. Water areas, just the cattail areas that are causing some problems with our roadways and stuff like that. And winter for snow removal. Um, let’s see here. Uh, then number four, I guess that’s pretty much what I have in there.

00:05:27,470	I mean, we’re going to do some forbs in certain areas. Also. Um, number four, though, was, um, same thing pretty much, uh, last fall’s meeting. Um, was brought up by Steve Schwab there.

00:05:53,030	As far as, um, charging the MnDOT for, um, the time that I have out there doing inspections and pre and post inspections on the art of the state. Um, I talked with Alyssa there at the Indy Dot. They up their chemical or their their application up 5000.

00:06:10,500	She’s so at the end of the year, I’ll just keep track of my hours that I’m out there and then I’ll build her myself for the Weed Board can bill her and that’ll be taken out of that. They have no problem with that at all. Um. And, well, in the night along 94, where they did the, the, uh, highway stuff last year, we’re going to look at that.

00:06:31,830	But, uh, 240 is all we can put on there until everything starts getting established. Um, I purchased a number five. I purchased, uh, two androids. Um, the same, same system, the spray, same spray sync equipment. Um, and got that. We installed that ourselves. Uh, Chris Mallard with green head. We got that all done up ourselves, and it’s all up and running.

00:06:55,000	So we’re going to be able to cover or get more data even on some of what, um, on our lands that are getting sprayed or contracted stuff. We’re going to get that now instead of just the road.

00:07:14,570	So because Chris does quite a bit of the more of the contracted spraying and stuff like that, so we’ll be able to broaden and get more of a total acreage for the county. So when I take that into NDA, John can make a map up. It’ll it’ll show exact acreage as far as that goes. So that’ll help. That’ll help out with our lab program and everything too. So, um, okay. Am I going fast enough? Yes, sir.

00:07:35,330	Okay. Um. Oh, on May 17th, I got the, uh, distribution center inspected, um, by John Potts. He started last August, and, uh, he was really impressed with how the not to pat my own back. I’m just saying he was impressed with how the distribution center that we have is set up. Everything’s off the floor.

00:07:58,970	Spill kits. Are there fire extinguishers? Everything’s right there on up to snuff. Got the EPA numbers. The chemical listed on the wall, as well as in with all the SDS cards and information to. So everything looks good. There. Biochemical number six. I did order.

00:08:21,270	I had two people that were interested in, uh, getting more beetles than I than I had last year. Um, I just kind of with last year, it was, um, basically, what, like the redheaded stem beetles, what? They had extra through MnDOT or through NDA and such. But I got those, um, out there last year.

00:08:43,030	And then with what? I went out and netted out at the Lake Cheetah. So we just dispersed those in those two areas, and they’re they’re wanting more. So I ordered some. That’s no cost to the county. It’s it’s one they come in. I make out that I’ve taken that bill into NDA.

00:09:00,270	It’s all filled out by, um, and the company I’m going with out of Montana is Weed busters. And, uh, so that’s where I ordered it out of. So I’ve got, um, black and brown board beetles. This is what I ordered for this year. And, uh, we’ll get those dispersed sometime at the end of June. Beginning of July is when the order should come in.

00:09:18,400	So, uh. Yeah. And then, uh, let’s move on to seven, then gravel pits. Uh, I’ve got some, uh, landowners where knife River is, um, looking at getting new pits put in, and I’ll be going out, uh, getting certification to get them certified.

00:09:44,030	Landowners are asking for it, asking if Riverport. So I’ll be going out doing that also. And, uh, checking on all the, all the pits that I got, you know, for forever, brother counties. Everybody’s. So, um, just kind of a lump sum there of what is going on with that.

00:10:03,770	Um, and then going on to the topics for the 2026 season. I got the coin slot ordered in that we that was brought up where I brought up last fall, wings at the Winter Fire Department. That’s round and ready to go. There’s some guys actually using it. They’re liking it. Things are working. Coins are working. Um, the sterling shop out there.

00:10:21,570	I’ve installed the, uh, water tank. I’ll be going out, putting the pump on it next week. Um, because that will be in that area. We’re going to start kind of along that area for our start up to, uh, for application. And then, um, green heads, uh. Oh, yeah.

00:10:48,030	I got all the SDS labels that, um, that green had needed. That’s number three. I’m sorry. Um, that needed because I got some aqua need in, and then we got the LA 700 surfactant for the cattail areas. So I made sure he has those on there. On their, uh, spray trucks.

00:11:09,730	Um, this year, all the all the Burleigh County shops are going to be handled by the by the contractor, by Burleigh County Weed board. Um, I mean, it’s just some spraying, some roundup around the fence lines around the fuel tanks, uh, taking care of some of the lawn care and stuff like that, too, just because I got free licks so all you can put out there

00:11:25,600	anyway. So we’re going to. We’ll save a lot of money by us doing it ourselves. So we’re going to roll into that. And that’s all four of the shops. And then uh, number five um, yeah. Number five. Uh, over this last winter, I helped out with the highway department as needed throughout the winter.

00:11:46,230	It was a mild winter, so it was here and there. Not a whole bunch, but some. You know, I helped the welding shop help with some equipment. And then this spring was up with, uh, Jason doing flag and sign set ups with him.

00:12:02,730	And then, uh, at closed, um, one of the people of Burleigh County know that we have a great group of people that are working for the good of county, the engineers, supervisor, office personnel and all who make it work. Are there any questions? Any questions for Darren? One question. Darren.

00:12:21,130	Uh, so as far as outreach, um, for chemical sales and and getting the word out that we you are a resource. Um, how’s that going? What are the modes of getting the word out? Well, this year, I, um, took applications and then had and announced that at the, uh, township meeting this spring. Well, I wasn’t able to attend.

00:12:46,570	Casey covered for me. I had some stuff out of town, out of state. But, um, that was mentioned there. I have, uh, I sent out a letter to all the townships explaining what we were doing, what we were putting down, um, certain things that, you know, complications that kind of

00:13:04,700	rolled in last year where guys thought they were going to be able to just ride around in the pickups and stuff with the sprayers, and that’s a no no, because the insurance don’t cover that.

00:13:18,630	But in that letter also, I put down that there’s applications in Sterling Wing, Wilton and at the Bismarck shop and the Ndsu extension agent. So it’s out there. Perfect. And so I’ve had quite a few guys that they called from, you know, by wing and stuff and they’re like, well, I don’t have going to the Sonics. They’re there, man. We got this. Good. So we’re getting some more guys coming in that way. Okay.

00:13:38,930	Any other questions? Commissioner Schwab. Darren, are you, uh, going to be going to any continuing ed this summer? And there are. You you asked last year so we can kind of take care of that now. Yeah. No. Um, there’s there’ll be the, the schooling up in Carrington. Um, kind of.

00:14:02,670	Well, it’ll depend on how they, if they make it any different than the one last year. If it’s, if it’s similar, I won’t go to it. But if there’s any out there that I can go to, that’s different. Yes, I will. Um.

00:14:14,700	Dickinson I know they’re going to be putting on a spray clinic out there planning on attending that one. That one there is in I think it’s right about the middle of June is when they’re going to have that one out there. I’ll probably run out there and take part in that one.

00:14:30,170	And then also, um, I, I made, uh, Steve Bakken bark and said that, uh, or asked me if we were going to contribute any caches or funds for sponsoring, um, whether it’s the conference that’s in January or February here in Bismarck or the symposium, that’s every two years I’ve spoke to be a sponsor for the symposium up in

00:14:49,100	Washburn. And that’s August 24th, 25th and 26th. That’s up there. So whether it be one of the breakfasts or something like that, we’ll sponsor something up there. Perfect. Thank you. Any other questions? Any other business for the Weed Board hearing? None. The Weed Board is adjourned. Thank you. Thanks, Darren. Thanks. I’ll call the May 18th.

00:15:18,330	2026 meeting of the Burleigh County Commission to. Order. First item is roll call to members. Commissioner Bakken here. Commissioner Schwab here. Commissioner Munson here. Commissioner Woodcox. Chairman Bitner here. Um, the approval. Of the agenda. Move to approve. Second motion and second, to approve the agenda. Any further discussion, call the roll. Commissioner. Schwab. Yes, Commissioner. Munson.

00:15:44,900	Yes, Commissioner. Bakken. Yes. Chairman. Bitner. Yes. Motion carries. Um, I had a chance to review the bills. Um, and would, uh, request a motion to approve the minutes and the bills. Move to. Approve second motion and second to approve the minutes and bills. Any further discussion? Call the roll.. Commissioner Munson. Yes, Commissioner. Bakken. Yes. Commissioner. Schwab. Yes.

00:16:08,430	Chairman. Bitner. Yes. Motion carries. Public comment. Anybody wish to speak under the public comment? Period. This is a public comment period. Does anybody wish to speak? Please state your name for the record. Please. My name is Kim. Good evening, Chair and commissioners. I just have a couple of probably 3 or 4 short comments to make.

00:16:47,500	Uh, the first thing I’d like to comment on and put a picture up to show is to discuss, to see if we can figure out what we’re going to do with 66th. Street. This is kind of a terrible picture.

00:17:09,830	I was taking it while it was raining and my husband was trying to drive down the road, but it when we get rain, which we haven’t had any, of course, until yesterday.

00:17:27,700	But this part of the the whole northern part, the first mile from 71st down to probably 57th, when it rains, it is so bad that you almost have to use four wheel drive on it to be able to drive, and I don’t know what the solution is. I know they tried a couple of years ago putting a solution into it and and redoing it, but it needs gravel or something on it. Just help.

00:17:44,600	And there is a subdivision that uses this road coming off a rocky road on to 66. So it’s multiple people at have no other access. They need to use this road and it’s really gets in a mess. And I’m hoping we get lots more rain. So we’ll probably have lots more issues with it.

00:18:04,370	Um, next thing I’d like to comment on is I noticed, along with a lot of others, I’m sure the ditch repairs that were done along Centennial Road. It looks good, but then it should for the $35,000 for the two thirds of a mile of repairs that was mentioned on the from the county.

00:18:28,230	Believe me, there’s many people that are going to be watching this to see how long it’s going to last. And if it’s going to be beneficial to do other places. Uh, I’ve been asked many times about this, uh, where specifically the money is coming from to pay for the repairs.

00:18:48,430	And I don’t know if we’ve ever specifically gotten an answer in all the discussions at the other meetings, but I know that’s something that would be beneficial for people to know how it’s being paid for. Um, this kind of leads to my next thing to show. You.

00:19:24,970	After a beautiful rain that we had yesterday and needed so much, I took these pictures this morning. This is along of 71st Avenue. After all the many discussions that have been had at these meetings about people knowing they shouldn’t be driving and what ditches.

00:19:45,370	This is the kind of stuff that is still happening even after all the Facebook postings and all the talk at the meetings here and the OHV dealership is saying they’re trying to get the word out to it’s still going on. This is just another one showing from the other direction that I stood on the approach and and took this picture.

00:20:13,600	As you can see, it goes on for quite a long distance that just keep on doing the damage. We’ve heard over and over that OHV, OHV don’t damage landowners property, and it’s their right to drive in these ditches. Again, I can only emphasize what many others have.

00:20:46,300	Where is the right of the landowner who pays taxes when they have to deal with this damage on their property? It’s been asked at this commission and of States Attorney Julie Laurier to give us a specific North Dakota entry code or ruling to why a five mile ban of OHV from city limits can’t be put in place, and the only thing I hear is that you can’t do it.

00:21:08,430	Nothing’s been given. Not to us. I mean, I, I used to work in government and I’ve been searching through the century code and places, and I haven’t been able to find anything that says, you can’t do that. And lastly, I’d like to comment on item 14.

00:21:31,900	That’s going to be on tonight’s agenda with, uh, removing, uh, Missouri Valley Fairgrounds and Kimball Bottoms from being in the ban restrictions. I totally disagree with this.

00:21:55,900	Are any of you really thinking that fires can happen in these areas either? Along with this item, I’d also like to address the letter in the packet from the gentleman from the Corps of Engineers. I’ve got the letter in front of me where he’s stating, uh. That the fire emergency burn restrictions declared by Burleigh County are to now include off highway vehicle usage. It’s not something that’s just been added.

00:22:17,830	It’s been there for a long time and just never been enforced. He also says that, you know, he would be for, uh, exempting Kimball bottoms, but then he goes on to say we would emphasize that people stay on established trails. This is kind of a laugh.

00:22:41,300	Why would the OHV riders think they have to listen to this when they haven’t? Listen to any of the discussions that have been had here? If conditions are such that a burn ban is in effect, it should be for everyone. This also makes me question. How you can make separate rules for this, but yet we can have a wage. We can’t have OHV banned for five miles.

00:23:06,370	That’s kind of picking and choosing is what was said. Why we couldn’t do it. Well, this is kind of picking and choosing to exempt certain ones from doing it. Thank you for your time and listening to me. Thank you. Anybody else wish to speak public comment? Do you have something for me to sign in on here? There’s nothing here. But anyway. um, there’s nothing. Here.

00:23:43,200	Maybe you grabbed it. Kim. I took my own up there. Oh. There’s there’s there’s no sheet. Just leave that one out there. Good evening, commissioners chair Bitner. I see the sheriff is in the house. Um, he’s an elected official that the Burleigh County residents voted him in to be a sheriff.

00:24:27,170	He’s not a deputy. He takes care of the sheriff’s department. And, um, a while back, Commissioner Munson, you had said if there’s any issues in reckless driving with these trees to call in just to keep calling, calling, calling. Well, I’ve done that for 30 some years.

00:24:49,430	And a lot of times when these deputies come out, there’s more than one, there’s like two cars, a car and a pickup. And, uh, not all the time, but sometimes. And when they come out, they’re gone. This reckless dirt bike riders and OHV side by sides, they’re gone.

00:25:14,030	So, um, the other sheriff that was before leaving here, he couldn’t do anything with it either. And it wasn’t too many meetings ago with Sheriff. Leave and come up here. And he said, I wasn’t here. I was watching it on TV. He said, the easiest way is either the easiest way or the best way to take care of this is to ban them.

00:25:32,930	So what I’m wondering is why Commissioner Munson and Woodcox ain’t here. Why is it that you guys don’t listen to the sheriff? The citizens of Burleigh County voted them in. He said the easiest way is to ban them. Now. I hope the next commission, the next table of commissioners.

00:25:59,930	And it sounds pretty promising that with this moratorium that they want to implant or whatever. Um, I want to know from State’s Attorney Julie Lawyer, she’s another one that’s elected. If this board or these commissioners ban these dirt bike guys. You guys seen the pictures? I want to throw up on? My wife took pictures.

00:26:21,300	Send me First Avenue again. Where do you guys put straw rolls with my tax money? Um, if you guys would vote to ban them for five years. Is that legal? I want an answer from the state’s attorney. Is that. And if it ain’t legal, I want to know why we got the home rule charter. We got that legislature thing that passed.

00:26:44,230	Um. It’s unbelievable. The only one I can say that really knows in depth how bad this is. Is chair Bitner. He’s been there and done it many times. Many different terms. But go on, drive it. It just rained, thank God. I hope we get more. It’s it’s unbelievable. The damage they’re doing.

00:27:13,630	I don’t know why you guys are taking my tax dollars and throwing it into this mess. Commissioner Woodcox I called him and he insisted. There’s no way it’s ever going to get banned. And I told him, I said, you know how you fix this? He said, how? I said, here’s how you do it.

00:27:36,070	You get yourself about ten site dump, same semis, three front end pay loaders and 20 shovels and start fixing. You know what he did? He hung up on me. He hung up on me. You guys did a hell of a job on Centennial Road by Sam Turnbull coming north. We’ll see how long that lasts.

00:27:55,770	We’ll see. So I stand for any questions, but if it. I want to know why you can’t have a five mile ban from the city limits. Five miles. Don’t you want Burleigh County to look good, or do you want it to look like I mean, it’s crazy.

00:28:19,770	It’s a capital of North Dakota. That’s all I got to say. I’ll stand for any questions. Thanks a lot. Appreciate it. Commissioners. Any questions? Tom I don’t see any. Thank you. Thanks. Anybody else wish to speak? This is a public comment, period. Anybody else wish to speak? Okay, I’m going to close the public comment, period.

00:28:49,100	State’s attorney lawyer. Did you want to respond to that request? He was asking for? Asking for some information? No, I don’t have. A response. Okay. Okay, so we got the consent agenda. We got abatements, special event permits and a check replacement commissioners, you want to pull anything off there for discussion? Otherwise move.

00:29:13,270	To approve second motion and second to approve the consent agenda. Any further discussion, call the roll. Commissioner. Bakken. Yes. Commissioner. Schwab. Yes. Commissioner. Munson. Yes. Chairman. Bitner. Yes. Motion carries. Um, item seven is a public hearing for University of Mary bond request. I will open the public hearing.

00:29:35,030	Um, is there somebody to represent the University of Mary? Please identify yourself for the record. Please. Mr. chairman, commissioners, I am Jerome Richter. I’m the executive vice president at the University of Mary. Uh, along with me are some representatives of Riviera Bank that also could answer any questions that may be needed. But I have the resolution here.

00:29:54,700	I know that you guys had it on the agenda. Hopefully you’ve had a chance to review. If you’d give me just a moment just to explain, uh, what we’re using this for is to expand the campus in a number of ways, both academically, facility wise, everything from new parking lots, new athletic

00:30:11,970	facilities, new, uh, residence hall, etc.. Um, we are very proud to share that we bring about 1000 new students to the Bismarck Mandan area every fall. We graduated just under 1100 here. Uh, at the end of April.

00:30:33,770	And, um, uh, our students are filling our hospitals, our schools, our businesses, and we’re just proud to be able to serve this great area in all these different ways. So if there’s any questions that you have or anything you need me to explain, I’d be happy to try to do that. I do have one for you. Sure.

00:30:53,030	Um, I just found out this past week that, um, some some additional land on the west side of the University of Mary is falling into Apple Creek, and, um, I don’t know if if the emergency manager had any or the highway department had any more information on that, but that is I was just curious if if there’s any funding included in this that would seek to address that.

00:31:15,400	We have been focusing on that in the past. For about the last seven years, we had some grants that came through that we used to shore up the bluff that they’ve been monitoring ever since, but I believe we just finalized the second phase of that here, just the this past fall.

00:31:34,570	And so if there’s anything new happening to it right now, I, I’m unaware of that. And so. Uh. Could let me know. That’d be great. I think we had some drone photos and, and whatnot, and we’d be happy to share that with you. Sure. Um, at the county administrator have your email address, and I think she would send that to you.

00:31:54,870	Absolutely. Okay. Any other questions regarding the bond? Bond request? Mr. chair, I would move. To approve the bond request as presented. Second, for discussion. Motion and second. Go ahead. Um, and actually, it’s more of a bravura bank just for the record, for public transparency.

00:32:29,100	Uh, can you explain the mechanism by which the bond is re enumerated and this is just the mechanics of the bond. Okay. I’ll let Mr. Dumas speak to that. Uh, my name is Kevin Kim. I’m the Bismarck regional president for Bavaria Bank.

00:32:51,670	Um, so to address your question, Commissioner Bakken, yes, we are we are pooling together a number of municipalities to issue bank qualified, tax exempt bonds for the facilities and improvements being made at University of Mary. Um, so every municipality has $10 million available, as you’re all aware. So we’ve done this before with other non-profits, um, for similar construction projects.

00:33:16,100	Uh, the benefit, of course, um, to the non-profit entity is, is a lower tax rate or a lower interest rate, I should say, by going down the bank qualified route versus the non tax exempt route. So we’re working with uh consortium of banks and local banks here in Bismarck to put together the full uh $60 million.

00:33:34,170	And we’re really appreciative of Burleigh County, considering the, uh, being the host jurisdiction for that, as all the other municipalities will latch on to the Burleigh County, uh, host jurisdiction. Did I answer the question, or was there more to it? Yeah. No, just I just wanted to share the process with for transparency. So those that are at home know how that works. So thank you. Good.

00:33:56,030	Okay. Any other questions? Call the roll. Commissioner Munson. Yes. Commissioner. Bakken. Yes. Commissioner. Schwab. Yes, chairman. Bitner. Yes. Motion carries. If you want to provide your email address. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. Got it. Never mind. Okay. Number eight, Brent Eckstrom Lewis and Clark Development Group executive director. Welcome, Brent.

00:34:47,330	Well, good evening, commissioners. Um, as you mentioned, I’m Brent Eckstrom. I’m the executive director of the Lewis and Clark Development Group. Uh, I just wanted to come over and talk about what we have going on at the at the development group this last year and what we see coming up in this next year.

00:35:03,900	Um, open to any questions. As you guys are aware, I’ve been here before. So you guys know we are community and economic development throughout the, uh, throughout the ten county region.

00:35:18,530	Um, we are located in Mandan, but we serve all of Burleigh County, Morton County, all the counties surrounding us, as well as we have a number of statewide programs. So I believe you guys were, uh, given some of my handouts in the packet ahead of time.

00:35:33,100	Um, a couple of things I just want to talk about a couple of the programs that we’ve been doing over this last year, and a couple of things that are coming up in the next year. Uh, that’s going to be of, of, uh, specific, um, things that you guys are going to know about in Burleigh County. So a couple of things that we’ve been doing, uh, we initiated a, uh, to help some of our small businesses and our veterans.

00:35:49,470	We initiated a Vet Advantage program with one of our funding sources, uh, with our SBA 504 program, which does our long term fixed rate financing for businesses that want to buy buildings, expand their buildings, things like that. This gives anybody that’s a veteran current or their spouse, uh, spouse of a veteran can apply to us.

00:36:08,030	Uh, they get, uh, a bunch of their fees get waived, and they get a little bit better. Um, not not necessarily a better rate, but they get less fees and they get, uh, some other advantages of being a veteran for that, uh, to hopefully, uh, as, uh,

00:36:20,770	kind of a to help them as they, as a go from active duty or reserve duty and want to start businesses. So that was a program that we started um, this last year, uh, to help them.

00:36:36,300	The other program I think I’ve talked about before, uh, that we have uh, is the meat and poultry intermediary lending program that came out of, uh, uh, back in the Covid time frame. Uh, we’ve, uh, have we’ve actually accessed another $15 million for that. That is to expand, um, the meat and poultry processing. Uh, so to basically to diversify the Big Four’s the Tyson’s of the world.

00:36:54,430	Um, there obviously, if you remember, during Covid, when that shut down, um, obviously there was a big push and of course, in North Dakota with processing, if anybody that is this rancher around here that processes, they know that they’re about a year out, right, to get your stuff processed, you got to be on

00:37:08,830	their list. Um, we’re trying to improve that. We’re trying to, uh, we have this program. It’s actually about a one and a quarter or 1.5% interest rate, um, for a ten year money. So these businesses that want to expand, it’s a really, really attractive rate for them. Um, hopefully they can expand.

00:37:23,300	Um, so it’s good for our ranchers. It’s good for our businesses. Um, and it expands that food market. The nice thing about that program is that once it revolves back in all these are loans, right? So we loan this out once it revolves back in it can be used anything in the food services industry.

00:37:37,300	So one of the things we’re looking at like in rural areas, rural grocery stores are really hard to compete because they can’t order in bulk. So if there was a bunch of groceries that wanted to get together to a warehousing facility, that warehousing facility would be eligible for really, really low

00:37:49,030	interest rate money, and they could use that to, um, to help keep these rural grocery stores a little bit more competitive. So that’s a big program that we’ve been working on.

00:38:01,870	And again, we have funding available for that, as well as the other programs that we’ve had for years and years where we do flex based interest, buy downs for businesses that need to have that a little bit better interest rate, especially on start ups and expansions, as well as our other lending programs that we’ve been doing for years.

00:38:15,330	Um, the other thing that we’ve been doing is we’ve been, uh, as you guys know, talked about it last year. We continue to acquire, um, properties to try to keep them affordable for like for low to moderate income, workforce housing, type of housing. We did century View up here. Um, we continue to acquire we’re still managing properties up in Wilton.

00:38:34,800	And as these smaller communities don’t have professional management for these properties, we’ll step in and do that management for them so we can make sure that they stay, um, good quality management for the so the their safe and affordable housing, um for workforce in both in Bismarck as well as the rural communities here.

00:38:51,900	Uh we manage about 1000 properties now throughout the state. Uh, many of them are in this area. So we continue to do that. We continue to apply and try to, um, create and do new construction as well.

00:39:07,500	Um, and so it is a lot of times the programs that we use are low income housing tax credit programs, which again, is highly competitive. So, um, we continue to apply for those. When we are successful, we will continue to build new new projects as well as, um, expand or as well as remodel the existing projects. So in the handout that I gave you, it shows all the projects that we did in this last year.

00:39:23,430	So we did about $12 million in projects just on the commercial side. That doesn’t include our housing side. Um, it also has in there how we are funded. So you can see how our, the breakdown is, how we earn most of our money is through our obviously our interest and fees.

00:39:36,470	As we’ve grown our, our loan funds. Um, the other thing that’s not listed on here that came out out of the big beautiful bill, if you remember, there are some cuts and things that were to Medicaid and to offset that, they they did the rural health care, um, at Rural Healthcare Initiative, um, that came out

00:39:52,200	of there. And North Dakota has taken advantage of that because obviously we have to deploy a significant amount of money. So right around $250 million per year for the next five years, that’s running through the North Dakota Health and Human Services.

00:40:07,200	Um, they have approached us at the regional council, actually, all of the eight regional councils throughout the state to provide technical assistance to help market those programs and to help get the, um, get good quality applications coming into the Department of Health.

00:40:25,370	So this is, um, so your rural communities out there, if there’s, um, different health care and they’re coming out with a bunch of different grants, we’re not the ones that are actually providing the grant. We’re just providing the technical assistance on it. And the, um, so these smaller communities, it’s everything from, um, telehealth, increasing your telehealth out there to, um, even doing like walking paths and things like that.

00:40:40,230	There’s a bunch of different groups that are coming out of health and Human Services. They’re still rolling them out. They’ve rolled out about five. They’ve got about 50 more to roll out as they roll out.

00:40:54,630	Um, we’re going to be the center of contact for all of the people in your communities to come and talk to us, and then we will help them to, to to go through that process of applying for those grants to Health and Human Services. Um, and so, like I said, that’s an if if they’re not in our region, they’ll be there’s one person in every region. So I’ve hired people to do that.

00:41:09,630	The other person that I’ve hired, uh, I hired a resource development specialist. He has sole job is to work with your cities and your towns and work with your businesses to go out and find resources to, um, to actually go out, either find grants or find low interest loans, whether there are loans or somebody else’s.

00:41:26,730	Um, but to help businesses expand, help communities with their projects. So if a community wants to do something with their swimming pool, they can contact our office. His job is to help provide that technical assistance to go out and look for those opportunities that are out there, um, throughout the region.

00:41:41,270	So we’re trying to we’re expanding our staffing to make sure that we continue to meet the needs of the counties that we serve and the and the businesses within them, as well as the people that are are living there.

00:41:57,670	So, um, again, I have a couple of graphs there that I usually send out a list of all the projects that we’ve done in your, in, in your county, um, throughout the last, uh, actually about 30 years. So, yeah, with that, I’ll open up to any questions that you might have. Commissioner Schwab, I’ve noticed in this, um. Print out of grants that have been given that there’s quite a few that aren’t matched. Well. Those are.

00:42:20,970	You know, those are actually loans. They’re what? Their loans. Their loans. Yeah. We’re not we don’t do grants. We, um, those are those are businesses and those are. Loans. Loans. They’re not marked as loans. I said they’re not marked as loans. So I kind of looked. At, oh yeah, it says grantor loan at the top.

00:42:38,170	Because we there are a couple of things that we do grants. But just about all of those are our loans that we do. Um there’s a couple of that a few years back, back in the 90s and stuff with EDA.

00:42:50,500	There was some grants that were done, but pretty much everything in the last about 15 to 20 years is all loans. A lot of those that are not matched, they might be something where it’s a flex pay by down, um, and or and so we’re just taking a very small portion of it or it’s direct financing, um, for

00:43:04,430	something, but usually it’s just a piece of a project. Um, but yeah, these are all they all revolve back in, and we, uh, they’re all required to be repaid on their. Okay. Yeah. Any other questions? Okay. Thank you. Thank you, thank you.

00:43:38,630	Interim finance director Schmidt, special assessment district number 77, reimbursement resolution and an investment report. Welcome to. Good evening, chair and commissioners. Um, the first item in the packet, excuse me, is a reimbursement resolution for a special assessment. District 77 and 78. Um, my understanding is those projects have been bid and awarded, but have not started.

00:43:56,770	And so this reimbursement resolution just offers us the flexibility to bond that special assessment if we choose to. Um, so we have to pass this within 60 days of starting. So we’re well before that. And then it doesn’t force us to bond if we choose. It just gives us the option.

00:44:08,130	I think the last one we did, we ended up doing a loan through BND and we had I’m not sure if we did a resolution for that one or not. We don’t need one for BND. But like I said, this just gives us the option to do that if we need to. Okay.

00:44:21,300	And so my request is just to approve the attached resolution. But I will stand for any questions. Commissioners, any questions for Taylor. Move to approve. Second. Oh there’s. A serious echo here. Stereo. Any further discussion. Call the roll. Commissioner Schwab. Yes, Commissioner. Bakken. Yes, Commissioner. Munson. Yes, chairman. Bitner. Yes. Motion carries. And so this is the quarter one investment report.

00:45:01,830	The report itself is actually on the back of the memo there. And so I really just want to for now, focus on that executive summary. So we’ve got the current period versus the prior period and the change. And so those are our and that’s an average balance.

00:45:13,470	It’s an average over the course of that quarter. Um as you can see that went down. And that was mainly due to year end maturities that we use to fund operations. So we we had those structured, you know, so that they would mature. Um, and so that’s why there’s that decrease there, about 7.8 million.

00:45:27,430	And then obviously since our investment portfolio balance went down from quarter four to quarter one, our interest went down as well. But another part of that you’ll see rates have gone slightly down about 0.16%. Um, but you’ll see we’re still beating the benchmark by about almost 0.2%.

00:45:43,970	Uh, and then the other where you look at that change on that far right column of the executive summary, we’re getting closer to the benchmark. And that’s because in quarter one, interest rates were flat. So as things mature that we’re at higher rates now, we’re reinvesting at pretty close to the market rate since things are pretty stagnant.

00:45:55,970	So in a flat environment, we get pretty close to what that market rate is. So that’s kind of where that it’s a negative, but it just means we’re still beating the benchmark. We’re just getting closer to the benchmark is what that means.

00:46:07,570	And then the rest of the report just shows the average balance by account type. The investment earnings by account type. And then there’s kind of that benchmark comparison. The difference there is there’s dollars at the bottom to kind of show if it again the benchmark number um we’re about 20,000 ahead of that benchmark number.

00:46:23,170	And then one thing to note too, with that average portfolio balance that I just want to point out, is we didn’t spend that money in quarter one. It just went to cash. So we don’t include cash in this, but we do earn some interest on our cash and our checking account. But it’s not considered an investment. So it’s not part of this report.

00:46:33,170	Um, but that’s all I have. I don’t need any action. This was just for your information, but I will stand for any questions if you have. Any commissioners, any questions? Thank you. I’ll see you. County Engineer Schriock Moffett Road improvements. Good evening, Mr. Chairman and Commissioners.

00:47:01,170	We just have one item on the agenda tonight, and that’s the authorize the proper county officials to enter in a contract with the low bidder for project SC 0848004, which is the Moffett Road Improvement Project, uh, as part of the North Dakota Department of Transportation rural federal funding program, we received bids to mill overlay and chip seal. Moffett road bids were opened on May 8th.

00:47:22,300	The following bid was the apparent low bidder by Strata Corporation at $3,182,169.73. There is a proposed resolution in your packet. I would stand for any questions that you may have on that particular project. Okay, I have two questions. Um, first off, about how long is that project? 13 miles. 13 miles. Okay. Yep.

00:47:46,300	Okay. See that on here? Now that I asked the question right. Um, the other thing that I had is there was a question about, um, signing a dock. You sign for, um, the cost share from the state for this project.

00:48:05,800	And one of the things that the person said, I didn’t forward it to you, but I talked to you about it. That says something about that needed to be needed. Needing to be signed prior to bids. And I’ve never seen us do that. Do you have any thoughts on that or. I, Mr.

00:48:24,170	Chairman and Commissioners, I don’t know what that particular email said. Um, I can follow up with the Dot representative that that sent that over tomorrow and get you a definitive answer on that case. You my guess would be that that would be the, uh, commitment to follow through pending the bids come in reasonable.

00:48:40,670	You know, I, I didn’t read the exact thing. It is a contract. And I explained to her that I, uh, um, you know, I can’t I can’t sign, I can’t and won’t sign for anything that the commission does not take action on.

00:48:59,200	And so that’s kind of what led up to the to this. I’ll send it to both you and Casey. Okay. Uh, we will certainly follow up with that and just verify that for the future type of these types. Of projects.

00:49:16,100	The only reason I’m mentioning it is if there is a if there is a step that we can do that expedites the process or something, then I’d be happy to do that. It’s just we’ve never done that before. So that I’m aware. Of I’m not aware of that either. So. Okay. Um, the the project did come in underneath the engineer’s estimate by about $140,000.

00:49:33,230	So we did get good pricing, all things considered, with, uh, trucking costs and whatnot. So I like I said, there is a proposed resolution if you guys have any other questions. Move to approve. Second motion and second to approve any further discussion. Call the roll. Commissioner Munson. Yes. Commissioner. Bakken. Yes. Commissioner. Schwab. Yes. Karen. Bitner. Yes. Motion carries. Thanks.

00:49:50,600	You, Mr. Chairman and Commissioners, if you don’t mind, I’d like to follow up a little bit with what? Tom, fatigue was up here. Sure. Mr. fatigue. Um, uh, 66th Street is slated to get some gravel this year. Uh, last year, we did a base stabilization project in that north portion.

00:50:07,230	That was the oldest portion we found out. Had very little gravel in it. So when we reclaimed that with the base stabilizer, we ended up pulling up some topsoil. And that’s why we’re seeing that really slimy ness on the on the very north end of that project. But it is scheduled to get some, some gravel this summer.

00:50:20,170	Uh, if, if Mr. Fatigue would like to reach out to our office, I’ll work with my gravel foreman and try to come up with a definitive timeline. With spring loader restrictions just being removed last week, we just started our gravel operations last week, so I don’t know where they’re at and when.

00:50:34,430	This is scheduled to get some gravel, but it is scheduled to get some gravel on that north end this summer. Okay. Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you. Thanks. County planning director Flanagan Bakken. East pipeline project. Good evening. Commissioners. Mr. chair. Yeah. That’s this. I received this last week on Wednesday.

00:51:15,000	And so it’s basically it’s a natural gas pipeline. It’s interstate. So Ferc is in responsibility of it. Uh, it’s not up to PSC. So this is the federal, um, oversight on this. It’s it’s a natural gas line. Project’s going to take up to two years. Uh, it’s 355 miles of 30, 36 and 42 inch diameter. Greenfield pipe.

00:51:41,530	Uh, no compressor stations or will be in Burleigh County. Uh, basically, the WB, the contractor for the project, is looking for, uh, stuff that they’re not aware of. Environmental things, issues such as wildlife preserves, geological, geologic, unstable geological areas like landslides. Also, depth requirement for road crossings. So this is the best map we’ve got.

00:52:09,500	The PSC sent me a GIS map that I can, I hope to send to Jerry, a GIS coordinator, so we can see where this map is. This pipeline is going through Burleigh County. Then we can identify this. So. That’s the one that’s going to go up north, right. It’s going up from uh, Watford City all the way to Mapleton. Yeah.

00:52:29,730	Yeah I yeah, it goes really close to nifL. No no, no. Uh, step one. Step. I think we already had that conversation and we approved all that. I’m not aware of any additional concerns. Commissioner Buchan. I mean, Schwab sorry.

00:52:53,770	I’m just kind of curious about how they how they, uh, select or ask for environmental consideration in a sense that these people are asking it, but some carbon solution didn’t ask it or didn’t even need it. Good question. I don’t know how they determine the siting of this pipeline. Wasn’t public comment from us for sure.

00:53:21,500	It was a public comment from the state regulators either because this is interstate, it involved federal for Federal Environmental Regulation Committee or commission. And so, um, I’m not aware how they how they arrived at the siting of this. It’s a natural gas line. So it’s a service line for many people. For many companies, no doubt the Ellendale Data Center. So that’s that’s what’s at play here.

00:53:45,530	It seems to me the US Geological Service in the North Dakota Geological Service would have more information on critical areas and whatnot than we would. Yeah, they I, I have to look at my records. I do believe I have access to some of those unstable areas in Burleigh County. Okay.

00:54:05,800	The big one is the road crossings and wildlife areas and anything that may that this pipeline might impact environmentally. So. Okay. The deadline is June 14th or fourth, so I have to get some work done on it. Okay. Thank you. Mr.. Yep. Connie Auditor Splonskowski 2026 Election Update. Good evening, Chairman and commissioners.

00:54:42,100	I’ll go ahead and put this up on the screen. So everybody watching can see. So right now we are, uh, well on our way into the 2026 primary preparations.

00:55:09,070	Uh, right now we are working on completing logic and accuracy testing, which consists of our DDS 200, which is the the ballot counting machine that people see at the different polling locations, as well as the DDS 450, which is a much larger ones that we use for our absentee precinct, specifically.

00:55:29,700	Um, typically for elections, we need 198 poll workers for Election Day, and we like to have at least about 50 backups, uh, that that allows for anybody who has an emergency pop up, uh, change of plans or anything like that, or anybody who fails to sign up for the election worker trainings, uh, which is what we’re currently working on, getting everybody signed up for that.

00:55:44,630	Uh, election workers are required to attend at least one training prior to each election. And so, uh, we’re working on getting everybody signed up for that. So if there is anybody out there who still wants to go ahead and apply, you certainly can.

00:55:59,500	But especially if you did apply and you have not yet scheduled yourself for training, please do that or reach out to us as soon as you can. Um, we have, uh, 18 polling locations throughout the county. We try to keep everything as as local as we can for everybody.

00:56:17,800	Uh, we do have the Bismarck Event Center, which is what we call a super precinct, which means that anybody in the county can vote at that location at early vote or on election day. Um, I also have some upcoming things here. Uh, upcoming is the Bismarck, the public test, which is a basically a where I show what we do with the DDS 200. I run it through a typical logic and accuracy test.

00:56:40,170	Uh, oftentimes we’ll have the media here as well as anybody district chairs who want to come. Uh, are definitely welcome to attend that. Uh, that’s going to be on June 1st here in this room. And then I did put the schedule for the, uh, the early vote here on the screen as well. If anybody wants to attend that.

00:56:57,870	That’s definitely something that, uh, many people enjoy. They like to take advantage of that. Um, me, myself, I take advantage of the early vote, which is a really nice feature that we have. Um, on Election Day, uh, for the primary is June 9th. The polls open at 7:00 am.

00:57:18,670	And so anybody who wants to get in before work can go to their local polling location or the event center and should be able to vote at those locations. Uh, we have currently, uh, processed, uh, a little over 1300 absentee ballot requests, uh, which so the process for that is, if you want to receive an absentee ballot, you submit that

00:57:37,300	application to us, we process the application and we send you out a ballot. Um, you cannot get a ballot unless you fill out the application. Um, and then also a reminder that due to recent legislative changes, those absentee ballots have to be back in the auditor’s office possession by the close of

00:57:56,670	polls on Election day. Uh, in prior years, we could receive those up to 13 days after the election. But with those changes to legislation, we have to have those, uh, by 7 p.m. on June 9th for the for the June election. I do want to mention the location of a drop box. Also.

00:58:14,600	Yes, absolutely. We do have a drop box available, uh, just to the north of the main door here on fifth Street. And, uh, so if you come here before or after hours, we can you can certainly drop that off in that drop box. Okay. Thanks. You bet. Thank you. That’s right around the corner.

00:58:44,000	Okay. Next is under me. Uh, first item that I have, there’s four things to discuss. I’m going to add something else to. I should have mentioned that, but there is a, um. I’ll get to it later. The first thing is a prominent remodel change order request. Dan is here from HCG architecture to take the wheel.

00:59:08,530	Good evening commissioners. Um, Dan Shaw, principal architect at HTI architects. Um, I’m here to kind of summarize the change order request that you have in your packet on the agenda. Um, kind of run through the numbers since we’re facilitating four different prime contracts for that.

00:59:26,500	Um, there’s a lot of convoluted numbers, and we kind of want to summarize it for you and just answer some questions. So basically we’re asking for a change order to remove the contingency or remove the second floor flip amounts. That was done during the bidding process.

00:59:46,970	Um, and it was decided during the bidding process that we would use the contingencies with the hope of when the bids came in. Um, they wouldn’t be that large, and they came in higher than was expected because we were moving the commission chambers down to the second floor. Um, the original contract had the second floor mostly untouched. It was just going to be finishes.

01:00:03,970	So moving the commission chambers down to the second, we basically had to gut the second floor now, and there was a big portion of the electrical that ended up being higher than was anticipated. Um, so that’s where that total amount came out.

01:00:20,370	The reason we’re requesting it right now, on behalf of the design and the construction team, is because it basically chopped out a big portion of the contingency. It took all of the electrical contingency before the project even started. Um, so there’s there’s some nervousness in there where eight months into construction, there’s 18 months left.

01:00:41,030	Um, to have some of that contingency back in case some of these little issues arise as we’re seeing come up throughout our renovation project on this scale. Um, so kind of running through that, we’re going to give you kind of a high level of basically what the construction contingency is.

01:01:02,230	So right now, as the project stands, the $650,000 contingencies that were in there is less than 4% of the project standard contingencies on new construction is typically, you know, anywhere from 3 to 10%. Um, when we’re looking at a project along this scale of a historic renovation, typical contingencies run between 12 and 15%.

01:01:22,530	So we’re way below the industry standard on this, because even if If you took a 10% of the original contract, that would have been $1.6 million and contingencies that they would. Have had. We gave them $650,000 to work with. and then we took 75% of that before the project even started.

01:01:39,900	So they’re doing a really good job out there of keeping things really low and under. But that was a big portion of it was just that the flip of those two floors right off the bat. So we’re proposing just change, ordering that portion back out. But you’re going to see the total for that price was $516,000 and 253. Sorry, $516,253.

01:02:04,700	And some change was to flip those two floors. But we’re not asking for that total amount because we went to the contractors and we asked them to reduce their amounts of contingency.

01:02:19,700	If we give it back to them, they don’t need that full $650,000, because we’re eight months into construction and they’re pretty familiar with the building, but they do. They would like some extra contingency in there, especially electrical. They have nothing to work with. Anytime there’s a change in electrical now, we have to come for a change order. It’s going to change the contract total.

01:02:32,570	If the contingencies are put back in there, any of these little things that come up, we can let them stack up. And then at the end of the project we would change order it back. And if there’s if it’s not used at the end, any unused contingency comes back to the commission.

01:02:46,900	All the all the three times that we’re talking about here for the contingencies because the abatement doesn’t have any. They’re going to still be a change order from here on out, because that was how it started. But the other three primes mechanical, electrical in general, they would have contingencies left.

01:03:03,500	And all of them said they’re confident that they’re going to be crediting money back to you at the end of the project, with the reduced contingencies. Okay. So just running through some of these. Basically, we chopped off one of their legs right away as we flipped the floors. Um, some of the main ideas, you know, why we change the floors was to get after the start of bidding.

01:03:22,100	We had the general contractor on board. We were going back to rebid, mechanical, electrical and abatement. If you guys remember the process way back in May of 2025.

01:03:39,630	Um, so instead of stopping the project going backward, having to rebid everything we just said, we would try to pull it out of contingency, hoping the amounts fell in there. And we kept the process moving forward just to keep it on on time and budget. Okay, so it went through. And another some of the reasons why we started flipping those was to move the chamber. They were up on the fourth floor.

01:03:58,170	Now we want to move it down to the second because it’s going to help for Ada, right. People are going to go in and then we’re going to try to reduce the amount of people that are flowing through the entire building, right. We’re going to keep them down as low as we can.

01:04:10,170	We actually looked at putting it on the first floor, but because of the other facilities and the things that are down there right now and working with the historical society, all that marble, we couldn’t get that and put it on the first floor. So the second was the next closest place we could put it.

01:04:24,100	Um, so it’s going to help us some Ada help with security, um, keep the public down on those lower levels. And then anything from the third up is basically Burleigh County only. So that was kind of the idea of flipping the floors during the process.

01:04:42,270	Um, with that, the contingency amounts moving forward, you can see in your packet there, um, this is what we’re proposing, that they would use 150,592 would be is basically, once we pull out the floor flips, that’s what would be left in the contingency for the general contractor. That’s not going to change.

01:05:00,870	We would keep that at as um, once we pull out the floor, flips, the mechanical construction, they would have $241,000. They’ve only used $8,700 of their contingency. And after talking with the the contractors, they’re like, we’re not going to need anything near that. So they’re going to actually credit back, you know, we’ll pull out 100,000, $140,000 of that is going to come out of their contingency and go toward the flip. Okay.

01:05:21,270	The electrical construction, um, if we were to pull the floor, flips out with the change orders that have gone through, they’d have roughly $90,000 left in there. Um, and talking with Drew at Skills over there, he said, we’re not going to need that.

01:05:36,170	Put $50,000 in there for contingency, and we’re confident we’re going to come in under that for the remainder of the project. So that’s why we’re not asking for the full $516,000. Um, we’re only asking for $160,000. Is that the change? Basically, the change of the contingencies. Um, and what we’re doing is moving them around. So we’re giving electrical back some.

01:05:58,600	We’re taking some from mechanical, and it’s shifting over to the general contractor. Okay. We’re shifting those so that it’s all level loaded. Now. Um, that being said, the construction timeline going through, we’re eight months in. Um, we’ve already done the punch list, and they’re taking occupancy of the sixth floor.

01:06:15,400	Now, the punch list for the fifth floor is actually happening, happening next week. So you guys will be taking occupancy of that shortly thereafter. Oh, sorry. Sorry. Fifth, fifth and sixth. We’re talking about those I did them backward here. Um, and then we’re eight months into construction right now, and we’re looking at 17 to 18 months. Um, the timelines haven’t changed as these changes are coming up.

01:06:35,470	None of the timelines, those are original contracted timelines. Um, they’re still saying that they could come in sooner, but none of them are giving us definitive answers on that yet. Um, so that’s kind of the first page summary.

01:06:56,730	What the second page and the pie graphs are showing you is basically what portions of the overall project are general mechanical, electrical and asbestos abatement. And then those little tiny slivers you have in there, those are what’s there for contingencies right now. So you can see the relation to the overall contracts. Um, then jumping to the next one, it breaks it down even further.

01:07:14,430	So this is just the contingencies for each one. And this that’s $684,953.67. That’s the total change order amount to date. Um, but that is for the three primes mechanical, electrical, general or mechanical electrical in general, those are the three primes. That’s the 684, 953, 67. There’s another 108,000 on there.

01:07:42,700	That’s just the asbestos abatement because we’re keeping that completely separate, because that’s the way the original contract was set up. So to date, the total change order amount with asbestos is $788,043.67. That includes the floor flip. Okay. The big chunk right at the beginning.

01:08:05,630	Um, so the actual if you see it right at the top there, it indicates the floor flip change costs that 516 to 53. Um, and then we just kind of summarized how it depleted most all of them right off the bat. So we literally chopped off a leg before the project started.

01:08:21,170	Um, and then just noting back to you again that any contingency that’s not used is coming back to you in the end. So then this sheet is a summary of just the overall of the ask of the change request. So we’re not asking for the $516,000. We’re only asking right now for a change order of the $160,000.

01:08:42,430	And that should be enough for us to shift the amounts around and give the contractors back the amount of contingency they think they need to feel comfortable to finish the project for the next 17 to 18 months. And then credit some money back to you, because they’re all pretty confident. Okay. Any questions? I know it’s a lot of numbers. Questions for Dan.

01:09:04,930	Any questions? Well I’m not seeing any questions either. You did a good job. Well yeah we crunched the numbers pretty hard. Um, and really, when you, even with the change of the $160,000 change order, if you guys were to allow that right now, we’re right at the 5%.

01:09:20,900	So you’re still way below the industry standard for any contingencies or change orders on a project of this scale of a a historic renovation like this. Commissioner. Dan. So timeline, um, we’re yep. We’re seeing pace with. We are we’re still on track for mid to mid November 2027 or sooner. Okay. I like the year sooner. Right. Yeah. For the full move in. Yeah.

01:09:43,330	For the for completion. That’s everybody in and up. But we’re phasing in. Just so you know we’ve got different departments that have been displaced that we’re phasing in. Um as they can transfer into the building. So so commissioners, I guess for clarification, the before us is a current change order request of $160,000. Correct. Move to approve.

01:10:06,200	Second motion and second to approve any further discussion. Call the roll. Commissioner Bakken. Yes, Commissioner. Schwab. Yes. Commissioner. Munson. No. Chairman. Bitner. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Commissioners. Um, Mary, did you want to add anything? Uh. Do you have. Chair and commissioners, I did meet with finance this morning.

01:10:31,370	The money is allocated. We transferred the 6 million from the Arpa funds and the 11 million from the general fund that is sitting in our capital improvement project just for this remodel. So we’re we’re still okay financially. Great. Thank you. Mayor. Thank you. Taylor, for a minute. Okay.

01:10:55,370	Um, Centennial road ditch damage repair kind of put this on here because some people had contacted me that said they heard from some people that, uh, how was it that we’re not out there fixing roads, but were out there fixing ditches, and I thought I should clarify, um, what went on there? I was up there talking to the

01:11:16,800	landowner. Um, and ended up going down in those ditches. Um, at that location. And, um, I noticed how extreme the, the ruts were in there. And then as I was leaving, we were driving down the road, heading south. There was a kid on a motorcycle.

01:11:38,970	Now they’ve started a ride on that high back. High back, uh, uh, slope of the ditch. Because the ruts were so bad down in the bottom. Anyway, that kid was starting to fishtail and, um, basically he was about to go out of control, and I made the decision at that point that this was a significant safety issue in

01:11:57,970	Burleigh County at that location. And so I contacted the highway department to see if we could kind of schedule something to get started. And then, lo and behold, we had the bandwidth to get started on that project. And I thanked everybody for for their prompt response.

01:12:16,030	Um, they had the bandwidth to get started on that right away the next day. And that led to the conclusion of the repairs. Um, um, and so, so that you understand that there was no impact on road construction or other projects.

01:12:36,830	Um, the the asphalt, the hot mix plants are not open yet for us to get materials to actually fix the roads with. You may know that we made an emergency purchase on a on a machine for speeding up that process, and we have high hopes for that. But the simple point was that there was absolutely zero impact on road maintenance or schedules. While they did that safety project.

01:12:59,830	So it was actually to the extent where if we would have had the rain that we had on Sunday and it would not have been repaired, it would have turned into a big pond. Um. Yeah.

01:13:18,500	And so it was a it was a decision at the time that specifically had to do with safety because with, with that kid being as close as he was to wiping out, and if he had ended up down, say, to had been a little bit wet and he was exceeding his skill levels, I was concerned that it would have been all over. But the crying, you know, and so that that’s.

01:13:36,130	And then while I was talking to the landowner, apparently those ditches have been so bad that some ATVs or UTV or vehicles of some sort have on a couple of different occasions, gone out of control. There and run through those fences. Up. There, and then cattle are getting out on Centennial Road and, and whatnot.

01:13:58,500	And so, um, you know, the safety concern was outweighing just about everything in my mind at the time. So that was the point with with putting this on there. And I don’t know, Dan, if you want to add anything on, uh, there was some estimation on costs prior to starting, but I think this gives us a really good idea of what we actually

01:14:15,100	had in it. Yeah. Mr. Chairman and commissioners, um, just a breakdown real quick of what the costs actually entailed. And, uh, our crews do a pretty good job about, you know, um, tracking all of our particular costs. So on this particular area, we were, um, we were about $7,600 into labor, um, 58, 98 into equipment costs.

01:14:37,700	And we go off the state rate for equipment costs. So we use whatever the state assigns to a skid steer and whatever the state assigns to a truck, that’s what we charge to a project. And the rest of it would be into materials.

01:14:54,530	So, um, when we when we come up with that estimate for that $35,000, that’s quantifying all of the our labor and equipment and material costs. And when we put together the the material cost for this particular estimate in this project, we had to come up with some sort of a topsoil cost.

01:15:13,500	So the topsoil that we tried to do, we called around and we tried to source topsoil and what that would actually cost. And we have a very limited supply of actual black dirt in the Highway department yard. And from just calling around, we’re getting about $30 a cubic yard on on an average for screened topsoil.

01:15:30,900	So that’s what we use to come up with that particular cost. So, um, just just a real we use about 504yd of topsoil. If you do the math on that, that’s a little over $15,000. Um, and you add 3000 or $2600 into erosion control, and the rest is in labor and equipment. So. What’s the rough? Uh.

01:15:53,830	We’re right under $30,000 for the the total cost of that two thirds of a mile. So when we had originally put together, um, the cost for that $40,000 a mile, uh, earlier in the year, and we were really just ballpark it, it actually came out pretty close to, to that. If we were to do a full mile. So. Okay.

01:16:09,870	That’s excellent. And it got done. And, and it looked really good the last time I saw it. However, Commissioner Bakken mentioned that there was a bunch of damage going on already up there. Um, I haven’t I haven’t been over there since we finished last week, but it looked good last week.

01:16:28,000	Part of the problem is, if I may, uh, you know, with the rain that we had on Sunday, some individuals decided that, hey, let’s go mud. And, uh, I went up and looked at it and in that area, and my goodwill is getting extremely strained.

01:16:54,230	People, if you can’t figure this out, it’s it’s going to stop one way or another because we can’t spend $30,000 of taxpayer dollars to fix spots that somebody goes up and goes, rips up and goes, hey, let’s go mud. Because it rained and it it’s just it’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous.

01:17:16,770	And I’ve got a lot of latitude for OHV riders and their ability to get from one place to another. But that was ridiculous. It just people use your damn brain because I got pissed this morning when I went and looked at it. And I’m not kidding. And my goodwill is about gone. Is there any other questions for me? Yeah. Any other questions for Dan? Thanks, Dan. Yep.

01:17:41,670	Commissioner Schwab, as long as we’re on this subject and I’m. I agree with Commissioner Bakken, but. We are going to start tomorrow. Asphalt. Big time. So it’s kind of citizens. Watch out for equipment because there will be moving around and, uh, don’t want accidents out there. Yeah. Thank you for pointing that out. Mr..

01:18:13,930	Commissioner Schwab. Yeah, our crews will be out in full force with pavement repairs and asphalt. Asphalt repairs in particular. But we also have some gravel repairs we’re going to be working on. So we’ve got to do it all, and we’re going to be. We have an extremely busy season of of of repairs and maintenance. And.

01:18:29,730	And now we have good gravel. We’re working on good gravel. So, um, it’s all of the above. And, you know, just we gotta we gotta kind of figure out where we’re going to spread our, our forces as best we can. So. Mister Chair, before Dan leaves. Commissioner Munson. I want.

01:18:44,730	To thank Dan and his crew as well. Uh, they got the culvert replaced. Out. Of the Missouri Valley complex, and I appreciate that work and the timeliness of it, so thank you. Yep. No problem. Thanks, Dan. Thank you. Okay, that brings me to a county collaboration meeting with Burleigh County, Cass County, and Grand Forks County.

01:19:09,270	Um, we’ve been talking about this. I got a call from sometime back. We got contacted by the county administrator from Cass County. That the chairman over there was wanting to know if we would be interested in, um, kind of putting together a county collaboration meeting so that we can work with, um, the basically the three biggest

01:19:30,770	counties is how this started. Now, understanding that we have the North Dakota Association of Counties to represent us and some things like at the legislature and whatnot, but we thought that it would be helpful.

01:19:47,100	I agreed with the chairman from Cass County that it would be helpful for us to work together on issues of significance to, uh, certainly as large as counties in the state. And so we had that meeting and we had a meeting on that last week. Um, our county administrator, Mary Sanger, and I both attended, um, teams meeting.

01:20:09,200	And basically it was kind of a more or less a kind of get to know each other kind of meeting. And then we talked about just some rough ideas. Um, on on things that we would want to be working for towards at the next legislative session.

01:20:31,970	Um, we decided that the best thing to do is to create a bit of an agenda and for us to have our, um, our, our positions and our thoughts more down on paper for the next meeting so we can kind of keep a meeting on track instead of just, you know, kind of veering off on different subjects. Um, so that kind of leads me into the the final part of that thing is the legislative issues discussion.

01:20:51,770	Basically, the county collaboration meeting that was just to update you that that this thing is, is happening. And, um, um, I think it’s a benefit to Burleigh County. Then I think Mary Singer probably has a list if she wants to discuss that.

01:21:12,030	Um, and then and then we can have a little conversation about what we might want to add as far as legislative issues, and then we can work towards with these other counties. So, Mary. I know we’ve had a lot of discussion about the off highway vehicles and the sentry code, but as a board, we’ve never really discussed what changes you want to pursue for the next legislative session with the current language.

01:21:33,370	I think they need to get down to the point where they can localize it a little bit more, uh, drop it into the lives of townships. Because if we had the ability to take two townships out, we are not having the issue.

01:21:56,300	It was great an extent so that that might be a place to start from the legislative side is being able to drill that down a little bit more. Okay. We obviously had conversations about the 3% property tax cap and how our situation is different than theirs. And and the fact that we’re collecting sales tax to reform property taxes and whatnot.

01:22:24,130	So, um, I think we would all I know that’s on Mary’s list that we would certainly be talking about that 3% cap and the impact it has on us, and especially with our situation. So hopefully very lovely. Yeah, yeah.

01:22:45,900	There was general consensus, of course, with that, that further clarification on the cap and and how that’s going to proceed if it’s going to continue and how long is the percentage going to change up, down. What’s what’s the intent. We did we did have a little bit of discussion at the time about the Garrison Version Conservancy District and, and how that would kind of look in the future.

01:23:05,730	So I would imagine that we’re going to delve into that a little bit deeper. You know, uh, to a certain extent, um, some of the projects that are going on in the state, you know, will benefit those other counties more than a benefit us like the Red River Valley Water Supply Project. But I think that’ll happen anyway.

01:23:24,430	Under the state of North Dakota. So, um, I don’t know that that really concerns anybody too much. But the garrison diversion unit. So North Dakota’s NGO. Yeah. Um, what else? You said. The North Dakota public Administrator support services, it’s past for short.

01:23:52,700	So that is administered through the North Dakota Association of Counties for, um, it’s an appropriation to alleviate, um, the local administrator, Aaron Burstyn. I haven’t reached out to him to see if there’s any other counties that supplement beyond that pass system for the program administration for that department. Um, the other item was the human service zone.

01:24:15,430	Where is that going? Is the state fully going to take over the human service zone? Are we going to look at the, uh, the county allocation to make sure it offsets 100% of what Burleigh County is putting in? Um. Let me interrupt just a second there, Mary.

01:24:32,170	Um, part of part of the reason we were having that conversation is because apparently all of us are doing the same thing. We’re housing the human services on this now under the state of North Dakota. But. Correct me if I’m wrong, Taylor, but we’re not getting any rent. No.

01:24:49,870	And so it appears that while the the state and I appreciate them taking over county social services, it seems like we have a pretty substantial investment in in what is now a State Department. And so my goal would try to be get away from some of these unfunded mandates. And that’s just one of them. And there’s others that I’m sure. Oh sorry Mary. Go ahead.

01:25:06,370	So unfunded mandates along that same theme is the primary residence credit. Great program. Everybody loves that. But it passed on to the county. Our tax equalization director was able to email a lot of the confirmation letters out. Um, all but 1200.

01:25:33,100	So he saved the county approximately $24,000 in printing and postage fees and about 200 hours of staff time. So this is just another unfunded mandate that passes through. Uh, one other item that we didn’t discuss in the collaboration was the legal notices and official proceedings published in the legal newspaper.

01:25:54,430	More and more print newspapers are doing the E edition, and the articles are behind the paywalls. So the public can’t access those. We do publish them on our website as well. Um, they are for all of the counties available on the North Dakota Newspaper Association website, but the majority of our public’s not aware of that, and it’s not as easily accessible to get on that website either. So that might be.

01:26:15,270	A problem. The paywall. Round, round two of that. Yeah. Yeah. Any other items that you as a commission want us to look at for legislative issues for 27? Well, if nothing comes to mind right away, we won’t spend a whole lot of time.

01:26:39,300	But now just keep in mind, commissioners, that she is compiling this list and the and the whole point is to work with the other big counties. Well, any other counties that want to cooperate to I guess. But um, so any anything that you come up with that’s a significance that we should be addressing through the legislative session.

01:26:53,870	Just kind of make sure she’s aware of it. We’ll be reaching out to the department heads as well to get specific information from them, too. Perfect. Yep. Okay. So we’ll move on. Continued commission items. Had one more item. Chair. Did you. Want to do that now or. Oh, yeah. Okay. Thanks for reminding me.

01:27:14,630	That’s just a piece of paper here. Um, you know, there’s a state law. This would be another one. There’s a state law that says if if somebody if the city is going to do an annexation that they have to send a certified mail to the county. Right.

01:27:38,030	Well, so they send this to the county chair and they send it to my home address, and it comes with that little green card on there that you’re supposed to sign and, and put back in the mailbox, I guess, right. So anyway, the first thing is there’s a there’s a annexation request that owner initiated annexation and it’s called, uh.

01:28:07,370	Basically it’s it’s, um, all that right away. It’s up on North 19th Street. RBK ventures subdivision. It’s the North 1641.21ft of the east, 43ft of the northwest quarter of section ten, Township one, 39 North, range 80 West. Hay Creek Township.

01:28:29,570	So it’s a the reason I mention it is because it was certified mail, and it meets the terms of the of the law and whatnot. And so if anybody has any issue with an annexation, then you would just mention it to me and then I would do something about it. Right.

01:28:42,030	So I take an I sign those things and I cross off my address that’s on there. And on the back is the city’s address. So then I pop it back in the mailbox. So it goes. It’s supposed to go back to the city. The mailman won’t take. It, so.

01:28:57,500	I so now it’s the funny thing about this is it’s a state law that says the city’s got to do this, but they can’t take and bring that letter down from upstairs on the second or third floor where they are. Bring it down here to main floor and hand it off to one of the employees in the office. Uh, no.

01:29:16,900	They have to go through all this roundabout way of of making sure the county is notified, even though we’re in the same doggone building. So I just wanted to bring that to your attention that that kind of thing is going on. And if you have any issues with annexation, let me know. Thank you. Um, okay. Now we’ll move on. Continued commission item was a fire restriction conversation..

01:29:38,670	And Mister Chair, we were. State’s attorney lawyer was going to do some. investigating into it and let us know if, again, if we cannot change the restrictions to a small area. for the HGVs, can we you know, we shouldn’t be able to eliminate these areas from the ban the burn restrictions.

01:30:03,700	But uh, and lawyer was going to look into it and give us a report today. That’s the only reason it’s still here. So you can’t just arbitrarily pick an area that’s not going to apply for burn restrictions.

01:30:23,270	But what you can do is we have some exemptions from the burn restrictions when it’s and help me out, I think it’s when it’s just tie. You can still use grills on paved patios as long as it’s 15ft away from vegetation. And that applies across the board.

01:30:42,770	So if you want to make exemptions from the burn restrictions, it’s got to be something that applies to everything. So so if you’re going to say that you want to exempt OHV recreational areas, that has to apply, apply to all OHV recreational areas, um, in the county. So I believe there’s only two of them, one down at Kimball Bottoms and the other one at the fairgrounds.

01:30:59,770	So that is something that you can do. My recommendation would be that you make those restrictions the same. Are those exemptions the same as you make the other exemptions when it’s um, if you’re going to do that, that if it’s very high or extremely high, there are no exemptions, there are no

01:31:15,600	exceptions. Um, but that would be my suggestion. Would currently only applies according to those. If that’s the exemption that you’re going to make. And like I said, I you can’t just pick areas where it’s not going to apply, but you can say across the county, if there are OHV recreational areas, which generally means there are, um,

01:31:40,370	trails mapped out that don’t have vegetation on them that are used for OHV, um, travel. And I know that, like I said, there’s only two that I’m aware of in the county.

01:31:59,230	I guess what I was trying to what I was alluding to is that currently the fire restrictions only apply when those certain levels are. I mean, it’s not it’s not no off road travel under the high. It’s always under like the very high or the extreme or or something like that I think, isn’t it.

01:32:18,230	I’d have to look at them again, but I believe that it’s no unnecessary off highway travel when, um, fire restrictions or burn restrictions are in effect and there isn’t any exemption for that, and they’re in effect when it’s when the fire index is high. Very high and extremely high.

01:32:34,830	The the big problem that I would have with any of that is, is the trails out at the Missouri Valley complex are totally overgrown with grass and whatnot at this point, and so I wouldn’t do that. And, and I I’ve had discussions, um, regarding emergency management and the fires and the and all of the resources. That the wildland fire fighting resources that are being positioned all over the state and whatnot.

01:32:57,300	And everybody’s got the same problem right now with it being dry. So my concern with down at the desert and the reason there’s no way I can support an exemption is because that’s one of the hardest areas in the county to put a fire out. Absolutely.

01:33:12,230	You know, we we got no access down there except we could use an ATV with a water tank on it. Or a guard or the guard. Well, the guard, yeah, the Blackhawks, I mean, and that. only options. Yeah. Well, so. Mister Chair, I’m, I’m bringing.

01:33:28,770	This to you at the request of, you know, again from the, uh, the state, uh, Parks department because they’re, they hold their training at the Missouri Valley complex. And so our concern was the day that there was a training plan two months ago, but it happened to be on a day that there was a burn ban or burn restriction.

01:33:45,300	I apologize, Mary, I’m going to get this right. Yet there. Burn restriction. Well, and then to get the letter, you know that’s from the court. That’s not that that’s not off road travel. That is an actual facility that’s built for that. But it’s. The burn restriction was still covered to my understanding.

01:34:00,900	If you’re going by the letter of the law, it would still cover that. And so that’s why the request is coming is well, it would cover that if it was off of, um, off. Road. Travel, but it’s not off road travel. It’s within the city. It’s a parking lot.

01:34:20,030	It’s a it’s actually within the center part of the racetrack. Because for that I don’t think I don’t I don’t think that, uh, I don’t know, Sheriff leaving could probably clarify it, even though it’s under Thunder City. City police jurisdiction. But that’s not a that’s not a it’s not an apples to apples comparison there. I know what you’re retiring now.

01:34:40,870	This is one of many reasons. Um, Mr. Chairman, commissioners, I haven’t seen the fairgrounds track. Um, so basically, what the burn restrictions say is unnecessary off highway travel unless it’s paved or gravel.

01:35:08,730	So I would take that to mean if it’s in a trail, when when I look at the definition of a paved and a gravel road, to me that’s an established road. Um, that would be something the highway department would fall under their jurisdiction. So if the fairgrounds wasn’t graveled, then I would say technically it falls under the burn ban or the burn restrictions. Get it right.

01:35:31,170	Well, we do have a lot of gravel out there, a lot of gravel parking lot and whatnot. Well, and even the whole center of the racetrack is gravel and it’s gravel. So. Um. I think it’s a non-issue. That’s a non-issue. Yeah.

01:35:50,100	So then at that point, and, you know, we need it’s a government sanctioned event when North Dakota Parks and RECs are out there, I’m pretty sure they’re going to be out there. And they’ve got trucks that have fire extinguishers in them and all that. I mean, that’s normal operating procedure for them. Okay. I think what the cause intent was, commissioners is, you know, that is a big recreation area.

01:36:06,230	It’s primarily sand down there. Um, there’s not a lot of vegetation left, uh, due to the off highway vehicle traffic. So I think that was their intent to allow that to be used. Ultimately, uh, you, as the commission have to make that decision. Um, I can say this from our perspective. Obviously, we’re in the business of mitigating risk.

01:36:28,730	And I think what, you know, part of my concern is if we shut down OHV use everywhere, then it gives people no place to go. But you do take on some risk, um, allowing it down there and, and again, I think it comes down to, you know, mitigating that risk. What’s in the best public interest.

01:36:52,730	That’s only a question you can answer. Thanks for clearing that up. As mud.. As mud. Sure. Um, I just want to clarify, OHV is not restricted all the time. Correct. Off road is allowed when we’re in the low and medium categories. So they are still allowed to recreate during low and medium.

01:37:23,130	I’m okay letting this sit for now, Mr. Chair. I mean, we’ve we’ve got a consensus on the, um, training that the North Dakota Parks and Rec does at the the complex. That was my number one concern. Uh, the the cause letter came in after that whole conversation. So I included it.

01:37:44,300	Let’s just leave it. Let’s drop it and see where we go. Okay. Sounds good to me. Any other business for the good of the county. We are