00:00:03,080	S1:
City Current. Produced by Dakota Media Access. In-depth discussion with Bismarck and Mandan city officials. Watch on Government Access channel 602 HD or tune in to Radio Access 102.5 FM. Always local. Always current.

00:00:25,440	S2:
Welcome to this edition of City Current. Recapping last evening's Mandan City Commission meeting. We'll get updates on Memorial Highway and other construction projects taking place in Mandan. Get a recap of Touch A truck estimated just about 10,000 people attended, and a quick look at the 2025 police report. Thanks for joining us. I'm Tom Gerhardt from Dakota Media Access, joined by Mandan City Administrator Jim Neubauer.

00:00:52,080	S3:
Good morning, Tom, and thanks for having us here today.

00:00:54,400	S2:
Good to see you. Uh, before we jump into the agenda and all the construction updates and things. Kind of a neat thing. Last night you were able to present the Bismarck Mandan Mayor's Committee for people with Disabilities scholarship to a special young woman and got a photo of her with the mayor, Ilya Leingang.

00:01:13,650	S3:
She is a Mandan High senior and this is kind of special for us. I've been on this committee for goodness probably since 2008, 2009, and Aaliyah would be the first applicant from Mandan and also the first scholarship winner. The Mayor's Committee for people with disabilities typically hands out scholarships in the spring of the year. We are always looking for applicants and Aliya will be pursuing a degree in psychology, I think going on to BSC next year. So just a pleasure and a little bit about the Mayor's Committee for people with disabilities. We meet about three times a year. It is funded through if you receive a parking violation in a handicapped spot and it's a $100 fine, then 50% of those funds will come to this committee, and we generally have enough money to issue a couple scholarships per year. So deserving, well deserving applicant. And we appreciate Aaliyah coming down in Madden High School to take a picture with the mayor and I.

00:02:12,510	S2:
Yeah. And she you said the first from Mandan. What was she holding in the photo there.

00:02:17,630	S3:
Uh, if we go back to that photo, I think, uh, we did not have an action putting me on the spot.

00:02:22,270	S2:
Okay. I thought maybe it was a man city of Mandan logo or something. Commemorative.

00:02:26,310	S3:
We we presented her with the City of Mandan pin. Okay. And that's what that is. And so, um, actually, scholarship presentation happened on Tuesday. We took this photo on Monday. So scheduling, uh, snafu with myself. I'll take ownership of it.

00:02:42,030	S2:
I wasn't trying to call out the scheduling, so. Well, we heard the mayor say last night. Yeah, we gave it to her a day early.

00:02:46,950	S3:
So again, we we thought this was important to let folks know that these scholarships are available. The application is usually in March and April. And then the committee gets together in May. And I think we had nine different scholarships. We awarded two, one to Amanda and student, one to a Bismarck High student, and again for kids or fill out an application. They write an essay and things like that for, you know, like I said, we've been fortunate in the past. We've been able to give usually five, 1000 or 5, $500 scholarships this year, you know, and a good, good sign is that the handicapped parking violation money is down. So people are not being ticketed or they are not. They are respecting the blue handicapped parking spots. And so that ticket revenue has gone down. Therefore, the number of scholarships we've been able to give has gone down. So but again congrats to you.

00:03:37,640	S2:
Congrats to Aleah. All right. Well we know it's construction season a lot of things going on, a lot of things that people are interested in and just wanted to start off again on Memorial Highway. The yellow is phase one on your screen if you're watching, and that will be complete by July of this year, and then phase two will be completed next year.

00:03:58,980	S3:
Yeah. July. Um, pardon me. The phase one, which is the east end of Memorial Highway. Uh, scheduled completion date with everything is July 9th, and they've been making very good progress on that. If you see concrete pause really happen pretty quickly. It's the prep time and then the, um, curing time of the concrete that sometimes takes longer than the pouring time and the prep work, but again, making really good progress whether it's cooperated this year. Um, so we also we see work also on the west end of Memorial Highway, which should be the east end of Main Street. Um, that is also in conjunction with the Memorial Highway project that is going on right now. And like I said, that completion date on that piece is also July 9th.

00:04:43,340	S2:
So if I go back to that photo, too, I think Jarek pointed out last night, if you look kind of in the middle left, you can see that the trail or the multi-use trail, whatever you're calling that going in and concrete does go goes does go down quickly.

00:04:57,510	S3:
Yes it does. And again we we've found that I always think it's odd when you see people walking on the existing Memorial Highway, but there really is no walking. There is no multi-use path, there is no walking service for folks. And that is part of part of the federal regs that says if you want the federal money to help out, you will do a multi-use path on it. And so that is going in a majority of it on the south side, but it switches over to the north side on towards the east end of of the strip of Memorial Highway project.

00:05:25,270	S2:
And then this is Main Street we're looking at in the foreground, which you alluded to. And this is a beginning part of the phase two, right.

00:05:32,310	S3:
Beginning, part of phase two. And again, you know, a lot of this work was scheduled to happen after July 9th. But then there there are some um, Corps of Engineers permits that we have to get for stormwater to on the west end of the strip. So a contractor had to move in this area a little bit early. So that project is moving along and should wrap up. but at the, you know, from July through October of this year, you will also see work going on from kind of like where Riverwood RV is on the on the western part of Memorial Highway to Main Street, and that will be, um, phase one of phase two of Morrell Highway. And then next year will be from kind of Riverwood RV out to 32nd Avenue, where they left off on the east side.

00:06:17,920	S2:
So this is just another photo, another perspective of, uh, what's going on on phase one.

00:06:23,240	S3:
Right. And so again, um, we always want to remind folks to please be cautious and slow down. And it is 25 miles an hour through this area. A lot of a lot of workers in this area and a lot of traffic is pretty tight. But please continue to patronize your businesses out there. They are all open for business. There's a lot of signage out there directing you. You may have an entrance on one day and they may move to another spot on day two. Um, pay attention to those. And again, please. To the traveling public. Please be safe and and take your time moving through the air. But we want to continue to make sure you continue to patronize those businesses.

00:06:59,820	S2:
And Jerick said last night, too, I think the question was asked, Will this when it's done by July 9th? And he said, yes, that means everything. The landscaping.

00:07:09,180	S3:
Landscaping, multi-use trail, traffic signals and all of the entrances to the businesses will be done. So that is the projected. That's kind of like July 9th is the drop dead date on this, on this part of the.

00:07:22,300	S2:
World, really. I mean, it's nice now to really start seeing the progress. It comes together a little more quickly at the end after all the prep.

00:07:29,900	S3:
Work, once the concrete starts going down, um, things move fast and people visibly see, okay, I'm driving on new service now, and it's a it's very distinguishable from, for lack of a better term, the west end of Memorial Highway, which is um, still, you know, potholes are being filled every single day. And part of the reason why, you know, this had to be done is, is that roadway on the west side is just it's very difficult to maintain. And even when you fill potholes, one day you're coming back the next day and the material is gone. So again, appreciate everyone with their patience. And like I said, continue to patronize businesses and we look forward to this wrapping up. And it'll probably be still a couple of years when we're still talking about finishing up memorial highway. In total.

00:08:15,750	S2:
In total. Uh, wanted to pass along also that uh, the closure on, uh, is it 43rd, I believe? Uh, just toward the East End.

00:08:27,950	S3:
Yeah. There was some, um.

00:08:29,390	S2:
I think our monitors frozen here. So we're seeing. Okay, not seeing the the graphic I have called up.

00:08:35,270	S3:
I think the intersection at 46 is now 46 is open. Um, now you can make right turns into the Lakewood area on that if you're coming from the west. And I think the other intersection they're looking at now is 43rd, I believe.

00:08:49,200	S2:
43rd?

00:08:49,760	S3:
Yeah. So we need to get that wrapped up. And again, um, concrete is it will last a whole lot longer than asphalt, but.

00:08:56,960	S2:
There we.

00:08:57,240	S3:
Go. Appreciate your there are some detours set around. So 19th um, has had some additional work done to it as far as patching and repairing. So that will be a detour route. And again, please pay attention to the road signs and you'll be fine. All right. Traffic moves. Actually. Really? It moves really.

00:09:15,960	S2:
Well.

00:09:16,320	S3:
Well, yeah.

00:09:17,000	S2:
Through their first street reconstruction, uh, you see that, uh, visually kind of an update of what's happened and what's upcoming.

00:09:27,040	S3:
Yeah. If you are familiar with downtown Mandan between, um, to the east of sixth Avenue and north of Main Street, you've got First Street and, um, that roadway, in conjunction with many discussions with the property owners and business owners in that area, was like, okay, let's get it all torn up, get things put back together rather than doing one half on the other half, which creates more time, but you can maybe drive somewhat easier on it. Um, the the area on first Street is is completely closed. They are kind of completing the or finishing up the installation of the underground work, starting some of the above ground. Um, getting that preparation done to finish that up. And then they're also the area I think it's on fifth. Um, Fifth Avenue is also torn up and starting to get put back together again, too. So a lot of construction activity go around again, plan your routes accordingly. And, you know, I think that the traffic rerouting and detour plans for such a truck had to include a lot of this. So we appreciate everyone's patience. And from what I had heard this weekend that everything went really well. So like I said, this area is under construction and will be. So please again, exercise patience.

00:10:43,870	S2:
And here's another, I guess overhead that you guys showed last night included just the idea of the work that's going on. Like he said, everything's torn up.

00:10:54,150	S3:
Yep. Contractor has been very, very diligent and been on the ball and working. Kind of not I won't say 24 over seven, but they've been working when the equipment's there. And weather has certainly been cooperative so far this year. And the rain we have has not I think, impacted much other than to help keep the dust down.

00:11:12,830	S2:
Yeah, I mean, we've seen a lot of green grass in the photos so far. So I guess that's a nice thing considering how dry it was.

00:11:19,230	S3:
Sunday's a half inch rain or whatever we had certainly helped perk things up a bit.

00:11:23,950	S2:
Collins Avenue we you know, just revisiting this again, you can see that, uh, the updates and that that view at the corner there, and we'll show another picture, I think. But just that retaining walls really help the sightlines.

00:11:37,870	S3:
Retain, well, a huge improvement in this area. And again, I think they are pretty close to wrapping up the retaining wall in that area. I think this photo might be a few days old, and they'll start now on the landscaping and also painting of the outside of the reservoir. So again, that project is wrapping up. And again, it's, you know, in addition to a new water reservoir, you've got the increased and better visibility on those sightlines between Collins Avenue and Division.

00:12:05,050	S2:
The downtown concrete project that we talked about last city, current and multiple locations and multiple locations cleaned.

00:12:14,290	S3:
Up and.

00:12:14,890	S2:
Kind of the two.

00:12:15,610	S3:
50th. You know, again, a big shout out and thank you to our City hall folks that went out and kind of went out in groups last fall and walked walked a block or two and came back and said, okay, we've got concrete that needs to be repaired here. Sidewalks, curbs, street signs and things like that. Did a nice inventory. And are the contractor doing this work has been very diligent in getting things done. So there's work going on as we speak. The idea whole idea is to. Let's get Main Street and First Street looking as good as we can before the parade. And the festivities start on for the fourth and the 250th anniversary.

00:12:52,100	S2:
It's getting close. Yes, the eighth Avenue project. There was a public input meeting we heard on the 14th of May. And then there's another coming up, June 25th at Mandan High School. That's from 6 to 730 in the PLC room. So gathering a lot of input for that project.

00:13:09,980	S3:
Yeah, this is a project we had proposed, um.

00:13:13,540	S2:
Before the school was.

00:13:14,420	S3:
Before the school was.

00:13:15,260	S2:
Being.

00:13:15,500	S3:
Built. The project was protested out. Um, roads have certainly they were in really rough shape before the school decided to go in there. And they continued to be in rough shape, um, after that. So again, first public input meeting was to, um, let's introduce the project. And most people know what the project is from four years ago. Let's introduce the project. Do you have any suggestions or anything that you, as the people who live in this area would like to see. We take that into account and we continue on developing the plans and specs. So that input meeting was held on May 4th, May 14th. Very well attended. In fact, I think Jerrick and Riley said that the PLC room that was used at the high school, we may need to get a bigger room. So that's a good sign. And the next public input meeting would be on June 25th to kind of go through. We've got a now that we have the public's input on what the project should be and their suggestions, we take their input and then go forward with developing some cost estimates and how those might be spread throughout that district. So I think that is June 25th. So again, part of the process.

00:14:18,430	S2:
Part of the process. We're heading over by Lewis and Clark Elementary now to take a look at some work taking place in that area.

00:14:24,750	S3:
Yeah, this is kind of a finishing up on the Monte Drive water line replacement project. So a lot of sidewalks being done. And also note that Derrick Michaels, if you see the red trucks out in the area to that is an MDU contractor that they are doing gas line replacements in a lot of this place. Um, sometimes you will see a new panel of sidewalk that was maybe just poured last fall being taken up. And and Michaels will be coming back and, you know, they need room to work in their gas line repair and they may need to again, they'll come back and and redo those areas that need to be redone. We wish um, sometimes the coordination in the scheduling doesn't work out in a perfect world, but we know MDU will be in town for. I think last year we heard for seven years, so maybe they'll be in for the next six years doing gas line replacements. You know, one of those parts of infrastructures that need to be done.

00:15:20,490	S2:
And street improvements and sidewalk improvements. Things going on near Red trail.

00:15:25,410	S3:
Yep. All of those things going on right now and again, um, you know, and what do they say in North Dakota, there's winter and then there's construction season. Right? So we are in construction season right now. Um, again, encourage folks to please slow down when you see workers in the area. There's a lot of stuff going on right now.

00:15:42,460	S2:
And this QR code that's been provided, uh, that'll give you a link to all the projects so you can stay on top of things.

00:15:50,820	S3:
Yeah. I think our engineering staff and our consulting engineers are doing a pretty good job in keeping the public informed of these and also making that information available so you can peruse it at your leisure.

00:16:03,180	S2:
I wanted to touch base on oh, I put the old graphic in, but the Mandan Fire Department sales tax initiative, obviously. May 18th has come and gone for that public information meeting, but we have another one coming up June 1st at 6 p.m. for the, uh, fire station three. Yeah. We on June 9th ballot.

00:16:23,260	S3:
Monday night, we're up at Fort Lincoln Elementary School. I think we had four, um, residents from the area that showed up, which, um, Mitch and his crew did a nice presentation again and then answered. It's kind of nice when you have a smaller group that you can okay, let's have a conversation. We'll answer those questions that are posed and help clear. Clear some things up. And there's sometimes some misunderstandings about financing of the project. And what does this mean and why is it needed. So we go through all those. And like I said, I think we had a really good discussion and appreciate the four people that showed up for that.

00:16:56,830	S2:
All right. Again, June 1st, there'll be another public information meeting.

00:17:00,750	S3:
And that will be at the fire station in downtown Collins and first. And then that will be our final public information meeting. I know that if we have folks out there that would like, um, Chief Bitz to come and do a presentation to their group, um, they have I think they're on, um, the KFI this morning on 701, um, doing there. You know, we have to be careful on what we do when we do educational meetings to educate the public on ballot measures. And like I said, this is a good opportunity. If and again, if you have a civic group that you want to come and talk to, or if you have a neighborhood group that have questions, you have a coffee club that wants questions, please let us know. We'd be more than happy and we'd love to come out and do those things.

00:17:42,170	S2:
Saw this. Thought we'd pop it up. 2026 Spring Cleanup. A lot of work done and says residents £16,191 of electronics recycle.

00:17:52,930	S3:
Yeah, it is crazy if you, uh. Not that you ever want to go out to the landfill, open the open the big old garage door looking and see how many flat screen TVs did we take in this year? Um, I didn't realize that the TVs go out that often, but, um, it's it's a great effort. And again, we, we talk about we've always done a spring cleanup and we'll continue to do that. But along with that, we've got the mayor's cleanup month and the folks that are volunteering to do that, um, we know that, uh, Shane O'Keefe and our public works crew, and they enlist some other departments to have help. All hands on deck for this week, and it certainly helps with the cleanup of the town. And we put special emphasis on this here to, hey, it's the two 50th anniversary. There will be a lot of people coming to town. Let's do a good job of picking up and cleaning up. So again, kudos all our crew that are out there. And those are our long days. Believe me, I, I can tell you I have not I have not walked the street with them picking things up. But I know it is really tough work and it makes for some really long days, but there's never any complaining or whining about it. And I think our citizens are really happy that we continue to do this.

00:19:05,220	S2:
Let's talk. Touch a truck took place over the weekend. You can see the blue skies. Weather turned out nicely and we heard Matt Schanandore say they estimated 96 to 9800 people took part.

00:19:17,820	S3:
Yeah. It's crazy. This event is is growing every year. Um, and I think what do they have won this year was uh, uh, horn bingo I believe which I'm going oh, boy. I bet people are really having to. You know, I feel for some of the people that are down there, but they do do a a quiet hour at the beginning. Um, how long that lasts? I can't really say. It goes for a full hour. Um, but again, um, great turnout. It is a free event, and it couldn't be done without the help of all of our wonderful sponsors that helped put this on.

00:19:49,400	S2:
A few dozen businesses, I think Matt said a few dozen or 60 or something like that.

00:19:53,880	S3:
I think we had 50/50 entrants on folks bringing their, um, bringing their equipment and having staff there, too, on a Saturday to help the kids in and out. And yes, you're honking the horn. And if I think on the bingo cord card, you could, you know, how many horns could you get in and honk and irritate mom and Dad a little bit? But the kids, the smiles on their faces are worth every bit of it. And and like I said, this is just it turned out to be a really great community event and people get to show off what they do. And it's also educational. You know, maybe that one individual who gets in a front end loader or an excavator decides this is really going to be fun. And 20 years later, they're an operator. Yeah. So, you know, at the end of the day, it's just a really good community event for everyone.

00:20:40,610	S2:
Bids. Last night there's a striping project that will take place. And there's a little bit of conversation about this. Last night there was one bidder, I guess, for the project that, uh, as proposed, would have wrapped up before the fourth. Yep. Tell us what happened during that discussion.

00:20:59,810	S3:
And, yeah, this was a project that, uh, um, between our public works staff and our engineering crew put together a bid package, put it out for bids, which involves putting some permanent striping on Main Street and First Street and making sure that, you know, paint goes on streets. Looks nice for a day. The next day it's not so nice. Um, this would involve some, uh, permanent striping. And you're making grooves in the asphalt or the concrete to lay the tape and do a really nice job. We had hoped that we would have gotten better bid prices because we would have again. The hope was to have this work done by the 4th of July. Um, prices came up rather high and which caused, I think, us and the commission to kind of take a step back. Okay, let's look at this. Um, normally there's we'll have more than one bidder on projects, so it will be competitive. I think we are paying a premium price so that the work would get done before the, um, 4th of July. And in turn. Um, I think the commission, you know, made a decision to say, uh, this is too much of a premium to get this work done. So again, we will put another bid package out there and hopefully we'll get more than one bidder and they'll be more competitive and potentially lower the price as we go on.

00:22:10,020	S2:
And then this would take place after the fourth. Yep.

00:22:12,820	S3:
We'll like I said, we'll work on getting that bid package out there since probably remove the completion date or extend. And sometimes we may put some intermediate completion dates. Okay. By July 1st we want this done by August 1st. We want this part of the work done so the contractor knows so that we're not coming up into September and October and the weather starts to turn, and then they're going, oh, we can't get this work done. So we may put some intermediate completion dates in there.

00:22:39,760	S2:
All right. We'll keep our eyes on that. Not much on the as far as new business last night, but Chief Zeigler came and delivered his 2025 annual statistical report for the police department.

00:22:50,400	S3:
Right. Lots of good information in there. And I just let folks know that report is on our city. And you can go to city Mandan. Com or the Mandan Police Department has it on their website too, or there's a link back and forth. But chief went through the stats from the previous year regarding, you know, here's calls for service and class offenses, class B offenses going through all of our areas of code enforcement to parking, to speeding, to DUIs and uses and in essence, the total gamut of kind of issues that are facing the police department. He also, you know, an update on our drone usage update on our K-9 and also for the community engagement team on what is the community engagement team out there doing and how many events did they attend? How many people did they reach? So again, that report not going through it today with you, but uh, chief did a did a job of that last night and kind of went very thoroughly through it. And if you have questions, please reach out to Chief Siegler or myself, and we can do our best to get you the answers. But again, that information is now out there on our on our website for your consumption.

00:24:00,370	S2:
Yeah, a lot of numbers that if you want to look best to look online and take your time.

00:24:04,450	S3:
Interesting stats in there. And you know, you will. You know it's not just calls for service but how many required a follow up call and how many were actual. You can have a call for service that may not generate a report. Right. And so there's a difference between the time that it takes to do all those things.

00:24:20,450	S2:
I just wanted to mention again on May 21st, there's the Public Works open house from 3 to 6. So by the time some people watch this, that'll be old news. But as of today, it's not.

00:24:30,460	S3:
Yeah. This is, uh, it is Public works week. And we appreciate all those folks that are that are doing that. Um, I think Commissioner Dan Ulmer from years ago, um, coined it as the fairy work. Right. It's the work that gets done that no one ever sees. You know, they're out there, um, sweeping streets and moving snow and patching potholes, and sometimes you'll never see them because they're early in the morning or late at night or something like that. But the work just gets done. It needs to get done. So appreciation of our public works folks May 21st from 3 to 6 p.m. at our public workshop. Um, bring your kids, bring your again. It is a family friendly event. Come down there. Um, usually they're giving rides in the street sweeper or a front end loader, or you can climb in and look at all the equipment. Take a look at our shop, look at our look at our facilities and our public works guys and gals are there to help and assist and answer questions. And like I said, they get a kick out of it too. Hamburgers. Hot dogs. Chips. Bottle of water. Um, like I said, show up.

00:25:31,400	S2:
All right? And just wanted to remind folks we touched on it earlier, but America's two 50th is I mean, we're getting closer and closer. It's it's it's time to get really excited about this. And of course, Mandan has so many great events.

00:25:46,000	S3:
Yeah. It is. Um, you know, America 250 bring some special attention to what we do around the 4th of July and things like that. In fact, yesterday we, you know, we have a regular monthly meeting on with our emergency services folks on where we at on the planning stage, because really planning for this event this summer started before last year's event was completed. So a lot of work goes on behind the scenes. So we meet as a staff with Mayor Froelich and kind of give him the here's the skinny on what is happening. And it includes, like I said, it's a it's a significant lift on everybody's behalf on how we how we do, how we do things and what we do, and make sure all of our bases are covered. And what are we doing to make sure that folks who come to town feel safe, feel protected. And we don't, um, we want them to have a good time, but we also want to make sure we we keep everyone safe.

00:26:41,770	S2:
Absolutely. Uh, just a reminder again, city of mandan.com/projects. If you want to know what's going on, the next city commission meeting is Tuesday, June 2nd. So we'll be back in these seats June 3rd. And a reminder, if you want to watch last night's City Commission meeting on an app or on Dakota Access, we offer on demand viewing of any of those events. You can also download our Radio Access app and listen to a lot of local musicians and local podcasts. Lots of great content on our DMA app, Radio Access app, and on DakotaMediaAccess.org. So until next time, Jim, thanks for joining us. Have a great day, everyone.

00:27:22,150	S1:
For more information on what was discussed in this episode of City Current, visit CityOfMandan.com or call (701) 667-3215.

00:27:32,630	S1:
If you have any suggestions, comments or issues you would like to address in future City Current episodes, contact us at info@FreeTV.org. This program airs on Government Access channel two and 602 in HD or on Radio Access 102.5 FM. It's also available as a podcast on RadioAccess.org and as a video viewing link at FreeTV.org. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of City Current.