00:00:02,900	City. Current. Produced by Dakota Media Access. In-depth discussion with Bismarck and Mandan city officials. Watch on government access channel 602 or tune in to Radio Access 102.5 FM. Always local, always current. Coming up on this edition of City Current, we'll recap last night's Mandan City Commission meeting, taking a look at the 2027 preliminary budget.

00:00:34,270	We'll have construction updates from multiple projects, including Memorial Highway and results from the 2025 audit. I'm Tom Gerhardt from Dakota Media Access. Thanks for joining me. And Jim Neubauer, Mandan city administrator. Good morning. Tom, it's always a pleasure to be here. So thanks for having us. Little break in the 100 degree days. Happy over.

00:00:53,970	Feels pretty good today outside and looking forward to the next few days also. So a pretty maybe not a long agenda last night, but some pretty significant topics I guess I would say.

00:01:11,500	But let's kick things off as we have often with a lot of construction updates, and we'll start with Memorial Highway, where the east end is done for the most part, maybe.000 1% left, but that's looking good. I think the contractors and the engineers went on a what they call a walk through physical walk through last Wednesday morning, where they go through and create a punch list of all those items that need to be addressed

00:01:30,770	as before they get to final completion. So that's happened. And right now, contractor will be busy trying to clean up those final items on the on the East end, so we're glad to have that.

00:01:51,370	I think the comments that we have heard so far is that it is a great look, and obviously it took a little longer than was expected, but at the end of the day, the project is is turning out very well. So we just had a photo up with a couple of the project status updates and been waiting for a long time to see that look. It feels. There's a lot at all. No more references to wavy bacon, and.

00:02:09,000	No more waiting to bacon roads out there when when you transition from the recently reconstructed part to the older part, there is a dip there and or not a dip depending on which way you're traveling. But again, construction activity continues. So we're asking the public to. On the on the west end it is 25 miles an hour.

00:02:28,970	Please be mindful. It may take you a little bit longer to get to and fro because it is, you know, single lane traffic at that end. And then be mindful of the construction workers who are out there, and we want to keep them safe to.

00:02:44,400	Say they did give that project status update on the West End last night, where construction is ongoing. And you touched on a couple of the things, but if you're watching at home, you can see a few of the things going on. Yeah, we have two of these phone lanes that are completed.

00:03:02,170	The you know, the big thing going on right now is the storm sewer installation, which, you know, for the public, it's like, oh, we need a place for the water to go, because as soon as the sooner you can get water off a roadway, the longer your roadway is going to last.

00:03:18,030	And so the in essence, the west end of the strip, which, you know, you split splitter in half and it's about midway lanes to the west, all that drainage will be moving to the south and eventually end up in the heart River. So there's a lot of equipment.

00:03:33,870	There's a couple of cranes on standby or on in position to construct the lift station that will take water and move it into the heart River. So that is an enormous part of this project. So like I said, again, things are moving along fairly well. And and again, asset ask the traveling public to be mindful of the workers.

00:03:51,000	And also it might take you a little extra time but continue to patronize those businesses on the on the West and the East End. Let's move on to the first street reconstruction project and get a status update. They're very visible part of our downtown area that we're moving from the west side of Sixth Avenue over to east to Collins in that area, on the avenues that need to be reconstructed.

00:04:10,600	The contractor ran into some issues on the first leg of that, with some pipe that needed to be especially ordered to to fit into the existing pipe that's there. So some of those underground things that are unexpected. But again, this project is moving along.

00:04:30,330	There's concrete going down as we speak, and it seems to be taking a little longer. But the contractor is on schedule and we look to have that done by the end of October. First part of November. Near Lewis and Clark Elementary. The update from Jared last night pretty much complete. There was a walk through taking place and so almost ready to put that one to bed.

00:04:48,270	Yeah, this project started in 2025 and replacing water lines and again a multi-million dollar project. And now again nearing its final stages. Walk through punch list. We need to I think there are some homeowners sprinkler systems that need to be taken care of yet, and some other smaller items that that are left out there right now.

00:05:09,370	And Red trail. Yeah. Another project by Red Trail Elementary and also in the area of Corvette and Impala and some of those streets that are to the west, reconstruction of those and some mill and overlays and that that area that have needed it.

00:05:31,630	We attempted to do a project in there a few years ago to minimally repair and get some more life out of it. We did get some more life out of it, but then again, it's time where those roadways needed to be reconstructed. There's some subbase issues going on, but again, we this one is moving right along.

00:05:45,830	I know I was up in that area a few weeks ago on a Sunday, and they were actually throwing asphalt down on a Sunday, so they're working hard to get this project completed. All right. Well, I accidentally gave folks a preview of what's to come. I thought I had the QR code for construction.

00:06:03,070	I was going to put that up for people to scan, but see if I can find it. What we're talking about grill with a cop. That'll take place August 13th at Eagles Park. August 13th from five 3730, please. You know, there's always usually some public works trucks up there. The PD will have our dog Medved out doing probably some demonstrations as usual.

00:06:24,070	And they will have our drone pilots will fly and drones around. So and a lot of the other emergency service providers from fire to Metro Ambulance and a lot of our partners up there assisting control. So again, it's free hot dogs, hamburgers, bag of chips, water and a cookie usually comes along with that. I heard bratwurst mentioned last night. Yeah.

00:06:43,930	It's always good and it's a great event to come out. And we like to have, you know, our emergency responders to meet people when they're not in dire need of having them there, whether it's again, with with our police officers, our firefighters, it's much better to get to know them when it's not an emergency situation

00:07:01,330	and than it is when is an emergency situation. So great event, usually well attended by I think 800 to 1000 people. So again please feel free. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and it won't be 105 degrees and and snow cones I think are going to be provided up. There about that.

00:07:20,730	So again, we appreciate all of you know, our entire police force is up there helping out during that time period. We still have folks that are out in the community protecting us. It's not like everybody. Says it is an all hands on deck. And like I said, they do a great job with it.

00:07:35,670	So thank you to Chief Ziegler and all of our people in the Mandan PD that help out with. This ninth annual. And I mean, started schools just around the corner now. Absolutely. Yeah. You just had to say that. I did, I did I can edit that out maybe right in post-production.

00:07:50,300	Let's move on to the new business and talked about some multi-use shop set in the Marina Bay area. Shop condos. And these are will be going up on the many people who have frequented Marina Bay or the broken or area will be driving through the area that there will be additional shop condos place in that area.

00:08:13,870	You know, we are cognizant of some of the stormwater drainage issues that the public has brought up, and therefore requirements on the developer who are pretty stringent is what happens with stormwater and things like that. But I think you'll see an improved roadway going up to the broken or and in that area.

00:08:31,030	So again, we're looking forward to this shop. Condos are one of those items that me personally thought, who in the world is going to do this? And when they started popping up many years ago, it is a very attractive place for folks to get their start.

00:08:50,900	You may have a you might be an electrician that's on your own, and you need a shop and you need some storage area, and you need a place to work. And gradually you may buy a larger building. But this is a great, a great these are great locations for folks just getting started.

00:09:06,000	And we've got some people that have been in shop condos for many years and very successfully operating out of them. So a good a good project for Amanda. And I remember. Right. This would be kind of a multi-year project. Yeah, I think that they would look probably maybe not constructing until start of 2027.

00:09:24,370	All depends on how fast things move with contractors and if they have them lined up to start moving in 2026. Yeah, but again, good project to have. So many from Brady Martz came to the podium last night to give results of the audit from 2025. And that look good. 2025 audit.

00:09:45,670	Kudos to our Greg, our finance director and Justin, our assistant finance director, and all of our departments who have to supply information for successful completion of the audit. I believe we received an unqualified opinion. So which is the best you can get? And just proves that our team on our end is doing an awesome job. And you know, it is a heavy lift.

00:10:04,630	And we'll not downplay that at all. But we make sure that we're doing things properly. And a lot of those things are tied to federal grant awards and state grant awards that we receive for whether it's a highway projects or road projects, other things that we do.

00:10:20,070	So again, a really good news from from our auditors to do that. One page caught my attention. That was an overall financial highlights and mentioned your assets increased, your debt decreased. Just seemed like a pretty healthy page to pass along. Yeah, it's a good balance.

00:10:37,570	One of the things we like to point out is we, our city commission moved from a 17% fund balance to a 25% fund balance, and we did that, I think, 1 or 2 years ago.

00:10:57,070	So that we know that when the Legislative Assembly put in some property tax caps, that if we have to spend down some of that reserve, it is better to have it in the savings account than it is to have to try and go find it. That helps our bond rating when we have to go out and borrow money to pay for assessment projects and things like that. And those savings are in turn passed along to the residents of Mandan.

00:11:10,930	So some pretty good things that are going on there. We we again, we strive to have, you know, what your fund balance really means. And when you increase your fund balances for every dollar in new spending, that you have to really have $1.25. So for every dollar we spend, we need a bucket and a quarter.

00:11:29,470	And that quarter goes into additional fund balance for us. Moving along on the agenda, Barb from the Mandan Morton Public Library talked about their budget for 2027. And we learned last year. We learned again this year a lot of things happening now. Yeah, we always, when I'll call it the internet or the World Wide Web, right.

00:11:52,730	Really date myself. A lot of people thought that that internet access library is going to go away because people won't need to come and get a book or things like that. Barb and her crew do such an awesome job at the library of having events, and this is a really our public gathering spot.

00:12:11,130	And along with daycare and park, this area has been called the City and Living Room where people go to gather, socialize, get together, get informed information going on. So like I said, Barb and her crew do a great job.

00:12:30,930	The we do passports and which a lot of whether it's a post office or wherever you might go are not doing that anymore. And our passport business has picked up considerably over the past several years. And that's one of those items that, you know, we offer that as a service to the public. It is you need to pay for it. Right.

00:12:46,700	But again, it's one of those services that Barb and her crew have started offering and continue to offer, and it continues to grow. But again, the number of programs that go on at the library is just outstanding and remarkable. And I kudos to her crew for doing all that work. And I probably shouldn't say because.

00:13:01,630	But I thought I heard the number 20,000 passports or they surpassed 20,000 passports last night. So that gives you a sense of how many people are. And it is all Mandan residents. Martin County, Bismarck burly pick your favorite Dickinson, Minot.

00:13:19,330	They have people coming from around the western North Dakota area to have their passports done because they know they can get in and we'll get it done for them. And you mentioned all the activities going on there. There's a graphic here showing over 12,000 program attendees, over 360 combined programs, and over 56,000 visits to the library.

00:13:40,600	So interesting when you when you break that down into the if you. I don't have the number of operating hours in a year, but if you simply divide that number by 365, a lot of people, we call it a lot of door swings, right? There's a lot of people coming in the door. That library and that location make it a really special place for Mandan.

00:13:58,870	And it's a great, just a great facility to have. And the people there are awesome to work with. And there was some things she announced. I know that the creative space, they have an announcement coming up, and I think they planned open that it sounded like maybe next May or June.

00:14:17,300	And yeah, just a lot of things taking place. Yeah, I think they were one of the top five Bush Foundation. They didn't get the first or second place, but those awards were coming in and they did receive a T-Mobile grant for, I think, $50,000 to help them expand their library out into what they call the branch on

00:14:37,900	in the southern down in the old football field area and baseball and Mary Stark area. So they're reaching out and trying to get to the community. They Barb talked about Morty. The bookmobile we'll build is not only just go out to rural Morton County. It is also going within the city limits and Mandan, too.

00:14:57,570	So again, it's just not a going out outside of man. And it is within the town too. And then Mandan Airport Authority budget. There's been some growth out there. I learned that they passed 100 aircraft, I think 106. Yeah. It's now.

00:15:17,470	It's kind of a milestone, I guess, in talking to Lindsay that we were at 99 last year and now we're at 106, I think fixed base aircraft out at the out at the airport, if that's the right term for it.

00:15:36,200	But again, crossing that 100 threshold means I think there's additional funding opportunities that open up to help out with with the man and airport. So it is a busy place. I know Lindsay had we had the skydivers out there over the. Holiday they showed last night. I actually was from my back deck.

00:15:58,300	I can see watching them one one evening when they were doing their skydiving and like congratulations to Lindsay and her crew for bringing in and allowing some new things to happen at the airport. I think those are all exciting. Again, we have some. We moved into a new building out there last year. We've got some runway repairs that are going on or taxiway things are going on.

00:16:18,400	And also the big thing I think for 2027 will be a new fueling system out there. The one we have right now is antiquated, would be a nice term for it, but it requires Lindsay to have to go out and provide fuel for aircraft. It is not a self-serve.

00:16:36,600	So whether you're flying in on a Saturday or Sunday or late in the evening and you need fuel, she has to physically go. On. Go on fuel. When we were growing up, you have a tendency at the gas station, right? She's not out washing windows and checking your oil and all that good stuff for you. That really dates me.

00:16:54,500	But again, Lindsay does a great job at the airport and we're very fortunate to have the airport within, within part of our city. And again, another big thing is the airport signage out there. Yeah, it's kind of a cheesy not a cheesy old one because that would be discrediting the folks who did the old one.

00:17:14,300	But I think the new man and regional Airport and Lawler Field plays homage to again, Jim Lawler, who is our manager for many, many, many years, unfortunately passed away a few years ago. But again, new signage out there to identify the airport.

00:17:32,730	So kudos to Lindsay and the whole airport authority for all the hard work that they have put in to keep our effort up and running and safe. So let's move along to the first consideration of the 2027 Mandan City Budget. Justin Schultz, our Assistant finance director, is made that presentation to the board. Last night, it was nothing crazy and wild and big spender or anything else like that in there.

00:17:57,370	Some things to point out are that we've created a number of full time equivalent positions, or FTEs, as we call them, over the last couple of years. And so there are no new FTEs, full time equivalent positions in our 2027 budget kind of holding the line there.

00:18:15,270	In June, we had the results of a salary study for employees and things like that. So we will implement those in 2027. And like you said. Other than that, pretty, pretty plain Jane budget a ton of things going on. Obviously our the valuation, we're making sure that we are in compliance with state law on the 3% budget cap.

00:18:37,070	And it's always important for us to note that a lot of the misunderstanding or a lot of the things people think are that, oh, my home value cannot go up by more than 3%, and that is not part of that.

00:18:57,800	It is your valuation is based on an interpretation of the market, and whether your home value goes up or down is based on what our what the market is, is telling us. And the budget is a function of our needs based budget for the city. And just going back, I thought that was interesting.

00:19:13,800	I didn't get a screenshot, but Justin was talking about that 3% plus growth and he had the growth in there. And I don't know what I had in my head, but it's, you know, man downs growing, but it doesn't add a significant amount. No, I think it was if I remember right, it maybe it was $104,000 or something like that.

00:19:27,770	So we are growing, but at times it's not at a pace that keeps up with, you know, your salaries and wages and things like that are growing probably more than that. But and we've, you know, we're making sure that that again, we are in compliance that computation is shown in that budget presentation.

00:19:45,870	And again, it's it's not a it's a complicated formula. I'll just put it that way. But we lay it out there in, in one of the most straightforward ways that we possibly can.

00:20:09,070	What does this mean to a homeowner if you have average value of a house is, I think, $300,000, the budgetary that was preliminary passed would mean a $12.83 per year increase in your property tax. So roughly a buck ten a month. Not too significant. But we understand everybody with tight budgets and things like that. And also one of the big parts of city budget is your utilities.

00:20:34,600	And we know that we have a wastewater treatment plant that is in need of replacement and repair and upgrades and things like that. So we have been gradually increasing those base rates and sewer rates for last year. We'll do it again for the next five years. We just don't want to come in and hit everybody with all at once.

00:20:50,970	So we're kind of working way up to that. If there are other funding opportunities which we continually look for that we can help reduce that. We will certainly do that. But right now we're budgeting for a worst case scenario where that entire project is built on the ratepayers.

00:21:13,100	So, you know, like I said, if if there are grant opportunities out there with Standard Dakota or the federal government or pick another granting agency that we can apply for and that we're successful in receiving, then those will help reduce those rates. And I just have the budget calendar here.

00:21:34,430	So the preliminary budget was passed last night leading up to October 6th, where the 2027 budget would be. Yeah. So last night again was the first consideration of the 2027 budget. We will have a public hearing and call for a public hearing, which will be held September 15th and then October, you know, do do some public input and some feedback we received.

00:21:54,970	It's like, okay, let's let's have the budget hearing. And normally we would have the budget hearing and then the commission would move to the second reading and pass the budget.

00:22:12,700	Right now we're giving it like a two week break to say we'll have the public hearing, any comments and things we can then fully consider, and then we'll come back two weeks later and pass that final budget in October. And Justin, I do have this QR code. He put up one. So I guess if you if you're watching along and you want to take your phone out, we can leave this up for a little bit.

00:22:25,070	But this will you can scan this and take the rights, more information. Scan that. It'll go right to more information. We did issue a press release last night that talks about. Here are the highlights of the 2027 budget. You can find that on our social media pages.

00:22:39,570	You can find it on our on our website and things like that. So if you're interested, please go there. And if you have questions, please reach out. This is part of being transparent in government. And here's the budget. If you have questions let us know. We want to hear your feedback. So yeah. And that that wrapped up our agenda last night.

00:22:56,670	Yeah I think the one thing we didn't talk about was we had a public hearing for Street Improvement Project. That is pretty important. And it's up, you know, in I think three or 4 or 5 years ago, we attempted a an improvement project near the high school to take care of eighth and 27th, all in one shot

00:23:13,130	before hoping the high school would be it would be done before the high school would open that protest. That district was protested out. There's been a little more time to there's been additional funding that has been made available through the federal government and other resources so that we had an assessment district created, sent letters

00:23:35,270	out, and we had only one one individual who owns several properties and then area protests. So I think the protest rate was 1.1%. So we look forward to finishing the design on the rest of eighth Avenue and also on 27th, over to that corner of eighth and 27th, and hopefully bid in November

00:23:56,130	and construction occurring starting this spring in 2027. So that would be a great addition for that area. Yeah, absolutely. Well next meeting is August 18th. We'll see you back here August 19th. All right. And for another episode of City Current. Until then, if you want to check out last night's City Commission meeting, please visit our website, DakotaMediaAccess.

00:24:18,570	org You can watch the whole meeting on demand. You can also find it on our DMA app. And if you're in the mood for some entertainment, download our Radio Access app. Lots of local music, local podcasts, local shows that you can listen to their. So. Until next time for Jim I'm Tom.

00:24:35,400	Have a great day! For more information on what was discussed in this episode of City Current, visit City of Mandan or call (701) 667-3215. 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, and also on Radio Access 102.5 FM.

00:25:02,700	It's also available as a podcast on Radio Access and as a video viewing link at FreeTV.org. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of City Current.