00:00:13,000	Welcome to this debate with the candidates for the Mandan City Commission. I'm Marnie Piehl, a member of the League of Women Voters, and I will be the moderator. This debate has been organized and the questions developed by the League of Women Voters, the Bismarck Tribune, the Bismarck Mandan Chamber, EDC, AARP of North Dakota and Dakota Media Access.

00:00:33,870	There are four candidates running for two open seats on the Mandan City Commission, and all four of the candidates have joined us here today. They are Heidi Belohlavek, Kenan Bullinger, James Carroll, and Ryan Heinsohn Our purpose is to provide voters with information about the candidates and on their positions and their positions on issues

00:00:55,530	that affect the citizens of Mandan. The candidates have not received these questions in advance. And viewers watching this debate live on April 23rd. May submit questions by texting L WVBIS Man152 to 22333 to join the session. Then text your question. That's LWVBISMAN152 and you text that to 22333. The debate format is as follows.

00:01:24,070	Each candidate has 60 seconds to make an opening statement and then after the opening statements, the candidates will respond to the questions that I ask. The first responses to questions will be rotated between the candidates, and each candidate will have 60 seconds to respond to each question.

00:01:44,330	After each candidate has responded to the question, there will be up to three additional minutes allowed for debate or additional comments from any or all candidates. After the final question, each candidate will then have 60s to make a closing statement. Candidate candidates are asked to comply with our time restrictions so we can get to as many questions as possible.

00:02:03,100	Our timer, which is over here, will let you know when your responses are down to 30 sec, then 10 sec, then stop for the debate segment. They will indicate when we're down to one minute and then stop. So now let's get to our candidates.

00:02:21,630	Each of you will have 60 seconds to make an opening statement, and we'll just start at the beginning. We'll start with Heidi. If you just tell us a little bit about yourself. Heidi. Good evening. Thank you. First of all, for putting this together to allow us to be up here and talk about ourselves a little bit more, for candidates. I think that's helpful, for the community to know us.

00:02:39,370	I have been living in Mandan since the mid 90s. And I love our community. I love the growth that has taken place. And I want to continue to see more changes and more growth. I'm a firm believer that if you want to see change, you have to get off your couch and do something about it.

00:02:59,600	I do understand that there needs to be a good balance between changes for the city that's necessary and keeping financial burdens down for the taxpayers. And so I will make sure that I'm listening to both sides of situations, before I make my final decisions. And I look forward to meeting many of the community members. Thank you.

00:03:23,630	Thank you. Then we'll move on to James 60 seconds. Thank you. Good evening. I am James Carroll. I'm a certified public accountant. I was born and raised in Moffitt, North Dakota, which is about 35 miles away. My wife and I moved to Mandan in 2019. We've planted roots here. Here in Mandan.

00:03:41,730	And we now have two young kids. I'm running for a city commission here to focus on smart growth, financial, responsible financial spending and transparency. I have experience across different sectors. I've worked for a regional engineering firm. Out of college, I worked for the Bismarck Mandan Convention and Visitors Bureau, which focuses on tourism in the area.

00:04:02,700	And then now I currently work as the chief financial officer for the North Dakota State Auditor's Office. Having worked in the private sector and the public sector. I know what it takes to get the job done. I look forward to tonight's debate and showing why I'm an excellent candidate for the citizens of Mandan. Thank you.

00:04:19,830	Thank you, James. Kenan. We'll move on to your 60s. Thank you. I was born and raised in Mandan, many years ago. I'm a graduate of Mandan High School. I went on to, college at BGC that's how long ago I graduated.

00:04:44,230	It was BJC back then, but now BSC after that I went up to UMD and finished my education, with a degree in biology. And, and zoology, and then, moved back to town. And I've been working, in the local area with the state health department for just about 30, 34 years.

00:05:11,900	So I've retired with, a pretty strong government background, having worked with a lot of the local health departments and city health departments, as well as some federal agencies like EPA and the Food and Drug Administration. Thank you. And Ryan, please, 60s. Yeah. Good evening. I'm Ryan Heinsohn And thank you to the league for having us tonight.

00:05:34,100	I was born here, spent most of my life here outside of, years that I was spent at in Grand Forks at college. Currently, I serve as a vice president of the board. City commissioners. I've served in that capacity, for the last 7 or 7 months. Excuse me. I'm in an appointed position on the, city commission. I oversee the portfolio of public works.

00:05:55,100	Also a newly created, information technology portfolio. That was created, when I came on board. I serve as the vice president of the Mandan Progress organization. Also, president of the Mandan Morton Community Fund. Full time. I work for a community based technology company. Working with business products and services.

00:06:16,270	That puts me and with a lot of businesses, daily, in and out of businesses in our community. And, love hearing what's working, what's not for these businesses and these residents, but also to to lend an ear and hopefully, help them along in their, in their endeavors. Thank you. All right. Thank you all for, helping us get to know you a little better.

00:06:32,870	And then we'll move on to the questions. I'm going to take turns with each of you. As I said, you'll each have a chance to be the first to respond, but we're going to go back to the beginning again, and I'll have Heidi respond to this first question first. And you have 60s.

00:06:47,300	What impact do you believe the new state law capping capping property taxes at 3% will have on the 2027 and future budgets?

00:06:58,630	I honestly, I don't have an answer for that. I don't know how how that affected that property taxes. I know giving, the property buybacks, credit lowered property taxes. I assume that that had some impact on the amount that each city receives or each entity of the community receives from that.

00:07:22,230	So at this point, I don't have enough information to be able to successfully answer that question. Thank you. James. Same question. I can repeat it if that's helpful to you. No. Thank you. I think that we were all happy to receive the $1,600, in the property tax credit here, recently.

00:07:42,370	So I know the state is working to to push, property taxes down the 3%. Max on budgets will affect the city of ten. You know, because we depend on property taxes. I do like it as a citizen, even though I know it will impact the budgeting for the city. And I think is going to make things interesting to develop different ways, that we can generate revenue.

00:08:05,600	I think that the alternatives of developing fees or additional sales tax to offset some of that might help, but those are just things to consider as we get involved in the commission.

00:08:22,970	All right, Kenan what impact do you believe the new state law capping property taxes at 3% will have on the 2027 and future budgets? Well, it certainly will have an impact. When you limit what local, governments can do in raising taxes, taxes really hamstrings them and what they can do, in, in, can with, abiding by that 3%.

00:08:44,370	I know it's going to be difficult. At whatever percent, the, property taxes, are levied upon, especially the elderly, those that are retired. I know that's going to be difficult, to make any type of, decent, wage or retirement in it, which will enable them to, pay their, property tax. Thank you.

00:09:21,100	And finally, Ryan, your response? Everyone knows that, you know, compared to our our sister city, you know, our our sales tax is less so. Property taxes have been one of those mechanisms. Like it it or not that it funded essential services. We were when I came on to the commission, the city was operating in a one year budget.

00:09:40,900	Under the direction of the new mayor. We very quickly moved to a five year budget plan, and now we're in a ten year budget plan. So we had to get we had to get down or get with all the departments. For for many meetings and figure out needs and wants, and work through that.

00:09:56,430	And ultimately, we ended up as a city. I think we're at we're at 2.2% increases where we ended up. So Mandan is in a good spot. When it came to, we weren't maxed out on the cap. But we we still need those funds for essential services.

00:10:14,270	And, a big part of that is things that we've seen in the future with, other developments coming in, fire safety and things that will probably be a question later. So thank you. Well, thank you all. We do now. Have you have an opportunity to, make any other comments on that question? Anyone have an additional comment? All right. If no additional comments will move to the next question.

00:10:34,170	And James, your first out of the chute for this one. What is your position on street improvement project to be and why? Very specific. Yes. Thank you. Infrastructure in the city is very important, right? We all like to drink clean water. We all like to have the services that are provided by the infrastructure.

00:10:54,470	That is a very difficult question because there are people on both sides that are on how one is unhappy, one is happier, right? The city needs to improve the infrastructure to make sure that things are taking care of the residents. I can see their frustration receiving $20,000 special assessment bill.

00:11:13,000	Special assessments need to be considered of going away. We need to look at different opportunities and different alternatives to, taking that cost and allocating it over, a greater base because we can't have, people on fixed incomes and elderly people that don't have, much of a, I guess, increase in their income outside of Cola

00:11:34,000	having to pay $20,000 and losing their house. So, I really think that we need to consider alternatives, and and that's how we don't have issues like to be in the future. Thank you. Kenan. Same question. Yeah, that's an interesting one.

00:11:53,700	And I know it, raised some concern and made made the news with some of the people that were assessed that, $20,000 property tax over on the west, west part of Mandan. Some people thinking they were going to have to sell their homes. Elderly. Who wouldn't be able to afford that? And, I think what we need to do is make sure that we come up with an equitable way.

00:12:17,370	And I don't know how to do that. I've been thinking about this a lot, and how we can make those payments on special assessments, maybe stretch out over 20 a 20 year time frame,

00:12:32,500	so they can, adequately stay in their homes, not sell them, and have to move on, to another, part of town or in a different type of living. Thank you. All right. Ryan, same question to be. So serving when it was first proposed and then it was voted out.

00:13:01,730	And then the second time around, there was significant water breaks and there was significant cost to the, to the city to fix these breaks. People without water for, for a day or two days, you know, elderly citizens, two people running home businesses. So definitely see that side.

00:13:22,700	I, I'm interested in alternatives like, James had mentioned to, we'll see what what Bismarck looks at again with the utility fee, past, you know, among, you know, multiple parties throughout the whole city, but then you're paying that indefinitely forever, and not the 20 or 15 years assessment. I think a lot of people are focused on the interest, too. Like like a mortgage, right.

00:13:43,100	But that 2%, spend on that or 2% interest on those project is pretty low. I think we see it to be down is it's not going forward because there is no grant funding for the State Water Commission because they're out of money. So it's not going any further. Thank you. And then back to Heidi for that same question.

00:13:56,170	Your thoughts on street improvement Project, to be sure. So obviously nobody wants to pay special assessments. So that is a difficult subject to, throw out to the public. However, what we need to recognize is that infrastructure is is a major, major proponent of the house values and the safety and the health of our of our community.

00:14:18,170	And we cannot, just let these infrastructures fail. We have to maintain them. And the sooner that we can get in and maintain these properties, and these infrastructures, the cheaper that they, they become. So the longer we wait to, to repair them, it's going to obviously cost more. And we are seeing that in this tube district.

00:14:41,100	We need to find a good balance where we can maintain and keep that maintenance up, but keep those costs low. And there should be some other ways that we can alternate find alternatives. But that funding is hard. Like Ryan said, it does go away if it's not used. So thank you.

00:14:59,000	Does anyone have any additional comments on that question? Any additional. Comments? Yeah I do. So I think the commission is taking, a movement here in the last year or two to develop a capital improvement plan to be forward looking and instead of reacting to the situation at hand. I completely agree with that.

00:15:19,970	I think we need to continue to look five, ten, 15 years down the road. A lot of the infrastructure in Mandan right now is is falling apart and is behind the times. And so we're behind the eight ball and we're having to pay for costs now because everything needs to be replaced.

00:15:33,530	We are in a tough situation being where we're located with Bismarck on the other side of the river. We can't have a 12% sales tax. And across the river they have eight, because people will drive across and we lose that sales tax base.

00:15:46,730	So I don't necessarily like the idea of stretching a loan out over 20 years, because then that house has 20 years worth of payments on it. But it does make that monthly payment more affordable.

00:16:04,170	One thing I would really like to try to do, if I was elected, is to start looking forward and developing a fund balance, to pay for these infrastructure projects instead of being reactionary to what is going on. So. Thank you. Any other comments? Okay. I would also sorry.

00:16:28,800	I would also like to to point out that, lengthening the, the payment structure would be a difficult situation for engineering department and the city to manage, because when you have an assessment of 20 years, it's important that you get back in there and do road maintenance every 7 to 10 years to maintain that life. People aren't going to want to have a second assessment on their property when you already have one for 20 years. So I don't know that the answer is stretching out those payments longer.

00:16:45,230	I think there needs to be a solution with how can we do maintenance more frequently, but keep those costs lower? So that that is where we need to focus on right now.

00:17:01,600	And I think, Jarek and Riley and the engineering department is trying to get a handle on how do we get our roads fixed now and then maintain them so that they don't get in this condition again? And how do we get our water mains replaced? So thank you. Any other comments? Yeah. I just add, echo what Heidi said about stretching it out to and Jane James as well.

00:17:18,900	You know, if I heard a lot with to be of do the underground and then come back and do the roads maybe later when the roads ultimately need to be replaced later.

00:17:36,330	Doing that, you lose that 2% money, and then you have more and more years that you're paying, and the cumulative amount would be more than doing it all at once. Everybody knows digging it up once is the way you want to do it and not have to come back. But spreading those dollars, finding other mechanisms to to pay. I'm very grant focused.

00:17:56,070	If there's not grant money to, to do these projects, they can't go forward because we can't put $20,000 on on everybody. Okay. Well, we're going to move on to the next question. I think you're all going to like it. Kenan, you're the first to answer. How do you propose paying for the aging infrastructure needs in the city? We were just talking about that.

00:18:14,000	Certainly, that ties right into what we were just discussing.

00:18:19,470	You know, you got to rely on those special assessments. I mean, the city doesn't, I know they work very hard at getting every grant dollar available, whether it's state or federal or whatever.

00:18:47,630	But, we need to keep it at a minimum is to, how much the, taxpayers can pay for those, repairs and waiting is certainly not going to, help it. You got it. You got to do it once. And, as Ryan had mentioned, you you don't want to go in and fix the roads and then come back the following year to and and dig up, and replace the water mains or the service lines or the sewer lines.

00:19:14,170	So, I guess that's my. Time's up. You'll have a chance to talk again. Ryan. Same question. When I started in this position, I had no idea we'd have over 30 projects and 400 plus million dollars in an aging infrastructure. That's a lot.

00:19:38,800	You know, so the commission right away with that, James referenced the capital improvement plan that that was really good. For the first time, the commission evaluated every project, all 30 of those, 30 some of those projects. And we scored on based on what we felt, was most important. And there scored. Majority of time, I think myself as well as the other commissioners.

00:20:00,730	We when there's outside funding, we have to be ready to pivot and move those up the chain. And sticking with that from my perspective is, is the way we helped pay for it, because I like to be, for example, that would have been a $40,000 project without grant funding. So we have to find those. Highly same question.

00:20:19,100	How do you propose paying for the aging infrastructure needs in the city. At this point, with the size of the city, I don't think that there's a way to really eliminate special assessments. As Ryan has stated and and has stated, it's important to get that additional funding, those grant moneys. Find any resources that we can to help buy down those costs.

00:20:42,330	I know the city of Bismarck. It's been mentioned that they are looking to do, a utility fee. I don't think that that is the best answer in our size of a city. I mean, it's helpful, but it's not going to eliminate the special assessments. These needs are too big to completely eliminate them.

00:21:00,900	So we have to find other ways. James mentioned funds, starting funds. Where that starts. It's. It's hard to find that beginning point. Do you use sales tax or do you use property tax? I don't know that answer, but I do know that special assessments aren't going to completely go away.

00:21:21,330	We just need to find ways to minimize those expenses towards everyone else. Same question for you, James. Unfortunately, I think any of the change that we make will be quick. Ray, we are in a place where this is going to have to progress over many years.

00:21:41,800	So if we have to start somewhere, I think developing a fund where we're future looking and we're restricting those funds to infrastructure, because the last thing we want to do is collect more money in the general fund. Because then that pretty much opens it to be spent anywhere. So we have to be responsible with our spending.

00:21:56,370	We have to provide the services, but we don't need to grow government to to like we are a private business, so we need to start leveraging some of the technology. I and anything. So we're not doing what we did last time. We're not doing what we did last year. So I think that, we need to look at, the deferred maintenance across the city.

00:22:14,730	It's a problem across all types of government. You take more, I'll continue in the next section. But we really need to look at different uses. Special assessments aren't going to go away next year, but they should go away in the future. Okay.

00:22:34,270	And I'll open it if you have any other comments, any of you on that question? I just wanted to add that, you know, it may be tough to get any state dollars, and during the upcoming legislative session. Starting in January, the governor is already, requiring agencies to submit budgets that are less than what they are currently appropriated.

00:22:59,270	And they are taking, he has taken, the opportunity to offer buyouts to a lot of state employees. So he can he can, employ a reduction in and force, to save some money. So it's going to be tough to get those state dollars to help with this. So, we'll have to be creative and try to figure out how we're going to, fund these, local needs.

00:23:27,000	Any other comments? Sure. I love James's comment about technology and utilizing technology to improve the way we do things. In the statement of not doing things, the same way, because we've always done it that way. And one thing I wanted to add is that, certain projects like wastewater projects have never been, available for state funding.

00:23:51,000	Our current administration did testify, administrator Neubauer on, on behalf and, and lobbied some, some of our local legislature. Slater's. Excuse me, to try to see if if that can can help because the other big project we have that has no outside funding is is our wastewater, plant. That's that's coming up, too.

00:24:13,970	So, continuing to work with our our state delegation. Is the candidate say is the money is said, is the money going to be there? We don't know. But it doesn't mean that we can't start trying to lobby those efforts because it doesn't happen overnight. Any other comments? We have a a little bit more time. Okay.

00:24:31,900	Well, Ryan, it's your turn to be first on this next question. What is your position on the continuation of the sales tax on the ballot in June? The are we talking about the the styrene sales tax in particular? I think so. Sorry. In sales tax. Yes.

00:24:54,230	I, I think it's great that it it is way ahead of schedule. It shows that business is strong in this community. I like I liked how the styrene was funded initially with that mechanism. I think it makes sense. The steering continues to drive people to our community, and it's a great asset.

00:25:19,900	And using those dollars for specific project, like fire safety that is much needed in our area or in our city and northwest Mandan is a great mechanism to move those dollars, doing it on sales tax versus, in the budget. Thank you. Heidi. Same question. Actually, I agree with Ryan on on a majority of that.

00:25:41,000	I am glad to see that this end is going to be paid off way ahead of schedule. That is fantastic. It does. As he said. It shows growth in our community. I think a new fire station is urgently needed in our city. Especially in that north part, by the Red Trail area. Fire is is fire. And police are big proponents of our safety.

00:26:02,000	Not only does it, I mean, 15 minute response time is not adequate for a fire, fire call, but it also reduces property owners insurance rates if they're close to a fire station. So I think it is definitely urgent that we build that fire station. I'm glad that we have a resource available to do that.

00:26:23,230	Without having to tax burden taxpayers any further. Thank you. James, what's your position on the continuation of the starting sales tax on the ballot in June? Yes. Thank you. So living close to the couple of apartments that we saw go up in flames in the last 5 to 10 years.

00:26:44,270	I understand that fire fighters and police are extremely important to the community. Public safety is an essential service. What? My thoughts are on the sales tax piece is that it shouldn't be going to the firefighters. We should be paying for our essential services out of our general fund.

00:27:01,530	Our sales tax base should be paying for things above and beyond our general fund that we are looking to do. So I agree that the spending needs to happen. I don't necessarily agree with the fact that it's paying for the firefighting piece of it.

00:27:17,170	We should be paying for that out of our general fund, and we should be looking at how can we maybe become more efficient with our dollars, with our sales tax base, and maybe not loading our general fund with the spending that we have? And then depending on the sales tax and pay for our firefighters. All right. And Ken, in your response. Unfortunately, I'd have to disagree with the previous speaker here.

00:27:35,370	I don't know that we could come up with the money needed. To add a, a new fire station in the northwest part of town where it's certainly needed. And as I understand, the response times in the southwest part of Mandan also, it's a long way from any of the fire stations. So, I think it's a great opportunity.

00:28:00,870	Keeping that three quarter percent, 7.75% in place to help fund that. Another important part of that was to add an emergency operations center at the facility in the northwest part, of Mandan. And, keeping that away from, a situation where you would be flooding out the emergency operations center.

00:28:28,230	So having it at that fire station would be would be ideal. Thank you all for those responses. Now we have a three minutes. If you'd like to make any additional comments.

00:28:41,100	I'm just going to add that I'm not on the record. I mean, I want to be on the record saying I support the firefighters. I think we need to look at the funding and how it's being proposed and being taken care of. We should be paying for essential services with our general fund.

00:28:54,430	That's the purpose of property taxes. We should be looking at how our city sales tax can be benefited towards other things. Should our city sales tax be paying for some of our infrastructure such as Memorial Highway and different types like that? I support firehouse three. I live right down the road from it.

00:29:10,330	The response time is from firehouse one. Right now are too long. So I'm totally in support of it. But I think we need to look at the funding mechanisms that take care of. Any other comments? Sure. Yeah. I like the idea of taking a look at the general fund as well.

00:29:28,000	But a lot of people don't know is that fire station two and talking about the, Lakewood area? That really wasn't fully staffed for about 16 years. And staffing is a big part of the general budget. So staffing and firefighters, a 24 over seven operation that that cost. That's a big part of the general the general budget there.

00:29:49,170	And it procurement of equipment. One statistic I heard, during a meeting, I should say, is fire trucks cost like $1.3 million, and they take like, six years to get here. So we gotta we got a budget for those long, a long time in advance, as well. And, yeah, the response times in northwest May.

00:30:07,800	I know our fire department wants four minute response times when seconds matter and minutes matter and our fire department is first responders. Not a lot of people know that for, for for general medical, response as well. So, we'd need to lower those response times and, but I wouldn't be opposed to consider looking at the general fund again.

00:30:26,600	Another way of of looking at it and seeing if there's dollars to support it. Any other comments? Okay. Next question. We're back to Heidi starting again.

00:30:46,430	What ideas do you have for attracting and retaining law enforcement? That that feels, like a loaded question. I think for the city of Mandan, to be competitive, to keep law enforcement, their wages have to go up. But again, you're getting back to where does the money come from for their wages? It's hard to maintain a staff when right across the river, they're able to pay more.

00:31:08,800	I think that in order to to retain the the employees that we have, we have to look at the wages. So that's going to have to come out of the general fund or their other resources.

00:31:29,470	But honestly, I think as long as we're competing with Bismarck for wages, we're going to have troubles keeping a lot of, personnel in any department. So I don't I don't feel like there's a very successful answer for, for me right now. So. Sorry. Thank you. James. Again, it's a tough situation with our sister city of Bismarck, and we're constantly training officers, constantly hiring new officers.

00:31:56,100	And then they go across the river in three years, and make more money. I understand it. I probably would do the same thing, for the same type of job. What we could do is offer different types of benefits.

00:32:12,800	I don't have too many specific examples, but is there a tuition reimbursement that we are able to do? Is there some kind of certification policy? These may be in place, I'm not sure, but we need to look at offering other benefits outside of the traditional health and dental and the pay we need to offer family first.

00:32:31,630	I know that's a tough thing to say in those types of professions where they're working, overnight shifts or whatnot, but how can we make it more lucrative for you to work for Mandan, even though your your final paycheck may not be what it could be in Bismarck? Thank you. And your thoughts on, attracting and retaining law enforcement? Well, it's difficult, with a lot of types of employment. It's tough to compete with Bismarck. And it's been mentioned previously. That is a difficult thing.

00:32:55,630	When the the Missouri River is the only thing that separates us. You'd like to see a unified, law enforcement, response. And a lot of times they will help each other, certainly in big, situations where it's needed. Wages are important, certainly, but it's tough to compete.

00:33:22,000	There are a lot of, law enforcement personnel that just can't handle the stress of the job. And, they're quitting. Not because of the wages, but they've discovered that it's just a little too much stress for them and the family to be able to, to continue employment. And in that regard.

00:33:40,370	Okay. Moving on to Ryan, your fiance. I know over the last few years, there's been, that's been a topic not just for law enforcement questions, law enforcement, but that, I think holds true for fire departments, certainly holds true for the public works portfolio as well.

00:33:59,470	Those are very transferable, job skill set that can transfer over to Bismarck very easy or other communities, oil field and such. So, I think we've we've done some things on the health insurance, being able to be, for, for families on the health insurance plan by being eligible right away, and churning those, those terms. But it's, it's wages to be more to be more competitive.

00:34:21,170	But, you know, it's culture as well. And I think people, this is a different community than Bismarck, and we can't pretend to be them. And, and we have some really good things going in department heads that I think create good culture, too. And that's important.

00:34:38,770	So, we also changed, infant policy, you know, for to help with new moms and stuff. But that's tough in law enforcement if we're talking about cops on the street and stuff, too. So of any other comments that anyone wants to make on that question about law enforcement.

00:34:55,900	Okay. We'll move on to the next question, and we'll start with James. What have you learned or observed from the Memorial Highway project and what would you do differently, if anything?

00:35:09,170	Living in northwest Mandan? I can say probably right now I have the luxury of not driving on Memorial Highway too often. For the current state. I did go down Memorial Highway yesterday from the east end to the west End, and it took me 15 plus minutes at 5:00, and it's frustrating.

00:35:27,800	I can only feel extremely bad for those business owners. It's it's not a fun, fun thing to be going through, maybe for one year, but this is going to be a multiple year project. Outside of the construction, I'm not sure what can be done differently. It's a major project. It's going to take time.

00:35:48,600	It's going to be there's it's going to cause disruptions. The one piece that I would like to look at in the future for something like this is why business owners in that area are receiving such a high property tax bill. When there's everybody in the city that utilizes that type of that road.

00:36:05,170	Even myself in northwest Mandan goes down it quite frequently. Thank you. And then same question. Well, I do travel down, the more of the the strip, as they call it. Quite often I live, up by the Mandan. Why? Yeah.

00:36:29,530	So I do travel, and I like to go down the strip, not only to see how the progress is, is going with the, new four lane that'll be out there. I've actually worked with some of the businesses that are out on the strip, and they have provided good access, to the businesses. And, many of those businesses can be easily accessed.

00:36:52,500	You just got to, find a way when you can get to them. But there are a variety of those shoots off the, the south side of the strip to get to those businesses that are open. I think that's it. Okay. All right.

00:37:16,500	And what have you learned or observed from Memorial Highway Project and what would you do differently, if anything? Time machine, you know, it should have been done 20 years earlier, like everybody says. Right. But here we are.

00:37:35,700	It is a D-o-t led project, right? So really, the city's function in this at this point, not saying things couldn't change, but I see us as the facilitator when when businesses are asking, hey, my access is cut off or saw something the other day about it not having a sign, you know, to to designate access to facilitate that to the proper D.O.T. folks. And there's an onsite supervisor every day. They're, helping, working with the businesses. We've done the gift card program, you know, through the the man in progress.

00:37:55,370	That's it's one thing that the city can do through, through the the growth fund there. But it the ship is a strong economic corridor. We need it. We need it to be successful. I think us we serve as a facilitator to to have those communications with the D.O.T.. And hopefully it goes smooth the rest of this year.

00:38:15,630	And, Heidi, your thoughts on that question? Sure. As Ryan said, it probably should have been done many years ago. There is really no easy way to do this trip. It is a very, big stretch of road, four lanes with the turning lane.

00:38:32,000	Yeah, we can use half of it, but we still have to process this road for multiple years. It's not going to be a one year project. I love that the city is putting, that gift card incentive out there to try to get people to visit these businesses because they always do struggle, even though they do have access.

00:38:50,370	It does make people deter their routes, when planning where they want to be. I have learned or heard that utilities are not where they are supposed to be, and there has been a lot of, water main hits or, fiber hits. And I think that is really slowed. The project down as well.

00:39:14,630	So having better drawings and better, information going forward will be helpful for any future projects. I am happy to see how they have urbanized it with curb and gutter and sidewalk. It will really help our community. Thank you. And I can open up if you'd like to, make more comments on that question.

00:39:33,530	Anyone have additional comments on the Memorial Highway? They kind of stole my thunder with the gift cards. I was just going to keep plugging that. Support your businesses. She brought up a really good point about the utilities. If we can have as minimal disruptions to the businesses, that are controlled, I mean, that would be or uncontrolled, sorry, uncontrolled, business disruptions. That would be fantastic.

00:39:54,100	Just get down there, support them. And the one other thing that I guess I would do differently right now is that two of our main entrances into Mandan Memorial and then Main Street are currently both under construction as you come in.

00:40:08,370	So that's why when I had to get to the west end of the strip, the other day, it was, which were, lesser of two evils do I choose? So if we can alleviate pressure on that corridor, that would be a one small change that would make. Any other comments? I think everybody can agree. It's going to be great when it's when it's done. Right.

00:40:28,530	We see it. Business owners are excited for it to be done.

00:40:35,630	But, also to James's comment about, you know, the special assessment, to those businesses. I want to touch on that because I think, you know, there is there is a citywide assessment for Memorial Highway, but it's small in comparison to, businesses that are right on the Memorial Highway corridor and, second tier corridor.

00:40:59,970	That was one thing that that I had felt I, I had hoped that we could spread that out a little more, but also there was conversations where there's a lot of people that are not like the four of us that say we do travel it, that say, I never travel it, and and should I pay for it?

00:41:16,530	And and those are hard. Those are hard things to to weigh. But I think there, there is a substantial assessment to those and businesses and we more than ever have to support them. Any other comments on that question? I was just going to add in your last sentence.

00:41:39,900	What is what I'm going to touch on as well? There is great access to those businesses. And I think at a time during this construction, we need to support those businesses as best we can. There's, access. I've been up and down. Excuse me? I've been up and down the strip quite a little bit. And, every business out there has, you know, they're staggered a little bit.

00:42:02,170	You might have to go down the road a little ways to find the access off it, but you should be able to visit all those. And it's time we support those as best we can through this difficult time. Don't avoid going down the strip. Go out there and shop for it. So that was our last question.

00:42:22,070	You've been so thorough and had such great answers, but now you have the opportunity to, provide a closing statement. You'll each get 60s. And I think just for the sake of fairness, we'll start at the opposite end. Since we started with Heidi at the beginning. Heidi, have the last word.

00:42:38,800	Ryan, if you could give us 60s of, your closing statements, please. Sure. Appreciate the league for holding this debate. And the viewers who took time to viewing tonight and watching it, watching it later. Humbly ask for your vote in June. If I'm elected to serve again, I'll continue to be accessible when you need me. Take time to understand both sides of issues. It's always important.

00:42:58,370	Support decisions that improve our quality of life and continued commitment to, financial responsibility, fiscal responsibility. I saw more to learn. Certainly do. I'll be the first to admit it, but I'm energized by the growth we've made these past two years on the commission, and I'd be honored to continue to serve.

00:43:18,100	I pride myself on being approachable, transparent, solutions focused and respectful. Between now and the election, I would welcome any questions or feedback. And thank you for your time. Thank you. Rob Cannon 60s. Well, I appreciate the opportunity from the League of Women Voters. It's been a pleasure, meeting with some of the folks as I travel around and and, visit with people around town.

00:43:51,970	It's it's going to be a great, finish. The especially the strip.

00:44:05,430	But, I would appreciate your vote. Come June 9th. I have the time, to do it. I'm retired. And also, am good with working with other agencies, whether it's the EPA, the FDA, state and local health units. I had 33 years working with other agencies. All right. Thank you. James, your 60s to close. I'll echo their. Thank you.

00:44:37,730	To the League of Women Voters for putting this on. It's probably not easy. Probably take more time than we realize. So. Thank you. I really appreciate the voters, vote in June. Ryan made a great point that we don't know everything. We won't know everything. We are.

00:44:57,430	I've shown that I'm willing to learn something by studying for my CPA, passing my CPA tests, and and learning that. So I'm willing to dive into the city of Mandan and any portfolio that exists and try to learn those and and try to help the people. My number one, Clifton strength is harmony.

00:45:15,100	So understanding both sides and working with the people, I don't like to see people upset. That's where I focus. But if you don't take anything else away. I'm experienced in government accounting, and, I'm want to make sure that Mandan is fiscally responsible and transparent so that spending is processes. So again, thank you and get out and vote on June 9th. Thank you, James and Heidi.

00:45:35,000	60s to close. Okay. Well, I. Feel like it's a broken record at this point. So I just wanted to say I do not claim to have all the answers. I am more than willing to dig in and get information, and I like to ask a lot of questions to get an idea of the entire picture.

00:45:54,370	So when I make a decision, I'm going to make a decision after having all of the knowledge from both sides. I am very approachable. If people in the community see me and they want to ask me questions. I would love those questions. I feel that the better you can educate, the better you have support.

00:46:10,970	So I am here to answer questions and, work my hardest to get an even balance of community and taxpayer satisfaction. So I would appreciate your vote, in June. Thank you. Thank you all for being here tonight.

00:46:38,170	And I also wish to thank Dakota media access, the Bismarck Mandan Chamber, EDC, The Bismarck Tribune, AARP of North Dakota, and the volunteers from the League of Women Voters for organizing this debate. Thank you to the voters for taking the time to learn more about our Mandan City Commission candidates and issues. This program will air several times on the Midco channel 602. It will also be available on demand on DakotaMediaAccess.

00:46:55,370	org and on the Dakota Dakota Media Access apps, which include the iOS system, Android, Apple TV and Roku in the days leading up to the June 9th election. Before we close this debate, we remind you that you will need a form of identification to vote in North Dakota.

00:47:17,370	You can find identification requirements and additional voting information on the websites or at the offices of your county auditor and the North Dakota Secretary of State, and for candidate profiles, please visit vote 411.org. Thank you.