City Current - Mandan 8-5-26

Coming up on this edition of City Current, we'll recap last night's Mandan City Commission meeting. Taking a look at the 27 preliminary budget. We'll have construction updates from multiple projects, including Memorial Highway and results from the 2025 audit. 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. I'm Tom Geraher from Dakota Media Access. Thanks for joining me. And Jim Neubauer, manned end city administrator. Good morning, Tom. It's always a pleasure to be here. So thanks for having us. A little break in the 100 degree days. Happy over. Feels pretty good today outside and looking forward 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. Right. 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 0.000 1% left, but that's looking good. I think the contractors and the engineers went on a, what they call a walkthrough, physical walkthrough last Wednesday morning where they go through and create a punch list of all those items that need to be addressed as before they get to final completion. So. Um, that's happened and, uh, 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. I think, um, the comments that we have heard so far is that it is a great look and, um, obviously it took a little longer than was expected, but at the end of the day, um, 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 as we'll see it all. No more references to waive you bacon. No more way of the roads. When you transition from the recently reconstructed part to the older part, there is a dip there or not a dip to pay on which way you're traveling. But again, construction activity continues. So we're asking the public to on the west end, you know, it is 25 miles an hour. 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 too. They did give that project status update on the West End last night where construction is ongoing and right. 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 bound lanes are. completed 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 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 Hart River. So there's a lot of equipment. There's a couple of cranes on standby or 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 again, Aston. ask the traveling public to be mindful of the workers 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 there. Very visible part of our downtown area that we're moving from the west side of 6th Avenue over to east to Susan Collins in that area on the avenues that need to be reconstructed. The contractor ran into some issues on the first leg of that with some pipe that needed to be. especially ordered to fit into the existing pipe that's there. So some of those underground things are unexpected, but again, this project is moving along. There's concrete going down as we speak and it seems to be taking it 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 Jerich last night, pretty much complete. There was a walkthrough taking place and so almost ready to put that one to bed. Yeah, this project started in 2025 in 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 homeowner sprinkler systems that need to be taken care of yet and some other smaller items that. that are left out there right now and uh 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 um reconstruction of those and some mill and overlays in that that area that um have needed it 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 need to be reconstructed. There's some sub-base issues going on, but again, we, uh, this one is moving right along. 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. I was going to put that up for people to scan, but see if I can find out what we're talking about grill with a cop. That'll take place August 13th, that Eagles Park. August 13th from 537.30, please, you know, there's always some public works trucks up there. The PD will have our dog Medvee.

out doing probably some demonstrations as usual, and they will have our drone pilots with flying 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. Yeah, suddenly, I have a stroll. Yep. So again, it's free hot dogs, hamburgers, bag of chips, water, and a cookie usually comes along with that. I heard Rotwurst mentioned last night. Yes, 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 our police officers, our firefighters. It's much better to get to know them when it's not an emergency situation and then it is when it is an emergency situation. So great event. Usually well attended by, I think, 800 to 1,000 people. So again, please feel free. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and it won't be 105 degrees. And snow cones, I think, are going to be provided up there. So again, we appreciate all of, you know, our entire police forces up there helping out during that. time period. We still have folks that are out in the community protecting us. It's not. Everybody's. It isn't all hands on deck. And like I said, they do a great job with it. So thank you to Chief Sigler and all of our people in the man, NPE, that help out with us. Ninth annual and, I mean, start a school is just around the corner. Absolutely. Yeah, you just had to say that. I didn't. I did. We can edit that out maybe in post-production. Let's move on to the new business and, uh, talked about some multi-use shops in the Marina Bay area. Shop condos, and these will be going up on the many people who have frequented Marina Bay or the Broken Ore area will be driving through the area that there will be additional shop condos place in that area. You know, we are cognizant of some of the stormwater drainage issues that the public has brought up. And therefore, you know, requirements on the developer here are pretty stringent as what happens with stormwater and things like that. But I think you'll see an improved roadway going up to the broken ore and in that area. So again, I'm 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 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. 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 Man Am. And if 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. It 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 Mindy Piaz from Brady Martz came to the podium last night to give results of the audit from 2025 and I've not looked good. 2025 audit. Cudos 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 approves it. Our team on our end is doing an awesome job. And, you know, it is a heavy lift 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 project, road projects, other things that we do. So again, a really good news from our auditors to do that. One page caught my attention. It was an overall financial highlights. mentioned your assets increased, your debt decreased, it just seemed like a pretty healthy page to pass along. Yeah, it's a good balance. 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, one or two years ago, 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 count that 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. So some pretty good things that are going on there. We again, we strive to have. you know, what your fund balance really means. And when you increase your fund balance, is that for every dollar in new spending that you have to really have a dollar 25. So for every dollar we spend, we need a buck in a quarter. 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 um when I'll call it the internet or the World Wide Web, I really date myself. A lot of people thought that that internet access libraries are 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. And along with Dight Shorn Park, this area has been called the City of Manend's living room. Yeah. Where people go together, um, socialize, get together, get informed information, um, going on. So like I said, Barb and her crew do a great job. The, you know, we do passports and which a lot of, whether it's a post office or wherever you might go or 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, um, you know,

We offer that as a service to the public. It is you need to pay for it, right? But again, it's one of those services that Barb and her crew have started offering and continued 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, you know, kudos to her crew for doing all that work. And I probably shouldn't say because, 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? And it is all demand and residence, Morton County, Bismarck, Burley, pick your favorite, Dickinson, my not. They have people coming from around the Western North Dakota area to have their passports done because they know they can get in and that 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. It's interesting when you break that down into the, you know, 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 vocation make it a really special place for Mandan. 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 plan to open that. It sounded like maybe next May or June. 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 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. The Barb talked about Morty, the Bookmobile. The Bobbill does not only just go out to rural Morton County. It is also going within the city limits in Mandan, too. So again, it's just not a going out outside of Mandan. 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 a, it's kind of a milestone, I guess, in talking to Lindsay, that, you know, we were at 99 last year and now we're at 106, I think, fixed base aircraft out at the airport, if that's the right term for it. Um, but again, crossing that 100 threshold means I think there's additional funding opportunities that open up to help out with, like, with the man in airport. So it is a busy place. I know Lindsay had, we had the skydivers out there over the four cool holiday. They showed last night. I, uh, actually was.

From my back deck, I can see watching them one evening when they were doing their skydiving. And my 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. 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. So whether you're flying in on Saturday or Sunday or late in the evening and you need fuel, she has to physically. Go on site. Go on site. When we were growing up, you have attendance at the gas station. Right. She's not out washing windows, checking your oil and all that good stuff for you. That really dates me. But again, Lindsay does a great job at the airport, and we're very fortunate to have the airport within part of our city. And again, another big thing is the airport signage out there. It's kind of a cheesy. Sure. Not a cheesy old one because that would be discrediting the folks who did the old one. But I think the new man in regional airport and Lawlerfield plays homage to, again, Jim Mike Lawler, who is our airport manager for many, many, many years. Unfortunately, passed away a few years ago. But again, new signage out there to identify the airport. So kudos to Lindsay and the whole airport authority for all the hard work that they have put in to keep our airport 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, has made that presentation to the board last night. It was, you know, nothing crazy and wild and big spends or anything else like that in there. 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. 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 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. 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. 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 the market 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. 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, Mandan's growing, but it doesn't add a significant amount. No, I think it was, if I remember, right, it maybe was $104,000 or something like that. 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. 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 one of the most straightforward ways that we possibly can. What does this mean to a homeowner if you have, you know, the average value of a house is I think $300,000. The budgetary that was preliminary past would mean a $12.83 per year. increase in your property tax, so roughly a buck 10 a month. not too significant, but we understand everybody with tight budgets and things like that. And also, you know, one of the big parts of City Manan's budget is your utilities. Right. 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. So we're kind of working way up to that. Um, if there are other funding opportunities, which we continually look for, um, 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 rate payers. So, you know, like you said, if, if there are grant opportunities out there with state North Dakota, the federal government or pick another. granting agency that we can apply for and that we're successful in them receiving, then those will help reduce those rates. And I just have the budget calendar here. So the preliminary budget was passed last night leading up to October 6th, where the... 2027 budget would be. Yeah. So last night, uh, mine was again was the first consideration of the 2027 budget. We will have a public hearing when 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. 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. 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, you know, pass that final budget in October. And Justin, I do have this QR code. He put up one. So I guess if you're watching along and you want to. Take your phone out. We can leave this up for a little bit, but this will, you can scan this and you can write more information. Scan that will 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. You can find it 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. Here's the budget. If you have questions, let us know. We want to hear your feedback. So. Yeah, and that wrapped up our agenda last night. 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. Yeah. And it's up, you know, in, I think three or four or five years ago, we attempted an improvement project near the high school to take care of eighth and 27th, all in one shot before hoping the high school would be done before the high school would open. Um, that protest, that district was protested out. Um, there's been a little more time to, um, there's been additional funding that has been made available through the federal government and, uh, other resources. So that we had, uh, an assessment district created, sent letters out. We had only one, um, one individual who owned 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 8th Avenue and also on 27th over to that corner of 8th and 27th and hopefully bid in November 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, Dakota Mediaaccess.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 there. So until next time for Jim, I'm Tom. Have a great day. For more information on what was discussed in this episode of CityCurrent, visit cityofmandan.com or call 701-667-3215. If you have any suggestions, comments, or issues you would like addressed in future CityCurrent episodes, contact us at info at freetv.org. This program airs on Government Access Channel 2 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 CityCurrent.