The Fargo City Commission met on Tuesday, May 27, 2025, at 5:00 PM in Commission Chambers. The meeting began with a pledge of allegiance, roll call, and a recognition of the Engineering Department, including the presentation of a Rising Star Award to Evan Olson. The Commission approved a 44-item consent agenda (with item 15 withdrawn), conducted public hearings on six alcoholic beverage licenses, received a presentation from Strong Towns Fargo, and approved the Public Safety Sales Tax Utilization Plan for 2025-2026 after substantial debate. Commissioner Turnberg cast the sole dissenting vote on the tax plan. The meeting concluded with an executive session to discuss economic development negotiations.
Call the meeting daughter. We'll begin with a pledge of allegiance. I invite you to join us. Pledge of legislatures. Underground. Roll call. Call Pack here. Papricorn? Here. Strand? Here. Turnberg? Here. Mahoney. Yeah. Tonight we are highlighting the city of Fargo's engineering department. This team has a huge hand in shaping the Fargo we know and love. Their work on key infrastructure projects has improved how we get around and how our neighborhoods function. Thanks to our efforts in the engineering department, Fargo continues to grow stronger, smarter, and more connected. They are truly some of the architects of our city's future, from enhancing our roads to managing stormwater projects and traffic systems. No matter the obstacle, whether it's last-minute challenge, unpredictable weather, or tight deadlines, our engineering team will find a solution and keep things moving forward. It's critical work and they handle it with skill and care. Thank you, engineering, for everything you do for our community. We will now share a video that underscores the work of the engineering department. When it comes to the City of Fargo Engineering Department, we really touch all the infrastructure our residents and businesses rely on every single day. And so whether that's uh getting up in the morning brushing your teeth, we're we're part of the water system that that gets that water to your door, flushing your toilet or doing your laundry, whatever it might be. And then going off to work or school, you're relying on the streets that we are overseeing, improving. Simply as I can describe it, is we're responsible for the preventive maintenance and preservation of all of our infrastructure as well as the improvement of it, and then also overseeing any work that's taking place within the public right away. When you look at our water system, our sanitary sewer, storm sewer, street lights, traffic signals, pavement, all those things, it's billions of dollars of assets that we're responsible for. It's really important that our inspectors are watching the work that the contractors do. We want this infrastructure to last as long as possible. A road that lasts 30 years versus 50 years is a big deal. And the longer we can extend our infrastructure and the life of our infrastructure, the cheaper it ultimately is for our residents. And that we won't have to dig it up and replace it anytime soon. At a time it really varies. Um each construction season, we usually have about 60 construction projects taking place throughout the city. In total capital improvement plan is usually right around a hundred to a hundred and twenty million dollars annually. We are a long linear city, and so you know, this year we'll be working up on 52nd Avenue North all the way down to 76th Avenue South. And so Fargo uh does extend a very long distance. We do really try to be sure that the the improvements that we're making are citywide. We do balance the resources throughout the city that way. There are a number of funding sources that we use. Utility uh funds are one of them. Sales tax is another really important one. We use sales tax on nearly every project we do that preserves our infrastructure or improves our infrastructure. Without it, we would really struggle to fund the projects that we do. Property taxes don't go towards construction projects that we do. We have a grade tool that I don't know that everyone is aware of, but if you go to Fargo Streets.com, we have a great interactive map that shows all the work that's taking place throughout the city. You can see examples of who's doing the work, uh, the size of the project, how the project is being funded, which is a great resource that relies on GIS. Well, it's it's not only a benefit to the residents, but to us as project managers or project engineers and inspectors, because we get to see the project from its inception and how it was designed.