Again with a Pledge of Allegiance, I invite you to join us.

Congratulations of the United States.

Roll call?

Colpack?

Here.

Pepcorn?

Here.

Strand?

Here.

Turnberg?

Here.

Mahoney.

Here.

In 2025, Fargo's strength shine through the hearts of our people.

Through shared experiences, community events, and acts of service, residents and city employees continued to build lasting connections that make Fargo far more than just a city, but a warm, welcoming community for all to call home.

Local Gov works to connect people with purpose and pride across every neighborhood.

In partnership with the FM Redhawks baseball team, the City of Fargo hosted a salute to public service, a special game celebrating the strength and spirit of our community.

The night honored Fargo's public service workers in a big way through the unfurling of the American flag for the national anthem, along with on field games led by Fargo police officers.

The Fargo Police Department connected with residents throughout the year during events like the annual community picnic, where residents could ask officers questions and learn about city resources.

The FPD also commemorated its 150th anniversary, a milestone that marks generations of service, resilience, and dedication to Fargo's residents.

Officers Andrew Dotis and Tyler Haas made their return to duty after the tragic incident and loss of Officer Jake Guileen in 2023.

Their return served as a powerful symbol of healing, courage, and commitment to the Fargo community.

The Fargo Police Department's ongoing focus on the mental health and wellness of their officers reaffirmed the department's resolve to care for those who protect our community in times of need.

The FPD's traffic safety team continued to improve roadway safety through data-driven enforcement and public education.

The department's real-time crime center has equipped officers with technology to help ensure the safety of our residents.

Fargo's past came to life during the opening of the 1975 time capsule, an event hosted by the Fargo Public Library.

From a yellow rotary phone to handwritten letters and a meat cleaver from a local restaurant.

Fargo Public Schools students inspired city leaders during the annual Mayor for a Day event.

Two third graders toured City Hall and shared their essays on what they would do if they were mayor for a day.

Our snow plows came to life as Fargo residents had the opportunity to name members of the Fargo fleet.

Of the top selections, six were crowned as Betty Whiteout, Boom Chick-a-Plow Plough, Buzz Ice Clear, Plowabunga, Teddy Snozeveld, and Wheeler Snow Peeler, named after local meteorologist John Wheeler, they were busy this weekend.

Is there a motion to approve the order the agenda?

I so move.

Is there a second?

Second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Motion carried.

So motion approved the minutes of the regular meeting January twentieth, 2026.

So moved.

Second.

All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Motion carried.

Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda items one through thirty-seven?

I so moved.

Is there a second?

Second.

Roll call vote, please.

Strand?

Yes.

Turnberg?

Aye.

Mahoney.

Aye.

Public hearings number 38.

It's going to be continued to 3226.

It's application for alcoholic beverage license at Moonrise Cafe.

This is to be continued.

Is there a motion?

Mr.

Chair, can I make a motion to continue 38, 39, and 40?

If that's okay with the group.

Yes.

Yes, you could.

Is there a second to that?

Strand.

Yes, sir.

And these are all uh alcohol application licenses, uh, seller 624 is one and the other one would be the uh Teddy's.

So these are all uh to be continued until 3226.

Moved and seconded.

Roll call vote, please.

Epcorn?

Aye.

Strand?

Yes.

Colpak?

Aye.

Turnberg?

Aye.

Mahoney.

Aye.

Public hearing.

Uh RLN Business Park Third Edition.

Approval recommended by Planning Commission on 10.7.

The zoning change from limited industrial and agriculture to limited industrial and public and institutional.

It is a first reading of the rezoning ordinance and it's the plat of the R and L N Business Park Third Edition.

Donald Crest to explain.

Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners.

Donald Cress from the Department of Planning and Development.

Say, Mayor, I just want you to know that I will be retiring the sweater from presentation duties after this after this year, since uh you will be completing your service to the City of Fargo and uh in June.

So it won't be the same.

NDSU archives.

Yes, sir.

Uh Mr.

Chair, would it be possible?

We have uh Adam Thielen's jersey in a frame.

Could we possibly put that one up there?

Okay, thank you, Mayor.

Just had to get that one in there.

Um presenting tonight's item, which includes an ordinance prepared by the City Attorney's Office.

Uh our item tonight here is RLN Business Park 3rd edition.

Uh it's located up here.

This is the, of course, north of the airport.

This is the uh Amazon uh facility over here, an industrial area.

And here's a close-up of that.

Uh the property is undeveloped.

Here are some pictures before the snow flew here uh in uh the fall.

This is the subject property here, 33rd Street North.

There's a private drive that goes to some other industrial properties.

You see 46th Avenue as dead-ended here, and we'll talk some more about that as part of this plat.

Uh look pretty much the same here this afternoon.

Those are about the same pictures from this afternoon.

The current zoning, as the mayor stated here, is uh limited industrial and agricultural.

The proposed zoning is all limited industrial for lots one and two, and public and institutional for lot three.

This slot will be dedicated to the Southeast Castwater Resource District.

Uh the subdivision plat here again shows lot one, uh larger lot two and lot three.

Uh this is in the wrong place here.

Um this uh dedication is pursuant to the land development code uh drain protection ordinance.

The plat also includes a mouse go.

My a uh a vacation of 46th Avenue North right away.

Uh we do not believe at this time that uh if the development in this area propos proceeds as proposed, that we will need that.

However, as noted in the staff report uh by Elena Espissette, the uh case planner, the um we are reserving a street and utility easement on the off chance that we would still need to develop that road.

And then on the on the north side of that in 46th Avenue Industrial Park 2nd edition, there's a matching easement.

So we could get that road back if we needed it, but we don't think we need it right now.

Um the uh uh vacation right away is done pursuant to North Dakota Century Code, and there is a separate set of findings in your staff report for that.

The approval motion all and that uh easement that we're talking about is included in your approval motion.

The approval motion also includes an airport proximity agreement, uh which is standard for properties that are up here by the sewage lagoons in the airport.

Uh the applicant's representative Andrew Phil of Lower Engineering.

Oh, sorry.

I is uh with us this evening and may wish to address the commission.

Uh staff appreciate appreciates the cooperation of the Southeast Castle Water Resource District in reviewing this project.

And planning commission stated uh recommendation is stated in the staff report and shown on your screen.

That concludes staff's presentation.

Thank you, Commissioners.

Is there anyone president who wishes to speak to the zoning?

Uh Ryan Wollen with Lowry Engineering, just here to answer any questions.

Any questions by the Commission?

What is the intent of what do you want to put in there?

Uh I think it's a paint building.

And then the the pond out of the lot one is not decided yet.

Okay.

Thank you.

Does anybody else wish to speak to us in regards to this only?

Thank you.

If not, then we'll close public hearing.

Do I have a motion?

I'll make the motion.

Sir second.

Second.

Moved and seconded.

Any further discussion?

Roll call vote, please.

Epicorn?

Cole Pack.

Hi.

Strand.

Yes.

Turnbird.

Hi.

Mahoney.

Hi.

Thank you, Commissioners.

Thank you.

42.

2025 downtown Fargo Business Improvement District Overview.

Rocky Schneider to produce it.

Good evening.

Let me pull this up quick.

I'm Rocky Schneider with the Downtown Community Partnership.

We're the administrators of the downtown business improvement district.

This is our annual report that we give to the city commission.

And some background.

I know you all know this, but for everybody listening, what is the bid?

We're the only one in the state of North Dakota.

It was authorized by the state legislature to allow business improvement districts.

I think this is probably true in every state.

They have some version of this.

Fargo was approved as the first, so Fargo business or property owners had to actually vote on this, put it into place, and then the city commission had to ratify it as well.

And so this is an additional tax that is paid by every business downtown in the district at different levels that we'll go through, and it's to promotion of the business activity, new in business development through advertising, public information, marketing, maintenance, decoration of public places, promotion of public events, furnishing of music in public place, providing professional management, planning, promotion, and the general promotion of trade activities.

We work with a company called Block by Block that Victor Heikamp is with in our office here.

And they have uh kind of operate these all over the country.

These are all dots where they operate them.

So you can see there's pretty common in every metro area to have some sort of version of a business improvement district.

The history of our oops sorry, the history of our bid.

Um again in 2011.

It was created at the legislature and through a process of outreach.

Eventually it was approved by the business owners and approved by the city commission.

We at the downtown community partnership have been administering it on a various renewal basis.

And our last five-year renewal was in 2023.

We had great relationship with Steve Sprague, and he won a downtown monument award this last year for his service and dedication to the city and to us working together.

So we'll miss Steve a lot.

I'm sure you all will as well.

But we've appreciate working with Angie Baer now, and she's not here tonight, but we appreciate her leadership now.

This is the mission statement of our bid.

The business improvement district works to improve and enhance the overall attractiveness and appeal of downtown Fargo.

This is done by making sure our downtown is clean, safe, maintained, and properly promoted.

Just to give you a very easy flow chart on how this works.

Um the city commission is ultimately in charge of the business improvement district.

They hire the downtown community partnership to administer it while working with staff.

Um and then we have a bid advisory committee made up of anybody that's a paying um tax member that wants to come to that meeting.

And then we hire block by block, which is a private company as well that has the workers you see in blue.

It's their contact.

And of course, then we always interact with our downtown businesses who are the taxpayers.

This is our it's a little bit revolving group on on depending on the topic, but this is our bid advisory committee meeting.

Anybody's welcome to come to that if they want.

Um it meets every month, and this is our group that meets of a number of different downtown businesses.

Sally Loffler of Beyond Running is our chair this year.

This is our bid staff team.

You can see them all dressed up.

You might not recognize them, they're not wearing their blue uniforms, but that was at our state of downtown meeting last month.

We have uh there's nine now, I think.

Yep, nine of them.

So the nine, we have a great team, they've all been there a long time.

Um, and just happy to have them out and about.

If you see them, please say hi.

This is our annual um fiscal report to the city commission.

So our annual revenue is just under a million dollars.

You can see the the bulk of that comes from the direct assessments that each of the businesses pay downtown.

Um, there is some additional revenue for different services that we work with the city and others on that go above and beyond just because we have the equipment and manpower and and and uh capacity in downtown to do certain things.

And then that's our rollover amount, the 56,000.

Our annual expenses, you can see how that's broken out.

The far majority is this our daily clean and safe program, um, hiring staff to do that, and then we have some maintenance, some beautification, and some promotion, and then an administrative and insurance kind of costs within there, about 10%.

We try to be pretty flat revenue-wise from year to year.

These are our bid zones.

Don't really expect you to fully see the map, but I think the the important thing is here is the differ different zones have different taxable amounts.

So not everybody in downtown pays the same tax percentage.

Zone one pays considerably more than the rest of it, and zone one is Broadway, Roberts Alley goes down to main avenue.

And then we have zone two, which is somewhere in less than zone one, and more than three and four as we start to spread out.

Happy to answer any questions on this if needed, but this is uh we use it as our deployment map as well, and how often we go to each of these places and we track all of our movements.

This is the assessment methodology.

Again, it's a lot of math in here, but I think the important parts in bold.

So you can see in zone one, I just tried to pull the median amount somebody pays if you're a downtown property owner.

Um, the median price in zone one is about $900 a year.

Of course, this is uh the median, so there's some that are much larger and some that are a little bit less.

But the medium is 900 and zone two and zone three and four, you can see as they start to go down or get considerably less per year.

Zone one services, don't need to go through all these, but these are the list of that get daily service, all the garbage cans that you see out around downtown, all the sticker and graffiti removal and the public right away.

Uh we do it, we have a couple billy goats, our sidewalk vacuums that go around and vacuum up different things and work very closely with public works.

Uh a number of things, pressure washing the sidewalk, weed control.

We maintain all the planter beds downtown, the information directories, um, anytime a receptacle needs to be replaced, the benches.

Um, and then we have a safety and hospitality team that helps remove along the bump outs, some snow crossings on the railroad, and uh we respond to different business and property owner concerns, and we provide safety escorts when needed.

We also do beautification.

You can see all the Christmas lights, 150,000 bulbs out there all winter.

That's we are through the business improvement district paid by this additional tax.

We have the flag program, the flower baskets, three trimmings.

And then zone two just gets a little bit less.

Most of these are on a frequency basis more than anything else.

Here's some pictures just to kind of highlight what goes on on a daily basis.

Again, you'll see our folks out in blue there with their equipment and orange hats, try to be very visible.

But there's a lot, a lot of cleaning that goes on in downtown.

It's pretty active, and they do a great job sort of resetting the space every day.

You know, downtown booms to 40,000 people over a weekend and uh a lot of different events, and so the bid helps keep everything tidy.

You can see the different factors that play into that here.

Again, in winter it changes a little bit, but we invested in some different equipment over the last couple of years to help kind of keep that.

We don't clean the um sidewalks on private property, but we do maintain all the public bump outs around the benches and trash cans and then help public works out as we get down to cleaning in the street and things like that.

Here's all our graffiti, which is an always an ongoing problem.

Our goal is to try to remove graffiti as soon as possible on all these public assets.

We also run the the art wrap program that's around many of the utility boxes, not just in downtown, but there are actually some in Moorhead and in North Fargo and South Fargo, and so once we started that program, others were interested in it as well.

And we found the utility wraps were a great way to limit graffiti as well.

But you can see before and after pictures on the top and bottom there.

Again, our safety team, um, Commissioner Strand's favorite topic is our biohazards that we talk about every month.

There's a lot of them at times.

We maintain the porta potties downtown, um, of course, after bar issues, the needles, um there's occasional blood and other issues, but we also work on events and and escorts and things like that, and when it gets dark out.

Beautification is a big part of what bids do.

You can see planner bed sort of before and after pictures there, and um just some of the efforts that go on, of course, with the events.

You can see the hang of the American flags, we do that, and also the streetlight gallery, as we call it, our new initiative with NDSU artists to put streetlights or the on all the streetlights, all the art banners, all original art.

Here's some stats.

You can see how they compare to last year, our graffiti removals down a little bit over this last year.

I think a lot of that is because it was a targeted effort on some of the graffiti artists, but also working very closely with police and other property owners just to try to stay on top of that, but that's a constant effort.

Um disinfecting pieces of infrastructure.

I think my important thing there is I want everybody to know that we do disinfect things like when you push, have to push the trash can lid in.

You know, we always kind of try to not touch that area.

Is like well, we do disinfect that, and so we try to take care of that as much as possible.

Um, we work very closely with our mobile outreach teams and police teams downtown, snow removal labor hours.

That is highly dependent on the weather.

Um, you can see our recycling in trash.

A lot of that is based on our statting.

Um, most of this has been pretty flat from year to year with some variation that we modify based on staffing hours.

You can see different pictures of our efforts.

And one of our um bid members there, the basketball player was named uh men's basketball player of the year for D3, which is kind of cool.

He's better than Victor.

Just wanted me to say that.

But anyway, so that's our business improvement district.

We're happy to have them.

I think it's a great asset to downtown.

Um I think it's it's something people don't realize often is that businesses downtown do pay an additional tax to get some of these things that you see in downtown that you don't see in other areas of town.

It's not necessarily because the city is putting more into it, it's because businesses are.

Any questions of Rocky by any commissioners.

Commissioner Strang, you want to speak to downtown?

What's going on?

Well, Rocky, it goes without saying, you know, that our community downtown is is really vibrant.

And the investors are stakeholders in our present and future, and our partnership with you and your leadership and on our monthly meetings.

No, people may not see it, but our communications are ongoing.

Um there's absolutely no doubt about it that downtown is, even though it's only one sector of town, it's it's a front burner priority for our leadership in our city, and I I think that bears out in the monthly activities.

But thank you.

Thanks to your people, and thanks for what you all do.

A lot of people wouldn't know what bid is.

They think of DCP, we know that a little more, it's more visible.

But this is the plumbing of the downtown, the underground background, keeping things functioning and clean and operating in a transparent way without much notice.

So just a really sincere thanks to all of you and everybody who who delivers, especially Victor and his biohazard cleanups.

Yeah, that's a word I've learned, but but you all do good work.

Thanks.

We'll pass that on just like the cities, it's people, so is our downtown.

So thank you for your work on this, and you've done a great job downtown.

Keep up the good work, and uh it was a nice report.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Design decision for 12th Avenue North Bridge Project, Jeremy Gordon to explain.

Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners.

Uh good to be in front of you tonight.

Jeremy Gordon, Transportation Division Engineer.

As promised, I said I'd be back to talk about this project.

Uh I was here six weeks ago, just before uh Christmas.

So here to talk about 12th Avenue North Bridge replacement or the Red River.

So tonight uh we'd like to I'd like to get a couple decisions out of you regarding the project.

So we'll go through this real quickly and then uh you can answer any questions you may have.

So the project itself is uh basically between Elm Street and uh the public works area over in the on the Moorhead side.

So the purpose and need for the project is obviously it's built too low to withstand our major red river floods.

Uh we need to build it to a higher elevation.

And the deficiencies are obviously it's flood prone, but in addition, we've got poor pedestrian access, uh poor pavement conditions, and the intersection at Elm and 12th really struggle at times, even today.

So uh here's a beautiful picture during one of our spring flood fights.

I was uh fortunate enough to be in charge of the north side, so I saw this way too many times.

I think uh we counted in the office today in the last 15 years, it's gone underwater eight times.

So as far as the projects are concerned, we looked at a number of alternatives.

We looked at doing nothing, and then we looked at uh two build options.

Keep it where it's at or move it off slightly on the Moorhead side.

Or actually slightly on our side, quite a bit on the Moorhead side.

So the no build, you always have to look at doing nothing.

Um we received a million and a half dollars from the federal government to do the environmental work and design for this project.

Uh a no-build vault would stop really where we're at today.

Uh stop basically and not proceed.

Uh, this alternative would mean that we'd leave the existing bridge, roadway, and pedestrian network as they are with no plan for the future.

Uh staff is not recommending this option.

So the two build alternatives, this one is on the alignment.

Um as you can see, stays right where it's at.

In the off alignment, you can I'll go back and forth.

You can see really the changes on the Moorhead side.

It's slightly on our side, but really on the Moorhead side.

And where it lands on the Moorhead side, that's city of Moorhead land.

Um there's benefits to that.

So I should go back to the first one.

The cost on this one on alignment is a little bit more expensive.

29 to 32 million dollars in the next uh off alignment, uh you save a little bit of money, 26 to 29 million.

And really the need for that is less permanent right-away needed on the Moorhead side, fewer impacts at Jack Williams Stadium, and it's a cheaper option by about three million.

So in addition, we're wanting to prove the intersection at Elm Street.

Two-way stop, four-way stop, a mini roundabout or a traffic signal.

And we're recommending a mini roundabout.

Well, I'll give you, I'll show you the drawings.

So here's the mini roundabout.

You can see just in the corners of the right-of-way, we just need little slivers.

And the footprint of the pro of going north and south into the west is pretty minimal.

It's basically one property north, west, and south.

The signal option is this one.

You can see you go all the way over to Oak Street and you go further north on Elm, because you need to develop a middle lane, a middle left turn lane.

And the uh mini roundabout option is a million to two million dollars cheaper than the traffic signal, really relating to how much road you have to redo with that traffic signal.

So we're we're uh recommending the mini roundabout for a number of reasons.

It's better traffic, better traffic operations at peak hours, uh still less imp impacts at Jack Williams Stadium.

And uh believe it or not, the majority of residents from the public uh preferred the mini roundabout versus the traffic signal.

So I would say as a traffic engineer, in the last 25 years, we've made progress with roundabouts.

So in a reduced cost, one to two million dollars cheaper.

So many of you may or may not have seen these.

They do exist in nature.

Um large vehicles can go over them.

Uh there's nothing planted on the inside.

The inside curb is mountable.

Um our public works and fire and emergency vehicles, they may slow a hair, but not by much.

So as far as the project timeline, uh we signed our paperwork with US DOT in the fall of 24.

We got our consultant team approved basically a year ago.

Um, Houston, KLJ working on the project.

And we've uh nine months passed, is and here here we are looking for project decisions.

And really from here, you'll make a decision on what you want to build.

That'll get go into our NEPA document, our they call it a categorical exclusion document.

That's what really makes this project shovel ready.

When you hear about the term shovel ready, all the environment, all the environmental stuff is done, the the design is done, all it needs is money and some contractors.

So we're getting to the point where it's going to be shovel ready.

Um after we get the NEPAD document done, we'll we'll ready some grant applications through USDOT.

And then we look to have the design done basically a year from now.

So here's the recommended motion.

I can answer any questions.

Any questions?

Mr.

Turnberg.

Jeremy, is there still a need for a new bridge with the diversion?

Is flooding still a risk?

Or is it just that and I also know the other um items that you mentioned, the concrete, the ADA, other things, but is this imminent that we that we redo this bridge?

Um I well the first question was uh it'll be the the current bridge basically floods at flood stage 27 feet.

The diversion allows 37 feet to pass through town.

So any time there'd be a major flood, this would go underwater.

Um is it necessary needed today?

Probably not, but it is needed at some time in the future.

Uh we would argue on North Cider it's hard because you get across from medical care, you'd have to go further south.

You're able to do that.

That's hospital access is another thing.

But we've talked about this as the fact that it goes out and version basically divides the flow, 37 feet goes through town and the rest goes to the ditch.

So it's for resiliency of the community in Northside as we build our side, it would be important to have those types of access across to the east to west or what we could do it.

Other thing I was just out in Washington talking to DOT, and they are putting money into bridges right now.

So there may be opportunity to apply for a grant for this to try to get some more federal money.

So Jeremy and I are going to talk about this this week as can we go after that grant to help build the bridge, as we all know it's hard to get federal money, but that's something we'll work on.

Commissioner Pipburn.

So can Jeremy, can you go back to the picture of the roundabout?

I guess my question is do we have any of those that are that small?

I've seen them in Detroit Lakes, and my question like is for Ben Dow with the snow removal is to me that they seem really small and is that the the best option, I guess.

And then uh a question about the the whole uh pedestrian and bike access to the bridge, too.

If you could talk a little bit about that.

Thank you.

So this uh we city Fargo does not have any mini mini roundabouts like this.

The smallest one we have is by just north of the fire station in Osgood.

That's actually a full-blown roundabout with curbs and um landscaping on the on the middle of it.

But we don't have any of these.

Uh Ben spoke up at public works and we just got to make sure we design them right.

So the roadway openings are at least 16 feet wide at a minimum to get their big plows through.

Um he was elated that we were going to be adding these at some at this intersection.

Um your second question.

So the one interesting thing about this is on our side, you know, there's the park district facility.

They got the parking lot to the north of the road, and then they got the parking lot to the south and the baseball field.

So we uh we redid the river trail here in the last 10 to 15 years.

Um it's not the best alignment that anybody's ever put together.

But we've had there's some constraints with the piers and whatnot.

Um post-construction, you would be able to go from the north lot to the south lot under under the bridge, because the bridge would be.

Only alternative, Yarming, you're showing the non-recomended one.

Yeah, okay.

So there would be improvements to get between those lots under the bridge.

The path under the bridge itself would come up about six feet.

Um we do have a plan to get from that path over to the baseball stadium.

Um that makes sense in that south parking lot.

So that we're really working with the park district to improve their site really as part of this bridge project.

Um not impact them at all, but just better the whole kind of area there.

Any other questions?

Mr.

Stern.

Thank you, Jeremy.

Thank you, Jeremy.

I'm just curious, and this is maybe obvious to everybody but me.

What does this mean to the North Broadway Bridge discussion?

Just uh encapsulate that if you would for me, please.

So the North Broadway Bridge, we've really moved on from.

I was just thinking about that today.

So if you think about that bridge all by itself.

This this you we you would reconstruct the bridge and it would still flood flood stage 23.

So on the south end of it on the Fargo side of it, it's still very low-lying ground, and the road approaching it has failure plans with the soils.

Um that's a 20 million dollar project in in today's dollars.

So that's quite a bit of money.

Um really we moved on from that a number of years ago, and MetroCog Policy Board moved those Federal funds to other projects in the Metro.

In the long term, Broadway itself, near the water treatment plant, you know, there's the bike trail there that's slowly sloping into the river.

There are concerns about Broadway street itself being able to be maintained, you know, forever.

So there's there's issues up there.

But and there's a bridge, you know, less than a half mile away that you can use.

If I might continue, so this will also alleviate the traffic issues relative to both bridges being non-available.

The 12th Avenue, do you have a sense of how the traffic in North Fargo will be impacted?

Say that again.

How will the traffic be impacted?

We have two the North Broadway Bridge and this bridge.

But if this gets built up to this standard, how will that affect all of that traffic up north?

This is uh there's 12,000, 13,000 vehicles a day that cross this bridge, which is impressive.

It's gone up six times than when it was a toll bridge.

It's really unprecedented the traffic that uses this coming and going.

Um as comparison, there's only there was only 1,500 a day on the North Broadway.

So it's upwards of 10 times more traffic.

And my last most notably stupid question is Commissioner Pepcorn, over all these years, you're always bringing up the issue of of the El Zago dip in the road there.

Will there be any good or bad impact on this?

Is that all just going to stay the same?

Will this help or hurt?

I'm guessing it won't hurt it.

No, it'll that'll unfortunately stay the same.

I mean, if you think about it, the road there is in the river.

It's down in it.

Uh there's I mean, we've mentioned a causeway before, but it it would be so long and cost prohibitive.

They they do have to go further east to go around the Gulf course in times of flooding to go north.

Commissioner Pepcorn hasn't brought that up lately, but I'll remind us.

But Mr.

Chair, but the it's the VA, that's it's it's a lot of traffic that comes from Minnesota over that bridge to the VAN.

So that's it's a very important connection.

And so that's just someday, maybe it'll it'll happen.

But that's the El Zagle dip.

That's just uh Jim Gilmore, he's a lot more frugal than I am, said we just have to drive through the Russ and North Forgo to get there during the flood.

And so that's just part of life.

If I might, Mayor, if if I recall there was a moment where there was being consideration to this 12th Avenue bridge, maybe not being brought up above the floodway with the 37-foot level, but this is for sure above that.

It won't be a barrier, it won't be a dam holding waters back.

It is going to be above the floodway.

It will 100 percent be above the 37 foot the way it should be.

Mr.

Kolpak.

Yeah, just to I just want to clarify the funding piece of this.

So this next phase will be with the 1.5 million dollar Federal grant funds.

So we so the our current work plan with environmental dock and design that's covered with the 1.5 million.

Yep.

And then future where we find the funding, as you have noted so far, the grant work that is coming will be part of that, but also it would be part of consideration of the annual CIP work, all the other state funding that would may or may not be available, and any other Federal funding at the time, correct?

Yeah, I mean, with a $30 million project, basically, we would be applying for U.S.

DOT grants.

Okay.

There are discretionary grants that get distributed around the country.

Um that's a good point.

We there are no dollars for construction.

We will be fighting to get dollars to to move this project forward.

And we will we will start.

There are grant applications due early fall that I think that would make the most sense for this.

It's a bridge infrastructure program grant.

So if I may, Mr.

Chair, just one follow-up.

Um and and at the time, then understanding where that funding would come from, it would come back to the Commission for final approval, of course.

Oh, certainly.

Yeah, what we're approving the environmental dock and the final design.

Anything for construction would come back.

There is another bridge opportunity grant that we uh end of February would be application, so we will look at that.

Do I have a motion?

I will make the motion.

Is there a second?

Second.

Moved and second.

Any further discussion?

Roll call vote, please.

Pepcorn?

Aye.

Turnburg?

Aye.

Kolpack.

Aye.

Strand?

Yes.

Mahoney.

Aye.

44.

Application for abatement or refund of taxes of property located at 1112 10th Street North requesting reduction of value for 2024.

Mike Spinakowski to explain.

Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners.

We have an abatement before you, uh, which is basically a result of a difference of uh condition.

One of the things that our appraisers look at when they go out to these houses is they note all of the information uh having to do with the size, the grade, and all these types of things, and one of them is condition.

We have talked about this before.

And uh the uh appellant uh we he led us in to look at the property this summer as part of the reappraisal, and our appraiser noted that the condition was off.

Uh said basically we had it in average condition, and he said it should be in fair condition.

So as a result of that, he uh the owner applied for this abatement, and we did go and look at it, and we agreed that the uh condition probably should be fair.

And so in this uh particular property, we are going to agree that the value is probably overstated, and the recommendation is to uh uh uh reduce it to the 115,000 dollars.

Um I don't know if the uh uh uh the appellant is here tonight or not, but that is our recommendation is to approve this application.

And this is not a public hearing?

Uh not a public hearing, but uh if he is here, I don't think he is, but uh if he is uh he can certainly speak to it.

Can I have a motion, please?

So moved.

Is our second second?

Any further discussion?

Roll call vote, please.

Colpak?

Aye.

Strand?

Yes.

Pepcorn?

Aye.

Chernberg, aye.

Mahoney.

Aye.

Thank you, Mike.

Uh 45 applications of property tax exemption approvements made to building.

Do I have a motion?

That's the move.

Is there a second?

Second.

Any discussion?

Roll call vote, please.

Pepcorn?

Aye.

Turnberg?

Aye.

Kolpak?

Aye.

Strand.

Yes.

Mahoney.

Aye.

Liaes on assignments.

Commissioner Pepcorn, any report.

Commissioner Turnberg.

I have updates of the library activities on my uh City Commissioner Facebook page, and that's it.

I have no report.

Commissioner Kolpak.

Yeah, I have one just um oral report that um had the honor of attending the Firewall Fire Fire Police Department promotional ceremony and awards last week.

A number of um sworn and unsworn members of the police department were um acknowledged and honored, and the annual awards were also given out, and the officer of the year recipient is with us tonight.

So Officer Lacey Bunkelman, congratulations.

And um congratulations to all recipients, and it was a very nice ceremony.

And um well done to the communication team for the support.

So thank you.

That's it.

That's surprising.

Many of the officers have been with us 20 years, 18 years, so it's a lot of time and spent for our community has worked out very well.

Mr.

Strand.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just an update.

Um about a month ago, the Commission has directed us and staff to uh reinvent the some of the boards and commissions, Native American Commission, Human Rights Commission.

I'll just say that that process is unfolding, but it's not easy.

And it's really hard to find a balance between public accountability and public access and public voices, and but it's a process unfolding, and everybody's input is welcome.

You know, it's it's it's a difficult position to be in when we're, for example, closing down boards and commissions that the community is used to thinking of as a voice for their people.

And then the then the worry is well, will those voices disappear?

Will the access disappear?

You know, will it be less or more?

And that's a challenge.

And I understand people how they feel.

You know, it when we're sitting in a room and we have folks in the room saying it's a difficult message for people to be saying human rights are not a value in Fargo.

Well, that's not really what we're saying, but it appears that way to some people when we're taking away the vehicle to voice human rights discussions.

So I'll just say it's unfolding, it's ongoing.

It's it's uh Brenda and Nicole and our staff have their hands full.

I hope you all can be thinking optimistically about where we can go in the future to step up these voices uh without like just squelching them.

And lastly, uh Commissioner Pepcorn, your your uh liquor control board heard from folks at the airport the other day about a liquor license, and I just will say this.

I I I know that the chair of the airport authority, Paula Ekman, and I wasn't at the meeting, and I don't know the nuances of the debate of liquor at the airport, but but I'll say this.

Commissioner uh Chair Ekman is all about the traveler's experience at the airport.

That's her whole life.

And and so I hope we give her as much voice as we can to to not just have a beautiful airport, but have one that the experience that the travelers have is is more what she sees around the country and in Bismarck and Minot, where you can have a drink and go down and drink.

Anyway, that's a topic I know surfacing, and I hope the public speaks up.

I know I know this happened at the Fargo Dome years ago, and I don't know where you're going with this topic, but I I really respect where her vision is for the travelers' experience at the airport.

Mr.

Chair, can I just have a quick response?

So, Commissioner Strand, their initial proposal was the entire airport, the new concourse would be a bar.

The whole thing.

And to me, that's uh that's a non-starter.

And so uh what came to mind was there's a song called A Bar with a Pool in it.

This was like a bar with an airport in it, and so it needs uh we need some work.

We totally support uh you know having things for people, but uh a family traveling to Orlando to Disney World do not want to encounter a group traveling to Las Vegas for the weekend.

So I'm just saying you have to have separate areas, and I think we'll all be on the same page.

It will come to an agreement.

Uh but the initial proposal was the whole thing being a bar, John.

That that is no joke.

Yeah, Commissioner Turnberg.

Mike got to go on.

May I respond to that?

Um I Commissioner, I don't think the whole airport being a bar was the issue.

It's to give people the flexibility to go to their gates to it's not like they're having kegs and keg stands at the different gates.

No, they're not.

It's just the one bar.

But you would be able to walk just like at the Fargo Dome or just like a tailgating.

I agree.

Chair Ekman knows her stuff, and it is in many, many, many airports and works in other airports in North Dakota and isn't a problem elsewhere.

And Mayor, might I can't tell you the things I see differently in airports now, like restrooms, whether you have a shelf above your head to put things or not, little things like that.

You know, whether you have a cup holder in your chair or not.

These are the things that these nuances, these details are coming into our and lastly, I don't know if Commissioner Pepcorn's toured the airport lately.

I know all the rest of us have.

It's just beautiful.

Anyway.

Maybe opportunity for learning on both sides.

We only have one speaker tonight, Christopher Cohn and Christopher, I'd uh remind you uh I don't mind having a discussion about certain items, but your choice of words might be important.

So you may have a theory or thought that you want to bring forth to us tonight, but I'd ask you to be a little bit cautious on choice of words.

So while Mr.

Cohn is coming up, Mr.

Chair, do you mind if I add so he asked me to put something on the agenda?

And so I did uh followed through with that, but we delayed it because we have to have the staff answer it.

So I just wanted you to know, and hopefully the staff contacted you, but you requested for me to put that on the agenda.

So it is coming, but I it just wasn't on tonight's agenda.

Okay?

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, for letting me do that.

Hello, I'm Christopher Cohen of Fargo resident.

Uh mayor, I I changed the wording a bit from what I wrote on the comment sign-up.

Um I request a written response to the questions, concerns, and the issue I will be discussing.

The issue I want to talk about is the need for a clarification by the city about when law enforcement in Fargo of any type, whether a city force or other government unit force may use lethal force.

Although this issue may have been politicized, it is not mainly a political issue.

It's a matter of public business because for example, Fargo law enforcement is authorized to use lethal force in limited circumstances only.

My question here is could you clarify the policy?

The recent killings of two American citizens in Minneapolis by ICE and CBP, that is customs and border patrol agents, are similar to the July 8th, 2022 F PD shooting death of 28-year-old James Jamestown man, Shane Netterville.

A Fargo police officer shot in Edderville as the Jamestown man slowly drove a van out of an open garage near officers, but not at the officer who did the shooting as claimed.

In fact, both FPD training and policy instructs officers not to be in front of vehicles.

The badge camp shows the shot was from the front and side of the vehicle, not in front.

All three badge camps show the vehicle moving slowly, and there's no screeching of the tires, as was falsely claimed in the investigation.

Although the vehicle turned out to have been reported still and by a family member of one of the vehicle's three occupants, police were responding to a report of what looked like three dead bodies in a van with a hole in the windshield that looked like a bullet hole.

When it became apparent that all three occupants were alive, they had been sleeping.

Why the situation continued to require pointing guns when it became apparent there were no bodies as reported, I do not understand.

In any event, the facts of the case were officially covered up and false justifications were made for the apparent homicide.

Illegal use of force is a civil issue, a civil rights issue.

That's the end of public hearing.

I do know that I talked to uh Travis Wanowitz, and you have some reports the police officers are giving you on some of the questions you asked.

So I think many of those questions will be asked.

We have no further public comment to meetings adjourned.