Mandan City Commission Meeting – December 2, 2025
Mandan City Commission Meeting – December 2, 2025
The Mandan City Commission met on December 2, 2025, at 5:30 p.m. in the Bosch Frelek meeting room at Mandan City Hall. The meeting covered project updates, a public hearing, bid awards, and several new business items, including a raw water intake project, an inmate housing agreement, adoption of a multi-hazard mitigation plan, and a zone change. All votes were unanimous except as noted.
Consent Calendar
- Approved the consent agenda as presented, which included the final plat of Evergreen Heights 5th edition.
Announcements & Updates
- Holiday Lights Update: Matt from Mandan Progress Organization reported that the grand lighting on Black Friday drew an estimated 2,500–3,000 people. New displays include a holiday tractor and a military tribute tree. A New Year's Eve fireworks show on December 31 at 10 p.m. will attempt a world record with 2.5 million Roman candles. The event, sponsored by fireworks companies, aims to raise $30,000 for the Wounded Warrior Project, Western North Dakota Honor Flight, and the Mandan High School marching band's London parade trip. Parking spots (900 available) can be purchased at visitmandan.com.
- Snowplow Art Partnership: Shane reported that all six snowplows were painted by elementary school students in a community engagement activity. Snow removal from recent storms is complete, with cleanup of parked-car ruts ongoing.
- Construction Project Updates: Jerek provided updates:
- Memorial Highway: Winterization is complete; snow removal will clear the mainline three-lane roadway and business approaches by 8 a.m. Construction resumes in April.
- Collins Avenue Reservoir: The new reservoir is online; tank draining seen on Collins Avenue is from the sanitization process. Demolition will continue through winter.
- 2025 Street Reconstruction: A communication piece on winter shutdown and 2026 expectations is being distributed.
- 2026 Street Reconstruction: A public input meeting is scheduled for December 4 at Red Trail Elementary from 6–8 p.m.
Public Hearing
- Vacation of Portion of Living Water Drive: Rachel presented a request to vacate the south 421.49 feet of Living Water Drive, contingent on approval and recordation of the Evergreen Heights 5th edition plat. No public comments were received. The commission approved the vacation unanimously.
Bids & Awards
- Memorial Highway West Project: Jerek reported that the low bid from Northern Improvement was $69,579,406.64. The city's estimated local responsibility increased by 9.6% from the NDDOT perspective, but after State Water Commission funding, the net increase was 3.3%. The commission concurred in awarding the contract, entering into a cost participation agreement with NDDOT, and submitting a cost share request to the Department of Water Resources. Approved unanimously.
New Business
- Raw Water Intake Project – Engineering Amendment: Lath from AE2S explained that a migrating sandbar has restricted water flow at the intake. Temporary measures (dredging, screen extension) are in place. Near-term improvements include an airburst system and bank stabilization. The commission approved an amendment to AE2S for engineering services (city cost $197,000) on a 4–1 vote, with Commissioner Heinshan dissenting.
- Inmate Housing Agreement – Burley Morton Detention Center: Chief Siegler presented the renewal with a daily rate increase from $75 to $100. Concerns about medical services language led to a conditional approval: the agreement was approved as presented, with the understanding that BMDC will revise section 16 and bring amendments by March 31, 2026. Approved unanimously.
- Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan Adoption: Pat Martin requested adoption of the 2025 Morton County plan. The plan received 995 survey responses and enables FEMA grant eligibility. The commission approved the resolution unanimously.
- Ordinance 1480 – Zone Change (Second Consideration): Jordan presented the second consideration of a zone change from RMH and RH to RMH (residential mobile home park). No changes or comments. Approved unanimously.
Key Outcomes
- Approved consent agenda, public hearing vacation, Memorial Highway West bid award, raw water intake amendment (4-1), inmate housing agreement (conditional), multi-hazard mitigation plan, and zone change.
- Future meeting dates: December 16, 2025; January 6, 2026; January 20, 2026.
Meeting Transcript
Good evening and welcome. Today is December 2nd, 2025. It is 5 30 p.m. and we are in the Bosch Frelek meeting room in Mandan City Hall. Mr. Newbauer, would you please take the role? Commissioners. Braun. Here, Roar. Schilberg. Here, Hein Sean. Here, Mayor Frelick. Here. Now we will stand, remove all headgear for the Pledge of Allegiance. Jonathan Fleischer. From the Real Property Assessing Department of Mandan. Will lead us in the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the play of the United States of America. Thank you, Jonathan. Now we'll move to announcements. And we're going to skip to number two on the announcements. Yes, good evening, Mayor Commissioners. They're working on getting all the necessary fluids, different things out of the building currently. They'll be doing some interior work next week for the public's knowledge. And this should go on for several months. Any questions for Jordan? Jordan, quick question. No, they're not. They are not bringing any materials. I believe most of the concrete and materials will be recycled and the other materials, uh, specialty materials we call them, uh, our landfill can't take, so they'll be going elsewhere. So I don't I don't know if there will be a whole lot of any uh material going to, but uh from from meeting them, they they uh tend to lean on the recycling of a lot of materials. So they're they're used to this and they uh they do it a lot. So yeah. Okay. Thank you, Jordan. Thank you. We will uh move on to construction project updates. Jerekon mayor and commissioners, good evening. Let me just pull up my presentation here. Um less and less information for these uh construction project updates as we kind of roll into the winter season. Um I do have a memorial highway update along with another memorial highway video if you guys are interested in taking a look at the current um temporary traffic pattern for uh the winter shutdown. This roll for a second here. You can see it's performs pretty well. So just kind of wanted to show that off. Um Water Main has been connected in loops since our last meeting. Uh the sanitary sewer winter bypass was completed, which was a necessary um improvement to be made for um winterization. We thought that the sanitary sewer would be completely done before winter, so um kind of a uh uh temporary alternative needed to be identified and completed. Um minor items may still be worked on, such as cleanup and miscellaneous tasks, so you might still see construction crews out there active with the project, but nothing major will be going on and the winterization is complete. Um wanted to re reiterate that snow removal plans include the mainline three-lane roadway and the businesses approaches, and they should be clear by 8 a.m. Um once uh spring comes around where the start is uh weather dependent, but always hopeful that it's April that we'll be starting up again.
openpublica.com