Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

Welcome to the Monday, September 22nd, West Fargo City Commission meeting.

We'd like to call the meeting to order.

Please join the commission in a pledge of allegiance.

I pledge the fly of United States.

And two three public with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

Will you please call a roll, Madam Secretary?

Commissioner Jorgensen.

Here.

Commissioner Sundell here.

Commissioner Dardas.

Here.

Commissioner Olson?

Here.

Commissioner Anderson.

Here.

That's the record show.

All commissioners are present.

Item D is to approve the order of the agenda.

Move we approve.

I have a motion and a sec.

Do I have a second to approve the order of the agenda?

Second.

Commissioner Zondal moves.

Commissioner Jorgensen seconds.

I have a motion and a second.

Is there any discussion?

Commissioner.

Were we going to move the item G on a consent?

That would be changing the order to the agenda.

Yes, sir.

Okay.

I would like to change my motion.

Okay.

Commissioner has requested that gaming site authorization for Devil's Lake American Legion Post 24 at the Lights Event Center be moved into the regular agenda.

That will be item 2A.

I have a motion and a second with that amendment.

Is that correct?

Yes.

Yes.

Thank you.

Any discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

Motion carried.

Thank you.

Item E's to approve the minutes of September 8, 2025.

They have been distributed and in the packet.

Move to approve.

Commissioner Olson moves to approve.

Do I have a second, please?

Second.

Commissioner Anderson seconds.

We have a motion and a second to approve the amendments as distributed for September 8, 2025.

Is there any discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

Motion carried.

Thank you.

Item F is there approval of special assessment meeting minutes of September 15, 2025.

Again, they have been distributed and are in your packets.

Motion to approve.

Commissioner Jorgensen moves to approve.

Is there a second?

Second.

Commissioner Olson seconds.

I have a motion and a second to approve the special assessment meeting minutes of September 5th, 2025.

Is there any discussion?

None.

All those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Opposed.

Motion carried.

Item G is the building permits.

I call on Commissioner Jorgensen.

I need to recuse myself from voting on this matter.

Commissioner Jorgensen has recused himself from voting on the building permits.

They have been distributed and are in your packet.

Move to approve.

Commissioner Anderson moves to approve.

Is there a second?

Second.

Commissioner Zondell seconds.

We have a motion and a second to approve the building permits as distributed.

Is there any discussion?

Hearing none.

All those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Opposed.

Motion carried.

Let the record show it's a four vote with one recusal.

Commissioner Jorgensen.

Next order of business is the consent agenda.

I would remind you that we moved item G into the regular agenda.

So we have items A through F and H and I.

Move to approve.

Commissioner Zondell moves to approve the amended consent agenda.

Is there a second?

Second.

Commissioner Anderson seconds.

I have a motion and a second on the consent agenda.

Items A through F, H and I, excluding G.

Is there any discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor, appoint signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Motion carried.

We are now on the regular agenda.

First order of business on the regular agenda is public comment.

I would invite to the podium, Mr.

David Whity.

Good evening and welcome.

Some tall person puts this up every time just for me.

Good evening.

David Whity 2421 McLeod Drive East.

I believe that they've done a good job putting that budget together.

And I think it's to everybody's benefit that city governments in North Dakota now face similar issues that every other organization faces, which is some sort of cap on how much you can raise.

Um prices, price increases or whatever.

3% cap will help our staff become even more creative and figure out how to get things done.

I would suggest that now with that 3% increase, we should know that of the 10 largest expenses, four of the top six deal with personnel.

Salaries, health care, retirement, Social Security.

So while overall expenses went up 3%, those four combined went up 6.1%.

And they represent over 50% of the budget.

As a result, that means everything else, on average, had a slight decrease.

Well, that's good for the first year.

But for future years, we all know that's just not going to work.

We're going to have to find ways to still make it work.

And I would suggest the solution, a broad solution, is to figure out how to increase productivity.

Just like every organization has had to face over time.

So by only by increasing productivity, can we manage not to decrease staff but not have to add staff and still be able to get more done?

I'm sure that Mr.

Glorille will already know this.

But that's very important thing to do.

I would also suggest that remember that certain funds are for particular purpose.

And for two years in a row now, we're using the capital projects sales tax fund to fund uh street crew, a street crew.

I'm not certain that that's a good precedent to set.

The money was passed as a sales tax for capital projects, not for employing people.

So those are my suggestions.

I think overall it's a really good uh budget.

I look forward to seeing it being passed tonight.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate your time and effort.

Thank you.

Again, we had only one individual that signed up for public comment.

Public comment is now closed.

We move into public hearings, which is item number two on the agenda.

We have no public hearings this evening.

So we move on to 2A.

Again, 2A is a gaming site authorization for Devil's Lake American Legion Post 24 at the Lights Event Center.

Uh this was a request by Commissioner Jorgensman, so I'll call on you.

Uh, I think Madam Secretary has some more information that was in our packet.

Okay.

Yeah, so the question was um why is it not somebody that was local that came up before the meeting?

Um this is an event that they do twice a year.

Um within West Fargo, it's just a poker tournament.

Typically it comes across as um Tim running Legion Post 24, um, but they've done it for the past few years.

So any questions on that information?

Thanks for the clarification.

Yes.

Move to approve.

Commissioner Anderson moves to approve.

Is there a second?

Second.

Commissioner Jorgenson seconds.

I have a motion and a second on item number two A, which is a gaming site authorization for the Devors Lake American Legion Post 24 at the Lights Event Center.

Essentia at the Lights Event Center.

Is there any discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Motion carried.

Thank you.

Uh we call on Mr.

John Hagen from Id Bailey for that presentation.

Good evening and welcome.

Good evening.

Thank you guys for having me.

Uh my name is John Hagan.

I work with the local office here of Id Bailey.

I've been with IBailey for just over 10 years, servicing now uh basically 100% government world, so cities, counties, school districts, um, so some special utility districts, but if it's government related, I've pretty much touched it.

Um RI Bailey office has been servicing uh City of West Fargo here for I think it's seven or eight years now doing the audit.

Um so tonight we'll be going over the executive summary, which is kind of a condensed version of the financial statements.

Uh financial statements get longer and longer each year, new accounting principles and standards.

Um, we like to present the executive summary similar to previous years with some tables and graphs just for comparability and being able to see some trend lines over the last uh couple years.

So with that, let's hop into the presentation.

Uh first one being your audit results and findings for the year.

So the end goal of every single audit is to issue an audit opinion.

So what does that mean?

Uh the city uh management is responsible for three things.

The financial statements are prepared with the proper accounting standards, which is GAAP, uh, that they are free of material misstatements and that they are presented fairly.

So we as auditors, we come out and through a series of standardized procedures and tests.

We ultimately come to an audit opinion to provide reasonable but not absolute assurance on those financial statements.

So the audit opinion as of December 31st, 2024 for the city was an unmodified opinion or a clean audit opinion in layman turn.

So exactly what you're going for from a financial statement audit perspective.

With an audit opinion, uh we are required to formally communicate any audit findings if you want to jump to the next slide.

Not sure who's running.

If you want to grab the mouse on this one, sorry.

No, that's okay.

Then I can just scroll.

Okay, perfect.

Now I got a multi-task, so bear with me.

Uh as I was saying, so with an audit opinion, we do uh issue and present audit findings to those in charge of governance, which is you guys uh broken down into two different categories, first one being financial statement findings.

I will lump the first two together, the preparation of the financials and material journal entries.

I alluded to it earlier.

Uh there's more and more accounting standards, and with that become larger financial statements.

It gets a little bit tougher on finance office and staff to prepare and issue those financial statements.

So we as auditors are commonly asked to prepare the financials, and when we do that, we do issue a finding.

With that, we do also propose a number of journal entries to be adjusted on the financial statements to make sure that those standards are being followed.

Um again, very common for cities of your guys' size and repeat findings from previous years.

I would anticipate those two findings kind of continuing forward as well.

Uh the third finding is segregation of duties, which is a fancy way of saying having enough hands and eyeballs on everything finance related.

Um those auditing standards uh are getting more complex and require more hands and eyeballs on things.

Um when there's vacancies and positions, it's really tough to do that.

The cities had some turnover within their finance office last couple years, and therefore has led to segregation of duties.

Now that kind of that office is quieted down.

Uh, I look forward to seeing the processes uh improve with the additional bodies and potentially removing that finding in the future.

The second bucket there is federal wards.

Um we'll touch on this on the next slide.

Uh actually, I'll go there right now.

So a secondary avenue of every audit is called the a single audit, which is the audit of specific use of federal funds of the city.

Uh this is required anytime an entity expends over 750,000 in a fiscal year.

Uh the city did spend about 2.2 million in 2024, thus triggering this uh secondary audit.

Um, this audit, like I said, is over specifically those federal funds expended and is much more compliance driven.

Um so we do issue a separate audit opinion over those funds, and the and the city did receive again an unmodified or clean audit opinion associated with those.

And there were no findings of any kind as well with those.

Next slide is a specific uh kind of more of an FYI relating to a new accounting standard.

This is a bigger accounting standard.

Um didn't change a whole lot from the numbers standpoint, but it did change some internal kind of uh accounting and tracking of compensated absences, which for the city is made primarily up of vacation and sick leave.

Uh it was a standard to kind of um consistent recognition and measurement of those related liabilities.

So strictly an FYI slide.

So now we'll get into some of the numbers.

I won't spend as much time on some of these slides.

Uh just kind of let you guys take them in.

I'll cover high-level items as we go.

First couple slides here are the cash and investment balances for the city.

This does include all funds within the city.

Again, cash and investments is made up of a couple different components, mostly deposits, uh, certificates of deposits, CD balances, uh, and some investments in some treasury notes and related uh U.S.

government type investments.

Total cash and investment balances for the city in total was about 110 million and change.

These slides are all throughout the night uh presented within thousands.

So keep that in mind as some of the numbers do look a little goofy.

I have to retrain my brain when remembering that these are indeed in thousands.

So overall very consistent cash and investment balances within the city.

Okay, from a liquidity standpoint, so kind of that current mindset of cash and investments as compared to kind of your current liabilities, which would be composed of accounts payable, related construction or retainage payable, accrued liabilities, unearned revenue, unearned revenue, and then the big component would be your current maturities of principal and interest of those debt.

So current uh liquidity ratio as of 1231 2024 is coming in right about four, meaning you can turn over your cash balances about four times and cover those current liabilities.

This graph does exclude the capital project cash balances just because based on timing of debt proceeds, that can really swing this liquidity ratio as well as the timing of kind of project payments.

So we do exclude that just kind of for comparability purposes.

Okay, now the next couple slides will focus in on the general fund, which is the main operating fund for the city.

First slide here we have our revenues and transfers in, so ultimately money coming in the door.

Composed of a bunch of different uh components.

Primarily, uh, the big driver would be your property taxes and special assessments.

Um, secondary buckets would be your intergovernmental money coming from county or maybe state uh grant money, and then other components, um license, permitting fees, some other things like that.

Uh overall, pretty consistent year over year from a bucket standpoint.

Your one thing to note here in 2024, the yellow uh kind of other bucket did jump significantly.

That's due to a unique paper transaction associated with governmental accounting.

Your guys' lease proceeds uh associated with this uh building, it's a net wash to fund balance.

It's it has to be recorded as proceeds coming in, and then capital outlay within the year the lease was uh signed.

So again, paper transaction net zero, but that does lead to a little bit of a goofy looking uh jump here in 2024.

So did want to point that out.

That was about 7.6 million.

On the flip side to revenue is obviously expenditures, a key component to all city uh financials.

Uh general fund expenditures, as the previous gentleman mentioned, largely uh based within uh wages within the general fund, wages and wage related type expenses, health insurance, and other benefits.

Um that's far and away the biggest category.

Um broken down into different departmental codes for the city.

You have public works, public safety, uh, general government makeup, your different color schemes there.

Overall, very consistent uptick within those overall expenditures over the last 10 years, which is to be expected with the growth of the city and just general cost of things.

So, all in all, the last two slides uh come together, and you have an ultimate impact to fund balance.

Uh in 2024, that net change was about a 4.5 million dollar deficit.

So it did decrease fund balance to an ending fund balance within just a general fund of about 14.4 million.

So if you can kind of mentally circle that number here, the next couple slides will focus on that ending fund balance.

So the ending fund balance about 14.4 million in the general fund.

What does that do for the city?

It does a number of things.

First, it contributes to you to a favorable bond rating.

So as you guys have additional debt endeavors down the road can produce better interest rates for the city.

Secondly, it offers uh produces investment income and provides a source of working capital, so having your money work for you within the bank through interest rates and interest income is always a plus.

And then thirdly, most importantly, offers a cushion for unexpected expenditures or revenue shortfalls.

Another pretty technical slide is broken down, uh breakdown of different fund balance categories within the general fund.

Um be pretty high level with this, but non-spendable is in the form of money that's already spent through uh prepaid expenses or inventory.

Uh restricted would be restricted by outside sources legally.

Um, common would be debt service or capital projects fund.

There aren't currently any restrictions within the jet general fund, but there are those restrictions within the other funds of the city.

Uh the next three committed assigned and unassigned are kind of usually lumped together and considered as unrestricted.

This is money that ultimately the city has at its discretion to spend how it would like.

Uh they can commit or assign money for certain projects or endeavors, and then ultimately everything left over would fall in the unassigned bucket, which is your last kind of uh unencumbered and kind of typically considered your city reserves or rainy day fund, if you will.

So this shows a breakdown of those different fund balance categories.

As I mentioned, there aren't currently any restrictions committed or assigned fund balances within the general fund.

So there is a very small bucket for non-spendable for some prepaid items for 113,000, and then everything else remaining of that 14.4 million dollar bucket sitting in that unassigned.

So I kind of let you guys take that in here before moving on.

So here's another way to look at that unassigned only fund balance for the city.

This shows trend lines over the last 10 years as opposed to annual expenditures within the city.

Ending 2024 represents about 48% of annual expenditures.

So another way to look at it would be the city could operate as is with no additional money coming in within the general fund for about six months, so about 48% of annual expenditures.

So I know there's been some plan spending to deficit over the last couple of years to bring down some of those fund balances, but certainly something to kind of keep an eye on with the state climate on revenue stream constraints and stuff like that, where you guys want to be from a reserve standpoint.

We get asked a lot where should the city be.

Typically, we see somewhere in that 25 to 50 percent range of kind of annual expenditures, with the bigger cities usually having a little little bit additional in reserve.

So you're kind of right in line with what we typically see.

Um like I said, there is no necessarily right or wrong or golden rule.

Next, we'll focus on a couple uh quickly on a couple different funds, other funds for the city.

First one being your capital projects fund.

This is a pretty big fund for the city with all the the growth and just other capital adventures for the city.

Um this shows your capital expenditures over the last 10 years.

Again, this is in thousands.

So total capital uh outlay for the city within the capital projects was about well, let's call it 25 million in change.

Uh very consistent over the last four years.

Various projects throughout the city ongoing and improvement districts and road projects, um, sanitary sewer rehab projects, lagoon decommissioning are kind of some of the big heavy hitters.

Uh in total, the dis the city does have about 44 million in construction in progress at year end, so kind of projects that have been started in the past and still ongoing.

But fund balance specific to the capital projects uh is a positive.

Uh it's pretty common depending on the timing functions of some of the funding mechanisms for those projects for the fund balance to creep into a deficit, similar like you can see in previous years.

Uh there was a bond issued in 2024 for about 15 million, uh, which did lead to an increase in that fund balance in 2024.

So it's sitting in capital projects fund balance of about 8 million as of 1231-24.

Okay, last couple slides are going to focus on the proprietary or kind of business type funds for the city.

First one being your water and sewer fund, those are presented together within the city financials.

Um, from an operational standpoint, this is a pretty nice slide to kind of summarize a bunch of different items.

Uh there's operating revenues is your top blue line there, followed by your operating expenditures excluding depreciation.

So the city is operating at a net positive from operations specifically with water and sewer, again, excluding depreciation.

Once you factor in depreciation, which is kind of a paper expenditure, it's a cost of those assets built out over time based on the useful life of those assets.

There is a deficit in the current year, which again is very common.

You can get you guys can see trend lines over the last 10 years have been very consistent.

Um, and then overall net change to fund balance did come in as a deficit, but again, it's due to that depreciation.

Okay, next slide is your ending net position.

That's kind of the counterpart to fund balance.

They're the same things, different terminology within the financial statements.

Overall net position of water and sewer fund is a very significant 310 million at year end, comprised almost exclusively, or a large chunk, I should say about 96% of capital assets, a lot of infrastructure built into that water and sewer.

The remaining 4% would be your typical assets, less liabilities of cash and investments, receivables, less any sort of uh liabilities and related debt.

Those are really big dollar amounts, so a kind of a little bit better way to maybe look at it from a liquidity standpoint is year-end cash and investment balances.

So what's sitting in the bank attributed to the water and sewer fund total cash and investments is about 12.4 million.

Uh, where if you go back a few slides, annual expenditures in the water and sewer funding depreciation is just over 10 million.

Um full year's worth sitting in that cash and investment balance.

Okay, and then very last fund is garbage funds, so very similar to water and sewer, uh, kind of a business type fund for the city.

Uh first slide here being your operating statement.

Um again, money coming in from operations, money going out from operations, ultimately leading to your operating income.

We do include depreciation in on this just because the total assets in the garbage fund are much smaller, so it skews this slide much less.

Um, so for comparability, it's still good to have that in there.

Um, but overall uh operating basically at an exact break-even in FY24.

Typically speaking, we see uh kind of these proprietary funds operating at roughly a breakeven, or that's kind of the goal of most cities, uh, making sure that they're sustainable uh for the long term, but obviously not trying to make a bunch of money off the the citizens for for some of these proprietary services.

Last two slides similar uh to the water and sewer fund.

Here's your net position or fund balance for that garbage fund, again attributed mostly to capital assets, about 73% in capital assets and in related infrastructure.

Um, total FY24 net position of about 4.2 million.

And then lastly, from a liquidity standpoint, um total garbage cash and cash investments about 2.1 million.

There has been some decrease over the last couple years uh designed as the money has gone out the door to replace some of the garbage truck uh fleet within the city.

Okay, I know I kind of sped through that.

There's a lot of numbers in there, um, some pretty high-level stuff.

Hopefully, it was uh mostly user-friendly.

But any questions before I go tonight?

Questions from Mr.

Higgin.

Okay, well, if anything does come up, feel free to relay those through Dustin or Willie, and we'll be happy to get back to you.

Thank you guys for having me.

And I do want to give a special thank you to the finance office, Willie, and team.

Um we can be pretty demanding for a couple months with requests and questions, phone calls, meetings, stuff like that.

Um, and they're always responsive and very helpful, so they make our lives pretty easy.

So we appreciate working with you guys and look forward to uh more successful audits in the future.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you guys.

I am gonna ask for a motion, please.

Yes.

I would make a motion to accept the 2024 audit.

Commissioner Sundale moves to approve the 2024 audit presentation by Id Bailey.

Is there a second?

Second.

Commissioner Rolson seconds.

We have a motion and a second to accept the audit presentation for 2024 for the city of West Fargo.

Is there any discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Motion carried.

We move on to item number four.

Item number four is a presentation by our economic development director, uh, Casey Sanders Berglin, and as in regard to business incentive request.

Good evening and welcome.

Good evening, Commissioner President Dartis, Commissioners.

Uh the application before you tonight is for sign badgers.

This is the name you'll likely recognize in business as it was founded in Les Fargo and remained here for the last 15 years.

Within the last several months, this business ownership has changed.

The brand, product, and team remain as sign badgers.

And are looking ahead at their next steps centered around stability and potential growth.

However, moving forward begins with a new location for this business.

During the search for space, sign badgers has identified two top choices, one of which is located in Las Fargo, and the other one in Fargo.

Both of these spaces are approximately 5,000 square feet.

The requirements for the space are a bit unique as they need to accommodate a hyper clean environment for printing equipment as well as ventilation, air, and handling for community, excuse me, handling for computer and precision cutting, painting, and laser engraving equipment.

While also offering a space for design, collaborative spaces, and operations offices.

Um expense required, excuse me, fund it the request before you today would fund a portion of the fit up expense required at the West Fargo location.

This would off this offset would make excuse me.

This offset makes a retainable at the West Fargo site.

This primary sector business collects approximately 12 to 15,000 in annual sales tax and employs 12 employees currently.

The public participation requested today is 275,000, is funded through economic development sales tax, and it's to be used as forgivable loan over a period of five years.

During the conversation with the economic development advisory committee, the discussion centered around that this is a unique opportunity for sign that sign badgers to presents for an industrial space that normally would not collect or ideally, excuse me, ideally this space would generate sales tax.

Many spaces like this are held for industrial manufacturing and do not collect a sales tax.

This factored into the committee's ultimate recommendation for approval, it's city to the city commission.

Included in your agenda is a staff report and a summary from the sign badgers, as well as design and plans.

Dawson from Sign Badgers is here in the audience, and I can certainly invite him up to answer any business related questions, as well as Nancy from Rusted Properties, in which the West Fargo location is the West Fargo locations representation.

I'll stand for questions at this time.

Questions for Casey?

Anyone?

Yes.

Commissioner Jorgensen.

I guess if he could come to the podium.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Thanks for coming.

So with the amount that you're requesting, how much is going in the production space and how much is in the office space and how much is out of block?

I have significant six-figure investment into the business and will into the fit up as well.

And you know, it's really hard to sort of draw a line between what's office, what's production in this fit up portion because what we're doing is subdividing a space, leaving part of the space essentially open.

Yeah, the drawings might help us out here.

Um that that top uh left corner, if you will, uh, is going to be the office space and the rest is production.

So I'd say, you know, if you want to put rough numbers on it, probably 25% of this uh is dedicated as office space and 75% is production.

Do you have any stake in the actual building itself?

No.

I just think this is an extreme amount of money for a business that size.

I mean, we gave the steel company the same amount for 90,000 square foot warehouse, and this is being housed for a 5,000 square foot warehouse that brings in one report, so it's 12 to 15 and those is 15 to 20.

I have a tough time with this.

Any additional questions?

Commissioner Zondale.

You said you have significant investments in it.

How much money are you investing in this fit up?

I have a six-figure investment in the business.

Okay.

Uh excuse me if I misspoke.

The the fit up would be you know primarily funded uh with these dollars.

Uh, and then you know the the landlord is going to kick in some portion of that as well.

But uh, you know, my Fargo proposal is zero TI coming in from me.

It's uh you know, actually 375,000 that would come from the developer over there.

So this is a bridge that basically gives me you know apples to apples, and so uh I would not have personal investment into the fit up into this space, but you know, it's also a lease space uh and you know the alternative is zero dollars investment uh in the Fargo side.

And then are you expecting sales to increase by increasing your current space as well, or is the sales tax number that um Casey provided?

I absolutely see growth in this business and in this vertical.

Uh it's part of why I'm taking capital risk to invest in it.

Uh you know, and we see, you know, or an active MA discussions uh with other regional signed companies.

We'd love for West Fargo to be sort of our home and our hub for production uh going forward.

My team would prefer to stay here and uh it served us well and and uh you know they've they've enjoyed being in the West Fargo community.

Uh and so we we you know as a result of the new space, of course, we'll see uh you know better efficiency and it'll you know have a lot of benefits for our team.

Uh but you know, sort of the broader business strategy will be to grow here and you know ultimately contribute more sales tax to the city of West Fargo.

And then I'm gonna clarify when you say you'd rather be in West Fargo, what makes you rather want to be here than not?

Uh you know, my my my team prefers uh you know working in this community.

Many of them live in this community.

Uh and you know, you know, but I have to make a business decision here, right?

Uh and there's a capital incentive for me to go to Fargo.

Uh, you know, my team's gonna commute to where we go and and uh you know we're probably gonna head to where the capital is.

On the overview picture, which one of the buildings is it?

It's the one that's going up currently.

So it's actually it'd be in that bottom right-hand corner there.

Where this is cursor.

Oh, so there's no building there currently.

Uh it's awaiting a floor being poured in it.

If if I'm not mistaken, you're taking up a portion of that building, not the full half of it.

Not the full half.

Yep.

So this building hasn't been built and just would there be room for you to expand in that building?

Yes, yeah, absolutely.

Uh, you know, which is part of what makes it attractive, we could push into the other half if we need to.

I was at your presentation at the EDAC uh committee, and could you just uh refresh my memory on uh what about your business, how big a footprint uh nationwide, I think.

Yeah, where you're out and doing and all that kinds of stuff.

Yeah, no, I can appreciate that.

Thank you.

Um, you know, I I'm part of a you know, this is part of a broader set of investments on my part that operate in sort of the communications and media space.

Uh so I have a company that does traditional and digital uh media placement, a company that does direct mail, a company that does public opinion research, and we work with uh clients all over the country.

Uh this was sort of a strategy first investment on our part.

We had uh those other clients coming to us looking for visual marketing and signage.

Uh we couldn't provide that in-house.

It's also part of my personal story.

Uh my mom started a sign shop in our our basement uh on the farm in northeast North Dakota.

So I grew up in a crib watching her hand paint signs.

Uh and before that, my great uncle George was a uh sign painter in the 1920s.

So it's kind of a fun return to this business for me.

But you know, sign badgers uh and and their excellent team of 12 uh serves some pretty large companies uh nationwide.

Uh we do most of the interior of fixed signage for all SHEALS locations around the country.

Uh RDO has been a long time very committed customer as well.

Anytime they open a new dealership around the country, we're providing equipment decals, things like that.

Uh those are two verticals, you know, middle market retail and equipment dealers where we see significant growth sort of from Fargo out to the rest of the country.

So uh it'll be I think uh a strong investment for us.

It's always fun to back a great team as well.

So keeping your footprint in West Fargo brings the spotlight back on what we can produce here in West Fargo.

That's that was thank you for that.

Thank you.

Yeah, I thought it just uh questions.

I thought I'd just offer one piece of clarity as I stumbled over this earlier, but um the intention a lot of the spaces in this area offer a great opportunity for small business and businesses.

The majority of them don't create large amount of jobs, you know.

Usually you see one or two jobs, maybe three, a lot uh in addition, you're not gonna see production coming out of this area or um any amount of sign or any any amount of sales tax.

I think to that point um when we had this conversation at the EDACT being even more candid.

The conversation was about uh more around an opportunity loss rather than um uh recognizing this as a significant dollar amount in comparison to maybe some of the other incentives that we've offered.

And so I just wanted to kind of share some of that candid feedback.

Commissioner Zondell.

When you talk about some of the loan forgiveness pieces of it, I feel like um basically you just have completions of operations.

Did you and like I know I guess I feel like part of our discussion also uh centered around job retention and like continued commitment?

Is there anything other than they just have to have the doors open?

Or when you say forgivable loan, what are your markers because they seem very vague in this?

Sure.

That's something we can certainly add any time we have an incentive.

We also um work with our city attorney to create a business incentive agreement.

So that's something we can add around um job retention numbers.

I don't have anything specific outlined in this proposal for job retention numbers.

Something we could talk about.

Um in addition, I would say the other um kind of aspect that uh we we'll look at is this space once fit up.

Let's say um badgers eventually expands to the point where this space is no longer feasible for them.

This space and the fit up and those dollars will remain here in West Fargo.

It's not going into equipment, it's not going into uh you know vehicles or items that would leave the community.

That fit up would remain and be able to be reused by an additional future tenant.

Um and so that acts much like um the enterprise grant does in our downtown space.

And so that's where kind of the model around this discussion has come from.

If I may too, I think in the discussion at EDAC, we did sort of put up or discuss uh a forgiveness clock, so uh you know, X amount every year for five years on a lease term, which certainly is something that we would uh very much understand and be amenable to.

Yeah, I see just like two kind of chunks, and then um what happens if the business business isn't successful?

So they don't complete the 2.5 years of operations that you have chunked out in each of the different sections.

That's something that we'd have to work with our city attorney to create a specific clawback.

Um and those can be challenging, so I recognize that.

Our clawbacks never successful really in these circumstances.

I mean it it's a tough position because you're going into it with the business and then the business fails, probably, right?

And so then you're in that position where you're trying to recoup the dollars that you invested.

So it's a tough spot for the city.

Would it transfer ownership?

So if someone bought outsigned badgers, for example, would the part of the forgive forgivable loans stay with the business regardless of who owns it?

I would lean on our city attorney to answer that question.

No, we can certainly draft it that way.

Yeah, I think it would be essentially booked as a liability in the entity.

I guess I just see this as a lot of money to fit up a building.

I don't I don't see it with non-commercial projects.

I don't see putting these walls, bathrooms, and stuff in costing you 275,000 dollars.

I can appreciate that.

I didn't think it would either.

Have you gotten quotes or bids?

Yeah.

That's what supports the number.

Additional questions.

This is an actionable item, Commissioner.

Commissioner Olson moves to approve.

Is there a second?

Second.

Commissioner Zundell seconds.

We have a motion and a second to improve the business to approve the business incentive request by signed badgers as presented by Casey Sanders Berglund this evening.

So any discussion.

Any discussion.

All those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

Nay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We move on to item number five, the final 2026 City of West Fargo budget presentation.

We call on Mr.

Dustin Scott, City Administrator for the City of West Fargo, and Mr.

Willie Galindo, Director of Finance.

The city budget.

Mr.

Scott, good evening and welcome.

Thank you, Commissioner President Dartis and Commissioners.

Well, I'm honored and privileged to have the opportunity to introduce our 2026 final budget for your consideration tonight.

A memo uh is available in our agenda packet.

Uh that memo, by the way, was updated a little bit this afternoon, uh specifically adding a section regarding the property taxes.

Uh and the full budget document is available on our website.

I'll give a brief overview of of the memo that you have before you and and the budget, and then I'll call on Willie uh to walk through some of the numbers.

Uh but before I do that, I want to start with some acknowledgments.

I want to extend my sincere appreciation to those who've helped lead this effort and shape this budget to where we are today.

Starting with Nick and Willie.

Their first time uh managing the budget process.

Their first time managing the budget process, and I think they did a phenomenal job bringing efficiency structure and integrity throughout the budget and the process in general.

And of course, Sheila and the rest of the budget team for their hard work and diligence getting everything in order.

Also like to thank Rachel Ordman.

As usual, she's the one bringing everything together for public consumption, and I think she's done a fantastic job with the 26th budget book.

If you've not had an opportunity yet, please go through it.

I feel like it is very uh user-friendly, easy to follow, and uh well put together.

So thank you, Rachel.

Of course, our department heads and staff who've approached this year's budget cycle with discipline and teamwork, finding over three million dollars worth of reductions to their initial requests, while maintaining a focus and protecting our services that our residents deserve.

City commissioners, we thank you for your active participation throughout and all of your guidance has been greatly appreciated, and of course, has played a significant role in achieving the 2026 budget.

And finally, to our residents, we thank you for staying engaged and entrusting us to serve you.

So with that, I'll I'll walk through a few highlights before I turn it over to Willie.

First, the budget pauses all new FTE requests while supporting the retention of our existing staff through a two and a half percent COLA and competitive benefits.

The general fund is balanced without the use of reserves.

Like our sales tax funds, debt service.

Uh however, there is cash on hand to fund the projects that have already been approved by the city commission.

And you heard some of that discussion with the audit report.

Um so while the capital sales tax fund, for example, has a 10 or 11 million dollar deficit, that's going to be supplemented through the cash on hand.

And again, those projects have all been before the commission and approved, or will be coming before the commission for approval.

We've continued to improve our transparency.

The budget book includes departmental overviews, priority statements, and an itemized appendices that contains all of the detail for each department.

Here is the new section that was added this afternoon.

In accordance with new state law, the 2026 budget includes a 5.4% increase in property tax revenue.

So that includes the 3% cap along with the new growth that is also allowed by that new state law.

Revenue from property taxes support, our general fund, library fund, municipal library, and our share of special assessments.

The allocation of property tax revenues are based on departmental budget needs.

So that's a high-level overview of our budget, but I'm going to call Willie up to talk through the uh changes that have been made since we last presented on September 8th, as well as uh go through the numbers that are available in that summary of funds table at the back of this memo.

Good evening, commissioners.

Scroll down to go over the summary of the schedule that uh you see before you.

Um there are a few changes that were made since we last met during September 8th public hearing and the budget draft.

Uh one of them being uh we have a TIF District, Sand Hills, which was not included in the debt service fund listing, and it's now included as well.

Um this is a new fund for 2024, and um we have uh additional revenues totaling 34,100 that is estimated for next year, and brings the uh total debt service fund revenue to 23,602, 972 dollars.

The second item is um the revenue for the lights plaza and the parking ramp for Cheyenne was adjusted.

That revenue went from 528,500 to 536,200 to account for a transfer to our parking ramp fund to match the expenditures as it had a small deficit of $7700.

Starting from the top, we're looking at the governmental funds.

No change has been made there since the final draft was presented back in September the 8th.

Um the general funds, including library, uh the municipal airport, and share specials, have not uh been adjusted.

Next up is the enterprise funds or utility funds.

Um prize primarily of the utility fee revenue, and these these funds have a surplus forecasted in 2026, which will be uh funds used for strategic reserves.

After that, we have the sales tax that our city administrator was discussing.

Um those are primarily made up of the sales tax portions between public safety capital improvement sales tax and economic development sales tax.

Umly the revenues for 2026 are being displayed here, as our city administrator discussed earlier that uh cash balances or an accounting we call them fund balances, um, are utilized to um offset the uh additional expenditures for the 2026 year.

After that, we have what we call agencies, now we call them custodial funds.

These are funds that uh the city has no direct oversight or governmental control over, and they're considered normally a pass-through, which is why whatever comes in normally comes out.

So that's neutral.

Then we have our special funds that include all the other special revenue funds that the city has, which include the state aid, such as the prairie dog funds, um the city-owned plazas that we discussed a little earlier, the Cheyenne, and uh other special circumstances as well.

Um the gaming uh fund has uh $150,000 deficit because there is a fund balance that stems from gaming grant funds that appear to have started back in 1983 when the state was uh providing use grant funds to cities that were non-oil uh generating cities.

After that, we have the debt service funds, and these funds are used to pay down the debt of the city, and um they also show a small deficit as we have proceeds from previous years uh revenues that have accumulated, uh whether from special assessments or other forms of uh proceeds.

And that concludes my section regarding the summary of the revenues and expenditures for the city of West Fargo.

And I stand in front of you to answer any questions you may have.

Commissioner Zundell.

Could you walk through the gaming fund again?

Yes.

So the gaming fund is a the revenues are made up of the um uh the taxes collected by the state, and they provide these grant funds over to um to these various cities.

We are included in that.

In addition to that, we also get the fees that we charge for gaming permits.

And what we're using these funds for is the administration of those uh charitable permits.

Um you're looping it back into the general fund essentially.

Correct.

So previously every all the expenditures that come from the salaries of these employees are hitting the general fund initially.

Do you have any idea what the fund balance is of the gaming fund after we deficit out $135,000?

Uh it's estimated to still have a small sum.

Uh I think it was about $10,000.

And we're looking to see if this start to build up again at the end of this year and next year, then we may consider moving those and transferring back to general fund as well.

Okay.

And then just a point of clarification, so I understand as far as the property tax cap.

Does that affect the library and the airport?

Uh it does because it's part of the overall tax.

So so there it is part of the cap yelling one that is not considered part of the cap is the share of specials.

So did we did they individually cap at the retrospective 5% in that budget, or did you lump them all together minus the share of special to get to a cumulative five point, I think you said two six Dustin?

Yeah.

I see that's the wants to come up here.

So what you're doing by I don't know, he's lurking in.

He's looking like he's already done me.

I can speak on behalf of the airport fund that went up higher, because now we're selling the gas.

So we're taking the revenue to cover the expenditure.

Right.

I'm just wondering how that looped in how we're basically treating the different mill or how we treated the milled entities different when they have the different ones in that.

Correct.

Normally what we do is we oversee the overall taxes.

So technically it would be the general library and municipal airport combined based on 2025's uh figures.

From there we move on to add the new growth component to it, which includes the actual new growth of the city as well as this year, we had a TIFF district that closed down.

So that created another benefit, which is considered new growth under the state law.

Once we added those and calculated the new growth value, the dollars associated with that, we added that to the 2025 base year, and then we took the 3% of that.

So the cap is included of municipal and airport and library.

I think what I'm trying to understand is if the if they capped each individual budget, or if you did a lump sum of all the money and then everyone had to work within those confines.

Does that question make sense?

Yes.

So I would say it's the latter portion of that, where it's a combined dollar amount, and basically we look for it to see uh which uh which fund sources are needed uh in each of the uh in each of the uh segments.

Okay.

It's the entire I'll I'll just build on what Willie's saying there, and it it's actually included in the memo here so our the revenue from our property taxes is calculated as a lump sum over that just property tax revenue.

That revenue goes into our general fund, it goes into the library, the airport, as well as share of special assessments.

The amount that we are apportioning to those funds are dependent upon their budget needs.

So the three percent cap does not cap any individual funds budget, if you will.

Think of the property taxes as one of our revenue streams, which is less than 50.

Yep.

So of that total revenue stream, when we calculated out the the uh 3 percent cap and then added in the new growth, all of that led to a total dollar amount 22 plus or minus million dollars of that, we took and then set apportions to each of those funds based on their departmental needs or their fund needs.

So my only question with that as we're voting on this is I just want to ensure I worry a little bit with this three percent because for example, they have different boards that approve budgets and we're obviously the overall approving of what those are considering, but if they're all lumped in, I think I'm maybe in Katie perhaps I could ask you that.

Is how do we separate boards and they're sort of government entities?

They're not taking their cap, but it it counts as our cap because it's all out of the same fund.

Right, because the city collects it.

Okay.

And maybe to think of it this way, those boards are charged with overseeing their expense budgets.

The city establishes their revenue stream through an allotment of not just property tax revenue but other stuff.

So again, think of those boards as governing their operational expenses.

Okay.

For the record, on your memorandum, we don't have the updated one.

We do not have anything about your property tax calculations in the in the uh document that I have or the commissioners have.

Just for the record.

Just to clarify that are you looking at a printed copy or the what what you see on the screen here?

What I see on the screen in our printed copy does not have number two property tax calculations.

Right.

Yep.

That was added this afternoon after our discussion this morning.

Okay.

But that's the most important discussion item with regard to Commissioner Zondell's question.

Yeah.

So it it has been added to the agenda packet that is available online.

If you would like a new printed version, we can certainly do that.

And the information is available.

So just let us know if you need more or less.

Okay.

Any other questions, Commissioners?

Commissioner Olson.

Can you just give me the high overview of if you go to your attachment two where it shows our revenues is 123.7 million, and our expenses are 134.2 million.

So that's a deficit of 10 and a half million.

So explain how that all works, and we still have a balanced budget.

Okay, yep.

So that's where my initial uh opening remark.

I was uh indicating that while we will have some of these funds in deficit, there are existing cash balances.

So for example, the capital sales tax balance.

Um, and I don't know the number off the top of my head, but it is flush enough to afford the projects that we are expending in 26.

Uh I believe John alluded to it during the audit report that these capital funds get to be an awkward timing thing of when are you approving the projects, completing the work, and writing the checks.

And so they they don't necessarily always align with your budgeting schedule.

So we and in the budget, we're focused on what is the annual collection and what is the annual expense.

So for example, the annual revenue for for 26 is is there, but the expense is twice as much because we've already committed to those projects, and we've committed knowing that we have enough cash on hand to afford those projects.

Now, what Willie does in uh collaboration with the engineering team is they take a look at a five-year uh projection.

What are the projects we're gonna do?

What are the monies used to fund those projects, and can we move forward with them?

So, but yes, when you look at and see that there's a deficit, it's because this budget is not accounting for the cash that was already encumbered to finance those projects.

If that's making sense.

Yep, I want to I want the public to hear that.

Yep.

Where you can find that information is on our monthly financial reports, which you would have seen in the um agenda packet, the financial report through July and the finance report through August.

You'll see cash balances there.

Thank you.

And I do have a couple closing remarks if you don't have any other questions.

Any additional questions?

Comments.

Go ahead.

So I just want to go back to in the memo here.

There are next steps identified.

So their first one being tonight's meeting.

Of course, uh, you have the opportunity or option to uh approve the budget what either as presented or with changes.

You could uh direct staff to continue to work on the budget and hold either a special meeting or bring it forward to your next regular meeting on October 6th.

Um but the final budget is due to the county by October 10th.

So again, those are your options in moving forward with approving the final budget.

Once the budget is approved, then of course uh we turn that over to the county.

We will make sure everything is published on our website and publicly available, and then finally uh residents will receive their preliminary tax statements or their tax statements in December.

The county will distribute those in December.

So uh one of the legislative changes that we all know uh occurred is the county was not required to send out preliminary tax statements this summer, so uh that will be delayed until December.

So those are your next steps.

And again, Willie and I are available for for any questions.

Any additional questions?

I move we approve the 2026 budget as presented.

Commissioner Zendow moves to approve the 2026 uh City of West Fargo budget.

Is there a second?

Second, Commissioner Olsen second.

So I have a motion and a second to approve the final 2026 City of West Fargo budget as presented this evening.

Is there any discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Motion carried.

Thank you again.

Yeah, thank you.

Item number six is A25-16 Bogie 4th edition.

Request for access to an arterial street.

We're going to call on Mr.

Aaron Nelson, Director of Planning and Zoning for the City of West Fargo.

Good evening and welcome, Mr.

Nelson.

Good evening, President Artisan Commissioners.

So item six is a request for approval of full access of a driveway onto an arterial roadway along with associated access agreement.

This item does come to you with a recommendation for approval from the planning and zoning commission.

So we'll just start with uh aerial map here.

The subject property is located at 475 12th Avenue Northeast, which is the site of the Hazers self-service auto parts salvage yard.

The applicant currently has a right in right out driveway access point onto 12th Avenue on the north end of their property here.

Scroll down a little bit to another graphic in your packet here.

Um full access is currently restricted due to the presence of a raised concrete median uh within the center of 12th Avenue Northeast that extends approximately 350 feet east of the adjacent railroad tracks, which are located just to the west here.

The applicant is requesting removal of the raised concrete median at this location in order to allow full access into their property.

Uh this request has been reviewed by the engineering staff and can in um contact with the original consultant design team that did the sign work for this portion of 12th Avenue.

Uh the access point in question is approximately 350 feet from the nearest driveway or intersection, which does meet our minimum of standards uh for driveway and access spacing of our subdivision ordinance.

And while staff does not have any concerns with the removal of the uh median at this location, um future traffic volumes and conditions may warrant reinstallation of a raised median at some point in the future if and when uh traffic volumes increase along 12th Avenue.

As such, staff recommends that the approval of the applicant's request be conditioned on the applicant's waiver of a right to protest any future decision by the city to reinstall the raised median and or to otherwise restrict access if conditions warrant, as well as the applicant's waiver of the right to protest any costs for such improvements uh that may be assessed in accordance with the city's infrastructure funding policy.

Uh costs associated with the proposed removal of the median will be the responsibility of the applicant, and uh at least 100 feet to the raised median will remain just to the east of the railroad truck crossing there.

Um so with that overview, uh the request to action tonight again is to approve the request for full access on 12th Avenue at this location with the conditions noted in the staff report uh and to approve the associated access agreement, which documents those conditions.

So with that, happy to answer any questions you have for staff.

Questions, commissioners, commissioner Zondell.

I'm gonna ask the question on everybody's mind.

Tell me why this is different than the ongoing argument with the Shea West location.

Yeah.

So the main difference here is there's just adequate spacing between other driveway and intersection points.

Um is a little different, and that it is in proximity to a major intersection with the traffic control traffic light and the cues required for that traffic light encroach into the area that Chai West would be requesting for their full access.

None of that here.

There's no traffic DOT regulation, no nothing like that to deny a request, and the applicant is paying for it.

Correct.

Yeah.

Okay.

Just different context.

Yep.

Thank you.

With that being said, why was it placed there in the first place then?

So that one I'll probably defer to Mr.

Hanson, if that's right, or Mr.

Wallace.

Uh thank you, Commissioner President Artists and Commissioners.

Uh we did uh do some research.

I obviously wasn't around when this was originally constructed.

And I had the same question as well because on the west side of the tracks, the median sticks out about a hundred feet.

On the east side of the tracks, it sticks out about approximately 340, 350 feet.

So why so long on the east side?

I thought maybe that might be a quiet zone for the railroad, uh, something like that.

Found out that it was not a railroad requirement.

Um it's my belief that at the time it was installed to restrict um open access into that property.

Um but a couple of the things that engineering has uh looked over uh in this new request is that there are people that are uh traveling westbound and they're making U-turns in the railroad track and beyond the railroad track right now.

Uh we recently had a pickup that was that a train hit it.

Basically, luckily the the person that was driving the pickup survived uh but it is a safety issue.

Uh and also as Aaron described, uh there are we don't have any current rules against letting us allow this, but we did want to take a look as the future once the diversion is done and we've got thousands of acres of a developable land that could produce eventual traffic on here that might want us to restrict the access again in the future.

Right now, the traffic patterns don't suggest to us that we can't uh allow this accommodation as long as we are reserving the right to recreate the accommodation in the event that the traffic levels do increase with future growth of the city.

So the removal of this is at the expense of the owner.

Yeah, they would have to take out uh uh a permit from us and do it as a private job with a uh licensed contractor in good standing with the city.

In the future, if the traffic include uh increases, and it has to go back in there at whose expense?

That would be at the time it would be a public improvement project that we would do when we would run it through our standard assessment procedures that we would normally do.

So uh I think we're talking years and years in the future, and as far as the amount of cost for extending a median, it's fairly negligible in the in the overall thing, but it would be uh able to be assessed um at a in our current rate, we would assess it at 70 percent.

That being said, to remove it and then the possibility that we're going to a special assess and pay for it makes absolutely no sense.

This should not be approved, in my opinion.

Commissioner Olson.

Um Thank you.

Uh there was a comment made that this would be a full full access.

Will they be able to make a left out?

Or are they still only doing a write out?

No.

Yeah, it would be uh it would be a full access.

Full access.

Commissioner Anderson.

Uh to that point, the question I had was do we know if there's many trucks or vehicles taking a left to go west out that would need to go west out of there, or is the need coming from westbound traffic turning it left into the driveway, and then they would write out.

Yeah.

Talking with the owner, the vast majority of the traffic are as far as truck traffic is it they're coming from the east, they want to take a left into the lot, uh, and then when they leave, their intent for the vast majority of those uh trucks would be to take a right and head off to the east again.

Yeah, thank you.

Any other questions, Commissioners?

Commissioner Rolson.

So could we just make it a three quarter?

There's no room for a three-quarter.

Uh not there's not enough room in the median to make a three-quarter because you have to have enough room to provide if you look at a three-quarter in uh when they're turning, they have to stop at an angle.

There isn't enough room for that.

Whereas there is enough room to just extend that center uh turn lane, that shared turn lane that that's in the center.

Uh, that can be extended at the ex at the current standard width uh for uh there to be a uh queuing allowed and they can make a turn into it from that center turn.

But there's enough room to make a full access so they can make a left out, but they we can't just make it so that it's only a left in coming from the east.

Right.

It doesn't make sense.

It it doesn't seem like it makes sense, but when you're when you're having to put enough concrete in there so that you can get a skewed vehicle to stop in the middle of some turning lanes as opposed to having them just stop facing directly to the west, you need more room in the median for that skewed stopping uh maneuver.

Commissioner Sundow.

Were there any discussions about them being responsible if we have to have it closed again for the cost?

Like I understand they're gonna be responsible for the cost to remove it, but should it warrant to have it closed again?

Was there any discussion or do you think the applicant would be agreeable to covering that cost?

So the what's the intent of being put into the agreement is that they're waiving any rights to the amount of assessments that we would assess against that property in the event that we do close it.

Uh at the time of that project uh benefit would be determined as to who's benefiting and who's not from that, and then assessments would be um basically levied against whatever properties are benefiting at the time of that assessment in the future.

Um so there isn't any clause that says, okay, we'll we'll let you pay to open it, but if we ever want to close it, you have to pay 100 percent for the closure.

That is not in the agreement.

I guess my question would be from their perspective, is that I mean that would be the opposite of a benefit.

If there are if they're asking us to open it, because that's going to benefit them, closing it.

I'm not sure.

And maybe that's different in special assessment words or whatever, but I would say it's the opposite of a benefit.

So typically for street projects, um the the benefit is uh absolutely could be argued at the time.

I'm not benefiting from this.

However, a lot of times when you're talking street improvement projects, the benefit for any local or regional or you know arterial street project, when that is done, it is assessed at a front footage basis to everybody that abuts the project because the benefits of improving traffic uh circulation on collector roadways is a benefit to to all that are adjacent to it.

Uh so there's intrinsic benefit in improving the the manu the maneuvering of traffic on the roadway.

Now, again, yeah, I agree a hundred percent.

The current owner at the time, because it might not even be these people.

This might be 20 years in the future or or longer.

Um they might uh be, and I would assume they probably would be at a commission meeting saying how is this any benefit to me?

I don't I don't want this to close.

This is gonna and you can create all the arguments you can think of.

Um, but we are putting in there that at the time, whatever assessment is deemed to be a benefit to their property, they would not have the right to contest that.

So my question would be does that transfer to owners?

Like if they sell their property to somebody else, someone else now owns this subject property, we do uh whatever we deem they have to close it.

Can those people, I mean, I would presume they would have the ability to protest because they're not the ones who signed this agreement.

Correct, I believe that this stays with the property, and I would look at the city attorney, but she's shaking her head in affirmative as well for that.

I think the intent was to record it so that it wouldn't be binding on future owners.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Uh Commissioner Olson, then Commissioner Jorgensen.

Come here Olsen.

Dan, can you move uh your slides to number four, slide four?

Go go the other way.

Keep going.

Right there.

What is preventing uh their customers from coming in and having access at 11th Avenue Northeast versus coming in on 12th Avenue?

They could have full access right there.

You know, it wouldn't affect the railroad or anything up there.

That that's a absolutely that's a good that is a good argument.

Um 11th Avenue is more of a local roadway as opposed to the uh 12th Avenue, and it would be you know, trucks and things of that nature that are coming to access their parcel going through that local roadway.

However, it is uh city street.

Um so it is public right away.

Is it constructed so it could hold the truck?

Yep, everything out there is constructed uh as a industrial section.

Commissioner Jorgensen.

I just see it as a bottleneck to put that chart to give them access in there because the truck bypass lane is just barely starting.

There won't be enough room to fully gain access to the bypass lane.

So the intent would be that the where the median occupies that space, the median would be removed, creating a shared center turn lane uh that has allowed um plenty of queuing, uh especially since an uh average daily traffic to the site is you know 10, uh 15 vehicles, something like that.

Um we're not talking that this is a a major um thoroughfare to get in and out of there.

Uh so with the amount of traffic that are that's going in there and uh that uh the bypass lane um is not uh in uh assistance or to the detriment of what we're talking about here today because the center turn lane would be able to handle what we're what we're talking about.

It's too bad this work wasn't done in the spring before we redid on that whole road with all in Yeah, and and from what I under what I can gather is that the median was and intentionally uh when the roadway was constructed.

I believe there was uh talking to the design team, there was talk with the current public works um staff and everything as far as uh the design of the road, uh it was chosen to do that.

Again, I'm not 100% certain exactly why, but my guess would be it would be to have um restricted access to that site, would be my guess.

Um but again, what we're seeing is there's there are legal and dangerous uh turning movements that are occurring uh because it is restricted and there are trucks headed west that need to go into there, and that there isn't a natural U-turn for a truck uh off to the west, unless you you go around away.

So that's why engineering is uh we don't we don't see a reason why at this point uh it should be um flat out red flag denied um and we don't see a detriment to allowing it at this point uh along with the contingency that we have the right to put it back this way someday when the population of West Fargo increases and traffic levels increase.

Who's the neighbor to the right?

Uh I believe that's Midland Garage.

Is that is that divider does it go to their driveway?

Their drive their driveway is a full access that has the exact same situation we're creating here.

Thank you.

Commissioner Zundell.

Would it be possible to amend the agreement to say if we had to pull it back, put it back, they would be responsible for 100% of the cost.

Yeah, we can we could make that amendment.

I don't know that the landowner will be open to it or not.

I know there was a lot of discussion back and forth with him.

We originally, I believe, were starting from that point, and they argued that we should pay our fair share, but not be not being able to put the name in writing that a future owner at the behest of the city with regardless of whatever we want, they just have to pay 100% of it without being able to go through a special assessment procedure.

But it sounds like the special assessment procedure they can't go through anyways under the concept of they can't protest the special assessment.

So they're already kind of signing away the rights of the property owner to protest it anyways.

I guess I just I don't think it's fair to expend any money from a city budget to basically pro like benefit this sole property.

So I I can understand the concept of wanting to do it and it not being a problem under any other regulation standards.

There's no reason not to do it.

I just don't know that it's fair to commit additional funds because we undid it for one property to redo it.

So I guess I I would personally make the motion to approve it under the premise that they're gonna pay 100% of it if it has to go back of just that portion, whatever the cost of returning the median to be what it would be if anybody has an appetite for that.

But a motion.

Sure.

I have a motion.

Is there a second?

I'll second that.

Commissioner Anderson seconds, but a motion is seconded uh to approve the A25-16 bogey fourth edition with the amended uh language that the property owner would have to pay 100% if it to reconstruct.

Is that about it?

Is that right?

Any further discussion?

Hearing none.

All those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

Nay.

Uh motion passes three to two.

Item number seven is a second reading of A25-17.

Cheyenne second edition, a request for rezoning from R2 to P.

Again, we call on Aaron Nelson, Director of Planning and Zoning.

Thank you.

So item seven is an application to rezone the South Elementary School property from R2, multi-dwelling residential to P public facilities.

Uh specific requested action today is to approve the second reading of the rezoning ordinance.

The uh first reading of the ordinance was approved by the city commission at your last regular meeting uh back on September 8th, at which time a public hearing was held.

Uh, there have been no changes or updates to the request since it was presented to the commission on September 8th.

So, unless there are additional questions for staff, again the requested action tonight is to approve the second reading of the rezone ordinance.

I motion to approve.

Thank you, Commissioner Jorgens.

And I have a motion to approve zero second.

Second.

Commissioner Olsen seconds.

We have a motion of a second to approve the second reading of the A25-17.

Shayen second edition of request from zoning from R2 to public land.

Is there any discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye aye.

Opposed.

Motion carried.

Thank you.

Item number eight is 825-12.

Uh FMD Mapleton subdivision request for a final plat approval.

Aaron Nelson, director of planning and zoning.

Uh thank you.

So item eight is a request for approval of the final plat of FMD Mapleton subdivision along with the associated subdivision agreement.

Uh, this request comes to you with a recommendation of approval from the planning and zoning commission.

Uh in this case, the subject property includes the portion of the FM diversion project boundary that is located within Mapleton Township.

So this is just west of the uh current uh city limits, approximately south, I think, of 12th Avenue North and or northwest and north of uh 52nd Avenue West.

Um the primary purpose of this subdivision is to establish formal property boundaries for and simplified legal description uh for the FM diversion um right of way.

The project is being platted one township at a time, starting from the north and moving south.

Uh, some of you may recall a similar um type application for uh Raymond Township, just to the north uh several months back.

The uh plat is unique in that typical plat features, such as vacation of unneeded section line roads and dedication of additional public rights of way uh for future streets and utilities are not included in the plat.

Instead, the property is intended to be replatted upon substantial completion of the FM diversion project once the final right-of-way boundaries are known.

Um the replat will include the reconfiguration of easements, rights of way, um based on the final project design as built.

Uh additionally, the rezoning of the property is anticipated to take place with the future replant of the property at a date to be determined.

Uh to ensure the replant takes place and the associated subdivision or associated uh modifications to the rights of way um are completed.

Um the subdivision agreement basically documents that intent, um, guaranteeing that the um the FM diversion project will come back and and replant the property once uh the project's complete.

So with that, I'm happy to answer any questions you have for staff.

Otherwise, again, the requested action tonight is to approve the final plat and the associated agreement.

Commissioners have any questions movely approved.

Commissioner also moves to approve the metro flood diversion mapleton subdivision request for a final plot.

Is there a second?

Second.

Mr.

Zundal, second.

So I have a motion and a second.

Is there any further discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Opposed.

Motion carried.

Thank you.

Moving on to I uh number nine is 825-13.

The metro flood diversion again, it's a warrant first subdivision.

Request for a final plot approval calling on Aaron Nelson, director of planning and zoning.

Thank you.

So item nine is a request for approval of the final plat of FMD Warren First Subdivision, along with the associated subdivision agreement.

Uh this one again comes with you to with a recommendation for approval from the planning and zoning commission.

Um essentially, this is the uh same type of request, uh, only instead of uh Maple and Township.

We're looking at um Warren Township, specifically the section of Warren Township that um the city of West Fargo exercises extra-territorial uh joint zoning jurisdiction.

So um here again there's an associated subdivision agreement that basically uh documents the unique aspects of this plat and talks about the uh the intention to come back and replant the property upon completion of the FM diversion project.

So here again, happy to answer any questions you have for staff.

Otherwise, it's uh same request, different location.

Motion to approve.

Commissioner Jorgensen moves to approve 825-13 for the metro flood diversion warrant first subdivision.

Is there a second?

Second.

Commissioner Anderson seconds.

A motion and a second.

Is there any discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Motion carried.

Thank you.

Item number 10, 2025 sewer budget adjustment.

We call on Mr.

Matt Matt Anvick, the director of public works, city of West Fargo.

Good evening and welcome.

Good evening, Commissioner President, Commissioners.

Uh, tonight I'm asking for an increase or budget adjustment and increase to the chemical line item on the sewer department uh from 150,000 to 350,000.

Uh, this came about because last fall we started getting um I had conversations with Fargo, they were getting some complaints about odor and smell that was coming kind of on the north side of town, uh, doing some testing our H2S levels.

Uh, were quite high at the time.

Uh so working with them, we started uh trying to take some samples.

Actually started doing some more um uh odor um boy I'm losing it today.

Uh doing some uh more odor control uh doing a little bit more injection to keep those those levels down, and that's just basically the reason for this increase.

Um the H2S has causes odor issues and just the increased chemical treatment uh is the cost to stay within the limits for that.

Um when we identified this, we just decided to bring this forward forward kind of as a formal budget adjustment.

Uh this won't change the overall uh sewer department budget.

It's just more or less this one line item.

Uh, just because of the large dollar figure, it's it would look and be something that would really stand out on the budget next year.

And without coming forward explaining that um in this way and kind of being more transparent about coming forward with it now.

Uh we probably would have got more questions in the future.

So that we wanted to bring this forward now, explain what was going on and why we need to do this.

Um that'd be an increase of about 200,000 dollars in that chemical line item.

Uh like I said, no change to the overall sewer budget.

But what we are looking at is future um items to try and save this money.

The way it is right now, we're about a thousand dollars a day in chemicals uh to keep that down, so that'll be quite a significant expense going forward.

Uh, we're looking at some oil zone injection stations.

That's more of a uh cost heavy up front, but uh annually then to do that is probably about ten to fifteen thousand dollars.

Um that's kind of a somewhat unproven a little bit on certain areas.

We talked to some other cities that have that, and it's worked well for them.

Uh we're in the middle of doing kind of a testing phase in the next few months, hopefully, getting a small uh unit up here for a rental uh and just to make sure it's kind of a proof of concept to make sure that works before we really start looking at bringing uh a large scale uh unit in to try and save some of those dollars and chemicals.

We looked at uh order corrosion and control control study this last year.

Those studies take about nine months.

Uh we want to hold off with that until maybe next spring, get a little bit more information on the ozone and then possibly bring that study um back before you.

Uh since they always when they're doing that study, they want to see that uh they want to see what the levels are in the winter when it's the the cooler months and as well, and then come back in the summer months when we have the the warmer weather to uh test those levels as well.

So uh with that, I'll ask for um approval to uh increase the chemical line item from 150,000 to 350,000 uh for the 2025 budget, and I'll stand for any questions.

Commissioner Olson.

Uh thank you.

Uh Matt, in your policy analysis, um you you really don't speak to the odor, but it's more that this H2S can lead to uh corrosion, increased maintenance costs, and all that.

So that is one of the other things that we need to do too, right?

Rather than just maintaining the odor for Fargo to treat it.

Correct.

It's kind of a a two, you know, with the H2S, you actually get some water in there, it turns into hydrocephic sulfuric acid, sorry, tripping over that one.

Uh and we've spent a lot of money in the last few years on some of the capital improvement program or projects to um redo a lot of our manholes lift stations because of the corrosion that we've seen with the H2S.

Uh that's why we've had three kind of stations before for odor control and trying to contain that H2S, but we've seen has our flows of increased, so is the H2S as well.

And then we are the the smell has been mitigated somewhat in West Fargo, but that long forcement that goes up the Fargo, we were starting getting some odor up in the right in the airport area, kind of North Fargo area where we need to keep our levels down to as part of the agreement with Fargo.

Sure.

Thank you.

Commissioner Jorgensen.

I applaud you, Matt, when you first brought this to my attention.

That I mean, there's a problem you already were looking for ahead in the solutions that are much more economical.

So I applaud you and your team.

Thank you.

Commissioner Anderson.

Um I guess uh in relation to the budget that we just passed uh this evening.

Um this account for for any like future uh things next year.

I know that we're you know that you're asking about 25 budget, but what impacts would this have to next year's budget?

Uh we we did increase uh the chemical line item budget.

Um I think it's 22,000, I think, next year.

So it's not quite that amount.

Uh what we'd look for is if this uh ozone treatment is what it we think it's going to be, and what we've talked to other um counties then would come back, and that would probably be like a capital one-time purchase that'll bring back through that should keep that budget line item down in this next year.

Uh one of the like a four million gallon a day ozone generator that would go up on our SA40 site is right around that 250,000 mark.

Uh, but that's a one-time purchase, and then it's about 10 to 15,000 for um annual running uh operating per year after that.

So you know that's a one-time purchase instead of like you know 300,000 every year.

So hopefully we can mitigate that as a one-time purchase and do that and keep that.

But that is something we're gonna have to monitor as we go forward to see if we how much we're gonna have to increase that or decrease that budget in the future.

Okay, thank you.

Anything else from Mr.

Radwick?

Commissioner Zundell moves to approve the adjustment to the 2025 sewer budget by 200,000.

Is there a second?

Second.

Commissioner Jorgenson seconds.

We have a motion and a second to approve a sewer budget adjustment for 2025 to the tune of 200,000.

Is there any further discussion?

Just a point of clarification.

Please.

Um it's a line item adjustment versus uh overall correct sewer budget.

The budget in the way Matt explained it is good point.

Thank you.

It's just a line item.

We're changing the numbers there, but overall budgets remains the same.

Chemical budget.

Okay.

Thank you.

Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Motion carried.

Thank you, Mr.

Renwick.

Item number 11 is an improvement district number 30 oh nine.

It's First Avenue Reconstruction, Cheyenne Street to Fourth Avenue East.

We call on Mr.

Dan Hanson, the director of community development.

Purpose of the discussion is to approve the engineers report and direct the engineer to prepare plans and specifications.

Mr.

Hanson, welcome back.

Thank you, Commissioner President Dartis and Commissioners.

The Commission in June directed the engineer to prepare uh an engineer's report.

We did have a consultant put together a feasibility study that was used to come to complete this engineer's report.

And up on the screen, what you have in front of you is the proposed improvements uh that are being recommended to move forward with this project.

Uh one thing that I would point out is on the original uh this this project was in the 2024 CIP.

Uh it was originally uh slated to be replacing this or removing this lift station and installing the sanitary sewer over to second where we can connect it up to existing gravity.

Um in doing so we also have uh in the in that section we've got cast iron water main and asbestos uh concrete pipe, ACP pipe, both well beyond their uh serviceable life and in need of replacement.

So uh that basically turns this area into a full-blown reconstruct of the of the roadway uh since we we would be digging that up already.

Um and then um once you get that far, uh the next block over is one of the worst uh street sections in town.

I mean that if you go out and drive it, it is alligator cracked and it is just there's there's no uh repairing it at this point.

So and also from 2nd Street all the way west to Cheyenne Street, that is also uh asbestos concrete pipe.

Uh that again is beyond its uh design life and in need of replacement.

Uh right now we do have the unique opportunity.

Uh there's a grant that I've talked about a number of times in front where the uh Department of Water Resources uh does uh give us grant money to pay for 60 percent of any water main replacement that we're doing in these areas uh that would be applicable to this.

Um we have a because of the timing of when those funds need to be applied for, we have already applied for that grant.

That doesn't mean we have to do the project and use it, but didn't want to lose the window in applying for that.

Um I would expect that we would be successful in getting that.

Um so uh it's kind of one of uh the project is as soon as you get over to second, it's only a block of really bad roadway and water main that is uh more than 50 percent paid for to increase from there.

Um we don't have any more sanitary sewer that we would be doing west of second uh because again, because the sanitary sewer is in the back alleys in these areas, and we did just uh we're in the process of finishing off a project right now where we relined all of those mains.

So the sanitary sewer is for the most part taken care of in this area, uh and this would become basically more of a water main, and as we're going by, there's some storm sewer inlets, not a lot of mainline storm sewer running east and west down the corridor, but as we're going past uh to replace some uh lead pipes that the uh existing storm sewer is undersized to today's standards.

So uh we would just at the intersections uh be making some storm sewer uh corrections with those.

Um west of what I would call the school property, uh, because eventually that roadway just ends up running right into the school property.

I would say west of the school property.

Uh there the curb and gutter in that area isn't that bad.

Um it is a area where we're in the feasibility study they recommended basically that we could replace the water main uh in that area again with that grant money, and then by the and included in what is funded through that grant is also replacing some of the roadway that's above the pipe that we're replacing.

So we're getting roughly, say, half of the roadway already paid for to install that water main, and it wouldn't make sense just to uh probably just you know leave a trench with a couple cold joints running down the length of the trench.

So what we would be looking to do there would be to actually uh replace the pavement out to the curb line.

And in the days that that was installed, there was no drain tile.

Uh so one of the things that we can do is we can retrofit the inside of the curb with the drain tile so we can pick up some subsurface moisture and ambient water from the sub base, uh, get that into the local uh storm sewer collection collection to help these roads perform longer.

Uh and in doing so, being able to in doing so, we would be able to uh basically get that roadway replaced uh as new with new water main.

And in the end, it would leave this entire corridor from Cheyenne Street to the east reconstructed because in 2017 uh the air the first avenue east of this area was reconstructed.

So uh that would basically complete this corridor uh in the in the core area uh with the new water main.

So a lot of information, uh, but that's basically the crux to the project.

Uh the new uh funds uh this is a $3.86 million project.

Uh we believe that we would be getting just short of a million dollars of grant money for that uh per the 2024 CIP guidelines.

This is a reconstruct in an existing area, so we would be looking that the city through capital improvement sales tax would be paying for 70% of the cost of the improvements after the whole total project is bought down by the grant, leaving what we're estimating to be is uh approximately $776,000.

Uh that would be the 30% of the remainder that we would be looking to assess.

And with that, I would stand for any questions.

Question Commissioner Jorgensen.

When would you look at doing this project next year?

Uh it would be next year.

Uh, if if tonight the commission decides to proceed with the project, the first uh thing that we would probably do is come back next at the next meeting and pass a resolution of necessity uh because this even though this is a water project and a sewer project uh on the east side, uh we would want to uh pass a resolution of necessity for this project.

That would uh mean that we would have to advertise it, but we would use that as an opportunity to start having basically instead of just having the hearing of protest, uh, we would also be looking to schedule neighborhood meetings as we did with the Westwood neighborhood.

I think with all of these core area projects, the first step as soon as the commission decides we are moving forward with the project is to uh send out letters, uh get the residents into the fire hall again uh and uh be able to lay out the project the needs for the project and and provide the people within that improvement district the opportunity to see uh what the plan is and what we were looking to do.

Um so we would uh move forward on a two-pronged phase.

One would be community engagement with the stakeholders in the area, and then the second one would be also uh to have that uh resolution of necessity um passed so that way there would be an opportunity for the residents in the improvement district to issue a protest to the creation of that district.

I think the big logistical item here would be the rural fire department.

All our trucks come out that north door on the first avenue.

Yeah, and there would definitely need to be a lot of coordination with that.

Any other questions?

We'll approve the engineers report and direct the engineer to repair plan specs.

Commissioner Olson moves to approve the engineers report and direct the engineer to prepare plans and specification for improvement district number 3009, First Avenue East Reconstruction, Cheyenne Street to Fourth Street East.

Is there a second?

Second.

Commissioner Anderson seconds.

We have a motion and a second.

Is there any discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

No opposed.

Motion carried.

Thank you.

Move on to item number 12, project number 1351.

Mr.

Sanitary Lift Station SA 27 rehabilitation.

We call on Mr.

Jerry Wallace, City Engineer.

Purpose of this discussion is to accept the bid and award the contract.

Good evening, Mr.

Wallace, and welcome.

Good evening, Mr.

Commission President and Commissioners.

Uh thank you for your time tonight.

Uh as everybody is probably well aware, uh, this is our uh big sanitary lift station on uh the south side of town that the entire south side pumps into and that continues to move that sewage onward.

Uh very critical lift station that we need to keep uh you know in good working order and functioning.

Uh essentially we're here tonight to uh award a uh rehabilitation project to ensure that we'll uh continue to happen.

The mechanical portion would be going to CC steel in the amount of 125,000 dollars and the electrical portion would be going to JDP electric in the amount of 381 thousand five hundred and eighty seven dollars.

The total of all the bids as you can see there in your packet is one million nine hundred and fifty two thousand nine hundred and eighty seven dollars compared to the engineers opinion of cost uh that is slightly below what we had anticipated at uh two million one hundred and sixty thousand uh there's a bunch of documentation available in your packet here for your review uh but again uh our staff recommendation would be to accept the bid and award the contract to ICS uh for one million four hundred and forty six thousand four hundred dollars CC steel for 125000 and JDP electric for 381 thousand five hundred and eighty seven dollars uh as far as the financial components and funding mechanism for this work uh there is a significant amount of money still remaining in a uh legacy fund call it uh that that's my term uh but essentially any properties on the south side that developed uh paid into this fund a hookup fee that uh involved uh reimbursement essentially uh for the cost of this lift station uh and it would be our intention to draw from uh those funds uh to pay for the project um with that being said uh I'm available for any questions please note there's no special assessments are intended to be used in the conjunction with this project any questions for Mr.

Wallace no moving Mr.

Zundal moves to approve project number 1351 to accept the bid and reward the contract is there a second second Commissioner Olson seconds we have a motion and a second is there any discussion hearing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carried thank you we move on to item number 13 improvement district number 308 meadow ridge development reconstruction again we call on Jerry Wallace the city engineer purpose of the discussion is to approve an engineer's report direct the engineer to prepare both plans and specifications and a task order for basic services.

Mr.

Wallace Thank you Mr Commission President and commissioners again uh try to be respectful of your time tonight uh I wish I could have gone directly after Dan's presentation with this one and just said ditto but uh I will do my best to follow him up essentially we're here tonight uh several years ago uh we had requests from at least one commissioner uh to take a look at the streets in the Meadow Ridge neighborhood uh a lot of the infrastructure as far as the street components is uh past its useful life um in diving into and looking at that work potentially doing mill and overlays what we found was that uh you know there's some areas of the street that are only two to four inches of asphalt and uh essentially a mill and overlay project would not be uh money well spent uh there was a lot of curb and gutter to the point that uh you know we just we started trending towards looking that we'd be reconstructing the entire street and given the age of a lot of the utilities in there at just under 50 years I believe uh it didn't seem to make sense to us to reconstruct reconstruct the street and then potentially sometime in the next 20 years before the streets useful life was up uh have to go back in and uh essentially be looking at uh reconstructing uh the water and sewer and storm with the neighborhood as well um bunch of documents before you tonight uh I'll try to walk through things uh as best I can here but uh you know I've touched on the street component um I will say that the uh the sanitary sewer through uh this area in particular is generally flat uh there's quite often times where public public works is having to be out there weekly uh jetting and vectoring the uh the sanitary sewer system um and then the uh water mains in the area are again ACP uh at or you know starting to go beyond their useful life um you know as as Dan had kind of commented we're trying to take advantage of a lot of uh funding components through the state uh similar to the uh the previous project that he presented um basically we would be looking at as far as uh the financial components here uh this again would be a 7030 split where the city would pay the uh 70 percent of the uh the cost of the project and we'd be looking at special assessing that that remaining 30 percent um and uh again uh as dan alluded to you know uh if the commission chooses to move forward with this project uh we would very quickly here be uh you know beginning to engage the neighborhood in in meetings and uh you know try to I guess uh you know walk the the initial phases of the project through that and uh uh hopefully uh

Um again, uh as Dan alluded to, you know, uh if the commission chooses to move forward with this project, uh we would very quickly here be uh you know beginning to engage the neighborhood in in meetings and uh you know try to I guess uh you know walk the the initial phases of the project through that and uh uh hopefully uh yeah come to a uh a point where we have a good project that uh you know the neighborhood can be happy with and uh essentially we'll have uh you know completed the hopefully the first reconstruction of the the Meadow Ridge neighborhood.

Uh our staff recommendation tonight would be to approve the engineers report uh and direct both plans and specifications and approve the task order for basic services.

Uh again, with that I'm available for any questions you may have.

Commissioner Olson has a question.

Uh thank you.

Uh Jerry, you said you wish you could have just said ditto to Dan's, but I see one one slight difference.

Sure.

This one there is a task order attached to it where Dan's did not.

So I'm just wondering what's the task order on this one and why didn't we have one on the other one?

Yeah, yeah, sure.

Um I intentionally held a task order and and told uh the consultant to hold off on the task order on mine uh because in the 2024 CIP for the first avenue project, it originally was just a fourth to second.

So I wanted to uh see if the commission wanted to proceed with that project, this project or that project, and that way I wouldn't have a multi-tiered task order in front of you.

I could just get one that's matches the scope.

Okay, thank you.

Commissioner Zundell.

Uh this would basically be the same scope of project that we're doing in Westwood this summer.

It would be a total reconstruct for the very similar.

Okay.

Yes, ma'am.

Anyone else?

I motion to approve the engineers report, director engineering to prepare both plans and specs and a task order for services.

Thank you, Commissioner Jorgensen.

We have a motion to approve Zer Second.

Second.

Commissioner Zundell seconds.

We have a motion and a second for improvement district number 30 oh eight to approve the engineers report to direct the engineer to prepare both plans and specifications and a task order for basic services.

Is there any further discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Motion carried.

Thank you.

Thank you for the question.

Item number 14 is an improvement district number 6059.

Sidewalk improvements, 2024 walks.

That one got removed.

That's one.

That project got uh pulled from tonight's agenda.

So not on my agenda, it didn't.

All right, number 15.

Is a resolution authorizing participation in the national opiate settlements.

We're gonna call on Mrs.

Katie Schmidt, City Attorney for the City of West Fargo.

Thank you, Commission President and Commissioners.

As you may be aware, Purdue Pharma petitioned for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2019 following the filing filing of thousands of lawsuits due to its role in the opioid opioid crisis.

Since filing Purdue has been working with creditor stakeholders to arrive at an acceptable bankruptcy plan.

Purdue recently filed its latest plan is in the process of soliciting votes from creditors.

As part of the proposed bankruptcy plan, Purdue and its owners will deposit billions of dollars into trusts for creditors.

One such trust will be for governmental entities to receive funds.

The state of North Dakota has opted into receiving funds from its trust and it will receive the greatest allocation from the trust if a higher number of North Dakota counties and cities also opt into participating in the trust.

If an entity doesn't opt into the trust, then the trustee will set aside those trust funds to use in defending against claims that are brought by those counties or cities that didn't opt in.

What I have for you tonight to consider is a resolution to opt into the bankruptcy trust and the possibility to receive funds from the trust.

Really, the only reason to not opt into the trust settlement would be if the city has separate claims that it wants to pursue against Purdue or its owners.

Um but I'm not aware of any of those separate claims, and even if they were, they would be incredibly difficult to um to collect on.

Um available for any questions that you may have about the resolution.

Is this some of the stuff that we I feel like we've received settlement money and then we in turn give it to Cass Public Health?

Yep.

That'd be accurate.

This would be the same thing.

Yes, Commissioner, yes, we do have an agreement with the city of Fargo, Cass County, uh Barber Cass Public Health.

We are currently uh receiving settlement funds uh from a few other uh entities.

Those funds are collectively given to Fargo Cast Public Health to manage a program and dedicate their their time to use those funds.

And so this would be, I presume the same thing.

Any funds we would receive would be passed through for programming.

That's correct.

Yep, based on our our joint agreement.

Okay, thank you.

This is an actionable item.

Movely approved.

Commissioner Olson moves to approve the resolution authorizing participation in the national opiar settlements.

Is there a second?

Second.

Mr.

Zundell's seconds.

We have a motion and a second.

Is there any discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

Motion carried.

Item number 15 is to appoint a representative and an alternate for the class clay interagency council on homelessness.

Sounds very good.

Thank you.

Mr.

Scott.

Thank you, President Artis, and Commissioners.

So for those that aren't familiar, the uh council was recently formed.

And they pardon the interruption.

Uh so the council was uh recently formed and held their inaugural meeting back in July.

Uh following that inaugural meeting, uh the the participants uh made a suggestion or a motion to request that each participating agency designate a representative and an alternate to attend their meetings.

Uh specifically the uh agencies that are involved, Cass County, Clay County, Dillworth, Fargo, Horace, Moorhead, and West Fargo.

They did request that the uh primary representative hold the portfolio of homelessness, housing, or related human services.

We don't really have a portfolio that really aligns with that.

You could argue administrative services, which is uh President Artis, or you could argue community and development services, uh, which would be Commissioner Anderson.

Um, but I they're not stuck on that.

It was just kind of a um a request or a suggestion.

So at this time I'll I'll let uh you discuss amongst yourselves uh who would be uh designated to represent the city of West Fargo again as the uh primary representative and an alternate.

Since the council was formed, I've represented the city of West Fargo at all the meetings.

Is that you saying you'd like to continue?

I'd be happy to do it.

I nominate Mayor DARTS to be our representative.

Okay.

Second.

Is there anybody else that wants to do it?

We do have to have they do request that in case I can't make it, they do want an alternate also as well.

I can be the alternate.

Okay, Commissioner Zundell has volunteered to be the alternate.

Commissioners, do you have a consensus that uh myself and Commissioner Zundell be the very good, thank you?

Thank you, Mr.

Scott.

Thank you much.

Your city administrators report.

I just have a brief report.

I want to uh let you all know that we had a great North Dakota League of Cities Conference last week.

Uh President Artis, myself, and Willie attended uh our HR director presented at one of the sessions on Friday.

So uh it was a uh great experience, great uh discussions with our uh other cities that are out there.

So uh I can tell you that based on what we're hearing statewide, there are a lot of challenges out there.

We're not uh immune to uh to those things.

Uh but I will also say with um a high level of pride that I you know I I really appreciate where we are at as a city, uh where we are going, and uh very much appreciate the opportunity to to lead that effort.

So uh that's the only update I have for you.

I stand for any questions.

Questions for Mr.

Scott.

No, okay, thank you.

Thank you.

All correspondence has been distributed in your mailboxes, unless you have received something individually that you'd like to share.

No, okay.

Does any commissioner have any non agenda items you'd like to discuss this evening?

Does any department head have any non agenda items you'd like to discuss?

All right, Commissioner Anderson.

Move to adjourn.

Commissioner Rolson.

Second.

We send adjourned.