City Commission - Regular Meeting

Try Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Monday, April 20th, West Fargo City Commission meeting. We call the meeting to order. Please join the commission in a pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Madam Secretary. Would you please call the role? Commissioner Jorgensson. President online. Commissioner Zundell here. Commissioner Dardis here. Commissioner Olsen here. Commissioner Anderson here. Let the record show all commissioners are participating. Commissioner Jorgensson is joining us virtually. Next order of business is uh item D, the approval of the agenda. Move to approve. I have a motion to approve by Commissioner Anderson. Is there a second? Second. Commissioner Olsson seconds. Have a motion and a second to approve the order of the agenda of Monday, April 20th, 2026. Is there any discussion? Uh I have one question, please. Commissioner,

uh, did we approve the minutes at our special meeting for the August 6th meeting? At our special meeting? No. Okay. Are you sure? We didn't approve any minutes. We have What date are you asking about? When we had our special meeting, I just thought we approved the April 6 minutes at the special meeting. So, I just not that it matters. We double, but Okay. It was not on the agenda. Okay. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor of approval of the agenda, please signify by saying I. I. I.

Opposed. Motion carried. Item E is the approval of the minutes of April 6, 2026. They have been distributed and in the packet. Move to approve. Commissioner Olsson moves to approve. Is there a second? Second. Commissioner Zundell seconds. We have a motion and a second to approve the minutes April 6, 2026. as presented. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed. Motion carried. Next order of business is item F is to approve the minutes of April 10, 2026. They have been distributed and in your packet. Move approved. Commissioner Zundow moves to approve. Is there a second? Second.

Commissioner Anderson seconds. We have a motion and a second to approve the minutes of April 10th, 2026 as presented. Is there any discussion hearing? None. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed. Motion carried. Item G. Commissioner Jorgensson. I would like to recuse myself from voting on item G, the building permits. Please. Commissioner Jorgensson is requested be re recusal of uh the building permits as presented due to a conflict. Move to approve. Commissioner Anderson moves to approve the building permits as presented for April 20th, 2026. Is there a second? Second.

Commissioner Ander. Commissioner Olsen seconds it. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. Next order of business is the consent agenda. We have items A through J. Move to approve. Commissioner Olsen moves to approve the consent agenda items A through J. Is there a second? Second. Commissioner Zundal seconds. We have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda as presented items A through J. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I.

I. I. Opposed. Motion carried. Thank you. We are now in the regular agenda. Item number one is is public comment. We have two uh people from the public that have signed up. Uh the first that signed up is Mr. David Wy. Good evening and welcome.

Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity. Um I'm surprised. I thought that the finance director would be on the agenda presenting a uh contract proposal for the ERP software. That's what the commitment was when the project was approved, but I don't see them on the agenda. Oh well, on to other things. Uh, in my 50 plus years of working with various organizations, I've always always seen the senior staff review and discuss financial statements every month. Always. I've never seen it happen in West Fargo. I'm surprised because taxpayers are always concerned about how their tax taxes are being used and yet nobody ever seems to discuss it. Maybe that's why in the seven of the last eight audited years we spent more than we brought in. Four of those years, the last four, we spent three 3 million more,4 million more, 4 million more, and $13 million more than we brought in. You know, we can't keep doing that. Um today's financial statement, the ones in the consent agenda. We're 3 months into the year. Sales tax revenues are down from last year by 11%. And the government um fund revenues are down by 9%. Any place else why would have been they would already be talking about what do we cut if this continues. So we're prepared because it's always easier to cut early than it is to cut later. But nobody knows what's going on because we don't discuss the financial statement. And water sanitation revenues are curiously also down a little bit despite rates being increased. That's surprising. Um it's also curious that we have $2.5 million in operating expenses this year that are being paid for out of the capital infrastructure tax fund. When that tax increase was was approved, the

city said that it would never be used for operating expenses. It could only be used for capital infrastructure projects, but here we are using two over $2 million of it on operating expenses. Uh I'm also curious though where the $600,000 plus dollars each year for this facility goes because it doesn't seem to show up on the ledger on the financial statement at all. So somehow it's being paid for I guess off books. I didn't know we could do that. I'm also curious as to why we're spending a lot of money for the city attorney to protect a public works project that actually increases costs for taxpayers. Well, the city attorney has said that the um how am I doing with my time?

That was the time. Go. Um let's say attorney go done or you're done. Huh? That's why I asked. That's all I asked. But thank you for helping me. I wasn't an expert on that. The next individual that is signed up is Mr. Steve Markort.

Good evening and welcome. Good evening. Thank you. Thank you for allowing the opportunity. Uh I had a couple things that Mr. with you at touchdown. So, I'm not going to get into that as far as where the finances and things are going. But I do have another issue that I have and the reason I'm here this evening is to bring this issue to light as to why many West Fargo residents do not have trust and confidence in our city commission at this point in time. And it deals with, as Dave said, our financial statements. We're spending more than we're bringing in. You can't operate like that. It's impossible. Very recently, a West Fargo resident approached a member of TAP regarding an incident involving a West Fargo commissioner. The individual was asked by the West Fargo commissioner to write a letter to the commission stating something that both parties knew was not true. The commissioner would not take null for an answer from that person and then asked to speak to a supervisor and from that and for the second time fortunately was told no again. What does this say about the integrity of our city commission? Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Next order business is on the regular agenda is item number two, a public hearing. Uh at this time we have no uh items that require a public hearing. So we move on to item number three. Item number three is a public safety annual reports. We call on our fire chief first, Mr. Chief Fuller. Good evening, Commission President Dardis, members of Welcome,

Commission, and members of the community. It's my privilege to stand before you this evening to present the West Fargo Fire Department's 2025 annual report. This report is more than a summary of statistics or charts. It's a reflection of service, preparedness, accountability, commitment, most importantly represents the men and women of the West Fargo Fire Department who answer the call every single hour of every single day, often during moments when our residents are experiencing some of the most difficult days of their lives. Tonight, I'd not only like to share what we accomplished in 2025, but also what those accomplishments mean for our community and the future of West Fargo. West Fargo continues to be one of the fastest growing and most dynamic communities in our region. Growth is exciting. It means new homes, new businesses, new opportunities, and a strong future. But growth also brings increased demand on city services, especially emergency services. In 2025, the West Fargo Fire Department responded to 3,39 calls for service, which represents a 10.1% increase over the previous year. That number is significant, but behind every call is a person, a family, or a business in need. Each one required trained professionals who are ready to respond immediately, assess a situation, solve problems under pressure, and provide reassurance to people during stressful moments. As call volume rises, our department remains committed to maintaining response readiness, professionalism, and reliability. One of the proudest milestones of 2025 was the West Fargo Fire Department earning accredited agency status through the Center for Public Safety Excellence. This is not an award that's handed out casually. It is a rigorous process that evaluates every aspect of a fire department's operations. Only a small fraction of fire departments worldwide achieve this designation. What this means for West Frogger residents is simple. Your fire department has been

independently evaluated against the highest professional standards and found to be operating at an elite level. Accreditation also ensures we are not satisfied with where we are today. It requires us to continue improving, measuring outcomes, and adapting to future challenges. It reinforces a culture where we consistently ask, "How can we serve our residents better tomorrow than we did today?" Public safety is one of the most important investments a city can make. It is also one of the investments that residents rightly expect to be managed responsibly and we take that responsibility seriously. In 2025, the department earned or achieved an $11.37 to $1 return on investment. That means for every dollar invested in the West Fargo Fire Department, the community received more than $11 in value through protected uh property protected, fires controlled, lives saved, and injuries prevented and risk reduced. Our total economic impact for the year was $85 million. That is an extraordinary return, but it's not accidental. It comes from prevention efforts, training, rapid response, and strong operations and disciplined fiscal management. It also reflects a department that understands that every dollar entrusted to us belongs to the public, and we work hard to maximize that trust. One statistic I'm especially proud of is our fire containment. In 2025, 94% of building fires were contained to the room of origin or smaller. And why does that matter? Because fires stopped early. Because when a fire is stopped early, families may return home sooner, businesses can reopen faster, insurance losses are reduced, displacement is minimized, and emotional trauma is lessened. That percentage reflects the skill of our firefighters and the effectiveness of our training and speed of our response systems. It means that we are not only arriving quickly, but we are solving problems effectively. Additionally, in 2025, our department saved $55 million

in property value. That is real wealth that's been preserved in our community. Those homes are still standing, those businesses are still operating, and those families are able to continue to move forward. But none of these results happen by chance. Behind every successful response is a preparation that the public often never sees. In 2025, our personnel completed more than 15,000 hours of training. Training is how we prepare prepare for situations that are unpredictable, dangerous, and time-sensitive. When residents call 911, they do not want us learning on scene. They expect us to arrive ready, and they deserve that that expectation to be met every single time. And those 15,000 hours represent professionalism and dedication from our team. Buildings do not serve communities and equipment do not serve our communities and budgets do not serve communities, but people do. The success of our fire department is driven by firefighters, officers, support personnel, and families who sacrifice time, energy, and comfort so that others can be safe. They work nights, weekends, holidays, and in dangerous environments. They enter uncertainty when others are leaving it. They do so with humility, humility, courage, and commitment. And I'm proud of the culture that we continue to build, one focused on accountability, teamwork, passion, and excellence. We are proud of 2025, and we are equally focused on the future. West Fargo's continued growth means we must stay ahead of demand rather than react to it. In closing, the 2025 annual report tells a story of a department that is performing at a high level and continuously improving. We responded to more calls. We protected more value. We trained harder. We achieved accreditation. And we remained accountable to the taxpayers who fund us. And most importantly, we continued to be there when our community needed us. On behalf of the men and women of the West Fargo Fire Department, thank you for your continued trust, partnership, and support. It's an honor honor to serve this city, and we look

forward to continuing our mission of protecting life, property, and community well into our future. With that, I'll stand for any questions on the report. Thank you, Chief Fuller. Commissioners, any questions for the chief? I look forward to reading it in depth. Thank you. You're welcome. Next, we'd call on Pete Nielsen, police chief for the city of West Fargo with the uh annual report for the police department. Good evening, Chief, and welcome.

Good evening, Commission President Dardis, fellow commissioners. I stand before you tonight for a brief overview of the 2025 annual report. I sent this off to you last week, so hopefully you had an opportunity to breeze through the annual report of 2025. Few of the highlights I'd like to go over and to share with you uh in 2025. One of the big ones was is our remodel of the police department of us taking over uh the current space that used to be occupied as um as the city staff. We then moved into that and have continued to expand and to move out of our area where we're now in two separate zones within the the actual building. That remodel is complete. The last thing that's happening right now is the courtroom is is being done and there are some uh if you walk through there now, there's some uh borders that are set up. So, some individuals that are that are out in the uh viewing area. They don't have access to the front. So, we are doing everything in our power to make sure that the security for even the courtroom in our building is up to date. Uh, we're able to spread out in the building. So, some of you that have come through in 2025 notice that we uh we did spread out to that second area. Uh, a couple other things I'd like to bring up real quick was we've had two civilian staff members that hit 30 years of service at the police department. Uh, Chris Davidson and Tracy Hogan. Both of them are serving for over 30 years. We also addition two additional uh new ranks of lieutenant were created and those were for uh uh patrol staff and we we promoted officer Shane Or to lieutenant and Tim Runorn to lieutenant. The department saw a slight increase in overall crime in 2025 1.5% increase for the year. 11% increase in crimes against persons which would be simple assault stockings. uh 1.5 increase percent increase in crimes

against property, but we had a decrease in crimes against society. So, our drugs and weapons offenses have went down some. With the increase in overall crime, the community need for law enforcement services continue to grow. As you can see by the annual report, our officers responded to 32,911 calls for services over 2025. That's a 15% increase since 2021. It's it was about the same as 2024 when it comes to the overall numbers. So, our our uh divisions are very busy when it comes to the calls for service. Our department continues to build and maintain strong relationships relationships with the community. Our cops unit is out in the community. We are having many different community events that's happening on a daily basis. And this is very good for us as the the community trusts the police department and these are a lot of calls that are generating back to us. Our residents are great partners. We continue to protect them that we continue to uh do different uh things within the within the city to make sure that those are safe and we're looking at doing new and improved items within the city that I will talk to you about soon. We continue to find new innovative ways to serve our community. We're adapting to increasing the demands which is being placed on our law enforcement officers. Our dedicated team of 83 sworn officers, 15 civilian staff, and four part-time CSOs look forward to serving the community, and they do this with pride and professionalism. The 2025 annual report highlights just some of the hard work and dedication as you can see. But some of the things I'd like to talk about also tonight are our CSOS, our CSO program that we are uh have in place for the last three to four years. We're now transitioning to some of those CSOS that are moving into the police academy. And we have two of those CSOS that are going

into the police academy this summer. So, our our program of these csos coming in working part-time as they go through college and then getting the opportunity to go through a police academy um and then possibility with employment as patrol officers has been has been a a very wonderful rewarding system. Those csos have went to 2,380 calls for service. We had total of training hours for the year of 2025 of 6,652 hours. We've had 701 investigative cases. So, our detective bureau is has 701 detective or investigation cases that were assigned and we followed up on 1300 over 1,300 tips through our tip line. With that, the annual report, I told a few people that I would keep this under five minutes because there was a few of us up here tonight. And so, I encourage everybody to take a look at our annual report that's out there. We also would like to talk about our transparency page. What our transparency page is is every single morning it updates online. So, you're able to look at our transparency page and see how many people have been arrested, how many DUIs are out there, how many uh use of force by the officers. Everything is updated every morning. We're as transparent as you can be when it comes to any of the statistics that we have. So, please refer to our website for that. Lastly, I would say it's an honor to continue to serve as the chief of police and to present this annual award or re annual report and I stand for any questions.

Questions for Chief Nielsson?

Thank you, Chief. Thank you. The next order of business in the regular agenda is item number four. And we're going to hear from Matt Anvik, the director of public works regarding the public works annual report. Good evening, Mr. Anvic, and welcome.

Uh good evening, Commissioner President, commissioners. I'm proud to uh present our 2025 uh public works annual report. Uh this second year that we've uh compiled that report. It's nice to be able to get those stat statistics out um of how much we did during the year because most of the time if we're doing our job, nobody notices what we're doing, right? As long as you're getting to and from work and you don't hit a pothole or the snow's plowed, your toilet flushes, nobody really thinks about it until something goes wrong. Um just wanted to do a few highlights here. Uh we have 103 full-time staff um that are really dedicated employees that really care about the city and want to commit to doing the best service as much as possible they can for the residents. Uh just to highlight that we have 12 employees that completed our commercial CDL training program. Uh we have some new striping equipment that we've been doing uh crosswalks and small areas in the roadway. Uh the crosswalks especially around the schools to make sure we freshen that paint up so it's very visible to the drivers. Uh the rightway division expanded uh the green space and visibility of two roundabouts. We took down some brush and actually kind of made it a little bit uh more appealing, but also the sight lines for drivers a little bit more safe. Our water division, we completed a citywide meter replacement. Um and that's really with our um residential meters. They installed over 875 meters this last year. our forestry division uh we they got the 41st year of being the tree city USA designation and we didn't open a new orchard in Shadowwood area. um just doing you know as public work we really are eight divisions and but one team uh we really focus on that team atmosphere especially uh snow season is another one of those it's all hands on deck depending on that time of year this past snowstorm we had around Easter we had a lot of people off for the holiday but we had water guys sewer guys just everybody that could get in was in and

helped out and that's just kind of the the mentality that that group has uh just some of the division highlight lights. Uh the street division, we did over about 12 a.5 thousand tons of asphalt uh we use for in-house maintenance programs throughout the year. Road rightway, we there's 500 acres that we mow, manage, and treat. Uh the sewer division, we had over 20,000 miles of sewer line televised and jetted around town. Uh water, we actually purchased about 1.2 billion gallons of water uh that came into the city. uh fleet and facilities department uh with their new uh city fuel station. We had over 167,000 gallons uh about 118 plus thousand of of diesel and about 49,000 of actually gas unleted fuel. Uh the electric division we do maintain four, you know, over 4,000 just shy of 5,000 street lights. uh for tree planted 20 or 425 new trees on top of the the boulevard pruning that they were doing and then the sanitation division we maintain or uh service 13,97 locations weekly. Uh that's just some of the highlights that there's a lot of different um statistics and data that we put in there for you know if you can go back and look from 24 to 25 we did increase in a lot of those areas. Um, but I will stand for any questions.

Questions for Mr. Andre? Anyone? Thank you. Thanks. Moving on to regular agenda items. Number five is project number 1351, sanitary lift station. Sanitary uh lift station number 27, rehabilitation. We call on Jerry Wallace, the city engineer for the city of West Fargo. Purpose of this discussion is to approve both the change order number twos for ICS Incorporated and JDP Electric. Mr. Wallace, good evening and welcome.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Commission, President and uh commissioners. Um I'm here before you tonight. Uh uh a lot of this credit uh probably needs to go to Mr. Anvik and his team up at public works. Uh they did a lot of the heavy lifting um identifying a lot of these potential cost-saving measures here. Um, I guess I'm before you tonight presenting this because, uh, as we walked through, uh, taking some of these efforts, um, we realized if we had this work completed under our current project, uh, we'd get warranty with it. Uh, you know, so that's one of the the big, uh, important items we're trying to address. Um, but essentially, uh, I'm here before you tonight. uh the public works team identified uh a new form of treatment for us to be able to treat and eliminate remove uh hydrogen sulfide gas through the sanitary sewer system. Uh for those that have been around for a little while probably remember a few years ago uh we had to do a north side sanitary sewer project where uh because of these issues you know we had to spend a sign a significant amount of money um improving our our our system on the north side. So these efforts are uh undertaken to prevent uh items like that from happening in the future. Uh essentially currently right now we're adding uh chemical treatment at various points throughout the city uh to control our H2S program or uh our H2S levels. Um what public works found with uh engaging with uh some uh contractors uh who are savvy in in the the ozone treatment uh process was that uh when we hooked up an ozone treatment uh unit at SA27, which is our big lift uh just south of the interstate, um it nearly reduced uh the levels of H2S that were showing up at S SA40, our other large regional lift. Um as you can go through the the the cover

sheet here um you know you can see that uh we we basically anticipate uh you know if should we proceed with uh switching to ozone instead of chemical treatment uh we'll be saving approximately $154,700 a year uh in chemical treatment costs. Um, essentially, uh, this work that we're proposing to do, um, uh, with, uh, under the project, which is being paid for with, uh, Southside hookup fees, um, essentially would pay itself off in about a period of 27 months. Um, with that, uh, I'm here, uh, requesting approval for, uh, change order twos under our project. one for ICS, which is our prime contractor, to install the ozone equipment and modify SA27 uh to be able to house it there, and then the uh associated electrical work that would go through JDP Electric, who holds the electrical contract on that project. Um, with that, I'll uh stand for any questions you may have.

Questions for Mr. Wallace? Commissioner Anderson? Uh, do you know what the lifespan is on this equipment? I I apologize, Commissioner. I do not. I I would probably ask Matt if uh maybe he could shed some light on on it for us.

Commissioners uh the lifespan on that equipment is roughly about 20 years or you know or so with routine maintenance. Uh it could go longer. Um I think that's in that packet too. You know we're looking at between uh um electrical and then just maintenance anywhere between 10 to 15,000. 15 is probably on the high side. um just you know an annual upkeep and um electrical you know it uses electricity to be be able to create the ozone so we have that a little extra cost for that but as far as you know the maintenance normal wear and tear uh I think probably for the first 5 to 10 years fairly minimal but you just never know when you get that piece of equipment once I think it gets to that 10 to 15 some of the products start wearing out uh there are um air compressors a lot of it that there's few different large ones that that run in that. So if anything's going to wear out, it's probably one of those air compressors um instead of just the ozone unit itself.

Okay. Thank you, Commissioner Sundelle. Mr. Anick, before you sit down, sorry.

Just because I think it's a good thing to talk about to the cost comparison between using chemicals in lie of the system to manage things to be in a normal level. I think you had done a little bit of a cost analysis when it comes to that, but I think that's good information probably here. Yeah, we we um you know just on that little test we did last year, we you know was actually at SA40 and we were running it was quite under the the unit that we're using was quite undersized for what we're doing. Um and we were actually able to drop that down from like 120 gallons or 20 um yeah 120 gallons a day down to about 50 or 60 or I think it was down to about 60 and now we're at 50 now. And just doing that over the 6 months is 54,000. I think you'll remember I was in front of you, I think last fall, getting a budget amendment because our our costs for chemicals had gone up so much. Uh we need to stay under a certain limit with Fargo per our contract with them and that's why we're increasing that and that's really what um led us to be looking for something more uh that's more sustainable. Uh we did get the cost of that um the chemical we're using down from quite almost $5 to 471 last year but still um if we were staying at the same level going forward we had been up around that 400,000 per year in chemical and that's at this cost that's uh you know once you start talking inflation and and costs rising for that chemical I mean we could be well over 500 600,000 so by doing this as a one time and 300,000 it and just at 10 to 15,000 over the next 20 years is quite the cost savings versus staying with that chemical.

Thank you. Any additional questions, commissioners? Move we approve. Commissioner Zundal moves to approve. Is there a second? Second. Commissioner Olsen seconds. We have a motion and a second to approve the change order number two for ICS Incorporated and JDP Electric. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed.

I did a review of this with Mr. Scott uh and then on my own. And this is truly uh bringing this forward, this technology, this methodology versus the chemicals which we were doing is a a great cost savings. You know, return of investment in 27 months might seem a long time to some people. But for the dollars involved, it's it's substantial. So, uh, to public works, engineering, great work. Thank you.

Next order of businesses, item number six is the new water supply, sewage, and uh, street systems and incidentals grant in the second edition. Uh, Mr. Wallace will be presenting. The purpose of this discussion is to accept a petition for improvements, create an improvement district number 1358, and direct the engineer to prepare an engineer's report. Mr. Wallace.

Uh, yes. Thank you again, Mr. Commission President and Commissioners. Um, I'm here before you tonight with this item. Uh, essentially, uh, one of the few last remaining, uh, green fields, uh, down in the wilds, um, has essentially petitioned. Uh they're looking to uh turn the area into a culdesac basically uh with uh essentially larger buildable lots. Um a little bit of the history behind this. Um initially when uh uh that area of the wilds was developing out uh this developer had come forward and uh just as part of the uh I guess the uh the historical um uh plans for development with the city um uh they prepped this area to uh get it ready for uh multifamily housing. uh at the time they they looked at proceeding with the multifamily housing uh the market did not really uh correlate to that being a successful project uh monetarily for them. Uh they they shelf the project. Um since that time uh their analysis has pointed to that uh there there's a shortage of of of buildable lots in the city of West Fargo. Um so they've come back and essentially dropped the petition to uh look to have streets um you know uh street lights uh water sewer storm extended into the neighborhood there. Um it it seems like it makes sense for the that property. Um they provided a petition for improvements and uh attorney title opinion showing evidence of ownership of the area. Um, and that again I'm here before you uh looking um requesting a motion to accept the petition uh create the improvement district number 1358 and direct the engineer to prepare an engineers report. And uh again, I'm available for any questions you may have.

Questions for Mr. Wallace. Commissioner Olsen, can you bring up the map of the right there? What's that little jut out that juts out there on the east side? What is that? that uh so there there's a little bit of history to that but essentially that uh at the time the Wilds was being built out uh that area functioned as the uh driveway access for the homestead uh when when folks were still living there.

Um as part of this project uh basically the ownership group has requested that uh this location be included. I I think they're looking to remove that access and uh just go forward. I I included the uh the pending plat there, but as you can see, they just they're just looking to do a culde-sac with some larger uh quarter acre or larger lots. I know they're looking to uh advertise it, I think, as a relatively secluded part of the neighborhood. I know there's a lot of trees out there. It sounds like they're talking about a desire to keep them. Um but that's uh essentially the project that they're looking to proceed with.

So, that driveway will be removed basically. That's what they've requested and that's that's how we're proceeding at the moment. Commissioner Anderson. All right. Uh I know we're a little bit early in the process with that when we're talking about special assessments. Can you just remind me and the public that this would be a special assessment project? Correct. And sorry. And then if so, the city would be carrying the special assessment bond until this is paid off by the properties. Correct. That that would be correct. the the city regularly any assessed project uh typically we go out and bond for it unless it's a very small amount.

Um with that being said, um the the broad the ownership group uh these assessments would only be applied to the area that they own. There's no regional assessments we're looking at. Um I know the ownership group has has asked about uh trying to uh somewhat expedite the project. um you know as as a result of that uh you know occasionally uh this results in in somewhat higher special assessments. Um there's just that's a fact of life. Um but uh I will say at the city here we have uh some excellent tools available to the community and uh realtors in the area uh where once we do know what uh you know future potential assessments are going to be uh we actually can put those on our website and uh you know well before the project is typically even completed uh we're able to get those up so that you know people don't experience the sticker shock that they may or may not experience in in in other communities around here.

Thank you. You bet. Has there any has there been any discussion with public works or planning and zoning with regard to the depth of the culde-sac? I know that in years past that was always part of the dialogue as uh as snow removal and and services that we provide uh culde-sacs make it more difficult.

Uh there there hasn't been recent discussion with public works on this particular location. Um, as a general rule of thumb, uh, public works regularly comments that, you know, uh, when we do put a culde-sac in, um, it typically results in, uh, every snow event that's, uh, that we experience throughout the winter, uh, can cost, uh, I want to say $3 to $5,000 to have, uh, the the snow cleared and potential snow that needs to be removed taken away. Uh, so they do try to minimize them. Uh, I guess what I would say is that, uh, this seems to make a lot of sense for the the the remaining for the the final buildout of of this particular area of the wilds.

Thank you. Any additional questions for Mr. Wallace on this item? Be approved. Commissioner Zundell moves to approve item number six, uh, which is the petition for improvements and creative improvement district number 1358. Is there a second? Second. Commissioner Olsson seconds. We have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed.

Name. Let the record show it's a 4 to1 vote. Item number seven is an intersection improvement and incidentals 9inth Street West at Malberry Lane and 50th Avenue West. Again, we call on Jerry Wallace, the city engineer. Purpose of this discussion is to accept a petition for improvements, create an improvement district number 2301, and direct the engineer to prepare an engineer's report. Mr. Walls.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Commission President and Commissioners. Uh, this next item here um uh is is in regard to essentially the Hope Lutheran site um down in the wilds. Um, I'm sure everybody can remember they went through a a land acquisition and resoning process uh not that long ago uh looking at a future uh church in this area. Um, since that time and and since their uh uh closing of the property, um, they have uh petitioned the city uh to essentially add uh a turn lane and uh well, actually, it's going to be they're they're currently requesting two turn lanes and the associated utility work. uh extending from the right of way uh to the right of way line of the of the property. Um the the church site is currently the the only property uh that would be associated with the district. There's no regional assessments associated with this work. Um but essentially I and this is probably some assumptions that I'm drawing from the church but I think they're uh trying to look at ways that they can be uh least impactful with their operations to the surrounding community um while also taking care to uh you know finish the uh uh utility connections they need to uh service the property. Um again we've received a uh petition for improvements. um the warranty deed expressing evidence of ownership. Uh also in your packet, obviously we have the improvement district and the supporting resolutions. Um again, this project would be paid with 100% of the special assessments uh to the petition property. Um and with that, I uh again, I'm here before you looking to accept the petition for improvements, create improvement district number 2301, and direct the engineer to prepare an engineer's report. And I'm available for any questions. questions for Mr. Wallace,

Commissioner Zundal. Was this always a part of this plan?

Um, I know that there was a turn lane that was in the developer agreement when the church originally came forward. Uh, I believe that was the north turn lane, the left turn in to their site that was proposed. Um, and at that time as part of the agreement, um, it was uh that that should be u essentially a petition for improvement. Um since then, um the church actually asked if they could have an additional turn lane. Um and then we had discussed that uh there's some um call it unique utility uh challenges uh with the current site. They want to uh do things like run a water main loop through there. And then there's also some items uh where uh in the future uh should the uh the adjacent area just to the east uh look to develop uh we would have needed a utility corridor to get utilities over to that area and they're taking care of essentially uh putting in some stubs for those so that they wouldn't have to be interrupted in the future should that work happen. Um that's the evolution of of where we got today. Okay. Any additional questions for Mr. Wallace?

Move we approve. Commissioner Olsson moves to approve. Is there a second? Is there a second? Second. Commissioner Zendal second. Been mo moved and seconded to uh to approve the intersection improvements and incidentals at 9th Street West and Malbury Lane and 50th Avenue West and create a district 2301. Is there any discussion? All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I I opposed. Name.

We have again a 4 to one vote. We move on to item number eight. This project number 2293, 9th Street Northeast, grade separation. Call in Jerry Wallace, city engineer. Purpose is to accept a bid and award a contract. Mr. Wallace. Uh thank you again, Commission President Dardis and commissioners. Um pretty excited about uh coming forward with this one. Um you know, as everybody knows, uh um we've been hard at work uh looking at a uh grade separated crossing up by the BNSF railroad tracks just north of Main Avenue on 9th. Um we were held a we held a uh a virtual bid on April 8th and uh received four bids. Uh the low bidder was Industrial Builders. uh they came in with a bid amount of uh $23,969,61183. Um this amount actually came in uh below the uh bidding engineers u well the engineers's opinion of probable cost at the time of bid. Um this uh essentially is great news. Uh you know a great uh West Fargo company here. Uh um the uh I guess for uh any remaining background um you know we've been had this project in the works for quite a long time and uh we got through some uh con uh administrative delays finally and we're uh we're hopeful that we're uh able to award this project soon and uh start construction. Um just a quick hint on the uh financial analysis. Uh we estimated the uh project cost based on the bid to be uh total in the vicinity of around $31,891,000. Uh Mr. Hansen uh did an outstanding job of uh essentially getting uh over $20 million in raise grant funds uh to go

towards uh payment for that. Uh currently we're also looking at using about 5 a little over $5.8 million in prairie dog funds in funding. Uh BNSF also chipped in um $600,000 for the project uh which will remain leave us with a remainder of a little over $5 million um that we're essentially um recommending uh to pay for via capital improvement sales tax funds uh or a bond. Um, but again, I'm I'm here before you tonight uh excited about this one. Uh looking uh for a motion to accept the bid and award the contract to uh Industrial Builders for 23,969,61183. And I'm available for any questions you may have.

Questions for Mr. Wallace. Move we approve. Commissioner Zendelle moves to approve. Second the uh project number 2293 and have a second. Commissioner Olson uh for the Ninth Street Northeast grade separation. Is there any discussion? All those in favor please signify by saying I I

opposed. Motion carried. Item number nine is project number 9021, wastewater serviceability and risk reduction study. We call on Dan Hansen, the senior director of community and development. The purpose of the discussions is to approve modifying the sewer agreement with Mapleton to include the upsizing of the force main east of 38th Street Northwest. Mr. Hansen, good evening and welcome.

Thank you, Commissioner, President Dartis, and commissioners. Uh back in uh May of 2019, uh the cities of Mapleton and West Fargo entered into a memorandum of understanding uh for a future connection of their sewage system to be pumped through ours and eventually uh as we pump ours to Fargo, it would we would also be it would be pumped to Fargo as well. Uh so we're basically a a middleman for their sewage and uh thatou as it was written is very outdated. So we have had a number of different uh discussions and meetings with the city of Mapleton to go through uh and we're in the process of amending that memorandum of understanding uh over the past year. Uh we do have uh we'll have another meeting set up with them uh upcoming this next week uh possibly to discuss what might uh transpire here. uh with this potential commission action. And uh basically what you see on the screen right there is Mapleton is going to have a 14-in forest man that is intended to come through uh uh the diversion. Uh they've got uh all the easements uh for the most part in place for that. They're looking to complete their uh their design of the project in May um and then bid it out in June. And you can see where the green force man as 14-in comes in left alone to their project. They would just continue to run that 14-in force man all the way through uh go across our property on the south side of our lagoons uh and eventually connect in the neighborhood of where SA40 is. Not before SA40. It would it would be basically pumped around SA40 and connect into the forest main as after it leaves SA40. uh that is the that is uh basically what theou currently states that we're they would be planning to do. Uh recently we've been discussing with them the potential uh given some of the

research that uh more engineering has been doing with this wastewater serviceability and risk reduction study uh that we've been undertaking. Uh basically what more engineering has been doing is taking a look to see how in the future are we going to service all of our extr territorial boundaries with sanitary sewer and uh what are we going to do as far as a redundant uh lift station. Uh and because right now our our existing system is at capacity. Uh one of the things that uh they have come back with with the results of that study is basically to service the area that is southwest. Uh you can see in the green area it's labeled EA- A I believe. Uh and they labeled it an around the horn force mane. Uh the reason for that is again uh the sewage that comes out of that roughly 2 and a half square miles can't go through our existing system. Um or I guess I should say there's a lot of challenges if we were to pump it into that existing system uh without some form of equalization pond which we're not really in favor of putting in that area. So basically everything needs to come into a forest main that goes all the way around and connect up also near SA40 or into the lagoon area and the future lift station that would be installed for that. Uh that gets us to today. Um this is an opportunity uh that we've been discussing with them where basically since they're already installing a 14-in force man through that area. What we would do is we would uh work with them to modify the memorandum of understanding. So that way in their design they would increase that forest man from a 14in to a 24 in roughly basically just north of the Raymond interchange. And uh at that point in time uh that 24-in force mane uh so upsize it from 14 to 24 in that would be sized basically to take in all of the green area to the south the blue

area and the red area that you see. Uh roughly roughly about 2500 acres uh I believe was the was the boundary that we did. uh it would cost us uh and I don't have a number for this but uh it would cost the city of West Fargo a lot more. Say somebody wants to come and develop at the Raymond interchange or say that that southwest growth area somehow takes off first. Uh we're years away from being able to get a force man over there and it's it's miles of pipeline that we would have to install at a at a much greater cost. So, this is uh in my opinion uh an opportunity for us to pay the oversizing costs that it would take in their in their uh bid. And so, they would bid their project out as the 14-inch force man going all the way through and they would put the oversizing of the forest main in our area that we would like them to do that. They would bid that out as an alternate. And so after the bids come in, we would know exactly how much more it costs that project to increase the forest man in the areas that we would be able to use and service. And uh rough uh numbers that are uh in the packet. I can scroll down. There is or maybe you can scroll down. It's not working here from here. Uh but you can see uh there is about $1389 million is what it would cost Mapleton to construct that uh the to change it to a 24 in where we're looking at uh rough numbers and these are just construction costs is about I believe $2.638 million. Uh leaving a difference of about $1.25 million cost difference. uh that doesn't include any contingencies, soft costs, anything like that. So, I was very very conservative in the numbers and the financial analysis that I put in here, I believe, where I I stated that the the the construction cost would be

approximately $1.5 million and ultimately with soft costs and everything included on it, it would be less, my opinion, less than $2 million for us to do this. Um we don't have a report or an engineers report or anything like that that uh has has analyzed it to the degree where uh we have actual true engineers estimates for this. We do have that engineers estimate that you see on your screen and then uh putting in basically some fluff factors to be conservative. That's where we landed on the numbers that we have here. And uh what we would look to do is if we wanted to move forward with this uh they would bid it out, have the alternate, we would come back um if we are deciding that we do want to modify theou with Mapleton to include this work. Uh we would come back at a future commission meeting in the very near future to uh create a separate project number and we would produce an engineers report that would be able to drill in and get and get better numbers. And I'm I'm fairly confident that those numbers will come in less than what we're presenting tonight. The urgency for tonight is that again they need to finish their design here by next month and they're planning on bidding it out in June. So, uh this would basically with the the motion that we would be looking for to approve modifying the sewer agreement with Mapleton to include the upsizing of the force main east of 38th Street. uh this would basically give them direction to start the work to put this into their bid and uh we would follow up with an engineers's report and and uh for commission approval at that date uh at a at a future commission date. Um, one of the things again just to mention with this this this does truly unlock uh a lot of area that we can uh be able to service with sanitary sewer which is the hardest thing for the growth area to be serviced by um with this improvement and at the cost of less than $2 million. Uh

it is uh quite in a way cheap for us to be able to do this uh these improvements. The way that we would look to pay for it would be included in the engineers report that would be coming back. whether we use capital improvement sales tax dollars, uh a loan, a bond, however we would get the money that we would use to pay for this. Uh we would be look to looking to set up some form of uh of a connection fee, a hookup fee that we would put on this extr territorial areas because obviously we're not assessing uh areas in our extr territorial area as they come into the city, as they get platted, much like we did with SA27 when we had a lot of undeveloped land south of the interstate. uh we very successfully implemented a program that helped us repay ourselves for the installation of that very expensive lift station. Uh I would say this improvement of the increased cost of this forest man a future uh redundant lift station things that we need to do ahead of all of this growth area that's coming. uh we would uh look to expand on those hookup fees for uh costs that are incurred that we can't recoup through assessments right with the project and and uh utilize those hookup fees much as we did with SA27. So uh in my opinion this is a very good deal for the city of West Fargo if we can do this but uh that's ultimately up to you. So, we would be looking for a motion to approve modifying the sewer agreement with Mapleton to include the upsizing of the forest main east of 38th Street Northwest. And with that, I would stand for any questions.

Questions for Mr. Hansen. Commissioner Olsson. Um, with theou we have with Mapleton, do we address the um H2S levels that we're dealing with right now with the ozones and all that kinds of stuff? Because that's a long way to pump it and are they are they going to have their own kind of system? So we don't have to put the bill for them to maintain all that. The the way that it is written is that Mapleton is considered an industrial user and they are required to we we are going to have a testing station prior to it entering our system. Uh and they are going to have to do some measures to to do that. So it is that is part of theou. Thank you. Additional question.

Good question. Anyone move we approve? Commissioner Olsson moves to approve. Is there a second? Second. Commissioner Anderson second. We have a motion and a second to approve modifying the sewer agreement with Mapleton to include the upsizing of the force main east of 38 Street Northwest and project number 9021. Is there any discussion hearing? None. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed. Motion carried. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hansen. Item number 10 is anou memorandum of understanding with regard to the mechanisical judge coverage with Mr. Dan Phillips as the alternate municipal judge. We call on Mr. Dustin Scott, city administrator for the city of West Fargo. Good evening and welcome.

Good evening. Thank you, Commissioner President Dotus and commissioners. Uh as you are well aware now, uh Judge Varcus is done at the end of April. Uh so we have been working with um one of our alternate judges to temporarily uh take over the duties of our municipal judge position. Um Nick Lee worked with our city attorney and our clerk of court to put thisou together and um it uh just establishes basic terms and conditions as well as how we will financially compensate uh our alternate judge during this uh temporary time. So, um, following the election and the swearing in of our new municipal judge, this will terminate. With that, I would stand for any questions. Questions for Mr. Scott this issue.

Move. Commissioner Zundell moves to approve with the memorandum of understanding with Dan Phillips as the alternate municipal judge. 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 I. I. I. I. Opposed. Motion carried. This is Scott, please move on to your city administrator's report.

Thank you again, Commissioner President Dartis and commissioners. Uh well, first and foremost, I want to pause and just give a h a warm thank you to our fire, police, and public works departments. uh they gave a very brief presentation today of their annual reports, but uh their work is superior to all. I I'm just always humbled in the opportunity to get to work with them. They do a fantastic job looking for efficient ways to keep our city safe, functioning, operating, and I can't thank them enough for all of they all that they do. So, um when you get a chance, do a deep dive into those annual reports. There is a lot of good information there. So again, uh, thank you to those departments. A brief update on the, uh, budget and the 2027 budget. We are, uh, at a point now where department heads are submitting their their expenditure requests. We hope to compile all of this information over the next week or two. Um, we're also starting to take a look at revenue forecasting. Of course, a lot of the revenues aren't determined until mid to late summer, especially with the state aid and and some of those other external resources. So, uh but we will have a snapshot of where our expenditure requests are coming in, uh if not later this week, certainly next week. Uh the, uh goal is to begin meeting with commissioners about a month from now, mid to late May. We'll sit down and and start going through uh departmental requests. Some of the department heads have already started engaging their portfolio holders. So I hope there's good dialogue there and we're getting feedback. Um and then as I've mentioned before, we intend to bring the first draft of the preliminary budget to the June 15th meeting. Of course, that's our last opportunity uh to uh engage this current commission with feedback on the budget. So uh all things are going well. Nick has really uh got a welloiled

machine in terms of the budget process and so I think things are going to come together shortly and and hopefully we'll be able to engage commissioners in about a month. With that, any questions before I move on? Please continue.

So, an update on our uh ERP system. We are down to three final proposers. Demonstrations are scheduled for this weekend next. These are the final demonstrations. From there, we will compile uh all of the information and put together a recommendation that'll come before the city commission. Uh we're hoping by May, but of course, that depends on how everything shakes out and goes. It's possible that we need to narrow it down from 3 to two and have additional process. But um we're hopeful that after these final demonstrations, we will have a good idea of of uh a recommendation to bring forward to the city commission. Uh if if all goes well, we could be entering contracts the first or second meeting in June. So any questions on the ERP? No. Okay. Uh next, our uh as you know, our HR director is about a month in. She has been diving into a lot of of of work. Uh she's been uh doing a fantastic job getting her arms around everything that's going on. She has uh been meeting with a lot of the departments just getting her feet on the ground. Um we are certainly very excited and proud to have her amongst our team and uh we look forward to all the good work she's going to be doing um in the near future. uh she's already identified some policy type adjustments. So, uh hopefully she'll be before you uh before too long with some of that work that she's been work doing. So, and then lastly, I just want to give recognition. It is National Library Week. The library has some fun activities planned throughout the week. So, if you got time, take a look at what those activities are. Get out and help support our library. And with that, I would stand for any questions.

Questions for Mr. Scott? You're good. Thank you. All correspondence has been distributed, commissioners, in our in your mailboxes. Um, does any commissioner have any non-aggenda item that they bring bring up this site? Commissioner Olsson, just a uh reminder to the uh public that for public comments um the comments are must be limited to what is actually on the this agenda or the agenda before us. when they want to speak or the previous one.

All right. Thank you. Anyone else with the non-aggenda item? Emily, uh the annual reports of public works, fire, and police, they'll be posted on Could you Yes, there um they'll all be published on their their um department pages. So, they go to the department and that's where the annual report in it in its entirety will be. Yes. Yep. Very good. All right. Anyone else? Anything non-aggenda? Any department head have anything you'd like to bring forward this evening? Commissioner Olsen move to adjurnn. Commissioner Anderson. Second.