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City sets legislative priorities

Bypass four-laning, flood project rank among top issues

Jill Schramm/MDN Shane Goettle, center, legislative counsel for the City of Minot, addresses the council at a special meeting Thursday. At right is City Manager Tom Barry. Public Works Director Dan Jonasson and NDR manager John Zakian (partially hidden) are at left.

The continued four-laning of the U.S. Highway 83 Bypass rose to a legislative priority of the Minot City Council following a state decision to push back completion of the project.

A two-year project to four-lane the southern portion of the bypass between U.S. Highway 2 & 52 and Fourth Avenue Northwest is nearly finished. The design work on the project north of Fourth Avenue is 90 percent complete, but construction was pulled off the bid opening scheduled for next January, city engineer Lance Meyer told city council members Thursday. The Department of Transportation shifted construction to 2023, he said.

“When you push things out that far, you can lose sight of those projects really fast,” Meyer said. At this point, the earliest the construction could be restored to is 2020, he said.

Council member Mark Jantzer, who also serves on Task Force 21, said the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent, the nation’s next-generation intercontinental ballistic missile system, is set to begin construction in 2025. The bypass is heavily used by Minot Air Force Base.

“It would be extremely advisable to have that project completed by then,” he said of the four-laning.

Eloise Ogden/MDN Vehicles travel on the U.S. Highway 83 Bypass just south of Fourth Avenue Sunday. A new bridge and roadway completed a two-year four-laning project on the portion south of Fourth Avenue, and the city wants to see work north of Fourth Avenue as soon as possible.

City Manager Tom Barry said the city considered a four-laned bypass when it developed response times for a proposed new fire station in northwest Minot. He said the delay in four-laning “is really going to harm our community and undermine the very decision process we made to advance our own infrastructure.”

The state pushed back the four-laning to use next year’s funds for other highway priorities in oil-impacted areas.

The top item on the city’s legislative agenda, as determined by the council during Thursday’s special meeting, is flood control funding. Council members support a proposal being forwarded by Sen. David Hogue, R-Minot, that would set aside a portion of the principal in the Legacy Fund for loans for infrastructure projects.

Mayor Shaun Sipma said a loan from the Legacy Fund could save Minot $100 million in interest on its flood protection project.

David Lakefield, Minot finance director, said based on what the city’s bond rating company wants to see for loan security over the flood project’s long term, Minot would have a hard time generating the necessary revenue.

“If we were forced to go to the open market and meet some of the criteria they were suggesting, it would be a strain on our ability to finance that,” he said.

Shane Goettle, the city’s legal counsel for legislative matters, said the state invests a portion of Legacy Fund holdings in municipal bonds already, although those municipalities are out of state. The argument is the state should be investing in local municipalities, he said.

The city’s legislative agenda also includes pursuing more dollars for property acquisitions for the flood protection project. John Zakian, manager for the city’s National Disaster Resilience Program, said the project needs another $45 million from the state to complete the buyouts. Because buyouts are included in the NDR program, which sunsets in September 2022, that money would need to come in the next two legislative sessions.

The proposal anticipated to come before the Legislature calls for $25 million for acquisitions in the next session, said Public Works Director Dan Jonasson.

The city council also is supporting proposed legislation for hub city funding that would provide Minot about $12 million in the coming biennium, which is about $5 million more than the city expects to receive this biennium.

The city will be following funding for the Northwest Area Water Supply Project and urging more home rule flexibility to allow the city to address spot blight, impose tougher parking fines and install parking meters downtown.

The lack of paid street parking creates an unfair advantage over the parking ramps, Barry said. A level playing field would not only encourage ramp parking but it would increase parking turnover on the street in front of businesses – a situation which has been shown to increase retail sales, he said.

“It really can be a primary, strategic tool to really increase both traffic and activity in the downtown,” Zakian added.

Other items on the city’s legislative list include opposition to any proposed property tax restrictions, support for full Sunday opening for the retail industry and support for worker license reciprocity with other states to help with employment of air base spouses and ease the workforce shortage.

The council plans to meet with Minot’s legislative delegation Nov. 13 to discuss the city’s priorities.

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