The Minot City Council on Tuesday approved a Substantial Amendment to the NDR program. The Substantial Amendment will be submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for approval. HUD had awarded the $74.3 million resilience grant to Minot and oversees the national program.

The amendment would add $472,593 to the city hall project. Money would come from unspent funds in line items for Economic Resilience Strategic Plan, $119,447; Funding & Financing Strategies, $257,077; and Souris River Decision Support Tool, $96,069. These three activities have been completed and have funds remaining.

The new money for city hall will be in addition to $7.75 million already allocated to rehabilitation of the former Wells Fargo building. The low bid on the project was $1.1 million over the estimate, prompting the council to consider the transfer of money to help close the gap. Significant other funding from the city also will be needed to complete the project.

Another $306,675 would be transferred from the Vulnerable Population Action Plan to the family homeless shelter. The city determined the commercial kitchen/food pantry component of the homeless shelter is a more appropriate and effective use of the planning funds.

Submitted Photo A rendering shows the proposed design for a building to house a food pantry and other services in association with a family homeless shelter and affordable housing, both part of Broadway Circle, a project of Minot’s National Disaster Resilience program.

Costs for the shelter project are expected to be higher than first estimated due to circumstances associated with the demise of the original project partner, Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota. Project BEE has taken over the project on a tight timeline and continues to raise the money needed beyond the NDR funds.