Jill Schramm/MDN Mark Jantzer, left, updates liaison committee members on the Sentinel missile project Tuesday. At Janztzer’s right are Ward County Commissioner Miranda Schuler and City of Minot Finance Director David Lakefield.

Although delayed, the Sentinel missile replacement project is moving forward, and the community is looking at ways to get ready, acting Minot Mayor Mark Jantzer told members of the Minot liaison committee Tuesday.

The committee includes representatives of the city, school, parks and Ward County.

“The Air Force and the primary contractor, Northrop Grumman, have said that they’re taking somewhere in the neighborhood of 12 to 18 months to sort of refine and perfect the restructured project,” said Jantzer, who has been active with the Minot Area Chamber EDC’s air base retention committee, Task Force 21.

“They were going to just reuse all of the (missile) silos that exist,” Jantzer said. “The more recent word is that probably a good number of those are going to be repoured or replaced. So, there’s a bunch of moving pieces and we’re not through with that. It’ll continue to evolve as they define and refine what the process is going to be.”

Jantzer said there are grant funds being pursued to help the community prepare for the project. For instance, there had been a joint land use study a number of years ago. Souris Basin Planning Council had assisted in obtaining funding for the local cost share. There may be a need to update that study, which is an activity the community can get moving on, Jantzer said.

Questions also are being asked of the Air Force and contractor related to anticipated workforce and construction needs, such as whether another cement plant may be required to handle the Sentinel project, Jantzer said.

Originally, the missile upgrade work was to start in Wyoming and move to Montana before coming to Minot. More recently, there has been a push to look at more of a concurrent process in which pieces of the project could move forward at each of the air bases in the three states simultaneously.

“There are, obviously, secondary and tertiary effects from whether we get 3,000 or 4,000 people coming in here to do this at one time or whether it’ss 600 or 800 over a period of time,” Jantzer said, noting there will be impacts to health care, schools, police coverage and other aspects of the community. One issue uncovered is the potential for multi-jurisdictional issues in the missile field and the need to know the proper agencies to call in an emergency.

“There’s lessons to be learned, and we’re trying to make sure that we cover all those bases before we get too deep into it or before it actually starts to impact our community,” Jantzer said. “This week, the commander of the Air Force Global Strike Command will be here to stand up the site activation team component that’s going to be on Minot Air Force Base for this project. That’ll be a good step – an actual activity taking place.”

The liaison committee also heard about the Minot Park District measure for a half percent sales tax that voters will decide on June 3. Property owners would see a 40% reduction on their property tax bills, amounting to about $168 for the owner of a $250,000 home, which would be guaranteed for 20 years.

The sales tax would go to pay off bonds on a turf facility that would start construction in the fall of 2026 if the measure passes. It also would cover operating costs of baseball and softball complexes, a soccer complex, municipal auditorium, Maysa Arena and Roosevelt Park Zoo.

Parks Executive Director Elly DesLauriers said the park district can play a role in increasing sales tax collections through offering activities and tournaments that draw visitors to Minot. As collections grow, more money would be available if the measure passes to do even more for the park system, she said.

The election is June 3 from 7 a.m.-7 p.m. in Minot Municipal Auditorium. Early voting is May 28-30 and June 2 from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. in the Ward County Administration Building. Ward County, which is administering the election, reported 20 absentee ballots received as of Tuesday.