At the City of Minot, we’re in the midst of final preparations for the annual State of the City event.

The State of the City is scheduled for Feb. 18 at the former Cognizant building located at 2000 21st Avenue NW. The building is now owned by the Minot Public School District, and is scheduled to become the city’s second public high school in the coming years.

The State of the City is open to the public, with my speech scheduled to start about 12:30 p.m. You can also join us for lunch; the cost for the noon lunch is $15. All other portions of the event are free. Tickets for lunch are available at www.minotnd.org/RSVPStateoftheCity

I must thank our partners this year: Minot Area Chamber EDC helped with much of the organizing to make the event happen, and the Minot Public School District is graciously allowing us to hold the event at the site of their future high school. We appreciate their willingness to be part of making the State of the City a success.

We began holding the State of the City five years ago with a simple goal: To provide our community with updated information about the most recent year at the City of Minot, and to look ahead to the upcoming year. Last year’s online video event looked a little different due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but this year we’re happy to again be holding a live, in-person event.

Every year, it takes a team effort from our community partners and a number of City employees to make the State of the City become reality. But it’s always worth the effort. By looking back on the past year and focusing on the year ahead of us, we are able to remind ourselves of the ongoing challenges we face as a community and the successes we’ve enjoyed. And we had plenty of both in 2021.

We’ll talk more in detail, of course, during my address on Feb. 18. But if we take even a moment to reflect on 2021, we will see that it was a year full of good things in our community. Flood control is moving ahead, including the recent news of federal funding being approved for the vital Maple Diversion phase. Voters approved our city’s second public high school. Work continues on final stages of the Northwest Area Water Supply Project. Our business community is growing, including several new businesses in downtown Minot. Our intermodal port is busy and continues to broaden economic opportunities. A project to renovate a downtown building into a new City Hall is under way. Plans are in the works to create Minot’s first Center for Technical Education. The list goes on and on.

We know there are numerous good things happening in our community; we simply have to be willing to stop and look. Of course, there are challenges, too, and we cannot and will not ignore those issues. Instead, we choose to address our challenges head on, because we know the decisions we make today will lead to a better Minot in the future.

As part of this year’s State of the City, we’ll announce the winner of our search for the Citizen of the Year. Everyone has a story to tell, and Minot is full of people who do amazing things every day. Case in point: I recently attended the Souris Valley United Way’s annual banquet, and the room was full of people who volunteer their time and effort to make Minot a better place to live. Everyone in attendance that day represents the community spirit that makes Minot a unique place to live. There are so many organizations in Minot that depend on volunteers to be successful, and our community rarely, if ever, disappoints. I’m looking forward to announcing the Citizen of the Year, but I also know there are countless residents who could have earned that title. Kudos to everyone who makes Minot a great place to live.

We’re expecting a great event on Feb. 18, and I encourage you to join us. If you can’t make it to the event, you can watch it on the City of Minot’s social media platforms, including Facebook and YouTube. It’s important that we gather as a community to share not only our challenges, but our success stories and our vision for the upcoming year. Please join us on Feb. 18.

Sincerely, City Hall

You can find more about what’s happening at the City of Minot at minotnd.org, or find us on Facebook and Twitter. We’d also encourage you to sign up for our monthly electronic newsletter on our website.