Minot city officials and area legislators met at a special council session on Dec. 27 to discuss priorities ahead of the 2025 legislative session, including flood control funding, the NAS/NOS water project, military-community support related to the Sentinel program, childcare funding, hub-city dollars and public-transportation funding.

Flood control: City staff told legislators that $76.1 million was written into legislative intent for flood-control work and outlined project-level uses, including acquisitions and design/construction. Staff said the Maple diversion project is expected to be bid next year and described milestone projects (including the Burdick/Broad tie-back) that funding would support. City staff also raised concern that recent bids on projects substantially exceeded engineers’ estimates because of inflation and said a state bonding authority could speed work and reduce constraints tied to biennial appropriations.

NAS/NOS water project: A city presentation described a planned $107 million NOS allocation in the next biennium, with about $46 million expected from federal sources for a permanent intake at Snake Creek and the remaining funds split between the city and the state to build booster pump stations and complete phase 3 of the Minot water plant. Staff said long lead times for specialty pumps and switchgear could delay installation until spring and that pumping north could begin around July 2025 if deliveries are on schedule.

Military/Sentinel update: City and base liaisons discussed a Sentinel-related delay: the project experienced a breach event requiring an Air Force reevaluation that paused progress for several months. Speakers said the state provided base-support funding to affected communities and that Minot received additional community-preparation funds (speaker gave figures of roughly $500,000 in base support across communities and $350,000 for Minot). Local officials said they are advocating for a more concurrent construction approach to reduce the community impact of prolonged, sequential work.

Childcare: Councilmember Lisa Olsen, chair of the city’s childcare committee, summarized 15 months of local outreach and research: infant care is especially scarce, waiting lists of 3–5 years were reported in some cases, and staffing/licensing delays hamper providers. Olsen highlighted HB 1540 (2023), which appropriated $66 million to support childcare needs, and said the committee will partner with MACEDC to improve outreach so families and providers can access funds and services.

Hub-city funding and debt: Finance director Dave Lakefield reviewed the hub-city funding formula and historical collections, saying Minot’s hub-city share is roughly 12.1% and that the city estimated just over $11.9 million for the last biennium. Lakefield explained that Minot took a conservative financing approach on large projects—often funding up-front instead of issuing long-term debt—which alters how much debt is classified as oil-related compared with other hub cities.

Fire debris lien proposal: Fire Chief Kelly described draft legislation, supported by Representative Louser, that would allow insurers to withhold $5,000 or 10% of the real-property portion of a policy into an escrow or lien to ensure debris removal after a fire, helping local governments recover cleanup costs when owners abandon property. Officials noted the approach would not address uninsured properties.

Personnel records: City manager Harold Stewart asked the legislature to consider narrow exemptions or procedural changes so councils can discuss sensitive personnel matters without creating open records that could be used in litigation. Stewart said other states commonly treat personnel records as exempt and that the city is exploring a draft bill; council members asked about possible temporal or limited exemptions and emphasized balancing transparency with employee safety and legal exposure.

Transportation: Transit representatives warned that the 2020 census reclassification changed Minot’s federal funding profile (Minot moved from rural to urban), which reduced flexible rural funds and shifted how federal aid is allocated. The city’s transit budget this year was about $1.7 million; speakers said federal resources cover roughly 55–60% of costs, local funds 37–40% (about $666,000), fixed-route rides total about 80,000 annually and demand-response roughly 50,000. Transit officials asked for help identifying state revenue or formula changes to reduce the local funding burden.

Legislators closed by thanking the council for the briefing and asking for continued communications and updates from city staff on committee developments and bill activity during the session.

Speakers gave a high-level overview across subjects and asked legislators how the city could support or influence outcomes in the 2025 session; no new ordinances or state bills were enacted at the meeting.