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City Engineer Thomas details Fargo construction projects and warns 1% sales tax shortfall would cut work
Summary
City staff provided a seasonal construction update covering Gateway Fibers, neighborhood reconstructions, stormwater and flood‑control projects. Staff said most reconstruction projects rely heavily on the proposed 1% sales tax as local match; without it, work would be reduced or shifted to assessments or fees.
City engineering staff outlined an extensive slate of road, utility and neighborhood reconstruction projects and told the Fargo City Commission that many of the projects depend on a local 1% sales tax for funding.
Thomas, the city engineer (first identified in the meeting), said Gateway Fibers is in its second year of buildout and that map designations show completed, ongoing, permitted and under‑review areas for fiber work in the public right‑of‑way. He reviewed major street projects including a two‑phase concrete pavement repair on 45th Street South, underground utility work and paving on 32nd Avenue South (including installation of a new cul‑de‑sac), and phased reconstructions in the Longfellow, Hawthorne and Roosevelt neighborhoods.
Thomas also described a First Avenue North utility verification project intended to locate private utilities ahead of a future reconstruction so design can avoid or accommodate relocations. He listed citywide maintenance programs — crack fill, mill and overlay, sidewalk replacement and storm sewer repairs — and provided status updates on development projects (Selkerk Place phases, Dakota Commerce Center, 46th Avenue North Industrial Park), the Southwest Metro Pond excavation (about 85% complete) and Belmont levee and flood wall pours near the water treatment plant.
Commissioner Strand asked how the city prepares trenches and corridors for future technologies so upgrades can be installed with less disruption. Thomas said the city sometimes installs duct banks or replaces conduit during reconstruction and coordinates with private utilities (he named Excel as a frequent partner), but that the city cannot force private companies to upgrade. "A lot of it is not our infrastructure in those corridors and we're working with those private companies to either relocate, update, provide new locations for their existing infrastructure," Thomas said.
Strand also asked which projects would be affected if the proposed 1% sales tax does not pass. Thomas said most of the rehabilitation and reconstruction work listed is heavily reliant on sales tax as the local match for federal aid. "Without that sales tax we either need to do less work — which is going to mean that our infrastructure is going to decline over time — or we need to modify how we pay for our infrastructure," he said, noting options could include higher utility fees or special assessments. Thomas told commissioners that sales tax allows visitors to share in paying for infrastructure used by nonresidents.
The engineering presentation closed with a reminder that the public can find interactive maps and project pages at fargoetss.com.
The commission did not take a separate vote on the construction update; the session moved on to other agenda items.
