Bismarck - Mandan Development Association

Bismarck one of “best places to retire” – CBS’s MoneyWatch.com puts Bismarck in the #4 spot of “Best Places to Retire.” MoneyWatch.com made its selections after analyzing five leading raters who together looked at 454 places. Each rater of communities to retire in looked at different things, with some considering a wide variety of reasonable criteria to get a rounded picture of livability while others focused on one or two key factors. Bismarck’s ‘pros’ included low cost of living and good senior job opportunities, while it’s ‘cons’ included frigid winters and being less than cosmopolitan. The top retirement cities as selected by MoneyWatch.com are Austin TX, Portland OR, Beaufort SC, Bismarck ND, Burlington VT, Cincinnati OH, and San Diego CA.



To read the entire article about how the rankings were done click here.



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Prairie Business Magazine - On Thursday morning members of the BMDA staff met with Rick Killion, Contributing Editor and Senior Account Manager of Prairie Business Magazine, to talk about a future feature article (possibly the July issue) on Bismarck-Mandan. Also participating in the discussion were Mandan Mayor Tim Helbling and Ellen Huber, Mandan Economic Development Coordinator. The staff of the Prairie Business Magazine will also be talking to Bismarck Mayor John Warford as well as a large group of the Bismarck-Mandan business community to try to do determine why the two communities are proving to be a leading force in the economy of the State of North Dakota. It was an interesting discussion which sometimes reminded all of us of things and reasons why this is a truly great community. We look forward to seeing the final article.



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Presentation to Lion’s Club - On Thursday evening, Russ served as keynote speaker for the evening Lions Club that meets at the AMVETS CLUB. The group is composed of some 57 individuals who are members of the Bismarck-Mandan business community. They wanted an update on all the positive things happening in the community and the region. The BMDA has found that meeting with active service clubs like the Lions is a great way to both get information out to the business community and also a great way to get feedback on what people are hearing and their perceptions of things happening. Any service club that is interested in having a member of the BMDA staff speak to them about the economic development process should contact the BMDA office at 222-5530 and ask to speak to one of the staff about meeting with their organization.



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Industrial sites - In our efforts to support the two communities with the continuing need for additional commercial/industrial growth space, the BMDA along with Mandan City staff members will be meeting with a number of different property owners about their possible interest in having land they own or control being considered by the City for a future commercial/industrial park. It is always a bit surprising to think that here in North Dakota that there would be any problem with finding space to develop commercial/industrial space, but because of a long list of reasons, it is not as easy as buying a lot to build a house on. There is a long list of infrastructure needs which must be addressed in selecting a site. These include the availability of sewer and water, transportation needs including both solid roads systems capable of heavy truck traffic and also the need for rail service in many cases. All of this must then be fit into the surrounding land use environment. The sponsoring community must also determine the source of funds for the acquisition and development of the land. Despite all these issues, this search for the appropriate sites is critical to the continued economic growth of the Bismarck-Mandan region.



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Mandan Strategic Vision Process – Market Street, Mandan’s strategic vision processing consultant, was in town to meet with the Steering Committee and to hold a public meeting to present the findings of a recent survey about community likes and dislikes to the public. Market Street has been surprised at the level of community input they have received during this project in Mandan as compared to other projects they have completed in similar sized communities. This input included 870 people who responded to the online survey, as well as input from seven focus groups and 20 personal interviews. Preliminary results show that Mandan residents are proud of their small-town atmosphere, education offerings, entertainment functions and family-friendly atmosphere.

Four major goals have been identified, those being 1) Leadership, pride and image 2) District and centers (regionalizing the possibilities for growth and development) 3) Economic opportunity and prosperity, and 4) Education and workforce development. The input received will be prioritized of the four major goals, and used to create a five year plan of action for the community. It is anticipated that this visioning process will be completed early this summer.



For more information please visit www.mandanvisionplan.com.



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Renewable Energy Action Summit - On May 31 and June 1, the National Energy Center of Excellence and Bismarck State College are hosting a Renewable Energy Action Summit on the BSC campus. Participants include Governor John Hoeven, U.S. Senator Bryon Dorgan, BSC President and Dr. Larry Skogen with former U.S. Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Andy Karsner as the keynote speaker. For more information, please visit www.bismarckstate.com/energysummit.



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Business Retention & Expansion - Each year, the BMDA conducts our Business Retention & Expansion (BRE) Program through which we visit 100 area businesses to determine those issues affecting our business community and identify companies that may require our assistance. Traditionally, the majority of BRE Programs have been conducted throughout the summer months and with the season at hand, we're looking for those business who would like to participate. The visit only takes an hour, BMDA staff will arrange a time and place that's most convenient for you and everything discussed during the visit remains confidential. If you would like to visit with the BMDA this year, please contact Brian at britter@bmda.org or 222-5530.



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IEDC conference - Richard will be in Charlotte, NC from May 30th to June 4th to attend the International Economic Development Council's (IEDC) 2009 Tech Led Economic Development Conference. Prior to the conference Richard will be assisting IEDC as a grader for the certification exam that is offered to prospective Certified Economic Development (CEcD) candidates.



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AgTC annual meeting - On July 3rd Russ will travel to San Francisco to participate in the AgTC Annual Meeting. The AgTC stands for Agricultural Transportation Coalition and their reason for existing is to provide a forum to discuss the many issues related to the transportation of agricultural goods, both domestically and internationally. The discussion involves issues related to rail service and freight rates, availability (or lack of) intermodal containers from the ocean carriers who own and control most of the containers, the volumes backing up at the ocean ports and other similar concerns. With the creation of the Northern Plains Commerce Centre in Bismarck, we have found ourselves struggling with all of these issues as we attempt to support those shippers both current and in the future who move goods through the NPCC. One major problem is the availability of shipping containers here in the Great Plains Region. Because of the high demand for containers world-wide, the ocean carriers who control them made the decision to not allow any of the containers out of whatever seaport they come into. Once unloaded from the sea vessel they arrived in port on, they are off loaded and the carriers require the contents to be transloaded to either a rail carrier or a truck line. The empty containers are then reloaded on the carrier to return to whatever port of origin they came from for a new shipment of TV’s, video games or whatever is the product of the day. The lack of containers here in the Great Plains area severely limits value added ag processors from being able to ship their table ready food products in the most secure manner possible. A serious concern for these processor who do not want to risk any contamination of whatever food product they are shipping.



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