Grand Forks County Commission commits to Eagle Avenue funding, endorses Epitome Energy roads improvements

Nov. 22—GRAND FORKS — Grand Forks County commissioners committed to match funds for a proposed project to pave County Road 25 and offered their endorsement of a $37 million city infrastructure project.

Grand Forks County will pay 10% of the project cost to pave a six-mile stretch of County Road 25 if a joint application — submitted with Traill County — to the state's Flexible Transportation Fund is approved.

Under the terms of the proposal submitted by County Engineer Nick West, the counties will pay a total of 20% of the cost of the project, with the state picking up the remaining 80%. West estimated last week the project would cost the county between $300,000 and $400,000.

The city of Grand Forks is also getting in on the state Flex Fund, which has reserved some $42 million to fund infrastructure improvements in North Dakota's non-oil producing counties.

The city is hoping the Flex Fund will help pay for transportation infrastructure improvements it plans to make to support construction of the planned Epitome Energy soybean processing facility, set to be built north of Grand Forks. The city plans to annex the project site and connect the $455 million facility to its water and sewer system, City Administrator Todd Feland told commissioners in a presentation.

The city is also considering pursuing a cost-share with the state Water Commission and applying to revolving loan funds for water infrastructure funds, as well as several other Department of Transportation programs.

"We're going to have to tap many different buckets to make this happen," Feland said.

Improvements to roads leading to the planned facility are expected to cost nearly $18 million, of which the city is hoping the state will also pay up to 80% through the Flex Fund.

How the remaining 20% will be split has not been decided, Feland told commissioners, but will be split by the city and Epitome. The city may also ask the county to help finance the project, though City Engineer Al Grasser clarified to Commissioner David Engen that was not the case presently.

"It's just to show that we're not rambling off someplace on our own," Grasser said. "It's to show there's a kind of knowledgeable collective."

West also got the nod from the county to go forward on Flex Fund applications to replace or remove two aging bridges and a culvert, all of which were rated in poor condition. Both bridges had weight restrictions on them, and a fertilizer truck had fallen through one several years previously before being repaired.

In other news:

* The county's accounting firm, Brady Martz & Associates, found five deficiencies or material weaknesses in the county's internal accounting in the 2022 fiscal year, down from nine in 2021. One had to do with the county's general accounting practices, two were the result of limited accounting staff in the county water department, and two were the result of oversight errors disbursing COVID-19-era funds.

* The UND Police Department will not be a party to a shared special operations group among police and sheriff's departments in the Grand Forks area, Sheriff Andy Schneider told commissioners. The special operations group includes specialized teams like SWAT and a bomb squad.

* The county will hold at least three public meetings to update its Multi Hazard Mitigation Plan before it expires in January 2026.