Jan. 15—BISMARCK — The House Transportation Committee in a 13-1 vote approved a do-not-pass recommendation for a bill that would allow sponsorship agreements for highway-related services within the highway right of way.
Rep. Lisa Finley-DeVille, D-Mandaree, was opposed at the committee meeting on Friday, Jan. 10.
House Bill 1054 would create a new section in North Dakota Century Code Section 24-01 and allow the North Dakota Department of Transportation to enter into agreements with private entities, enabling sponsors to offer services that benefit the traveling public, said Matt Linneman, deputy director for engineering with the NDDOT.
“The highway sponsorship program would provide an innovative opportunity for the DOT to alternatively resource the operation and maintenance of highway facilities, including but not limited to litter removal, rest area cleaning or landscaping maintenance,” he said.
HB1054 has no cost to the NDDOT, Linneman said.
The NDDOT recommended a do pass on HB1054.
House Transportation Committee members wanted more research on the cost savings other states have received from implementing a highway sponsorship program and how much revenue can be generated by selling sponsorships to individuals, businesses or organizations for the sponsored activities.
Linneman said the Federal Highway Administration allows highway sponsorship programs on the federal aid highway system.
The state’s sponsorship program would be designed to operate through a vendor that would manage and oversee the program. The vendor would secure sponsorships from different entities to fund activities such as litter pickup, rest area maintenance or other services in the highway right of way. The vendor would hire individuals or firms to perform that work, and acknowledgment signs would be placed in the highway right of way to recognize the sponsors.
“The DOT faces a growing challenge with the increased amount of trash filling state highway ditches,” Linneman said.
House Transportation Committee Vice Chairman Rep. Jim Grueneich, R-Ellendale, questioned why the bill was brought forward if the state won’t gain anything “by entering the advertising business.” He said the state has a system in place with private businesses and the penal system that provides people to clean ditches along with charitable and noncharitable organizations.
Linneman said the NDDOT has seen a decline in participation in the Adopt-a-Highway Program, the department’s anti-litter and highway enhancement program that allows individuals and groups to adopt a section of state highway and take care of it for a three-year period.
“This bill would provide the DOT an additional tool to address some of these issues that we have with maintenance of the roadway and roadside and facilities,” he said.
Linneman said having a vendor manage and oversee the sponsorship program would allow the NDDOT to focus on tasks that are more related to the department’s mission such as patching a roadway or crack sealing.
Leo Ness with Newman Signs in Jamestown spoke in opposition to HB1054. He said the bill could allow an out-of-state vendor to compete with advertising businesses in North Dakota on state-owned land. Ness was against the use of logos on those acknowledgment signs that are on the highway right of way.
“I just don’t think the state should be putting private business or a private company and a business in the right of way,” he said. “It just doesn’t make sense.”
Jim Englund, operations manager for Newman Outdoor Advertising, said he supports acknowledgment signs but was opposed to the use of logos on them.
“We want to be sure that if we do something to recognize these people, if it is a sign in the right of way, we don’t make it a trade for commercial advertising,” he said.