Mandan balked at funding the expansion at the North Dakota Heritage Center on Tuesday.

The Mandan City Commission denied the State Historical Society's request for $300,000 from Mandan coffers.

Just weeks before, the Bismarck City Commission nixed a request for a $1 million gift for the $52 million project.

The North Dakota State Legislature agreed to spending $40 million of state funding if $12 million could be raised in private funding.

Mandan commissioners voted down the request by a 3-1 vote. Commissioner Jerry Sehrienko gave the opposing vote. Commissioner Sandra Tipke was absent.

Claudia Berg, expansion coordinator for the North Dakota Heritage Center, pitched the request. She asked if commissioners had questions about economic impact numbers she supplied.

"It's creating partnerships to make North Dakota history, culture, geography and natural history relevant to the quality of life of our citizens, and create additional economic opportunities for our communities," Berg said.

She said the center promotes engaging and fun experiences for visitors here.

Mayor Tim Helbling said that although it is an important project, he felt uneasy using city money to fund it. He said many phone calls were against it.

"Our funding does come from the west side of the river," Helbling said. "There are so many projects in the city of Mandan we are asked to fund every year. We have such a limited resource to fund those projects.

"The legislature did provide an adequate amount of money to complete the project or substantially complete the project. You may have to scale back a little bit."

Berg said their initial plan did not include seeking matching funds from communities, but other cities asked what the commitment of Bismarck and Mandan would be.

"We will be going back to Bismarck again. Actually, we've been invited back. The door is not closed there. There are many other sources as well," Berg said.

Helbling said the city would be more inclined to support it if the Heritage Center were on the west side of the river.

Commissioner Tom Jackson said comments he has received have been against it.

"It is a nice facility that brings tax dollars to (Bismarck), but how much of that actually transfers back to our community is … speculative," Jackson said.

Commissioner Jerome Gangl said it should be private donations contributing to the match of the Heritage Center. "I encourage Mandan residents to support it with their own funds," he said.

Susan Beehler, an attendee of the meeting, asked commissioners reconsider their stance if a partnership could be formed with other historic-related entities.

"We could look at this as an opportunity to shuttle people at the Heritage Center to our facilities like Fort Lincoln and Heritage Plaza," she said. "Maybe there is something we can negotiate that is a win-win for the people of Mandan, but also for this facility being a hub for our communities."

Commissioner Sehrienko wanted the request tabled to seek out such partnerships.

Helbling said if a better idea came forward for Mandan, the funding request could be reconsidered.

"We're not disappointed. … We're all going to be partners, whether they contribute financially or not," Berg said after the decision. "As the project moves forward, there is always the opportunity to come back. There is always the opportunity for Bismarck and Mandan to participate down the road."

She agreed both cities have hefty funding requests for local projects. "This is something that we brought forward so they have future opportunities to invest in this project as well," Berg said.

She said the city of Bismarck could still be open to funding in the future.

"That's still in the works, but the door has not been closed on that," Berg said.

(Reach reporter LeAnn Eckroth at 250-8264 or leann.eckroth@;bismarcktribune.com.)