The Mandan City Commission agreed Tuesday night to help the Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation purchase the Lewis and Clark Riverboat, allowing it to keep churning Missouri waters for the foreseeable future.

Foundation executive director Tracy Potter made a pitch for Mandan Growth Fund dollars totalling $73,201. The Growth Fund committee was recommended funding on a 5-to-2 vote.

But Commissioner Tim Helbling was concerned that the riverboat will remained docked on the Bismarck side of the river, at the Port of Bismarck, next to Captain Meriwether's restaurant.

The foundation will purchase the watercraft at a price of $750,000 from Lewis and Clark Riverboat Inc., a private for-profit company. The money from the growth fund will be matched with $150,000 from the state's Flex-PACE program to buy down the interest rate of the loan the foundation will get for the purchase.

Without Mandan's support, Potter said, the foundation would be unable to purchase the riverboat.

"We're not an ordinary business; we can't put up 20 percent equity," Potter said. "We have assets, but they're not liquid. We have to borrow all the money. When you have to borrow all the money, you end up chasing your tail on the interest."

Along with the boat, the Foundation gets the lease arrangement with the Port of Bismarck and Meriwether's. The foundation will receive $30,000 annually from Meriwether's over a nine-year period. These funds, along with the interest buy-down, will allow the foundation to operate the riverboat at a profit, Potter said.

The foundation also promised to reinvest $70,000 over the next ten years in its Mandan and Fort Lincoln State Park holdings.

The Bismarck Vision Fund, similar to the Growth Fund, denied the request of the Foundation, Helbling said. He suggested another source of funding be provided with no interest charged and a payback of $10,000 a year. He added that fees and taxes on the riverboat will be going to Bismarck.

"With it being docked in Bismarck, I don't think it's a wise expenditure for the Mandan Growth Fund,"Helbling said.

Mayor Ken LaMont disagreed, saying the riverboat is a vital piece in the recruitment of businesses and workers to Bismarck and Mandan.

"The boat is a major part of the promotional materials of Bismarck and Mandan. I've experienced a number of those little excursions that are used in the process of recruiting businesses. It's been good for Mandan," LaMont said. "That boat has helped fill motel rooms in Mandan. What it provides goes far beyond simple trips up and down the river."

Helbling said the Growth Fund was the wrong fund to provide the money. LaMont pointed out that the Growth Fund committee recommended the expenditure.

"But it's the first time I've seen two members of the committee vote no on a recommendation," Helbling responded.

Commissioner Dan Ulmer, who had declared a conflict of interest since he sits on the Foundation Board, provided the second to Commissioner Sandra Tibke's motion to approve the funds.

Ulmer said that the communities had once lost a riverboat and it would be an expensive proposition to get another one in the future.

The motion was approved on a 4-to-1 vote, with Helbling providing the only no vote.

(Reach reporter Gordon Weixel at 250-8255 or gordon.weixel@;bismarcktribune.com.)