It was standing room only in the Mandan City Commission chambers as residents and the business community shared their thoughts with commissioners on retail recruitment.

About 80 people gathered for the meeting, which the commission had called to gather public input on the strategies it has been proposing to boost Mandan's business climate.

"It's great to see this size of a crowd," Mayor Ken LaMont said in opening the meeting. "We want to know how you feel on the direction the city should take, and when we should start. To date we've heard a number of ideas from the retail side, everything from hitching posts on Main Street to an arts center. We're here to listen."

LaMont said the city's remediation effort to clean up the diesel fuel contamination is in full force and has had its effect on people in the central business district.

"We've been using the diesel fuel as an excuse for a number of years, and it's been choking the business environment,"LaMont said. "I feel we are handling it and the city of Mandan will be better off. Here's where we're at as a city commission: We believe we should take a proactive stance in retail recruitment, but before we make a resource commitment, this is going to take money, we need to get a feeling for public opinion."

The commission then opened the floor for comments, treating the input as a hearing, with minutes being kept. LaMont said the minutes will be made available to the public upon request.

Several people took the opportunity to air their views. Comments were at times logical, occasionally comical and sometimes emotional.

Paige Larson asked the commission to consider providing a 50 percent tax break the first year to businesses moving into an empty downtown site.

Tony Vetter, owner of Northwest Tire, said he strongly supports the recruitment of new retail. "There's just not enough traffic to make my store work," he said. "Mandan has two choices: Either bring in as much retail as you can or become a bedroom community. If you choose to be a bedroom community, I'm gone. There's enough people here to support plenty of business."

Jay Feil said he was concerned about retail recruitment before the necessary infrastructure is in place.

"The groundwork has to be laid or we'll be setting ourselves up for failure,"Feil said. "The city has to continue buying property from willing owners at a reasonable price. You have to work with existing businesses; either get them a better location or give them their freedom with proper compensation."

Feil also suggested the city build an exhibition hall in the downtown area. "Something to bring traffic, and we have the means to do that once the remediation is done,"he said.

Feil also proposed more residential development in the downtown area and a focus on bringing state agencies across the river.

"We may not get the Bank of North Dakota, but there's no reason other state agencies can't locate over here,"Feil said.

Developer Steve Thilmony said he was representing a group of businesses that plan to meet and come up with ideas and respond to the city's retail recruitment plans at a later date. Commissioners welcomed that input.

Karen Wolf, a 25-year resident of Mandan, suggested the city look at the examples set by Medora and attempt much the same idea.

"I think Medora is a wonderful tourist mecca. It has something unique to North Dakota, history. Mandan has lots of history,"Wolf said. "I think it would be a great place as an arts and craft center."

Margaret Heeb agreed that the city needed to recruit retail, but the biggest thing she wanted to see was a cleanup.

"I drive through town and see trailer courts that are trash; something needs to be done," Heeb said. "Yards have to be kept up, streets need to be cleaned up. That way, when we do bring retail in, they'll see what a nice, clean community this is."

Tara Johnson asked that the commission concentrate its efforts first on existing businesses, making sure they are stable enough to compete with new retail that might come later.

Kelly Becker nearly broke into tears explaining how she was losing her business, the Conoco station that has to be torn down because of fuel contamination underground that is not related to the diesel fuel spill.

"We need more businesses in this town," Becker said. "I had to get a job in Bismarck because there is nothing in this town. It hurts really bad and it's not fair. If you tear down one business, you had better build up another one."