Moorhead is feeling cocky, apparently. You get a Sam’s Club, a Sanford and the stroke of good fortune of being 5 feet higher than your neighboring city and the next thing you know you’re flipping a middle finger across the Red River.
This has to do with the Fargo-Moorhead diversion, of course, which remains the best option for permanent flood protection for our communities and our economy. It seems, though, that some in Moorhead — most critically members of the city council — are wavering in their support of the diversion based on … well, that’s not exactly clear.
The latest indication came at a city council meeting last week when three council members — Heidi Durand, Mari Dailey and Chuck Hendrickson — voted against a simple procedural “memorandum of understanding” regarding in-town levees and potential ring dikes around communities south of Fargo.
To keep it as simple as possible, I’ll explain the MOU this way: It gave Moorhead’s OK that money spent by Fargo and Cass County could be counted toward their contribution to the cost of the diversion. Nothing more, nothing less. It was not rubber-stamp approval of controversial ring-diking of Hickson, Bakke or Oxbow. It was not “stepping on the toes” of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, as Durand framed her disapproval. It was not “stepping over the line,” as a lawyer for diversion opponents said.
Durand’s opposition to the diversion is well-known. With family roots in the Comstock, Minn., area, she sides with those wanting to stop the diversion in favor of a foggy “better plan.” What qualifies as a better plan has not yet been defined by Durand or anybody else who opposes the diversion, but I’m sure that’ll be coming soon. Give the barstool engineers in southern Cass and Richland counties a few more weekends and they’ll invent something.
Some residents of Moorhead seem to have bought into the idea their city doesn’t need the diversion, too. Dailey, who represents Ward 1 on the north side, says many of her constituents believe Moorhead has done enough for flood protection with home buyouts and dikes.
Moorhead, including its city council and citizens, needs to be careful. As much as Moorhead wants to stand on its own and have its own identity — and, at times, thumb its nose at Fargo — this is not the time to become an island. It’s a fact: Moorhead needs Fargo.
The numbers are there for anybody to find with a simple Google search: 55 percent of Moorhead’s residents work in Fargo, 58 percent work in Cass County. If Fargo is hit with a devastating flood, 58 percent of Moorhead residents will have their job affected. If there’s not a paycheck coming in, how does that 58 percent pay their mortgage? Moorhead doesn’t exist in a vacuum. If Fargo’s economy is devastated, so is Moorhead’s.
The job numbers, by the way, are similar for Dilworth and Clay County as a whole. Fifty-six percent of Dilworth residents work in Cass County and 55 percent of Clay County residents work in Cass County. The Red River is a border on maps only; we are really one community.
That’s why muddying the water on a simple procedural vote and having Durand publicly pledge her allegiance to upstream opposition is dangerous. She might have sympathy for those affected by diversion, which is admirable, but she was elected by the citizens of Ward 2 in Moorhead. There’s a pretty good chance about 55 percent of those citizens work in Fargo.
Moorhead is a wonderful community and it’s given a bad rap far too often by North Dakota citizens and the Fargo-based media, most notably The Forum. It is great to see economic development like Sam’s Club, Sanford and the new mall centered around a Hornbacher’s on the south side of town. This is all good. Moorhead is growing for the long term.
But don’t get too cocky when it comes to the diversion. Moorhead might be five feet higher in elevation. Moorhead might be nearly locked up with dikes running through the city. But if Fargo goes under in a Red River flood so, in many ways, does Moorhead.
(Mike McFeely is a talk-show host on 790 KFGO-AM. His show airs weekdays from 2-5 p.m.)