Nancy Edmonds Hanson
hansonnanc@gmail.com

“It’s on our radar,” city engineer Bob Zimmerman told the Moorhead City Council Monday. “But it’s not anything to be excessively concerned about at this point.”
The engineer was updating council members on last week’s National Weather Service report on the prospects for Red River flooding. After years of work on levees and improvements to mechanical aspects of the city’s water management system, he said, predictions for flooding 10 years after the record-setting year of 2009 seem well within the manageable range … if March weather cooperates.
In the meantime, the council also approved an amendment to its most recent flood-centric contract with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources – an additional $2 million for flood mitigation efforts in north Moorhead. The city has already committed a $4 million DNR grant received last November, which enabled it to buy 14 properties in the flood zone. According to Zimmerman, the extension of the grant focuses on the 11 properties that remain. “Within two or three months, we should have them all,” he said.
The threat for significant flooding is above normal – but how much? Last week’s weather service update projected a 50 percent chance of a crest of 31 feet; 25 percent of 33.7 feet; 10 percent of 36.1 feet; and only 5 percent of 36.9 feet. The 2009 record crest was 40.8 feet. The forecast is based on conditions to this point in the winter; that includes water content of snow to the south of Moorhead of 3 to 4 inches, compared with 5 to 7 inches in both 1997 and 2009. Unknown at this point, of course, is the spring thaw cycle and the possibility of heavy spring rains. Climate outlooks project a later snowmelt, which increases the risk.
The city’s detailed action plan if the waters crest at 31 feet includes flooding of Gooseberry and Woodlawn parks, and closure of the Third Street and Rivershore Drive underpasses and the 15th Avenue North and Broadway bridges. No private property would be affected.
City personnel will continue to monitor the weather service forecasts and revise their plans as necessary, as well as inspect and test pumps, gates and other flood-fighting infrastructure. “We remain vigilant, but as of now we don’t believe there’s any cause for alarm,” Zimmerman concluded.
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The council approved an updated budget of about $520,000 for the city’s new prosecutor’s office, an increase from the previous estimate of $397,000. The staff of three attorneys and two support professionals has been handled low-level offenses since Feb. 1 after the end of the city’s 20-year agreement with the Clay County prosecutor.
The increase includes the cost of a third attorney, up from the original plan to hire two. City manager Chris Volkers said the decision was necessary after it became clear the office had to be located in the former mayor’s office in City Hall. The county commission denied the city’s intention to occupy now-empty space in the area it already leases to house the Moorhead Police Department in the Joint Law Enforcement Center, which the county owns and manages. The increased manpower, she said, helps make up for the extra travel and waiting time required by less convenient access to the courthouse.
Most of the increased cost, she noted, will be made up by $82,000 in savings the city has gained in adjusting its insurance policies. Another 20 percent may be covered if four smaller Clay cities – Dilworth, Glyndon, Hawley and Barnesville – contract with the city to handle their misdemeanor offenses, as they have in the past.
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A long-neglected oversight in the city’s purchase of a tract of downtown Moorhead land nearly half a century ago is close to being resolved, potentially opening the way for a new multi-use development at Fourth Street and Center Avenue.
The council approved an agreement to permit the Epic Companies – developer of The Loft at Eighth and Main – to access the riverbank site to see if it is suitable for construction. The land on the west side was cleared in the early 1970s as part of the urban redevelopment plan. In 1973, Moorhead purchased and paid BNSF Railway for the property … but somehow never received title.
According to city manager Volkers, the railroad and the city have finally unsnarled the oversight. She said the city expects a quit-claim deed from BNSF in coming days, clearing the way to sell it for development. Plans for the multi-million dollar Epic project will come before the Economic Development Authority Monday.