05-03-2018 - Laserfiche WebLink

Metro Flood Diversion Authority—May 3, 2018 1 METRO FLOOD DIVERSION AUTHORITY MAY 3, 2018 1:30 PM 1. MEETING TO ORDER A special meeting of the Metro Flood Diversion Authority was held Thursday, May 3, 2018, at 1:30 PM in the Fargo City Commission Room with the following members present: Moorhead City Mayor Del Rae Williams; Moorhead City Council Member Chuck Hendrickson; Moorhead City Council Member Joel Paulsen; Clay County Commissioner Kevin Campbell; Clay County Commissioner Grant Weyland via conference call; Fargo City Mayor Tim Mahoney; Fargo City Commissioner Tony Grindberg; Fargo City Commissioner Dave Piepkorn; Cass County Commissioner Mary Scherling; Cass County Commissioner Chad Peterson; Cass County Commissioner Rick Steen; and West Fargo City Commissioner Mike Thorstad. Cass County Joint Water Resource District Manager Roger Olson was absent. 2. INTRODUCTIONS Board members, staff and dignitaries went around the table and introduced themselves. Present were U.S. Senator John Hoeven; North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum; Colonel Sam Calkins, Commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District; Judy DeHarnais, Corps of Engineers Deputy District Engineer; Terry Williams, Corps of Engineers Project Manager; Jason Benson, Cass County Engineer; Nathan Boerboom, Fargo City Division Engineer; and Bob Zimmerman, Moorhead City Engineer. 3. OPENING REMARKS Mayor Williams, Commissioner Scherling, Senator Hoeven, Governor Burgum and Colonel Calkins provided opening remarks about the Diversion project. Senator Hoeven said $35 million in federal funding has been requested for FY18 but still needs approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). He said permitting issues and legal challenges still need to be addressed, but he believes they will be resolved in order to keep the project on track. Colonel Calkins said the Diversion project is critical for the region to provide permanent flood protection. He spoke with MN DNR officials this week who have said that a decision on the permit for Plan B should be made by October or November. 4. PLAN B PRESENTATION Rocky Schneider from AE2S provided a brief presentation on Plan B, which was submitted to the Minnesota DNR (MN DNR) on March 16th. He said over the last month, staff have provided around two dozen presentations to local entities. The new plan will allow an additional two feet of water through Fargo-Moorhead during a 100-year flood; will include a tie-back levee in Minnesota on the east side of the southern embankment; will revise the western tie-back levee alignment to the south and west of Horace; and will change the location of the southern embankment further to the north in North Dakota to balance the impacts between North Dakota and Minnesota, and to reduce impacts to Richland and Wilkin Counties. Financial Overview Mr. Grindberg said project costs continue to increase due to inflation. He discussed funding and cost shares of each entity as follows: North Dakota $570 million or 26%; Minnesota $43 million or 2%; Federal $450 million or 20%; and Local Share (Fargo and Cass County) $1.1 billion or 52%. He said additional costs from potential project changes are unknown at this time.