Richland-Wilkin Joint Powers Authority
Original Publication Date:
November 14th, 2013
Wahpeton Daily News
Republished with permission from:
Editorial Team, Richland Wilkin JPA
Step aside wood chipper, a bulldozer is the new Fargo icon. To people far and wide, when they hear Fargo, they think of a wood chipper. It’s from the movie “Fargo,” and when people hear the name they think yard machines and body parts.
It’s so famous, that when ESPN’s “College Gameday” came to town, they had the chipper front and center.
Fargo leaders want to protect their city from floodwaters, and they had a reasonable plan to accomplish this, but they want more. They want 20,000 acres of floodplain where they can build houses and malls. That means someone else has to take the water – and that means bulldozers.
Think of the possibilities for a civic identity. If farms are in the way, bulldoze ’em. If cemeteries are in the way, flood ‘em. If communities are in the way, wall them in with bulldozers. Fargo will become one with the bulldozer.
Think of the political side. If upstream residents voice concerns to the North Dakota Legislature, they’ll bulldoze ’em with their representatives. They’ll even get the governor to sit alongside in the cab. No need to bulldoze the local (Fargo) newspaper, they’re supplying diesel for the engine.
The memories of failing in court to bulldoze West Fargo into giving them land should be forgotten by now, but don’t expect the courts to stop the diversion bulldozer. Not only are federal attorneys from the U.S. Army Corps on the Diversion Authority’s side, but Fargo’s Minneapolis lawyers have now joined the case to make sure the feds don’t goof up their master plan. They hope Moorhead, Minn., won’t notice how they’re subsidizing Fargo’s development, while their community, which is high and dry and out of the floodplain, is ripe for development. Perhaps the newspaper can cover that up with a bulldozer.
This could be a huge public relations coup. Across the country, every time someone sees a bulldozer at work, they’ll think of Fargo. When they drive down the road and see one on the back of a truck, they’ll think of the city by the river. Who knows, maybe they’ll even get a desktop icon on their computer that looks like a bulldozer. It could become a symbol for deleting unwanted neighbors, I mean files.
People could be reminded of Fargo every time they sit at their desk. A wood chipper could never do that. A wood-chipper has a certain macabre quality to it, but it just doesn’t roll off the tip of your tongue, but a bulldozer, aah, it’s sooo Fargo.
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