Defending Richland and Wilkin counties October 3rd, 2013

Fargo Diversion Authority Chairman Darrel Vanyo plans on spending $65 million on a private country club and a ring dike for a community 12 miles south of Fargo. His justification for this massive expenditure is to “remove the uncertainty of the future of Oxbow.” Perhaps a discussion is in order regarding what is and what is not “certain.”

We are certain that the Fargo tax payers will fork over at least $ 65 million for the ring dike and private golf course expansion.

We are certain the citizen of Hickson and Bakke and the majority of the residents who will be encircled do not want the ring dike.

We are certain that the multi-millions of tax dollars gifted to the struggling private Oxbow Country Club amounts to a taxpayer bailout.

We are certain the ring dike will cut off direct access to Fargo during a major flood.

We are certain that a large number of displaced Oxbow home owners indicated they will NOT build new houses behind the walls, but will instead take the money and run.

We are certain that for the first four years Fargo taxpayers are on the hook to compensate the Kindred School District for the loss of tax base caused by the FM Diversion.

We are certain that all Kindred school taxpayers in Cass and Richland county who have and will pay higher taxes because of the FM Diversion will NOT be “made whole.”
We are certain that the FM diversion is not the next step in providing Basin wide protection, no matter what the politicians say.

We are certain that Federal Executive order 11988 has been violated as there are reasonable alternate flood protection measures that have been disregarded by the local sponsors (Fargo developers).

We are certain that if Minnesota does not authorize the dam on the Red River it will not be built.

We are certain that Minnesota did not spend $100 million to protect Moorhead from flooding just so they can spend another $100 million for a plan that floods tens of thousands of acres in Minnesota.

We are certain that the engineers, consultants and ‘experts’ are, and will keep milking this cash cow (taxpayers) until she goes dry.

We are certain that the project will cause serious and irreparable damage to the future of communities impacted by the FM Diversion.

We are certain this is a development plan not so cleverly disguised as a flood prevention plan.

We are certain the $50 million Davies High School was built, without a public vote, in the flood plain that was under water in 1997.

We are certain that, as the endless design phase of the FM diversion continues, the costs will continue to rise, like every other Army Corps project.

We are certain that the solution to Fargo’s problem is not to transfer all of its problems to upstream folks and communities.

We are certain this is not how people in ND and MN treat their neighbors.

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