Bob Collins
Would you buy a house in Moorhead if it was near the Red River?
Today, the Fargo Forum reported that Moorhead’s flood fight budget was higher than expected, partly because paid labor was used to make sandbags for distribution to the neighborhoods. But it was also one of the most efficient processes in the region’s flood-fighting history that turned the fourth-largest crest in history into a relative — if expense — non-event.
“I think the real goal is for the city to get out of making sandbags by next year,” the mayor of Moorhead said, something that isn’t likely to happen Mayor Max Voxland wants homeowners to build permanent dikes between the river and their homes, instead. That’s especially true for homes, like the one in the photo above, one with walk-out basements.
The papers says that even after the DNR bought (and removed) many homes along the river, there are still about 300 that require annual sandbagging. The mayor said it would be in a property owner’s interest to build permanent protection because it would make a home more appealing to a buyer, according to the Forum.
That observation should renew a debate: Should officials be encouraging people to live on the banks of the river?
